Old Hallow

Chapter One
Breakdown

Our old Volkswagen had finally had it. After 17 faithful years, it met its fate. Of course this wasn’t a surprise to me or my parents, but did it really have to happen in the middle of a rain storm on the goddamned Oregon coast?

I was never partial towards America. Out of all the places my parents had dragged me, I like it the least. And this storm was not improving my viewpoint.

I sighed, squeezing past all of our worldly belongings (stored in the backseat) and got out to push. My mother joined me while my father made a useless attempt to start the car. I bumbled around to the back of the rabbit and placed my hands on the back window, and heaved my body into it, hoping it would budge. My mother wasn’t much help, her
bare feet kept slipping on the wet gravel.
“Now this,” I grunted, “is a fine example of why everyone should own shoes”
My mother sighed, “oh Rayne, you just don’t understand.”

Ever since I could understand words, my mother had been telling me I couldn’t understand. Like the way I couldn’t understand why they insisted on moving so much. At one point, when I was seven, I was convinced they were escaped convicts, running from law.

I gazed at my rain speckled reflection in the window. My hair had gotten a lot longer since the last time I had checked. Or maybe it was just the rain, weighing my hair down so that it seemed so. My hair was a deep red, and very wavy, almost curly. It was never frizzy, but always tangled. It always hung in the same fashion around my long face; straight down. My mom said it made my eyes look greener, although they were already green enough for my liking. I had thin eyebrows below a normal sized forehead. Under them were my kiwi-green, planetary, circular eyes. My nose was thin and a little too long, but it was balanced out by my small lips, that always seemed to curve up into a smile, which was frustrating when I was angry. I had a very small frame, although I was an average height for sixteen.

Suddenly, my hands slipped on the wet metal and I tripped. In my momentum, I accidentally pushed the car over the slight hill we were approaching, and it continued to speed, to fast, down the large slope. Eventually, we lost sight of the car.
“oh dear,” my mother sighed, “I do hope he can make it to a gas station.”

My mother had good reason to worry, as my father did tend to be a bit inept. In fact, when he met my mother, he was in a complete state of confusion. My mother had been protesting against animal testing in make-up products in front of the big directory in the middle of the mall. And for some reason my father desperately had to get to the directory, in order to find the tobacco store. After being harassed by many protesters, my mother came to his rescue. They haven’t been apart since.

Finally, after walking in the rain for a half-hour, we finally caught sight of the gas station.

I walked the isles of the little gas station store. I was filling my arms full of my favorite junk foods and candies, because I knew it would take a long time to fix out situation. I sat down on the small step outside the door, and watched my dad yell at the mechanic.
“That’s impossible! There is no way that it costs me money for you take my car!” my dad yelled.
“well we have to call a tow truck to get your junk heap out of my gas station, and I sure as hell am not paying for it.” The mechanic spat back.

I had finished my treats when my mother sat down next to me, watching my father make a fool of himself. I leaned against her and became overwhelmingly exhausted.
I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open…

Black. Everything, black. I knew I was dreaming, but where was the action? Suddenly I was surprised with a blinding light; and once my eyes adjusted, I was able to view a magnificent theater. The stage was framed my intricate plaster designs, the gold and scarlet paint chipping off. The stage itself was made of old battered wood, and it was scratched and scuffed to the point of non-repair. I was sitting in an intricate seat, on of thousands made of a deep velvet, same color as the walls, with dark wooden arm rests. Finally the stage traffic commenced. It started with one solitary woman. She was wearing a long, trailing skirt of every color imaginable. Her tube top was equally as colorful and only covered her chest, leaving her small, pale stomach bare. Two scarves dropped from the ceiling, resembling swings. She gracefully jumped up and grabbed hold of the pink swing with both hands, and placed one foot in the orange one. She then proceeded to do a series of folds and movements I couldn’t even dream of doing.

I couldn’t even dream of doing…I was dreaming. I had dreamt this before.

I wrenched myself out of my dream state and realized that I had been dreaming the same dream since I could remember. I wondered out loud how long I had been asleep.
“Oh not long, just an hour, maybe longer” my mother responded to my inquiry.
“an hour?! Well, what’s happened?” I couldn’t have possibly been out a whole hour, nothing had changed. Father and the mechanic were still arguing over the car. Except the car wasn’t there, and all our stuff was on the curb.
“well the mechanic called the tow truck and I convinced George not to worry and that I would pay for it. He was kind enough to call us a taxi, and George here doesn’t want to pay for it.” My mother looked weary. “we might have to stay here for a while.”

