ghost stories

01. The new house

The car made a turn to the left and the new house appeared in front of them. It was big and pale pink and she didn't like it. The front yard was simply huge. It looked like the house of an old rich lady who had just died a month ago. An old lady who hasn't painted the house in years, who let the grass and the flowers grow with no control, who didn't even bother to fix the gate that was slightly tilted to one side.

Her mother parked the car in front of the stairs that lead to the wooden terrace, all rotten by the weather and the lack of care.

Addy took a look: it was really ugly.

"Pretty" she said.

"Give it a try".

They took their luggage out of the car and went inside: there was a big lobby with three corridors spreading from it like it was the heart of the house and the arteries that pumped blood to the rest of the body. To the left it was the living room, covered in dark yellow wallpaper with tiny red flowers from the ground to the ceiling; in the middle there was just a long corridor that ended up on a glass door that lead to the back yard; to the right there were stairs. From the ceiling there was a big chandelier hanging over their heads. It was beautiful and looked very heavy, "the kind of heavy that could kill someone if falling down" she thought, and as she passed her hand through the wooden railing, added "hopefully that'll be me".  

"Do you need any help, mom?" she asked looking around the room.

Her mom passed right next to her carrying a box labeled as "kitchen".

"Yes, take the rest of the boxes out of the car, Addison, please" her mother said.

So she did. One by one, she unloaded the car that held her tiny little life on its inside. All the boxes with her things were in the car: her clothes, her books, her cd's, her lamp, her photos... The rest of the things, among with the furniture, came in the moving truck.

Addison took the box containing her t-shirts and went inside.

"Mom, which one is my room?" she asked with one foot on the first step of the stairs.

"Whichever you like, honey" she heard her mother say.

The second floor was just as ugly and old as the rest of the house. There were four bedrooms, as if it was meant to be for a big family. "Not our case" Addy thought as she walked down the hall and took a peek of the last room: it was quite large and had a door that lead to a suite bathroom. On the opposite wall there was a window framed with vintage curtains: light yellow, so fainted they almost looked grey. Through the window there was a view of the backyard. It was huge, so much she could only think the old owners could have planted pumpkins in there if they wanted to.

She wondered where did her mother get all the money to buy that house.

"Addy!" her mom snapped her out of her thoughts, "Did you decided for a room already?".

"This one is fine, I guess".

Her mother's blue eyes took a look around: unnecessary, since she was the one who came down all those times to see the house before she bought it. She knew all the rooms, all the broken lamps, the smell of something old and the weird fountain that was placed in the middle of the backyard. And she loved it all. Addison had not been there once.

"I thought you'd like this one, too" she smiled.

Addy left the box in the floor and went downstairs again to pick up every single box of her belongings. Her bed wouldn't arrive until the next day, so they would both have to spend the night in sleeping bags until then.

She laid down on the floor and gazed her new room. The flower theme seemed to be common around the house. The wallpaper there was a lighter shade of yellow with light blue flowers this time. The door, as the rest of the house, was a dark shade of wood, and all around the walls there were small shelves built into them, the ones people use to display items. Addison thought this room could've been of a little girl back in the day when the house was new to the neighborhood, and pictured a good amount of china dolls placed on the shelves.

It gave her goose bumps.

But she remembered the promise she made to her mom before accepting to go move across the country into that creepy old house: that she would try.

So she lied there, picturing where to put her own stuff so it would feel like her own bedroom. She looked at the wall next to her: she would put her posters there. In the old house, she had filled the walls with posters, flyers, poems, drawings...

"Honey, you can't put those things on the wall! You'll ruin the paint" her mother had said when she saw the first piece of paper she hung.

But as soon as her mother was out of sight, that piece of paper became the first of a whole collection that would only grow as the years passed.

Addy laughed at the memory.

And then the yellow wallpaper became a reality again.

She leaned on her elbows and sighed. Everything was quiet, just as her old city but nothing like her old house.

"Are you tired already?" her mother asked from the door. She didn't even hear her coming.

"No, I'm just... looking" she said.

"Do you want to get something to eat? We can call for a pizza" her eyes were clearly tired, but trying to make the effort.

"Sure"

As her mom disappeared, Addison had a thought.

"Mom?" she shouted, "actually, I think I'm going to go see the neighborhood, is that okay?"

"Sure, honey" she replied. "Just don't come back late".