New to the Neighborhood

My first peice of writing! Umm, I'm still editing this peice, so if there are mistakes, I can exlplain.

 

“Well, that’s the last box.” Lois Sanders said, as she cleaned off her dusty hands.

          “I guess this place isn’t so big after all.” Roxy Sanders looked around her new house.

          The walls were painted an off-white color. The wood floors creaked, and the boxes made Roxy feel claustrophobic. She clutched her arms tightly, as feelings of abandonment abruptly filled her.

          Lois noticed.

          “Sweetie, this house is a symbol. It means that we’re starting new; fresh. Your father left because he couldn’t handle change. Be tougher than him.” Lois comforted her 14 year old daughter. “Now, go pick the room you want.”

          “Okay,” Roxy muttered.

          She turned and walked down the nearest hall slowly, a tad scared something would pop out or a strange liquid would seep down the walls. Roxy had a strange feeling about this house. Roxy’s buoyant curls of black hair bounced with every step she took. She had the kind of natural beauty that any teenager would die for. Her deep green eyes would melt any guy's heart. Her light pink lips perfectly accented her pale, flawless face. A long neck, accentuated by a black, V-neck shirt, led to a slim and athletic body. The length of her legs was fairly exaggerated by a pair of purple skinny jeans, below which she wore a pair of matching Converse. Her keen eye for fashion never failed her, even in the most casual of occasions.

         

          After a brief exploration of each room in the house, she turned into a narrow hallway she hadn't seen before and followed it to a small room, a study perhaps. The absence of furniture allowed her to look around with ease. It was like every other room, only a small amount of rope was attached to the ceiling in the corner. Her curiosity led her to the mysterious rope. It was nailed into the ceiling. Roxy thought she could make out the faint outline of a large square surrounding the string.

          An attic? Another room? Roxy's inquisitive mind swirled with ideas.

          She lifted her hand to the rope. She tugged on it lightly and the square outline loosened. With another hard tug, the square outline became an opening, out of which a massive cloud of dust plumed into the air, obscuring Roxy's vision as a ladder of hidden stairs began to fall to the floor.

          Roxy jumped back quickly. The stairs hit the wood with a thud.

          “Is everything okay?” Lois called from somewhere in the house.

          “Y-yeah!” Roxy answered, staring up at the hidden room in shock.

          With a step, she began to climb the creaky stairs. The soles of her shoes imprinted themselves in the multiple layers of dust that inhabited each step.

          As she finally reached the top, Roxy twisted and turned her head in every direction. This wasn’t the attic.

          Instead of the off-white color that all the other rooms were in the rest of the house, this room was a light blue. The Oaken wood floor was covered with a layer of dust that clearly had not been infiltrated for years. The one window in the room looked out the northward side.

          Roxy warily walked towards the window, first testing the floor before she trusted it with her weight.

          It was noticeably colder up here. She rubbed her arms for warmth. As she approached the window and watched her breath dissipate in front of her, she knew something was strange. This was summer. The sun glowed outside the window, yet, somehow, goose bumps rose upon her skin.

          The window was a dark blue, octagonal in shape. A spider web-like pattern adorned the pane. Roxy unlocked the window and pushed it open, yearning for the warmth that the bright sun promised.

          The window opened silently, unlike everything else in the squeaking house. This was also strange, Roxy thought, but quickly bypassed it.

          She stuck her head out and scanned the horizon. This window faced the whole neighborhood. Roxy could see her front yard, and, lined up as far as she could see, everyone else's yards. Her whole neighborhood looked friendly and welcoming.

          But one house caught her eye: the house on the corner. The lawn was uncut, the paint was cracking, and the windows were dirty. The trees which surrounded it kept it hidden from view. Certainly, this house did not fit in such a picture-perfect neighborhood.

          The odd thing was she was able to see this house clearer than all the others, as if a thin fog enveloped all the neighborhood, but avoided this one house. She focused harder and saw that the trees didn’t block one window on the second floor of the house.

          Roxy couldn’t help but stare at that window. It was clean, unlike all the others, and quite a bit bigger.

          All of a sudden, a grizzly man appeared at the window and looked directly at Roxy. She hadn't time to realize that at that moment, every hair on the back of her neck rose. Their eyes locked for just a brief time before the man's mouth stretched into a wicked, Cheshire-like grin, as if he knew something terrible and delighted in it.

