Chapter 1

September, 2011.

Moving day.

A day most people dreaded.

Having to leave the place they've called home for so long or leaving the place they've felt the safest.

It's a hard transition.

We were moving to Los Angeles, a place full of sun, high crime rate and mostly rotten or moldy food.....so I've heard.

My younger sister Violet was sat next to me, holding our family dog Hallie in her lap; she had always been anxious during car rides.

My dad was driving and my mom was in the passenger seat. Something you should know, I love my dad, but he's an asshole and because of his decisions, my parents marriage had been rocky. Especially following my dad's affair. They're trying to fix things so they had planned for us to move across California to "start fresh".

They hadn't told us this but we had heard Dad say it before we moved.

"The light is different out here. It's softer." my mom waved her hand around.

"It's called smog." Violet rolled her eyes, she was never very enthusiastic about anything. 

"You should be excited, Vi. You can stop smoking cigarettes and start taking deep breaths." my dad voiced, Violet had been in a bad group of friends before we left and she got into a habit of smoking cigarettes whenever she's stressed.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I said, I hadn't gone since we stopped at Chick-fil-A, it's not my fault.

"We're almost there."

"I need to go, Dad."

"It's a freeway, Maia. Really, where do you want me to pull over?" he chuckled, "Maybe the Honda next to us has a bathroom or something."

"Bet if Vi had to go you'd stop somewhere." I grumbled, I had always gotten the feeling she was the favourite.

"Really, Maia? You know that's not true." Mom gave me the look that said 'you know you're my favourite' and I scrunched my nose back.

"You know, I'm really glad we named you Maia instead of our second choice." my dad said from the front seat, that was a random thing to say?

"Which was?" Violet asked curious.

"Sunshine." my mom put her sunglasses back on and looked at the map she was holding in her hands.

"I could not picture you being named 'Sunshine'." Violet looked me up and down, I rolled my eyes as my dad chuckled and Violet mocked him.

"It's funny. Come on, you gotta admit it's funny." I saw my dad grab my mom's hand from the front seat. They were so cute, but I knew it wouldn't last a night.

The car was silent until we got to the house. We got out of the car and walked up the gravel path up to the front door. My dad rang the doorbell then voiced his unwanted thoughts "I love it. Don't you love it, hun?" 

"I mean, it looks even better than it did online." he wrapped an arm around my mom as she nodded while looking around.

"Yeah, it's-- it's interesting." she agreed, kinda.

"Great, so we're the Addams Family now?" Violet rolled her eyes as I took a good look at the house.

I personally liked the house. It was made out of brick with tons of windows and a big garden at the front, it was really like a haunted house.

"Hey! You girls, come here!" my dad waved us over since they were on the porch and we were standing by the driveway.

"What are you two doing?" mom asked us as she stood on the porch with Dad.

"Isn't this place amazing?", Dad put an arm around Violet as I went to my mom and leaned against her.

"I like it." I voiced as Violet just gave an "uh-huh".

The hinge creaked from behind us as a woman in a navy blue suit jacket and skirt opened the door. She was a rather old lady, dark hair in a bun, wrinkles and a warm ish smile.

"Welcome." she said flashing her teeth. We all smiled, of course Violet didn't because she wasn't the type, but I need a clean slate and moving to a different country; so I smiled back.

She ushered us into the house and began giving us a tour, it was an old looking house on the inside; furniture from centuries ago, paintings and artifacts you can't buy anymore, the wood looked like it held a lot of secrets and windows that seemed to not have been washed in ages.

"It's a classic L.A Victorian, built around 1920 by the doctor of the stars at the time. It's just fabulous. These are real Tiffany fixtures. As you can see, the previous owners really loved this place like a child. They restored everything."

"Gay?" my mom asked from behind her as my dad followed and Violet and I trailed behind.

"What do you think?" the lady scoffed and then chuckled, walking away to the kitchen.

"Tiffany. Wow." my dad whispered to me as they all walked to the kitchen, I brushed him off laughing a bit as he too went off the the kitchen, I looked around as I thought I saw someone but, nothing.

"Do you cook?" the lady asked walking into the now modernized kitchen.

"Viv is a great cook." my dad started, "I got her cooking lessons a few years ago, and she ended up teaching the teacher a few things."

"Cooking lessons. Romantic." the lady said as my parents walked around the island, my mom put Hallie down as she wandered out the kitchen to explore.

She stood by the window, "Aren't you a psychologist?"

"Psychiatrist." he corrected, "You said something on the phone about there being a study that I can use as a home office? I'm planning on seeing patients here so I can spend more time with the family."

"How refreshing." she said with a fake tone, I could tell she did not care at all about the details.

We then heard Hallie yapping from the back door, there must of been a squirrel or something.

"Maia, honey, would you go see where Hallie went?" mom turned to look at me with a smile that said 'go look for her.' 

I rolled my eyes but went out to the door where Hallie was stood, yapping at the window at nothing, "What are you yapping at?" I said as I walked toward her, she stopped as I set foot near the door.

I stood looking around for a moment, there was nothing. You couldn't even see out the windows due to them having a non-see-through effect.

I noticed a door underneath the staircase, I took a few steps and put my hand on the knob, jiggling it gently.

