chapter 1

~ Michelle's Pov~

I wonder what it'll be like living here. I've never been outside of America before, so it's a little scary not knowing.

We just moved into the Aubrey Beardsley house on 75 Vauxhall bridge Rd.  My mom told me it's about 6 minutes away from Buckingham palace, which is pretty cool.

And there are some restaurants not too far from here, so it's pretty convenient.

The house isn't too bad either. It looks a little old, and could use a new coat of paint, but it's still a nice place.

"Michelle, help carry boxes in. You're the reason we moved after all. The least you could do is help us." I heard Connor, my younger brother, say, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, so you can nag me about it," I started, "but you can't nag your twin brother who does nothing but play on his phone all of the time?"I ask, a little annoyed.

Ever since Caleb, Connor's twin, got his phone, he's been on it like it's his last day and he just discovered the thing. They're at that annoying age where they start to get lazier. 10. I know I got lazier at that age.

"At least he..." He started, not thinking of what to say before saying it.

"Exactly!" I say triumphantly. "Shut up." He muttered under his breath as he walked away to get more boxes.

It's not that I won't help, I will. But when he complains about me not helping when I have been, but am taking a small break, or when I'm about to help, then it makes me not want to.

And you see, I'm kinda petty.

So I go to the big U- haul van, and grab a few small boxes for my room upstairs. Looking at Connor as I do it, knowing he was talking about big ones.

He doesn't think things through all the way, so he should have expected this. But he just glares  daggers at me as if he wasn't. He's also hot-headed. Instead of cowering under his gaze like he would like though, I just smirk at him. Trying to hold my laughter in. I skipped into the house, and up the steps, walking down the hall, looking for a room to claim as my own.

Then I come across a door painted a darkish pastel violet. I reach for the shiny brass door knob. As I open it, I am greeted with a sweet smell, like vanilla and strawberries. Which surprised me, considering no one has lived here for who knows how long.

The walls were a deep sea blue, which happened to be my favorite color, giving it a calming effect. They had white, thin lines painted all over them, giving them a marbled effect. The floor was made out of varnish wooden boards, making it look kind of rustic.

The room was quite spacious, giving plenty of room for all my stuff. There were two big windows with violet drapes to match the door. Letting in the colorful light of the sunset. I looked to a wall with two doors. One was wider than the other, so I figured that was the closet. I walked over to it, and opened it. I  was right, but the amount of space it had surprised me. It was a walk in. Sadly, between my dresser and this closet, I don't have enough clothes to fill them. But, I can change that real soon.

I then opened the second door, and found a bathroom. It wasn't real big, but it was medium. I turned on the lights to see that they were tinted the slightest blue. I'm really starting to like this room. There were cabinets both around the mirror and under the sink. The tub wasn't a built-in one. It was separate from the wall and floor, except for the water pipe.

I turned out the lights and looked around the room. I look to the opposite side, and see a box-like door with a handle. Not a knob, a handle. And I got a little excited.

Though this door wasn't the small size of a dumbwaiter seen on TV, it still looked like one. It was in the middle of the wall. I go over to it and pull on the handle, struggling to pull it open. When finally, I heard a scraping noise and the door flew up. I was ecstatic to see a rope. I pulled on it and heard an echo from the bottom of the shaft. So I kept pulling, and the scraping continued.

Soon, surely enough, I saw a box coming up. It was unusually heavy for an empty box. When the opening came into sight, I saw why It was so heavy.

"Caleb!!! Get out of there and off your phone! Help everyone unpack the boxes and furniture." I yelled at him."Shhhh, I'm about to win the game!" He said in a commanding, and slightly aggravated, tone. So, without him knowing, I take a picture of him in the dumbwaiter, on his phone." Hey Caleb," I say, "where does this go when it goes down?" I ask him."The kitchen. Now shhh!!!" I then send him back down to the kitchen, and text the picture with his location to my mom. Serves you right! If you get in trouble, it's your fault. I thought to myself.

Like I said, I'm petty.

I then went downstairs. Since it had been a long day, I just grabbed an air mattress, and brought it up to my new room. I plugged the air pump in, and hooked it up to the air mattress.

Then I flip the switch for it to turn on and start blowing up, when my stomach growled so loud, I thought the palace could hear it from here. So I went down to the kitchen leaving the mattress to blow up on it's own. I went into the kitchen to see if any edible stuff had been bought here yet. Much to my joy, I see a box of toaster strudels in the fridge. Cherry, my favorite!

So I snuck my mini fridge up to my room, and put the toaster strudels in the dumbwaiter, which was now empty, for me to get without anyone seeing. I went upstairs to my room and saw that the mattress was blown up fully, so I unplugged the pump, and put it aside. I plugged in the fridge, and then I went to the dumbwaiter and pulled up my heavenly goodness. I went over to my fridge and put it in, realizing I had nothing to cook them with. So, being the lazy couch potato I am, I got in the dumbwaiter and slowly let the rope drop me down. When I got to the kitchen, I opened the door, hopped out, got the toaster, hopped back in, and pulled myself back upstairs.

