Ruins

Ruins

 I couldn’t stop myself from whining at our so called new-and-improved-house. The house was much bigger than the old one, but new, I don’t think so.  It was an old model. The structure of the house seemed to lean to the right, just a little to the side of our new neighbors’ backyard. The porch was long and fairly wide, but it had a bunch of holes on the floor and ceiling.

   My mom and dad just awed at their new investment, but I just wanted to spit on it. “Don’t you see the potential, Skylar?” asked my mom, but I could tell she was testing me to see how immature I was acting.

“Nope, but I see rotten wood.” I said, tapping on the hallway wall. I hated to disappoint my parents. “Oh and the living room is so big.” she said, ignoring my remark. The movers started to take over the haunted house and I ran up to my new room. Opening the door was no problem since there wasn’t a knob, so, I kicked it open.

I’m not gonna lie the room wasn’t that bad. The walls had a dark shade of purple. The ceiling had a black marble thing going on with white stars drawn on top. It was an old couch that was covered with plastic so I could still use it. I loved how the space was so roomy and still had a good comfortable size. They already put my queen size bed and my other furniture so all was left for me to do was unpack.

  I sat on my bed and sighed. I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me. I couldn’t bear but feel depressed leaving my friends behind. I was half into my junior year when my dad actually go the job here. “Just think of it as a new start at life Skylar.” My dad said, as we drove to our new destination. I just gave him a fake nod and blasted Paramore in my ears. Before I went in crying mode I snapped back into reality Knowing that they’ll call me to help I waived off my room duties and went down stairs dodging the moving crew that were putting our TV in the living room.

  Mom was prepping for dinner while dad was trying (poorly) to hammer down our photos on the walls, but couldn’t get them straight enough. He cringed and asks me to get his lucky hammer that’s been through hell and back. Mom and I were just getting tired of that duck-tape crap so we just away. My mom’s eyes got wide and stared directly at me that told me to lie.

“Umm dad, your hammer fell out of the truck on the highway.” I mumbled looking down at the floor.

He started to gawk at me and shook his head “I had that hammer for a decade!” he raised his hand and showed us how much it was while my mom rolled her eyes.

“Honey, I’ll get you a better one (which she already did) just let the movers do it.”

  “Do you know why I kept it so long?” He said as his temple veins came popping out of his forehead.

   And with that I left the kitchen to the porch and sat down, not wanting to hear his adventures on his family’s ranch and how when the next son turns fourteen their father is supposed to hand down this glorious hammer as a symbol of manhood. I snickered as I thought that the legacy ended when he conceived a baby girl named Skylar.

    I sat on the steps and stared at my new neighborhood. It seemed normal (which is what I quote �" boring). There was your normal neighbor that was old, brittle and probably noisy that I’ll soon to know as Mrs. Hazely; a sixty year old bag of bones that retired as a English teacher only to gossip about the next current things in the neighborhood to her senior citizens friends �" me.

    Then there was your normal goodie-goodie family, the Wilkins. They consisted of an average couple with their oldest son, youngest daughter that is spoiled, and their dog, a German Shepard. Everywhere I looked there was normal written all over it �" that is until I looked at the house on my left side. She burst out of the house and sighed. She was holding a batch of cupcakes with a greeting card on the plate. What took me by surprise was how her outfit was the bit least normal. Her half cut black jean jacket that hugged her figure with a pink and white top that said “Eff it!”

“Damn!” she screamed out as her combat boots collide with the lazy boy on her porch. She brushed her boots and started to inch her way down to my house. When she approached me, she gave a half smile and opened the gate. I cringed inside hating to introduce myself especially alone.

“Hi my name Isabella Plenair I’m your next door neighbor.” She pointed to her purple house and quickly gazed back at me. “It’s been awhile since we had people here.” she said, but then just bit her lip and put her head over her head shaking it. “What the hell am I doing �" Retake!” she blurted out and sat beside me.   

 “That’s my version of saying hello if my aunt was here, alive in color” she rolled her eyes and started talk again. “My name is Isabella but call me nova” She winked “It’s my middle name, oh and there are some cupcakes my aunt made me bake for you since I was acting like a total a*s to her the other day. Like it was one-hundred percent my fault.”

She rolled her eyes again and pick up a cupcake. “Anyways, I know that you’ll like it here though it does rain a lot.” She licked the chocolate icing until it was gone, put it back on the plate, and then gazed at the sky.

