Chapter Two

15 minutes later, Annabel was heading out the back door. Looking around, she easily found the dirt road that Jenna was talking about. Heading down it, she walked past a cluster of trees and found herself in sight of the old O’Connell house. It was beginning to get dark out, and the place was starting to look a little creepy.

          All of a sudden, a loud, high-pitched scream came from the house. Annabel jumped and began to back away, ready to run at any moment. And then suddenly a girl with long black hair came running out of the house, practically flew down the steps, and fell into the grass below.

          “Help! Ghost! A real one! I saw it!” she screeched.

          Annabel ran forward. “Don’t be silly, there are no such things as ghosts. Your probably just upset a pile of dust. I’m Annabel, by the way. Annabel Starr.”

          The girl got up, out of breath. She calmed down, and said, “Hi. I’m Victoria Wilson. Are you new here?”

          “Yeah. Just today. I-” but she was cut off by a loud wailing sound coming from the chimney.

          Victoria frowned, and then rolled her eyes. “That’s Evan. He’s my cousin. And he’s thirteen. I’m twelve. Gosh, he’s annoying. Always teasing me about that ghost. Funny, how it only shows itself to me.” She turned back to the house. “EVAN TYLER FLETCHER! Get out here and quit freaking people out!” Looking back at Annabel, she continued, “Imagine the look on his face when he finally sees that ghost!”

           Annabel grinned, then said, “Are you sure you really saw a ghost? I mean, there’s never been any proof that they really exist. What did it look like?”

          “Yes, I’m sure of it! It looked like a girl that was about our age. She was wearing a white dress and she was barefoot. Oh, and she had a headband thing, kind of like they did in the 70’s.  I couldn’t really tell what her hair was like, but from what I remember, it was blonde.”

          “Help! Victoria! Ghost! It’s dragging me away! Heeeeeeelp!” Evan’s voice carried.

          “I told him.” Victoria grumbled. Then she looked back at Annabel. “Come on, let’s see what’s going on. It’s a ghost. It can’t drag anything anywhere.”

          Annabel followed Victoria up the steps, but she paused at the door. She didn’t want to tell Victoria, but she was a little afraid to go in. But she didn’t know why, because she knew there was no such thing as a ghost.

          “Coming?”

          She looked up. Victoria was looking at her expectedly. So Annabel did her best to not look afraid, and followed her in.

          Being inside the O’Connell house was even worse than being outside and not knowing what was ahead. The air was musty and stale, and the furniture and floor were caked with years worth of dust.  And it had an eerie sort of feeling to it, and, for a second, Annabel was worried that maybe Evan really had gotten kidnapped by the ghost. But then it seemed unlikely that, like Victoria had said, it would be able to drag anything. It was probably just Evan trying to scare Victoria again.

          “Evan?” Victoria’s shaky voice carried throughout the house, echoing back at her.

          Nobody answered.

          “Come on.” Annabel said. “Let’s search for trails areas where the dust has been wiped away. If he really has been dragged, the dust will have moved. Where did you last see him?”

          “In the kitchen. But he must have moved, remember, he was trying to scare us through the chimney? Why don’t we start at the fireplace?”
          They walked to the end of the house when they saw the fireplace. It was dirty and dusty, and sitting on the top of the mantelpiece was a Candelabra, which had a large spider web. And, to Annabel’s horror, there was a huge, black spider sitting in the middle, one of it’s many disgusting legs feeling out in front of it.

          Annabel screamed. She was deathly afraid of spiders, and this was the largest one she’d seen in a while.

          “What was that about? It’s just a spider. We have bigger problems.” Victoria glanced at the spider before yelling, “Evan! WHERE ARE YOU? IF THIS IS A JOKE, I SWEAR I’LL--”

          But she was cut off by another, this time faint, wail, coming from the chimney. Now it was Victoria’s turn to shriek. Jumping back, she said, “It’s the ghost! It must have heard Evan’s wail and gone after him!”

          “Well, are you going to look inside and see if you can see anything?” Annabel asked, turning to face Victoria.

