The House | Colby Brock

Chapter 3

Previously: "What the fuck is going on" I whispered, and that's when it happened. 

The front door swung opened, I swear my heart fell to my ass. Mom walked into the kitchen and looked at me confused. "Are you okay honey? you looked like you've seen a ghost." I sighed in relief looking back at my mom. "Mom..I swear there's something wrong with this house." Mom sat on a stool in front of me, giving me a puzzled look. "What do you mean sweetie?" I sat on the stool next to her, turning my body so I'm facing her. "I don't even know how to explain it, and if I even try to you're gonna find me crazy but..there's just something so off about this house." Mom looked down, fiddling with her fingers. "I know." She said, I looked at her, about to say something before she started talking again. "I've felt something too, I don't know if its just because we've moved, us overthinking..I just pretend its your dad, I really need this to work out." Her voice filled with hurt and sadness. I didn't even know what to say. I nodded and reached over, giving her a tight hug. "We've got this mom, It'll just be us overthinking and stressing" I said, but deep down I knew I wasn't overthinking. There's something wrong in this house. Mom let go of me and took a deep breath. "I forgot my wallet, that's why I'm back." She let out a little laugh, wiping the few tears that fell and got up. I giggled, getting up too. "I'll come with you mom, just let me get dressed real quick." She smiled big and nodded. 

I rummaged through the unpacked boxes, pulling out whatever clothing of mine that I could find. "Just gonna throw these on" I said to my mom, lifting up the handful of clothes in my hand before walking into the bathroom. Even the bathroom was creepy. I slid off my t-shirt and slipped on my hoodie. Sliding off my pyjama shorts, and grabbing some plain biker shorts, I looked into the cabinet mirror, and for a split second I thought I saw something, someone. I turned around so quickly, my heart beating out of my chest. My eyes wondering all over the bathroom. I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths in. After I calmed my breathing I slide on my shorts. "It's not real, It's not real, It's not real." I repeated over and over again in my head. I opened the bathroom door, taking a quick glance behind me once more before shutting it and walking back to my mom. "I'm ready." I smiled at her, grabbing my phone and sliding it into my hoodie pocket. 

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It was a 15-20 minute drive to the stores, library, clothing places..the typical things a town would have. We just happened to live in a creepy ass house that was in the middle of no where and a few miles out from everything. Mom drove into the parking lot and parked up, unbuckling my seat belt and getting out. "This is cute." I said, looking at all the little stores and cafes. Mom smiled and nodded in agreement. "I love it, it's nice being away from the chaos of the big city" We walked into the grocery store, grabbing a cart and began doing our food shopping. 

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We were grocery shopping for hours it felt like, our cart was full to the brim. "At least the fridge is going to be full for awhile." Mom laughed, looking at all the food we got in the cart. I laughed too, pushing the food filled cart towards the check out. "Good morning ladies." The cashier said, scanning the food items as we put them on. "Good morning" Mom and I both said. "I don't think I've ever seen you guys before, you must be new it's a small town." The cashier said. Mom packing the food into the brown paper grocery bags and me placing the food items onto tray so they could get scanned. Mom said. "We just moved here yesterday actually." The cashier smiled before asking. "Did you move into one of the new build houses up the road? those are lovely houses aren't they?". Mom placed the grocery bags into the cart as they filled up. "Oh no, we actually moved to Lakeside manor house." The cashier's face dropped immediately, the person queuing up behind us face dropped. "Y-you moved to lakeside manor?" The cashier said. I kid you not, that brought so much attention. The cashier working next to her turned around and looked at us, the people she was serving looked at us. Mom and I looked at each other confused. "Those poor families" Our cashier whispered. "What do you me-" Mom began to say before the cashier next to ours dismissed the conversation. We finished up, thanking our cashier. "Be safe, please be safe." She said, giving my mom a look I couldn't even describe. "Uh..thank you." Mom said before grabbing the cart and walking out with me beside her.