Tate Langdon: Moving On

Photographs

-Effy's P.O.V-
I watched Tate as he slid down the side of the house reaching the ground and watched him walk around the house to the front door. I stood there for a while and smiled as soon as I heard the front doorbell ring. I left the window sill and headed out of the room and stood at the top of the stairs where I could see the front door. My dad opened up the door and let Tate walk in. They started heading towards dad's office as I watched. Tate spotted me at the top of the stairs and winked at me before he disappeared into dad's office. I shook my head and bit my lip with a smile before heading down the rest of the stairs towards the kitchen. The smell of a fry-up hit me in the face.
"Good morning, Miss Effy." started Moira. "I've prepared breakfast for you and your mother asked if you could clear out the bath. There's apparently a ring of red hair dye around the edge."
"Isn't that your job, you're the maid?" I said back, sarcastically as I began to eat.
"I did offer to do it for you but your mother insists." finished Moira. I groaned and rolled my eyes before getting up out of my seat with a mouth full of food. I didn't turn back to look at Moira or even thank her for the food, which was rude, but made my up the stairs in a teenage strop towards the bathroom. I swallowed my food down just before I got to the top of the stairs and then walked, still in a sort of strop, towards the bathroom. I pushed the door open to reveal the bathroom and saw that the shower curtains on the bath were covered. I closed the bathroom door behind me and went under the sink to grab the cleaning products.
"This is a god damn maids job, do I look like a maid?" I mumbled to myself. I pulled out the bleach and a bucket and then walked over towards the bath and grabbed the shower curtains. I pulled them back and then I suddenly lost breath in a gasp. The whole bath was filled to the top with dark red water, very dark. And the water looked kind of thick too. "Moira, you said there was just a red line around the bath not a tub full of this! What is this?" I shouted down to Moira. No answer. A bubbling noise suddenly came from the water. I looked down and saw something emerging up from the water. My expressions was grossed as I stepped away from the bath a little, knowing that it couldn't be water. Suddenly, a rose floated up above the red and gently danced on top of the surface. It was a black rose. My black rose. The rose that Tate had given me. I smiled to myself, thinking this was one of Tate's games. I out stretched an arm to go grab the rose until a voice made me jump.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I jumped and turned to see the the bathroom door was now wide open and a girl stood there, looking in.
"Oh really? Why not?" I asked, trying to sound smart.
"She'll drag you in." she spoke. I looked at the bath and saw only the rose still floating.
"Who will?" I asked, confused."
"The girl who died here. There's lots of them you know, they're trying to kick you out. All of you." she spoke. I looked at her in confusion.
"Who are you? How'd you get in?" I asked.
"I'm Violet and I live here, just like you." she spoke, casually. I gave her a confused look.
"No you don't? This is our home, it's been abandoned for six months." I explained. Violet looked down an smiled and then looked back up at me.
"Tate's a great guy, just don't trust him. He did bad things." she randomly spoke.
"Wait what? What do you mean? How do you know Tate?" I questioned. Violet laughed and pushed her hair behind her ear.
"How do I know Tate? I died in his arms." she spoke solidly. My eyes widened a little as she spoke those words. "Just be careful." she finished as she left the bathroom doorway and walked out to the hallway.
"Hey, wait!" I suddenly shot out, wanting her to explain. I ran out into the hallway and saw that she was gone. What was going on? Who were these people in this house? Hayden? Thaddeus? Beau? And now Violet? What was going on? What did she mean she died in Tate's arms? I needed to get to the bottom of this. I needed to know. I needed to do my research. An idea popped into my head at that moment. My camera. If I could capture images of these people, maybe I could do research of it all. I spun around and headed back into the bathroom to empty the bath and quickly do my job before I started. I looked back into the bath and saw that it was empty. No red water, no rose and there were no stains left behind. It was completely spotless. How strange. I shook my head, kind of relieved that I didn't have to do it, shoved the cleaning products underneath my bed and then headed towards my bedroom.
I found my camera which I had tucked away and placed the strap of it over my head so the camera fell just under my chest. I thought about the people I had seen around this house and chose who to go for first. The attic, I'll go to the attic first to get a snap of Beau, I think that's it's name. I left my bedroom and to the hallway till I was underneath the attic door. I pulled the ladder down and then made my way up. I found myself up in the attic with my camera at the ready, a little frightened. I flicked the dim light on and then prepared myself.
