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 “Do we really have to live in the middle of nowhere?” my little brother Zach whined.

I glanced at the driver, my sister Hannah, whose eyes were fixed on the road. “Yes, Zach. This is the best place for us to live. It’s dad’s hometown.”

“Mom’s hometown is better,” my twin brother Emmett chipped in.

My mother had recently killed by Jonathan Smith, the man who replaced my father at work. She had bitten his jugular, making him bleed to death. The police said she killed him first and released that information to the public. That marked the beginning of our suffering.

People had kept leaving trashy notes and letters in our mailbox, writing mean words on our walls, shouting them to us whenever we left home. These included biters, zombies, dogs, wolves, and vampires, among others.

It was as if they had forgotten that Jonathan had kidnapped my mother for a month. The same people who had sympathized and helped us look for her were now shunning us. But in all honesty, sometimes I thought it was crazy that mother had managed to kill him that way. She must have been extremely desperate.

Some people sympathized, especially the women who were close to my mother. One of them, Mrs. Calling, had helped us deal with lawyers, rent out our house, and escape out of the town. Now we were on our way to dad’s hometown. Hannah said she was going to create dad’s dream project. She was going to renovate the family resort. We needed to invest money. Since she was our legal guardian, we had no choice but to obey.

“We have no choice,” Hannah said. “Maybe it won’t be that bad. I’ve lived there, and it was quite nice. Besides, after everything we have been through, we need some peace and quiet.”

It was pointless trying to reason with her at that moment, so I turned to my phone. Zach and Emmett talked about a game that had recently been released. Why a 17-year-old was playing the same game with a 5-year-old was beyond my understanding.

I stared out of the window, watching physical features as we drove by them, my mind lost in thought. I didn’t think I would ever get used to it. Not having a mother. My mother had always been there and was a big part of my life. She was always doing things for us, making us happy, sacrificing herself to where she barely rested. Even when Hannah begged her to hire help, she refused, although we could afford it. She said it was her job, so we had not bothered to learn so many things. I didn’t know how to do a lot of things.

I glanced at Hannah, who now had a frown on her face. Hannah was now stepping into mom’s shoes, but she wasn’t like mum. She couldn’t be the person mum was, so we were all trying to adjust. In the past week, she had taught all of us how to cook. It was hard, but we were trying since we did not have other options.

“We’re almost there,” Hannah said as we branched off the main highway. “We shall go check out the place now, but we’ll spend the night in a motel. Aunt Zora said there’s need for a lot of renovation.”

“Why don’t we sell it and start a different business?” I inquired. “It looks like no one lives in this place.”

“You spent little time with dad. You barely knew him, but I did. It was dad’s dream to reopen this resort, but he decided to first make money to provide for the family. He wanted to retire to this place. Dad scarified his dreams for ours. All I want is to make his dream come true. I know he’s watching us.”

“Why didn’t mum do it?”

“She didn’t want to, and she was busy raising all of you. Satisfied?”

“Everybody relax,” Emmett said, as a four story building came in to view. It was a top of a small hill.

“Is that it?” I asked.

Hannah nodded, a smile lighting up her face. Yes, that’s it. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?

“Uhhmm, beautiful is not the word I would use,” I said, staring at the building that direly needed a paint job.

“It’s nice and a great location, too. Good for business.”

“Was it functioning when you lived here?” I asked, suddenly curious about the place. My father had died five years when I was 12, so I still had memories of him. However, they were very few, because he was always busy. Back when they lived here, he had more time for himself and family. I was 4 and Hannah was 13 when they left.

Hannah shook her head as she took a turn and started driving uphill towards the house. “It had been closed a long back then.”

“Why?”

“It probably wasn’t making as much as expected. It made great grandpa broke, I guess.”

We all tumbled out of the car as soon as it stopped outside the building whose gate had been removed. The first thing I did was stretch myself. Having travelled for twelve hours, I needed it. We could have got a plane ticket, but Hannah was proving to be quite stingy. She said we needed to watch out for spending until we made proper budgets so that we didn’t waste away the money left for us.

“It’s locked,” Zach shouted. He had rushed to the door immediately.

“Here’s the key.” Hannah said, throwing it to Emmett who caught it. Emmett handed it to Zach, who went to open the door.

“Who is that?” I asked Hannah when I saw a man walking towards us. He was a middle-aged, tall, burly man with a stern face, the type you see in western movies. The tall boy following him stopped at the gatepost, leaning against it.

He was wearing all black and even from afar, I could see that he was really handsome. He just stood there, staring at us. I raised my eyebrows at him, wondering what his problem was. He continued to stare, as if daring me to do something.

“Hannah Colman,” he said, proffering his hand to my sister, who had stepped out of the car after seeing him.

“Raymond Morgenstern.”

“I saw a car headed this way, and I came to find out who it was.”

“It’s just us. These are my siblings, Emmett and Emilia.” She looked around. “Where is Zach?”

“He went inside.”

I think I saw a weird expression on Mr. Morgenstern’s face, but decided I must have imagined.

“Alone?” he asked.

“He’s five,” I said. “He’ll be okay.”

“Let’s go in. He can’t be alone in there.”

What’s wrong? Is the building haunted?

Zach, he called.

Over here,” we heard Zach’s voice. Mr. Morgenstern rushed to the room where he was in. Zach was staring at a cluster of bones in one corner of the room. “What bones are these?”

“Come on. You will come back tomorrow after a clean-up has been done.”

“Did some people get in?”

“Some windows are broken so people and animals can enter. but don’t worry, leave the keys with me and I will have it worked on.”

“Those bones,” Zach said.

“Lets’ go,” Mr. Morgenstern said, practically shoving us outside. I couldn’t help but think there was something wrong with the house.

Hannah seemed mildly uncomfortable, Zach curious while Emmett was busy scrolling through his twitter feed.

The strange boy was still standing where we had left him.

“Who is that?” I asked.

“Bradley Lightwood, local teenager.” Mr. Morgenstern said. “I will see you all tomorrow.”

We piled into the car while Hannah and he  had a chat.

“That was strange,” I said.

“They looked like human bones,” Zach said.

There are so many animals in these words, Zach. I don’t think they were human bones.

But they were. I think an animal ate a person in there.

Okay, Zach. I said, feeling unexplainable chill. I was already scared, and his theories did not seem like they would calm me down. “We shall know more soon enough. Let’ just hope the motel is good.”

“Mr. Morgenstern knows something.”

“Mr. Morgenstern is the mayor, and he was dad’s friend. He would let me know if there was a need for worry. You are all just tired. Get some rest. Things will be clearer tomorrow.”

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