Although this fic is based off of the movie House at the End of the Street, it won't be following the exact plot. For instance, Feliciano isn't supposed to be Elissa, his role is just similar to hers. All of the Soviet siblings have been given the surname Braginski for the sake of the story.

Creak….. Creak….. Creak…. Crash.

The sea blue eyes of a young Ukrainian woman shot open suddenly. "What was that?" She whispered those words before she had even sat up. Resting a hand on her chest (which was slightly difficult, with her exceptionally large cleavage), she managed to calm her heartbeat with the reminder of the fact that her sister was most likely the source of the sound that awoke her. The younger girl often got up in the middle of the night, occasionally knocking something over… Clicking on a bedside lamp, Katyusha Braginski swung her legs over the edge of her bed, stepped into a pair of slippers, and slid out into the hall.

Katyusha ran her hand along the wall to help keep balance as she proceeded through the house. She paused for just a moment once she heard what sounded like gentle footsteps coming from down the hall. "Natalya?" she called quietly, briefly clearing her throat.

The footsteps increased rapidly until a girl of about 13 stood a mere couple feet away from Katyusha, a black ribbon tied loosely in her scraggly dirty-blonde hair. Seeing the pretty girl wouldn't normally be alarming… if not for the vacant, almost inhuman look in her eyes, and the knife clasped in her dainty hand.

"…Natalya?" Katyusha repeated, her heart skipping a beat.

A blood curdling scream rang out from Natalya's throat, and the knife she held found a way into Katyusha's chest.

~4 years later~

An Italian boy of 16 years sat cross-legged on the hood of his tomato-red car, caressing the strings of his acoustic guitar with his fingertips. A breeze ruffled his auburn hair, tickling the curl that protruded from the left side of his head and washing over his body. The light jacket he wore allowed the chill to be refreshing instead of uncomfortable. A song was absently beginning to form on his lips and from his instrument, leaving him totally content; if only the same could be said about his elder brother.

"What the hell is taking that bastard so long? He said he would be here an hour ago," snarled the older Italian- this one 19.

"It's okay, Lovi! I'm sure he just got held up," his brother insisted blithely.

Lovino Vargas finally halted pacing, only to spin around with poison burning in his glare. "If you open your mouth one more time, I swear I-"

He was cut off by the sound of car tires rolling over gravel. Up pulled a bluish car that looked like it was from the previous decade, and a man with glasses scrambled out. "I am so sorry, I got caught up in traffic and-"

"Cool story that I don't give a damn about," Lovino interrupted. "We had to drive all the way from Milan, and we just want to get in the fucking house before moss starts growing on our car tires."

Their real estate agent gulped, his glasses sliding farther down his nose as he decided that it would be best not to ask how their trip was like he originally intended to. He hurriedly ran one hand over his askew hair and dug the other into the pocket of his pants. "W-well, my name is Eduard von Bock… Welcome to the neighborhood, both of you. I'm sure you'll enjoy it here." Lovino just grunted in response; Feliciano hopped off the car and thanked Eduard cheerfully.

Eduard scurried past the two-car garage and up the stairs onto the front deck, producing a key from his pocket and unlocking the house as quickly as possible. When he motioned the brothers inside, Lovino shoved his way in while Feliciano practically skipped through the doorway. He drew in a soft gasp of wonder as he stared around his new home. "Ve… It's so big," he breathed. Lovino, hiding his own awestruck stance, nodded in agreement.

"It's a beautiful property, isn't it?" Eduard attempted a casual smile, but with Lovino's boiling aura it came out looking forced.

Feliciano nodded twice, setting his guitar against the doorframe. Immediately, he headed off to wander around the house. Lovino rolled his eyes, grumbling something about Feliciano's luggage. Eduard held out a business card with a slightly shaking hand. "If you have any questions or concerns about the neighborhood or house, don't hesitate to call me," he remarked with much less assertiveness than he intended. A look of remembrance appeared on Eduard's face and he fumbled around his pocket for a pen before Lovino could grab the card. He scribbled another set of numbers onto the small rectangular paper.

"What's that for?" Lovino asked half-interestedly, allowing Eduard to press the card into his palm.

"The chief of police's cell phone number. His name's Antonio Fernandez Carriedo… He's kind of an airhead, but he's really dependable when it comes down to it."

