Chapter 1: The Move

"The first step toward getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are."

-Unknown-

***

“We almost arrive, girls! I hope you are as excited about our new home as I am.” The middle aged man squealed like a young girl as he drove on a single path to their new home in the forest area. The two young girls on the back could not be more disinterested, though the eldest, Sabrina, tried to remain positive.

“How exciting. I can’t wait for our new life, except now we’re going to live in the middle of nowhere.” Somehow her words ended up being more sarcastic than she had intended it to be. Her sister, Layla who was seated beside her simply shook her head and rolled her eyes teasingly at her sister’s attempt.

“We could have gone anywhere, but you chose this isolated area instead, I could almost hear the wolves howling from here.” Layla snuffed as she chewed on her bubblegum. Gregorius saw his daughters’ reaction and tried to brighten the mood by mentioning all the positive aspects of living around the area.

“Come on, girls, it could not be that bad. We’ll still have Wi-Fi and everything else. You get to wake up to the sound of birds and get more in touch with nature. The water here is also much cleaner compared to the city. We’ll be on our own, so no more nosy neighbors and we are pretty much free to do whatever we want."

"Yeah, but we'll have zero social life." Layla pouted.

"The town and markets are only an hour drive with this car so we can still head out during the weekend. You girls have taken online classes anyway so what difference does it make whether you are in city or here? You can still finish your education, everything’s great!” He tried to make it seems like a good thing but none of the girls were amused.

Their move was nearly a one-sided decision, none of the girls were actually excited about it, but after their mother’s passing due to leukemia, their father had been rather depressed and isolated himself from the world so much he started to neglect his work and as a result, their family’s financial circumstance worsened within months.

It had been a tough time for them as a family. In the end, he ended up going a bit crazy and made a decision to move to the mountain area, leaving behind their lavish life in the city. Of course, as normal human beings who enjoyed the comfort a city had to offer.

Both sisters refused the idea at first, but the expenses of living there was getting more expensive and considering their father’s state, it was only a matter of time before they ran out of money from rent and household bills alone. Suddenly moving became their only choice if they did not want to end up broke and miserable.

In the end he sold almost everything they had and bought a new villa in the mountain. There was no turning back from then on. Whether they liked it or not, they just had to deal with it.

Once they arrived, the girls were amazed by their new home. They thought it would be some crappy, creepy forest house they saw in horror movies, but the place was actually nicer than they had initially thought.

The house itself was bigger than their previous home in the city, of course, considering the location, it made perfect sense. The house was mostly made out of wood but it actually looked quite good for its age, there were a few windows to let fresh air and sunlight in, meaning the air circulation was good.

They did not need to worry about yard limit since the entire area pretty much belonged to them. The surrounding area was a bit unkept since the house had not been used for a while so it lacked proper maintenance, but they could always spend the first few days cleaning up and beautifying their home to make it look more livable.

The family also noticed that a few meters from their house, there was a medium sized lake connected to the other side of the forest. From afar, Sabrina who was standing near the lake noticed the sight of a large manor across the lake, it was still a bit far from them, but it was visible nonetheless.

Turns out we are not the only family crazy enough to reside in this area. She chuckled to herself. As she was enjoying the scenery, she heard her sister calling her, asking her help to bring the stuff inside the house. They did not really carry much with them since the salesperson stated that the house was fully furnished since the previous owner left without bringing anything so they thought of using the existing furniture and just carried the necessary items.

She walked to the car and grabbed two suitcases and carried them inside. As expected, the inside was not as terrible as they had thought it would be. The main walking room had a large space and there were two leather sofa, still intact right in the middle of the room with a brown coffee table in the middle.

The lamps used throughout the house were crystal chandelier type which they thought was quite fancy. There was no TV or anything but it did not matter since each of them had their own laptop and could just use it to watch anything. They would have the Wi-Fi installed in a few days and in the meantime they could just unpack and rewind after the long day on the road.

“Can you believe this? We actually don’t have to share a room anymore, maybe moving here was not such a bad thing, after all.” Layla who was two years younger than Sabrina was completely in awe as they arrived on the second floor, where their rooms would be at. The house had three bedrooms and three bathrooms in total so even though they still had to share the same bathroom, they finally had their own rooms, something they could never afford when they were still living in the city.

“I’m taking this one.” Layla had chosen her room which left Sabrina with the room right across her. Of course, her sister was not as generous to leave her with the bigger room. She took it for herself and left Sabrina with the smaller room. However, she did not care as much since they had similar furnishing anyway. The room was not grand like those rooms in fairy tales, but it was comfortable enough and way more clean than their old rooms, which were filled with useless craps they collected over the years.

As Sabrina dragged her suitcase inside the room, she noticed her room had a balcony facing the lake. She walked over and opened the sliding door to feel the wind gently swiped over her face. She could see a broader view of the lake and the forest from where she was standing.

Everything was much darker in shade when she looked at them from above. When she looked closer she could also spot a few forest animals around there, from birds to deer.

A small smile formed on her lips as she watched those animals running around, until she realized that they were not playing around, but instead, they were being chased by something. She narrowed her eyes to look more carefully and spotted something furry chasing the deer.

Wait, isn’t that, a wolf? She had only seen the animals from movies and a few documentaries but she could not believe she was seeing the real thing at the moment, although she was watching from a distance, she could already tell these wolves must be residing in the forest surrounding them.

Guess we need to be more careful. Hopefully, they’ll never come near us.

Then on the corner of her eyes, she saw the manor from before. The place was still small from where she was at due to the distance, but she could see it clearer. The place turned out to be much larger than what she had previously seen, it evoked her curiosity. From the back of her mind, she wondered what kind of people would reside inside the manor.

Judging from its appearance, the place held lives within it. She did not know whether or not she would be able to meet with the owners, but somehow, she had this feeling within her, like an intuition. Something about the manor attracted her. She could feel her own heart beating rapidly inside her chest for absolutely no reason.

As she stared into the manor, Sabrina had a feeling, that soon something would happen in her life. She did not know what the future would bring, but she would definitely find out about it soon.

From the corner of her eyes, she caught a glimpse of her mother's framed picture and walked over to grab it from the box. Gently, she put it on the shelf and stared at it for a few seconds. Her mother was drop-dead gorgeous.

In another scenario, she could have been a model. She had this striking appearance which would capture the attention of everyone around her. The woman was always full of mystery, no one really knew where she came from. She never seemed to mention her past or why she ended up marrying their father when she was definitely out of his league.

Everyone always told her she resembled her mother in beauty and grace. She could not see it at first, but as she looked at herself in the mirror and compared it with the picture, she indeed resembled her mother.

"Mother, I don't know what I'm supposed to do here, but I am sure you are watching over us right?" She smiled and kissed her mother's forehead before heading to bed.

Sabrina did not know it was not just her mother who was watching her from above and soon her own fate would unfold.