The Darkness 19

Disclaimer: Every person depicted in the story is over 18.

My life was going perfectly. At the end of my first year of college, I was doing well in my classes. I have several excellent friends, and we have a lot of fun together. While I didn't have a steady boyfriend, large breasts for my frame, long legs, and slender figure turned many heads.

Jen, my younger sister, had just graduated from high school, and Steve, my big brother, was starting to mellow. All in all, things could not be going better; that was before the company my Dad worked for went through a reorganization. As a result, my Dad started traveling and working longer hours. It was hard on my Mom and us, but he still had a good-paying job, so we didn't complain too much.

I had just walked into the house when I heard my Dad calling from the kitchen.

"Tina, come in here, please."

I wondered what I had done. There was a party. No, that couldn't be it. Mom and Dad didn't care about my drinking as long as I was not driving or in the car with someone who had been. When I got into the kitchen, everyone was looking at me.

"What? I swear it wasn't me," I said with my best innocent face.

"You should know what you did, young lady," Mom told me with her stern Mom's face. I glanced at Dad, and he was also looking earnest.

Shit

, I thought,

what had I done

? I looked at my sister, trying to get a hint at what was going on when she started giggling. It wasn't long before Mom and Dad started laughing.

"You know it's hard to keep a straight face when you start giggling, Jen," Dad told her with a smile.

"Sorry I couldn't help myself. Did you see the look Tina had on her face?" Jen said, laughing now.

"Haha, very funny, not," I told all of them sitting in my spot at the table.

"Sorry, Tina, but it was kind of funny," Mom told me with a big grin on her face.

I looked at Steve, and he just shrugged his shoulders. He and I had the same sense of humor, and I guess he didn't think it was funny either.

"I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?" Dad asked, looking at us.

"Good news," Jen said

"Bad news," both Steve and I said at the same time. Steve and I looked at each other and smiled.

"Well, Jen was first. The good news is I have a new position, and it comes with a substantial raise." Dad paused to let that sink in.

Dad worked all the time, and it was nice that they had decided to recognize that. I glanced at my siblings and saw we all were happy for him.

"Now the bad news. Your Mom and I will be moving out of state for the new position." He held up his hand as we started to all talk at once.

"It was either take this position or lose my job completely, and we can't afford it. So now it's up to you to decide whether you want to live here for the next few months or go with us. I wish it were different, and I am just glad you have all graduated from high school."

I could see that both Mom and Dad were not happy about this, but there was no other way.

I looked at Dad; he always had the answers. "Is there a college where I can transfer and finish my degree?"

"Yes, we are very close to one of the best colleges in the area. With your grades, I don't see any issue transferring."

I sighed. "I guess I'll be coming with you guys. Unfortunately, I can't afford an apartment and college. " I told Dad, looking at Steve and Jen.

"I'm in the same boat as T," Jen said

Everyone was now looking at Steve. "What? I guess I can get a job and find a roommate to stay here," Steve said.

"Don't take this wrong, Steve, as it's important to finish your degree and make decent grades. I know I tried it when I was your age and ended up dropping out of school. However, you're just going into your junior year, so you can transfer if you want." Dad told him.

Steve looked off into space for a few minutes. Then, sighing, he said, "I don't want to leave, but I really can't see a way of affording to stay by myself. So I guess we all go."

Mom and Dad looked at each other, and both started smiling. I guess they didn't want us to leave the nest but were afraid that this move would split us all up. So with the decision made, we went our separate ways.

The next six weeks seemed to fly by with all the prepping for the move. Then, before I knew it, the day I had been dreading was here at last. We were leaving the house that we had grown up in and moving to South Carolina, where my Dad's new position was.

The movers had been here all day and had finally finished loading the truck full of boxes and furniture. They had left a few hours ago for our new house carrying almost everything I owned with them. While the movers had been loading up the truck, we spent most of the day cleaning up and packing up the cars.