          Victoria didn’t reply, but she stared at Annabel with a look of fear across her face.

          “Fine. I’ll do it.” Annabel was trying to act brave. She went to the front of the fireplace, and kneeled down in front of it. At that moment, a blond figure jumped out of the fireplace. Annabel quickly moved backwards.

          “Evan! What the heck! Don’t do that! Look at you! You’re covered in dust and soot! Aunt Linda will be furious at you!” Victoria glared at him.

          Evan was just a bit taller than Victoria and Annabel, and his now dirty blond hair was untidy and reminded Annabel of Justin Beiber’s.  “Mom’s at work. I’ll just take a shower and wash my clothes, she’ll never know. Besides, we aren’t supposed to be in here in the first place. Who’s this?” He looked at Annabel, and back at Victoria.

          “I’m Annabel. I just moved in with the Delaney’s’. You know, they live in the white house?”

          “Of course we know who they are! They’re the richest family in town! Everybody knows them! You’re really lucky to be there. Except for that little girl, Julie. God, she’s annoying. She follows me and Vikki--”

          “It’s Victoria”  Victoria corrected, glaring at him with the kind of face you give someone when they are doing something purposely to annoy you and you knew it and they knew that you knew but they still do it and it still annoys you.

          “Whatever. Anyways, Julie is always following us everywhere. She’d be here, but her father came and got her before we arrived, saying something important was going to happen. Phew, good thing, she’d rat us all out if she knew we were here. She’s almost as afraid of this place as you are of spiders, Annabel.”

          Annabel glanced over to where the spider was. It had now crawled from its web and was making its way across the mantelpiece. Annabel suddenly felt very warm, her heart beating, she backed further away from the spider. “Arachnophobia,” she muttered, blushing. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she noticed that it was already 5:20. She was supposed to be home at 5:30 to go out to dinner. “Sorry guys, got to go. Dinner.”

          “Hey, you have a phone? Can I have your number? You have text, don’t you?”

          “It’s 351-5739, and yea, of course I have text.” Annabel watched as Victoria pulled out a very similar, but purple phone. She entered Annabel in as a contact, and then gave Annabel her number.

          “213-7825. I’ll talk to you later, we can figure out what time to meet up again.”

          “Ok, bye. Don’t get in too much trouble, Evan!” Annabel turned, and quickly left the old house.  

 

         

 

          Half an hour later, Annabel, Julie, and Jenna were sitting at a table in the Applebee’s in town.

          “Mommy, when will Daddy be back from his meeting?” Julie looked up from her Craft Mac ‘n’ Cheese at her mother.

          “I don’t know, Honey, he said he’d be back before 10:00 tonight. He has a lot of work to do in the office.” Jenna said, not looking up. “Have you ever been to Applebee’s, Annabel?”

          Annabel looked up. “I think I went once with my grandmother, when I was six. I don’t really remember, but it was a restaurant with a lot of TVs.” Annabel looked up at a TV, which was of course a football game. And looking at the one next to it, she saw an advertisement for Burger King. She smiled. It was ironic that at Applebee’s they would have an ad for a fast food restaurant.

 

 

          Back at home, Annabel was unpacking. She was putting away her books and magazines when she received her first text message from Victoria:

 

Hey wats up? everything here is ok, evan didn’t get in 2 trouble,

luckily. I’m still pretty scared from that ghost, I swear it was real. trust me, it wasn’t one of evans jokes this time.

 

Annabel thought for a minute, and then wrote back:

 

oh come on, victoria, there’s no such thing! youll get over it. we can go back tomorrow if u want.

