No Rest for the Wicked

1

"You know it's haunted, right?" My brother James said.

"Sure it is. Any murders that happened there happened over 119 years ago. I doubt anything is still hiding there." I scoffed, staring out the window of the rented pickup truck James was driving, the Uhaul carrying the last of my stuff jiggling behind us.

"You read the book, right?"

"Yeah. I believe most of it. I draw the line at the ghosts."

"Kira, the book is 100% true, Edith Cushing herself said so."

"When she was, what, 95?"

"All I'm saying is you should be careful. I don't wanna get a call that you were killed."

"You're overreacting. Besides, calling the Ghostbusters seemed a little out of the field of believable expenses." I said, rolling my eyes. "I spent my life savings renovating the place."

"I know that, but the least you could have done was given away that piano."

"You afraid Cersei Lannister is still connected to it?"

"It's not funny. There's no rest for the wicked and legend says Lady Lucille is still playing her piano to this day."

"I'm still not giving it up. It's way too pretty to get rid of."

"You can't even play more than 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.'" James shot back.

"I can learn. It ties the living room together. Also, I heavily doubt anyone in this area would want it."

"So trash it."

"Nope. Not gonna happen."

"Hey, off topic question: how the hell do you plan on getting to work? You don't have a car." James said.

"I'm calling an Uber tomorrow to take me to town so I can buy a used car or something. I have just enough in the renovation funds for it."

The truck pulled up to the iron gates that fenced the property off. James hopped out of the car and manually opened it. I had a guy coming next week to wire it up so I could just open it from the car.

"I will admit this: Keeping the gate was really cool."

"It keeps the place tied together. I told you I wanted to make it look relatively similar to how it used to look, else the town might riot." I replied as James drove through the gate. He pulled up to the front of the house and we both got out of the truck. He opened the Uhaul and started unloading boxes.

"Jesus. How much shit do you have?" He asked, plopping a particularly large box down. I casually picked it up and slung my duffel bag over my shoulder. Kicking the door open after unlocking the door, I stepped inside the foyer.

Instead of patching the hole in the roof, I opted for a large skylight that illuminated the now painted blue walls. The wallpaper was peeling and gross, so the dark blue paint was the better alternative. I set the box down and gazed around at the house I now called my own. I walked straight ahead to the living room and set my bag down on the couch.

"Oh thank god, you got rid of that ugly portrait." James said as he walked in behind me.

"You might not know this, but a large portrait of a woman who abused her kids kind of kills the mood." I said snarkily.

"Whatever, just help me get the rest of your stuff so I can get the hell out of this creepy ass place."

***

"Pfft. Haunted? Yeah right." I said to myself as James pulled away from the house. Thank God Grubhub is a thing because I don't wanna have to drive for two hours into town for a damn Sub every time. I'll be buying a car tomorrow, sure, but the drive is still kind of ridiculous.