Chapter-1

The boxes tumbled beneath my feet and the books scattered everywhere around the floor,

"Seriously? This is the third time!"

The books were too heavy for the boxes to hold and too bad those were the last boxes, I sat there for awhile and gazed around my room, revisiting all the good memories I had of this house and how it would have been nice if we had stayed here instead of moving away, but we have no other choice, mom got a new job at a different place far away from here so we had to move all of a sudden.

"Brooke, come down for dinner."

I rubbed sweat off my forehead, that was mom calling me, I wanted to finish all the packing and everything else first and then have lunch but bad luck for me the boxes kept on tearing and I have to keep on replacing it and it ate up all the time .

I ran down the stairs, the paintings and pictures on the wall were all packed up in boxes and left aside for moving, never felt so empty before, the big wall clock was gone and the armchairs where mom and dad use to sit were also gone. This will be our last dinner here.

"Brad! Don't play with your food!" Mom yelled at Brad, who is my younger brother and he happens to like playing with his food, like you see in a cartoon character and mom yelling at him makes me want to laugh, he's only six years old and very mischievous, mom always have to take hold of him so he doesn't do anything mischievous. It was only last week when he spilled his orange juice on Jenny's unicorn and you know orange juice are hell when it comes to removing them from literally anything, he even threw mom's cell phone down the well at Grandma's place and of course he broke my favourite cassette.

Brad stood up on his chair, then scooped up a large mash potato and threw it directly at me.

"Ow!! Brad stop throwing food at me!." I yelled, but he wouldn't stop throwing food at me; tomatoes, carrots, beans you name them.

"Food! Food! Food!" He screamed, mom took a napkin and wiped his mouth, "Listen here Brad, this is our last dinner, let's not ruin it, ok?" she said while gently rubbing his lips and his cheeks, but he pushed her hand away and yelled, " I want to play!!!,"

"Let's play tank-wars after dinner," I said while trying to calm him down.

"No! Tank-wars is boring….I want food!" He said, so I shared half my potato with him but he simply pierced it with his fork and threw it at mom.

"Hey!! Brad!" I shouted

Mom slowly wiped the potatoes off her face with a napkin, she already looked so pissed of, she took a deep breath and said, " That's it! Your not getting the tank that you wanted for birthday!"

Hearing this Brad quickly got off his chair and sad quietly as if nothing had happened.

" Brooke take your brother to his room." Mom said.

"Okay," I replied and grabbed Brad's hand and dragged him off to his room.

"Let's play tank-wars, in your new room tomorrow,"

"Tank-wars!!" Brad jumped with joy "I love tank-wars"

"Yes, but promise me that you will never play with your food, never again."

"I promise"

"Cross your heart?"

"Cross my heart" he made an x sign on his right shoulder.

I opened his bedroom door and switched on the lights, "Its time for you to sleep" I said but Brad pinched my arm and kicked me," No! I don't want to sleep now we just had dinner, I want to play!!!!"

"Ow!!" I cried," If you don't sleep now Foxy- the pirate will hook you up with his hook."

" Iam not scared and he's not even real." He said and started punching me with his other arm.

"Stop it!" I said angrily,

"Shut up!!!" He replied back, I quickly grabbed him by his arm and said,

"Now listen here you stupid brat! Mom can yell at you and she can take away your toys too but there's one thing she cannot do that I can and that is hit you. Now if you don't behave I will hit you so hard that your brain will run across the other side of the street! Do you want that!?"

Brad quickly became quiet and slowly walked towards his bed, I spread the quilt and tucked it.

" Where's Mr. Tommy? He said, Mr. Tommy is Brad's teddy bear, he's huge and fluffy, Brad likes to sleep with him.

"I burned him." I replied, " Now shut your tiny lips and go to sleep, Goodnight!" and switched off the light.

"Is he asleep?" Mom said softly, she had her bath robe on and was standing next to the staircase,

" He is at least for now" I replied," are you going to bed now?"

Mom slowly tied her hair in a bun and said," well we got to move tomorrow early so better to get some rest, you too sleep early no talking on the phone, we have lot of work tomorrow."

"Talk?" I said, " Talk with whom? I barely have any friends."

" Well I don't know who is it that your talking to but I hear voices in your room every night." Mom said as she made through the corridor to her room.

"Maybe it's a ghost," I said sarcastically, Mom has been on her own for 5 years after dad had passed away, and now she barely has anytime to spend with us, she works for two shifts daily and we hardly see her except when there is a holiday or when she takes a leave, that's the reason why it's only me and Brad most of the time and now since it's our vacation and I don't have any friends, it's time for another month of loneliness. As I entered my room I felt and eerie feeling and a chill ran down my spine I quickly went over and shut my windows and got on my bed after switching off the lights, I tried to sleep but the thought that Tonight will be the last night to sleep here made me awake, I just laid there with my eyes open in the dark room with faint moonlight entering my room through the windows I could imagine the empty room filled with my desk, cardboards, chairs and all the stuff that I had and as if it were still there, I turned around and stared at the light bulb above me and because it was dark I could only see it faintly before the bulb slowly turned into a balloon and float around the room, I watched as it exited through my door, which was wide open and I believed I had shut it tightly but I just laid on my bed cause I was too lazy to move, then suddenly mom entered my room and she had the ugliest dress I had ever seen on her, she slowly approached towards me and turned into an old man that had a plain weird expression, he was smiling at me but his eyes were plain and stiff and he tried to hold my hand, I want to move but my hand felt like it weight 100 pounds, he slowly grabbed my hand, his hand was cold and soft…..

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at the alarm clock it was three in the morning, I rubbed my eyes and laid there for a while thinking what a weird dream that was before falling asleep again.

"Quick!! Get in the car" Mom said as she started the engine and me and Brad quickly jumped on the car, I took the front seat and Brad was quickly fastened on the back seat of the car,

Mom turned around and checked to make sure Brad's seat was fasten.

"Don't worry they are tighten," I said as I strapped on my seatbelt, we started moving and I took one last look at the house and waved goodbye as we passed through it, the roads were jagged and the car kept jerking up and down while we move, Brad was flying his plane and making 'swoosh!' sounds, as we moved on passing trees, the trees looked like it was chasing us like in the movie 'the lord of the rings'

The drive seems to take forever, it has been an hour since we started moving," Mom, how long till we reach," I asked

"We're almost there" she replied," Just a mile or two away."

"A mile!?" I replied with my mouth wide open," That's way too long, Iam probably gonna piss my pants," as we were talking the sky suddenly turned grey and drops of rainfall started to fall

"Great!" Mom said and she slammed the steering

Wheel, "This is what Iam talking about."

"Talking about what?" I replied

Mom gave me a slight look and said

"If you have woken up early we could have reached by now and not have been stuck here in the rain."

"That's not even my fault," I said," the alarm didn't go off and- com'on I didn't even wake up that late it was only eight in the morning."

"Eight is a little bit too late, honey," mom said, "Late when you have to move to a different place early in the morning."

"We could have just moved in the evening, what's the rush." I said angrily,

"Don't talk back to me, young lady!" Mom replied, after that we just drove by quietly, Brad too was keeping quiet after me and mom had the little quarrel, all we could hear were the raindrops slamming against the roof of the car, the sound of the wiper and the ac that was kept at low, after some hours of quietly driving and finally we reached our new home.