#lillianrs

●●●

     It's a dark evening as I begin writing this book. A night where the trees creak outside my windows, with harsh, howling winds in the forlorn wilderness. I'm not sure what finally possessed me to tell this story after all this time, but one thing I've learnt is that you should always trust your gut. So, I'm going where the keys take me, as I trace through my memories.

     It began back when I was only sixteen. So young, so unprepared, so naive, almost innocent. Nothing could've possibly warned me for the journey that lie ahead, for the things I've seen and the places I'd been. For then, in only my teens, my life changed in more ways than I could've ever imagined. I wasn't prepared to have my reality turned on its head, I wasn't prepared to see the truth, and I most certainly wasn't prepared to see the things that were not meant to be.

     I've stayed in this town my whole life. I've seen faces come and go, and am good friends with the ones who've stayed. This place is different than it once was, but it still has some traces of its cursed past, though now faded from time. Somedays it feels strong, like I can feel it through the roots in the Earth. Yet other times it feels distant, and unwilling to show.

     I've experienced a lot in my life, yet nothing has ever compared to the things that I had seen at the young age of seventeen. No one ever believed me, believed us. We never maintained solid proof, all of our camera evidence was destroyed during the ritual, but us seven know the truth... well, us seven, and the others silently involved who now refuse to acknowledge it. But those are all faces who have gone, to where, I'm not sure.

     So, I suppose I'm here now, the next Robert J. Wright, the next Lord Lutho, the next Jane Howell who will become a mere conspiracy in the darkest corners of a library, waiting to be discovered, and inspire the next generation of those who seek the truth. I work at the school now as the librarian, and I take responsibility in preserving the stories here. Though I feel that now in my present, the whispering warnings we've heard long ago are to soon reign true... I just hope that the message can reach others, before it's too late. There's only so much we can do.

--------

     My parents and I had to move across the country when I was sixteen years old. They are both photographers, and had gotten a job offer from a studio in Metalwood City. This studio in particular wanted them to focus on photographing both rural and urban life for usage in magazines and websites. Though we couldn't do this where we had previously lived, as the job specifically required the photos to come from the state of Washington. It had a much better pay than their previous job, and my parents were up for a change of pace, so they took them up on the offer.

     Metalwood was a short 40 minute drive from a small rural town called Melbrew. Living there was extremely cheap, and my parents figured that they could run between the town and city for their pictures. Unfortunately, they were unaware that cheap living often comes with a different type of price to pay.

     This town was founded by two brothers with the last name Melbrew, of course. It lay near the west coast of Washington state, with only a fifteen minute drive to the Pacific ocean. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lakes and forest on all sides. That was the extent of my knowledge at the time of moving. I wondered if it would even be worth it to live there, but that decision wasn't mine to make. I never got to have a say in much.

     My parents had sprung the moving announcement on me out of nowhere, leaving me with only a few weeks left before the move, the process started immediately. I was mad and upset, but I knew that there was nothing I could do to prevent it. I had to suck it up and go along with it, however sad it may have been. It was hard.

     I enjoyed the last few weeks with my friends the best I could, however good it would be to say a final goodbye to people you would probably never see again. We all promised to stay in touch, but does anyone really? I'll move on and make new friends, and they'll soon forget about me, only to be brought up occasionally with a "Hey, remember Emmy?". It's not sad, it's just realistic. But sticking to the positives, they weren't really the best of friends anyways.

     My last day was depressing, but also quite terrifying, considering I would be moving all the way from western Pennsylvania to the state of Washington. That was on the complete other side of the country!

     My nerves those final few days were dreadful, I remember them all vividly. The rapid heartbeat, the feeling of leaving everything I've ever known behind... It felt like a clock was ticking down to my death and rebirth. In a way I felt I was dying, as overly dramatic as that sounds. I would be leaving everything and starting again, but as scary as the thought was, it also excited me. The death was the hard part, the afterlife is the easy one.

     It took us a about a week to get there, as we had to drive the whole way, but I'm not going to get into the whole moving process as it isn't important. Lots and lots of feilds out in the rural parts of America. Day after day, hotel after hotel. It was almost surreal and creepy, especially at night. A part of me almost wished we had stayed in some sketchy motel that's the only thing on a stretch of road. Now that's where the fun is!

      I sighed a breath of relief when I was finally told that we were almost there. Slowly the wheat feilds turned to forests and trees, that's all there was, just trees. After a few minutes a giant wooden sign appeared, reading, "Welcome to Melbrew". The letters were faded and it was hard to read, but still ledgebale nonetheless.

     I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned off my music as curiosity took its hold on me. Rolling down my window, I stuck my head outside and let the wind and rain hit my face. The smell of water and pine was strong in the air, and the town was rather grey. The clouds in the sky paired with the looming trees blocked quite a bit of sunlight, it was rather gloomy.

     The forest was now less dense as houses stood next to each other, all with their own areas, lawns, and garages, decently spaced apart from each other. Before I knew it, we were pulling into a driveway. With the car now in park and silent, raindrops could be heard pounding against the roof. Of course now is when it begins to pick up and pour!

     It rained for a full two days after we got there, which made moving in much harder than it already was going to be. We didn't have very much stuff though, as taking too much across the country wouldn't be easy. Nevertheless, I was in love with the scenery. All the trees, the rain, the near darkness in midday. It was very cozy, to me, at least.

      My cat was definitely not happy with the car ride, so I'm sure the old senior boy was glad to be out of his carrying cage. His name was Sir. Bennington the Fifth... there were no other Benningtons. Child me just thought it was funny. Nowadays I call him Benny.

     The house that I would now have to call home was of a decent size and stood on a corner street. Its outer panels were beginning to peel, and vegetation coated the lawn with various plants and grasses. When the rain died down afternoon had turned to evening, and the sound of birds, owls, and crickets filled the misty darkened air.

     There was a humble little farm across the road from us, and a few other houses nearby. Other than that, it was pretty vacant, lying near the northern outskirts of the town by wooded area, though the whole town was surrounded by woods, so it's not that special a detail. It felt very secluded.

     I wished we could've moved before the school year started, but I guess I'm also glad it was early on in the year instead of later. I tried to look on the positive side, instead of being pessimistic once I got there and had to confront this new life. There was no point in being sad about something I couldn't change, as much as I wanted to be. I got my sadness out the weeks before, now it was time to move on. Is it toxic positivity? Maybe. I'll get over it.

     That first night felt so... different. I'm not sure how to describe it. The sound of the rain falling on the roof, the wind outside, the eerie quietness of everything else. My practically empty room with nothing but a bed and a box of clothes. The yellow lighting and old-fashioned floral wallpaper, paired with the old, dusty wooden floors that would creak beneath your feet. That smell of dirt, and the ticking of an ancient clock that was left behind. It all made me feel stuck in time.

     It was very difficult for me to fall asleep. New environments paired with the fear of going to a different school kept me tossing and turning all night. I feel that Benny could sense my discomfort, as he nudged my door open to come sit on my chest. It was only then that my mind felt enough at ease to drift off to the realm of dreams.

     My parents walked me to school on my first day to make sure that I didn't get lost and knew the way. The town is very small and half of it seemed to be abandoned, so I didn't see a need for it, but hey, whatever makes them happy. Once the school was in sight, though, they backed off and waved me goodbye.

     The school was on the other side of the town from me to the south, so it was quite a long walk, about half an hour. The elementary and middle school were separate, but kept in the same general area. They were all brick buildings under the cloudy, grey morning sky that only just then began to brighten. The American flag waved in the wind, the eerie quietness absorbing me once more.

     It wasn't all that grand, in fact, it was quite the opposite. It looked rather decrepit and run down, but not to the point where it looked horrid and grossly unsanitary. Well, I mean, there were a few broken windows boarded up, and vines and grass growing up the sides, but it wasn't, like, dirty.

     Really, I doubt anyone around here even notices the appearance, but my fresh new eyes did. Though despite the vintage look that the town carried, I could still tell that it used to be rather well-kept, even though some areas even looked abandoned nowadays. There was a history to this place, I could just feel it. It was in the air, and on the scars the buildings carried. The stories they could tell...

     I pushed on the double glass doors of the highschool, which were smudged and slightly stained with dirt. They closed behind me in an echoed click, seemingly sealing the outside world away as the sound of wind was left behind me. The main entrance wasn't very spacious, unlike my last school. It made me feel a little confined and claustrophobic, but I was sure I'd get used to it. I was sure I'd get used to everything, though maybe that was still my want to be positive talking.

     The door to my left had a sign reading, "Main Office'', and the door to my right had a sign that read, "Guidance Office", which were both carved into golden plates that now looked brown. Okay, good to know. That was all that was in the entrance hallway.

     I wiped my feet on the entrance mat and made my way to the hallway, though my shoes still squeaked against the tiles. On the wall was a little red sign with directions, which I followed to my homeroom, which would be to my right. The voices of fellow students began to fill my ears, and for some reason unbeknownst to me, I began to feel anxious.

     "Hello, Emeline!" My teacher said as he saw me enter the classroom. I walked over to him and we shook hands. "Welcome to Melbrew High School! I'm Mr. Brown, and I'll be both your homeroom and algebra teacher. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me or one of the other staff members."

     I thanked him and he told me where to sit, so I took my seat, and sat quite awkwardly. My bookbag sat next to me on the floor, my phone gripped tightly in my hands. People continuously glanced over to me, I tried my best to ignore them. The whole place felt off.

     Not just off, though, it was straight up oldschool. The whole town was. There were no smart boards, nor overhead projectors. Just an old, green chalkboard. The lighting was also pretty dim and more... yellow? Yellow seems to be a favorable lighting choice here, I suppose. I obviously assumed that the budget was pretty low, as I haven't seen just a chalkboard in the class since I was in the third grade.

     As I waited in my seat, I looked around the room to the other students, who thankfully stopped starting at me. Two came up to greet me for a few seconds, but the rest either paid me no mind or just looked over to me. Some gave off weird, creepy vibes with their stares. I felt really out of place, it was kinda giving me impostor syndrome, to be honest. I felt like I shouldn't be there. Just the feeling of being the new kid, I guess.

     I began to get lost in my thoughts, staring into the abyss. That is until I jumped out of them due the unnecessarily loud overhead speakers. We all stood to say the pledge, then the announcements began, spoken by an upbeat girl, which seemed almost humorous to me given the boring scenery... well, either humorous or creepy, but you can be the judge of that.

     "Good morning, Melbrew students! Today is Monday, September 26th, 2016! For lunch today, the cafeteria will be serving spaghetti, tomorrow will be taco Tuesday! The breakfast for tomorrow will be pancakes! If you are going on Ms. Hogg's field trip this spring, your permission slips are due before Christmas break! There are still a few spots open for the book and biology clubs, so hurry and claim your spot fast before it's too late! Speaking of clubs, sign ups for the brand-new history club will be on Thursday, and they will meet every other week! Have a great day, Melbrew!"

     The announcements cut off and students resumed chatting with one another as we waited for the bell to dismiss us to first period. When it finally did, I stayed seated for geometry, while everyone else left. I didn't like the looks people gave me as people walked in for first period. Definitely felt like an invader. God, I was so out of place.

     Once geometry was over, I had to head to my second class, which was a study hall. I wasn't exactly sure where it was, though. It's easy to get lost in a place where every hallway looks the exact same. Everyone fled out of the classroom, except for me and one other student who was taking his time to leave. I guess I'll just go ask him.

     I approached the student, "Hello! I'm new to this school. Would you mind directing me to the library?" I asked as politely as I could.

     He paused what he was doing for a few seconds and looked up at me, before shaking his head and continuing on with what he was doing. He zipped up his backpack, stood up, and answered, "I'm going there. Just follow me."

     He spoke in a monotone, nonchalant voice. He said nothing else, and threw his bag over his shoulder as he walked out of the classroom, not even waiting for me. I hurried to follow him, feeling a bit awkward at his lack of acknowledgement.