It wouldn't open so pulled it a little harder, it came open and I peeked in, making the door creak as I opened it wider.

There were stairs that led down to what seemed to be a basement. I took a few steps down the steps and breathed in the stench, it smelled terrible; as if someone had died.

The smell of blood and urine and feces filled my nose, the air was moist and there was a heavy feeling that surrounded the entire basement.

I took a few more steps until I reached the floor. Ignoring the smell, I walked into the dusty basement and looked around at all the rooms, not taking anymore steps.

There were rooms that led to different rooms and some spaces where there were just pipes and household equipment. I got bored so I turned around and walked back up the stairs, back to the kitchen where my parents were still talking with the realtor lady and Violet leaning against a side door looking bored.

"When I saw the pictures of the room online, I thought maybe you could use it as your music room." we all walked to the front living area of the house, my dad was talking about a music room.

"Are you a musician?" the lady looked at my mom.

"I was." she said proudly, looking up at the ceiling.

"Cellist. A very good one, in fact."

"Why did you quit?"

My mom was turned looking at the wallpaper, ignoring the realtors question, "This wallpaper is peeling over here. Looks like maybe there's a mural underneath it." she said picking at the wallpaper.

"The last owners probably covered it up. They were modernists." the lady looked slightly uncomfortable but continued, "Speaking of the last owners, full disclosure requires that I tell you about what happened to them." she nodded.

"Oh, God. They didn't die in here or anything, did they?" my mom turned around to listen to the lady tell the story.

"Yes, actually. Both of them. Murder-suicide. I sold them the house too. They were just the sweetest couple. You never know, I guess."

"Explains why it's half the price of every other house in the neighbourhood, I guess."

"I do have a very nice mid-century ranch, but it's in the valley, and you're going to get a third of the house for twice the price."

"Great." my dad mumbled, I was holding Hallie in my arms, listening intently from beside Violet.

"Where'd it happen?" I asked, if it happened in one spot then I'll just avoid it.

"The basement." she responded, my heart dropped. No wonder it smelled dank down there, but at least I could investigate more.

Before I had time to say anything else, Violet responded for me, "We'll take it."

My parents both turned their heads to look at her as if she was crazy for wanting a house that was basically a murder house.

So, after some discussing, even though our stuff was already supposed to come in, we had officially moved in.

Men were helping each other lift couches and dressers into the house as the realtor put up a sign that said 'SOLD'.

Guess this was it.

Mine and Violet's rooms were right beside each others, then the bathroom at the end. We put in all our stuff then we sat on Violet's bed and talked.

"It's just stupid how we start school tomorrow. I mean, can't we have some time to settle in before we have to deal with that?" she had a point though.

"I completely agree with you, but there's nothing we can do about it. It'll be fine, just go to your classes and don't be scared to walk alone, you don't need anybody."

"Sucks how I won't be with you until lunch. But hey, if I get beat up, it'll be one hell of a story." she chuckled, I was in 11th grade and she was in 10th, so we didn't have any of the same classes, at least I'd get to pass her in the hallway.

"I know, but it'll be okay. Get some sleep and finish unpacking." I laughed as she still had boxes stacked up in the corner; she rolled her eyes and pulled out her book.

"Goodnight, Violet." I said as I was closing the door.

"'Night, Maia." she said as her eyes wandered back down to her book.

I closed the door and didn't have to walk far to get to my room, I entered and finished unpacking the rest of my stuff. I picked out an outfit for tomorrow, brushed my teeth, put on comfy clothes and laid down.

The room was quiet, too quiet. I needed something, anything that would make a sound....but nothing.

So, I drifted off that night to the sound of my breathing and beating heart.

________________________________________________________________________________

I watched from around the corners the family that had just walked through the doors, two parents and two daughters. One looked older than the other, with dark brown hair and dark eyes, she was tall but shorter than me, she looked...perfect.

I followed them into the kitchen, then to down the hallway to the living room. I felt something with this family, as if they had a lot of problems and stuff they were going through, I could feel their energy as they walked past me.

I was drawn to the eldest, from what I could tell her name was Maia...I was attracted to her. I wanted to know everything about her, every detail of her life, everything she thought, everything she wants, what she likes, everything.

I wanted everything to do with her, I wanted to be with her every second of every day, I wanted her close to me, holding her tightly in my arms.

I wanted everything with her, including sexual things that I won't get into. She was the perfect definition of beautiful, she was everything to me, I wanted to protect her with everything in me. I would do anything for her, I would die for her.

She went up to her room with her sister, their rooms were beside each others so I couldn't be too loud if something happened.

She went into the bathroom while I looked around her room, there were still boxes everywhere since she hadn't unpacked yet, I looked around at some of the stuff she did have lying around; like a book on true crime and murder mysteries.

I looked around a bit more before she came back out of the bathroom and changed into something else, wow. Her tits were amazing, she was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen.

Truly, I wanted her on top of me....no, I can't think about that because I need to focus on her...I'll jerk off to her later though.

I sat on a chair at the end of her bed and watched her chest go up and down as she slept. Her mind was clear, she wasn't stressed, she wasn't anxious, she was just clear.

I knew I had to make her mine, I didn't know how, I didn't know when, but I knew she was going to be mine and only mine.

If not, I'd wait. I'll wait forever if I have to.