I put the box thing under my oversized shirt and held it together with my pants. I uncapped the keg and poured an ample amount in the small secret room, then I made a trail up the basement stairs. After checking to make sure there were no movements, I made a line out to the kitchen where I grabbed a box of matches and unlocked the backdoor and made a line out to his car. I'd wanted to burn that stupid bright red Audi since the moment I saw it. He refused to buy mum a car even though she was always running errands both for the house and for him and also when I'd asked him for a car for school-even a used one, he'd refused! Then the next day after my birthday-which he failed to get me a gift for-he shows up with a car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I poured as much as possible gasoline on it and moved away from the car. When I was as far away as possible, I rolled up a wad of newspaper and lit it on fire then threw it at the car.
BOOM! went my dad's favourite thing in the world. Such a beautiful, magnificent array of colours erupted into the sky, the force of it throwing me into the trashcan. The fall wasn't enough to wipe off my awed smile. If I'd known it would be such a pretty sight, I would have set it on fire a long time ago. People gave cries of alarm and a siren blared somewhere in the house, I was betting the fire had my father's attention now. The fire was already engulfing the house- at least it looked that way from outside but I knew it wouldn't do any real damage. We had a fire extinguisher on the second floor-dad was very paranoid- plus I'd only poured gasoline on the basement and there was a fire station within the community and they'd be here in less than three minutes. Right on cue, their alarm blared in the distance. That was my cue to get the heck out of dodge. I jogged away and left my father to explain the strange room in his basement to his fellow officers and the firefighters, but most importantly, why he was buck naked with another woman in his matrimonial home.
I was almost at the gate that separated our community from the outside world when I heard a car beeping behind me. I almost dashed into the bush for fear of dad somehow figuring it was me and chasing me down. It turned out to be a silver compact Honda that dad would never be caught dead in.
"Kiera? Where are you running off to?" A bemused Mrs Cook asked me from behind the wheel.
I exhaled loudly and opened her passenger door before she asked. Mrs cook was one of mum's church members. She was nice and a tad nosy, but mostly nice.
"I'm going to Dr Boyle's clinic, dad wanted me to tell him something. Could you give me a lift?" I flashed her a smile as I fastened my seatbelt, not giving her a chance to refuse.
"Oh. Okay. But why? And what are you wearing?" She asked, starting the car, thankfully.
"These are my comfort clothes."
"What happened dear? Why are you smiling like that?" She frowned at me.
"How Mrs cook? Happy, elated, joyfully?" Crazed? Admittedly, I felt a little crazed, and hyper. I wanted to run a million miles. I wanted to set the entire community on fire. There was a strange buzzing beneath my skin, an insatiable monster that just had its first taste of destruction and it wanted more.
'Give me more' it yelled. At the moment, I was hard pressed to find a reason not to. Dr Boyle's brown one story clinic came into view and I imagined the wide eyed look of horror on Dr Boyle's face to find it burning to the high heavens. I laughed with pure delight at the look of agony on his face.
"Oh my." An alarmed voice shrieked. I turned to find Mrs cook looking absolutely petrified.
The manic look on my face was probably enough to scare the living daylights out of the poor woman. I had no doubts that she was going to be giving my dad a call once she was away from here. The imagery of my dad answering the call buck naked with his house and car on fire snatched a deranged cackle from my throat.
Mrs Cook jumped once again.
"Thanks for the ride." I replied with a low, terrifying throaty chuckle and my disturbing smile. Mrs cook peeled away from the curb like the hounds of hell were after her.
Her fear delighted me. I wanted more of it. I strutted happily into the halls of Dr Boyle's clinic, wishing I had my black, beautiful wings to stretch out. Spying a brown bag out of the corner of my eye, I flashed the short human behind the table a smile that made her breath hitch and took the bag.
A flash of light across from me stole my attention and I was brought up short by what I saw. Reflecting in the glass back at me was a chubby, pale brunette with black otherworldly eyes. That would have been me in the mirror-obviously-but the malevolence in those black eyes and the way they flashed a brilliant red? Definitely not me. When a slow utterly deranged smile spread across a face that was mine, yet not, I was shocked into screaming.
What the hell? I shook myself to be rid of the strange sensation. I was hallucinating, that was all. The trauma of the last few days must have fucked my mind up somehow. This wasn't me. As a matter of fact, the last hour hadn't been me. Dad deserved what he got, sure, but I never would have entertained such a thought in a million years, let alone act on it.
Not the time. I reminded myself as I hurried away from the disturbing image in the mirror. It was nothing but a figment of my imagination anyway and I needed to get to mum before dad got here. Weird voices and faces that weren't mine would be analysed and dealt with at a later date. Mother was awake. That was good, and also bad. I'd hoped she would still be asleep when I got here, it would have made my work easier. "Mum!" I ran over to her and hugged her. Her eyes looked sallow and tired. She looked tired in ways no woman of her age should be tired. "Hey baby." Dad had said almost the same thing to his tramp earlier today. I cringed at the comparison. "What's wrong, love?" She asked worriedly, turning my face this way and that to get a better look at my face. "Nothing. Dad..." "Shh.. don't say anything. Your dad just lost his composure for a minute okay? He loves me, he loves us." "Really? Is this what love is to you?" I asked snidely. "You don't understand. This is a battle.
