I sit, looking down at my book, as the car bounces me side to side and up and down. It mixes my insides and gives me a nauseous feeling. I lift my head from my book, that spoke of a land of freedom and adventure. I press the button on the side of the door, that starts to lower the window of the yellow car. I stick my head out the window and take a deep inhale of fresh pine tree air as my brown hair whips and dances in the wind.

"Honey," says my mom, Mari,"take your head out of that window, you might get hurt. You know that these pine trees and their branches might hit you." I return to the lemon cough drop, smelling car and look out the window, while I rest my head on the palm of my hand. The pine trees are as green as ever in this summer time of the year. They are hanging onto to the steep and rocky mountain that we are circling. However, they look as if they could fall any moment. It makes me think of a couple worst case scenarios.

"Don't look so glum Kaity," my mom says.

She sits in the passenger seat in front of me,

"This town will be nice. It's a small and friendly. It's surrounded by an enormous forest and it's also old with quite some history. We'll be there once we pass the two mountains." The town is settled in the center of a U valley. Ain't that neat?

"Also, I heard that this town is rumored to have some paranormal activities that happen all year round. I think you'll like it!"

"Yeah, sure Mom," I say, but the part of paranormal activities really did peak my interest, like my mom said.

"Mommy? Will our house be big?" says my little brother Kevin.

"Yes, it is. . . It's an old Victorian house and it's very colorful. Many of the houses there are like that."

I look at my younger brother and my younger sister, Kristi, who is a year older than Kevin. They both seem to be smiling even though we had moved away from all of our friends and neighbors. I pick up the purple bag, with red henna patterns on it, that is by my feet and pull it up to my lap. I unzip the top and reach in and grab my sketchbook and pencil while putting my book back into the bag. I look through the front window and see in the distance two mountain peaks. I think about school and how it is only spring break in our new town. Their spring break is two weeks before the end of school, which is in June, which is this present month.

"Also," says my mom, "this town is the same town that your father came to as around the same age as you Kaity, to visit his cousins."

My father doesn't say a word, he doesn't even make a reaction to what my mom said. He just keeps focusing on driving. I can't help but feel that something was up, that he isn't responding for some reason. Nah, I think. I shouldn't get involved in someone else's business. He remains like this for the rest of the 38 minutes we spend driving to the town.

The town's name is Gundry Fields. How do I know that? Well, that's because I saw it on the huge, obnoxious sign over to the right side of the road, saying:

WELCOME TO GUNDRY FIELDS.

POPULATION: 10,034

Next, we drive through a tunnel of trees, that is a bit dark because the treetops are blocking the sun. Out of the tunnel of trees, we are on the main street with different shops, movie theatres, parks, cafes, restaurants, and many other buildings. We turn a right on a street that is further down the street. The street is called JUNGLESWOOD, which has huge houses. We pass other branching roads and a park, and then we approach a huge high school at the end of the road. It splits out into two other roads. We turn left this time and drive down even further, to a road where it is right next to a part of the forest. Our house is the tall, colorful, and old one at the end of the road. Our car pulls up into the rocky, gravel driveway and parks itself in front of the garage.

Our moving truck had already dropped off our things in the house and left, so we just have to take our personal luggage in with us. The whole group walks up to the door and my dad is in the front. We all huddle around the door, on the patio while my dad jiggles the key in the keyhole. He finally unlocks it. Next, he opens the door and it swings open. We all walk in the house, into the sitting room. Our furniture and boxes are all in the sitting room. I switch my sketchpad with my notebook and walk into the kitchen, which is to the left. I note the colors of the walls, numbers of windows, and begin to draw a map of the place. I walk out of the kitchen, back into the sitting room and look up. There is a fireplace in the sitting room and directly in front of the door, is the side of a large, weirdly chilling staircase. I don't want to walk upstairs yet, so I walk past the stairs into a little office, with a huge window.

