Chapter 2: Homecoming

 The flight had been uneventful and soon they were standing in the foyer of her grandparent's large estate in Salem, Massachusetts. Her uncle immediately took their suitcases and headed for the stairs. The rest of their stuff had been shipped and would arrive at the end of the week.

She could smell the house. The weird thought seemed to enter her mind as she glanced around. It was old and the scents that seemed to stand out the most were definitely the mints and tabacco from her grandfather and the Lemon Verbena that her grandmother often wore. There a a small hint of roses and sugar cookies that lingered from when her grandmother had last baked cookies in the house.

They had not been at the funeral and she figured that they were out of the country when it all happened. According to her uncle they would be gone for a couple more months as they had business to attend to.

She followed her brother and uncle up the stairs and waited as he showed Ryder his room. It was a basic room with lots of shades of blue and grays, though it was bigger than the one that he'd left behind. The bed was a canopy bed, but had blue crushed velvet instead of the normal red that you see in the old movies.

When their Uncle set his bags down and Ryder was in his room, he locked the door from the outside. This immediately raised her suspicions, and she glared at her uncle. "What the fuck are you doing?! Why did you just lock him in?!"  

The surprise that seemed to emanate from the young woman did not seem to phase her uncle as she looked up at him in quite a huff. What was wrong with him? Her brother was going through a lot and he had just locked him in his room. Ryder didn't deserve that and their parents never used that form of discipline. They were both well behaved growing up for the most part. So that was not something that Ryder was used to.

She noticed an aura of indifference as her uncle turned back to face her. He face was free of any emotion as if he were wearing a mask. It was something about him that gave her the chills. Not that he didn't already scare her to death.

Instead of answering her, he grabbed her hand and led her down the hall, to a wing entirely off of the one that that her brother was in and he pulled her into another room. Interestingly enough, it was decorated to a tee like the one she had back home. Though, like her brother's room is was on a much larger scale. Looking around, she noticed that there were three doors. One they entered through. One that led to the bathroom and one that led into another bedroom. She froze. She had read the stories about the old houses and how they had a master bedroom and then a wife's room off to the side. That way the husband could choose to sleep with her in her bed, and then go back to his bed or the other way around the wife would go to him and then go back to her own room if they both wished. Either way, she did not like this situation one bit. Surely her uncle would not try anything with her?

Not that she thought he was ugly or anything. Her 'uncle' was very handsome and she knew it. It was just that she was still young and her seventeenth birthday would not be for another week.

Her heart stopped when she realized that this would be the first birthday that she would spend without her parents. She bit her bottom lip and looked down. She had to forget about it now. Her parents were not here and she couldn't change things no matter how hard she tried. 

Her eyes scanned the room as she took a deep breath. This was her life now, like it or not. She had no say in the matter. What made matters worse, was that she was afraid. She had no idea what to expect, nor did she understand why any of this was happening. The loss of her parents had been very unexpected and she still could not seem to pull herself back together.

She still remembered the way her mom would laugh when her father would pull a face. He could be silly that way. When he wanted to be. Sure he had been a strict disciplinarian at times, but only when she or Ryder would get out of hand. More Ryder than her. Even so they were both good kids.

She wandered over to the window and gazed out, trying to shut Chace out of her mind a moment. Not that she could. He was staring at her. She could feel it. Almost as if he were staring a hole into the back of her head.

He probably was for all she knew. She was not facing him. She hope that he would just leave the room like he did with Ryder and let her settle in. She wanted to be alone, but she knew that was not happening.

The view was not too bad and she turned around to face him once more as she unconsciously wrung her hands together nervously. She hated feeling like this. The emptiness was worse than feeling in a way.

She heard a soft growl and looked up. Did Chace just make that noise?

It was then that she noticed his movements as he went to the bench at the foot of her bed. He eyed it a moment as if he were trying to make a decision. It was a brief moment and then he was done.

Setting her luggage down he went to the door and locked it. Her only way out was through the other room. In this moment she felt absolutely uncomfortable.

All kinds of scenarios ran through her head. The scenarios ranged from him suddenly red with rage and killing her and her brother so he could keep the money that her parents had, but if he was going to do that wouldn't he have already done it when they got into the house. Or maybe he was going to do it right now.

Maybe he just wanted to sit down with her and talk to her to tell her everything was going to be okay and that they would like it there once they settled in. Another scenario that she didn't feel like it was true.

Or possibly he was going to just lock them up and throw away the key and let them rot in their rooms and then when they were dead he would bury then too.

The sad thing was, she didn't really know her uncle or if he was even her uncle at all. The only thought that seemed to be going through her mind was just one thing.

Why was he doing this?