Chased by Shadows

Chapter 1

Hey guys, its my first story here on wattpad and I would just like to say, if you see any errors or anything, feel free to tell me, enjoy ^.^

"Can you imagine it? A new house, new people, and a brand new school!" Mom clapped cheerfully and twirled towards Nova and her older brother, "Ryan, try not to pick fights with people on the first day of school. And Nova, please try to cheer up, the move isn't going to be the end of the world. Now go! Pick out your rooms!" she shooed us away.

Nova kicked off her shoes at the doorstep and slowly turned towards the new house with a sigh. A two-story with slick looking wooden floors and plenty of windows scattered around, letting in the spring sun. Having been shipped ahead, there were already some decorations and paintings hung on the walls. The furniture was all mostly set in place in the rooms that she could see from the front door.

Ryan, who had already gone up and checked out the rooms poked his head back down the stairs and waved an arm to get her attention. "No, you need to see the rooms up here, they're bigger than at the old house. The biggest room is mine though, but I think even the smallest room is bigger than yours back at home er.. the old house." He disappeared back up the stairs, presumably to

Making her way up the stairs, Nova glared at each polished step wishing for the worn ones from their old house. She had known every creaky step and where to place her foot on the stair to avoid making a sound, these were foreign and would take time to learn their tricks. At the top of the landing, there was an open space to the left and the right was a wall that continued into a hallway with a few doors on each side and a window on the far wall.

"You're so slow Nova," seeing her arrival from the corner of his eye, "The bedroom at the end of the hallway on the right is mine." Ryan was sat on the floor leaning against a wall of the open room charging his phone from the outlet he was sitting next to. The room looked to have been used as a media room by the previous owners. Apparently none of the furniture had been moved up here yet, though they didn't have much stuff that would fit in media or game room, seeing as they didn't have one in the old house.

Ryan looked up from his phone and sighed, "I know it's hard moving and all but try and cheer up." She stared sullenly at him before turning towards the hallway, another one of his sighs following her as she walked away.

Walking up to the first door on the right, Nova turned the handle and peeked into an empty dusty closet before closing the door and making her way down the hall. The next door was a plain looking bedroom, Nova looked around and checked it out the window which didn't end up facing anything particularly interesting. Then the smallish closet on the wall next to the door, not the worst bedroom she concluded, but hopefully there would be something better. Stepping out of the room, she went to check out the last room on this side of the hall.

As soon as Nova stepped into the room, she decided it would be hers. It had a nice big window with a built in seat facing the corner of the street, a spacious closet, and plenty of space for when the bed would arrive. Two of the walls had been painted a light grey and the other two, a sage green looking color. The floor was a darker shade of brown wood looking flooring which went nicely with the walls. Nova nodded once to herself before setting her bag down inside of the door, and going to investigate the room Ryan had claimed for himself.

She crossed the hall, passing by the window and poked her head into Ryan's room. It was pretty much the same minus the window seat and the walls were a navy blue. It was slightly larger and Nova wouldn't put it past Ryan to choose the room solely because it was the largest bedroom on the floor. His duffle bag looked to have been tossed to the middle of the room, his hoodie thrown over the top.

Nova was pulled out of the room and back down the hallway by her stomach, grumbling about its lack of food and she set off down the stairs to find the kitchen.

When she entered, Ryan was leaning against the counter in the kitchen next to their mom, pointing at something on the phone in her hand. They both glanced up at her as she walked over to them.

"I'm assuming you've come in here for the same reason as Ryan," her mom chuckled as Nova's stomach growled again.

Nova glanced around for any food left over from the road trip here, and groaned when all she saw was their dad's tin of lightly salted almonds sitting amongst the random clutter on the counters. "Is there any actual good food here?" She looked back at her mom who shook her head, frizzy brown hair swaying with the motion.

"Not yet, movers don't come with a 'buy groceries' option when they put furniture in the house," she smiled. "I'll probably make a run to the store tomorrow." Ryan had looked back at the phone in her hand, now scrolling through whatever was on the screen, "But for right now, Ryan was showing me the places nearby that we could get dinner from. You two will have to go on your own though, I need to help your father finish up with the movers for today."

"Sure mom let two helpless teenagers wander through a town that we just got to and present ourselves to all the perverts and weirdo's that are here" Nova rolled her eyes and her mom cut her a look.

"Hun, we all know that you and Ryan won't be 'presenting' anything, and you guys are using the buddy system so you'll be fine. Just go out and explore, find some local shops or fast food places to get something to eat. Or go and find a grocery store and get stuff for sandwiches, we ran out of bread and ham earlier when we stopped to have breakfast." Their mom's phone started ringing and she strode out of the room to answer the call.

Nova looked at Ryan who just shrugged and turned to go upstairs and grab his hoodie and wallet. Nova was standing by the front door as her brother walked down the stairs, hoodie on and tucking his wallet into his back pocket. Nova had pulled out her phone and was scrolling through various apps while Ryan was slipping on his shoes when their mom poked her head around a corner, "Your father will probably be here by time you get back, so get enough for all of us to eat." Ryan nodded and they walked out of the house and started down the sidewalk.

Looking around after a little bit, Ryan spoke up. "The neighborhood doesn't look too bad, there's a park over there that you can go hang out and take pictures at and plenty of trees for shade if you want to go out on walks." He turned towards Nova searching for something resembling happiness. She looked around flatly and saw the park he was talking about, it wasn't as big as the one as home but it had a little walking trail that went into some trees and came out a little ways down past the rest of the park.

"Cool." She kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk.

Ryan sighed and ran his hands through his dirt blond hair, wincing as it caught on one of the many piercings in his ears. "You, miss, need to cheer up and learn to deal cause nothing you say or do will convince them to move back. Dad was acting weird the last few days before we moved. And you know when he's worried about something, it will take forever and a day to change his mind. So you're just gonna- ow!"

There was a small clatter as a small rock hit the ground. Ryan whirled around, hand flying up to the back of his head, searching for the cause of his pain. There, behind some bushes they had passed were two red faced little boys struggling to laugh quietly, hands clamped over their mouthes. All laughter stopping when they looked up and saw the big teenager that they had hit with a stone glaring at them. One of the boys squeaked as the other scrambled to get up, pulling the other boy with him. As they ran away, Ryan was still scowling at where the boys disappeared to but paused when he noticed Nova clamping her lips together trying to hold a smile in.

"What a welcome huh Ry?"  Nova snickered

Ryan cut her a look before shaking his head and looked down at the GPS on his phone. He rubbed the back of his head one more time before grumbling, "C'mon, there's some places we can check out up ahead."

Nova huffed a small smile and followed.