We had just finished loading the last few things when Page showed up. She and I had been best friends since we were six months old, and she was crying now that I was leaving. Page lived down the block and was always over at our house. To an outside person, Page and I couldn't be more different. I was quiet and reserved, while she was very outgoing and popular. Her hair was long and almost a platinum blonde, while mine was about shoulder length and dark brown.

Page wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. We stayed like that for a long time; neither of us wanted to let the other go.

"It won't be that long, and you will be able to come and stay the summer with me," I told her.

"I know Tina. I just don't know what to do without you being here," she said, trying to smile but not being very successful at it.

"I saw the plane ticket my Mom bought for you to come out. It's only a few weeks away," I said. I knew that I would have to be the brave one; otherwise, we would both have a breakdown.

"Kids, we have to go," Mom yelled as she got into her car and started it.

"Sorry, Page, I have to go before I get into trouble. I will call you tonight after I get to the new house". I gave her one last hug and started towards the car.

"Wait, I have something for you," Page said. She pulled her necklace off and handed it to me. It was a flat pendant in the shape of a pentagram with a pattern etched in black on both sides.

"Page, I can't take that. Your grandmother gave that to you when you were two!" I told her as I handed it back to her.

"Yes, you can. Nana told me that it would keep the person who wore it safe. So I want you to have it. Besides, I know that you have always admired it," she said as she pressed it into my hand.

"Are you sure?" I asked, closing my fingers around the pendant.

"Yes, and you have to promise me that you won't take it off. Promise?" she insisted. Page tended to get focused on something and wouldn't let it go unless she got her way.

"Thanks, and I promise I won't take it off," I said as I fastened the necklace around my neck and gave her one last hug.

"Tina, Jen, Steven, I said it's time to go," my Mom yelled again.

"Shotgun," I yelled as I raced my sister to the car.

"It's not fair," she whined as I climbed into the front seat. "She always gets to sit upfront."

"She is older than you are, and I believe she called it first. Now buckle your belt so we can go." my Mom told her. I waved out the window to Page as Mom pulled out of the drive and followed Dad to the interstate.

This entire move seemed like a bad dream. Dad had been traveling back and forth for months, helping get the night shift fully staffed at his new job and looking for a new place for us to live. Finally, on his last trip out, he found a new real estate agent who had a listing out in the country that had been on the market for a long time. It was an older estate sitting on a large twenty-acre wooded lot with a small lake and a barn. The state conservation department owned the land around the house, so nothing could ever be built around us. Because of that, the house was very private, with no neighbors for miles around.

After touring the property, he and Mom talked and decided to buy the house. Their only concern was selling our home in Jacksonville since the housing market there was still recovering, and only a few people had even been by to view the house. However, the agent told us not to worry about it since her company had agents in Jacksonville who would help sell the house. A few weeks after my parents put in the offer on the new house, an older couple fell in love with ours and their all-cash proposal, our new mortgage was approved, and we started packing.

I didn't want to move anywhere. I had several friends I would miss dearly, and I was worried that I would not fit into the new school. On the other hand, my siblings had been excited to be moving. Since we were moving outside the city, my Dad told Steve he would buy him an older car to help Mom get us back and forth to school. He had been pestering Mom and Dad ever since he turned eighteen for a vehicle. My younger sister Jen thought this would be a big adventure, and maybe she could talk Mom and Dad into buying her a horse since we had a barn.

The trip to the new house was not too bad. When we pulled into the driveway, I noticed that the Realtor was waiting for us. I saw her sitting on the porch swing as we drove up. She hopped off the swing and walked down to the cars to greet us.

"I hope everyone enjoyed the trip and that you are excited about your new house," she said as she walked up to my Mom's car.

"Hi Beth, thanks for meeting us here," my Mom said as she shook hands with the young woman.

"Yes, it's very nice to finally meet the rest of you. I am sorry that Tom could not come out here himself, but he has been sick all week. I have the keys to the house along with your copy of the paperwork and can answer any questions you have about the house or the area," Beth said

Glancing at the dark house, Jen asked, "Is the house haunted?"

