How long were they traveling? Jasmine was asking this to herself, looking out from the window of her father's gray Golf Sportsvan. She had fallen asleep while listening to some music on her old green ipod, lying on the back seat with her head resting on the window and her legs immobilized by Finn's weight, her border collie red merle with an ice-blue eye and a yellow gold eye, that had also begun to drool on her black leggings.
She moved him, sitting in a better position and stretching, feeling some bones get back in position and her black Disturbed's t-shirt wet on the back because of the sweat. The heat that day was unbearable, even with the conditioned air at max.
"Rise and shine, sweetie!" Her mother looked at her from the mirror in the visor of the passenger seat.
"Where are we?" Jasmine asked, looking at the time marked on the dashboard: 17:38.
"We are almost there, not much left now" Her father replied without looking away from the road.
Jasmine and her family were moving. Behind them was the moving truck, driven by a couple of workers from the company recommended by the estate agency, two mountains of muscles.
Her father, Robert Hatefield, was a doctor at the Columbus Community Hospital, Nebraska, where they lived until that morning and where the girl had attended the last high school year, graduating with good grades a week earlier(*).Her mother, Anna Hatefield, of Italian origin, had remained unemployed about six months earlier when the perfumery she worked in had closed. All three could not bear the city life. Jasmine preferred quiet and silent places to crowded shopping malls and loud streets and her parents were no less, both grown up in the countryside adjacent Columbus. By common accord they decided to move in to a small town. Robert would have asked for a transfer, which was accepted in a short time, and Anna could have looked for work once the new home had been settled. Even Jasmine had thought of looking for a part-time job, as she did not think she would go on studying.
Checking the availability of work for Robert, they had finally chosen a home that fully satisfied everyone. It was a two floors house surrounded by woods and a few dozen meters from a lake. A quiet place immersed in the nature as Anna and Jasmine wanted, but not too far from the town center, to meet Robert's needs. They had found it doing research on the internet. It was Jasmine's first choice as soon as she had seen where it was and she insisted in a way her mother defined disturbing. In the end, Hatefield's spouses had surrendered to thier daughter's requests, thanks to the natural beauty of the place and the price of the home, which would have been much higher in a different place. And then they just needed a doctor more there.
The new home was located in the territory of the unlucky town of Crystal Lake, in Colorado, not far from the homonymous lake and close, really close, to the notorious "Camp Blood", once "Camp Crystal Lake".
Jasmine was an horror movies fan and was aware of the many killings in the area thanks to the famous movie series "Friday the 13th". She was disconcerted by how some people could speculate on the misfortunes of others, but could not help to stay in a way fascinated by the creepy figure of Crystal Lake's serial killer, the unlucky and ruthless Jason Voorhees.
She kept looking out of the window, seeing trees and shrubs across the street. She could not wait to arrive. She would see her new home for the first time. When her parents had gone to see it, she had to stay home to study for the latest assignments. Obviously she had seen the pictures on the estate agency's website, she knew that it had already been heavily furnished by her parents and that it had a video surveillance system left by the old owners, together with a lot of furniture and junk storage in the basement and in the attic.
Shortly after the 18 o'clock they passed the green sign with the white "Welcome to Crystal Lake" on it, on the right side of the road. Within a short distance they began to see the various dirt roads leading to the properties outside the city. Then finally the first buildings. Jasmine looked at everything with extreme care, trying not to miss a detail. Her mother looked at her from the mirror, a little worried about all that interest, and glared at her husband, who answered with an almost imperceptible shrug. Following the main road they cut the inhabited area halfway, returning to see only the forest and a few pathways.
In front of one of them was a black Hyundai Genesis, with the driver's door open, and a blue shirted gentleman sitting in, coming down as soon as he spotted the travelers.
The family approached the roadside, followed by the truck. The gentleman, in his sweaty shirt, got out of his vehicle and met them. Robert and Anna did the same thing, followed by Jasmine and Finn, who was looking forward to getting off and running a bit around, beginning to sniff everything and also fulfilling his own needs.
"Mr. Hatefield, Mrs. Hatefield! Happy to see you again!" He exclaimed with a smile of thirty-two teeth, clasping his hands to the two.
"Our pleasure, Ian" Her father replied for both. She immediately realized that he was the agent of the agency responsible for dealing with them.
"And this beautiful girl has to be your daughter, right?" He reached out to Jasmine "Ian Blake, pleased."
"Jasmine, happy to know you" She replied, clutching her hand, pulling out the best smile she could. She was not very inclined to meeting new people.
Meanwhile, the two truck drivers, Dan and Jack, also reached them. After a quick presentation, Ian announced that the truck would not be able to get to the house, because then it would not have the space required for the maneuver to go back. They then decided, on Ian's advice, to rent a van and make more trips. The agency would have contributed to the expense since they had forgotten to warn them of this problem in time and Ian had already been informed about the van. He pulled out the phone and made a call, soon the van would had come. Throughout the time Jasmine had kept looking around, scrutinizing every meter of the surrounding forest, searching for signs of someone from outside her group. She was not worried about the possible presence of a serial killer who was watching them, indeed she was curious to find out if he really was there. Of course she was not so stupid to go looking for him openly, but she would have been allowed a walk in the woods, right?
