Chapter 1 the girl in the white dress

The rain drops fell loudly on my window. I remember looking at the big fat raindrops slowly drip and zigzag down my window, I look around my room thinking that this would be the last time I would see it. Even though I liked my room because the furniture was perfectly clean which was how I liked it, my clothes were all hanged up and my shelves were nice and dusted, I had to go. Me and my family had to move away to a small city called Brookway.
Ever sense kindergarten I had lived in that house but now we were leaving. I was totally excited I hated it in my town, I got made fun of every day because of the color of my skin. It may sound weird but it wasn’t because I had black skin but it was because I had white skin. In a lot of movies its always seems the other way around but not in my town.
Everyday when I went to school people would always cuss at me in Spanish and I would always get sad. But the last year or so I had caught on to all the bad words and mean things they always say to me so at least then I knew what they were saying when they were making fun of me.
I would say I have a medium sized family. My parents, my little brother which is 4. My big sister who just turned 16 and me the 12 year old, I guess the middle child. The only good thing about the house I was living in before I moved was that I had my own room but other then that it was really small and boring, well it might of just been boring because I have lived here most of my life so everyone thinks that about their own houses but you know what I mean.
I pack up all my things and take one more glance at my room. Now it was empty and it didn’t seem like my room at all. I got mad thinking that who ever moved here would be living in my room and change it.
I dragged what seemed like my 1000 pounds of luggage down the hallway, I did it slowly on purpose, I wanted to remember my house even though I didn’t like it.
“Let me take those bags kiddo!” My dad came and jumped out of the corner which startled me.
“No, I got it don’t worry just make sure everything’s packed in the moving van.” I say and try to act strong as I pull my bags out the front door. But thanks to my luck of course I tripped and my bags burst open.
“loser!” My sister Laney gave me a shove and chuckled, but I didn’t know how she found everything funny.
I hurried and put everything back in my bag and out of anger slammed it in the truck. Everyone was already in the van except for me and my dad because well I was just slow and my dad was making sure we didn’t forget anything and taking a last look at the house before we left.
I jumped in what I liked to call “my seat” In the car.
“Are you sure you got everything, Katie?” She asked me and gave me that look.
“Yes!” I said annoyed. My little brother Luke was lucky he didn’t have to worry about packing he had everyone do everything for him, sometimes I feel like a little kid because I just want to stick my fat tongue out at him.
“All set!“ My dad was out of breath as he hopped in the car. We drove for a long time and it didn’t just seem like it. Brookway is so far away that it takes 3 days to get there.
The next day it was 9:00 p.m and my dad was tired of driving for two days straight so he pulled into a little motel.
I walked into the motel and it was fancier then it looked on the outside. A long red carpet fell straightly towards the check-in counter and there was blue patterned seats that tied the room all together.
My dad made my family wait on the blue chairs for about two minutes as he got everything ready. The lady sitting at the desk looked snobby and she was blonde to. When I Looked at her and smiled she rolled her eyes like she was disappointed in me. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes back.
My dad motioned his hands to follow him, he had the gold shiny keys in his hands that led us to the motel room. It was small and had two beds in it. My dad just dropped his self on the biggest bed and started snoring. My mom laughed and took of his shoes for him. I put my stuff down and we all went to bed to.
In the morning my dad was the first to wake up, he woke me up by getting a cup of water from the bathroom and splashing it on our faces. Laney screamed and pretty much pushed and slapped my dad out of anger. luke, my little brother just started crying and my mother hold him telling him it was okay, and me I just jumped because It scared me.
We all got back in the car and drove for a long time. It was dark outside and the stars were out. My dads eyes were already getting sleepy again and I watched him every second scared that we might get into a wreck. My mom kept trying to talk to him to keep him awake.
“So what does the house look like honey?” My mom said hitting my dad lightly.
“oh what- oh yeah um its called the “The Brookway mansion.” He coughed. My mom shook her head like she was actually listening to him.
All of a sudden my dad eyes opened wide and I asked him right away “What!? What’s wrong!?” I yelled he pushed the brakes and we slid to a stop. “what is the matter!?” my mom yelled out of anger and fear. “stay here…” He said. I was thinking that it wasn’t that big of a deal because he always dramatizes about everything, however my mom thought the opposite she was scared.
“What! Oh my gosh! Why can’t we just hurry up and get to the house already mom! Ugh!” My sister complained loudly and gave my mom a nasty look.
I jumped into my dads seat and rolled down the window so I could see what the fuss was about.
“Katie! Sit down he said he’ll take care of it!” My mom was getting annoyed now. I ignored her and kept looking.
My dad slowly was walking towards something on the side of the road. All the cars on the roads were honking loudly at us and they just went around are car but they were angry and cussing at us to get out of the road anyways.
I didn’t see anything just my dads feared face. It looked like he was staring at something but nothing was there to look at, he was talking to something…but nothing was there.
“Bobby!!!” My mom screamed out the window. “Hurry up, what is the matter, tell me!” She screamed he walked over to my mom and was trying to have one of those “grown-up” talks where they kind of whisper but you can here them anyways.
“ Jane! You honestly couldn’t see that!?” He said harshly