     He was Asian with dark hair and lighter skin, though his face looked tired as bags sat under his eyes. He wore an old, grey baseball team hoodie that was now stained with mud, and had a hole on the sleeve. His backpack looked like it was being held together by ductape alone.

     I attempted to make conversation, "Um. My name is Emeline Orman, do you mind me asking yours?"

     He didn't say or do anything at first, as he seemingly ignored me. Thankfully for my own self-assurance he eventually shrugged slightly and said, quietly, in the same toneless voice, "Kai."

     I observed the hallways a bit as we walked, which all had the same beige colored tiles lining the walls. This school's color palette definitely wasn't the prettiest sight for sore eyes, but then again it could always be worse. Gotta remember that optimism, look on the brightside. The brightside being that I felt like I was in a mystery novel, so I'll take it! The buzzing lights and lack of people definitely added a whole layer to the ambiance.

      When we got to the library, he walked off and sat down at a table in one of the more hidden sections of the place, tucked behind some bookshelves near a corner. He immediately pulled out an extremely old looking book from his bag.

     "What are you reading?" I asked curiously, but he just looked up at me, said nothing, and looked back down. I waited to see if he would say anything, but he didn't. "...Am I bothering you?"

     "Yes." he said, matter-of-factly, without taking his eyes off the book. He rested his head lazily against his hand.

     "Sorry, I'll leave you to it." I said, and walked away. I decided to go and look around, I really didn't want to upset people on my first day, that's a good way to make enemies and I was not looking for that, especially in a place that looks like a good setting for a horror movie. Next thing you know you'll be choked to death by a vampire, or something weird like that.

     It wasn't a really big library, but it did have a whole lot of stuff in it. Lots of bookshelves, tables, and doors leading to I don't know where. There were even a few computers, and that's saying something! Usually libraries have all sorts of them, but here there's only four, as it seemed. In a place that doesn't have smartboards, I consider it impressive. They were all already in use, three doing work, while another pulled up games.

     I spotted a little hallway near the back between some bookcases, and decided to check it out. It led to another room, with more tables, and a door with a sign saying STAFF ONLY. Standing against a wall was a large, moveable whiteboard on wheels. There were all kinds of papers on it, held down by magnets. Written in blue marker was a list of clubs, and what days they will meet. I read down the list, and then jumped a little when a teacher approached me unexpectedly.

     "Hello dear, I don't believe I've seen you before, are you that new girl? The Ormans?" The teacher asked as she entered the room. She looked like your classic, stereotypical librarian lady. She had glasses, her hair was in a bun, but she didn't look to be too old.

     "Oh, uh, yeah, that's me. I'm Emeline Orman." I said, and held out my hand to shake hers.

     "Well, Emily, I'm the school's librarian, Mrs. Robinson." She said, and looked to the club sheet I was just checking out, "Are you interested in any clubs? We hold most of the meetings here in this room. It's a good way to meet some new friends!"

     "I might be." I said, shrugging. "What do the different clubs do?"

     "Well, most of them are already full, but we're offering sign-ups for a new club, as you probably heard on the announcements, if you paid attention, that is." She said and chuckled, "Most kids don't. The history club is brand new and just starting out, but there are also a few spots still open for the book club. It's what you would imagine, we give you a book, and you read it, and talk about it with your peers. There's also the biology club, I believe there's quite a few spots still open for that one, if you're interested. Ms. Hogg runs that one. She does lots of expeditions in the woods to look for little critters."

     "Hm. Do you know what they'll be doing in the history club?" I asked.

     "Well, I'm not entirely sure just yet. This year is the first it'll be up. If I had to guess though, probably various activities involving history, I think specifically on the town. I manage the book club, but if you're interested in town history I would ask Mr. Marshall about it when you can. He's room 105."

     "Alright, will do. Thank you, Mrs. Robinson."

     "Anytime, love. If you ever have any questions, you can always find me here."

     I walked back out into the main part of the library and decided to look around a bit to get familiar with the layout of the place, and maybe look at a book or two. After getting bored of it, I went back to the little room with the whiteboard and sat at one of the white plastic tables that were lined against the walls. There was no one back there, so it made me feel more comfortable.

     The time dragged on since I had nothing to do, and I was actually happy when the bell rang for third period. It was time to go to English, which I had to find on my own. Luckily the English hallway was near the library, and all someone had to do was point down the hall. I stepped inside and greeted my teacher, Mrs. Palmer, and she showed me to my seat. Once English was over, I headed to my fourth period class, which was History. I went in and greeted Mr. Marshall. Once the period ended and the bell rang, I decided to ask him about the club.

     "Um, excuse me, Mr. Marshall? May I ask you about the history club?" I asked. "I heard about it on the announcements this morning, and I think that I might be interested in it."

     He looked a bit surprised, and turned to a kid walking out the door, "Dominik," he said, "Where are you heading?"

     "Computer, sir." He answered.

     "Tell Emeline here a bit about the history club. I think you'll be better at it."

     "Sure thing!" He said, and nodded his head out the door for me to follow.

     "Why couldn't he just tell me about it himself?" I asked once we were out of the class.

     "Well, you asked him at the end of the period, and it would take a while to explain. Plus, you're obviously new and I think that he thinks that this is the perfect way for you to make friends," he stopped in the middle of the empty hallway, and stuck out his hand, "My name's Dominik, but you already knew that, because he kinda said my name, but whatever. If you'd like new information on the name though it's Dominik with a K."

     I shook his hand, "Emeline, but you already knew that, too."

      We continued walking, "Did all your teachers introduce you today? I wouldn't doubt if people start calling you Emily, if they haven't already, I've never heard of Emeline. That's like Emily but with extra steps... no offense."

     "None taken. My parents just wanted to be different, but if it helps, you can just call me Emmy. Or Emma, or Em, or even Emily, really. They're all the same thing. Though usually I go by Emmy. Cute childhood nickname that just kinda stuck."

     "Well then, Emmy, allow me to give you a run down." He said, "First of all, NEVER drink from the water fountains after Douglass Bailey has touched them. Just- trust me on that. Secondly, there's a crap ton of weird stuff around here so don't freak out over something strange, it's probably normal. Oh, and third of all, you should DEFINITELY stay away from the northwest side of town. The abandoned part with the park, and the mountains, and the cemetery, and all that. That's practically begging for trouble."

    "Well, that's good to know, I guess. Why is the northwest bad?"

     "Oh, you'll see. Or more so hear. It's impossible not to. We are definitely going to be late for class, but that's okay. Not to brag or anything, but most of the teachers love me. How about my friend and I tell you a little bit about the club at lunch? The history in this place is... well, interesting, to say the least to a new comer." He said as we approached the class.

      "Dominik, you're late!" The teacher said as he walked in the class, but he didn't sound angry at all.

     "I was helping out the new girl Emeline, Mr. Adams. Sorry about that."

     "No problem, take your seats, and Emily, find a free one."

     Dominik whispered towards me, "told you." I smiled a bit.

     A kid with bright green hair started excitedly slapping an empty seat next to them, and Dominik gestured to it with his hand. I sat in it.

     "Who she?" The green-haired kid asked.

     "A new girl who is interested in the history club," Dominik answered.

     "Oh! That's fun, a newbie. I've always wanted to teach a newbie!" They said, and turned to me. "Hi, I'm Cameron! And despite what people may tell you, I am in fact a boy. Actually, I'm just straight up feral. I'm a menace to society. A man in the shadows. An enigma. Cameron Payne Johnson, certified local cryptid freak and proud!"

     "Oh, well, it's... nice to meet you? I think?"

     I looked between the both of them, and I wondered how they could look like they have completely different interests, yet be friends who apparently have common ground.

     Dominik looked like your typical smart person. He was decently tall, and had dark, curly hair that was pulled up into a little bun. A few short curls were falling down into his face, which he pushed back with his hand, then adjusted his glasses. He was black, but more on the lighter side. He was well-dressed, and wore a long beige lab coat over a dark red turtleneck sweater. He looked like the type of kid who would remind the teacher we had homework.

     Cameron on the other hand was short, and had naturally brown hair. Half of his head was shaved, and the part that wasn't shaved was dyed an obnoxiously bright neon green that felt like an assault to the eyes. He wore a black hoodie tied around his waist, and had ripped, black, skinny jeans. His shoes were dirty, old-looking converse. He worse a black T-shirt with a skull on the front, the black clothes contrasted his pale skin. He looked like a mix of punk and emo, and his nails were painted both black and green.

     Mr. Adams began teaching. Towards the end of the period, everyone began to chat again, "Did all of this school's budget go into this room, or what?" I asked.

     "Dude I don't know, man." Cameron responded, "I always see vids from other people and they've got like fancy tech boards and shit. Meanwhile I'm out here like what the fuck is a smartboard? And apparently libraries are supposed to have like, 30 computers in them? Fucking foreign, dude. These are like, our only computers. I have a theory that the principle is hording money."

     "It is way too early to start on your conspiracies, Cam." Dominik said.

     When the bell rang, class ended, and the three of us headed to the cafeteria together, as we three all had lunch 6th period. They took their packed lunches and sat down at a table, and I went up in line. Once I had my food, I took my tray and went to sit by the pair I just met.

     "Yo, I really wouldn't eat that," Cameron said, "That shit's prolly poisoned or sumthin." Dominik lightly smacked the back of his head.

     "Don't scare her, Cam!" He turned to me, "The food is just a little weird, and he's also like actually insane, so don't listen to him."

     "Oh, please. I'm not insane, I'm just eager for unexplainable shit to be real... and also the food is just one of the minor conspiracies about this place, and the poison is also just one version!"

     "Just let her eat in peace for her first day, she just got here! You can start on your rants tomorrow." He turned to me and whispered, "Though I definitely would advise to pack your lunch for the rest of your time here."

     "Um, okay," I said, laughing nervously. I then changed the subject, "So, about the history club..."

     "Oh, the history club," Cameron said, leaning back a little bit, his hands resting behind his head, and his legs intertwined with the poles under the table so he doesn't fall backwards, "whaddya wanna know 'bout it?"

     "Well, what will you be doing in it?"

     "Well, the question is," he said dramatically, leaning forward. He then slapped his hands on the table, "can we trust you?"

     "What? Why?"

     "It isn't just a history club, Mr. Marshall is just as interested in the weird stuff going on around here as we are. So, can we trust you with the secret of keeping the clubs activities classified?"

      "Of course, my life's boring, this sounds interesting." I said. Cameron narrowed his eyes at me.

     Dominik looked at Cameron, and signaled him to go on. "Keep it to a minimum, Cam, we don't wanna spill too much. Though chill out on the drama, man, it's just town history."

     "Oh, it's more than town history, Dominik!" Cameron exclaimed, "Okay, so, Mr. Marshall told us that he convinced the school that it'll be a club about, well, history, but, actually, we're gonna be divin' into the conspiracy theories of this place. He's a relatively young teacher, about in his 20s or some shit. He said he got an interest in all this because his grandfather knew the Humphrey family, you'll learn about them... If you join."

     "...Sooo, the school thinks it's just going to be about the town's history, but it's for town-centered theories?" I asked.

     "Yup! But there's evidence, oh believe me, there's evidence! It's just not widespread enough. Most people don't even know about the murders. Not to freak you out or anything. It was a long time ago."

     We went on to eat our lunch, having casual conversation... as casual as a conversation can get when someone like Cameron is leading it. Afterwards I was headed to my 7th period class, which was my language class. Soon before the bell rang to start class, a short, bored-looking asian girl walked in. She had to have been about the ages of twelve to thirteen, but visually appeared to be younger. She had bangs and two ponytails on the sides of her head, tied with blue bows.

      She slammed her books down on my desk, "Get out of my seat or I'll throw hands, freckle face."

