“There is no doubt, she said. “We are going to save our minds and clear our thoughts here.” “This is awesome! Screamed Sam, her eight-year-old son, as he started to run around the house. Her husband, John Walker, smiled at her. “You’re right. This is going to be like a salvation for the soul.” “Alison, honey… What do you think?” Melinda looked at her sixteen-year-old daughter, who was observing the house. “I don’t know, she answered while crossing her arms. “I’m going to miss my going out type of life, but… whatever.” Melinda gave her a look. “You’re going to be fine, trust me.” “Well, if I haven’t trusted you, mother… I wouldn’t have come here with you.” “She is right, John said. “But, honey, you are going to love it here. You’ll see.” “Yeah, right, she said, unconvinced. “Where is my room, anyway?” “Go and check out. Pick your place, John said to her after she listened and went upstairs. Melinda leaned on her husband with a warm smile on her face. “She doesn’t seem satisfied. Melinda was thinking of her daughter. “Well, you have to understand her. This is not really a life that any teenager would like. But, you know, school exists here too. She’s going to meet some friends also; she’s going to get used to this with time.” “I guess you’re right. Melinda nodded. “As for me, I’m already used to this.” He gave her one gentle look. “Me too.” Their first day in their new home went perfectly well. Melinda and John went on a walk; their son was playing near the lake, and Alison was trying to get used to all of this. They had an easy family lunch with healthy food and nice talk. In the afternoon, someone knocked on their door. Melinda opened it. “Hello, said a nicely-looking woman who was standing in front of her door.

“Hello…”, Melinda was kind of surprised that someone’s around here because she thought they were far away from people. “Sorry for bothering you, but I just wanted to tell you that I saw someone’s moved here… So even though we are not that close, we are still the only neighbors,she laughed. “I wanted to give you some muffins, just to say a warm welcome.” After this, Melinda couldn’t deny that people seemed really nice and polite here. As the lady gave her the cart full of muffins, Melinda realized that this indeed was a warm welcome. “OH, thank you… misses?” “Amanda. ”She said. “You really shouldn’t have been bothering yourself, Amanda.” “OH, it was never bothering me. Cooking is definitely my virtue.” She seemed lovely and full of good energy. “Do you want to come in? Melinda asked her to. “Well, I don’t want to bother you… If you were in some business… “No, no.Melinda shook her head. “Please, you can assess the new house.” After this, Amanda walked in and looked around with a gleeful face. “You have great taste, Miss… Melinda, she praised her. “OH, you have no idea how happy I am that someone finally moved into this house.” “Why is that? Melinda was curious. “Well, it’s because my family and I love company and the idea of having good neighbours. The last people who moved here… They seemed satisfied with everything and happy that they were moved in. but then suddenly, they left during the night. They never came back. We could only see, after a few days, that house is on sale again.” Melinda didn’t seem to understand why anyone would leave, so she just shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what happened there, but what I do know is that we love it here and we don’t mean to leave anytime soon, Melissa said honestly, and Amanda was satisfied with this. “I’m glad to hear that. I guess we’re going to see each other then.” “For sure, Melinda confirmed. “OH, this is so amazing. But you clearly have your stuff to do, so I’m just going to leave… Have a nice day, Melinda.” “You too.” After Amanda left, Melissa realized that there was no better place that they could pick for living. Everything went slow and quiet; it actually seemed like a cute little fairy-tale that has no ending from now on. But then, night had fallen, and things were slowly starting to change a little bit. “So, you’re basically saying that because his room is not finished yet, he has to sleep with me?” Annoyed by the idea of her brother sleeping with her, Allison was looking at her parents with no friendly look at all. “Yes. But this is only for tonight, Allison. You don’t have to make drama about every little thing.” John’s tone went up a up a little, so Allison couldn’t reject this anymore. She just irritably rolled her eyes and then looked at her mother, who was clearly not satisfied with her attitude, so she took one breath. “Okay, okay…fine.” – They were all getting ready for bed, and they couldn’t even imagine what could happen. When Alison turned off the lights in her bedroom and finally laid down, things started to move in different directions. “Alison? She heard the soft voice of her brother lying next to her. “Yeah? She said, looking at him. “You didn’t check for monsters.” She stopped herself from laughing and then turned around and looked him right in the