This isn't anything in particuler. Just a short story I wrote for my friend.
They were dead. That fact was never questioned. How they died, on the other hand, became a mystery; spreading gossip like wild fire. Some believed they were murdered. Some believed it was from illness, but no one ever agreed, and soon the intrigue that surrounded the deaths of the Keller family had become faint whispers in the wind on a boring day. For this reason, when the Atwood family moved in to the old Keller home, no one told them that the family that previously lived in their new home, died without any known cause.
Elle Atwood stood outside the ranch style yellow house. The green shutters flapped in the light breeze as a thick oak tree reached into the sky, shading the house from the glaring sun. Elle smiled. This would be a good start for her family. Her family was filled her with amazement. She looked around to see her brother and sister, Max and Megan, get out of the car. The twins looked at the house and shrugged as they lugged their luggage to the front door. Her husband, Jake got out and unbuckled their daughter Lilith from her baby seat. She was fast asleep and had her thumb firmly implanted in her mouth. Elle knew this would be a big step raising her brother and sister as her own now that she was married and had a child of her own, but her parents had died so unexpectedly and this house had been so cheap, she had seen it as a sign that she was meant to be here. She began to walk towards the house and a single leaf fell from the tree and glided to the ground. She didn’t notice it and stepped on it.
The inside was just as nice. It was spacious with high ceilings and no doors, the rooms just flowed into each other. The floor was all oak, and the walls were covered in yellow wallpaper that reflected light off the gold petals that gilded the paper. Elle went into to the kitchen that had the latest appliances. She looked at the clock. It was too late to go to the store to buy food so ordering pizza would suffice for the night. She found the phone book under one of the cabinets. She found the phonebook and ordered a pizza.
“Elle,” Megan called from the room she had chosen across the hall from the kitchen. Elle went to room with the pink wall paper, very much similar to the yellow. Megan was at the two door closet with a red dress in her arms. It was old fashioned and had buttons running down the entire dress; white lace lining the sleeves.
“That’s pretty. Where did you get it?” Elle asked.
Megan gave an exasperated look and pushed open the closet door to reveal a whole row of similar dresses in different colors. “The closets filled with these ugly dresses. It is like I walked into the closet of some color-blind Amish girl.”
Max came in holding up a white button down shirt with a black hat resting on his head. “My room is filled with clothes too,” He said.
Jake came in. “Our room too, and the babies.”
“They must have not wanted them anymore,” Elle said.
She saw Max’s eyes narrow past her.
She turned around to see that he was looking out the window. A large grey horned owl was perched on one of the branches; its bulbous yellow eyes gazing at them. It tilted its head and let out a shrilling hoot, so high, it sent vibrations through the air. It darted forward and bashed against the window. The glass shattered and it flapped around the room screech and hoot as it dived and pecked at them. Megan threw the dress over her head as if trying to protect herself with it and ducked into the closet slamming it shut behind her. Elle and Max tried to drive the bird out the window but it pecked with more ferocity and screeched louder. Jake pulled out one of Megan’s lacrosse sticks and swung it, hitting the bird in mid air. It was hurled into the wall leaving a stain of blood on the blue wallpaper as it crumpled to the floor. It hooted one last time and ruffled its feathers before it died.
“Is it safe to come out?” Megan peeked out from the closet; her eyes combing over the room and resting on the dead owl.
“Good you killed the pest,” she strode out of the closet fixing her hair. “It’s and ugly thing, isn’t it.”
“Let me bash your head in with lacrosse racket, and see if you win any beauty pageants.” He said while picking up the dead bird. “I’m going to bury it.” He left the room brushing past Megan. The door bell rang and everyone jumped.
“It’s just the pizza man,” Jake said. “Go get the pizza. I’ll clean this mess up.”
Dinner was quiet. Megan refused to eat saying she was too traumatized to eat anything, so she opted to stare at the wallpaper with focused intensity. Her pale grey eyes never blinked and she absently combed her hair with her hand. Elle didn’t question it. She ate her food fed Lilith then sent everyone to bed.
She was about to go to bed herself when she heard a clanking noise from the oven. She approached it carefully; the clanking became louder as she approached it. She opened it quickly and the clanking came to a stop. She sighed, the owl made her paranoid. She closed the oven and went to bed.
The next morning Megan woke up feeling odd. She sat up and saw a shadow behind the wallpaper, but it disappeared before her eyes could focus in the morning light. Righting it off as mere paranoia she slid out of her bed. As she headed to the bathroom she could see out of the corner of her eye what looked like a shadow following her. She swiveled around to see that the hall was completely lit up and there were no shadows. Still feeling like something was off she shuffled to the bathroom, and took in the blurry image of herself. It was at that moment she noticed what felt wrong. She was wearing the red dress from the previous night. She ran to her brothers room and was about to knock him out of the bed, but all thought of revenge fled her mind as she saw the dead owl nailed to his bed post. She screamed. Max jumped up in surprise and his head brushed into the dead owl. It fell into his lap and he stared at it for a second then he screamed too. Megan desperately tried to unbutton the dress, but the buttons remained tightly fascine.
Elle ran into the room in her night gown. She saw the bird and scooped it up. “I don’t know which one of you thinks this is funny but it’s not. Elle looked darkly at Megan and then Max. She left the room leaving the two twins staring at each other.