     "Kimora!" The teacher said, coming into the class, "We will not be 'throwing hands' and calling names in this class. Emeline, could you please pick a different desk? Kimi came in late today, and she's very picky about her seat."

     "Oh, of course," I said, and she greeted me. Her name was Madame Martian. I went and took a different seat, and went on with the class. Kimi was apparently a smart middle schooler who got to come to the high school for language class.

     Finally it was time for my last classes of the day. My 8th period class was gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had another period of my science class, which was my 9th and last class of the day.

     Since today was Monday, I had gym. We played badminton, which was fun. That fun didn't last for long though, as nothing could've ever prepared me for my biology class. Not the eeriness, nor the rumors or weird conspiracies. It was the final slice of my introductory cake of what I was about to be subjected to for the rest of the year.

     It was a classroom near the back of the school, and the walk there felt kind of... off. But it was a different kind of off than the off everything else was. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it seemed as if all the other rooms in that hallway were unused. To the left, there was one final hall of doors, and it led to a dead end. At the end of the main hallway I was walking down, there was a pair of doors leading to an outside parking lot. Towards the end of the hall, I headed into the room on the right.

     There I was faced with an odd looking classroom, older than the others. As if the other rooms had touch ups done over the years but this one didn't. I noticed immediately that this was the class that had that one boarded-up window I spotted that morning.

     Unlike my other teachers, Ms. Hogg didn't come and greet me, and didn't really look too inviting on me greeting her, so I kept to myself. I sat down in a free seat, feeling very uncomfortable, even more so than before. The worst it had been all day. God, I could've puked. It was so off that it became physical, sickening.

     Ms. Hogg had a vibe to her, and not a good one. She looked both old and young at the same time, and gave me the impression that's she's killed someone before, but I have no idea why. It felt very strange, I was deeply unsettled by that teacher, she gave me a bad feeling in my gut, right down to her voice and physique.

     During class she talked about the anatomy of different animals, and briefly mentioned a project that we'll be starting tomorrow. This was a very biological focused biology class. I thought we were going to be learning about DNA or whatever, but okay, sure.

     I left the class feeling uneasy, and totally ready to leave that damn building and go back to my house. I was caught off guard and startled when I was suddenly pushed to the cold ground.

     "Move out of the way!" A tall blonde girl from my class yelled in a mean tone, "You should pick up the pace next time, I don't like to be slowed down!" She stomped away, laughing with two friends as her heeled shoes clicked against the ground, echoing throughout the confined halls.

●●●

●●●

       The next day, It was Wednesday, and I woke up to my alarm blaring at 5am as I went through my usual morning routine. Cameron and Dominik had given me their phone numbers the night before. That morning, I awoke with a text from Cameron.

       He texted me at like, two in the morning, to tell me to bring the book they gave me to school that day, and to be careful with it... Well, his exact text was:

       "Yo dude u need 2 bring the book tmrw I wanna read that shit w my eyes at lunch n kai ll be back cuz he told me n he never read the whole thin he has his own vers but that aint important rn yea thx m8 b careful bc if u ruin that bk kim ll be mad bc she ws the 1 who had the guts 2 steal it in the 1st place ok ye that it thx"

      ...I really hope Dominik is the one who types out those reports they were talking about.

      I placed the book safely into my backpack, said goodbye to my parents, and headed down the road to school. The morning announcements were as follows:

      "Good morning Melbrew students. Today is Wednesday, September 28th, 2016. For lunch today, the cafeteria will be serving hamburgers, tomorrow will be pizza. The breakfast for tomorrow will be French toasts sticks. If you are going on Ms. Hogg's field trip this spring, your permission slips are due before Christmas break. Sign ups for the book and history clubs will be tomorrow, and they will be meeting every other week. Have a good day, Melbrew."

      I went about my mundane day, and then lunch time finally came. I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to anyone yet, as the classes were busy, and the teachers were talkative. I was eager to start up a conversation.

      "Wassup my dudes!" Cameron said as a greeting as he practically threw his tray on the table, making a loud sound. He slammed it down, causing some of his food to fly off the tray, making a few people to look towards us due to the sound.

     "Jesus, dude. I thought you said the school's food was poisonous or something?" I said, Gesturing at his tray of lunch food.

      "I like to live life on the edge, gambling with death is my favorite hobby! And if I do get sick I can sue them. They actually stopped giving out broccoli because all of it always had mold on it. It was like that for a few months until the kids decided to start speaking up about it and became persistent. They literally did not care, like it wasn’t a big deal."

      "God, that's gross. They really didn't care?" I questioned.

      "Nope. Don't get it, never will. Blows my fucking mind, dude." He said, and changed the subject, "Did you bring the book like I asked you to?"

      "Yes, but you should be thankful. Trying to decode that message after just waking up gave me a headache!" I said, and pulled the book out of my bag. Dominik took it out of the case he gave me and flipped it open.

      "So, what did you think?" He asked.

      "It's pretty crazy, but definitely interesting. It feels like I'm in a mystery novel, but maybe that's just because I fantasize about it, like, all the time."

      "Well, you're definitely in the right town for a mystery!" Cameron said, "This book is full of all sorts of things. A lot of it is anonymous re-writes of people's experience while being on the property, or in the graveyard right next to it. It's like you're reading some kinda ghost documentary, but it takes place where you live. It’s fucking cool, dude."

      There was the gentle sound of a tray hitting the table right next to me, the complete opposite of Cameron.

      “Is that the book?" Kai asked, monotone as always.

      "Yes! It's here in all its glory!" Cameron said, and slid it over to him.

      Kai flipped through the pages, a blank expression on his face. "I've never read this properly. You said it's pretty much a collection of stories, right? The ones that we have, but with a professional analysis?" His voice still monotone, not even changing pitch when he asks a question.

      "Yup." Cameron said, "What about you? You bring yours?"

      He said nothing, and pulled a book out of his own bag, the same one that he was reading in the library on Monday, on my first day. He placed the book on the table, "Kimi took this from the library a while ago. I only found out about it recently because she didn't want me to know."

      The book looked incredibly old. Its grey, hardback cover was peeling back, and I could tell that it was a faded black, worn away over the years. Its thick pages were ripped, brown, stained, and wrinkled. It had scratches, and burn marks, and what even looked like blood stains. The previously golden accents of metal were now dull and bronzed. In the center of the book was the faded lettering of "Lord Lutho" both engraved and written over in black ink.

      We opened the book, and were greeted with an unfamiliar language. And when I say unfamiliar, I mean I've never seen it before in my life. It was in some kind of language we couldn't even try to read, it looked like the same alphabet we use, but not exactly, it was slightly different. It almost looked as if the person writing just took a keyboard and just began spam typing nonsense, but with a pen and their hand... while also not knowing what exactly letters look like.

      As we flipped through the old dirty pages, there were black ink drawings of different kinds of creatures, and what I assume to be a description of the magic they have, but we couldn't read it. There were pages on what I’d assume to be multiple mythical creatures, different kinds of aliens, different sections of angels and demons, it was weird. There was one page in specific that caught our attention, though. There was a drawing of two conjoined twins, holding a conjoined cat. The title read:

Sah Heirfix Gdrmhz: Prinsezzhz Noctis a Umbra Papilio. Lu sah mrtsg, drgs hszwvhz lu gris, za shadow dzh xzhg, a gsviv dvi gdrmhz.

      "The something something, princesses Noctis and Umbra Papilio? Is that what it says?" Cameron asked.

     "That's a good guess," Dominik said, "the only word I can make out in the second sentence is Shadow... isn't Noctis, Umbra, and Papilio Latin for Night, Shadow, and Butterfly?"

     "Bro who do you think I am, someone who speaks Latin?" Cameron said, "You're lucky I speak English!"

      "Are you sure this is real?" I questioned, skeptically.

      "Mayhaps." Cameron said. "Don't you believe these creatures can exist? Because if you don't, you're gonna have a hard time here, mate."

      "Who wrote this?" Dominik asked Kai.

      "Someone named Lord Lutho, I don't know. That's the only name on the book. Just the words Lord Lutho." Kai went and looked the name up on his phone, but strangely nothing came up.

      We didn't give the book much attention, it didn't seem real. Something like a fantasy book written to seem real for fun visuals. Couldn't quite figure out why it wasn't written in English though. Or any other known language for that matter. Or why there wasn't some actual name on it somewhere. Guess it was just for visual aesthetics, like an art book or something.

      The rest of the day went on, and the dreaded biology class came about. Veronica was very vocal about how much she didn't want to work with me, and how gross and disgusting these projects were. She said she would pay me to do the whole thing for her, by myself, which actually sounded like a good idea to me.

      This girl was a bitch, and an even bigger bitch to work with. She offered me 500 whole dollars right then and there if I would agree! You're telling me I don't have to work with her, and also get 500 bucks? Sign me the hell up! I took the deal. I decided to do the plant project, where I have to collect 15 different plants. That seemed like the easiest to me.

      Once that God awful class period finally ended, I went and exited through the back doors as I do. Cameron and Dominik met me, but today Kai was with them as well.

      "Hi, Emmy." Dominik said, exiting with Cameron and Kai.

      "Kai's comin' wit’ us today," Cameron said, "he just told us he's got some good ass story from when he and Kimi were gone from school yesterday. Ya wanna come with? We're going to the apartments again."

      "Pfft, you kidding? There's no way I'm NOT coming!"

      "Great!" Cameron said, "The more people in on this shit the better! Kimi doesn't seem to agree, though."

      "We ditched school and found something," Kai said, "we have to get Kimi now."

      He, Dominik, and Cameron began to walk down the street to the middle school, and Cameron gestured for me to follow them. I quickly finished up with texting me mom. I told her I would be going to the apartments again, and then quickly ran to catch up with them.

      "So what do you mean you found something?" I asked Kai when I reached them.

      He shrugged, "We looked around the woods and found something."

      "Okay but WHAT did you find?" Cameron asked, barely able to wait, voice laced with impatient, annoyed excitement.

      "We will tell you when we get there."

      We walked to the middle school, where Kimi was waiting. She immediately punched Cameron in the arm, gave me a dirty look, and went off down the wooded road leading to the apartments.

      I stood confused for a moment, "...Why did she do that?" I asked.

      "She fucking hates me, dude!" Cameron said, then laughed. We continued on and I followed the group down the streets, all the way to the apartments.

      "Hey Mrs. Johnson." Kai greeted Cameron's mother as we entered their apartment room.

      "Hello Kai! Hello Kimi!" She said, "And hello to you too, Emmy!"

     "Hello!" I said back, and followed the group into Cameron's bedroom, shutting the door behind me.

      "Gimme that juicy ass scoop, it should be illegal to make me wait this long!" Cameron said, crashing down on a blue bean bag chair, "Yo, Dom, pass me the cheese-its! Imma needa snack for this one."

      Dominik rolled his eyes a bit, but grabbed the box off a shelf and tossed it to him.

      Kai sat at his desk, while Kimi sat on top of it. Dominik took a seat on his bed, and I did, too.

      "Well," Dominik said, gesturing to the room, "go on, tell us!"

      "Kai and I were out skipping school at the baseball field yesterday. We were taking turns at hits until I got bored of it. We decided to go out and look in the woods around the place, but then we found something weird."

     Kai pulled out his cracked old phone, "I took some photos, but the quality isn't very good." He said as he flipped his phone to us. Through the cracks and bad quality, some sort of strange hole could be seen. "We got stuck in the rain so we couldn't stay very long."

      "Yo, dude, that looks like a portal to Hell or some shit." Cameron said, taking the phone from him. “Oh my God, I hope it’s a portal to Hell, that would be so fucking sick!”

      "I threw a stick down it. It's really deep." Kimi said.

      "That's not the only thing that's-" Cameron started, but Dominik threw a pillow at his face before he could finish.

      "What do you think it is?" I asked.

      "We have no idea." Kimi said, "We wanna go down and check it out this weekend if anyone wants to come with us."

      "Aw hell naw." Dominik said.

