Chapter 1: New Home
Maurine
This better be the last time we'll move to another town. I'm getting sick of packing my stuff, especially my almost a thousand books I have to carry wherever Mom would decide to drag my ass to.
I get that we're trying to live a normal life; far from the dangerous one my grandma decided to turn her back from, but if moving from one place to another every year is considered 'normal', I'd rather wait for the enemies to come and get me.
I turned to the door when I heard it screech open. Mom, with a worried look on her face, let out a heavy breath as she walked the length between us.
"Sweetie, I know you're upset but I'm sure you'll find new friends in Blood Creek," said Mom. It's her version of her apology, I guess, and this was not the first time I heard her say those words to me. Every time we move to another place to start our lives all over again, she would always say I would eventually make new friends.
I badly wanted to roll my eyes. I wasn't worried about my friends because truth be told, I didn't even make an effort to have even one. I already stopped trying to build friendships with anyone since I was twelve because I see no point in still doing so when I know to myself that I would have to leave them once Mom decides to sell our house to buy a new one in God-knows-where.
This was better. There wouldn't be anyone whom I would make promises to see again once I have my adult money. The burden of saying goodbye to people I made friends with in the past was too much that I chose to be a snob.
I became the invisible girl in class, and overtime, pretending not to care about my surroundings became natural for me. I indulged myself in books instead. I prefer not being seen nor interrupted when I was reading so no one bothered me to make friends with me.
There was nothing in Bailey that I would be leaving behind and make me feel bad. But what upsets me was all these hassles that come whenever we have to move to another place.
"It's alright, Mom," I lied. That was easier than explaining how much of a burden this was for me. I knew she'd resort to convincing me to leave most of my stuff, especially my books. Mom was never fond of reading so she would never understand how much books had saved my life.
There is no way I'd leave my babies behind.
Mom gave me a small smile before she pecked a gentle kiss on my forehead. "Moving truck will be here in ten minutes. I'll wait for you downstairs." She tucked a few strands of my hair behind my ears. "You will surely love our new house. We got two spare rooms so perhaps you can finally have your own study room."
"Really? You promise?" I asked.
"Of course, but please don't max out my card to buy yourself a bunch of books on our first day in Blood Creek?"
I pursed my lips together to suppress my grin. "I'll try."
"You silly girl." She pinched the tip of my nose before she finally headed to the door.
I watched her leave my room, and as soon as the door finally shut, my grin disappeared as I let out my sigh of frustration.
"Screw this life," I murmured to myself.
My back fell on the mattress before I waved my hand. I knew Mom said magic was forbidden around the house, and everywhere else, but I was not in the mood to be such an obedient girl right now so I let my stuff arrange themselves inside the boxes. When I heard the moving truck parked in front of our house, I grabbed my bag and left my room with a heavy heart.
Our new house better have built-in bookshelves or else I'd finally make a tantrum...
Much to my disappointment, my new room didn't have any built-in shelves so Mom promised to buy me some just so I would stop frowning in front of her.
Good thing I had my own veranda where I could set up an Instagramable corner where I can relax whenever I wanted to read outside. It was kind of facing the street, though but I guess I would be fine, considering there was not much of passers by in our part of the village.
"Maurine, can you help me with the boxes left outside?" I heard Mom shouted from downstairs.
I put my phone down and went out of the room to attend to her. She was already sniffing because of the weather. Right. Have I mentioned that Blood Creek reminded me of the setting in Twilight? Yes, but I wasn't looking for a real-life Cullen anyway so it wasn't enough to shoo away my disappointment with our new home.
And for the record, I only watched the film because of the actor who played Jasper.
Oh, my Jackson Rathbone, I'm sorry I was born in the wrong time...
"You should wear a thicker jacket," I suggested to Mom before I smirked. "Old people catch colds easily."
She pinched me on my waist. "Who are you calling old?"
I laughed as I tried to keep a distance from her. I was joking. Mom was young when she had me so we were more like sisters.
My Dad, however, remained a mystery to me. My Mom refused to talk about him, and most of our family members avoid topics about him as well, as if his name equates to Voldemort so we were not supposed to talk about him.
Good thing Mom somehow gave me the liberty to find out how they met. She said she didn't really know him that much because she got pregnant because she was a rebel back in her college days. Young people love parties, she said, and she had me by accident after she had a one-night-stand with someone who dropped out of college the day after he found out my Mom was pregnant.