Oh no. Oh no no no. My family didn’t do “stay”. There is a reason we cant ever “stay” anywhere. My family tends to scare people. We’re just to weird for “normal life.” Often times we were run out of towns, by either force of mob or a formal, legal document. Besides, I had never “stayed” anywhere in my whole life.

“how long?” my voice cracked on the last word.
“not too long,” she said, “just long enough to get a car.”
That shouldn’t be too bad, I thought, as long as we stay out of the way.

The big yellow taxi turned the corner. We piled out belongings into the trunk of the hideous vehicle. Both my parents were already in the back seat, so, naturally, I took the awkward passengers seat. After fifteen minutes of driving, I was out again.

The first thing I noticed upon waking was that it wasn’t raining anymore, and second was relief that I didn’t dream. I blinked a couple of times to clear my eyes and observed my surroundings.

Outside the taxi, it was really dark, although it was late august and the flashing red numbers on the dashboard said it was only 4:07. I looked up and saw that my vision of the sky was obscured by trees, hence the darkness. We were driving down a narrow road, that was slowly becoming filled with more and more houses. Eventually we got into town. There was a grocery store, a book store, and a gas station. No hotel.

“now where is ya’ll goin’?” asked the cabby.
“a hotel, please” my father replied.
“Alrighty.”

We dr ove on past the stores and turned into a residential street. We started to slow down and stopped in front of a huge, old mansion. It had a black, weathered façade. The right half seemed to be sinking into the soft soil, causing the house to appear lopsided. Above the double doors was a grand, broken picture window, revealing a beautiful crystal chandelier on the inside.

“do ya need help with them bags?” the cabby inquired.
“this cant be the hotel…” my dad stated, more than asked.
“yessuh, it is. There aint to hotle in little old hallow. This’un ‘ere is the boarding house, but Nanna accepts visiters too.”

“well I guess this is okay,” my mother commented, optimistically, “ it does have….charm.”

I cupped my face in my hands and pulled my cheeks down. This was going to be a long night.

Chapter Two
Medication

It was dinnertime. Mom settled the affairs with Nanna, the lady of the house, while dad and I unpacked and moved into our room. It was two bedrooms connected by a small sitting room, nothing special. We descended down the first set old rickety stairs on our way to the dining room. On the way down, my father had tripped and tumbled into the room across the hall. I sighed and followed him slightly concerned. I stepped into the room to observe where my father had landed. He was lying on his back with his arm oddly positioned behind him. I winced when I realized that we were in a boarder’s room.

“Oh, Wonderful!”

I looked towards the source of the piercing screech. A middle aged woman walked into the room from what I presumed to be her kitchen. She had the most peculiar hat perched on top of her out of control curls. It looked like she was wearing a dunce hat covered in multi-colored scarves. She was also wearing a Barbie doll bed sheet as a dress.
“new visitors!” she exclaimed, “Belle, come here!”

A little girl, about six years old wandered into the room. She was also wearing a Barbie bed sheet, but her long, thin brown hair covered most of it.

“oh, excuse my appearance,” the woman said, “we were playing dress up! Weren’t we, my precious?” the little girl nodded. “what brings you to my humble abode?” she said all this to me, I don’t even think she acknowledged my dad, hurt, on her living room floor.

“well, actually, my father fell down the stairs” I said, gesturing to the heap that is my father.
“oh dear! This does not look good.” The woman left the room quickly, her hat fall off as she went.
“Good day, I’m Isabelle Dorcheck. Nice to meet your acquaintance.” The little girl held her hand out for me to shake.
“uh…hello” I muttered, taking her hand, shocked that such a little thing had such and overwhelming sense of authority, and vocabulary.

The red haired lady skipped back into the room, with a small pillow, bandages, and a sling. As she was doctoring my father, she recited this;
“Late one night, in the middle of the day
Two dead boys came out to play
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other
And if you don’t believe this lie is true
Ask the blind man, he saw it too.”
She finished taping up my dad in time to wag her finger at him on the last line.
I was utterly bewildered.

“oh am so rude, my name is Arnie Dorcheck.” At this, she got up and ran out the room and down the stairs.
“it is dinner time…” Bella muttered, in excuse for her mothers behavior.

