Status: Currently editing to make a better story. =]
Ghosts Never Sleep: The Diary of Alice Barrows
New York to York
It was a murky sort of Monday morning that it all started. I opened my eyes uneasily as I saw the gaudy red numbers fizz from my alarm clock: Five AM. I let out a groggy groan and buried myself into my pillows again. My face was sticky with dreams and I could sort out very few moments in the dream I could remember; something about war and battlegrounds images of people familiar and strange were etched in my memory. Of course, a dream was merely a dream, meaning very little in the grand scheme of things. It was just imagination taking a hold of your mind as it rested and screwing with it. I guessed that insanity must be like being in that sort of stupor when you were awake too. I decided to stop thinking about it too much because I wanted to be asleep and I needed to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed as Dad put it. We were moving into a large house in the British countryside because one of Mom's books sold really well and she's always wanted to move over there.
Your mother might have heard of my Mom, her name is really famous in the soppy romance world: Beth Jones. She's written hundreds of those little cheap Mills and Boons romance novels and the last one she wrote sold really well so her and Dad went over to the UK for a little break. She ended up coming back telling us - in a very put-on and terrible English accent - that we were moving over there. She had found a huge estate for sale in the Yorkshire moors that had been a school in the Sixties.
At first, I wasn't entirely thrilled. Well, to be honest, I was raging. I ended up smashing my big brother's iPod by mistake and I had my allowance stopped to pay for a new one. I did not want to move over to some dump in the middle of nowhere. It was my brother Ben who asked the question I had forgot.
"How can we afford this?" he asked, his eyebrows cocked in a quizzical manner. I turned to look at my parents and started to wonder this too. Okay, Mom had sold quite a few books but it wasn't as if it was the new Harry Potter or anything. We weren't millionaires and weren't about to appear on Conan anytime soon. We were moderately well off and Mom was only really famous to all the Mills and Boon readers and no one else. How could we afford to move to another country and into a huge mansion at the same time?
"It was excellent!" said Mom in her normal voice "They wanted rid of the place as soon as because it had been empty for years! We got it dirt cheap and it's huge! There's more than enough room for you kids to play in. There's still some of all the old school junk. There's a piano and organs and god knows what else there. Oh, and the attic's been converted into another room and it's huge, you'd love it Tina. It's straight outta fairytale or something." She kept going on and on and on, her voice getting faster and higher like she was a cassette player suddenly going out of control and chewing up the tape inside. I let out a snort of detest at the classification of me and my brother as kids.
I think he must have been more annoyed than me because he was seventeen for God's sake and I was two years younger than he was. He didn't show his anger though; he'd probably just go and play Mortal Combat for an hour very loudly later. He hated showing his emotions, he preferred being blank. The only time I ever saw him really angry at school was when someone was picking on this poor little kid. He ended up being suspended for two weeks but he was proud that he stood up for the little guy. Ben was probably one of the best brothers you could have. He was laid back when he had to watch me and he helped me with all my homework. He was a right brain-box too; he had the highest mark in Physics ever since he went to our school. He had graduated now because he was moved up a class when he was younger.
"But Mom, I'm going to Yale after the summer vacation! What's the point in me moving half-way across the world if I can't go to college?" he said, his eyes full of hurt. He had wanted to go to college ever since I could remember.
"You can go to Oxford or Cambridge, they're closer to our new home and much more refined than plain old Yale." Dad shrugged. Even I had to look at him strangely when he said that. He had been begging for Ben to go to Yale for the last two years because that's where he went. How could he have just dismissed it so easily? It just didn't add up at all.
"Dad! C'mon, I have started up a Debate Club here! I can't just start a club then never go, that's moronic!" I complained. I hadn't really started up a club but I felt like complaining anyway. I just didn't want to leave New York. I loved the city too much to be suddenly dropped into England. I adored the little streets, teeming with life. I loved the stores, the lights, the hurry, the bustle, the crowds...It was my city. I didn't want to tell them about this though because it seemed stupid not wanting to leave somewhere because you were in love with your current address.
"No more arguments." Mom said, brushing my complaint away as it was dust on her shoulder. "We are going and that is final." That was a month ago. It was that Monday that we were going to leave for our new home.