Mom used to have magic as well, but she said she lost her gift when she got pregnant with me. I thought maybe it was because she had passed on her magic to me, but when her sister, Aunt Meridith got pregnant, her gift did not go away even when my cousin, Rory possessed magic, too.
I had a hunch that it had something to do with my Dad, but as long as he's a mystery to me, I could never confirm.
I paused when I realized something. Huh. My life would sound like a good plot for a book. Only that people would probably think it must fall under the Fantasy category. I smirked with the thought. Of course, no one believes witches still exist.
"Call me if the boxes are too heavy. Don't even dare use your magic," she reminded while she was busy typing on her phone.
"Yeah, yeah." I waved my hand and walked outside where three more boxes were sitting by the drive way. Oh, great! The moving company Mom bragged to have a five-star rating just left these boxes out here. They probably deserve their rating, right?
Rolling my eyes, I walked towards the boxes while tying my hair into a pony. The wind blew hard and somehow, the old house with white paint caught my attention. There were some vines crawling up to the roof and the plants on their front yard looked withered already.
I was never nosy, but there was something about the house that pricked my attention... especially the room on the second floor. It felt like it was calling for me, as if there was something inside the room that I must see... or meet.
Now I'm being nosy. I shook my head when I realized I had been staring at the window for far too long. Why was I here again? Right. To pick up these stupid boxes the moving buddies didn't mind putting inside despite them knowing that there was only me and my Mom in this goddamn house.
I was about to lift the first box when I noticed a group of people walking on the other side of the street. They were a group of four; two girls and two boys. One of the boys was holding a baseball bat while the other boy was jugging his tumbler.
They seemed to be talking about something fun, and for a moment, I kind of missed having friends whom I could talk to about anything under the sun. I used to be friendly, though. Until my friends slowly stopped sending me chats one by one until there was no one left to greet me happy birthday.
My gaze remained at their direction without me noticing. It was too late to look away and pretend they didn't see me because one of them already met my pools.
I looked away and found myself staring at the window again, but this time, there was a silhouette of a man inside the room, facing my direction.
My heart suddenly went wild as if I just jugged a ton of coffee. Something inside me was lit, and despite my big brain, I had no words to describe what I was feeling.
"Nobody said someone is moving in?" I heard one of the girls said.
Now what? Should everyone be informed whenever there is someone new in their neighborhood? I get that Blood Creek is a small village. As a matter of fact, this was probably the smallest town my Mom and I had been, but I didn't think it was necessary to let everyone know when someone is joining the community.
Dear Lord, I hate house-warming parties. I hate it when people are flooding our house and I have no choice but to speak more than ten words to each person I will bump with.
"Let's come and say hi," said one of the guys with sparkly blue eyes and auburn hair. God, I hate his enthusiasm. It might convince his friends to come near me.
"I don't think it's a good idea, James. Let's just go and wait for Alpha to tell us it's finally safe to introduce ourselves," the guy with evergreen eyes whom I first made eye-contact with said in a cold tone.
His last sentence slightly made my forehead wrinkle, but oh, thank goodness. He just saved my ass from an awkward conversation with my new neighbors.
I secretly watched them walk pass our house. As soon as they disappeared on the next alley, I lifted the box with gritted teeth. Damn, it was heavy.
Realizing that I was too skinny to carry the box, I looked around before I whispered a simple spell. The box glowed with white, and when it went back to normal, I smirked and finally lifted it up. Now it weighs like a feather.
I smiled as I walked towards the house. Mom was already upstairs to probably check her own room so she didn't realize I used my magic. When I was done putting the first box in the kitchen, I happily went outside to get the other two.
I checked the boxes and was about to wave my hand when I realized someone was watching me. My brows furrowed as I looked around, and when my eyes met a pair of golden rims from the house in front of ours, my lips parted and I stepped back.
I tripped and fell over the boxes. My back hurt, making me shut my eyes for a couple moments, but when I returned my gaze towards the window where I saw the pair of golden eyes, the blinds were already shut and no one was there.
With chills trailing down my spine, I immediately ran back inside the house and immediately closed the door behind me before I peeked at the window, checking if there was someone in the room.
That better not be what I think it was...