Town

"Welcome to Hammond." My older sister Sara reads the huge sign on the road saying the name of this town. It was written in yellow letters and on a huge brown board.

I rolled my eyes to myself and deigned to look out the window. There was fog in the forest, I was sure that when I got out of the car it would be cold.  Here I did not feel because I was with the heating.

"It's hard to leave everything overnight, Lev, but I'm sure we can do it. We are a team and we are looking for the best for both of us" my sister took care of me when I was ten and she was just 16. My parents had died in a car accident and it had been the worst year of all. I mean, I was little when all that happened but I managed to remember certain things.

"I know, Sara." I rubbed my temple. She had said that she had been transferred to Hammond Hospital, my sister was a nurse, and until recently she had graduated. However, she had to go where they sent her. As we approached the town I managed to see the movies, I managed to see the houses, the cars, the traffic lights, the restaurants; but I also looked at a more or less large high school in the distance. It will be where I'll go to study.

"The house I rented is a few meters from here," she tells me, "near the path that leads to the lake."

"There is a lake? —I was surprised, this place seemed cold to me, I was sure that smoke would come out of my mouth every time I spoke. What's more, as we were close to December, in a few more weeks it would start to snow. It was early October, so what you were looking at were scary posters and houses decorated with Halloween things. It seemed to me a town where witchcraft was practiced and there were mystical things.

"That's right, I knew you'd like it. The lake is perhaps a few more meters from the house."

At least something good had come out of all this. Sara arrives at a two-story white house and parks. As she said, there was a path that led to the center of the forest a few meters away, there was also a small sign that said "lake".

"We arrived."

I noticed that there were three girls playing rope in the neighboring house, they wore white dresses and two pigtails in their hair. They were singing something. I got out of the car and closed the door behind me.

"1, 2, 3 don't go out after sunset; 1, 2, 3 or the wolf is going to eat you" the girls sang. It seemed to me that it was not a suitable song for girls of their age, did they even know what it meant? "The night brings the full moon and with it comes sorrows," they continued singing as one girl jumped on the rope and the other two moved it. But suddenly they stopped and stared at me.

I blinked several times not knowing what to do, that's where I realized that they were triplets. They were identical. I raised my hand and greeted them, smiling a little at them. But they did not stop being serious for a few seconds and then they went back to playing and singing that same song. "Pay attention to your mother and don't go beyond."

Beyond?

How weird.

"Lev, help me with the suitcases please," Sara asks, she opened the trunk of the car and took two large suitcases home. I went to the trunk and took out a suitcase, but when I put it on the floor the noise of cars made me look towards the road. Three jeep-style cars were coming there, they were black and the windows were dark. It felt like they went by in slow motion, but my gaze had stayed on the first car, on the driver's seat to be exact. I felt the driver look at me too. And it was a strange feeling.

When the cars passed and entered the road that says "lake" I took the suitcase again and went inside the house.

"Your room is at the last door," Sara tells me, going down the stairs and out of the house in the direction of the car. She will surely bring more suitcases. The living room was large, there was a television near a window overlooking the forest. There were two sofas in front; there was a small table in the middle too. The stairs were a few feet in front of the front door and to my right, near the stairs, was a door that I suppose led to the kitchen.

I climbed the stairs carefully and walked down the hall to the last door. I went into what was supposed to be my room and put my bags on the floor. It was more or less big. There was a bed in the middle, a nightstand near the bed; there was a desk near the window overlooking the forest, there was a mirror near a door which I assume was the bathroom. And a more or less large closet in one corner.

The room was not too bad. But I would miss mine. I would miss my house, my friends, my home. However, now I would have to get used to this new life. To live in a town so unknown to me and so rare. Because Hammond was weird to begin with: those girls knew a more or less creepy song.

I walked to the window and looked out into the forest. From here you could see the path that the cars of a few minutes ago had taken to "the lake" and further away you could see the lake. I smiled to myself because from my window I could see the lake in the distance. The road turned before reaching the lake, but I could not continue seeing it because the trees prevented me. The place was beautiful, my sight was beautiful. The desk near the window was empty, so I moved it and put it in front of the window so that when I have to write I am seeing this beautiful view. It will give me inspiration for my books. I like to write, but I leaned more into the fantasy and mystery genres. They caught my attention. I had several books written but never published them. I had always been shy. Maybe I'll publish them one day but under a different pseudonym than my name.

"Lev, we have to cook!" I heard my sister shout out downstairs. I rolled my eyes and left my room. I went downstairs and into the kitchen. The kitchen was large, it had a breakfast bar, four chairs, and everything else in a kitchen. "They just called me from the hospital," Sara tells me, opting for a more serious tone. "They want me to start today and do the night shift."

"It's a joke?" I crossed my arms. "It's the first night here and you'll leave me alone."

Great, I didn't know about this place and she would leave me alone at night. To be honest, this town seemed creepy to me.

"I don't have a choice," she says. "It's work, Lev." She takes some eggs out of the box we brought.

"Okay," I agreed later. "It's just that this place scares me."

"Lev, you're the bravest person I've ever met, I know you'll be fine. Also, we have neighbors." Sara takes out a frying pan and puts it in the kitchen.

"What does it have that we have neighbors?" I asked.

"That if something happens they can help you, don't you think?"

I was not sure that if something happens my neighbors can help me. I had this feeling that people here were strange and that they wouldn't get in trouble for anyone else. I used to be very intuitive and my intuition never failed.

"Okay, go easy. Can I help you cook?" I walked over to her, took the matches, and lit the kitchen.

"Sure, cook five eggs first. I'll go get the other food from the car." Sara comes out of the kitchen, I started cooking the five scrambled eggs. Deep down I was a little scared because I would be left alone in this huge house, I had a feeling that it would not go well at all. Why? In first because we were on Halloween and in second, well, the kids today were very naughty and I knew they would try to scare me to welcome me.

Or so I thought.

I stopped thinking crazy things and just started cooking the eggs.