When I was back in my room, I went to the outlet that the fridge was plugged into and plugged the toaster up as well. I reached into the fridge got one of the heavenly confections, and popped it in the toaster. I put the icing aside. I was going to eat it separate from the toaster strudel. Call me weird if you want, but I like not the strudel and the icing on their own more than I like them together. Suddenly I realized that I didn't lock the door, so I hopped out of the comfy position I was in, and I ran to lock the door, almost too late. Right after I locked it, I heard the knob jiggling.

"Michelle, let me in!" It was Johnathan, my older brother. He was only five years older than me, and I was 13. Do the math. "Why?" I asked hesitantly. Johnathan is chill and everything, but he was annoying sometimes."I smell toaster strudels." Dang it! "So unless you want Caleb and Connor to bust down this door, I suggest you unlock it for me." One flaw in his plan. "The boys will smell it anyway. So what's the point of letting you in?" I got this. "No they won't." He said, sounding slightly amused. "What do you mean?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. "Their rooms are downstairs, so they won't smell it unless someone tells them and they come up here. So open. Up." Crap! He has me beat! "Ugh, fine!"I said in annoyance as I rolled my eyes.

I was going to anyways, but where's the fun in making it easy for him?

As soon as I unlocked the door, he came tumbling past me before I could make him stay in only one part of the room. He plopped down on my bed belly down and waved me over. What does this oaf want? "Get me a toaster strudel!" He commanded me, as if I would just do it no questions asked. And if it were anyone else, I wouldn't. But I did it anyways. Because no matter how we act in front of people, the truth is that we're as tight as two siblings can be. He has a secret no one knows, I keep it. I need someone to talk to, he's always there. "Since we don't have any plates unpacked, you have to be careful with the icing, so it won't drip on the floor or bed." I informed him. "Look in the dumb waiter. I put a peace offering in it." He says with a mouthful of strudel. Curious, I cautiously walk over to the dumbwaiter, and hesitantly open it. To my surprise, there's a sheet folded on top of a blanket, with a pillow covering them both. "Thank you!" I say with gratitude as I shoot a sincere grin towards him. "No problem." He said as he swallowed the last bit of strudel and stood up. That was fast.

Wait. "How did you know the dumb waiter led to my room?" I ask suspiciously. Walking towards the door, he responded, "I have my ways."

"Same time tomorrow?" I ask him. Knowing he would just barge in to get the food I had anyways. "If you don't eat all of the food by then." He retorted with a smirk. "Yeah, yeah." I say, picking up on how he was calling me a glutton. He wasn't right, but he wasn't wrong. "I neither agree, nor disagree." I tell him. "I'm sure." He sarcastically says back. As soon as he's out of the door, I lock it. I then go to make my bed, and another toaster strudel. As soon as it's ready, I plop down on my bed, and eat my strudel. Ding. I look down at my phone to see Keylee, one of my friends from Kentucky, texted me.

Keylee: hey Michelle!

Me: hey!

Keylee: how's London?

Me: good.

Keylee: that's good. Guess what!😀

Me: you made all A's?😶

Keylee: hah! You're funny.🤣🤣🤣

Me: I know.😜

Keylee: our whole grade is going on a field trip to London!😄

Me: where and when??!!

Keylee: next week in a hotel called St. James' Court.

Me: that's only three minutes away from my house! What day?

Keylee: Monday. We'll be staying for about a week.

Me: yay!!!😁😁😁😁

Keylee: are you going to be okay? I know the reason why you moved.

My stomach suddenly dropped.

Me: yeah, I'll be fine!😊

Keylee: you know you can't lie to me, right?

Dang it! She knows me too well.

Me: I'll be fine. I promise.👍👍👍

Keylee: okay. As long as you promise.TTYL, good night!

Me: good night.😊😊😊

It annoys me to know that she knows me so well, especially when I'm sad. At least she doesn't treat me like I'm a fragile piece of glass that will break if she isn't careful with me, unlike everyone else who says they're trying to help me. I'll have to not let what happened last time happen again. As long as I don't run into her, I'll be fine. I reach over to get my icing packet, when I don't feel it, I look over to see it wasn't there, and I realized that I had never gotten it out of the box in the first place. As I walked over to the mini fridge, I started to have a strange feeling, like someone was watching me. I turned my head to my right, towards the windows. To my horror, I see the face of a man looking into my window, with a full silhouette to match.

I tried to hide my fear, and I pretended to not see anything. I kept my face straight, as to not alarm him. I went to the fridge, making almost everything about me look as unattractive as I could, without too much change, so he wouldn't catch on. I tossed the icing packet on the bed, and went over to the window, and acted like I didn't know anyone was there. I tried to keep my fear in, and almost failed, when out of my periferal vision, I saw him lick his lips in a sickly way. I started having a mini panic attack inside, and finally closed the drapes to one window, and then the next. When I was sure that he couldn't see me I started to breath faster, letting my chest fall up and down. I let the all fear show itself on my face, and started to silently cry. I then decided to get the rest of the strudels and icing packets, whereas what I had now would not be enough now.

As I finished the last of the packets, I laid my head down on my pillow, and pulled my blanket up to my cheeks. I'm being stalked. I'M BEING STALKED. I ran through my head. Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but even so, it was the last thing I had thought before sleep overtook me.