Soul Salvation

The sun shone brightly on the coastal California town. People flocked the beaches, playing in the water and sunbathing on the glittering sand. Images of bikers and skateboarders whizzed past the back seat window of the car as Rania Lone stared through the glass pane. She smiled; California was turning out to be all she'd dreamed it would, just from the sights that flew by.

She'd just arrived with her mother, Amrita, and father, Saied, after a long, cross-country journey from New York City. Her father was a banker in the city, and the bank he worked for had a new branch opening just outside of Los Angeles--being offered a transfer to California was an offer he couldn't refuse. Rania knew how much her father hated the cold, and she couldn't deny she felt the same way. So despite the fact she'd be leaving behind the familiarity of the neighborhood she'd grown up in and all the friends she had made there, Rania was pleasantly excited. She viewed the move as more of a new beginning than an end of an era.

But soon the sights of the scenic beaches and downtown area of Huntington Beach melted away as the car moved further out of town. Trees soon sprouted up on both sides of the car as the Lone family made their way down the county road, and soon Saied turned onto a gravel driveway.

Rania marveled at how long the road leading up to the house was. It seemed to take a good minute or two just to reach the end, and when she caught a glimpse of the house her eyes widened, lips breaking into a grin. She didn't know how much her parents had paid for the house, but looking at it she could guess that it was quite a bit.

As soon as the car stopped Rania jumped out, not even closing the door behind her as she raced toward the new house. Before her, the front entrance spanned out, starting with the thick stone steps, up to the roofed stone porch stretching along the front. The double doors stood tall and strong, beckoning her inside, but Rania wanted to see the rest of the outside first.

She smiled at the long vines of ivy spanning down the grey stone walls from the black roof, meeting with moss and lichens halfway down that grew up from the ground. Rania thought it made the large house look rustic--it almost reminded her of an enchanted castle of sorts. But then she frowned as she went around the sides of the house, noticing that quite a few panes of glass were cracked, broken, or missing.

By the time she'd made it back to the front of the house, Rania's parents had already unpacked the suitcases and few small boxes from the trunk of the car and were looking up at the house as well. They smiled when they saw their daughter reappear.

"So, what do you think?" Amrita asked, putting an arm around Rania's shoulders.

"It's beautiful," Rania answered, "but a lot of the windows are broken."

"The realtor did say there'd be a bit of fixing up to do with the place. It hasn't been lived in since the family that built it picked up and left," Saied explained, thinking back on what he remembered the realtor had told him. "Grab your things," he then instructed his wife and daughter. "I want to get them inside and out of the way before the moving truck gets here in an hour."

Picking up her suitcase, Rania hurried up the stone steps, eager to see the inside of the house. Reaching the doors, she touched the handle of one and was surprised when it pulled easily. The door was already open.

"It's open," Rania called over her shoulder, catching the confused looks of her parents.

"What do you mean, Rani?" Amrita asked, calling her daughter by the pet name she'd contracted in grade school as a child.

"The door...it was already open." Pulling the door open and stepping inside, Rania felt her breath still as she took in the first room of the house. It was entirely open, taking up both the first and second stories of the house. The floor was made of wood, as was the wide, grand staircase that led up to a near balcony-like hallway. She could see from where she was that there were at least two rooms, one on each side of the staircase at ground level, leading back further into the house. Rania assumed one of them was the kitchen. Looking up, her eyes met a large, crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling.

And then her eyes met the floor, and her brows furrowed. From where she was stood she could see a board lying in the middle of the grand hall, surrounded by a few overturned candles, and a backpack. Stepping toward the center of the room, Rania cocked a brow in question.

"What is that?" her mother asked of the board as she came up to Rania's side.

"It's a Ouija board. It's a kind of game that people play, trying to contact spirits on the other side," Rania explained to her mother, who snorted in humor at the idea. But just at that moment, as Rania stared down at the board, she felt a tingle fly up her spine and a cold wind brush past her, causing her hair to fly about her head. Looking up and around, she realized the door to the house was still open.

"Right. Must have been some kids messing around here the other night," Amrita answered, picking up the board and planchette, placing them in the backpack along with the candles. "We'll just get rid of it."

Neither of Rania's parents really gave much thought to ghosts or spirits or anything like that. And despite being born in India and moving to the states in her teen years, Amrita had been raised Christian, brushing off ideas such as reincarnation. Saied was the same way, and together, they raised Rania to be the same. But she, on the other hand, had grown slightly skeptical about the idea of ghosts as she had grown older.

"I'm going to go check out the upstairs," Rania stated, glancing at her father who was busy scoping out the large entrance hall. Looking back at her mother to receive a nod, she turned on her heel and skipped steps all the way to the top. Glancing to the left first, Rania decided to follow the hall that way first, heading further into the house. The first room she came upon was rather large, the floors the same wood as the rest of the house, and the walls a stark white. The view out the windows was nothing but trees for as far as she could see. Continuing down the hall, she found a rather spacious bathroom, with silver fixtures, grey walls, and a light colored tiling on the floor. Rania wondered if all of the rooms, save for the bathroom, had wood floors.

The hall then took a sharp turn to the right, a single door and a row of windows adorning the outer wall. She passed it, finding another bedroom as the hall turned right once more, beginning to lead back to the stairs. The second bedroom was smaller than the first, but still rather extraordinary in size. The walls were a light blue color, like the sky on a bright, cloudless day, and the floor was once again wood. Turning around, Rania found the door leading outside and stepped out. The second floor had seemed much smaller than the first, but the large terrace made up for it. It was railed in stone, parts of it crumbling, and Rania would have to remember to tell her parents of one more thing that needed fixing.

The view was absolutely breathtaking from the terrace. The house really was in the middle of the woods, and the quiet would take some getting used to after living in New York City her whole life.

Rania smiled. She really hoped life in California was all she hoped it would be.