3 CHAPTER 2 - The new house

Three years later, on a hot, cloudless day, Amanda Johnson, a widow with her two kids, Natasha, sixteen and Jude, twelve; drive through a scrubby bush land four hours to their new house. She is excited that she'll finally be able to give a good life to her kids considering the fact that the house is cheap and also spacious. She discusses with her kids while her friend, Kelvin Blake who came around to help them with the relocation is also in his car behind them with some of their luggage.

After a while, the city is in site and soon enough, they arrive at the place and park the car right in front of the house.

As they all alight from the vehicle, Amanda says; "Okay guys... Here we are. What do you think? Cool right?"

"Wow...! This house is big. I can see it from outside and it's beautiful. Mom, I like it, it's cool." Jude compliments

"Thank you, dear. What about you, Natasha, do you like it?" Amanda asks

"I like it but I'm not totally happy with the fact that I'm so far away from my friends. It's not palatable." She replies

"Ohh... I'm sorry about that, my little bear. I understand how you feel. Don't worry about the distance. You can easily get in contact with them via the social media. And I assure you that you will also make new friends here. Kelvin testified to it that this environment is good and I'm sure, we will enjoy it here as long as we want. So, don't worry, okay? Come here." Amanda says and hugs her.

"Okay, mum." Natasha reacts and hugs her as well.

As they open the door and see the interior part of the house, the kids are wowed looking at the house being already furnished and needs no much touch except a bit of rearrangement of stuffs to their taste.

"Wow... Mom, this place is nice and very spacious." Natasha commends

"Yeah, it is." Amanda replies. "So, let's go get our luggage in very quickly. Uncle Kelvin will soon be leaving."

"Okay mom." She replies. "Jude, you heard mom."

"Yeah..." Jude reacts as he drags himself out of the door.

After they have unpacked, Kelvin gets ready to leave because of work the next day seeing that it's getting late already. They see him off to his car and Amanda appreciates his kind gesture being a good friend. "Thanks for squeezing out time and yielding to my call. It's amazing how you offered to travel all the way from this city just to help us get off that shameful scene in our former place. You even forfeited all you had to do today. You are a life saver and I'm so grateful. Thank you so much."

"It's okay. Anything for you. We are like a family now. Don't worry about it." Kelvin responds

"Alright, we'll come by your place someday soon. The kids will love it." Amanda says

"Yeah, we will... Goodbye uncle Kelvin." Natasha says as well as Jude.

"Anytime, dear ones, anytime. See y'all later." Kelvin says and leaves.

As soon as they return inside the house, Natasha goes upstairs to get her own room and as she is about to, she notices a room locked and moves close to it. She tries to get it opened but as she feels a strange and unexplainable sensation, she leaves and calls her mom's attention to it.

When Amanda gets there, she recalls that they didnt enter the room when she came earlier with Kelvin to inspect the place while the agent was taking them round the house. However, she also tries to open it but discovers it's impossible and then puts a call through to the agent to request for the key to the room but he claims not to have access to it and promises to forward the phone number of someone, a carpenter, who could break and repair it afterwards.

Few minutes later, she receives the phone number via a text message and dials it immediately. The carpenter replies that he won't be available until after few days, say three. Having this as a reply, Amanda beats herself for skipping the room while the agent was with her but since it is just a room and opening it is just three days away, she lets it slide.

Natasha, being in bed, relaxes from the stress of relocating to their new house and unpacking their stuff. She is fast asleep having a dream about her mom and a stranger struggling for an object but could not identify the object they were contending for, which is almost contorted. She sees Jude at a corner scared and fidgeting. She screams "Mom, stop fighting!"

She abruptly opens her eyes and sees that she is in her room and in bed with no other person, and then realizes it was just a dream, so she waves it off.

She feels like going to the restroom but getting off the bed, she sees the door wide open and wonders who could have opened it because she was sure she closed it before she slept. Being curious, she goes to her brother's room but meets him in a deep sleep and to her mom's room but she is also fast asleep.

Hence, Natasha shrugs and goes to the restroom. She then returns to her room but on her way back to the room, she feels a presence behind her. She stops and sharply turns around to see who it might be but sees no one. She shakes her head and since she could not get the drift, she proceeds to her room. But this time, with a conscious mind, she ensures the door is being locked before she goes to bed.

After a while, she hears the door squeaking slowly and she hurriedly sits up. She sees how the door opens slightly and mutters "mom, is that you?" She receives no reply. She as well stutters "Jude, is that you?" She starts getting startled as there is no response but the door afterwards suddenly goes banged sharply - Ghamm!

She almost screams but covers her mouth with her palm, expelling heavy breathe, shivering and clenching herself to the bed as she is extremely scared to her wit. She fears shouting and endangering anyone else who might want to run to her aid since she doesn't know what the strange thing really is.

So, she stays awake all night being scared if the door would open again. Even when she tries to fall asleep, her eyes fail her because of the frightening scene she saw some moments ago. She keeps checking the clock and hopes for a quick dawn of the day. She raps herself in her bed cover. When her eyes start to support her situation to make her sleep off, she rejects the support by slapping herself and wiping her face severally trying to stay awake to avoid the unexpected, in her thought.

However, she shortly falls asleep and wakes up stretching but quickly recalling the unpleasant experience, she jumps off the bed and checks the time; fortunately, it is around 6:00am. She knows that her mom would have woken up, been in the kitchen to make breakfast as a norm. She goes straight to the kitchen but doesn't meet her there and has to check her room; she meets her just waking up by the sound of the door she opened.

Natasha moves close to her mom and hugs her wondering why she is just waking up but thinks it through to be as a result of the stress of relocating and unpacking which she underwent the previous day.

Amanda being oblivious of what Natasha went through over the night feels it weird and wonders why she suddenly hugs her passionately. Then, she asks how her first night in their new house was but Natasha finds it hard to express her experience and how she feels, just that her mom's persuasion leaves her no room to stay silent.