Fan Fiction ❯ Maison de Chagrin ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

A/N: I've been writing so much horror lately. This idea came to me when I went to a restaurant with my family. It was an old house, and nice-looking, but the food sucked. I barely ate anything. I just drank about three pouches of half-and-half. I'm so weird. Anyway . . .

"Speaking"

`Thoughts'

A lone car traveled along a road in the middle of a vast desert. The wheels kicked up dust, leaving it to settle upon the car, and the road around it. Five people sat inside of the car. One bored looking boy, two girls: one staring out the window into nothingness, the other playing with a teddy bear in her lap, one woman reading a book, and one man driving the car.

Suddenly, though, the girl playing with the teddy bear in her lap became bored with her game of making the stuffed bear hop back and forth. Looking up at her older brother, she gently poked his side. Receiving a low growl in response, she immediately pulled back, knowing not to bug her brother when he was like this. Turning to her older sister, she poked her in the same fashion, not getting a response right away. She nudged her harder, and her sister jumped. "What?" she snapped, looking at the younger girl. Now, since the girl was no more than five years old, she didn't like the way the older girl snapped at her, and her eyes immediately filled with tears. Before her sobs could fill the car, though, the girls' mother broke in.

"No fighting," she said sternly, twisting in her seat, looking at both girls. "I want this to be as peaceful as possible. You hear me?" The older of the two nodded, but the younger just let fat tears slid down her cheeks. The mother just sighed, turning back in her seat, making herself comfortable again, and returning to her book.

The latter looked down at the other, glaring slightly, and then turned back to the window. Her brown hair swished lightly as she did this. She became lost in her thoughts, jumping from one topic to the other, not really paying attention to any of them. She pressed her thin lips together, tuning out the world.

The younger girl simply cried quietly for a few minutes, but then began playing with her teddy bear again. The boy had barely moved since his sister had poked him. The father just went on driving, and the mother became engrossed in her book.

Alberta liked to get lost in her thoughts. She did it quite often. `It's better than watching my awful life go by.' She thought bitterly to herself. Alberta grimaced as she the thought raced through her head, but her expression became neutral again quickly. `I'm so ugly.' Another random thought scrambled through her head, and she absentmindedly reached up and tugged at her brown hair. `It's too damn thin.'

Her thoughts were becoming more focused on her looks now. Darting in her head were thoughts of her thin lips, which she hated, her skinny body, she was almost seriously underweight, and finally, her golden brown eyes. She perked up slightly at the thought of her eyes, which she considered were her best feature. They were golden. She had gotten them from her mother. The rest of her features, unfortunately, she had gotten from her father, who wasn't the best looking man in the whole world. Sure, he was her father, but . . . she still didn't think that he was the greatest looking.

Her thoughts than became erratic again, and she settled back into her seat. Out of the corners of her eyes, she absently watched her brother and sister, sitting in their seats as well, hardly moving.

Little Maris' thoughts were of things any five-year-old girl might think of: princesses, pretty dresses, ponies, dolls. Smiling to herself, she cradled her teddy bear, and began pretending that she was a mommy, and Teddy was her baby. A few of her soft, black curls of hair fell over her face, but she didn't bother moving them, since her eyes were closed. She moved her mouth in soundless words, rocking Teddy back and forth in her arms. Maris loved playing these types of games, as any young girl would, and lost herself in it quickly.

Noel stared out the window, looking a lot like Alberta, mirroring her, almost. Noel and Alberta were twins, so this is probably why they were mirroring each other. Being fraternal twins, since they were different genders, they looked slightly alike. Noel had the same brown hair, and golden eyes, though they were lighter than Alberta's. Aside from that, Noel had very different features. He wasn't as thin as Alberta was, being more muscular, mostly because he worked out a little, and ate more than his twin.

As he stared out the window, he sighed, at the exact same time as Alberta. His brown eyes darted in her general direction, and he gave her a short message. `Idiot.' Unknown to the world, the twins had a mental connection, often using their telepathy to converse, rather than talking out loud. When they were younger, the twins had both loved this power, one always allowing the other to read each of their minds. But, as they became older, they didn't share thoughts, and learned how to put up mental barriers, so that their thoughts were private.

