The taking of Ivy Dobrev

chapter 2

"If all the kids at school find out that Im going to be living at the freak house, no one is going to talk to me." My sister complained at the dinner table.
"Why didnt you tell us before?" Ignoring Ivy's loud complains, I asked,  taking a huge bite out of my burger.
We had ordered the food home tonight, since the new house was in such a mess and no one had the strength to cook up something.
We all sat at the dining table, my mom sitting beside my dad, and Ivy sitting at the head of the table.
I sat opposite to my dad.
"I figured if I told you both, you'd not want to move and I got such such a good deal on this place, I didnt want to let it go." My dad said, sheepishly, with a small smile.
"But dad, its not fair! You know what happened here. We cannot stay here! We have to move again, now!" I whined.
Of course we couldnt live here after all that happened in this house, but my dad....
"Girls, both of you. Listen up. We have moved and in a few days you're going to be very comfortable in this house. You guys have a garden to play in and a lot of lovely neighbours who Im sure have lots of kids, who can give you both company. Also, be glad that you didnt have to change schools since Heatherville is quite close to our old place. If we move again, we would have to move out of the city itself, and you guys would have to change schools."
The last point about changing schools, shut Ivy up since she didnt want to lose her queen bee position.
Unlike her, I didnt have anything to lose so I started again.
"DAD! Dont you get it? This place is cursed. It was all over the newspapers and in school everyone was talking about it for weeks and..."
I was cut short by my mother clearing her throat, as if she was about to say something. I stopped and looked at her. Turned out it was only a small itch in her throat.
I began again.
"See, my point is, I dont want to lose you both. I could do away with Ivy, but you both mean a lot to me." I said.
Ivy, who was again busy texting, looked up from her phone and gave me a dirty look.
"Abby, dont say that about your elder sister. I hate to see you both constantly at war. Also, Ivy. Put your phone down and eat something for God's sake. You havent even touched your food." My mother warned.
Ivy placed her phone on the table, and grabbed her burger looking disgusted.
I will never understand how she worked.
I shook my head in disapproval.
Dad took advantage of my silence and said, " Abby, I apologise for not telling you about the history of our new house earlier. Or the name, I guess. Since you already knew the history. But let me tell you, all of the information printed in the newspapers and magazines were just plain old rumours. None of it was actually proven. Also, its too late to shift now. So either stay happy or be upset, either ways, we are staying here." My dad said quite firmly.
The rest of the dinner went in silence, with Ivy occasionally complaining that she was full, and my mom telling her to finish what was on her plate.
After dinner was over, my mom told me and Ivy to clean the table and throw away all the disposable plates.
We hadnt even used our plates, because we hadnt unpacked all of that yet.
I quitely cleaned the table and disposed off the plastic plates and forks. Ivy stood at the corner, her fingers running across her smartphone as if it was the olymics and she just had to win it.
If you ask me, Ivy might be beautiful, but she is just dumb.
Super dumb.
"Next time when mom tells us to do something, kindly put your phone down and help." I said grudgingly, when I walked past her.
"Whatever." She said, rolling her eyes.
She rolls her eyes so much sometimes I think they are going to get lost in the back of her head.
I walked into the drawing room and saw it was empty.
Mom and dad had probably gone into their bedroom.
I went upstairs and entered my room.
It looked a little different than before, since it now had a bed, a wadrobe and my bookshelf.
I had yet to unpack my clothes and books, so the room otherwise was quite empty.
I closed the door behind me, quitely and walked towards my closet.
I opened it and there, all alone sat the red book I found earlier in the day.
After all the stuff had been moved inside my room, I had hidden it inside my empty closet.
I took it out slowly and closed the closet's door.
It was a wooden closet and Ive had it since such a long time I think I've forgotten.
Barbie and Ken stickers were stuck everywhere and gave me a feeling of deja vu whenever I looked at them.
After closing the door of the closet, I turned around.
I flopped myself onto my bed and opened the red book again.
As soon as I did that, the closet door slowly and noisily opened again, making a creaking noise.
I looked towards the right, where the cuboard was, now its doors wide open, showcasing an empty closet.
I got up and closed the doors again, this time tightly.
As I did so, I heard footsteps behind me.
With my heartbeat rising I turned around, only to find Ivy sitting on my bed with the red book in her possession.