      "AW HELL YEAH!" Cameron yelled.

      I scoffed, "Oh, absolutely!"

      "Anyone except for you." She said.

      "Nope. She's comin' whether you like it or not." Cameron said.

      "Can confirm. I'm coming, no exceptions!" I said. "I've wanted this for ages."

      "I don't like her." She said, blatantly.

      "Well news flash, kid, you're not the person who gets to decide who's a part of this group or not." Cameron said.

     "I volunteer to not go in place of Emmy." Dominik said.

      "How about after school on Friday?" Kai suggested, changing the conversation.

      "Yeah, that should be good." I said.

      "I'm down to fuck with death any day!" Cameron said, punching his palm with his fist.

     "No." Dominik said. "I'm actually very busy on Friday, how about we change it to uhhh, to..."

      "Okay then, so Friday?" Kai asked for confirmation.

      "Yup." Cameron and I said.

      "I- no! I did not consent to this." Dominik said.

       "Friday!" Cameron and I cheered, while Dominik looked defeated. We continued to chant, "Fri-day! Fri-day! Fri-day!"

       We all went on to relax a bit. I properly introduced myself to Kimi and Kai, and we got to know each other a little bit better. Neither of them were really big talkers, so it was mostly me, but Kai was much more friendly than Kimi, even though Kimi was much more talkative than Kai.

      We all officially decided to come back to the apartments on Friday, after doing a bit of convincing with Dominik. We were going to take the nature trail that's down on that same road and follow it.

      Kimi and Kai said that they remembered where it was located, and that it shouldn't be a problem to stray from the path a bit to find it. That way it'd be harder to get lost. At five o'clock we all went home. The next day was Thursday, the day for the club sign-ups.

      The speaker beeped, followed by the typical static, "Good morning Melbrew students. Today is Thursday, September 29th, 2016. For lunch today, the cafeteria will be serving pizza, tomorrow will be ham sandwiches. The breakfast for tomorrow will be waffles. If you are going on Ms. Hogg's field trip in the spring, your permission slips are due before Christmas break. Sign ups for the book club, and History club, will be today in the cafeteria, and they will be meeting every other week. Have a good day, Melbrew."

      It had brushed over my head for the past few days, but I noticed it now. What was Ms. Hogg's field trip? She hadn't mentioned it at all during class, not even once.

       The day was average. I went and asked Dominik, Cameron, and Kai about the field trip, but they said they didn't know what it was for, either. Kai and I both had her as our biology teacher, but he said he didn't care enough to pay attention.

      I wanted to ask her myself, but approaching that teacher felt like it was a death sentence. Unfortunately, I didn't have any other ways of finding out. I was curious about it, and if I wanted to know, I would just have to find the guts to do it and ask her directly... oh boy, time to mentally prepare myself, I suppose.

      At lunch us four signed up for the history club, and a few other kids did, too. Kai snuck angry glances at them. Because of the presence of other kids, we'd have to hide the true nature of the club from them with a fake meeting. Once ninth period came to be, I took a few deep breaths as I walked down that silent, eerie hallway, thinking about what I was gonna say when I had to face that unsettling teacher.

      "Um, excuse me, Ms. Hogg?" I asked, walking into her classroom, then over to her desk. I felt so nervous, which rarely happens to me... yet it's happened constantly since moving here, and it's not even been a week yet!

      "What?" She said, voice lightly coated in annoyance, not looking up from whatever she was writing.

      "I noticed on the announcements this morning that you are going to be having a field trip this spring, may I ask what it's about?"

      She grumbled and mumbled a little bit before speaking, "I'm gonna be taking' everyone down to the ocean by the Pacific to look at all the different critters, but yins gotta pay for it. Ain't taking no one fo' free."

      "Oh, how much is the price?"

      She mumbled something under her breath, and went to dig through her desk before shoving a paper in front of me, "jus' take this and go sit down."

      "Oh, uh, okay, thank you!" I said, and took the paper to my desk. Veronica came in soon after and scoffed at my paper, disgusted.

      "Are you really thinking about going on that gross field trip?"

      "Huh. It's almost like someone is paying me 500 dollars to do the project." I said, "I think it would be a wise investment to get all the help I can with it." She rolled her eyes at me, the bell rang, and Ms. Hogg got on with her class.

      I thought a field trip to the ocean would be pretty cool! It also said the pay fee was only $20! I tucked the paper away into my bookbag, and walked home once the school day had ended. Completely opposite to Tuesday's pouring rain, it was a sunny sky with warm air and cool winds.

      "Wow, look hun! She's home today!" My mom said when I came inside.

      "Holy cow! Does she actually like us?" My dad said from the kitchen, preparing dinner.

      "Of course I like you."

      "Really?" My mom said, surprised, "You like us better than those boys?" She winked.

      I internally cringed and laughed awkwardly, "Yeah, okay. Is it okay if I hangout again tomorrow, though? We all have plans. Cameron, Dominik, Kai, Kimi, and I."

      "Of course you can, sweetie!" Mom said. "As long as you don't talk about murders or ghosts."

      "Okay thank you," I said, and ran up the stairs to my room. I rolled my eyes when I was out of sight. Oh, the cringe. I was ready to hit my head off the wall for three consecutive hours now.

      I changed into pajamas because I didn't have any other plans that evening. I decided to turn on the little television in my room and see what was on. All of my social media timelines were dry and I didn't feel like reading at the moment. I didn't have the mental capacity to actually do anything… maybe I should've went and hit my head off the wall for three consecutive hours?

      I began flipping through the channels, watching for a few seconds to decide if I wanted to stay, but nothing was really catching my eye. That is until I got to the local news station. How strange that the news is the only interesting thing on TV.

      I've watched the local station before, but usually it's nothing good. Just a dry old story of, "Wow, look at this beaver dam in the river!" Or, "This squirrel forgets how to climb! #funny" and small town stuff like that.

      This news story, however, was very different from the usual local reports. It was about this woman whose house was allegedly being haunted, according to her at least. I flipped to the channel when they were inside the house talking about the supposed spirit. She said that that she'll wake up and find the magnets on her fridge in different orders, or will hear strange bumps in the night. She said everyone in her family denied getting up and doing it.

      I wondered who she was, exactly. Her name was Laura Nova. I noticed that she lived in a house down at the base of the hill, by the library and mansion. The same side of town I was on. One of her daughters then came on screen, her name was Ava Nova.

      I knew that she was ten years old, and I think that was the age of a fourth grader. She showed the camera her scars on her neck, saying that she'll wake up with them randomly. They were in the shapes of scratches, but they didn't break the skin. Just red marks that seemed to stay. They then brought in a priest and were blessing the house and all that stuff.

      They went on to talk about how they found a mysterious little key that they hadn't seen before. Well, actually, it was anything but little, it was two feet long! Ava found it in the basement while she and her older sister, Nora, were cleaning up. It was old, gold, and didn't go with any lock in the house, obviously. They said it was weird but they weren't sure of what else it could be, that thing was huge! Because of that, I assumed it was just a decoration.

      Once that story was over, I got out my phone and went to text the chat I was added in. I didn't notice until now, but Cameron had named it, Stupid Name for a Group chat. I rolled my eyes and opened the empty chat.

You: hey first text

You: anyways

You: do you guys know Ava or Nora Nova?

Cameron: yuh ik nora y

You: Ava, Nora, and their mom were just on the local news station. Ava has scars all over her. They think they're haunted

Cameron: YO DUDE DAY SICK

Cameron: DAT

Dominik: I was watching that, I'm casual friends with Nora, she's a girl in our grade. Don't know her that well, though. It's been going on for a few weeks now, but the paranormal activity has only just started recently

You: I think she's in my gym class now that i think about it???

Cameron: u shld tlk 2 her

Cameron: in gym

You: I will

Cameron: Gud I gtg c u tmrw its sleepi time

You: It’s… five in the afternoon????

Cameron: i was up til 3 am yestefr day dont judge me

      The conversation ended there, and I turned off the TV. I decided to continue reading my book. I was still relatively at the beginning of the book. I started reading when I got here, called The MMR. It stands for Multicolored Monochrome room. It was about a 9 year old girl named Crynn who could see things that others couldn't, which led the cast somewhere strange, with even stranger people. It was a good book to put me in the mood of strange discoveries.

      As I slept that night I wondered if what those two found in the woods could be my world's MMR?

●●●

●●●

       What was up with that blonde girl? I couldn't shake it from my head as I made my way to the closest exit. Why did she care so much about reputation? I could understand it if it was her own reputation in jeopardy, typical "peaked in highschool" popular kid stuff. But this? She was concerned about the town and theories, not herself. Maybe she was more than some random mean girl, I wasn't sure, though I didn't really care at the moment.

       I walked out the same double doors that I did the day before. It was raining pretty hard, but luckily for me, I stood safely sheltered underneath a little roof. I was thinking about calling my mom to come and pick me up instead of walking home, but my focus was pulled elsewhere when I heard the doors click open behind me.

      "Hey Emmy!" Cameron said, quite loudly, as it was hard to hear over the pouring rain.

      "Oh, uh, hey." I said, a little confused, "How did you know I was out here?"

     He shrugged, "I was down one of these halls and Veronica's monster heels can be heard from a mile away, no pounding rain on a roof can change that. I looked down the hall and saw you go outside, so I was curious... I also leave out these doors anyway, so, I guess that's an explanation that makes more sense." He looked up at the sky, "Are you really gonna walk home in this?"

      "Well, I was thinking about calling my mom. Don't get me wrong I love the rain, but I'm not crazy." I said as I looked to the pavement of a parking lot, water splashing aggressively against it.

      "Hm. How about you come and hangout with Dominik and me?" He suggested, "My mom should be here any minute, and she wouldn't care, she's super chill, we just gotta wait for–"

      The sound of the door opened loudly, "I'm late! Don't leave without me!"

      "Dominik!" Cameron said, finishing his sentence. “Do I have perfect timing or what?” He said while nudging me with his elbow.

      "Hey Cam, what's Emmy doing here?"

      “I’m here because I’m trying to go home, but a deadly downpour is preventing me from doing so.”

      "Oh, can we take her home with us? Please?" Cameron asked, joking.

      "I'm not a dog," I said with a slight roll to my eyes. "And sure, if my parents allow me to. I mean, I just met you guys yesterday." I began dialing her number, then the phone rang.

      We had a short conversation, and then I hung up. “I’m good to go,” I said. "Or at least I think," I joked. "It's kinda hard to understand someone on the phone, especially when the weather is trying to get revenge on mother nature."

      "Hm, well then!" Cameron said, putting his hands on both of our shoulders the best he could, as he was a bit shorter than us, "An adventure awaits!"

       "Adventure?" I said, "I wouldn't say going down a few streets is an adventure."

       "Well, the start of an adventure, anyway!" He said, and spoke with confident assurance, "We're all gonna figure this out by the time Junior year is over. I'm sure of it. That is the adventure!"

      Cameron’s mom arrived shortly after I hung up the phone for my my own. She texted Cameron that she arrived, and us three ran around the building to the parking lot, where we jumped into the car. Despite our rush, we still got soaked in the downpour.

      "Hey mom!" Cameron said as he shut the car after hopping in after Dominik, "This is Emmy, she's coming with us!"

      "Hi!" I said, as I shut my door, quite suprised that he can just invite a random girl into his mom's car before even letting her know. "Hope I'm allowed to come along!"

      "Oh! No, you're fine!" She said, and proceeded to welcome me to the town apon discovering I'm new. She said she's not surprised we became friends so quickly, due to the three of us and our social, outgoing personalities.

       The three of them then talked about where they lived, and where they lived was an apartment building down that road I saw the day before. They both met each other there when they were young, and also became friends in school. They saw each other everyday. We arrived at the building and I observed it.