I helped my father up and we made our way down the stairs together. When we -got to the dining room- which had classic off white walls and a dark wooden floor, with table and chairs matching exactly- we took our place on either side of my mother, who was deep in discussion with who I could only assume was Nanna.

Nanna had short, spiky, white hair, on top of a face that looked like it was once stretched for miles, and once released collected in millions of wrinkles on this poor woman. She was slumped over, across the table, very interested in whatever it was that my mother was saying.
“so as you can guess, I was never too eager to be called Scandella, as my mother had wished, so most just call me skank.” I resisted the urge to slap myself on the forehead when I realized my mother was talking about her name, the most embarrassing part about her.
“that is so interesting,” Nanna said, in awe, “ I would never have the guts to tell others to call me skank. Wow.”
My mother just leaned back in her seat, looking pleased with herself.

I took a first look around the table, and saw that at the head of the table was an old, decrepit, very small man, asleep. On his left was Nanna, and on his right, Skank. Across from me and my father was none other than Arnie and Belle. Next to me was a younger looking lad, around 25 or so, whose nose was completely buried in a newspaper. And across from him was an empty seat. At the other end of the table was the most normal person I had seen so far. He looked like he was 40, with dark hair in a crew cut and a brown suit on. His skin was very tan, I think he was Native American. He just sat their and sipped on his French onion soup, politely listening in on the conversations.

“NEVER!”
Most of us jumped at this outburst from across the table, except Belle. Her mother jumped up and ran out of the dining room.
“I am so sorry, she didn’t take her medication this morning.” Belle whispered to me, once again excusing her mother’s behavior. I just nodded and look at the doorway where Arnie had disappeared to. Belle quietly excused herself and followed after her mother. It seemed that only my family had taken notice of the odd behavior displayed.

Comparatively, the rest of dinner went without disruption, except when the old man sleeping (Jerry, Nanna’s husband) fell into his soup. Its very sad when I can honestly state that some one out there is weirder than my family. Especially when later that night my mother comes running into my room yelling, “he broke it! He broke it! Your father broke his arm! HOLE IN ONE!” Apparently mom won the bet they had made on how long Dad would last since his last injury; a broken nose.

I followed my mom back into the sitting room, where my father was perched on the edge of the couch, with his head hanging. I didn’t want to know what the stakes of the bet were.

“Rayne Cloud,” my mom said, suddenly sounding serious, “we need to have a discussion, please take a seat.” I cautiously picked the armchair on the other side of the room and plopped down. “What’s up?” I asked, my eyes flashing back and forth between them. I didn’t like what I saw.
“Rayne, honey, your mother and I, well, we……kinda” my father was hesitating. He doesn’t usually waste time being indirect. “ we love it here.” He finally spat out.

My heart stopped. What? I couldn’t have possibly heard what I thought I did. No way. My parents never liked any place except our car, and they were much to restless. I didn’t expect them to last long enough to buy a car to get the hell out of here. “how?” I whispered. “we haven’t even been here a day…how can this happen?” the walls were getting closer, more constricting. I never stayed anywhere more than a week…surely they weren’t talking about…
“we want to stay.”
I realized I wasn’t breathing a second too late.

I woke up on my back on the floor. My shirt was up in the back so the scratchy carpet was tickling me. I tried to reach back to fix it, but something grabbed my arm, tight.
“don’t move, Rayne, you could seriously injure yourself.” I heard my fathers voice and opened my eyes.
“don’t be ridiculous George. She’s fine, she just fainted.”
Fainted? Then I remembered it all, and rolled my eyes.
“WHY!?” I yelled, “how?”
“there’s just something about this place, that make us feel so happy, and complete.” It was my mother who answered. Surely she couldn’t be serious. We found the one place weirder than we were, and they wanted to stay.

“We’re going house hunting in the morning.”

Chapter Three
Floored


I woke up the next morning, insanely disappointed in realizing that it hadn’t been a dream. They were going to keep me here. Here, in freaking Old Hallow, Oregon. A place I hadn’t even heard of before now.

I started imagining my self spending the rest of my life here…it was a horrifying future. Will I have to go to school here? Is there even a school here!? I had been home schooled my whole life…how the hell am I going to handle this? They don’t even have a movie theater….I guess I can live with the book store. Maybe…just, possibly.