Chapter 2 the music box

“See what Bob!” She yelled with anger. “That girl she was bloody…she was wearing a white dress and it was bloody to, she had straight blond hair with a red bow she was looking down crying blood!” he said louder so now all of us kids were listening to.
“Bob just get in.” My mom said. I jumped to the back seat. “I seen her! Jane I really did! But she ran away into the forest and disappeared slowly…” My dad looked off into the distance. “Okay how about we talk about this later I just want to get to our house, please Bob.” My mom said. My dad nodded and step on the petal.
I was still confused about all of this but I knew something weird was going on with my dad and I wanted to know what it was.
We soon entered Brookway. Nobody was out at this hour but I still could tell that this town was peaceful and happy. We crossed a bridge that had green ivy on it, we passed a neighborhood that led us to our neighborhood, it was a small town that we all could get use to. As we were pulling in the huge driveway I looked at the yard, it was so pretty with red rose bushes and freshly cut grass. There was a wooden fence that held our went around the whole house. I also noticed there was a little apple tree on the left side of the house closest to the road.
I grabbed all my bags and started going towards the house as fast as I could. I looked at the house and it wasn’t as pretty as the yard because it was really old, grayish and rusty, but it was really big, I could see like a million windows just where I was standing.
“Looks like a…mansion.” Laney plainly said.
“Well it is…Look over there.” My dad pointed to a sign in our yard it was old like the house and said “The Brookway mansion.”
I had to wait for my dad to unlock the door before I could step in the house. I already good see the long stained yellow stairs that wrapped around really high off the ground to a hallway upstairs. I also could see the huge kitchen and living room. The carpets were a dark red color like blood. I ran up the stairs and up those stairs was another set of stairs leading to another hallway.
“Wow!” Luke yelled behind me. I got scared because I didn’t know he was following me the whole time.
I went up the final set of stairs (The 4th set) and it led me to on room at the top of the house, right away I said “My room.” As I slammed and locked the door so Luke and Laney couldn’t get in and claim it.
The room had two large windows with violet curtains, the movers left a large bed and a dresser. The bed had a white blanket with yellow lace at the ends. The dresser was real wood.
I lied my stuff on the floor and started putting my stuff in the dresser and put a couple trinkets on the shelf’s in the room. I carried my empty bags down the flights of stairs.
“There you are! I thought I lost you!” My mom said. She was in the kitchen. “I was looking at all the rooms and I found the room that I wanted.” I replied.
“Oh, well good I hope your dad found me and him a good room.” She said.
“Uh mom do you know where the garage is, so I could set these empty duffel bags in side”? I asked.
“Actually yes out this door.” She pointed to a door at the end of the kitchen it was wooden like my dresser.
I opened the door and then I could see the huge garage. Immediately I sneezed because of all the dust. Even the garage had the carpet that was in the house. It was so dark in there because the light bulb was very dim.
I tried walking over to a metal shelf where I could set the bags but I tripped over something hard. “Uh!” I stumbled to the floor but caught my self before I fell all the way. What’s this? I asked my self.
I opened a mysterious music box the had a bunch of old yellow pages folded in half, like a bunch of old letter. I opened up the first piece of paper it said…
December 2 ,1882

My dearest Annie,
How have you and your family been doing? I’ve heard that you little brother was born a week ago, exciting, huh? I hope I could come visit you soon to see the new baby before you move…but I simply won’t have enough time to get to your house. I Hope you understand I do truly love and understand you. Your truest best friend,
Angie