"Jen, you know better. How many times do I have to tell you that there is no such thing as haunted houses" Mom told her

Looking at the house, I understood why Jen had asked the question. The house's front porch had weathered to a dark gray, and the downspouts and eaves were overgrown with thick dark green ivy. In addition, the landscaping was overgrown and looked like it had been neglected for years.

"I don't think the house is haunted, dear," Beth said. I glanced at Beth and thought I saw an odd look on her face but was not sure if I was imagining things or not.

"It's just an old house. It was a retreat for a wealthy merchant named Donald Stokes in the early 1800s. He brought in artisans from all over the world and spent years building it."

Beth walked over to the large picture window next to the front porch. "Over the years, it has been passed down from one generation to another. It was owned by the same family until about a year ago when the last of them passed away. Since there was no will, the state put the house up for sale to cover the back taxes."

"Shall we go inside and look around your new house?" Beth asked, smiling.

We followed Beth into the house and stopped to admire the beautiful woodwork inside the house. The main hall had a white marble floor and dark mahogany decorated panels on the walls, off to the left of the foyer, a library with shelves filled with old books, and a large desk with a view of the front yard. There was a spiral staircase leading to the second floor, and as I walked over to it, I noticed carved dragons on each of the newel posts.

"As you will notice, the house came with the furniture Miss Stokes had here when she passed away. Some of the pieces are quite old, and I am sure that you can sell them easily if you don't want them."

"Why don't you kids go upstairs and pick out your bedrooms. The big one at the end of the hall belongs to your Dad and I, so don't get any ideas." Mom said as she and Beth moved into the kitchen.

We raced each other up the stairs and down the hall to look at the rooms. The first room was painted white and had an enormous canopy bed facing the window. There was a painting on the wall with a woman riding a large horse following several dogs chasing a fox. The picture seemed so real you could almost sense the fox's panic. There was a small walk-in closet connected to the Jack and Jill bathroom.

"Can I have this room?" Jen asked Steve and me. We smiled, knowing Jen loved horses and dogs.

"Sure, Jen, I don't mind," Steve said, rolling his eyes.

"Me either," I echoed as we headed for the door leaving Jen to move her things into her new room.

Steve and I moved to the room across the hall from Jen's room and walked in. This room was a little larger than the first and had a roll-top desk and bookcases in the sitting area. The bed had an elegant headboard with a complex geometric pattern that I knew Steve would like.

"This is perfect," Steve said as he pulled open the drawers to the desk. "When I start classes this fall, I can do my homework, and the light coming in is perfect for my drawing. Do you mind if I take this room?"

"I don't mind. The room looks like it was made for you," I said, knowing how much Steve liked to draw.

Leaving Steve, I went a little further down the hall to the last room on the right. As I opened the door, I noticed that all the furniture in this room was still covered in drop cloths.

"Great," I mumbled as I walked around the room. The room was dark with the heavy drapes pulled shut and the only light in the room coming from the twin sconces on the wall and the little light given off by the ceiling light at the end of the hall. I walked over to the drapes and pulled them open, and was surprised by the view I had.

The window had a perfect view of the small lake, barn, and forest behind the house. As I walked around the room, pulling the drop cloths off the furniture, I found a dressing table, a large desk, two dressers, and a sizable floor-length mirror. This room also had a large canopy bed with thick columns holding up the canopy.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning up our rooms and moving our stuff from the cars into them. After dinner, I called Page, and we talked for a little while before I told her I was tired and was going to bed.

**

I woke up late the next morning feeling sore all over and tired, almost like I had not gotten any sleep the night before. I got dressed and went downstairs to get something to eat for breakfast.

"Good morning, sleepy," my Mom said when I walked into the kitchen. "I hope that you didn't stay up all night talking to Page."

"We only talked for a little while before I told her I was going to bed. I just could not get comfortable and think I tossed and turned most of the night. Where is everyone at?"

