Status: Currently editing to make a better story. =]
Ghosts Never Sleep: The Diary of Alice Barrows
Through the Door
The plane journey seemed to drag on forever. I slept most of the time because all the movies on the aeroplane were either for kiddies or were just stupid. Ben was in the bathroom most the journey because he gets terribly travelsick. I woke up with a start as Mom was shaking my shoulders.
"Wake up hon, we're here." her soft voice rose through the sleep and her head swam into view. I looked outside and all I saw was an airport and lots of damp fields. The sky was grey and the tarmac was grey, perfect reflections of each other. I sighed heavily; the whole of England seemed to be like a barren wasteland and I ached for the tall skyscrapers that dwarfed you, the sights, smells and sounds. The sudden silence of outside was deafening. It wasn't too cold as I expected but it was still damn awful. I grabbed my cases and picked up the cat box with a yowling Sally locked within. I couldn't just leave her back in New York; it would have been cruel. There was a silver car that had no shine to it waiting to escort us to Ashgrove Heights, our new home.
The grounds leading up to the house seemed like endless acres of oak and yew trees, huge rosebushes and a distant lily pond, adding that slight touch of superior class. The sun had parted the smog of the grey clouds and flooded the sky a brilliant blue. I took a deep sniff when I clambered out the car; I was drowning in the sickly scent of honeysuckle and columbines. The house itself looked just as impressive, even with the fantastic garden. It had huge stone turrets and magnificent marble pillars at the front entrance. There was a huge oak door with a very ornate silver knocker. There was not a trace of mould or mildew on the steps and the huge windows were pristine and shone like water in the sun. I couldn't open my eyes wide enough to fully absorb the grandness of the house, just looking at it made you shrink to a little mouse and it gave you the urge to slink away into the shadows.
I hadn't noticed the salesman smiling eagerly at us. He was a tall, broad man of about forty with his grey roots snaking in the course, brown hair. He was dressed in a tweed suit and looked as if he was ready to go hunting or something. I hoped that Dad didn't get any ideas from this man's attire. It took me and Ben two months to ward off his short "emo" phase when he dyed his hair black and wore skinny black jeans which just made him look older than he already did.
The salesman pulled out an old fashioned brass key from his pocket and slid it in to the door. He leaned heavily against the door and it jutted open. Inside, it was brighter than I originally expected. Light seemed to pour from all the windows effortlessly, perfectly framed by lush velvet curtains. The first thing you noticed when you entered was the huge central staircase. The actual steps were made of pure white marble but most of them were covered in a spotless red plush carpet. The banister was made of a highly polished mahogany and wrought iron. At either end, two majestic lion heads were carved into the wood. The hall seemed to taper off into a multitude of doors, adding to the sheer size of the place.
"There's about fifty rooms in total." said the salesman, breaking the awed silence. "Downstairs are the classrooms, library, dining hall, stage, kitchen, staffroom and the Headmaster's office. Upstairs are the dorms and attic. All dorms are en suite and electricity has been installed. As you can see, the last month has been focussed on cleaning and repairs. I'm afraid that there is still a lot of the original furniture around. You can do with them what you will." He rattled off quickly.
"Thank you ever so much." blurted out Mom and handed the guy a British twenty, which he seemed pleased at. He thrust the weighty collection of keys to Dad and slipped out the door, easing it shut behind him.
The rest of the day was devoted to putting all our stuff into the house. Mom decided to keep many of the rooms as they were. She made the Headmaster's office into her own study. She transformed the stage area to our own home cinema by setting up a large screen and projector so we could watch movies on it. She moved all our living room stuff like the sofa and such into the staffroom, making it our sitting room. She tossed out all the old beds in the dorms and made the teacher's dormitory into her and Dad's bedroom. Since we had more than enough space, Mom said that we could choose any room we wanted for whatever use we wanted to use it for. We ended up sharing a classroom as a study area but we did have our separate arrangements.
Ben took the music room as his own personal practise room and moved his drum kit and amps into there, he took one of the dormitory's as his bedroom and he threw out all the junk that was in one classroom and turned it into his hangout with his Playstation, computer, pool table and other crap. I decided to take solstice in the art room and took up Mom's offer of the attic as my bedroom.
It took me a while to actually find the attic because there was a staircase solely for the attic hidden behind a door. I slowly walked up the spiral staircase and saw the place was softly quilted in spider's webs and I guessed that they didn't bother cleaning up in here. This staircase was far less grand than the one I had seen earlier, made of mellowed pine and plain old stone. I finally reached another door at the top and I swung it open. I blinked furiously a couple of times as I could see this was definitely a brilliant room. It was filled with an ethereal light that pooled through the windows, some which were stained glass but formed no particular pattern or meaning. The curtains this time were plain blue but still a wonderfully rich fabric. There was actually very little in the room except corners filled with spun webs, an old fashioned bed with a Victorian brass headboard in an alcove, with a small dresser beside it. There was a candelabrum on top of it. Covering the floor was a huge Oriental rug and the walls were a plain off-white colour.
I walked over to the table, There was an old plain black tie folded neatly on top of a book. The book was bound in black leather and in gold writing stood out the words:
ALICE SOPHIA BARROWS
I picked up the book with interest and sat on the bed. I opened back the cover to see it was laid in exquisite cream-coloured, thick paper. On the first page was scribed:
To Alice. Good luck at Ashgrove! Love Papa and Mother.
