“I Know you don’t want to move, but since the divorce, we just can’t afford to live in this big house anymore,” Mom said, “You’ll enjoy the new house, I PROMISE!” Those are my mom’s famous words when she tries to convince me. Whether I believe her, is my fault. Somethings just need to be left unsaid with her, just let it be and everything will end out fine.

“So this is it huh?” “What do you mean this is it!? It’s beautiful!!” She would say, “It does need a little work, but..” cutting her off “A little? The siding is coming off, the window is busted and that stupid tree is in the way of the garage!” “Have a little faith! Geez, ungrateful child.” As we start to go up the stair case a black cat races beneath my feet. “That’s weird; the guy who sold the house said nobody has lived here in ages.” Mom said “Maybe we will find a hobo inside, come on!!” I threw back at her with a chuckle.

Once we get unpacked, mom starts dinner and I plug in the TV and start to watch random shows, nothing exciting. As I start to get into a show, the TV shuts off. “What the hell!! This stupid house has problems!!” I scream at the TV. “Maybe it’s just you” Mom chimes in. After an hour of trying to fix the TV I was exhausted. When I get to my room it’s a complete wreck, without thinking, I grab a towel and head to my private bathroom. The wooden door creaks as I push it open. This bathroom is the size of my mom’s. On the left is the custom shower with a built in bench, on my right is my marble counter top and white cabinets. There is a garden tub also to the right and two doors. One door has the toilet and the other is my massive closet.

After my shower, I get ready for bed and decided to do some research on my house. Without knowing much I type in my new address, only to find out my new home was a murder and suicide scene. In my three bedroom house, there had been a mother, a father, a teenage boy, and a little girl. Craving for more information I Google for more answers, what I find next is disturbing. The father was an abusive husband and father, he drank every chance he got and bossed around whoever he could every chance he got. The mother was quite and didn’t say much but she had reasons. The teenage boy played football and worked every day, he did everything he could to keep his baby sister happy and to keep away from the house. The little girl was just in preschool and loved her Barbie dolls.

One rainy stormy night the boy came home with a gift for his sister. It had been her birthday and he wanted to surprise her by getting her the new Barbie and Ken set. His father spots him and grabs the bag out of his hands and starts to yell, telling him he wasted his money, they could have used it to put food on the table, but when the boy snatches the target bag out of his father’s hands, he loses it. Knowing his dad the boy ran to his sisters room and told her to hide as fast as she could and don’t come out of hiding until he comes back. He makes her promise him that she won’t. When she runs off to hide the dad kids in his door and starts to yell, when the boy asked if he has been drinking the man throws a punch that nearly knocks the boy on his butt. The boy throws a left punch and hits him in the jaw, once the man gets back to his feet, he grabs the bat be hide the boys door and starts to hit the boy over and over until movement stops. He looks at the doorway where his wife was now lingering and tells her to keep her mouth shut. She starts screaming and running to the phone, the man couldn’t let her call the police so he begins swinging the bat like he was in the World Series. After hours of realizing what he had done, he goes to the basement and unlocks his save and ends his life. The little girl didn’t come out until a police officer had found her two days later. Frightened and scared the little girl told the police everything she had heard that night. Stories say that the little girl moved to Texas to live with a new family, but had trouble fitting in, year after year she became more and more depressed and one day she also decided to end her life.

Shocked, I close my laptop and look at the blank wall where once there was a fight. Over and over I’m playing an imaginary scene over and over, trying to imagine what that little girl must have gone through……..