I sat and just starred at the paper, either this box was suppose to be hidden some where and it was from the 1800’s, and no one ever found it in this garage or the last person who lived here was the girl from the letter. My fist instinct was to run and show it to my parents but this was on of those things where you keep it to your self, I through the bags on the shelf and took the mysterious box, if I brought it to my room I could examine it better.
I put it behind my back as I ran up to my room, I locked my door again and turned on the light so I could see what the box really looked like.
The box was a light apple green with a weird design with squiggly lines on the top, I discovered that it wasn’t only a box it was a music box on the side it had a wooden triangular switch, I twisted it and it started playing soft lullaby music. I opened the box again and inside had soft fur that held all the letters.
I decided that I wasn’t going to read them all at one time, I was going to save them for later. I put the music box inside my under wear drawer thinking that no one would want to look in there or expect a music box to be in there. Right as I shut my dresser drawer my dad knocked/banged on the door.
I unlocked the door.
“Why was your door locked?” My dad asked curiously looking at the lock.
“Oh, well I was seeing if it worked because you know its really old.” I said. I knew he didn’t buy it all the way but I also knew it wasn’t that big of a deal.
“Oh dad speaking of Old! Do you know who lived here last, you know the old owners before us?” I asked quickly.
“Well no, this house has been empty for more then a 100 years Katie, why?” He answered. My stomach dropped.
“Well, just curious.” I said looking off into the distance.
“oh what I came in to tell you was that the moving truck will be coming tomorrow to deliver all the furniture including all your stuff from your room----but from the looks of it, looks like you already have a bed which is good because Laney and Luke already claimed the couches.” He laughed.

chapter 3 knock knock whos there...