"Ivy give it back." I said, in a low voice, walking slowly, my hand extended towards her.
"Let me see what it is first." She said grinning.
I knew that grin, it was the bad kind.
I jumped on her and made a desperate attempt to snatch the book from her manicured hands, but failed miserably.
That woman is so much stronger than she looks, I tell you.
"Im pretty sure this book or journal or whatever this is, isnt yours. So spill now, otherwise Im taking it to mom and dad." She said, teasing me.
I was pretty sure that she wouldnt actually take it to mom and dad and she was just doing it to irritate me.
"Why are you even here? Dont you have to text your friends or anything?" I asked, annoyed.
"Dont change the topic, little sister."
Why couldnt I have been an old child, I wondered.
"Okay so when I entered this room in the morning, I found it lying in the corner. I think the previous owners left it or something." I said, giving her a short summary with hopes that she would find the answer satisfying and leave.
But she didnt.
"So why had you hidden it?"
God, why couldnt she just stop with her questions.
"Thats because I found the drawings in it interesting and I wanted to look at them once I would be alone."
"Then Im sure we both can look at them, together. Cant we, Abby?" She said, grinning.
I knew it wasnt really a question, so I just nodded and sat beside her on my bed, already thinking of ways I could get rid of her.
Slowly turning pages, we both realised that the drawings in it went from creepy to wayyy too creepy.
Drawings of groups of children standing with their eyes closed on top of what looked like a dead person, with red crayon used as much as possible. There was a drawing of a nun with a cross and also an old building.
Somehow, the way the drawings had been done and the fact that they were so detailed and descriptive, that it appeared as if the book, or whatever it could be called, was not something to mess with.
We went through all of the pages, cringing often due to to some really gory drawings. After the last page had been flipped, a note fell out of the artbook.
Since the fan was switched on, the wind took away the note with it and it flew under the bed.
"Go get it." Ivy bossed, curious to know what the note said yet scared because of the drawings made by the anonymous person we had just seen.
"Why me? You go get it, you wimp." I said, for the first time calling her something I always said in my head.
"FYI, I am not a wimp!" She said, defensively.
"Prove it..." I said, enjoying her getting conscious.
"By doing what?" She asked, crossing her arms infront of her; looking pissed.
"For starters, go under the bed and take out the note?" I offered.
No matter how much we would have denied at that time, the art book had left both of us spooked and creeped  out.
In fear of being taunted for the rest of her life of how she was a wimp, my sister got up from her cross legged position on the bed and ducked to grab the note from underneath.
She extended her arm in hopes of grabbing whatever she could, without really looking; hoping it would be the note.
Instead her hand got hold of something else.
She took her hand out and in her fist, was a tiny dead rat.
"A RAT! A DEAD RAT OMYGOD I HATE RATS" She screamed on top of her voice, letting go of its dead body.
"For God's sake, its dead! Calm down." I said, rolling my eyes for once.
Since I knew Ms. Drama Queen wouldn't go under the bed to look for the note again, I got up instead and took it out.
It seemed like a torn piece of paper and was folded as neatly as it could have been. I unfolded it.
Written on it, with a cursive handwriting were four words.
YOU. HAVE. BEEN. CHOSEN.
The words were written in red and looked threatening. Its hard to explain how words can look threatening but if you saw it, you would think the same.
My crazy sister who was busy cleaning her hands with the sanitizer that had been kept beside my bed, finally realised what we were originally doing and snatched the note out of my hands.
She read it once and had the same confused expression as me.
"What does this even mean?" She asked.
"I dont know. I didn't write this." I said, confused too.
"Obviously, you didn't. " She said, shaking her head.
She took the note along with the art book and turned towards the door.
"Hey, wait! Where are you going?" I asked, seeing her unlock my room's door.
"To my room?" She said.
"Um, and why are you taking with you the art book and the note?" I asked, rudely.
"I am the elder sister, I am keeping it with me for safe keeping. This house already gives me the chill's. I'm hiding this somewhere so no one finds it." She said, gravely.
"Stop trying to be serious. You're probably going to lose it!" I whined.
"Shut up, Abby. Goodnight." She said, leaving, banging the door shut behind her.
It was that moment when I desperately wished I was an only child.