My mom came into my room, most likely to make sure I was awake, seeing as it was almost twelve.
“hey sugar, how are you doing?”
“alright, considering.”
“Listen, I know your kind of freaking out over this, but believe me, it will turn out okay,” I had a hard time believing that one. “Eventually you will settle down, maybe get a job, we could maybe even get you a car, if you’d like.” I could see how far fetched this was, because money had always been tight in our family. When I was 7 my Great-Grandfather died, leaving us a small fortune, but my parents divided most of it between my college fund and various charities, although we still had enough to support their free spirited lifestyle. I could also see the pain in her eyes, as she realized the life she was going to give up too.
“ I cant help but feel a bit freaked out, the road was all I ever knew. And now were settling down? Its not us mom, we don’t do that.” I couldn’t look her in the eyes, I knew what I was doing, I was trying to remind her how much we needed the change, especially the two of us.
Her face got hard, but I could tell from her eyes that she was putting on a brave face for my benefit. “you’ll get used to it Rayne, like the rest of us. We’ll get us a good house and get you into the school system. We might have a good crack at being normal. Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all along?” For some reason, this sent a wave of anger through me.
“I liked the way we were before,” I whispered, my voice shaking, “I loved being different, free, and now I’m bound to this tiny little town of FREAKS!” I finally let go on the last word, and I could see I hurt her, badly.
“ Rayne Emory O’Brian, if you don’t like what we chose then you can go off on your own. Then see how lovely and free a life on the road really is.” With this, she left, softly closing the door behind her, which somehow scared me more then if she were to slam it.

I never realized how much our life choice took out of her. She always seemed to love it so much. Thinking back on our conversation, I just got angry at myself for being such a selfish hypocrite. If this is what she wanted, then I’ll do it. There’s no way in hell I’ll like it, but I’ll give it a shot.

After lunch that afternoon, we went out looking for houses. We came back for our stuff right after dinner. I couldn’t believe how fast this was happening, I would be in my first real school by the beginning of the school year. It was a bit to fast for comfort. But the new house was nice, and my room gave me a space all my own, with which I could do whatever I wanted, which sounded promising.

We bade goodbye to all the boarders, telling them that we shall never forget them, and visit often. Belle was the only sensible one, and asked where we were moving in. We told them the address, and we all figured out that it was only two streets down, so we canceled the taxi, and Jerry gave us a ride, considering our possessions were limited and fit perfectly in his truck.

On the way over, he turned up and oldies radio station as loud as it could go. George rolled the window down, as if in attempt to let out some of the loud. I followed suit and stuck my head out the window, the brief ride creating enough wind to block most of the noise. We stopped in front of our new house. Nothing special, in my opinion. It was a two story, classic American house. There was a small roof over the front step, and a wire diamonded screen door. The side door was a direct turn from the garage door, which there was only one of. I figured once I had a car, it wouldn’t be the one in the garage. We stepped through the front door into the foyer, which was honestly a small space between the door and the stairs. If you were to turn off to your right, you would walk into the living room. If you were to turn to you left, you would have the option to continue left into the dining room. Or go straight next to the stairs and end up in the kitchen. Upstairs was even simpler. Once you reach the top of the stairs you either head straight, into a bathroom, turn right into my parents’ room, or turn left into my room. Say you choose the latter, you would walk through a plain white door with a gold handle, and enter a room with off white carpeting and completely white walls.

We were unpacked by bedtime, when we realized we didn’t have beds, so we all slept on our bedroom floors. It was not a pleasant experience. I was thinking about my significant lack of clothing when I started spiraling deeper into sleeps welcoming arms…