      It was a rather big building that lay at the end of a little street in the woods, seeming very out of place. There were a few houses around, but not too much. I noticed while driving there was an entrance to an abandoned looking nature trail and park. The building looked to be on its last legs, and it wasn't exactly the nicest, but hey, it was still standing, which I guess counts for something.

      "Don't judge a book by its cover, Emmy." Cameron said to me as he and Dominik pushed open the doors, "This place might not look too nice, but boy oh boy, do I get some good activity here! Do you know how many people have died in this building? Spoiler alert, It’s a whole lot, and that makes it a spirit gold mine!"

      "Oh, Cameron," His mom said, "I don't want to hear anymore about these ghosts, especially with your new friend here! It just drives me crazy, and I’m sure this nice girl doesn’t wanna hear it, either."

      "Sure, mom." He said, and mouthed, "Non-believer." to me, and smiled a bit.

      We walked up the stairs to the third floor, Cameron's room number was 26, down near the end of the hallway. We all went inside, and it looked just about how I expected it to. You walk right into the living room, and there's a small hallway straight ahead.

      "The bathroom is the door right next to the couch." Cameron's mom explained, "The kitchen area is through the doors to the left, and our rooms are down the hall to the right."

      "Thank you, Mrs...."

      "Mrs. Johnson." She said, smiling.

     "Right, thank you, Mrs. Johnson!" I said, and followed Cameron and Dominik into a room, which was his, shutting it behind myself.

      The walls and ceiling of his room were painted like a dark night-sky, with shades of blue and black. He had star, moon, and planet stickers covering every surface, and as I looked closer, I saw that there were some streams of spray on glitter to add to the atmospheric aesthetic. He had supernatural themed posters of ghosts, aliens, and cryptids, paper ghosts were hanging from the ceiling, bookshelves filled with books on conspiracies, a blow-up alien, and even a full plastic skeleton by his bed! He turned off the lights, and all the stickers lit up, they glowed in the dark. He then went and turned on a ghost lamp. Domink turned the lights back on.

      "Pretty cool, right?" Cameron said.

     "Hell yeah," I said. "Aesthetic on point, dude. I just have one question."

      "Ask away!"

      "Don't you rent this place?"

      "Yeah, why?"

      "Then how are your walls painted?"

      "Oh!" Cameron scoffed, "Lou doesn't care, that's why! They're the landlord. They're super chill and let us do whatever."

       "Ah, I see. One more question, though. Why is there a random apartment building at the end of a dead-end street in the woods?"

      Dominik fell back onto a green beanbag chair, "We're not sure. We think there might've been another town here a while ago, or something, since this is a really old building. Y'know, like a remnant of a really old place. That's just a theory, though. It is really odd." He agreed.

      "I've also always thought that this building was weirldly really fucking big." Cameron said, "Like, this place has seven floors!"

     "Technically, though, it only has three." Dominik said, "The basement, attic, and lobby are their own thing, and the fourth floor is off limits. We never got told why. It's only these three floors that people live on."

     "Yeah, there's a total of 45 rooms that can be lived in, but from what I know, only 11 are inhabited at the moment, so it's pretty fucking empty." Cameron said while digging for something under his bed. “So basically this building is like, almost abandoned.”

      "Mhm. And when it comes to Mr. Marshall, he's the only adult in this town that believes in the paranormal stuff going on. We made up the history club so we could all try and figure it out together. I mean, Cam and I were his favorite students last year, weren't we, Cam?"

      "Mmhm!" He said, mouth now full of cheddar chips he pulled from under his bed, "Mr. Marshall's been here his whole life, he knows there's some freaky shit goin' on, as does everyone who’s been livin' here for at least a week, I bet you." He shoved another handful of chips in his mouth, "The adults in this town are just… the worst case of skeptics I’ve ever seen. Most of ‘em think the whole Margret killed her family thing is BS. Mr. Marshall’s grandfather personally knew the Humphreys, Gregory Humphrey and him were real close, so I suppose it hits pretty close for the guy."

      "Anyways, let's get down to business," Dominik said, pushing Cameron off his bed, then lifting up the mattress. There was a whole ass conspiracy board under that thing. I thought that only existed in movies and cartoons! It was confirmed, I love these guys. So extra, and for what? Love it!

     Cameron got up and slapped the mattress, "This sweet info right here will be able to be moved to a more professional place our first meeting. You wanna hear what we have?"

      "Uh, duh!" I said.

      "This here is a picture of the Humphrey mansion." Dominik said, pointing to the first picture. "It is absolutely forbidden to trespass, but people still do it anyway, but of course you would know that, as you still trespassed, even if it wasn’t past the gates. Teens have come running out of that place with horror stories they can't tell because of legal trouble with the local police. They always come to us, because we're trusted."

      Cameron grabbed a folder that was underneath the mattress, "This right here is a collection of all the stories we were told, but our personal favorite is the one by Abigail Gordon, the girl who started it all. An absolute legend who kickstarted the discovery of truth, who inspired others to follow in her footsteps, quite literally!"

      Dominik went on, "In 2013 Abigail Gordon, along with her group of friends, snuck into the mansion’s backyard. They searched around for a while and managed to break into the house. They were actually the first ever people to get inside! They were the first of a movement, and many followed them in suit, but nothing has ever compared to this first encounter, at least in our opinion."

      Cameron spoke, "Once she and her three accounting friends made it inside, they noticed the silence, but it was a silence followed by the slightest tap, over and over again in repetition! They couldn't figure out where the source was, though. It seemed to be in the top floors of the house.”

     The way they told the story engaged me. They were obviously incredibly fascinated and intrigued by this.

      Dominik continued, "They assumed that it was just an old house noise, as anyone would typically. They explored the house but didn't really find anything interesting. That is until they finally discovered what the source of the tapping was. Now, you probably think someone was in the house, but that assumption would be wrong… At least in the way you’re probably thinking."

      Cameron could barely contain his excitement, and went on like he was making a profound statement. "They go up the stairs to where Grand old Mrs. Margret Clarabelle Humphrey was hanging by a noose! The wind of the open window, knocking her corpse against the wall! They bolted out of that shit faster than diarrhea shoots out my ass!"

     "Okay Cam, that's enough." Dominik said.

      "Do not silence me, I'm hilarious. Anyway, she and her friends were pretty much scarred after that. They never told the local police as they didn't feel it was necessary, and they would also get into loads of legal trouble for trespassing. Abigail did eventually come to us though, obviously. The old lady had been dead for 100s of years, her corpse was barely even a body, just a rotten heap of bones that was still somehow held together. They said there wasn't really a bad odor, but she's been there for a while, and I assume that window had always been open, so the odor must've escaped that way. No one else would've smelt it, it was too far from other homes."

     "Wow, you either talk like you have no idea what pronunciation and grammar are, or like you're an English major... But anyway, wasn't there a police investigation? You said this woman killed her family, wouldn't they look for and find her body?"

      "First of all I can talk right when I wanna, talking right is too much work. Second of all, No one actually knows if she killed her family, it’s all jus' speculation by a small number of people, us included. The whole history of this town is really complex, but we do have a book that might be helpful to catch ya up to speed." Dominik must've known what he was talking about, because he immediately got up to search Cameron’s shelves for it.

      "We usually try to keep our bookshelves organized, but they've gotten out of hand recently... found it!" He said as he then pulled a large hardcover book off the shelf. He brushed it off and presented it to me.

      "Voilà!" He said, and I took the book from him, "The complete story of this town, its founders, and the infamous Humphrey family murder tragedy."

      I opened the book carefully. It had pictures and other sorts of stuff in papers. It was a mess of organized chaos.

      "It was written by a man named Robert J. Wright," Dominik said, "he practically disappeared off the face of the Earth right after he wrote this, but we managed to get our hands on this book. It was in the back section of the town’s library and seemed to be hidden away. Don't tell anyone, but we stole it. Well, Kimi stole it. If they even noticed it was gone, they wouldn't know who took it."

     "I know that she told you and all, but how did you find out about Abigail's story? You said this was in 2013."

      "Yes, it was." Cameron said, "She was a sophomore at the time that happened, we were in the 7th grade. When we were freshmen, she was a senior. Dom and I made our fascination for the family commonly known, and we gained a reputation around the school rather quickly. Once word got around, she trusted her story to us. She was the first person to come forward about their illegal findings. After she came out, other people began coming to us, too. Most would simply type it anonymously and leave it inside our lockers. We started keeping all the papers in a folder, and wrote down the ones that were told to us verbally. I know it might seem like a weird and pointless obsession, but it's much deeper than what it seems on the surface. This book right here will tell you it all."

      "So, do I like, get to keep this, or do I read it now?"

      Dominik shrugged, "That's up to you. You could chill out and read it now, or you could sneak it home. If you do the ladder, however, do not let that book get ruined, misplaced, or anything of that nature. This is a pure made book, written with pen and ink. It's one of a kind. Kai and Kimi would also kill you if that happened." He thought for a second, "You know, we actually contributed to a large section of this book."

      "Huh? Really? How?"

      Cameron explained, "So there was this real tiny ad in the back of a newspaper two years ago with an email attached to it. It said he needed any information anyone had on the Humphrey family, as he was gatherin' it all up to analyze. He was the only adult I ever heard belivin' this stuff at the time. So anyways we asked everyone who came forward if we could submit excerpts of their stories and we did. We sent 'em anonymously, and then the beiginin' a last year we nearly done shat our pants. Okay so we were in the local library and in the very back corner Kimi found a handwritten book that he wrote and we were like holy SHIT that was FAST! We sent that shit in near the end of freshman year and found it the beginning of Sophomore this dude is an analyzing and writing God to me I tell you. That man must have super powers over the summer or some shit."

      "But why was it in the library? Why was it handwritten?" I asked.

      "Lol dude we have no idea, it confuses us, too. Kimi was the one who found and stole this bad bitch and I thank the little brat for doin' so."

      I decided I would take the book home, as I was wanting to get to know them more. They gave me a case to put it in to protect it, and put it in my bookbag. Even though it was new and in good condition, they wanted to make sure it stayed that way. They marked a small excerpt for me to read, the very beginning section. They said it was the most important for a simple introduction.

      While I was there, we helped each other with our leftover schoolwork, and talked. They were both really smart, even if Cameron didn't really seem it on the surface. My mom came and picked me up around seven, as she said it was too dark for me to walk home alone.

      Once the door to the car slammed shut, I didn't even let my mom get out a single word, "Did you know there was a murder in that old mansion on the hill?"

      "Jeez, Emmy, I leave you with friends for a few hours and you're already talking about murder! There was no murder there, I did an extensive background check!"

      "But it's not a conspiracy, it actually happened! The only conspiracy about the murder is how they died."

      "I've seen nothing of the sorts, don't be silly." She said, and I could practically hear the eyeroll in her voice.

      "But it's a fact."

      "If those boys got this drilled in your head I won't let you continue hanging out with them. For God's sake Emmy you've been going to school for two days!"

      It was apparent to me now that the whole case must've been covered up online and whatnot. They must not want anyone to know, but that makes sense. Who would willingly move into a town where people were murdered? I probably shouldn't say anything else, but I did assume that she would have at least heard about it. I was incorrect, though.

       When I got home I had dinner, and then changed into pajamas. I went and read the excerpt they sectioned before going to sleep.

> The History of Melbrew

> A book by Robert J. Wright

      The town of Melbrew was founded by Viktor and Alexander Melbrew, two brothers, in the year 1872. Once the 1880s came around, the town was bustling, but with a class divide. A rich family with the last name of Humphrey lived in the town. A mansion was built atop the hill just for them. They were the town's wealth, its income. Viktor and Alexander loved them for that. The family helped the little town tremendously.

      The family consisted of the father, Gregory; the mother, Margret; and their two kids. A 9 year old boy named Kimpton, and a 6 year old girl named Stella. In the 1890s, however, the Humphreys stopped showing their faces in the public eye. People were getting concerned, but gave the rich family their privacy. After a few weeks, though, people started to interfere.