“When it’s not raining like today, things get weird around here so I guess you can say today is a magical day.” She said using air quotes.

I smiled and nodded as I tried to take my first cupcake but her swift hands beat me too it. “There a lot of thing to do in this town, but the neighborhood is boring as hell.”  She put the cupcake down and looked at me.

“What’s your name?”

“Skylar” I smiled quickly snatching my first cupcake. While I was biting  my cupcake, Nova took out a black note book and a pen from her bra to write down my name. “S-k-y-l-a-r, right?”

“Yep.”

“While that’s going on my top list.” She said. Nova sat up and started  humming while edging towards my front door. “You’re  list of what?” I asked while tagging along. She winked and entered the house

“Baby names for my girl, your number five”

“Y-You’re pregnant!” I gawked at her confusingly, staring at her perfectly flat stomach.

“For now anyways.” She grinned. And just like that Nova entered the kitchen, greeted my parents in the version of if her aunt was here, then jogged up to my room. “This place is pretty big” She said opening the door. She glance at the stars on the ceiling and spun around.

“Thanks” I said unpacking my stuff. “If you stare at the ceiling and shake your head it feels like you’re in space.” She said as she fell back on my bed.

“What are you five?”

She winked again, “for now.”

I shook my head and open my walk-in-closet. “Uggh! Disgusting, it smells like old people.” Nova screamed.

“Well this is an old house” I reminded her as I turned on the light. The walls and ceiling were covered in stars as well. The shelves were full of dust on top but were wide enough for my stuff to fit. “You have your work cut out for you Skylar,” she said slapping the shelves which made something fall with a “Thud!”. I looked down to see a medium size black book that had a red butterfly on the cover. The book was book marked with a laced up necklace attached to a moon shape diamond. Nova gawked at the necklace as I pick it up. “Whoa, ok you need to let me hold that once a while” She grinned. I was speechless of the beauty of the diamond that I was having trouble putting it on. “Here, let me” Nova took it and latched it with ease. I said thank you and open the book to the page where the necklace was. The pages were sour and some parts were moldy but the pages were blank.  And even though I was pretty sure that the page was blank I glanced over to see a girl’s name written in blood. 

“O’my gosh, Nova look at this”, I pointed at the handwriting that appeared.

Rebecca black

Born April 3, 1995

Died June 23, 2010

“What are we looking at?” Nova said puzzled staring at the page.

“You don’t see this?” I asked puzzled as well. She just shrugged and shook her head. “Maybe the dust is getting to your head Skylar”, she said answering her phone. “Abby I’m coming now” She pressed end call and sighed. “That’s my aunt gotta go” She said walking to the door but immediately turned back towards me. “I’ll come to pick you tomorrow for school okay.”

“That’s fine thanks for coming Nova, see you tomorrow.”

“Oh, and Skylar?”

“Yes?”

“Bring an umbrella” She winked. “It’s gonna rain.”

I nodded as she close the door and gaze at my new room. I smiled as I jump on my bed. Seeing Nova made look forward to my new life but in the back of my mind I couldn’t get my old home memories out of it because missing my old life made me too scared to pursue this one. And even through all my fear a new just struck me. I still couldn’t understand that weird blood writing on the book and why Nova didn’t see it too. But the one thing that really gave me goose bumps was I really thought that maybe the dust was agitating my senses. But as I laid back on my bed to look at the moldy page, I gasped as the same handwriting was on the page with something new written on it :

                     Help Me!  

Author's Note

pls rate 1/10

Reviews

[Zachary_James]

I liked the whole storyline, i loved how you incorporated the " Huanted house " theme it creates a mysterious feeling. What a great start!

[Gretchen Clarke]

This is a good start. I liked the ending, though it was a little creepy that Skylar could see the blood message, but Nova couldn't. Can't wait for chapter 2!
Keep up the great work! :)

[Juan More Story]

This a strong start for a book. The characters are well done and the ending was definitely creepy. Other than some small grammar errors its very well done. Keep up the god work!

[Daydreamer54]

awesome first chapter and her room sounds awesome! i recommend inenting your paragraph thouhg. i like Nova already! plz msg me when you post the next chapter.

[∠( ᐛ 」..]

Wow, this is a excellent chapter
It even have me chills and goosebumps
Good job!