Gone Home✔️

Chapter 04: Snooping

(Un)Fun Fact! My new home was apparently built by someone who was a huge fan of long, dark, creepy hallways.

I lingered in the doorway, peering into the darkness. For a second...I thought I saw something move. I could feel my heart kick in my chest and start to pulse harder. Swallowing, telling myself that I was just seeing things, being paranoid over nothing, I took a quick look around. There was another one of those push-button things to the right, a little ways in. I fought my fear and took the two steps in, reached out and hit it.

Light sprang into existence.

The hallway was a lot less intimidating in the light...although I didn't like the way the one at the end of the hall flickered for several seconds before finally coming on fully. Now, to continue my search...the first two things I noticed immediately were a door to my left and another one of those fancy tables with cubbies and shelves built into it to the right, a little further away. The door was closer, so it won the contest of what got explored first.

Surprise, surprise...another closet. But this one had another piece of paper immediately in view, sticking up out of a backpack resting on a pile of boxes. I did a quick search of the closet to make sure there was nothing else interesting hiding around, then knelt in front of the backpack. There were two papers, actually, and a button stuck to the front of the pack with Heavens to Betsy scrawled across it, complete with a disturbingly detailed drawing of a human heart done up as well. Must be one of Sam's yelly-screamy girl bands.

I grabbed the papers and took a seat in the closet, stretching my legs out and looking through them. The top one was just a bland piece of prep paper from the school. You know the kind, the ones that are over-joyously welcoming you to yet another year of high school, the kind that's packed with exclamation marks!

As if anyone is actually excited about the summer coming to a close and a return to the drudgery of high school.

There was a list of stuff that Sam had crossed off, you know, stuff you need to get through the year. The only thing she hadn't crossed off was -A positive attitude! Ugh, I get that the people who write these things don't want to make it sound too bland or too just-the-facts, but all this enthusiasm just comes off as so...fake, you know what I mean? I put it back and turned my attention to the next page, which was another journal entry!

No fake enthusiasm here.

Step. 6, 1994
"First Day of School"

Oh my god. You are so lucky you finished high school
before we moved into this house.
So, it's the first day of school, and there I am,
introducing myself to the class, and I say that I just
moved into the house on Arbor Hill. All of a sudden,
EVERY kid in the room turns and just STARES like I
suddenly transformed into a mutant. I just stood there,
wishing pretty hard for a rewind button. Because now
maybe nobody knows my name, but they all know who
I am: "The Psycho House Girl."
Great.

I could almost hear her reading it to me as I read it. Poor Sam. Despite her looks, she never really seemed to have it easy in school. She made friends, but it always seemed kind of like an ordeal for her. Sometimes she got into fights...sighing, I folded up the paper and put it into my pocket. Why not? I wanted to build a collection of them. I got up, feeling my back pop as I did, then I stepped out of the closet and stretched.

Time to check out the fancy table.

The first thing that jumped out at me was one of the postcards I'd sent back. This one had been from Paris. Wow, what a time that was. Lots of memories that, here and now, in this huge mansion, seemed very distant. Pulling open the drawer, I found two things of interest. The first was a picture of a very beautiful blonde girl that I didn't recognize. She looked to be about Sam's age. She was in a military get up and there were other military people in the background. A stern black nametag on her chest read: DESOTO.