eyes. “Sam, there are no monsters. I’m here; there is no need for you to be afraid.” He didn’t say anything. She thought that he was going to calm down and fall asleep now, but she was wrong. “I’m still scared, you know,” he said, starting to talk again. “Can you hold my hand?” “Sure. She answered immediately and took his hand. “Are you feeling better now?” “Yes.” He lied just because he didn’t feel like bothering her any more. There were people laying there as this impenetrable silence filled the room. It was like someone pressed pause on their lives for a minute. “Do you believe in Bogeyman, Allison?” Sa asked with a whispering voice. “Sam, you need to sleep now. And no, of course, I don’t believe in that. There is no bogeyman; that’s just a bunch of stories meant to scare little children. Nothing else. There are no ghosts, zombies, bogeymen, or whatever. Have you watched a horror movie recently?” He shook his head. “No. It’s just… this house seems scary.” Alison started laughing. “There is nothing scary about this house. Gosh, you have such a huge imagination.” “That is exactly what they usually say.” Alison was getting enough of this conversation already, so she really wanted to end it. “You do watch too much TV. Can you just calm down and try to fall asleep now? Can you?” “Okay. I’ll try.” – The rest of the day went calm, and Alison was already starting to fall asleep. Samson the other hand was pretty awake. He could swear that he could hear something coming from someplace in the house. There are some weird noises and a small, a small, quiet patter in the background. His heart was beating really fast, and he was terrified. But, even though he was scared, he still decided to get up and see what was happening. In that moment, Alison woke up and saw that he was standing in front of the door. “Where are you going?” “To the bathroom, he replied. Alison nodded, and he just came out and closed the door. She sighed, and then something hit her. She froze when she realized what was happening. This was impossible; this isn’t happening. Her heart was almost getting out of her chest, and she was barely breathing. Obviously, Sam is not even in the room anymore, so… who was still holding her hand? She could feel someone’s cold touch; she felt someone’s hand in hers. Her eyes were wide open as she felt blood run faster through her veins. This was a definition of fear. She wanted to turn around and see who was there, but she couldn’t move. She was completely paralyzed. After she spent ten seconds like that, she moved her head in the right direction and looked straight into these eyes. She could see this dark shadow lying next to her, looking at her. Those eyes she saw were black with a small red spark inside of them, watching her in silence. She was in shock. Meanwhile, Sam was in the middle of the hallway, trying to hear something. After a while, he heard the same noise. It was like this quiet howling, but he couldn’t really say from which part of the house it was coming. He decided that he needed to inform his parents about this. As he entered their room, he realized that it was dark, so he couldn’t see anything. “Mom? Dad? Nobody was answering him. He turned on the lights and saw that no one was in the room. The only thing he could see was an opened window and a soft breeze that was moving the curtains. Where were they? He slowly turned around, and his heart stopped a little when he saw his sister standing right in front of him. “Alison, hey, he said with a quiet voice. She was just standing there and looking at him with her eyes wide open. “Do you know where mom and dad are? He was wondering. She didn’t answer him; she just turned around and started walking. He was watching her as she walked away from him with a confused look on his face. The little boy couldn’t even imagine what was happening and what happened to people that were here before, and the ones before them, and the ones before them. He started following her as she went downstairs. Now they were on the first floor, entirely alone. “Where are you going? As he asked this, she suddenly stopped walking and turned around. He came closer to her. “Come with me, she whispered as she looked at him with those big, atrocious eyes. There was no coming back after this not anymore. In the morning, Amanda Silver stopped her car in front of the house along with her husband. “Where are those people, Amanda? Her husband was interested. “I talked with this woman yesterday… And now, no one is here. Their car is gone; it seems like no one even moved here ever, she explained. “Whatever, just keep driving, her husband told her, but she didn’t listen. She was just looking at this house those white walls, opened windows, beautiful porch… It’s like she was hypnotized. “They probably left like the ones before them, during the night, she supposed. “They are probably going to put this house on sale again at an affordable price.” She slightly turned around toward her husband. “What do you think? Should we buy it?”

by Marinna