Apparitions (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 1

   She gazed solemnly out the window at the rapidly passing English countryside. It was an unusually clear day for mid-October by England’s standards, and the sparse amount of clouds dotting the pale blue sky showed no promise of the regular downpour from the heavens.

   The little girl felt her spirits lift slightly in response to this observation. Superstitiously enough, she took it as a good omen that something pleasant would come out of her parent’s most recent purchase – a luxurious flat in the exclusive Frien Barnet section of London. The girl had moved more times in her seven years than she could count with her petite fingers due to her parent’s careers. Her father was co-host and judge on the X Factor, and her mother had the stressful job of a world-renowned female surgeon. Although they certainly were not in dire status in terms of money - the little girl received anything her small heart desired with a simple proposal to her parents – the tediousness of moving every half-year was wearing her down to the core. It seemed that just as her tremendous amount of shyness began to ebb away, and she began to grow more relaxed around her acquaintances, she was forced to shove all of her belongings into the dreaded cardboard boxes once more.

   The girl sighed sullenly as she thought of this, trailing a finger down the side of the window in large loops.

   “Don’t do that Carmen – you’ll leave smears!” the girl’s mother called out from her stiff upright position near the front seats of the limousine. “And fix your headband; it’s tilted too far over to the left.”

   Carmen stopped her aimless circles on the glass, her fingers falling on the top of her head. She obediently shifted her floral headband back to a more suitable position in her mother’s standards of perfection. She locked eyes with her mother, her piercing blue orbs meeting the middle-aged woman’s cold green ones in a tired, questioning stare.

   Her mother gave her a curt nod before returning her attention to the blackberry glued to her manicured hand. It chirped, sending tiny pulses of sound around the sleek black limo’s interior. Carmen ignored the irritating sound without a second thought. The relentless pinging and ringing that erupted from the phone were like the soft hum of a fan in the background to the little girl, due to the fact that her parents always had them turned on. Instead, she focused on the sprawling property emerging in the distance that she would call home in a few brief minutes.

   Rick, their chauffeur, tapped on the brake pedal lightly and the limousine decreased its speed to an effortlessly smooth halt before the wrought iron gates. He rolled down the tinted window on the driver’s side and stuck out his head covered with his perfectly slicked back hair. He murmured a few short sentences with the gate guard Carmen couldn’t catch and exchanged a small white slip of paper for a handful of keys. The polished gold surface of the metal keys momentarily blinded her, and Carmen hid her eyes with the strands of her thick chocolate-coloured hair.

   Regaining eyesight a few minutes later, Carmen curiously peeked out between the unruly curls concealing her face to view the massive flat. Its bricks were two shades darker than the golden keys, but still shone in the weak autumn sunlight with a faint glow. Five grand arches peeked out from the array of tall grass and flowers neatly groomed in a precise circle, which the driveway revolved around. Two massive towers shot upwards on the side of the arches, and in the middle of them sat a balcony. To complete it all, a stunning blue dome, from which the flat got its nickname “The Dome” from, poked out from behind the slanted roof visible.