The lights were on this time. The rainbow lady sat on her orange swing hoisted about 13 feet into the air. It made me nervous to watch her perched so high up. But I was soon distracted by what was happening on the stage. A ballerina sashayed down stage, and stopped, dead center. I was close enough to see, she was beautiful. Her white blonde hair was pulled back into a skull binding bun, her cheeks were mildly pink on her porcelain face. Her lips were small and thin, frowning slightly. But her eyes were closed. I really wanted to see the expression of her eyes, but she wouldn’t open them. She was soon joined by two other ballerinas, both equally as breathtakingly gorgeous, but none had their eyes open. The one to the blondes right had light brown hair, also in a bun. I could tell her eyes were slanted slightly upwards on the outside edge, even though they were closed. Her eyelashes were long and thick. She had a button nose and perfectly curved lips. The third ballerina had jet black hair, and I could tell just from look that it was a natural color. I could also tell she was the most beautiful, and even though she wasn’t center, she was in charge. Her fair skin was offset by her dark hair, and her features were smooth, and flowed into one another. Her lips were a light red, the only real color portrayed on her face. They were all wearing dresses, that puffed out and down at the waist, stopping just above the knees. The rest of their legs were covered by white tights and pink slippers, tied all the way up their calves. The tops of the dresses were skin tight and plain. A light tint of pink to offset the white skirt. They began to dance. Although I wasn’t sure it should be called dancing. More like fighting. The most graceful fight I had ever witnessed. With their eyes closed, and neutral faces, they began to tear each other apart, but somehow no one was harmed. I flinched when the dark haired girl got a hold of the brunette’s waist. She lifted her into the air as if she was only a pillow, and ripped her in half. But when she was set back down, she was unharmed. The blonde took the dark haired one by surprise, and glided into her legs. I stopped watching. Instead, I looked up. Big mistake. When I looked upwards I locked eyes with the rainbow lady, it felt like she had been staring at me the whole time. Her purple eyes bore into mine with no mercy. I shrunk under her gaze, but I couldn’t look away. Suddenly, she leaped forward towards me, flipped in the air and disappeared with a gasp. The ballerinas stopped fighting and fell, still unharmed onto the stage.

“RAYNE!” I heard George scream my name. I sprang up, to quick and became so light headed I had to lay down. The moment I did it all came crashing into me. My dream was pounding at the outside of my head, desperate to get back in. I let it in and immediately regretted it. The dream left me with an ominous feeling. Something I just couldn’t shake, no matter how hard I tried.

“Jesus kid, I thought for sure you were out forever.” I looked up into my dad’s brown eyes and sighed. “I’ll be downstairs in a second.”
“well choose your clothes carefully, were going down to enroll you in Old Hallow High School today.” He closed the door just in time to hide my shudder. I don’t know why the thought scared me so much, but I pushed it to the side, blaming it on fear of the unknown. The unknown that had to be faced sooner or later. Why couldn’t it be later?

Chapter Four
Public Transportation

We wound through the narrow streets on foot to the High School. My mother, in a summer dress and no shoes, as always, and my father was carrying an old tattered leather portfolio, containing my school information and health records. We got to the school in a matter of minutes, which caused my heart to sink one I realized this meant that I would be walking until I got a car.

The school was one big brick rectangle, two stories high, with a football field off the side. That was it. The words Old Hallow High School were displayed in big silver letters hanging on the side of the building. We walked through the clear glass doors and followed the signs into the office. Sitting behind the desk was one woman, her graying hair pulled so tightly into a bun at the top of her head that it looked like it was smoothing out all her wrinkles. She had on no makeup, and had an overall plain appearance, except for the fact that her nose made her look like a vulture.
“yes?” she asked, closing her eyes. Her voice was monotone, dragging out the word.
“We have come to enroll Rayne here in this school.” Skank said. The receptionist opened her eyes. She got up out of her chair to cross the foot of space between the chair and the filling cabinet, opened a drawer and pulled out a manila folder.
“Fill this out,” she said, closer her eyes again, “if you would follow me, I would be pleasured to give you a tour of our establishment.” She said pleasured like it was a swear.

She lead me out of the office and turned left down the hallway. From what I could see, it was nothing but one hallway. I was right. The office, positioned at the far left end of the building was apparently located in the Science division. As we proceeded down the hallway, towards the stairs at the end, we passed through the Math and Language divisions. We took the stairs to the second floor and passed the English, Arts, and History divisions. We got to the end of the hall and had to turn back around.
“Is this…it?” I asked, a little apprehensive.
“Well if you go to the back building there is a cafeteria and a theater. But yeah, that’s about it.” She said, closing her eyes again. This motion kept puzzling me, how could someone walk around with their eyes closed? Or even feel comfortable around other people, not being able to see.

We walked back into the office just in time for my mom to finish filling out the form, and my dad was standing on a chair, trying to grab a spider off the ceiling. He shouted when he caught it and passed us on the way to the door.

My mother just shrugged in apology for George’s behavior and we followed him out of the building. Once outside, we found him placing the spider on the leaf of a dandelion. He always did have a gentle heart.