Noel loved to say things like idiot to his sister, enjoying torturing her, but his thoughts usually bounced off the barrier created by her other random thoughts. He felt his message being sent over Maris' head, but, like many other messages he's sent to her lately, it bounced off her thoughts, and echoed back toward him, making him scowl at the insult that was meant for his sister.

Maris' big, green eyes suddenly popped open. It was obvious to everyone that the little girl would become quite beautiful one day. Her parents always said jokingly, "We don't know where she got her good looks from." Maris didn't look like either of her parents. She actually looked like her grandmother, on her mother's side. No one could exactly figure out why that was. But, she was a very pretty girl already.

"Mommy, are we there yet?" Her mother cringed at the question her youngest daughter had just asked. She turned in her seat, fighting slightly with the seatbelt, which restrained her from turning all the way around. She gazed at her daughter with her golden eyes, a serious look to them.

"Maris, honey, we won't be there for at least another hour. I told you that ten minutes ago." Nora sighed slightly, knowing very well that, for her daughter, time passed in weird stages: sometimes it went quickly, others slowly. "Why don't you play with Ali?" she suggested, glancing at her oldest child (Alberta was born about an hour before Noel, so she was considered older).

Maris set her mouth into a little pout, not even looking at her sister. "Ali doesn't want to play with me." Alberta didn't even bother looking up as this was said, proving that she wasn't paying attention. Nora sighed again, looking helplessly at her husband, but then turning her eyes back to Maris.

"How about we sing a song?" she asked her daughter almost cheerfully. Maris clapped her hands in response, and she and her mother began singing simultaneously. Noel shifted in his seat, irritated by the sudden noise, but Alberta didn't notice anything that was going on around her. She was too busy daydreaming about some far-off land where she was considered beautiful.

**********

The car finally stopped in front of a huge house. The family emerged from the vehicle, and stared up, admiring the house. It was beautiful. Old-fashioned, sprawling out across the yard, many windows reflecting light down upon the five people. Noel was the only one who didn't seem to be impressed, snorting to himself, and sending Alberta a mental message, which didn't go through, as usual.

Maris immediately ran up the steps, and tried to pull the big doors open, but was unsuccessful, since the little girl wasn't very strong. After tugging at the doors a few times, she jumped down the steps, and sat on the bottom one, putting her chin in her hands, obviously waiting for someone to come and open the door for her.

Alberta's attention was fastened on the sign that sat in from of the house. "Maison de Chagrin." She murmured the words to herself, searching for the meaning. Unable to find the exact words, she turned to her mother. "Mom, what does `Maison de Chagrin' mean?"

Nora, who had been admiring the house more than any other member of the family, tore her gaze from the highest window, and looked at her daughter. "Well, `maison' means house, and `de' means of-" she was then cut off by Alberta, who seemed slightly frustrated.

"I know that," She said, irritated. "I just don't know what `chagrin' means." Her mother just shrugged her shoulders, and turned back to the house, leaving Alberta annoyed.

Noel walked up to the doors, past where Maris was sitting, and tried to pull one of them open. He found that the door was locked. He spun around and almost ran into Maris, who was standing right behind him. Muttering to himself, he then stepped around his younger sister, and walked back down the steps. Maris' mouth formed into a pout, much like the earlier expression on her face, and she went back down the steps, making sure her steps were loud enough to be heard.

"Dad, the door's locked," Noel walked up to his father, who was looking around the side yard. He jumped at the sound of someone coming near, and then turned his blue eyes to his only son. Pulling off the glasses that magnified his eyes, Maurice swept the back of his hand over his brow, brushing away the sweat that had formed from the heat of the car. He smiled down at Noel, and shoved his hand in his pocket, searching for his keys. He was a man of a few words, so he simply handed the keys to his son, who muttered his thanks, and ran back to the door, almost tripping over Maris again.

