Strangers

Chp 1: Moving In

"Jonah! Get your lazy butt out of bed! Do you want us to leave you here?" Jonah Branson, a 17 year old with blonde hair and green eyes, lay on his bed, staring up at his ceiling. Yes, I would much prefer to be left here, he thought to himself, Nothing would be better than to be away from you guys. Those 'guys' were his parents, Jeff and Helen Branson. Jeff, someone who was definitely fit for a man of 44, with brown hair and green eyes, was a professor at a local community college and Helen, a woman of 42 who managed to maintain her youthful looks as well and had blonde hair and green eyes, was a nurse at a small clinic.

The Bransons used to get along well but as Jonah grew up, he soon became more rebellious. He often cut school, got into smoking and sometimes never came home when he went out. It was impossible for Jonah to even remain in one school and just a week before, Jonah got expelled and had to transfer to his fifth high school, that year. The Bransons were definitely not a rich family so it was a daily struggle to juggle work, the bills and Jonah.

"Hurry up and get whatever you haven't packed already in one box!" Jeff hollered. Jonah pondered over whether he should listen or not. After a good five minutes, he got out of bed, shrugged his shoulders and started to pack.

"Well that took you long enough..." said Helen, as Jonah dropped his box in the kitchen to get a piece of bacon. "Well, sorry if I had to pack a lot of stuff." "Well if you came home early you would have gotten an earlier start on packing, but no, you came home late....again because you got detention....aga.." "ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!" interrupted Jonah "You don't have to go through all that again." "What the hell is this!?" cried Jeff pulling out a bowie knife out of the box. ".... uh isn't it obvious? It's a knife.. k-n-i" "Alright, smart-ass." retorted Jeff "what I want to know is how it got into your hands, haven't I reminded you that you are not allowed to have any weapon of any type? I'm throwing this in the trash" "That's okay" said Jonah under his breath "I've got plenty more where that came from."

Driving towards their new home in Burkelane, California (FICTIONAL), an awkward silence between the Bransons filled the air. "So, did the hospital over at Burkelane call you yet if you got the job?" asked Jeff. "Oh, I completely forgot that their call would be coming in today!" "It's fine, you'll get the job, we can never have enough nurses" They laughed as Jonah rolled his eyes. He got out his mp3 player and started playing music to get himself to sleep the rest of the journey.

"We're here!" cried Helen as they pulled over in front of what seemed to be a large house that looked like it came from the 30s or even earlier. "We're living here?! How the hell did we move from our old crappy house to this place?" asked Jonah. "Well, for some reason, it's quite cheap, something about all the murders that happened in this neighborhood, you know? All that typical horror movie stuff" replied Jeff. "The neigborhood looks completely normal, if you ask me" said Helen "That real estate agent must have been trying to scare us or something, some weird idea of a joke." "Speak of the devil..." said Jeff as a short, mousy old woman came up to the Bransons.

"Welcome, welcome" greeted Martha Gaither. A woman who definitely felt too old for her job but managed to get it done all the same. "Jeff, Helen, good to see you both again.... and this must be Jonah, pleasure to meet you." "Yeah, whatever." replied Jonah. Martha was clearly taken aback, as Jeff and Helen gazed at Jonah with annoyance. "Well, I guess I'll have to show you around" said Martha as she led the Bransons over to their new home.

"...And this is the lounge." It was a large room, pretty old fashioned with an uncomfortable but expensive looking chaise-lounge sat in the centre as if it was a throne. Painting of what could have been the first owners of the house covered the walls and various ornaments of all shapes and sizes placed precisely in all corners, but what caught the eye of the Bransons was a towering grandfather clock. It was made of the finest of oak and had intricate designs. "Beautiful, isn't it?" said Martha. "Oh, absolutely." replied Helen "For some reason, I didn't even notice this when we first came here.... absolutely gorgeous." "Let's go upstairs." said Jeff "I need to check out that master bedroom again." "You coming, Jonah?" asked Helen but Jonah was too fixated on the clock to hear her. He couldn't help but be entranced by the clock, it was almost as if he could see a human face in the clock....