"Why the hell would I need his number?" Lovino asked with one eyebrow raised skeptically. Eduard bit his lip, eyes darting around nervously behind his glasses.

"The Braginski house is right through the woods, Mr. Vargas," Eduard reminded him in a whisper.

A groan left Lovino's lips. "Oh god, not you too. I don't give a shit that somebody was killed in that house. It's abandoned now, isn't it?"

Silence.

"Isn't it?" Lovino urged, crossing his arms impatiently.

Eduard pushed his glasses up into place on the rim of his nose. "R-right. Well, have a good day, Mr. Vargas… Call if you need anything." With that, the real estate agent scurried out of the house like a dog with its tail between its legs.

Meanwhile, Feliciano's enthusiasm was growing bigger and bigger with every step he took. There were so many unnecessary rooms in the house… He could have friends over and let them sleep in their own rooms! The kitchen was bigger than their one back in Milan and looked recently refurbished- the perfect place to make pasta. Looking out all the huge windows, Feliciano found lots of easy-accessible points on the rooftop where he could sit and play his guitar. He also caught sight of the forest beside the driveway, which was rich with greenery… It looked like it could be from a fairytale.

But what was that in the distance? Between the trees?

"Lovi, I'm going exploring!" Feliciano called, trotting back out the front door.

"Whatever. Just don't get lost or hurt yourself, and come back to bring all your crap in the house," Lovino responded, dragging one of his own suitcases to the master bedroom he had claimed as his. He knew, though, that the latter of his three demands was much less probable than the first two.

Completely disregarding the saying "curiosity killed the cat," Feliciano scanned the edges of the forest for a path and started following it. The woods were alive with birdsongs and buzzing insects; Feliciano even caught sight of a squirrel or two (both of which ignored him when he called 'Come here Mr. Squirrely!'). Feli ended up getting distracted by searching for more little creatures like bunnies and forgot about why he originally decided to venture into the forest.

He remembered when he reached the other side.

"Ve… It looks like our new house!" he whispered excitedly, staring up at the structure before him. Maybe it did at one point; now, however, moss was growing in places where it shouldn't, chunks of the framework were missing or badly splintered, and the place was in desperate need of a paint job. In other words, it was completely rundown. Feliciano immediately noticed that the shades were drawn in every window. It helped fuel the lonely, almost ominous feeling the house's presence gave off.

Sudden movement caught in his peripheral vision caused Feliciano to jump nearly a foot in the air. The top left window. Something had moved in the top left window. The thought of something moving in the abandoned house made every hair on the back of Feli's neck stand up, and his curl almost straightened. Just when he started to think he'd just imagined it, he saw the blinds move again. This time, though, he noticed something else: a glimpse of a hand, pulling back the blinds. The house must have been dark inside, because Feliciano could clearly see a pair of purple eyes at the edge of the blinds…

The Italian boy turned around so quickly that he tripped and fell on his face. Ignoring the abrupt pain in his ankle, he scrambled to his feet and bolted back into the forest faster than he'd ever even dreamed of running back in gym class. The sounds of the forest were no longer friendly to his ears: they were threatening. Screaming echoed in his head; his own screaming. Get home… GET HOME…

Feliciano didn't slow down until he was practically flying through the front door, tears streaming down his face by the bucket load. "LOVI! I saw something, Lovi! There's someone next door!" he shrieked, clinging to his brother like he'd done countless times when he was little. A look of obvious disgust appeared on Lovino's face as he pried his brother's arms off of his waist.

"You're an idiot, fratello. Nobody lives there," he reminded him harshly.

"But I SAW someone!" Feliciano drew in a horrified gasp. "W-what if it was a ghost?!"

It took all of his self restraint to not slap Feli. "There's no such thing as ghosts. You imagined it, Feliciano. Now man up, shut up, and go get your shit so you can unpack," Lovino demanded. Feliciano whimpered, wiping his eyes on his sleeve and still shaking frantically as he slunk out to the car.

Little did he know that his brother's glare hid concern; fear, even. He knew his brother wasn't crazy (well, in this situation at least). He had seen the eyes too, while he was looking around for the bathroom. And he could still feel them staring at him.

A/N

Well, that's the end of chapter 1! You get a cookie if you can identify who the purple eyes belong to.

Fratello = the Italian word for "brother"