A House of Lies

~ Chapter 1 ~

Jessie Brooks woke up with a start, scrambling to flick on her watch. "3:06 a.m." she muttered, visibly annoyed. She swiped at the screen until she finally got to what she was looking for. Under the name Angelina Cruise, she wrote; "Oh my gosh, ugh! Dude, it happened AGAIN." she hurriedly tapped.

Looking up at the ceiling, she awaited her friend's response, as she smoldered in bed. She rapped her knuckles anxiously against the hand-carved side table though it, surprisingly, didn't emit a sound. She glanced over and saw that there was a small slip of folded up paper where she had placed her hand. "Huh. I must've overlooked that earlier." she shrugged it off as she felt the device strapped to her wrist vibrate. She lifted her hand over her face to see what it was, and a bright white speech bubble illuminated her view. "That is SO weird, seriously. I swear that house you just got-- IT'S HAUNTED." She rolled her eyes and responded with a brief "Suuuure, I believe in that like I believe in Santa Claus."

She sat up, rubbing her eyes vigorously. This was the 6th time this week she had woken up this early, and it was getting seriously annoying. As she sat there, she realized that she'd left the note laying on her side table. She pushed off the bed and reached for it.

As she picked it up, she felt the hairs on her neck stand on end. She felt like she was being watched, but she immediately shook the feeling off. "I'm perfectly safe here! This is home, and I live in a perfectly safe neighborhood.." she told herself, just as her parents used to tell her. She slowly unfolded it, hesitating slightly, when she noticed, there was a slight splattering of something on it.. Once she finally opened it, she readied herself for what could be on it. But as she focused on the paper, she found her eyes blurred at the sight. Her eyes widened as she read the carefully written words. NO. This cannot be happening. Feeling a hot breath on her neck, she tensed up. Suddenly, there was a piercing pain on her back, like it was being branded all across. Her head was spinning, and she heard thousands of voices whisper all around her. One loud voice came over all of them, whispering and BREATHING in her ear. "Hello little one. I'm back. And I'm here for blood."

Whatever little consciousness and strength she had had before left her. She collapsed on the floor, a strangely, bloody, gasping mess. Choking, she screamed, begged, doing anything but let herself give in to the dark. The dark.

Something inside her ruptured. She fell forward, feeling her heart pounding hard in her chest. Cold. The floor was cold on her face. Sleeping suddenly seemed like a good idea--but NO! She could NOT give in. Her eyes fluttered open and closed as she struggled with the wave of drowsiness that overcame her. Grasping at anything in her sight, Jessie pushed herself up and managed to get herself propped up on her elbow. She looked up to see the one face that she knew would appear before her, yet she slipped under the weight of it all. She fell on the floor again, sobbing all over herself. All her limbs felt sore and overused and the face that glared at her like she was nothing, was NOTHING like what she expected. Sweat trickled down her face and onto her back. Every movement sent a wave of protest throughout her body, yet she crawled to the feet of her assailant. "Why?.." she said, barely a murmur. Yet the murderer heard.

"Why?" they responded with a loud, resounding laugh that echoed throughout the building for sure. And picked up--oh NO.

"What is this?" they looked down at her and smirked. She knew she would never forget that glimmer in their eye. It was pure EVIL.

"This is why." They said, walking towards her

"And you WILL pay." They growled.

They thrust their arm in her direction and the loud noise of a young 16-year-old shrieking echoed throughout the room. The warm smell of blood filled the room as the note fluttered down to the ground. The being chuckled, a deep noise that could send shivers down anyone's spine.

And that was the last thing Jessie Brooks ever heard.