Ian noticed this constant looking around of the girl, just like everybody else, who occasionally turned to check. The estate agent seemed the worst, but he did not say anything about it. He absolutely must be able to sell that house. No one had managed to sell it. As soon as people found out where it were, they all categorically refused. If he succeeded in the business, Ian was sure he would get a good raise and the esteem of his boss.
"What about going to see the house? It will take a while before the van arrives." He said at one point.
At those words, Jasmine lit up, turning to her parents, waiting for a "Yes" that was fast to arrive. They then climbed into the cars and left Dan and Jack ready to make the first voyage if the van had arrived before their return.
Ian opened the way and they were behind him. The road was all right if we did not count some slight curvatures. In two minutes they came in front of the house, very different from the apartment they had lived in Columbus.
The outer lining was painted in white, while the window frames was in light gray, like the shutters and the entrance door. The roof tiles were instead of a darker gray. Next to the house, to the left, there was a garage of the same colors. The two cars parked one behind the other, leaving some space for the van. Indeed the space in which the house was located left a few meters free all around it, before re-transforming into the forest. They left the cars and immediately Ian got up the three steps in front of the entrance door, right at the center of the porch. He pulled a bunch of keys out of his pocket and opened the door, letting the new owners go in first. Jasmine took a few seconds to enjoy the view of the house and the forest and could not hold a smile. As she climbed up the steps, with Finn alongside, she was glad that the front door had no windows but only the spy. She was very jealous of her privacy, just like her mother. The two windows at the sides of the door did not bother her, it would have been enough to put curtains.
Just walking in there was in the living room - dining room. The walls were covered with a beige wallpaper on the top half and wooden panels in the bottom half. A beautiful three-seater sofa was positioned perpendicular to the door, while in parallel there was a two-seater sofa on the side of the door and an armchair on the other side, all of a darker beige than the walls. In front of them a fireplace, in front of which Jasmine could already see herself during the winter. In addition to the sofas there was a beautiful wooden table for eight people and a wooden sideboard resting on the bottom wall. Her parents had made the colors matching perfectly with the old furniture they had decided to bring with them from the old house. She already imagined where her mother would have put them. On the right were the stairs leading to the first floor, while below them a door led into the basement. Beside the sideboard was an arch opening that brought into the kitchen. Even there the furniture recalled the wood, but they were white, with worktops in something that looked like black marble. Jasmine wasn't dure of that. It was small, but not tight, probably to give more space to the living area. The backdoor was gray, but in this there was the window and it was also quite big. All appliances were already present, including dishwashers.
Turning back, to the right of the stairs a door led to a bathroom with a shower, all in blue tones, except sanitaries. Another door instead was that of an empty room, which would become a study. There was just a wooden table with an old computer above, which was used for surveillance cameras, and the walls were decorated as in the living room. In the basement there was a laundry and a pile of boxes and old furniture. Jasmine eyed a rocking chair and promised to herself to go check it all later. Something interesting could jump out or, perhaps, something creepy.
They then went upstairs. To the left of the stairs there was another bathroom at the bottom, decorated this time with white and black tiles and a tub, and two rooms, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the right was her parents bedroom. The walls were covered with ocher wallpaper. A large wooden double bed with a high headboard stood in front of a large six-door wardrobe of the same style, identical to that of the bedside tables and the drawers, topped by a large mirror with a frame that looked like ancient bronze, but it was not. The other room, the left one, was also empty and would have been a guest room. To the right of the stairs there were two rooms on the left, one on the right and the manhole for the attic above. Even the two rooms on the left were empty and would be served for guests, but Jasmine already knew that one would have been her studio where she would had read and play video games.
The right room instead was hers. The wallpaper there was of a light green. The big bed in wrought iron had a leafy decor and those that at first looked like cherry blossoms. A six-door corner wardrobe was the object that attracted more attention, but she had eyes just for a library with 2x5 rectangular shelves and a large desk next to the window. A bedside table and a drawers completed the furnishings. Everything was strictly white, apart from the bed and knobs that were black, and in an fake-antique style. She liked the room very much, because it was much bigger than the one she had before and could have had fun by arranging her things.
Anna put her hand on Jasmine's shoulders. "Do you like it, darling?"
"Oh mom, it's beautiful!" She smiled, a real smile this time. Her blue eyes almost filled with tears.
"Finally you will have more space for yourself. Do you like the furnitures?" Her father asked.
"They are wonderful! Thank you!" Even Ian could not help but be happy for them, though more for himself. The house liked very much to this family, everything was going well.
And Jasmine really hoped that everything would go better.
(*) I don't know how the American school works so...sorry if I make mistakes XD
Author's Note:
Hello everyone!
I hope I made you a bit curious with this first chapter.
I will shortly publish the second, meanwhile let me know what do you think of this ;) I will not say much, I prefer to let you speak, so if you have any constructive advice or criticism They will be well accept. Obviously there is not much to say here, but the introductory chapter to present context and characters I believe is a must for those who are not a professional. Sorry for my very bad English but I don't speak it very much :(
I also just published the first chapters in the italian version.
That said, I leave the word to you! See you soon!