I turned over to meet eye-to-eye with my black and white cat, Sally. She was purring like a smoothly running engine and kept coming closer to nuzzle my out-stretched hand. I turned over briefly and fumbled for my glasses. I felt I was too awake to go back to sleep. I pulled myself out my warm bed and groped my way into the kitchen. The lights blinded me as I turned them on, making the world seem too bright and dazzling to be real. It was like one of those flash cameras; showing its personal supernova to my eyes and making them burn and water. The brightness dulled as I got used to the light and I opened Sally's cupboard and lifted out a tin of tuna. It was just the basic Wal-Mart stuff but she loved it. I always felt uneasy with those tins, who knew what was lurking in the pink, fishy slurry?
Your mother might have heard of my Mom, her name is really famous in the soppy romance world: Beth Jones. She's written hundreds of those little cheap Mills and Boons romance novels and the last one she wrote sold really well so her and Dad went over to the UK for a little break. She ended up coming back telling us - in a very put-on and terrible English accent - that we were moving over there. She had found a huge estate for sale in the Yorkshire moors that had been a school in the Sixties.
At first, I wasn't entirely thrilled. Well, to be honest, I was raging. I ended up smashing my big brother's iPod by mistake and I had my allowance stopped to pay for a new one. I did not want to move over to some dump in the middle of nowhere. It was my brother Ben who asked the question I had forgot.
"How can we afford this?" he asked, his eyebrows cocked in a quizzical manner. I turned to look at my parents and started to wonder this too. Okay, Mom had sold quite a few books but it wasn't as if it was the new Harry Potter or anything. We weren't millionaires and weren't about to appear on Conan anytime soon. We were moderately well off and Mom was only really famous to all the Mills and Boon readers and no one else. How could we afford to move to another country and into a huge mansion at the same time?
"It was excellent!" said Mom in her normal voice "They wanted rid of the place as soon as because it had been empty for years! We got it dirt cheap and it's huge! There's more than enough room for you kids to play in. There's still some of all the old school junk. There's a piano and organs and god knows what else there. Oh, and the attic's been converted into another room and it's huge, you'd love it Tina. It's straight outta fairytale or something." She kept going on and on and on, her voice getting faster and higher like she was a cassette player suddenly going out of control and chewing up the tape inside. I let out a snort of detest at the classification of me and my brother as kids.
I think he must have been more annoyed than me because he was seventeen for God's sake and I was two years younger than he was. He didn't show his anger though; he'd probably just go and play Mortal Combat for an hour very loudly later. He hated showing his emotions, he preferred being blank. The only time I ever saw him really angry at school was when someone was picking on this poor little kid. He ended up being suspended for two weeks but he was proud that he stood up for the little guy. Ben was probably one of the best brothers you could have. He was laid back when he had to watch me and he helped me with all my homework. He was a right brain-box too; he had the highest mark in Physics ever since he went to our school. He had graduated now because he was moved up a class when he was younger.
"But Mom, I'm going to Yale after the summer vacation! What's the point in me moving half-way across the world if I can't go to college?" he said, his eyes full of hurt. He had wanted to go to college ever since I could remember.
"You can go to Oxford or Cambridge, they're closer to our new home and much more refined than plain old Yale." Dad shrugged. Even I had to look at him strangely when he said that. He had been begging for Ben to go to Yale for the last two years because that's where he went. How could he have just dismissed it so easily? It just didn't add up at all.
"Dad! C'mon, I have started up a Debate Club here! I can't just start a club then never go, that's moronic!" I complained. I hadn't really started up a club but I felt like complaining anyway. I just didn't want to leave New York. I loved the city too much to be suddenly dropped into England. I adored the little streets, teeming with life. I loved the stores, the lights, the hurry, the bustle, the crowds...It was my city. I didn't want to tell them about this though because it seemed stupid not wanting to leave somewhere because you were in love with your current address.
"No more arguments." Mom said, brushing my complaint away as it was dust on her shoulder. "We are going and that is final." That was a month ago. It was that Monday that we were going to leave for our new home.
I turned over to meet eye-to-eye with my black and white cat, Sally. She was purring like a smoothly running engine and kept coming closer to nuzzle my out-stretched hand. I turned over briefly and fumbled for my glasses. I felt I was too awake to go back to sleep. I pulled myself out my warm bed and groped my way into the kitchen. The lights blinded me as I turned them on, making the world seem too bright and dazzling to be real. It was like one of those flash cameras; showing its personal supernova to my eyes and making them burn and water. The brightness dulled as I got used to the light and I opened Sally's cupboard and lifted out a tin of tuna. It was just the basic Wal-Mart stuff but she loved it. I always felt uneasy with those tins, who knew what was lurking in the pink, fishy slurry?