I realised that this was a diary. I decided to slip it into my bag before Mom came up with all my things, leading the removal men with my furniture and other such things. I decided I would read it once I had the chance to be relaxed and to properly absorb it. I slipped the tie into my bag too, as a sort of after thought, because it seemed to tie into the diary somehow. I didn't know why but it seemed to talk to me in a sort of way.
"Wake up hon, we're here." her soft voice rose through the sleep and her head swam into view. I looked outside and all I saw was an airport and lots of damp fields. The sky was grey and the tarmac was grey, perfect reflections of each other. I sighed heavily; the whole of England seemed to be like a barren wasteland and I ached for the tall skyscrapers that dwarfed you, the sights, smells and sounds. The sudden silence of outside was deafening. It wasn't too cold as I expected but it was still damn awful. I grabbed my cases and picked up the cat box with a yowling Sally locked within. I couldn't just leave her back in New York; it would have been cruel. There was a silver car that had no shine to it waiting to escort us to Ashgrove Heights, our new home.
The grounds leading up to the house seemed like endless acres of oak and yew trees, huge rosebushes and a distant lily pond, adding that slight touch of superior class. The sun had parted the smog of the grey clouds and flooded the sky a brilliant blue. I took a deep sniff when I clambered out the car; I was drowning in the sickly scent of honeysuckle and columbines. The house itself looked just as impressive, even with the fantastic garden. It had huge stone turrets and magnificent marble pillars at the front entrance. There was a huge oak door with a very ornate silver knocker. There was not a trace of mould or mildew on the steps and the huge windows were pristine and shone like water in the sun. I couldn't open my eyes wide enough to fully absorb the grandness of the house, just looking at it made you shrink to a little mouse and it gave you the urge to slink away into the shadows.
I hadn't noticed the salesman smiling eagerly at us. He was a tall, broad man of about forty with his grey roots snaking in the course, brown hair. He was dressed in a tweed suit and looked as if he was ready to go hunting or something. I hoped that Dad didn't get any ideas from this man's attire. It took me and Ben two months to ward off his short "emo" phase when he dyed his hair black and wore skinny black jeans which just made him look older than he already did.
The salesman pulled out an old fashioned brass key from his pocket and slid it in to the door. He leaned heavily against the door and it jutted open. Inside, it was brighter than I originally expected. Light seemed to pour from all the windows effortlessly, perfectly framed by lush velvet curtains. The first thing you noticed when you entered was the huge central staircase. The actual steps were made of pure white marble but most of them were covered in a spotless red plush carpet. The banister was made of a highly polished mahogany and wrought iron. At either end, two majestic lion heads were carved into the wood. The hall seemed to taper off into a multitude of doors, adding to the sheer size of the place.
"There's about fifty rooms in total." said the salesman, breaking the awed silence. "Downstairs are the classrooms, library, dining hall, stage, kitchen, staffroom and the Headmaster's office. Upstairs are the dorms and attic. All dorms are en suite and electricity has been installed. As you can see, the last month has been focussed on cleaning and repairs. I'm afraid that there is still a lot of the original furniture around. You can do with them what you will." He rattled off quickly.
"Thank you ever so much." blurted out Mom and handed the guy a British twenty, which he seemed pleased at. He thrust the weighty collection of keys to Dad and slipped out the door, easing it shut behind him.
The rest of the day was devoted to putting all our stuff into the house. Mom decided to keep many of the rooms as they were. She made the Headmaster's office into her own study. She transformed the stage area to our own home cinema by setting up a large screen and projector so we could watch movies on it. She moved all our living room stuff like the sofa and such into the staffroom, making it our sitting room. She tossed out all the old beds in the dorms and made the teacher's dormitory into her and Dad's bedroom. Since we had more than enough space, Mom said that we could choose any room we wanted for whatever use we wanted to use it for. We ended up sharing a classroom as a study area but we did have our separate arrangements.
Ben took the music room as his own personal practise room and moved his drum kit and amps into there, he took one of the dormitory's as his bedroom and he threw out all the junk that was in one classroom and turned it into his hangout with his Playstation, computer, pool table and other crap. I decided to take solstice in the art room and took up Mom's offer of the attic as my bedroom.
It took me a while to actually find the attic because there was a staircase solely for the attic hidden behind a door. I slowly walked up the spiral staircase and saw the place was softly quilted in spider's webs and I guessed that they didn't bother cleaning up in here. This staircase was far less grand than the one I had seen earlier, made of mellowed pine and plain old stone. I finally reached another door at the top and I swung it open. I blinked furiously a couple of times as I could see this was definitely a brilliant room. It was filled with an ethereal light that pooled through the windows, some which were stained glass but formed no particular pattern or meaning. The curtains this time were plain blue but still a wonderfully rich fabric. There was actually very little in the room except corners filled with spun webs, an old fashioned bed with a Victorian brass headboard in an alcove, with a small dresser beside it. There was a candelabrum on top of it. Covering the floor was a huge Oriental rug and the walls were a plain off-white colour.
I walked over to the table, There was an old plain black tie folded neatly on top of a book. The book was bound in black leather and in gold writing stood out the words:
ALICE SOPHIA BARROWS
I picked up the book with interest and sat on the bed. I opened back the cover to see it was laid in exquisite cream-coloured, thick paper. On the first page was scribed:
To Alice. Good luck at Ashgrove! Love Papa and Mother.
I realised that this was a diary. I decided to slip it into my bag before Mom came up with all my things, leading the removal men with my furniture and other such things. I decided I would read it once I had the chance to be relaxed and to properly absorb it. I slipped the tie into my bag too, as a sort of after thought, because it seemed to tie into the diary somehow. I didn't know why but it seemed to talk to me in a sort of way.