Chapter 1: The House

Cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze; we all know the pattern of the flu. A freaking $25
co-pay at the doctors just for them to run a few tests and tell me that I have... the flu. Before I
went and wasted $25, I had diagnosed myself with something much more serious than the flu.
No, not cancer or diabetes, less serious than that. I was homesick. Plain and simple.
H-O-M-E-S-I-C-K. You see my family- my mom, my brother, and I- had moved away from her
2nd ex-husband, a great dog, and a large house with lots of land and trees that I loved and
that was home to me, but now I am stuck to move into the dark abiss of nothing but a small
house, no father figure, no pet, and no trees. That's right, it was not home for me, it was a
living hell hole, just a gay little houseand not a happy little home. The only up-side of the gay
house was that there was a lot of land. We moved into a small house with 2 bedrooms and 1
'n' a half bath, which means that I have to share a room with my mom, share a bathroom with
her and Cole, and NONE of my friends can stay over.
Yes, I am in Junior High School. Yes, I am nerdy and still have sleep-overs. Now
the basis on me.
I am pretty average for a Tennesse, country girl. I have brown hair, brown eyes, in
the 5 foot range. So, I would say I am pretty average. I am smart not Harvard smart but smart
and I don't wear a lot of makeup. I love horses, and I am envolved in 4-H. So, I am pretty
average for a Tennesseean. Okay, back to where we left off.
This house was crammed. It was cute on the outside like the Little House on the
Praire and that's what I thought about the first time I saw it, but it smelled terrible and needed
work on the inside. It was horrendous. But besides all of that, it was right next to a grave yard
and a large mansion, and not to mention if something bad happens I have no cell phone
service what-so-ever. It is like someone shut me off from the living alive and that turned me to
the living dead.
I am terribly afraid of everything ranging from closed spaces to the undead and it is
in everyone's human nature to at least believe some of that undead stuff. Even the really
religious Christians, that believe if you even stray from that specific denomination you're
automatically damned to hell, believe in vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and/or ghosts. I know this because back in the 16th century they held witch trials and undead hunts. You would think
that if they believed in God so much that they would trust Him not send down shit like that but
you know they ARE human.
So I was just waiting in the house sitting on the shitty couch with the damn flu
waiting while Cole and my mom unpack the kitchen stuff until I heard something out of the
ordinary. It was like a cross between a loud heart beat and a crow's caw and it came from
outside. It was very strange beacuse normally crows don't come around deserted crop fields
in the middle of fall-almost-winter and let alone have heartbeats that sound like an Indian
pounding a drum.
"Did you hear that?" I asked.
"Hear what?" Mom said, being supportive and trying to think that I wasn't delusional.
"Shut up, Jessica. You're just so fuc... freaking paranoid." Cole said, trying to be a good child
and not let mom hear him cuss while in the process of being a natural born jackass.
"Well, I see you haven't changed, Cole," I replied, "But I am being serious did you hear it. It
was a cross between a loud crow caw and the beating of a drum. I am going to check it out."
"Cover up good if you are going outside. You don't need to catch pneumonia too."
That was when it all started. About half way to the cemetery I started getting
whoozy, dizzy, the kind of feeling you get before you black out. I thought it was my medicine
wearing off from my previous dosage but I just took my last dosage of the day about 30
mintues ago and it clearly said on the pill bottles none of the symptoms were drowsiness. I
started feeling so terrible that I just gave up on my plan to see what that disturbing noise was,
so I turned right around and tried to walk toward the house but something was pulling me
back. I felt something on my shoulders, my ankles, and wrists. I tried to pull my hands free but
they were locked there, like they were handcuffed. I turned to look at what was holding and
pulling me. It was pale, very white, transparent even, like a spirit but it gave you a feeling of
death and despair. I thought dementor because I have been and most likely will always be
obsessed over Harry Potter.
".....HU....," I tried to scream for help but I couldn't breathe or speak. I thought for sure I was
going to die right there without telling anyone how much I loved them no matter how much it
seemed that I despised them. I thought to myself of all of the good times and said a quick
prayer. Right then is when I blacked out.