      The local police were trying to get their attention, knocking on the gates and shouting, attempting to get a response. After some time with no signs of life, they broke open the doors, and were greeted with a horrific scene. The now 10 year old Kimpton lay dead on the floor, his arms torn from his body, axe scars chopped into his skin. They searched around furthermore and found the young little Stella, still clutching her bear, her body cut in half. Then they found the father Gregory laying on a bedroom floor, the lower half of his body missing.

      They searched more, but couldn't find the mother. They decided that her body was destroyed entirely, or she had fled, or been hidden. The news got put out almost immediately, and the town was put into a panic. It lost its wealth and a lot of people moved out after that due to fear. As the years went on, the town became what it is today, but people aren't so sure that the mother was completely missing.

      Speculation started that she might've been the one to kill her own family, and she ran away from the law. She always seemed off to a lot of people, especially to those who knew her personally. A story was brought to my attention anonymously about a group of people who snuck into the mansion. They reported in their letter that they found the mother's body hanging by a noose, completely decayed. This leads me and a few rare others to believe that after she killed her family, she killed herself as well.

      The person who murdered them obviously had a favorite method, noting the missing of the limbs and chopping of the body. If she was also killed like the rest of her family, why would she be hanged? And why hidden in the attic? Could the killer have perhaps wanted to make it look like she did it, to avoid the blame on themselves? If so, it's a clever tactic, but if so, how? And why is it that the police didn't find her body upon investigation? Is this story just a lie, or could they have possibly seen the ghost of Margret Clarabelle Humphrey?

      My name is Robert J. Wright, and this is my analysis. 

●●●

●●●

     The alarm on my phone went off at five in the morning the next day. I groaned in annoyance as I turned it off, angry at whoever invented alarm clocks... and time... and the concept of needing to do anything, ever. Though that was only after I turned it off, I may or may not go into fight or flight everytime I hear it.

       I knew I'd go right back to sleep if I didn't get up immediately, so I begrudgingly pushed the covers off my body. Cold autumn air sent shivers across my skin, and upon noticing I'd awoken, Benny began to yell at me for breakfast. Seems my parents were already gone for the day. Already out of the house before 5 am, and I barely ever see them in the evenings, too.

       I rubbed my eyes and grabbed the clothes I set out to wear that day, and went to shower after giving Benny his food. The bathroom we had wasn't the most spectacular around, but it wasn't really a bad one, either. Just kinda eh. I guess that's how you could describe everything in this town, just eh... though most people might say ew instead.

       When I got out of the shower, I decided to dry my hair before doing anything else, as I normally do. When I was done with that, I pulled it into a high ponytail, and got dressed. Same, but different, black turtleneck, grey leggings, and the same black boots that I wore yesterday evening.

       I made some quick toast for breakfast, gave Benny some head pats, and I was off out the door. When I stepped out into the front porch of my house, the atmosphere around was the same as it always is. Slight rain, grey sky, and chilly winds. Walking though my northern neighborhood, over the bridge, past the houses, it was quite a walk. I was going to be in such good shape by the end of the year.

          Arriving at school was the same as the day before, though I did feel a lot more relaxed knowing what to expect from it. My day then went on as one would expect a school day to go, that is until fourth period came around.

      When I walked into my history classroom, Mr. Marshall was sitting at his desk turned away from the door. There were currently three kids in the room, one of which was Dominik reading a book. He looked up, his eyes moving from the paper to me. I watched as his jaw dropped, surprise immediately entering his face as he briefly covered his mouth with his hand after a small gasp.

      His reaction towards seeing me made me scrunch my face in confusion. "Uhhh... what?" I asked. He got out of his seat and walked up to me.

      "Where did you find that necklace? Where did you find it?" He whispered frantically, pointing to the necklace I was wearing, the one that I found yesterday evening.

      "Uh, up by that giant old house on the hill... why?"

      "Oh sh-hoot!" he whispered loudly, "Deadass? You're lying. No. You found Stella Humphrey's necklace!"

      "What? Who... who's Stella Humphrey?" I asked, a little louder, which caused Mr. Marshall to turn around in his seat. Some fellow classmates coming into class also seemed to take notice, but they appeared to not show much interest besides the quick glance.

      "Yo, she found Stella Humphrey's necklace!" Dominik said excitedly the second he noticed Mr. Marshall's attention was now grabbed. Mr. Marshall looked excited now, too.

      "But who is Stella Humphrey?!" I asked again. "And why is her necklace so important? She a famous person, or something? I don't get it!"

      "Join the history club and you can find out." Mr. Marshall said, and stood up from his chair, "May I see it?"

      I was really confused, but took off the necklace and handed it to Mr. Marshall, placing it in his hand. He examined it, "This necklace dates back all the way to over a hundred years ago," he said in awe, "I can't believe the condition it's in! It's practically brand new aside from all the dirt." Then the bell rang, signaling the start of class. "Do you mind if I hold onto this? Just for right now?"

      I shrugged, "I mean, sure, it's not mine." I took my seat, and he got on with his class. When Dominik and I were heading to fifth period, I was practically begging him to tell me who this girl was... but then I remembered. "Wait, I recognize that name... that was one of the names on the graves that are by that big house on the hill."

      "Wait– you actually went up to the house?!" He quietly exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you nuts or something? That place is boarded up with caution tape and warning signs and you STILL on your first DAY decided to go up it?!"

      "Well, I mean, yeah, I was out walking and I was curious. What are they gonna do, find me walking around a road and arrest me?"

       "Yes! People can and do get arrested for being up in the northwest woods too close to the mansion. I would know, Cam and I have all the stories. Did you actually get through the fence?"

       "Oh, no, no, no, I'm not that stupid. It was lying on the other side of the fence, or gates, or whatever. I didn't jump it, it was just sitting in the ground within arms reach. anyone could've grabbed it, honestly. Just stuck my hand right through the bars and it was there. I don't get why a necklace that's apparently so important would be that easy to take, it doesn't make sense. That's why I was so confused."

      "Yeah, that is pretty strange, but still. I'm glad Cameron wasn't with you, he's been dying to get into that house since we were kids. He would've definitely jumped the gate right then and there. That impulsiveness is gonna get him killed one day."

      "Can you tell me who she was now? Please?"

      "Yes, yes, alright. Her last name is Humphrey, obviously. Back in the late 1800s, the Humphrey family was the source of income for this town. They lived in that big mansion on top of the hill, where you found the necklace, obviously. They were rich, and the two brothers who founded this town loved them because of it. Stella was the 6 year old daughter, I'll have to show you some paintings and all, but there was this whole mystery involving the mother. People think she murdered her family. I think we mentioned it briefly yesterday?"

      "Yeah, holy shit." I said.

      "More like un-holy shit, but yeah. People think their souls haunt the mansion, and typical small-town horror stuff like that. People used to try and get inside, where they would then report back to us. Some of the submissions have really weird things in them, but others, we're pretty sure are fake. It's a real-life mystery movie in this town, but it's all just speculation, not too much proof, but it's there. It's kinda complicated, you'd need some backstory."

      "Oh, I am totally joining this club. I've loved this stuff forever, this is practically a dream come true!"

      "Good, you'll have fun here. Mr. Marshall's first year teaching was last year, when we were sophomores. He got to know Cam and me, and he actually started teaching because he wanted to find others who believed in this stuff. Most adults didn't, they thought it was just our teenage minds going wild, you know, the usual. He felt sure he could find some younger people who would be interested in the mysteries, while also getting to teach at the same time. Luckily world history was his favorite subject, so he could do it. This is how he found our group, and maybe, you didn't find us, you were led to us. That sounds like a conspiracy-like reach, but Cameron can explain it all." He said as we finally approached the computer room.

      We took our seats next to Cameron, and Dominik explained a bit about what happened the previous period. He looked surprised and excited, but then again, Cameron always looked excited. I knew that much just from my second day.

      "Dude, holy shit. That's like an ancient relic! You said Mr. Marshall has it rn?" He said, actually saying the letters RN, as if he were writing a text.

      "Yeah, he asked if he could hold onto it for a moment, which implies he'll be giving it back, but I don't know what he would need to borrow it for in the first place."

      "He likes to collect things. He probably wants to at least have a picture of it or something. Either that or he just said that so you'd give it to him." Dominik said.

      "Well, I guess there's no point in wondering about it. Do either of you know where the sign ups will be Thursday?" I asked.

      "During lunch in the cafeteria," Dominik said, "the meetings'll be held in his room. I doubt many people would want to sign up, so hopefully it's just us and we won't have to hide anything from other members. That, and they'll be such a nuisance if they're there. We'd have to hold fake meetings and suffer through them to get to the good stuff."

      "I'm excited." I said.

      "Oh, trust me, we all are, dude. This is the year I'm finally gonna make progress on this, just you wait! Oh, I can see it now, Cameron Johnson solves the Humphrey family murder mystery! They'll all see I wasn't crazy, I'll show them! HahaHA!"

       "Cameron, buddy," Dominik said, "when you were a kid you put tin foil hats in people's mailboxes to protect them from an upcoming alien invasion."

       "Hey! Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it never will! My next bet's on 2021! I hope I'm in space while it's happening, that would be so cool! I'll be fighting aliens and shit."

       "... Right." Dominik said, changing the subject, "So uh, Kimi will, unfortunately, also be in the club, and all that, but not officially as she's a middle school student. As much as Kai hates her, he needs to have her around, and I understand. She's all he really has left."

      "How do those two even fall into this group?" I asked.

      Cameron answered, "Kai and I used to be on a baseball team together when we were younger, so we became friends from that. I only really know Kimi since they were close and she's his sister. We both quit freshman year... He and Kimi were never the same after uhh... after a thing happened. They took an interest in all the paranormal stuff from me. I know Kai can be quiet and brutally honest, and Kimi is really unpleasant to be around, but try to be patient with them." he said, and the teacher spoke to start the lesson.

      The rest of the day was fine. Dominik and Cameron talked with me at lunch, and we got to know each other a bit better. I took notice of Kai's absence.

      "Why isn't Kai here?" I asked.

      "What, you think we're his babysitters, or something?" Cameron said. "He and Kimi miss school a lot. And even when they're here they often choose to be loners and ignore people."

      "Lots of people seem to be quiet and distant here." I said, "I've never heard a cafeteria room so quiet before! But I guess I've only ever heard one, before. I bet Libby would've been super loud in hers."

     "Who?"

      "A girl who was one of my old friend's younger sister. She was wild. And she would've loved this lunch, too." I said as I looked at the tacos people around the room ate, "She had such a weird obsession with tacos. It became an inside joke where everyday she would apparently ask her friends if it's taco Tuesday, and it was the first thing she'd ask me anytime she saw me. She actually went missing almost a year ago now."

      "She went missing?!" Cameron said, "how?"

      "I dunno. She and her friend, Jacob, just never returned home on Halloween, so we all just assumed they were murdered or kidnapped. They were only 14. We don't know for sure yet, and I think the police are still searching, just probably not as intensely as last year. Last time I talked to her was at her older brother's birthday party, the one who was my friend. I knew her kinda like how you know Kimi. I know if she was here though, she would definitely say something weird, because she was weird..."

      But not as weird as Ms. Hogg.

      There was something off about that woman, but I couldn't quite describe what. She's just the type person who gives off weird vibes for some reason, even if she looks perfectly normal and fine. I didn't have gym class today, so that meant I had her for both 8th and 9th period. When I stepped into her classroom I was greeted with a bitter chill and the faintest scent of... metal? It was certainly unpleasant.

      In the back of her classroom she had all kinds of weird things. They weren't strange or uncommon for a biology teacher to have, but it just creeped me out nonetheless. If it were some other teacher, I wouldn't question it, and probably think it was cool, but it all just rubbed me the wrong way, with the atmosphere and all that.