I woke to sunlight filtering in and yawned in the face of a tall, slim man in black suit. "Ma'am" He shook me gently, his voice warm and inviting. "Yes?" I groaned, yawning and stretching my arms in his face with all my strength. "The train is now in London. All passengers are disembarking." He related in a bland tone, his face betraying no emotion at my uncouth behavior. I sat up immediately and glanced around. Ours was a private car so there was no other person here besides mother, the conductor and myself, but I could here the sounds of people moving and talking. "What time is it?" "It's 6 o'clock in the morning ma'am." "Thank you." I murmured to the still standing conductor. He nodded his assent before turning smartly on his heel and exiting the car, leaving mother and I alone. "Where are we Kiera?" Mum gasped in a frightened voice, peering at everything as if they were made of poison. I groaned once again, working out the kinks in my limbs. Where had the hours gone? When
The fear choking me deprived me of the ability to scream. I staggered back from the display case, flailing about wildly until someone stopped from me from falling with their body.I whirled around to find my mother with tears in her eyes."I'm... I'm fine." I choked out, patting my arms to convince her and myself that I really didn't just catch on fire a second ago. I found several people holding their phones out and staring at us in morbid fascination."We need to leave here now." Mother whispered urgently, wiping the tears from her eyes. I nodded and we speed walked in one accord down the street.Glancing around after we cleared another block, I spied a small boutique, just like the man had discribed."C'mon mum. Time for a little shopping." I didn't wait for a reply as I entered the air-conditioned store. The clothes in here looked pricey but I had Frank's money to blow so why not do it on designer clothes.I shook myself, trying to get r
Evening was upon us once again. The journey to Llanwrtyd had taken the better part of two days. I was tired, cranky and weary. If I never took another bus or train again, it would be to soon. But somehow, I was inexplicably relieved. I'd been trying to gain entry into Llanwrtyd for centuries, each attempt a failure, but now, just when I was beginning to believe that the guardians had really been successful, I found my ticket in. I was brought up short by the thought that was mine, yet not. The voice had spoken in my head, but the thoughts were definitely not mine. I was nineteen years old and I never even knew Llanwrtyd existed before today. Why would I have spent centuries trying to come here? "Okay, I have had enough now." Mum yelled right in the middle of the street. Thankfully, there was no one to hear her. "That signs says we are in Llanwrtyd, Wales. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wales is in the United kingdom. We are in another continent!" She roa
"Okay. Here is Gracie's BnB." He announced a small eternity later. I exhaled gratefully and jumped away from the truck. I'd never met aan who spoke for long periods of time as Bill. He didn't even care that we weren't contributing to the conversation.We knew literally everything about Bill. From the size of his ranch, to the names of his children, to that of his parents and his favourite spots in Llanwrtyd but the man didn't even know our first names.'Must love the sound of his voice' the voice piped up once again.The building he brought us to was antique and also charming. The wooden steps led to a brown balcony and a woman in a rocking chair and a black cat in her lap. She closed the book she was reading and clabbered to her feet."Guests! Oh, what a beautiful sight." She exclaimed happily, even clapping her hands together.'Sheesh, desperate much?' The voice sniped again.
She gaped at me but now that I've had the idea, it seemed like the best thing in the entire world. After I was able to force some food down mother's throat, I made her wear some new clothes. We would need a car and I needed to find something for mother to do during the days. Activity and interaction with other people were going to snap her out of her downtrodden mood.We braved Catwoman again and after an hour of her lectures on about all things Llanwrtyd, mum was able to get a word in edgewise and ask her for directions to a realtor."Looking to buy a house here? Oh, that's such wonderful news! I knew you were here to stay just by the looks on you." She gushed happily. "Why, my nephew works in the real estate office. I'm going to get you his phone number right now! You and I going to make truly wonderful neighbours." She prattled on but I'd tuned her out, frozen as I was in terror. Neighbors? I'd have to see her on a daily basis for the rest of my life?
"He swindled you!" She screeched."Why do you say that?" Mum wondered."That house is haunted. No one has been able to live there since Nana Baker died there over a hundred years ago.""Really?" I drawled in a bored voice. That was the latest excuse ever."Yes, really! No one has been able to live in that house longer than three nights. They either run away, run mad or die." She related with petrified eyes."Oh no." mother gasped, her eyes wide with fear. I was glad that she was being cognizant of her surroundings and taking part in conversations again, but I didn't want Mrs Clark scraing the daylights out of her."I doubt that's true mum. Ghosts don't exist.""It's not just ghosts but demons haunting that house. You think I'm making up tales?" Mrs Clark challenged dangerously.
Okay, so apparently, a new continent meant new rules. As I stared disconsolately at the old Victorian house three days later, I begrudgingly had to admit that the first rule was, NEVER ever go against Elsie Ballad. The building was ancient, asymmetrical and had so many creepy windows. It looked like a place where dreams went to die, not where future leaders were being molded. It felt like the gothic building was stolen from a medieval time.“You know, I'm legally considered an adult in this country. That means I can make decisions myself and shouldn't be coerced into going to school if I don't want to. Do you know that a sixteen year old can seek emancipation?”“Yes. But we’re not in America at the moment. We’re in Wales so the emancipation clause does not count. Also, I’m not forcing y