It had been a long hard year, for Elizabeth. Of course, it didn’t start off pretty well to begin with. I guess I should stop the work around talk and just cut to the chase. December 10th 2021 had been the day that she found out that her dad had died the night before. Then, Christmas seemed dull and boring, little did Elizabeth know that she would never experience a normal Christmas again, her life had changed. During the rest of the year several things also changed. First she found out that her father had committed suicide. Later that year, her family was forced to move out of their house. They eventually bought a house and even enrolled in school for the first time. Life would never be the same again.

The car crawled through the drive as Clearcreek House emerged through the tree-line. Elizabeth plunged her head out the window and gazed at the place they would now call home. Situated outside the small town of Jefferson, the house stood alone in the wild, beckoning peace and emptiness. She sighed as they left the forest behind. Mom chewed her lip and parked the car by the porch steps.

“See, it’s not so bad, Lizzy,” Elizabeth’s mom gave her a beaming smile.

Elizabeth grimaced and pushed the car door open. Stepping onto the gravel sent her head spiralling: the cold air and birdcalls reminded her of the night her father died. She stifled a sob and moved after Mom to the house. The door shook on its hinges when her mom pushed it open. A whiff of burnt paper sprang from the rooms. Elizabeth entered under the arch, and the dark and empty rooms greeted her. She sneezed.

The shutters on the windowpanes creaked. Mom threw her handbag on the kitchen countertop and rain her hand across the dusty counter. “We can be happy here,” she said.

Elizabeth glanced at her; the tone implied a question. The worried lines on her mom’s face made Elizabeth flee the kitchen to the gloomy passage. She strode through the bedrooms; the crunch of her shoes across the wooden planks set her heart racing. The silence was unsettling. She paused in a small room covered in yellow paint. The shutter hung loosely, presenting a glimpse of the fields behind the house. A scattering made her jump. A mouse ran from the corner, past her, to the door. She giggled and moved toward the window. Lifting the shutter, she peered out. A figure moved in the rubble next to the barns. She froze as a girl stood up and waved with a toothy grin before running back into the forest. The shutter fell back over the window.