The second I even glanced at the house, I felt it. The malice, the heartbreak, the fear, the happiness, and most of all, the darkness. It was like there were twenty lost souls clinging to me, and the familiar weight on my shoulders already weighed me down from the distance. I felt the presence of the oldest members to the youngest, all of them shouting and crowding my head. Sighing with heaviness, I rolled my eyes and continued reading. I thought the point of coming here was to get away from the voices inside of my head.

"Home, sweet home!" Aunt Cynthia's voice rang out in fake delight as we pulled into the driveway. The large SOLD sign swung loudly despite the light breeze. George snorted beside me at the exclamation and I smirked at his cheekiness, causing Cyn to glare at us in disapproval.

I shoved George and nodded towards the heaping pile of luggage scattered throughout the van. He scoffed at my laziness, but didn't protest further as he began unloading. With Cyn talking and talking as she usually did, and George listening to her as he usually did, they didn't notice as I strayed away to wander the yard.

Without even stepping into the house, I felt the presences nearby. From under the gazebo, from behind the door of the basement, from everywhere. I began humming loudly trying to drown out the voices that kept piling and piling in my head, continuing to search the premises. I could tell that nothing too malicious lingered here (well, not malicious anymore), but plenty of sorrow and heartbreak.

Just like me, right? I laughed bitterly at my own joke.

It wasn't too long before the scenes came. The closer I stepped towards the backyard, the more I felt pressure on my shoulders. The first one I saw was a woman lying on the porch leading into the backyard with her face smashed in by the shovel dropped beside her. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and looked at the gazebo.

"Hello," a deep voice greeted behind me.

I turned swiftly. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Sadistic smile. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. His grin became even wider.

"Hi?" I asked, struggling to be polite. I never was good with people my age. "And you are...?"

"Michael," he said. I could tell he knew about me and I kept myself guarded, knowing that there was something about him that screamed at me to run. He continued when I didn't respond. "I just wanted to greet our new neighbors."

I felt a shiver at the same moment he glanced quickly toward the window, almost in anticipation. I nodded slowly, giving an awkward smile. "Well. Hi."

He would be cute, you know. If it wasn't for the fact that I felt the evil radiating off him.

"Michael!"

I swiveled around quickly. An elderly woman appeared, rushing towards us. She gave me a chilling glare and pushed past me to talk to her grandson, I assumed.

"Hi, mom."

Or maybe not. It's not like she was seventy years too old to have a kid.

"You know you're never supposed to go into the neighbor's house, sweetie!" she laughed uncomfortably toward me and glanced at the window nervously. I exchanged a glance with Michael, who still had a grin plastered on his face.

"Well, just wishing our new neighbors luck," he said laughing and the woman reprimanded him sharply. She shared a forced grin with me in awkwardness before turning away and speaking to Michael alone.

"Claire!" I heard from the house.

I turned for a split second at my name, but when I turned back, the two were already more than halfway toward their house. Michael was still giving me the same grin from earlier and gave a wink before I turned away. I shivered in unease. George ran out from inside and pulled me into the house excitedly. I could feel the protests of our presence from the previous and unfortunate tenants of this house. "Look at this place, it's amazing!"

Rolling my eyes and murmuring absentmindedly, the stairs creaked with anticipation of our arrival. The house wanted us but it's tenants surely did not. George kept babbling on and on about how amazing the architecture was and how antique the stained glass windows were while I wanted nothing more than to explore the history of this house. As I was staring at the chandelier fixture beside the stairs, an instant flash of a hanged man swung before it disappeared.

I smirked. Call me sadistic, but I already knew that I was definitely gonna like it here.