 

 

 

Looking around her room, Annabel decided that she liked teal a lot. Once she had everything put away, it would also look more decorative. Aside from clothes, most of Annabel’s possessions were decorative or artsy items: posters, paintings, nail polish, eyeshadow, paints, souvenirs from places with her grandmother (they had travelled a lot before she passed away) a few dream catchers and decorative mirrors. Annabel also loved to paint. Her grandmother always told her she was very talented and creative, with a wonderful imagination. Back then, she had just assumed they were meaningless words of encouragement that grown-ups always gave out. But now, without bragging, she understood that all of those words were coming from somewhere. Over the years she had become quite good. She painted everything from still-life to landscape to nails to faces at her old school’s carnivals. The good old days, when her world and the DCS’s world hadn’t yet collided. She missed those afternoons of tea with her Grandmother’s friends, slumber parties with her friends on weekends, and most of all, the many vacations with her Grandmother. They had been all over the U.S., from the Grand Canyon to Alaska to Hawaii and Washington D.C. They had also been to Canada, France, Germany, and Scotland. Annabel’s favorite trip had been to England, where her and her Grandmother had visited a few old castles. Annabel loved the old buildings, wondering what they were like in the height of their time, and what secrets they might hold. One held a particularly vivid memory of an old library with a whole suit of armor in it. It had seemed so big then, Annabel was only nine.

          Her phone buzzed again.

 

 

r u serious?!? lol dont tell me to get ovr it, u screamed @ a bug.

 

 

Annabel wrote back:

 

it was not a bug, it was a spider. a spider is an arachnid. and at least i didn’t run out screaming after something that doesn’t even exist.

 

 

She heard a car door shut outside, and then Julie. Julie was louder.

          “Daddy’s home!!!” she screamed. From upstairs, Annabel could hear her feet padding across the downstairs room to the door.

          Annabel quickly sent the message and left the room to greet Mr. Delaney.

 

          Downstairs, a slightly overweight man with balding brown hair came through the door. He picked up his daughter and spun her in a circle.

 

          “Careful, Chris” Jenna came in from the other room. Judging by the family’s familiarities with the spinning, Annabel guessed that this happened every day.

          Mr. Delaney smiled at Annabel. He put Julie down and held out his hand. “Hello. I’m Mr. Delaney. Welcome to our home. We’ve been looking forward to having you.”

          “Hi. I’m Annabel. I’ve been looking forward to coming here too.” She smiled back. He had a pleasant smile and a gentle demeanor. But he also had this twinkle in his eye, as if he were sharing an inside joke with her. Annabel decided she liked him a lot.

          “All right then. Well, I’d better go get sorted out now. If I have to stay in this stuffy suit a minute longer, I’ll suffocate!”

          Julie laughed. Jenna followed her husband upstairs, asking about what type of coffee he wanted. Coffee. Annabel wrinkled her nose. The only time she ever had a sip of coffee was back when she was nine, when her Grandmother was in the other room. Annabel had decided to be rebellious and try it, and it was definitely one of the worst drinks she’s ever had. 

          Julie ran and flopped on the large, black leather sofa. “Julie,” Annabel started, “do you like nail polish?”

          Julie jumped back up with twice as much energy. “Yes! I have three. I have a purple and two pinks!”

          “Good. I have many shades of lots of different colors, as well as a silver crackle and gold and silver. And a lemon drop scented yellow one. Why don’t you get yours and come into my room? We can do nails together.”

          “Ok!” Julie thumped up the steps and Annabel followed, more slowly.

 

          Fifteen minutes later, they were all done. Annabel’s fingernails were silver, and her toenails were blue with silver crackle. Julie had purple nails with the crackle and yellow toenails.

          “Julie! Time to get ready for bed!” Jenna called from down the hallway. Julie got up and ran out of Annabel’s room. “Thank you Annabel!” she called back. “Mommy! Look what Annabel and I did!”

          Annabel smiled and put the nail polish away. She looked at her phone to see what time it was. 8:00. She still had plenty of time before she had to go to bed.

          The phone buzzed again. It was Victoria.

 

 

Oh whatevr. Meet me 2marrow @ the front of the o Connell house at ten ok?

 

Annabel replied and confirmed, and then finished unpacking. She put her suitcase in the closet on the shelf above clothing rack. She had hung up her jeans, nice clothes, dresses, and skirts in the closet, and the rest were in the dresser.

 

She still had some time to kill, so she pulled out her paints and a blank canvas and began a new painting.