The window has the view of the forest, which is very dim and dark. It gives me the same feeling of the staircase. Chilling. I walk out of the office and next to it is a big bathroom. It has a big bathtub, which resembles a hot tub. That is so far the only thing of this house that I am glad to see. I draw the office with the forest outside of it and the bathroom, with the big bathtub in it. I walk out of the bathroom and go to the staircase, but stop and stand in front of it. I gaze up at the stairs. These stairs are really ominous and creepy. Maybe it's the old, dusty, and long rug stapled to the stairs, or the small, cobwebbed window on the wall, over the part of the staircase, where you turn around to go up the next part of stairs.

I swallow down my fears and I lift my right foot, stepping onto the very first step of the staircase. I press my weight onto my foot and the step lets out a loud, screeching CREAK. I swear, that the sound is so loud that it scares the pants off of me! It freaks me out so badly, I run up the steps, clutching my notebook and pencil while my backpack bounces up and down. I even start climbing up on all fours near the top of the staircase. I get onto the second floor and sit down while scooching my butt a foot back from the staircase.

"Hah ah ha ha! That looks like fun!" says Kevin. He starts to climb up on all fours too, really fast up the staircase.

"Cool!" says Kristi and she does the same. They both reach the top of the staircase and sit next to me. We are all out of breath and we look at each other. I can't help but smile and we all start to laugh.

We all stand up.

"Hey," I say to my siblings, "We should claim our bedrooms."

"Yeah! Let's race to them too," Kristi says.

"Ready...Set...Go!" yells Kevin and we all set off running while the wooden floorboards underneath us creak and squeak. I duck my head into a small room that has only one medium-sized window. I run to another room which is pink, but Kristi is sitting on the floor.

"This one is mine!" yells Kristi.

I run to another room and see a huge bedroom. I figure my parents would want it, so I run to the one at the end of the hallway, across from a bathroom. It is light blue and has a section of the room where there are three windows, exactly where a bed can fit perfectly. I run to the floor and sit down, in mid-run, sliding a bit on my butt.

"Mine!" I yell.

"Mine!" yells Kevin from another room.

I stand up and peer out of the door and Kevin and Kristi are both peeking their heads out of their rooms, smiling at each other. My dad comes up the stairs.

"Sounds like you guys are having fun," he says and looks at us, "And that you've found your rooms too."

Kevin runs up to my dad and gives him a hug and Kristi does the same. I walk over to them and realize that my dad is now smiling. It is really nice to see him smiling and also it is relieving since he seemed so emotionless in the car.

"You ready to start unpacking? We'll order out for dinner after you guys are done unpacking. Also, we'll set your beds up tomorrow so you'll have to sleep on mattresses tonight. Is that ok?" says my dad, whose name is Marc.

"Yeah, sounds like a good plan," I say and walk to him and give him a hug. I then walk down the stairs, but I'm careful of the loud step at the bottom of the stairs this time, so I skip the last step and hop over it.

Later that night, I just finished putting my clothes into my closet and bringing up my boxes and bags. I walk over to the clan of boxes and bags in the corner of my room. I unzip a light blue bag and take out some pillows and blankets. I use them to make my bed on the mattress that is under the three windows. I walk over to my backpack from the car ride and take out a brown bear. He has a white stomach, nose and some freckles. His name is Piggles. I don't remember why I named him that. Maybe I was confused with my animals and thought he was a pig when I was younger. I walk back over to the mattress and set him against the pillows.

We order Chinese food. It was pretty good, though I didn't expect this town to have a Chinese restaurant, considering it was mostly surrounded by a forest, and on top of that, some mountains and hills.

I'm not in the mood for a shower, so I decide to use the big bathtub downstairs, even if it means going up the creepy stairs again. When I get back up to my room, I get changed into my pajamas. I walk over to the windows, to get another view of the street as I am brushing my damp hair.

But, as I looked outside, there is someone standing outside our house. The person is wearing black sneakers, cuffed jeans, a white band t-shirt, and a black hoodie. I think it is a boy because he had raven, short bangs that are covering his eyes. Since I am on the second level, I can't get a good look at his face. But he seems to be looking at our house and our car. He looks at the bedrooms and then my room. He sees me in the window. Our eyes meet.

I panic. I dash and hide against a wall, so he can't see me. I count to ten. When I look back out of the window, he is gone. Who is he?