We decided to walk the couple of extra blocks into town, where we then split up. My parents went to the grocery store and I went to the book store. On my way across the street to the store I was almost hit by bus, but thankfully I got out of the way in time. The bus stopped a couple of yards away, and one boy got off. I turned back around and almost walked into the bookstore window. I walked the four feet to the door and entered the store. I was greeted by a vast majority of multi-colored book shelves. A bright pink sign caught my attention: Help Wanted, it said, how convenient! I found my way to the counter and hit the little service bell. I only had to wait two minutes until a woman came out of the door behind the counter.
“How can I help you, sug?” She purred. She looked to be in her early 50’s, African America, and very large.
“Well, miss,” I had difficulty reading her name tag, as I was distracted by her extremely flamboyant, very low cut shirt, “Dayna, I saw the sign that your hiring, and I would like to fill out an application, please.” She ducked under the counter and came up with two papers.
“Fill this one out, and then just read and sign this one.” As she said this I heard the ding of the bell above the door. I turned around to see who it was, and found it was the boy who got off the bus at the stop across the street. I was mildly surprised to realize how attractive he was.

I pretended to lean over the counter as I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He walked behind the counter and donned a named tag. I saw that it read Xander. I could only guess that it was short for Alexander. He was very tan, and looked Italian. He had shaggy, dark hair, and light blue eyes. He was only a little bit taller than me, but had a larger frame.

I looked back down at my paper and filled out the questions. In about 5 minutes I was finished. I stood up straight and looked up to see he was looking at me, which surprised me.
“Hello,” he said, “I’m Xander, I’ll take that.” He held his hand out for the paper I had just filled out. “welcome aboard, when can you start?”
I was taken aback by the abruptness, and he saw my reaction.
“It’s just me and Dayna here, and I doubt she would have a problem.”
“Where is the manager?” I asked, confused
“Well I take his place when he’s gone, as I’m assistant manager, but he’s been gone for a very long time now.” He smiled at me. I liked his smile, a lot.
“I’ll start tomorrow then.” I smiled back. I gracefully turned around, flipping my hair and skipped out of the store. I was in a wonderful mood all the sudden.

Chapter Five
Breathe

We arrived back home, our hands full of groceries and realized we still didn’t have beds. Or any other furniture. Also, I needed school supplies, seeing as school was starting next week. It was decided that tomorrow, while I’m working, my parents are going to take numerous busses into Portland and rent a moving truck and fill it up. Of course that means they will have to dip into my already minuscule college fund but I might be able to get a scholarship to make it up. Which means this is year needs to be devoted completely to my studies. I then took a vow not let myself get too distracted by unnecessary nonsense. Good luck, I thought.

That night passed without any major events, but I was weary to go back to sleep. I sat there in the middle of my floor, staring at the wall. After a bit I noticed how absurd I was being. There was no possible way a dream could actually hurt me. I was simply being silly. So I lay down and stared at the ceiling this time. It took an hour or two, but eventually I surrendered to my exhaustion.

That night I dreamt that Xander was chasing me through huge book shelves filled with little fairy ballerina trinkets. It was odd, though admittedly not the weirdest dream I’ve ever had. This is one dream whose meaning I do not wish to sort out.

“So, what brings you to Old Hallow?” Xander asked. He was showing me how to ring up a customer, just in case we actually had any.
“Oh you know, parents.” I sighed in response.
“No, I kind of don’t know,” He said, tilting his head so that his eyes were only a couple of inches from mine, “ I’ve lived here my whole life.”
“Oh god! That must suck.” I said, shying away from the discomfort the closeness induced.
“Listen, umm…What are you doing Saturday night?” he asked, also turning away.
I was shocked, was he actually asking me on a date? I wouldn’t know, as I never had a boyfriend, let alone a date. “Well, nothing. No one really wants to hang out with the new girl, you know.” I said, turning back to him. He swung his head around and stepped towards me so that our bodies were touching, his face just above mine.
“Well I do. Pick you up at 7:30.” He said. It wasn’t a question. But I answered anyways.
“Oh okay.” I choked out. I then realized that I hadn’t been breathing, and I stepped back, intimidated and in awe.

It was only until after I got home, to a fully furnished house, that I realized that I had already broken my vow. That sure lasted long.