      Sitting on shelves behind glass windows were pinned bugs, animal fetuses in jars, real stuffed animals, skulls, all that kind of stuff. There was even a jar full of "pig eyes" according to the label. There were chicken feet, disembodied animal heads, it was all so unsettling. I felt like they were watching me. I shivered, and felt the need to look back at them while I walked to my seat.

      She started the class after a few minutes, and began to speak in her old, gruff voice about our midterm project. Basically, instead of taking a test for our midterm exams, we were going to be working on a project throughout the year, that would be due by early May.

      We were instructed to choose between three different options, listed on the sheet of paper she passed out, along with further instructions:

Option 1) Collect, pin, and label twenty different types bugs.

Option 2) Collect, preserve, and label 15 different types of plants/flowers.

Option 3) Kill a small animal, and bring in its skull.

      That last one caused me to make a face. Did I read that right? That's absurd! I shivered a bit more, and was quite unnerved by it being a school project. Who's allowing this? I told you, this woman has weird vibes and I don't like it!

      This was going to be a group project, so that meant we had to pick partners, and be in pairs of two. Naturally, everyone but the new girl found a partner really easily. Great. I dreaded having to be paired with someone, because usually when you're forcefully paired with someone, it's you and the one kid who doesn't contribute anything to groups projects, hence why they have no partner.

      Well, either that, or, you have the odd group of three. But unfortunately for me, the second was closer to the outcome. There was one girl who was having a bit of a problem, the same girl who pushed me in the hallway yesterday. I could immediately tell these girls were the typical "popular" crowd by the way they talked and argued with Ms. Hogg. I'm not one to judge, but I was dreading the fact I was most definitely going to get paired with one of them.

      The girl who pushed me was really tall, but that could just be because of her really high high-heeled black boots. They had to have been like, five inch heels, and they went up into her long black skirt, that went down below her knees. She had on a light pink shirt that fell over her shoulders, and a headband of the same color.

      She was your typical pale, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl who was over the top to garner attention and damnit it worked, because I was looking! Her blonde hair was so light it was almost white, and the length went to her shoulders. I didnt think a stereotype so accurate could exist in the real world! But then again, I suppose stereotypes exist for a reason.

      She wanted to form a group of three with two of her friends who were too bland and boring for me to bother describing. Again, typical popular girl appearances. The difference between them and the blonde girl was that the blonde girl looked rich and way too over the top (though it could've just been those boots because damn wtf).

      She was very insistent about wanting to be with her two friends, but Ms. Hogg wasn't having it. After quite some time of arguing, she was forced to group with me, as she was the one complaining the most, and I was left without a partner. Just was I expected. Great. I'm already the social weirdo, I was not looking forward to being picked on by some mightier-than-thou, peaked-in-highschool mean girl.

      Ms. Hogg went on to explain the project in more detail, and what we would have to be doing for each of them. That covered the whole first period, pretty much. For the second period, we were allowed to have free time, which I was thankful for as I happily plugged in my earphones to listen to music.

      I did notice the blonde girl talking to her friends, while sneaking occasional glances at me, but I paid no mind to it. It's not worth my concern when there's nothing I can do about it. When the bell rang I went to leave the classroom, but not before the blonde girl had a quick word with me.

      She pulled on the back of my shirt, and tugged me back a bit, "I hope you know how stupid you are talking to those kids, I know you talk to them," She said quietly, sounding like a threat, "They're crazy and give this town a bad reputation. Don't further it." And with that, she walked off, her big heels gracefully, and loudly, tapping against the floor, echoing just as they had the day before.

●●●

●●●

       After getting over my shock of being pushed I got up, brushing off my clothes, feeling a bit shaken and confused. I exited the school through the back doors of the science hallway, and made my way down the stretch of road that would lead me home. It was quiet, and lightly raining, the pins and needles type that you only slightly feel. Sort of like a mist. The sky and atmosphere was grey, and that comforted me. It was as if the world had grown calm and soft, the stillness in the air felt relaxing rather than creepy.

      When I arrived home, I told my parents everything I learned that day, as well as the strange things that I felt. Minus the whole history club truth thing, of course. I promised I was trustworthy, and I was. It didn't even matter if I did tell them the truth of it though, they dismissed everything as typical boys trying to scare the new girl. I didn't really expect them to believe me, but I guess they were more so in disbelief of what I was told rather than me myself. I couldn't even argue with them because afterall, they could be right as far as I was concerned.

      I walked up the stairs to my bedroom, creaking beneath my feet as the whole house seemed to do. In the hallway Benny was sat on his cat tree bed, greeting me with a "Purrp!" as he then rolled onto his side. I pet him for a few moments as he purred loudly as a motorboat, making biscuits in the air with his paws. He quickly jumped to the floor and followed me to my room as I turned the knob on my door.

       I went to get changed into something more comfortable, even if it wasn't pajamas. There's just something not very nice about keeping on the same sweaty clothes that you've been wearing all day. I pulled the black and purple striped sweater off my body, feeling better afterwards. I know it's Autumn and it's chilly, but when you're not outside where it's actually cold the double layers can get quite hot. That's why I'll never understand parents bothering their kids about wearing a coat all the time. Do you think I'm gonna be outside all day or what?

      I looked at myself in the mirror a bit, I'd only just gotten it the day before. A small painting-like mirror which hung on my wall that I got at a local thrift store not far from the house. I ran my hands down my face, that Kimi girl calling me freckle face was certainly a new one. I chuckled thinking back to her bluntness.

       Benny jumped up onto my bed, and then onto the window sill as he looked outside. My window faced out towards the farm across the street, and out to the left was a tree. I noticed his tail begin to swish back and forth in a hunting motion, he was probably looking at a bird. I would sure hope so considering he seemed to be looking at nothing.

       Everything was just so strange, I know I'm a broken record, but I just haven't been able to shake it from my mind since we got there. I plopped down on my bed with a sigh, and looked randomly around my room. The dust had been cleaned of the floors and I've fixed up the peeling wallpaper a bit, wanting to completely replace it eventually. I got a dresser moved in, a TV stand, and the few other furniture we bought from the store. We pretty much left everything behind. It was ironically cheaper to buy all new furniture than it was to bring it with us. I didn't get it, but whatever. My parents didn't wanna hire a moving company because it would be too expensive.

      I went and took off my knee-length brown boots. I was left in my long sleeve turtleneck, my leggings, and my socks, which were all black. Wow, at my old middle school I'd definitely get called to the guidance office for that. The guidance counselor once told me to stop wearing black because it apparently meant I was depressed, I mean, did she expect me to be cured of my non-existent depression if I stopped wearing black, or something?

      I pulled my hair out of its low ponytail and bushed it for a bit. I was always surprised how tangled it managed to get in the span of one day, especially because I often never let it down. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, so I just continued to sit in my room, and thunk for a little while. Usually I would do homework, but I got all of it done in school. I decided to listen to some music and read until I got bored.

      At five, I decided I would go out and look around for however long I felt like. It would be good to get to know the town and where things are located. I put on a pair of black boots and decided to head out, keeping my hair down, which I rarely do. I don't like it all in my face most times, but I put on a headband to help with that.

      Before I left I took a bag and a pocket knife with me, because I certainly wasn't going to walk around alone in a town like this unarmed. Might just be paranoia, but it's better to be safe than sorry, especially as a teenage girl. When I was ready I told my parents I was going to look around for a bit. Before I was able to close the front door, Benny darted outside in a flash. I suppose he's fine as long as he's with me, he did always like to follow me around when I was outside. I was just a bit concerned about the wildlife here, as this place was much more rural than our previous home.

       I stepped down off the porch and walked down the stone pathway to the road. Benny eagerly followed me with a little jog. For being an older cat, he sure was agile. I took in a deep breath, breathing in the cold, misty air, the Autumn wind blowing lightly.

      I could still feel the little raindrops from earlier stabbing my face in an ever so graceful manner. It was now the evening, which means the more minutes that ticked by, the darker it got. It actually wasn't a bad town, just a little bit off-putting and in need of a few slight touch ups. I wasn't someone who liked really fancy things, so the old feel of the town was actually something I really liked.

      I felt like some kind of edge lord wearing all black, but it didn't feel too out of place here in a town like this. The only thing that was missing was a black cat, though alas, Benny was a fat, brown, green-eyed tabby. He reminded me a lot of a dog in a cat's body as he followed behind me, staying close to the side of the road. He'd occasionally stop and sniff random smells before trotting back up to me.

       The sky was still grey, and it seemed like the weather didn't really change much, but I had expected a lot of rain since before we moved here. Everything was totally quiet except for the occasional wind and the barely audible tapping of the raindrops that slowly got thicker. Another dog-like trait about old Benny boy is that he doesn't care about getting wet. Silliest cat ever, I tell you.

       I was walking down the road from my house to the school. The street was lined with houses, and trees stood tall behind them. My house was located on the practically abandoned side of town. I don't mean that in a bad way, though. Sure, some houses looked decrepit and run down, but most of them were normal old houses for sale. Here on the Northernmost side of town "For Sale" signs were in practically every front yard. It was the side that an old mansion and cemetery were on, so I guess that could be a factor as to why. No one wants to live up here, but they are cheaper, so that's a plus.

       It was strangely calming, though, but I've said that a lot. It just is. Being around all these empty houses, a town devoid of people. I approached the cutoff at the Melbrew River, which cut through the town, separating the void north from the middle and south parts. I stood on the bridge for a while as I looked out to the flowing water beneath me.

      There was something that I loved about the water. The smell, the feeling, the emotion. The smell of rain, autumn, and cold air. It was great. I had a feeling it would be hard to walk to school without getting distracted by the bridge. I could sit on it for hours, and Benny agreed as he jumped up on the ledge with me to get some pets.

       Once crossing the bridge you've got more residential houses, and locally owned shops, and businesses. Things immediately began to feel more lively than they did up by my house. Children yelled in the distance, and inside some houses I could hear people's TVs playing. Lights lit up the insides, and some people even sat on their porches, reading a book or drinking their evening tea. Completely different from the dark and empty part my house was in.

       On this side of town, Halloween themed flags waved outside the houses, while others had pumpkins, scarecrows, and more seasonal decorations. I saw a black cat in the window of one house, and waved to him, telling Benny he has a friend in the window.

      Instead of continuing down the road that would lead to school, I decided to take a right. It was a residential road with houses on both sides. On the corner of the street at the other side, there was an ice cream shop and a diner. I decided to head down a side street that led into the woods, at the most Southwestern part of town.

      The side streets in the town were made of gravel, and fully surrounded by woods. From what I could tell, houses were scarce, but the ones that were there looked incredibly creepy. These little shelters built into the forest, with moss and vines growing up the sides. There was a no outlet sign at the entrance, so I was curious what was at the end.

      As I walked down the road, I began to hear voices in the distance. Benny seemed to be on alert at the sound of people, refusing to follow me any further. The voices became more and more clear the closer I got. When I could finally make out their conversation, I recognized the voices as the people I met earlier that day.

      "Oh, come on, Kimi!" I heard Cameron say loudly in the distance as I continued to get closer still, "It's not like I spilled every single illegal thing we've ever done to her!"

      "You still told a girl you just met that the history club isn't a real history club! It's supposed to be a club just for us, everyone else is going to get faked! And if you don't care about that, then you should at least consider that if she tells anyone about it you could get him fired!" Kimi's whiney voice yelled.

      "Mr. Marshall didn't have a problem with it, Kimi, it's not that deep. In fact, he even told me to tell her about it himself. We didn't even say anything bad, we just said we're going to look over the paranormal conspiracy stuff that happens, and the Humphrey family murder, and last time I checked the Humphrey family counts as history. Also, you'd have to be braindead to not know about either of those things and still live in this town. Do you think we're idiots?" I heard Dominik say.

      "You can't just tell a complete stranger who just moved here all of these things! They can't tell them, right, Kai?"

      The road was curvy, so I stayed out of sight between the tall, thin trees. I could see them as I peered around a corner. Kai simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "She seemed trustworthy enough."

