Chapter 1
Olivia Caisson slammed down the book she was reading in exasperation,
dragging herself out of bed. She
stormed downstairs and headed through the kitchen to screened in back
porch. She grabbed her flip-flops,
which were lying next to the porch door, and slipped them on. She flipped on the porch light so she could
see across the backyard, and then she headed down the stairs that led from the
porch and cut across the grass towards the large house next door. All the lights were off in the house except
for in one room downstairs, and coming from that room was the music.
It had been blaring non-stop for over an hour, on the same song,
Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”. Now it was
near midnight, and Olivia could not stand it any longer. She was going over to give whoever lived
there a piece of her mind.
Olivia had just moved into her house the week before. It was a beautiful, spacious house, right
along the beach, in a private area outside of the ritziest part of Tampa,
Florida.
Olivia had always loved the beach and the ocean. Having grown up in Iowa, however, she hadn’t
had much of a chance to see it. In
fact, the only time she had ever seen the Ocean was when she was eight and had
gone to Rhode Island to visit her grandfather, shortly after his heart attack. Ever since, she had dreamed of living right
on the beach, beside the ocean. And now
her dream had come true, and living here in Tampa, where the beaches were white
and the water stunningly blue, was even more wonderful than she had imagined. If only she had longer to enjoy it before she
had to go away…
I’m not going to think about that now, Olivia told
herself firmly as she clomped up the stairs leading to the wide front porch on
the house next door. Once she got to
the door, she pushed the bell. She
could not even hear it ring over the music, which had intensified as she had
gotten closer. She could feel the
vibration of it beneath her feet, as the whole porch shook with the beat.
Olivia waited, and no one came to the door. They probably can’t hear the bell either, she
realized, and tried knocking instead.
She pounded as loud as she could several times on the door and waited
some more. Nothing. No one had turned down the music, and she
could hear no movement inside, no footsteps, nothing.
Well, someone has to be home, she
decided. You don’t just go off and
leave your stereo blaring. Getting even more angry, Olivia grabbed the
doorknob. The door was not locked, so
it turned easily. Her annoyance had
made her braver than usual, so with only a moment’s hesitation, Olivia opened
the door and stepped inside.
Of course, inside, the music was even louder before. Olivia’s head began to pound. “Oh, you just wait until I get a hold of
you,” she muttered under her breath, knowing that the owner of the house
wouldn’t be able to hear her anyway, with all the racket.
Olivia followed the source of the sound into a spacious living
room. A large and expensive looking
stereo stood grandly on the bookshelves, blaring the song over and over
again. Looking around the room, Olivia
saw that no one was in it. Shrugging,
she stepped up to the stereo and hunted around for the power button. She found it, hit it, and sighed with relief
as the music immediately stopped. Dead
silence fell over the room.
Olivia glanced towards the nearby staircase, half expecting to
hear angry footsteps, as the owner of the house came stomping down to see why
his music had stopped. But no one
came.
She began to get an uneasy feeling in her stomach. Something just wasn’t right here. Not wanting to be there any longer, Olivia
backed out of the living room, towards the foyer where she had entered. Suddenly, her heel caught on something, and
she stumbled backwards. There was a
loud crash, and then a shattering sound.
Her heart pounding crazily in her chest, Olivia spun around to find that
she had tripped over a plant stand. The
stand was lying on its side now, and the potted plant had shattered on the hard
wood floor, leaving a mess of broken ceramic pieces, dirt, and water strewn
across the floor.
“Damnit,” Olivia swore. Now what was she supposed to do? She didn’t feel right just leaving without
cleaning up her mess or offering to replace the plant. Where was everyone anyway?
Olivia glanced back at the stairs, but still, no one was
coming. There was no way everyone could
be asleep, with that horrible music playing.
And no one would just leave the house with the CD player on and the door
unlocked.
Olivia swallowed hard to calm her nerves and headed for the stairs. Something still didn’t feel right, and she
knew she wouldn’t be able to leave until she had checked things out. Slowly and hesitantly, she climbed the
stairs. At the top, she found herself
in a hallway with doors on each side.
“Hello?” Olivia called out softly. Clearing her throat, she called again,
louder. “Hello??”
But there was no answer.
Nervously, Olivia started down the hall, stopping to peek into
each room. All the doors were wide
open, except for one, at the end of the hall, which was halfway shut. Olivia headed straight for that one. When she reached the door, she slowly looked
in.
It was a man’s bedroom, decorated in forest green, with a king
size bed in the center. Sprawled across
the bed, on his back, was a young man.
At first, Olivia thought he was sleeping. But as she squinted to get a better look at
him, she didn’t think that was the case.
He didn’t look to be in a sleeping position, and although she couldn’t
see his face well, she could see the color of it and the rest of his skin, a
pale grayish tint. And she knew then
that something was horribly wrong.
***