"Beau? You up here? Is that your name? Beau?" I called quietly. Suddenly, a red call came rolling towards me and hit my foot. I looked down at it and smiled to myself. "Gotcha." I whispered. I picked the ball up and started waving it towards the dark area it came from. "Come on, you wanna play? Time to play?" I said, holding my camera to the ready.
"Play!" shouted Beau as he jumped out from the shadows towards me. I screamed and dropped the ball but held the camera to my face and clicked the button to flash an image of Beau. The ball rolled to Beau and he started to play with it like a dog. I panicked a little and quickly made my way out of the attic, turning the light off behind me. I climbed down the ladder and pushed it back up and shut the attic door as soon as I placed my feet on the ground. I took a minute or two to catch my breath and then decided to head down towards the basement.
Getting the photo of Thaddeus was easier for me this time, straight after I got my snap I did what Tate taught me and told him to go away, and he did. All that was left was the two girls, Hayden and Violet, but I had no idea where they would be around the house. I stood in the middle of the hallway down stairs between the front door, the stairs, the kitchen and dad's office and spun around in search.
"What the hell are you doing?" said a voice. I quickly spun around and saw Hayden standing at the top of the stairs. Without thinking, I raised the camera to my face and snapped a photo of her. "What the hell? Why did you do that? Delete it, bitch!" Hayden screamed as she stormed down the stairs towards me. I froze as she came towards me. "I said delete it!" she screamed again and then lunged her hand straight into my throat, tightening her grip. I could feel myself starting to choke. She lifted me up off of the ground with one hand around my neck and then I realised I couldn't breathe. I placed my hands on her hand and tried to loosen her grip so I would fall but she wasn't letting go.
"Hayden!" I heard a cry. We both turned to the left and saw Violet standing in the kitchen doorway. "Let her go now, we are not hurting the new owners."
"I'm surprised you don't wanna hurt this one, she is stealing your boyfriend." smiled Hayden as she kept me held in the air. I could feel myself blanking out.
"Shuttup, put her down now!" yelled Violet, walking towards Hayden. Hayden released her grip and dropped me to the floor. I landed on my side and started to cough and catch my breath.
"That little bitch took my photograph." started Hayden on Violet.
"So what?" fought back Violet.
"What happened to personal permission?"
"What happened to not hurting the new owners, Hayden?"
"Don't you dare get gobby with me, Violet." said Hayden as she shoved Violet back.
"Don't touch me!" cried Violet.
"Why? You gonna get your dad to stop me? You gonna get Tate? Oh wait...he's hers now, isn't he?" said Hayden, pointing at me. Violet looked down at me with her eyes turning glossy. "He's over you. He's fallen for another girl. What's gonna happen to her family huh? He's gonna beat her dad up? He's gonna rape her mom? He's gonna kill another load of people? Because that's what he'll do to her."
"Stop, just stop." cried Violet with a tear streaming down her face. I stood myself up and rubbed my neck and listened to what Hayden was saying.
"He's gonna ruin your family." she said, turning to me. "He's a murderer, a looney, he's gonna kill you, you know that right?" she said harshly, getting closer to me. My eyes became watery at how Tate was being portrayed to me. "He's gonna kill you like how he killed her!" she shouted, pointing at Violet as Violet cried.
"Just stop! Stop it now! Go away, both of you go away!" I screamed at them as I closed my eyes and stamped my feet.
"Effy?" I heard a voice. I opened my eyes and saw my dad coming out of his office. "What's going on?" I looked back and saw that Hayden and Violet were both gone. I put my hand over my mouth and started to cry.
"Effy, are you okay?" I heard Tate say as he pushed past my dad and came straight over to me, wrapping his arms around me. I didn't hug him back. "What's going on?" Tate asked, looking worried.
"Tate, do you mind going back inside, our session isn't over." said my dad.
"No, I wanna stay with Effy." he spoke back.
"No Tate, go-go back inside with dad. I'm fine." I spoke, pushing Tate away slightly.
"You don't look fine." he said, trying to come back in to me.
"I said I'm fine!" I snapped. Tate looked at me with his eyes a little watery and then nodded his head. He kissed my forehead and then walked away, back inside my dad's office. Dad gave him an unimpressed look as he walked past.
"Effy, what's going on?" asked dad.
"I said I'm fine." I said quietly before leaving the spot I was in to go to my room.