Noel unlocked the front door, and threw it open. Before he could step inside, though, Maris jumped in front on him, causing him to fall over the girl. She darted out from under him quickly, running in and out of the many rooms that zigzagged out from the long hallway. Cursing slightly to himself, Noel stood up, brushing dust off of his clothes. Then he called after Maris, and ran toward her, unable to catch her, though, since she had such incredible energy.

Outside, Nora, Alberta, and Maurice still stood, looking at various parts of the exterior of the house. Nora was focused on the windows, telling herself that, as soon as she got the time, she'd wash all of those windows. Alberta was staring at the sign, still trying to figure out what `chagrin' meant. And Maurice was looking around the house, trying to see the back yard.

Alberta finally tore herself from the sign, and went inside the house. Maris was heard upstairs, her footsteps making soft thuds on the wooden floor, and Noel's louder footsteps were heard behind her, still trying to catch the girl. "Something doesn't feel right about this house . . . " Alberta murmured to herself, walking down the hall, looking in each and every room she passed. Before she could begin thinking of possible reasons why the house didn't feel right, her mother and father walked in, and Maris rolled down the stairs, Noel yelling at the girl to be careful.

**********

After a dinner of takeout food, the family explored the house. It took quite awhile to complete this, though, since it was bigger than it looked from the outside. Though, during the self-guided tour, everyone decided on which room would be theirs. Maris chose a pink room with many shelves on the walls, because she had many toys to put on them. Also, there were already some toys sitting on the shelf, as if waiting for someone to come and play with them. They were ancient-looking, but Maris loved them on sight.

Alberta's room was down the hall from where Maris' room was, with reason. Her room was pale blue, and had a window seat that overlooked the backyard. A walk-in closet sat in one corner of the room, and a big bureau sat in the other. It took Alberta awhile to decide which room she wanted, though, since many of them were nice. But, also, the thing about the room she chose, it didn't give her weird vibes, like many of the other room that she liked.

Noel decided on the room that was across from Alberta's. There weren't any features about the room that were different from any other room, but he just wanted to be near Alberta. He had been getting the same feelings that Alberta had, and felt comforted by her presence, even when she was across the hall.

Nora and Maurice's room was on the third floor, like all of their children's rooms. It was a "master bedroom," so it wasn't hard for the two to decide on which room they wanted. Like Noel's room, there wasn't really anything different in the room, except it was bigger.

After the long tour, everyone hauled some of their possessions up the stairs to their rooms. They only brought up clothes and pajamas, since they were all tired from the long trip, and just wanted to sleep. All of the beds had been made before they had gotten there, by some people from the company that sold them the house.

Alberta gladly sank deeply into her bed, curling up into a ball, and expecting to fall asleep immediately. Unfortunately, she didn't. Thoughts began racing through her head again, like they had been inside the car. Alberta wished, for once, that she could just shut off her brain and go to sleep. But, as is powered by someone else, her thoughts just went faster and faster. Seeming to figure out who was behind this, she jumped out of bed, and walked across the hall, into Noel's room.

"Stop making me think so much!" She knew that her demand sounded stupid once it left her mouth, but she didn't try to restate it, waiting for an answer for Noel. Noel, who had obviously been asleep, blinked at her, squinting against the bright light that had filled his room when Alberta had turned the lights on. Before he could respond, Alberta suddenly gasped.

"I just figured out what `chagrin' means,"She moaned slightly as she said this, not happy with her thoughts. "This isn't good for us, it really isn't . . . " Alberta trailed off, muttering to herself for a moment, then finally, she stopped talking. Noel sat up in his bed, his brown hair slightly tousled.

"What?" He asked urgently. "What is it?" Alberta just stared blankly back at him. When she finally opened her mouth, the words came out in a hoarse voice that Noel had heard her use before. She only used the voice when she was scared, and she was obviously scared now.

"`Maison de Chagrin' means House of . . . "

A/N: Cliffhanger! I know there wasn't really any horror in this, but the first chapter should have some. I'm quite happy with this.

I'm not sure if my French is exactly right, but I tried. I'm only in my first year. Does anyone know what Chagrin means? Thanks to Text-Addict for give my the right version for Maris'!My computer bugs me though. It keeps saying that Maris is spelled wrong. It hates me.

Please review!