"Your brother and sister were up a couple of hours ago and went with your Dad into town to get some things for me," my Mom told me. "They waited a little bit to see if you were going to get up, but I told them to let you sleep. Now that you are up, I need you to start cleaning the basement. The movers will be here later today, and we need to have someplace for them to put everything."

I sighed and grabbed a bowl of cereal, and started to eat. At the same time I was finishing up my breakfast, Mom headed downstairs to start cleaning. After I finished, I put my bowl in the sink and went to help her. I looked around the basement and noticed it was divided into four large rooms plus the utility room where the furnace was. Mom was in the room to the left of the stairs sweeping.

"Why don't you start in the other room," she said.

I made a face that caused her to smile and went into the next room to see what I needed to do. We spent the next hour cleaning up the basement and were just carrying the trash out when the doorbell rang.

"Go see who's at the door," Mom called as she carried the bags of trash out the back door. I noticed several men in moving uniforms standing outside the door.

"Hi miss, we have your furniture and boxes from your old house. Is your Mom or Dad here so they can show us where everything goes?" the man with the clipboard asked.

"Mom," I turned and yelled, "the moving guys are here."

For some reason, the guys were giving me the creeps. Then, I noticed that they were trying to disguise checking me out. All five of them looked to be in their mid-twenties.

"I am glad you guys made it. I was afraid that you would not be able to find the house," Mom said as she came up behind me.

"We have never had a house that we could not find," joked the man with the clipboard. "My name is Will," he said, extending his hand to my Mom.

"Glad to meet you," my Mom said as she shook hands with him.

"This is John, Dwayne, Don, and Kevin," he pointed out to the rest of his crew. "If you can just show us where you want things, we can start unloading the truck."

Mom and Will walked into the house while the rest of his crew went back to the truck and started opening it up. It took about 10 minutes to finish, with Will taking notes on his clipboard on where each room was. After they finished the walkthrough, he went out to the truck to talk to the movers. Shortly afterward, he came back carrying some boxes and tape. Next, the movers went through the house, putting broken-down boxes on the floor to avoid damaging them when they brought in our stuff.

"Most of the furniture is going into the basement," Will told the guys.

John and Don looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Will saw that I had noticed them, smiled at me, and told them to knock it off.

"We will need someone to stand at the door to point out where things go," Will said, looking at me.

"I guess I can do that," I said, pulling a chair next to the door so I had something to sit on. I pulled out my phone and started texting Page. After a few minutes, they began bringing boxes onto the porch, where I looked at what they had and told them which room to put the box in. Then, while the others were carrying the boxes, Will and John started bringing in the furniture.

"Can you show us where in the basement these go?" Will asked my Mom.

"Sure," she said as she led them to the basement door. After a few minutes, John came back up and went to the truck to grab some more. While Kevin and Don carried box after box for me to look at and tell them where they needed to go, Dwayne and John started taking the larger furniture downstairs. The rest of the morning went like this, with the guys taking turns between moving in boxes and furniture. Finally, I noticed that I had not seen my Mom or Will for a little while and got up to walk into the house.

"You can't leave your post, miss," Kevin told me, walking up to the porch with his arms loaded with boxes. "Someone has to be here to decide where the boxes go. If you leave, we may put something in the wrong room and have to come back. Our boss would not be thrilled," he said, smiling at me.

"I was just going to look for my Mom. I have not seen her in a while," I told him as I glanced around the front part of the house.

"I'm sure she is busy directing where the furniture goes," he told me as I turned back to look at him.

"I guess you are right. Now, what do you have there?" I asked, looking at the dolly of boxes he was pulling. The next hour was so jam-packed with the items moving off the truck into the house that I forgot about Mom.

About that time, the movers stopped and took a break sitting on the porch talking about the food at the diner they had stopped at for dinner last night. They asked me questions about school and what I thought about my new house. I excused myself and went into the kitchen to get a bottle of water. I noticed my Mom walking upstairs to the second floor as I walked past the stairs.

"Hi, Mom, do you want something to drink?" I asked from the bottom of the stairs.

"No, thank you, sweetie. I got something a little while ago," she told me with a grin.