After Martha got the Bransons to sign the papers and left them to unpack and unwrap their own furniture. The phone rang, "That must be the hospital!" said Helen as she climbed up the stairs. "I'll just get another box, I must have forgotten it in the car." said Jeff "Jonah, just unwrap the rest of the furniture and then you can go to your room and unpack." Jeff went out the back door and left Jonah in the living room, but even though he was positive he was alone, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched.

*DING-DONG*

Jonah snapped out of the feeling and went to answer the door, he unlocked it but when he opened the door, there was nobody there. Jonah got out and saw shadowy figures of what could have been kids. Jonah chuckled to himself. "Punks..." Distracted, he turned around and almost knocked himself over when he saw his mother behind him. "Holy Shit!" cried Jonah "You frickin' scared me!" "I'm sorry! What were you doing outside?" "Some kids decided to give us some sort of neigborhood initiation." "Ah, some future Jonahs" said Helen teasingly. "Really Mom, you should consider getting into stand-up, you're killing me here." "Alright, Mister Wisemouth. I just wanted to say, I got the job!" "Woo-hoo!" said Jonah sarcastically. "What's going on, did I hear screaming?" asked Jeff as he came over. "Don't worry it was just me screaming in excitement because Mom got a job!" said Jonah. "You got the job?" said Jeff ignoring Jonah's sarcasm. "Sure did..." said Helen."Great, I'll go order a pizza to celebrate."

*DING-DONG*

"Must be the pizza" said Jeff and went to answer the door. "Well that was pretty qui.." Jeff stopped as standing outside was not a delivery man, but a tall, ghostly pale woman, and not a friendly-looking one either. "Greetings, My name is Audrey Langford. You must be the new neighbours. We live next door, so if you want anything... feel free to come by..." There was something in her voice that creeped out Jeff. She had a cold tone, infact it was too cold, almost unhuman... "What's happening, Jeff" asked Helen. "Uhhh, this is our neighbour next door. Helen, this is Audrey... Audrey this is my wife, Helen" "Pleased to meet you, Helen." as Audrey kept out her hand to shake, Helen shook it and at once she felt a shiver down her spine. "Are you alright, dear?" asked Audrey. "You look awfully cold." Helen couldn't help but think that Audrey was giving her a sinister smile when she asked the question. "No, No... I'm fine" "Well.... here" Audrey offered a small basket neatly covered by blood red cloth.

After Audrey left, and in quite a hurry. Helen opened the basket... inside a covered tray. "Hmmm smells like shit" Jonah exclaimed. "Jonah! It does not smell like sh.. never mind. A lady next door gave this to us, a nice housewarming present." "Well, shouldn't we take a look and see what's inside?" asked Jeff. They opened it, inside what could have been was a cake, or what resembled one. It didn't look very appetizing. "Well, who's going to taste it?" asked Helen. "Don't look at me..." said Jonah "That stuff looks nasty." "I'd rather not, we're still waiting for that pizza..." said Jeff. "Oh you're both sissies" said Helen "I'll take a bite, I mean how bad could it be" Helen cut a piece and reluctantly took a small bite. "Hey, not so bad... I mean if you ignore smell, this is actually pretty good... tastes like almonds" "Well if it's so good, we can eat it after the pizza" said Jeff.

The delivery man never showed up. "Where the hell is that guy?" said Jeff. "It's been two hours already!" "Ah, screw it, I'm eating whatever that lady brought... I'm starving!" said Jonah. Jonah was about to take a bite when the door bell rang, yet again.

*DING-DONG*

"That guy better have a good excuse for why he came so la.." Jeff opened the door and no one was there. Jeff went out into the frontyard and he saw nobody. "Good God... this is getting frustrating. HELEN! CALL THE PIZZA PLACE AND CANCEL THE ORDER!" Jeff went back into the house badmouthing the delivery man.

---

"Did you give them the basket?"

"Oh yes... they took it no problem, not like the last couple, ungrateful...."

"Well I do hope they like it, I did make it from scratch"

A sinister laugh echoed throughout the neighborhood, but it was not heard as everyone was asleep just as no one saw a man get tackled from behind and stabbed in the eye as he walked up a lane to deliver a pizza.