The Living Room was now occupied by a small futon, and there was a queen sized mattress on my floor now, with a quilt over the top. I also found a dresser, with all my 10 outfits stuffed in it. I really needed to do some shopping. I walked into the kitchen to find my mom, cooking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
“What are you brewing?” I asked, taking a tentative peek into the pot steaming on the oven top.
“I’m steaming veggies.” She said, glaring at me.
“What? I’ve never seen you use a kitchen before, so excuse me if it comes as a shock.” I said defensively.
“Well this is the last part, the rest of dinners on the table.” She said, gesturing towards the round wooden table that my father was perched at, ready to attack the moment my mother set down the food. I claimed the seat across from George and watched her bring the food over to the table. She put the pot down on the table and sat down. I just sat back and watched them serve themselves.
“What’s on your mind, Rayne Cloud?” George asked. I was trying to keep my expression vacant, but I guess it didn’t work.
“Well there’s this boy,” I said, looking at their faces, searching their expressions, “Who asked me out on a date for tomorrow night. And I was wondering if it was alright.” I felt bad leaving my parents alone in a new town, but I had the right to a social life too, right?
“Of course that’s okay! Oh I’m so glad your already making friends, its so exciting! If you ever want to go out with anyone, you don’t need to ask, just let us know where you’ll be darling.” My mother sounded very enthusiastic, but my father looked terrified. Whatever was on his mind, he didn’t voice it.
“Sweet.” I said, clearing my plate. Maybe I will like this stationary life. Provided I make more friends to go out with first…

I lay down in my new bed- well, mattress really,- and pulled the quilt up over me. It was surprisingly warm, and I fell asleep almost immediately, thankfully leaving no time for thinking too much. But also, unfortunately, leaving my subconscious vulnerable…

It was just the ballerinas this time. The swings were there, but the rainbow lady was nowhere to be found. I thought that the ballerinas might start fighting again, so I gathered my courage to speak up and stop them. I was about to shout out but when I tried to produce noise, two things happened, my voice didn’t come, and the ballerinas opened their eyes. It shocked me so much that I gasped so largely it would have been audible, had I had a voice. The one with the dark hair found my eyes with her blue ones. All at the same time, the ballerinas turned and sprinted off stage. I waited for the next act, but it never came. I looked up for the rainbow lady, but she was not there. The air was getting colder, and I felt the most suffocating, intense feeling of eternal sadness I have ever felt. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. The lump was stuck in my throat and my eyes were stinging. I knew that if I could only cry I would feel better, perhaps hopeful, but I just couldn’t get it out. I started feeling more and more upset, I needed to sob, to scream and thrash. I needed relief, but it wouldn’t come.

I woke in a cold sweat. These dreams were really starting to get on my nerves. I rummaged through my new dresser, not able to find anything. Finally I settled on my favorite blue jeans and a bright turquoise sweater. I had to work again today, and I wondered if Xander would be there.

He was. “Are you in all my shifts?” I asked him, poking his ribs.
“Not all, but most.” He said, smiling.
“Well that’s not creepy at all.”

I wove through the book shelves, with a cart of new arrivals. I stopped in the Teen section, by all the books about being accepted in high school, being the talk of the town, and other teenage fantasies. The books I was stocking belonged on the second to last shelf, so I had to bend down to place them in the right spots. I grabbed three books and knelt down. Next thing I knew, Xander was next to me, his hand on the lowest of my lower back.
“Need help?” he whispered in my ear, barely audible. I straightened up as a knee jerk reaction, and dropped the books. He didn’t miss a beat. He was standing in front on me, slowly walking towards me, forcing me backwards, his hand still on my back, his other hand moving towards my cheek. Extremely intimidated, and still backing up, I hit the bookshelf behind me. He smiled.
“umm…I’m good, thanks.” I wasn’t breathing again. He was so close. I could smell his shampoo, and it was a lovely scent, like burnt vanilla. I wanted him to stay where he was, just so I could soak in the moment, the closeness. His fingers brushed my hair back.
“I’ll see you tonight.” He whispered. And he turned on the spot and marched out of the isle. Thirty seconds later the bell above the door rang. The rest of work passed with out anymore surprises, or customers, for that matter.

Chapter Six
Edgar

“MOM!” I yelled down the stairs.
“Yeah?” she yelled back, right behind me. She startled me so much that I almost fell down the stairs. Instead I whipped around. “Help.” I squeaked. I was wearing a pair of too tight pants and a bra. That was it.
“Well first of all, don’t wear those pants, they give you a muffin top when you don’t even have one, and second, put a shirt on.” She said, stepping back to evaluate my appearance.
“Well duh,” I said, “but should I change from what I had on today? Xander already saw me wearing it, would it be weird if I changed, or weird if I didn’t?” I said.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Guys really don’t care what you wear.” She said, getting bored already.
“Okay…” I said, shuffling off to put my other outfit back on.

