Red Velvet [The Boy Next Door]

The Boy Next Door

Thanks to GKSilver for the awesome Book Trailer!

THE BOY NEXT DOOR

 

Copyright © 2012 by Taina Regina

(Title and Cover may be subject to change) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."

— Edgar Degas

Chapter 1: New Tenant

A DARK SHADOW casted over the house, bathing the sinister aged building with a blanket of darkness, as Ember sat there clinging to her pencil.

 Her body uncomfortably slouched on the soft blood-red window seat, feet propped up on the plaid cushions, legs bent at the knees making her faded blue jeans crumple, with a black leather bound sketchbook in her lap.

A loud squawk rang through her ears, jolting her out of her seat when the raven went soaring toward her. Her eyes bugged out, as its beak met the glass pane, causing a small crack in her window. An eerie feeling cascaded through her body when she blinked down at her sketchbook, back up at the neighboring house. Especially now that there was no evidence of a real life raven, or bird. It simply disappeared.

She blinked continuously, her thoughts fighting between what was real, and what wasn’t when she noticed the gray clouds sweeping over Shallows Falls into an interchanging painting of itself.

That was weird, she thought.

Maybe it was the result of spending almost three hours on her current sketch it had her hallucinating. She finished putting the final touches, shading the edge of the ravens’ beak that perched on the neighbors gray rooftop, which sat perched high like a gargoyle ready to leap into the air. Its wings spread out toward the sky, welcoming the embrace of the coming breeze.

Even the house she sketched was an exact replica of the one she was looking at out of her window, though she refused to put any color in it. It always ruined the effect. She grimaced at the instant thought. Besides, the neighbor’s house was a charcoal gray anyway, so she didn’t really need it. 

Leaning back in her seat, she regarded the piece with a deceptive eye—or what she liked to call a “third eye”,—flicking her eyes back and forth from the sketch to the neighboring house.

It looks okay, she thought, suddenly biting on her tongue. Of course, the critique side of her intercepted her better judgment.

You can do better, Emmy, her mind scolded.

Even though she’d paid extra attention to the background, making it apparent that everything had a purpose, she still wasn’t happy with it.

Maybe you need to work on your shading, a voice said in her head.

Nodding as if agreeing with her inner critique, she went back to work. From the soil on the ground, to the water leaking on the pipes, she added it thinking that everything was there for a reason.

Still not good enough, now it’s ruined.

She sighed, hating the eraser mark she’d done on the wing of the raven.

Now you’ve done it! Her mind chastised.

Giving up, she flipped over a page taking in the blank space of white, and scanned the area outside her window, looking for something else to fill the void. An object of sorts that would complete the page, but nothing came to mind. She sat there with her pencil seized in midair, and frowned when she noticed the large white moving truck down below, reversing back into the neighbor’s driveway. Big bold red letters sprawled across the side reading: Mark’s Mighty Movers, and a big sold sticker across the For Lease board pitched at the front.