I woke up the next morning feeling like I only got 30 minutes of sleep because of all the moving yesterday and everything exciting that happened. I pushed open my curtains and looked outside It would take some time to get use to the place, I still wanted to open my window and see the long soft grass and the little pond I use to see at our old place.
I went down stairs to the kitchen nobody was awake yet and the house felt quite and lonely so I decided to start cutting out stuff from magazines so I could decorate my walls with a collage.
I started cutting a bunch of pictures, when suddenly somebody knocked on my door. I hopped out of my chair to check the front door but I looked around for a minute, and nobody was there. I sat back down and started looking at the magazines again. Then I heard the same knocking I thought sense it sounded like it was coming from the garage maybe somebody was locked down there, like Luke, or he didn’t know how to unlock the door yet.
I got up and open the garage door, the lights were off and there was no sign of Luke. I sighed loudly, but just as I was about to close the door I hear laughing coming from the garage and footsteps running in the garage.
“Luke come out! I opened the door, and if you don’t come right now I’m not coming back to unlock it for you again no matter how hard you scream!” I yelled.
I rolled my eyes and turned on the light, “Luke, come on come out its to early to play hide-n-seek!” I whispered. I heard moving from behind a pile of old cardboard boxes.
“Gotcha!” I said. I tried slowly walking over to the sound, after I took one step the garage door slammed shut and the light bulb went out.
I thought that Luke had tricked me and ran away. I couldn’t see anything and I was afraid to move. I still could here noises but if Luke wasn’t in here anymore then what was the sound, rats?
I thought to my self that it was just rats that I was afraid of but then I started thinking about what My dad saw the other day, my heart stopped and I could feel my self sweating. What if the little girl he saw followed us to the house!
I tried feeling my way to the door, I had to leave to right away I was so scared I thought I was going to die or at least faint in reality. I yanked at the door but It wouldn’t open like somebody was holding it shut and they were playing a evil game with me.
“Laney! Luke! Its not funny stop it! Now!” I screamed in anger and I cried. I was sobbing I turned around and suddenly a bright yellow light shinned towards the sound I heard earlier. Shaking, I slowly walked over to the light, which was behind the boxes. I turned the corner and looked behind the boxes. I saw her. The girl in the white dress. She was just as dad had described her but this time she was sitting down on her knee’s.
She looked up at me and she had black holes as eyes! She didn’t have any eyes it was just black holes! I think then I screamed louder then I have in my whole life. All of a sudden It went dark again I was screaming and sobbing I rushed to the door and pulled on it, but why I pulled on it someone opened it. I was so thankful that it was my father.
“What is the matter! Your all bloody what happened to you!!!!!!” My dad yelled and pulled me out of the garage I looked at my pajamas… I was all bloody.
“Dad, I seen her she was real, the girl in the white dress she looked at me but she didn’t have eyes she had black holes instead! I was so scared and she locked me in here in the dark and I kept screaming!!!” I cried and hugged him.
“I’m going to change clothes, dad please don’t tell mom about this…not right now.” I said.
“sorry I have to sweetie.” I could tell that my dad didn’t know what to say, I know that he wanted to say was, “ I believe you!” But he couldn’t say that because my mom would get angry at him because she thinks that were lying about all of this.
I went up stairs and changed as I went back to the kitchen.
“Okay calm down, how about we have warm coffee to wake up?” He motioned me to the table where he already had tea sitting with steam.
“why were you in the garage anyways Katie?” He asked with a sip of his tea.
“I- I heard knocking I thought It was Luke at first but then I knew it was something else!” I said.
“Why do you say that?” He asked.
“Because Luke’s not awake and I saw the girl! Duh!” I said.
“I did to sweetie but maybe were just imagining it…” He said.
“dad, seriously! How could you even say that I thought you would understand because you seen her too!” I yelled getting more furious.
“Katie! Be quite people are trying to sleep. I don’t believe in ghosts Katie. Now do you want me to tell Mom or not?” He acted like it was a joke.
“no, please don’t.” I tried to sound nice so he wouldn’t tell her.
“I won’t.” he said, he was starting to sound like a friend.
All of a sudden we heard a knock at the door but this time it was really a knock on the front door, My dad walked over to go check it.
“Must be the truck!” He said as he sat up. My dad paid somebody to deliver all of our stuff to our house.
He opened the door.
“Hello, sir. Brought your truck over for ya’ that will be 10$ for delivery.” The man at the door held out his hand waiting for money. My dad pulled out his wallet keep the change he said as he went outside the guy was already gone but left the moving truck.
“Go wake up everybody, we need to unpack.” Dad pushed me away. I ran up the stairs I was trying to hurry, I was still shaken up about what happened this morning.
My sisters room already had a sign on the door, it said “Don’t come in! Don’t even knock, go away!” I rolled my eyes and just walked in. she was sleeping.
“Laney!” I yelled in ear. She covered her ears with red fluffy pillows. “Laney! Wake up dad said!” I yelled again in her ear. She moaned and sat up.
“Gosh, okay! Why are you in my room!? Get out!” She screamed as I walked out. I walked down the hall to my parents room.
“mom, the moving trucks here.” as softly shook her and whispered in her ear. “Ok, honey.” She said.
After that I went to my brothers room and woke him up to . Finally everyone was outside putting there stuff in to there rooms.
In the moving truck was all the stuff I was waiting for, like: My little purple fuzzy sofa, my old bed and dresser, my jewelry box, a cardboard box with all my gadget type things like my Nintendo D.S, my makeup kit, my wooden chair the my grandma made me and some other things that I packed up.
After I got everything in my room I noticed there was two things left in the moving truck. My old dresser and bed.
“Dad where do I put these to since I already have one in my room?” I asked him.
“Uh just put it in the garage until we need it, Ill help you move it to the garage because there pretty heavy. we’ll probably use it later , ya know.” he carried a box inside the house.
My heart started pounding. Dad was acting like nothing happened in the garage, I was to afraid to go into the garage, at least he would be with me this time. And at least this time if the girl was there again I could show him that I wasn’t lying.
My dad opened the big garage door from outside the garage had a bunch of cardboard boxes and old things like last time. All of the dust went drifting outside.
“sure is dusty, ” Dad coughed. “Were going to have to be doing some serious cleaning in here.” He sighed.
“Dad! Seriously! The word is not “Were going to be cleaning in here, Its your going to be cleaning in here! And good luck with that.” I said as I started pulling one end of the bed.
“Katie we have to forget about what happened. I’m sure we were both just stressed and started tricking our minds into seeing things , its not that big of a deal.” Dad Lectured.
“Dad! How could I forget were not just seeing things its really there especially since we both seen it, I don’t know about you but I’m not going to lie or pretend I didn’t see anything in here!” So upset I left my dad to put the furniture in the garage by him self and ran into my room, Sometimes dad is cool, but sometimes I just hate him!
I opened my dresser drawer and saw the music box. I decided to read another letter in the box since I wasn’t doing anything anyways. So I grabbed another one of the yellow pages and started reading.


Dear Annie,
Here’s another letter for you. I know I will see you soon but its nice to get letters, right? By the way I got a new dress it has little pink flowers on it and its really cool I could show it to you when I come over. But I always like your dresses better because there so much prettier on you, you have the perfect blond elegant hair and I love your white dress that I made you last year its so cute, well I will get to talk to you soon girl see you soon.

Angie.


I was so scared Now I knew that this girl called Annie was the girl me and my dad saw. I just new it. She had blond hair and she’s always wearing a white dress. I still needed to read more letters to find out how she died and all the information that I could find out, or I could research the old owners of the house if I still had questions. I still needed more clues to solve the mystery.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 31.05.2012

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