Once I was dressed I skipped into the bathroom to see what could be done. I first brushed my teeth, then washed my face, for good measure. I wet my brush and attempted to pull it through my hair, and after about 30 minutes of struggling it finally gave up and I was able to work out most of the tangles. I put on my make-up and checked the time. It was 7:00, and I couldn’t find my sweater. I began sprinting all over the house looking for it, searching under dirty clothes and on top of tables. Until finally I found it. It was the only sweater on the hooks next to the door. But I didn’t have time to worry about how it got there, because the doorbell rang. It was only 7:15, so it couldn’t have been Xander yet. I opened the door to reveal a very short, old woman, who looked to be around 70.
“hello” She said peering up at me through ½ inch thick spectacles.
“Um, hi” I said, a bit puzzled. Just then my father showed up behind me with his hand on my shoulder.
“Hello,” he said, in his deep voice reserved for fatherly speeches and new friends, “I’m George O’Brian, its nice to meet you.”
“Well hello, I’m Mrs. McDowery, your new neighbor!” She said, practically bursting with excitement.
“Oh well then, please come in Mrs. McDowery, please, sit” My father director her to the living room. I ran to the bathroom to go to the bathroom one last time, grabbed my purse and put a power bar in it, and walked to the kitchen.

I was peering out the front window to check for a car when I heard something smash. I dropped everything and ran into the living room. What I saw when I arrived was most likely the most baffling thing I have ever encountered; Mrs. McDowery was standing over a smashed sculpture, my parents were shaking, standing against the far wall. Mrs. McDowery pulled another statue out of her purse and I saw it was a miniature version of “the thinker.” She started rasping and wheezing it what I assumed was meant to be a threatening scream.
“EDGAR! YOU SAID YOU WOULD NEVER LEAVE ME! I WAS ONLY 68, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT MYSELF?! HMMM?!” I had no idea what was going on, or how it happened but I knew I had to get her out, and my parents were in no state to help.

I ran over to Mrs. McDowery, grabbed her hand bag (which must have weighed at least 10 pounds, as it was full of miniature statues) and took her by the arm over to the couch.
“Mrs. McDowery, I understand your upset,” about what, I had no idea, “ But I’m sure getting this worked up cant be good for you, so lets get you home, and in bed, maybe make a cup of tea or something.” She just nodded in response.
I stood up and helped her up and out the door. As we were crossing the street to her house, I spotted Xander walking down the street.
“Hey! Rayney!” He called, brutally mutilating my name in the worst way, “what’s up?” I could tell by his expression that he was deeply puzzled as to why I was assisting an old lady into her house. “Hold on for like, 5 minutes” I said, apologetically. I helped Mrs. McDowery into bed, fully clothed.
“Do you still want that tea?” I asked, hoping she would say no.
“Yes dear, that would be wonderful.” She replied.
I found my way into her kitchen and searched around her cupboards until I found a mug and some orange flavored tea. I was waiting for the kettle to heat up and looking around her kitchen. On her fridge were assorted magnets, and a few newspaper clippings. The first one to catch my attention featured a picture of a burning building;

Local Theater Burns Down in Tragic Fire
Terrible Accident Kills 13

Just last week, the little town of Old Hallow suffered a terrible blow. During a circus performance at the Roaring Theater, in Old Hallow, Oregon, an unexplained fire was set, causing more than half the theater to burn down, killing 13 civilians and performers in the process.
“My darling Edgar had taken me to go see the circus strangers in action; oh he always told me such stories. He just wanted me to see it for myself. Oh, my darling, darling Edgar!” A tearful Maggie McDowery told this reporter. McDowery was one of three that came away from the accident unscathed. The other seven survivors have either been marred with terrible burns, lost most of their sanity, or both. Other survivors have refused to give a comment.
The city of Old Hallow will not take this tragedy sitting down, “We have made plans to rebuild the theater as soon as humanly possible,” says town representative, Garret Unibalm, “Our town has always been one of the arts, and this fire will not go forgotten.”
Plans have been made and carpenters are already taking action to rebuilding this historic monument. Donations would be greatly appreciated.

The article was dated October 31, 1958. 50 years ago, the theater burnt down. The kettle started to squeal, and I brought Mrs. McDowery her tea without another word.