      "Trustworthy enough?!" Kimi sounded shocked and angry, "How can you stand there and just say she looked trustworthy enough?! Just looked like it, slightly? Are you people just that careless? I know Cameron is but I expected better of you two because you two aren't supposed to be fucking idiots!"

      "God damn, Kimi, Calm do-" Dominik said.

      "DON'T TELL ME TO BE CALM!" She screeched, practically echoing throught the forest. Everything went silent, but just for one second.

      "It is not that deep, stop yelling!" Cameron yelled back.

      "I'll stop yelling when you stop yelling!"

      "What are you guys? Five?!" Dominik said.

      "Do you wanna fight, little Miss throw hands?!" Cameron said, ignoring Dominik, putting up his fists in an exaggerated fighting pose.

      "Don't fight my sister." Kai said, still monotone.

      "Yes, I would love to fight!" Kimi yelled.

      "No." Kai said.

      "Then let's fucking fight!" Cameron yelled, punching his first into the palm of his hand.

      "Let's not fucking fight." Kai said.

      "Cameron, I think that would be assaulting a child." Dominik said, "Don't fight a 12-year-old girl!"

      "You calling me a child?!" Kimi said.

      "You literally are a child!" Dominik exclaimed, stretching his arms out in bewilderment.

      "Yet I could probably still beat your dumbass."

     I decided that I should probably step in and stop this, so I went around the corner and began walking towards them, "Um, excuse me, I hate to be of disturbance to this lovely conversation you seem to be having, but I presume that I'm the cause of all this?" I yelled loud enough for them to hear me.

      "I will rip your face off, you overly-polite sack of–!" Kimi yelled very loudly, though Kai slapped his hand over her mouth last second before she could curse, looking and sounding constantly done with everyone's crap. I'm not even exaggerating. That man had a blank face 24/7 but in that face I saw an overworked 47 year old dad who's ready to go to the grave, but also doubles as an edgy teenage loner.

      "You were the one that caused this, but that is okay, because Kimora is over dramatic and always wants to fight people for any reason that she can come up with. We are leaving now." He said, and began to walk away, pulling his little sister with him.

      "LET GO OF ME I AM NOT FINISHED HERE!" Kimi yelled, trying to pull herself away from his grip.

      "Well I am." He said, sounding tired.

      They disappeared into the distance down the road I came from, and Dominik shook his head sadly, "That kid drives me insane. I sometimes wonder how Kai deals with that fiery ball of aggression. It's quite sad too because they both used to be so different."

      "Sorry that you had to find us in the middle of an argument, dude. As you can probably tell, she wasn't too happy that we told you about some of our secret shit, even though we really didn't tell you about any of our secret shit. It was just that we have secret shit." Cameron said.

      "Well, I'm sorry to have caused a conflict. I am interested in it, though." I said honestly.

      Cameron waved his hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it, it's not you, it's Kimi. Honestly, you should feel honored, your first day at Melbrew and you managed to hit a gold mine of town information getting to know us!"

      "Do you have some sort of ego, or something?"

      "Yes." Dominik said, "Oh God, Yes."

      "Hehe, I pride myself on my knowledge. You also can't lie that she's lucky enough to get this all on the first day, too. You're extremely easy to get along with, you know that, Emeline?"

      "I've been told that before, yes. I'm not one for causing conflict, though I guess I managed to do just that. Why were you guys out here, anyway?"

      "We were just hanging out, but then my dumbass started talking about you and Kimi got pissed at me as per usual." Cameron said. "Nothing new there."

      A phone soon rang, and Dominik picked it up. He said a few yeahs and okays and shortly hung up. "That was my mom, she wants me home for dinner soon."

      "Yeeeah, I guess I should be going, too," Cameron said, following alongside Dominik, "Muh mum's makin' potatoes. I love me some fuckin' potatoes. Catch you later, Emeline." He said, putting up finger guns. They walked off down the street together, farther into the woods.

       I began to head back out, calling for Benny. He popped up out of the woods and ran up to me, hitting his head against my ankles. Once back out on the actual roads, I took a seat on the propped up sidewalk, giving Benny the pets and attention he wanted constantly.

       Was Kimi really just an unnecessary ball of anger, or were they really doing some kind of shady stuff they shouldn't have told me about? Cameron did mention doing illegal things, but what could that possibly mean? What illegal things could you even do in a small town like this, especially if they're– as I assume– mystery related? What, did they rob a store for ghost hunting equipment, or something?

      I began to walk home, taking a different route than the one I came from. My thoughts were running wild, I was certain there was something going on here, but what? According to Kimi it's something much deeper than I should know about, or be trusted with. Like, where am I right now? Gravity Falls if it was one more state north? Who's gonna be the demon to bring the apocalypse, and how long will it take? If you tell me twenty years from now I'm gonna be upset.

      I was determined to find out what's going on, I'd just have to show Kimi that she could trust me. I've always been into mystery shows and books, but I guess I'm in one now? So, uh, that's cool. Fits the vibe.

      As I headed up to the Northwest side of town, I got an eerie feeling. Not the same eerie feeling as before, one that was now making me genuinely unsettled. The same kind of feeling I got earlier that day when I was in Ms. Hogg's class. The sky grew darker as the day headed into later hours, making the scenery even worse than it would have already been in the daylight. It happened basically right as I stepped off of the bridge, a different one than the one I crossed to the east. Benny seemed to feel it to, and I watched as he ran off back home as fast as lightning.

      I went and walked down mainstreet, which finally split two ways around an old looking park. To the left of me down Hill Street was a gas station store, and to my right down Park Street was more woods. In front of me though, was a park. It was extremely creepy and I really didn't want to be outside anymore, but I decided to walk through it anyway. It appears that I'm a dumb horror movie protagonist. Oh well.

      It seemed to me like no one ever really went to that park anymore, as everything looked to be rather worn down and old. There were unkempt bushes and trees that were withering away and dying. The broken and rusted playground equipment was sure to have seen better days. One of the benches was just straight up split in half. In the center of the park was a stone well, and even when I shined my phone's flashlight down it, it still continued on into darkness.

      I exited the park on the opposite side from which I entered, and I was now at the base of a hill, or a mountain, or whatever. The path in front of me to my right led into a graveyard, with the road following alongside it. I'm pretty sure following the graveyard to the right would lead me home, but I wanted to see if there was anything on this hill first, so I walked the road going left.

      I walked down the road, and now on my left was the park, while my right was a hill covered in trees. After a little bit of walking I found a road going up it, but it curved a bit and I couldn't see through the grove. It was a very long driveway, and it was boarded up, no kidding. Giant boards were nailed to the trees, and very old caution tape was wrapped all around it. Okay, I'm so going up there.

        I climbed up the hill in a struggle until I got to a point where I could slip by between two trees higher up. I made my way higher up, and there were loads of NO TRESPASSING signs stapled to the trees, as if the boarded up entrance and caution tape wasn't enough. I guess it really wasn't though, considering I was still walking up the path despite them. The gravel road went on and on, as it kept ascending upwards, making twists and turns.

          Finally the road came to an end, and at the top of the hill I began to see a house, but the closer I got the less it looked like a house and the more it looked like a mansion. A big, giant mansion just sitting up here on a mountain in the middle of the woods with a gravel driveway. It had big brick walls going around it and a gated entrance made of fancy black bars. It looked very Victorian, except for the caution tape and no trespassing signs that made their way all the way up here. So this was the place I've heard about!

      In front of it were three graves, which had names I didn't recognize. The last name seemed familiar though, and I was trying to remember if Cameron or Dominik might've said it earlier that day. I took out my phone flashlight and shined it around. I could see into the yard, it was big and overgrown with plants.

      I looked down and noticed a little reflective glimmer from my flashlight. There looked to be a shiny gem object on the other side of the gates, which was luckily just within my reach! I picked it up, it was an old-looking, purple, amethyst necklace. I put it on since I didn't have any pockets, and decided to finally make my way back home. I was officially getting too many creeps, even for me.

      The wind blew cold in the air. It felt like winter now, the way it nipped and stung my face. I started running down the gravel road, trying not to look at the tall trees to the sides of me. I had to use my phone as a flashlight, and I couldn't see three feet in front of me.

       When I finally got of the large driveway at the base of the hill I could see again due to the streetlamps turning on. I slipped back out between the trees and stumbled down onto the road. Despite now being covered in mud, I breathed a sigh of relief to be out of the woods and into the open again. I started walking down the street to my house, with the cemetery to my left, and park to my right.

       I began running, and slowed to a jog when my corner street house came into sight on my left. The cemetery and park were now behind me, and both to my left and right stood houses, all with their "For Sale" signs. The farm was in front of me, and my house stood to my left. It began fully raining now, and I quickly hopped up onto my porch, Benny running up and dashing inside when he heard me twist the doorknob.

      When I got inside I felt so happy to feel the warmth. I went back to my bedroom, put on my pajamas, and collapsed in my bed, too exhausted to eat dinner. I felt so tired, but also so eager and intrigued. I had a feeling I was going to be good friends with these guys, I'll show that Kimi girl!

       I went to sleep with thoughts of ghosts and murder mysteries running through my mind, Benny purring happily on my chest as the rain fell from the skies.

●●●

Emeline Orman was sixteen when she and her parents moved across the country to the coastline of Washington state. A small town known as Melbrew sat comfortably in the middle of thick woods, so tiny and unknown that it doesn't show up on any maps, making it the perfect spot for malicious activity to go unnoticed.

On her first day of school, she met some rather weird people, who all shared a strange similar interest. This little group had quite the reputation for their knowledge of the town's not-so-secret dark history... as well as all of the unusual things that have been reported to them. It all started with the rich Humphrey family tragedy back in the 1800s, where for years it has been speculated that the mother killed her husband and children.

Being very eager to get to the bottom of all the town's mysteries, one thing leads to another as discovery after discovery begins to pile up, ranging from random holes in the ground, to suspicious buildings in the middle of the woods. Secret doors, tunnels, and books that talk about nonsense seem like they lead nowhere, with no connections!

Though perhaps the most mysterious oddity of them all is the otherworldly gateway surrounded by old fences, tied back to the founding family.

CW: Strong language, murder, and descriptions of gore

34 Total Chapters!

Total Word Count: 142,450

Chapter 1: "Welcome to Melbrew"

Chapter 2: "Foreign Roads"

Chapter 3: "An Amethyst Necklace"

Chapter 4: "Murder at a Mansion"

Chapter 5: "A Strange Book"

Chapter 6: "Whispering Winds"

Chapter 7: "The Golden Key"

Chapter 8: "A Bloody Sacrifice"

Chapter 9: "The Princess in Pink"

Chapter 10: "Meet us for Dinner"

Chapter 11: "A Looming Shadow"

Chapter 12: "Among the Corn"

Chapter 13: "Trick-or-Tresspass"

Chapter 14: "To Open Doors"

Chapter 15: "Unusual Décor"

Chapter 16: "The Prophecy"

Chapter 17: "Footprints in Snow"

Chapter 18: "For the Church"

Chapter 19: "Family Visits:

Chapter 20: "The Fourth Floor"

Chapter 21: "An Empty Cold"

Chapter 22: "Back to a Building"

Chapter 23: "Tales from the Past"

Chapter 24: "Bloody Hearts"

Chapter 25: "A Birthday Surprise"

Chapter 26: "Trip to the Sea"

Chapter 27: "Descending Darkness"

Chapter 28: "Melbrew's Truth"

Chapter 29: "Pack Your Tents"

Chapter 30: "Through the Portal"

Chapter 31: "Vamparial"

Chapter 32: "The Shutdown"

Chapter 33: "Wrapped up Ends"

Chapter 34: "Atop the Willow Tree" [END]

Read Book 2 — The Bloodmoon Society — On Wattpad.

The rest of my series will not be published on Tumblr. Mostly just trying to build an audience at the moment.