Lost To The Devil

Chapter 1: A new beginning

It was a rare hot sunny day in Englands capital, London. Myself and my mother Nadia lived in a two bedroom small house with our cat shadow.

Mum had landed a new job as an architect six months ago and was doing so well that she had already been given a pay rise, that combined with her night shift as a nurse in an elderly home meant that two years down the line with hard saving had us moving into her dream home at an absolute bargain price.

Shifting the last of the boxes into our new home I was absolutely dripping with sweat from the sweltering heat and practically no wind, I had to go rummage through the boxes until I found a glass to fill up with water.

I was looking out the kitchen window while I took gulps of my water and I could see why mum had fallen in love with the place. It had its own big garden with neatly cut grass and flower beds around the edge of the short fencing. We could finally enjoy sunbathing in peace together she had said but I wasn’t so sure. The neighbours next door could see into our garden and us theirs and as if to prove my point a thirteen year old girl and her friends suddenly came rushing out into the garden next to ours, a rush of excitement on their faces as they lay down to sunbathe with their cans of fizzy drinks and food, chattering away to one another.

I turned back to look at the kitchen, it was big and spacious, enough for our dinner table and chairs to go at one end of the room. The cupboards and countertops were a light beech wood colour making the room seem bright and airy. The living room next door down the hall was big too. Mum had already set our cream sofa where she wanted it in there and was busy now attaching the flat tv screen up onto the wall, she was a handy woman my mum. The floor was light beech wood, the curtains cream and the lights had crystal chandeliers hanging softly, all left by the last owners.

Upstairs I made my way to the bedroom I would be staying in and was again pleasantly surprised at how big it was. Again it had cream curtains and beech wood flooring, the light shade was also cream while walls were a milky coffee brown as were the living room walls and I was going to assume mums room as well. Looking in there I was right, it was like the last owner had been obsessed with just these few colours, but it did give the rooms a bigger feel to them with all the light colours.

The most colourful room was the bathroom, again quite big with a toilet and sink one side and a bath with an added shower to it. The room was painted a warm plum colour.

It took only a week for me and mum to unpack everything and put it all in its place and the house finally looked amazing, shadow even had his own bed and big tower den with a scratching post that he liked to hide in.

We hadn’t moved too far but it was still far enough that I now had to get a bus to college. I was heading out the door for my art course in college when mum called me back to the kitchen. “Grace, before you go I forgot to tell you I won’t be here later as I have my nursing shift tonight. I’ll leave some money on the kitchen table so you can order a pizza or something ok? I’m a bit behind on the food shop so I’ll have to get food in tomorrow.”

I sighed inwardly, I already knew she would be working tonight because it was a Monday and her only days off were Wednesday and Saturday, sometimes a Sunday. “Yeah, ok mum, see you later.” I smiled and then rushed out the door to catch the bus before I missed its 8:30 time. College was always the same for me, I would arrive on time, work until lunchtime, grab some food and find a quiet table in the corner somewhere, if I couldn’t find a spot I would take it outside and sit on a bench or any quiet place I could find. I had no friends at all you see.

There wasn’t anything wrong with me as such, I had long locks of black hair that flowed down my back, dark blue eyes, red rosy lips and was slender for someone who was only five foot one. Today I was wearing a baby blue thin jumper, skinny jeans, a light beige thin hooded jacket on top and pair of vans shoe trainers, the hot weather from yesterday had disappeared like it never even existed.

I wasn’t even really a shy person, but I did enjoy my own company and just getting on with things, so I was alone and content during lunch until class started again.

I finished college at five and made my way back home. The ten minute walk from the bus stop to the house was an icy cold and windy walk back, it was may but apparently that didn’t matter to this country as the dark grey clouds proved. I spent the walk wishing I could be somewhere warm for a change, like Spain.

After homework later that evening around six thirty, I went downstairs to the living room where the house phone was and ordered the pizza. Phone calls for some reason terrified me, I couldn’t tell you why, I think perhaps it was because I couldn’t see what that person was really thinking or something, whatever it was it took me ten whole minutes, like full on pacing and talking myself into doing it, picking the phone up, thinking of what I was going to say before dialling the number, staring at the number on the phone and finally, finally I Damn well did it and was super proud of myself.

While I ordered my chicken and pepperoni pizza I found it near impossible to hear the reply as mums stereo turned on suddenly and got louder and louder until it must have been at full volume. Ending the call I assumed mum must have been in afterall and stormed upstairs to complain about her interruption and what the neighbours would think. When I reached the top of the stairs I stormed into an empty bedroom with the stereo still on at full blast. I turned it off only to hear the tv downstairs turn on.

She must have been in the toilet and just missed me I tried reasoning with with myself but again it was an empty room I walked into with the tv still on that had most definitely been off when I had been in there. Freaked out I reasoned it must be the electrics playing up or something, or perhaps something had fallen on the control. I decided to keep the tv on for comfort I didn’t want to be in absolute silence right now only to scare myself silly if I heard another sudden noise.

I was halfway through the film meet the parents and felt much more relaxed by then when the doorbell rang. I got up to answer it and taking the pizza paid the man, shut the door and went straight to the living room eating out of the pizza box.

The film finished and I was full from pizza when the doorbell rang again. Getting up to answer I was confused to find no one standing at the door, stupid kids, I shut the door and went to the kitchen to grab a drink. Again the doorbell rang and this time I ran to answer it but again nobody was there. It was half ten by now and I was freaked out, what if it was some serial killer or rapist? But when I went and looked outside through mums bedroom window for anything strange, I saw nothing. Her window looked out to our front door and the street below and I nearly crapped myself quite literally when the bell went off again. I was still looking down there and no one was there, I could see very clearly from here and I felt a shiver run up my spine. Maybe the place is haunted, but it was far from being haunted by a ghost as I was soon to find out.