Family Forgotten by mmcix
Six months of hunting. Six months of wrangling. Six months of waiting. But finally, their first house was ready. On the edge of the woods, with only one other ramshackle home across from it and a location just up the road from the local village, the place oozed charm and hopefully, with a little hard work, resale value.
“Move it sis!”
Claire was snapped from her daydreams of wealth as her brother and co-investor muscled past her, lugging a huge box marked “fragile” with dangerous abandon.
“Be careful Rob! I know we’re going to flip the place soon, but there’s a lot of work to do, and so for the next few months I would like to drink from mugs with the handles still on please.”
Rob muttered something under his breath and continued bringing the box from the moving truck into the house, but with perhaps a touch more care. Claire heard a loud clink as he set the box down, and rushed to inspect the damage. Passing him in the doorway, she shot Rob a glare, and he sloped sheepishly back to the truck. Hauling another box down, he glanced at the house opposite, and was surprised to see a little old lady waving at him from the doorway.
“Hello dearie! Moving in are we?”
Rob looked at the moving truck, the box in his hands, bit back the sarcastic response honed by two decades of verbal sparring with his older sister, and allowed himself to break into a smile.
“Yes we are, just got the keys this morning. It’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but it’ll be worth it when it’s done.”
“Ooh yes, fixer-upper all right. Did you meet the last owners?”
“Yes, Mrs… Wainwright? Cartwright? One of those. Her and her son. Did you know them well?”
“So-so dearie, they kept themselves to themselves these last few years since Clive died. It wasn’t long after that the trouble started, and they didn’t seem to want to talk to others much.”
Rob was taken aback. He didn’t want to gossip, but the talk of trouble made him nervous about their investment. Before he could ask, Claire, back from damage control, spoke over him. “Trouble? Was there a run-in with the law?”
“Nothing like that my dear, it was all rather odd. I don’t want to worry you…” She trailed off, and Rob caught a glint in her eye that let him know this wasn’t the first seed of doubt she had planted, though with her advanced age it may well be the last.
“Please, Miss-?” Rob began.
“Just call me Evie, my dear.”
“Please Evie, we’d like to know anything that might be wrong with the house, no matter what it is.”
“Well dearie, I don’t want to frighten you, but I do believe that house could be haunted!”
Rob suppressed a chuckle, and didn’t have to look at Claire to know she was doing the same. “I don’t-”
“I know it sounds silly,” Evie interrupted, “but every night I heard the most terrible wails and moans from the house. And why would they rush to sell it eh? No you mark my words, there’s something strange in that house. Something just waiting for new blood.”
Rob and Claire shared a look of bemusement. The old woman seemed harmless enough though, and it couldn’t hurt to get to know the neighbours. Neighbour. They were really quite alone apart from old woman.
“Thanks for the warning Evie.” Claire said. “We’ll keep an eye out for anything strange as we get settled. And once we are, we’d love to have you over for a cup of tea.”
“Oh that would be lovely my dears, I’m looking forward to getting to know such a lovely couple as yourselves.”
Rob and Claire stumbled over one another, each trying to clarify.
“No -”
“He’s -”
“She’s -”
“We’re not a couple! He’s my brother!”
Evie gave a small chuckle, and apologised. “You just look so comfortable together. Forgive an old woman. Well, I don’t want the cold to seep into these old bones, I’ll be off inside for my tea. Good luck with the house.”
Rob and Claire raised their eyebrows at one another as Evie tottered back up her garden path and inside, and set about unpacking the remainder of the truck. Each assured themselves quite rationally that they had nothing to worry about, while the nagging seed of worry began to sprout deep in their minds. This was their entire inheritance from their mother, pooled together. Their first foray into the real world after university. It would work. Because it had to.
Three days later, most of the unpacking was complete. They had spent as much of the first day mapping the twisty house with its interconnected rooms as they had unpacking. They had found a bathroom they didn’t even know existed when they toured the place, complete with a modern shower and connected to both of the bedrooms upstairs – coincidentally the ones they had each chosen as their own. Naturally, they had argued over who got it, as the main bathroom was three more steps away, a distance clearly unacceptable compared to the extravagant convenience of this one. The matter had ended up undecided, and so the bathroom was a sort of no-man’s-land between their bedrooms, each waiting for the other to make a move.
The remainder of the time had been divided evenly between unpacking and attempting to fix the dilapidated heating system, which was apparently built from twigs and ran on moss. Through a combination of ritual magic (hitting it with a wrench) and dark sacrifice (the sanity of both siblings) over the preceding three days, they had eventually gotten the heating running, and hot water was back on the cards. Claire wasted no time.
“I’ll take a shower first.” She said. Rob started to grumble, but for once, resigned himself. Claire’s eleven-month age advantage conferred exactly one privilege, and it was access to the first shower. Rob decided to keep busy unpacking the remaining few items in his room that he hadn’t put away yet. He found himself leafing through some photos taken from the year before of himself and Claire as they graduated together. As annoying as she could be, he was glad she was his sister. He put the photos onto his desk and made to start his laptop, before remembering there was no internet installed yet. Unless he wanted to start writing a seven-thousand word short story, he would have to find something else to entertain him. He started to clear some of the leftover packing material, when he heard a blood-curdling scream from the bathroom beside him. Evie’s puckered mouth swam into his vision as he launched himself to his feet, muttering about hauntings. He kicked the door to the bathroom open and barged into the steam, ready to give any ethereal monsters a the beating of their afterlife.
“Rob what the fuck are you doing, get out!”
“I heard a scream!”
“Yes the hot water cut off, now get out!” Claire shrieked back.
The steam cleared just as Rob turned to leave, revealing Claire, struggling to pull a towel around herself. As if in slow motion, the towel fell, ever so slightly, exposing her round breast and pink nipple staring directly at him. He blushed, and hurried out, mumbling an apology. He took out his embarrassment on the boiler, and with a few clangs it was back and serving up hot water again, just in time for him to clean off the day’s work.