The house on Pinewood Drive has been vacant for years now. Local legend tells of an unexplained death and the strange occurrences that started on the property soon afterwards. Andra Morris is new to the town of Inglewood. As a self proclaimed medi...
I can't wait to be away from this hateful little town. I daydream about it. Every day here is the same and every bit as bad as the day before. Melanie keeps asking me what's wrong. She doesn't understand why I've walked away from everything. My heart's not in it anymore but I have no interest in sharing any of that with her. We might as well exist in two different universes now. I don't belong here anymore.
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Cameron and Andra pulled into the drive of Greg and Melanie Billings's home around mid-morning the next day. Thanks to a thorough Google search the night before, Andra felt she knew everything she needed to know ahead of their visit.
Greg's name was mentioned in several different articles that Andra had found. He was a lawyer at a small firm located about an hour from his home. Specializing in family law, his clients' reviews were nothing short of glowing. In fact, he was listed as one of the most sought-after young lawyers in the area. He wasn't a partner yet but his future looked bright.
Melanie, on the other hand, had once been a real estate agent. Like Greg, her career had been on the rise, but a quick search of social media revealed that she was no longer working. She had become a stay-at-home mom shortly after their children were born. Her Facebook and Instagram pages portrayed her as a community leader and overly involved PTA mom. Every post was an advertisement for this fundraiser or that charity event. Scattered out among these were various pictures of a smiling Melanie at different school events.
She and Greg had two children a girl and a boy who were heavily featured on all her social media pages. They looked to be preteens and both had their father's thick blonde hair and their mother's bright green eyes. With her short ponytail and dazzling smile, the young girl reminded Andra a lot of Tinkerbell the fairy from the movies she had watched as a child. Her brother stood a few inches taller than her. He had the gangly awkward look of a young boy on the verge of adolescence. A ghost of the man he would become hovered deep within his youthful features.
The kids played various sports and Melanie had posted pictures of all of them at different school sporting events. There were pictures of them on soccer fields, basketball courts, and in school gymnasiums. They seemed to be the perfect family but Andra of all people knew how misleading photos could be. She hadn't missed the fact that Greg appeared in very few of Melanie's posts.
Following a circular gravel drive, Cameron brought the Jeep to a stop in front of a large cabin-style home that sat nestled among the trees. It was a modern-looking structure with honey-colored wood siding. Picture windows ran the length of the home's face. They started just a foot or so under the overhang of the roof and ended somewhere below the line of hedges that marched uniformly along the front of the wood edifice. A dark, heavy looking oak door marked the entryway that was partially hidden in an alcove of the natural stone porch. Along the edge of the property line grew a thick grove of oak trees that obscured the house from passerby. The rustic setting left visitors with the impression that they were in a secluded woodland retreat when in reality, the house was less than a half-mile off the road.
