What Lies Beneath

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Twins

Unlike the current residents of the house, the twins lead happy lives. Having never known their parents, the twins were raised by their mother's youngest brother. He had taken them in when they were only four months old, due to the sudden and tragic deaths of both of their parents.

Growing up Miranda and Marissa didn't have a lot in common like most twins. In fact, they could hardly stand each other most of the time. It wasn't until their sixteenth birthdays that they realized they shared an undeniable fixation. Their love of racing.

The discovery happened when they went to go meet up with some friends. They had both taken separate cars because they wanted to show off their new rides.

They had all met up at the old Cinema by the abandoned shopping mall. It was a cold and wet night, but that didn't matter when the idea of a race to see whose car was better became the topic of discussion.

They all loaded up in the separate cars and then proceeded to race in the parking lot. They went around and around in circles. It was in those few blissful moments of laughter and screaming amongst their friends that they first got a taste of their true passion.

After that night, the twins spent every waking moment of their lives researching and watching different races. In their last few years of high school they took every class that the school offered in mechanics.

When they reached the lovely age of nineteen, they got jobs working on a pit crew at the local racing track.

When it was time to start college the two girls decided that instead of going to school and wasting their money on a piece of paper, that they would rather spend it on parts to make their cars the best that they could be.

When their uncle learned of their plan, he was less than pleased. They had a huge fight, and, in the end, he cut them off from the fortune until they got their act together. However, the lack of money didn't break their stride. They weren't going to give up on their dreams just because their uncle didn't understand their passion.

They had saved up some money from working on the pit crew and decided that instead of living in awkward silence in their uncle's house that they would rather live in a tiny cramped apartment where they would have the freedom to live out their dreams.

Unfortunately, their relationship with their uncle didn't get better in the next few years.

It was during the next seven years that their career shot up. They became one of the best racing teams in the business. Instead of racing against each other they would alternate between driving on the track and working in the garage.

When they turned twenty-six their careers started to take an upswing. They were offered a sponsorship deal. All they had to do was win their next race and then sign some papers.

However, when they got home, they found two letters in their mail-slot. When they opened them, they found invitations to an obscure house on the outskirts of Connecticut. After discussing what to do with each other, they decided that they had reached a promising point in their racing careers, and they didn't want to risk losing their sponsorship opportunity over an insignificant trip.

So, unlike the rest of the people who were invited to the house, they declined the invitation and went on with their lives.

It was two weeks after the letters arrived that the nightmares began.

In the dreams the girls were in a horrible house with red walls. In every dream they were being chased by a man with an axe. It was during their dreams that they met a girl who was chained to a bed. The room that she was in was filled with harsh ghostly whispers.

They never had a proper conversation with her because she was always shushing them when they would try to speak to her. She didn't want the voices to hear.

The dreams went on for weeks. In the end it got to the point where they didn't want to sleep at night. They would do everything that they could think of to stay awake. The lack of sleep led to the worst luck of all.

It was the biggest race of their careers. They were sleep deprived, but they still had to race to keep their contract. Marissa was the first one to drive that night, which meant that Miranda oversaw getting the car ready.

In the middle of the third go around Marissa was behind and decided to press the new booster that her sister had installed. However, due to their lack of sleep, mistakes were made and instead of boosting the car, it exploded. The explosion killed Marissa instantly.

Racked with guilt over her sister's death, Miranda took her own life.

In her note she wrote this:

We were foolish to think that we could escape the house by deciding not to go, but it came to us in our dreams and then it came for us. It has cost my sister her life and me mine. It is too late to make a different choice now. So, I will go to that house and I will forever be its captive.