Ghost Eyes: The Old

Chapter 1, The Move

Putting the last of the boxes down on the ground, I sigh and look around. Thirty-four hours, fifteen boxes, and countless hours of arguing and negotiating, and we finally made it. My parents were probably the most stubborn they've ever been for the past few months. They've never had a problem with other family members moving away, so why were they so stuck on not letting me leave them? Well, whatever the reason was, they finally let it go and let me move. 

Standing inside the house in front of the entrance, I stood still taking in the new air. It felt...stagnant and hot? As soon as I realized this, it hit me.

"I forgot to call the repairman," I said in a monotone voice, slumping my shoulders. Before I even arrived, the realtor told me to call the repairman to fix the air conditioner. 

Grabbing my phone from my back pocket, I look up the closest repair shop. Although there's a good chance they're closed, I call anyway. I mean, they're about twenty minutes out and it's only 5:48. What could go wrong?

-

Everything went wrong. It turns out they were closed so I now have to sleep in a forty-year-old house without any air conditioning. While unpacking the bathroom, I also found out that I forgot my toothbrush! I love this house so far, but nearly this whole time I've been here almost everything has taken a twist. But, I would rather this house topple down on top of me than have to sleep another night at my parents. Chuckling at my own remark, I look at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I smile at myself knowing that everything is going to be okay.

 I started staring at my own reflection, my eyes not being able to avoid themselves. I've always been very self-conscious of my eyes. I was born with sectoral heterochromia. My left eye is all brown, whilst my right is brown with the bottom right quarter a light blue. You'd think I'd be bullied for it through school, but I was actually complimented on it a lot. The reason I'm so self-conscious about it is because of my family. My aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, siblings, even my own parents treated me differently because of it. My aunts and uncles never wanted me around my young cousins, and my grandma looked at me with both disgust and fear in her eyes. Meanwhile, my parents were always near me in one way or another. They weren't necessarily careful with me, but more paranoid about my safety. If I was ever out with friends my mother would text me about every twenty minutes making me send her updates on where I was. My curfew was shorter than all of my siblings. Even my younger brother and sister who were two and three years younger had about two more hours of curfew compared to me. It made me feel isolated. So to cope with that isolation, I moved to a practically deserted town exactly twenty-four hours away from them. Weird way to fix that feeling, isn't it? 

It was the biggest problem my parents had. They barely even wanted me to move out of the house, so being half a country away from them was quite a stretch. They never told me why they didn't want me to leave, but you could tell they wanted to. It was the only thing I thought about driving all the way here, Well, that and the fact that I was finally leaving that place. I've lived in Warren, Rhode Island all my life, so moving from one small town to an even smaller town really confused my family. I moved to Fairmount, North Dakota. Going from a population of about ten-thousand-five-hundred to three-fifty was a bit of a surprise to my parents. They were a little more lenient once they found out how small the town was and how my older brother lived just about fifteen miles away from where I would be living. My brother, Mike, is the second oldest of seven in the family. I'm the fifth. I was always closest to Mike. He's probably the most caring of the older siblings. My oldest brother, Nathan, pretty much cut himself off from the family once my third oldest brother died. His name was Garret. He was the type to give you all he had to make sure you were happy. My whole family, including me, were all shocked to the core when my parents found him dead in his bed. He died about a year and a half ago. It was the last reason I knew I had to get out of that house. He died "in his sleep" is what my parents told everyone. I know he didn't though. I saw what he looked like.

Becoming entranced in my own thought, I snap back to reality when I notice that the mirror wasn't looking back at me the right way. Although as soon as I notice this, it seems to return back to normal. I could've sworn the reflection was looking at only my right eye- BANG! Whipping my head left towards the bathroom door I hear a loud crash. Putting what was in my hands down on the counter, I rush to where the sound came from. 

Stopping from a full sprint, I stand in the middle of the kitchen. All the cupboards were open and every glass plate and cup were shattered to pieces on the ground. How did this even happen? Only the things that could break into pieces were on the ground. All that was left in the cupboards were plastic cups and paper plates. How did only select dishes break? Things like this have been happening ever since I left behind Warren. The gas tank being empty even though I filled it not less than ten minutes ago, the rearview mirror becoming foggy even though there was no humidity in the air at all, and losing my hotel keycard even when it was JUST in my back pocket. This was definitely the most severe out of everything though. Grabbing the broom I start to sweep up all the broken glasses and plates. Once everything was all cleaned up, I start checking the cupboards for breaks. I even found my level to try and see if the cupboards were slanted downwards, but everything checked out. There wasn't even a scratch on the inside of the cupboards. The only thing that was suspicious was the hinges. They looked as if they were about to fall off at any moment. They didn't look like they were just worn down after being opened so many times, it looked more like as if something whipped them open hard enough to try and rip it off. I'll need to go to town for a lot of things tomorrow so I add cupboard hinges to the list. Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I realize I'll need to add plates and cups to the list also. I decide I've had enough action for one day and start turning all the lights in the house off. Before heading up to my room, I grab the standing fan that I've been taking with me to all the rooms I've been in since the AC isn't working. Plugging the fan into the outlet near my bed, I feel grateful for the fact that at least the electricity still works. 

After turning the fan on, I head over to my suitcase and unzip it. I grab an old hand-me-down t-shirt and shorts to sleep in and clothes for tomorrow and zip my suitcase back up. After putting on my clothes for bed, I grab my outfit for tomorrow and set it on top of my dresser. While crawling into bed, I notice how exhausted I actually felt. Closing my eyes I think of what tomorrow will hold, hoping that the forks, spoons, and knives don't decide to rebel and stick themselves to the ceiling in the middle of the night.