          She gasped and turned from the window, slamming it shut. She ran out of the room, down the stairs, and straight into her mother who happened to be carrying a box. The box spat out its multifarious inventory of small trinkets and jewelry as Lois crashed to the floor.

          “Roxy!” She screeched.

          Roxy could only pant, pale-faced, still horrified from the man.

          Who was he? What did he want? Did he ever brush his teeth? These questions swirled around in Roxy’s mind.

          “Don’t just stand there, help me up!” Lois growled.

          Obediently, Roxy helped her mother help. Lois cleaned herself off and pulled off a small doll from her behind.

          Soon after the trinkets were put safely back in the box and tucked away, Lois finally started conversation.

          “So, why were you running?”

          Roxy fidgeted in the sofa cushion that her mother had laid out on the wood floor. Should she tell her mom what she saw? Was it necessary? Would she believe her? Roxy knew her mom could tell if she was lying or not.

          All of a sudden, Roxy’s thoughts vanished. Her mind went blank and a velvet voice filled it with a haze.

          The upstairs room. You want the upstairs room.

          “Roxy?” Lois’ voice reached Roxy’s ears and entered her mind, suffocating the beautiful, soft voice of a small girl.

          “I… I had chosen my room.” Roxy followed the peaceful voice’s instructions. “I found another room. Almost like an attic in the study. It’s not really like an attic, more of an upstairs room. We’ll need – ’’.

          “Wait, there’s another room? How did you find it? Roxy, are you okay?” Lois had thoroughly searched the house when searching for places and had not seen or heard of an upstairs room. The saleswoman never brought it up, either. In fact, she had rushed Lois through the house.

          “Mom!” Roxy knew she wouldn’t believe her and was growing irritated. “There is another room, I swear. I’ll show you.” Determined, she stood up and beckoned for her mom to follow.

          “Okay…” Lois, confused from all of this, followed her daughter through the house, down the hallway, and into the study to stare at the filthy stairs that did lead to the upstairs.

          “Told you.” Roxy’s teenage “I-want-to-prove-my-parents-wrong” attitude glowed.

          Lois inspected the dirty stairs. She carefully walked up them and peered into the unknown room, examining it as well.

          “Goodness, this place needs to be cleaned!” She said, swiping her finger on a part of the stair rail.

          “I’ll do it.” Roxy chimed in. “I’ll spend all day tomorrow cleaning. I’ve got some good plans for this room.” Now that wasn’t a lie. Roxy had boxes upon boxes of posters, knick-knacks, and pointless decorations.

          “Ha. Well, where are you going to stay tonight? I’m not lugging that bed of yours up here today.”

          “Blow-up mattress?”

          “I’ve got one. But, something bugs me. Why is it so cold up here?” Lois clutched her arms as Roxy had done.

          “Air conditioning’s strong up here.” Roxy suggested. For a strange reason, she didn’t want to disobey the voice. What was that voice? Where had it come from?

          “Okay, whatever.” Lois quickly passed the subject and strolled over to the window. “Oh, now I see why you like it so much! The view!”

          “Heh, yeah.”

 

 

          Roxy and Lois went through the rest of the house, laughing all the way through. Only Roxy’s laugh cracked. Her mind wouldn’t let go of the voice. Even through dinner, which was a TV dinner, could she ignore it. And once she was shivering in a thin blanket on her air mattress with the moon shining on her, could she drop it. She would find out what that voice was. And, the man…

          She watched the shadows that danced on her walls all night and didn’t dare move, thinking of what inhabited the corners of the mysterious room. The voice did not visit her thoughts again. Only the familiar haze of drowsiness that Roxy loved filled it. Her eyes drooped. Her breathing slowed. Her racing mind calmed. She finally had left reality and entered dream state. Only dreaming wouldn’t help her. Her dreams exaggerated the horror of actuality and left her with purple rings under her eyes and a horrible headache.

          Her last train of thought was, It couldn’t get much worse.

          How wrong she was.

Author's Note

Dialogue might be messy and unorganized.

Reviews

[Jessi Webb =)]

This is really really good !

[DearWorld]

you've got a really good thing going here! I can't wait to see what happens next! great job! XD

[RainyDay]

This is really good! It's got great suspense and truly enthralled me! The whole thing was very well put together, and very intriguing-perfect for a first chapter! Id definitely read on after reading this, no question...