Fan Fiction ❯ Maison de Chagrin ❯ Blood-Covered Door ( Chapter 1 )

"`Maison de Chagrin' means House of . . . " Alberta paused for a moment, glancing at Noel out of the corners of her eyes. She wanted to build the suspense, since she liked drama. Noel knew this, and waited impatiently for her to say what she was going to say. Then, suddenly, he knew, for he had learned some French a few years ago from his sister.

"It means `House of Sorrow." Noel said quickly, because Alberta had opened her mouth again to continue speaking. He knew, though, that she'd just stall some more, and he'd get even more annoyed. So he just said it himself. Alberta scowled.

"How did you know that?" She questioned him almost suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him. She wasn't too happy that her "moment of glory" was taken away from her. Noel was smarter than his twin, and would often get praised for his vast knowledge, leaving Alberta in the dust. She didn't like that at all, and loved it when she knew something, and he didn't.

"Because you taught me some French," he retorted. Sinking back down into his bed, he still watched Alberta. The girl looked about ready to explode, she was so angry. She could never think of good comebacks, and now was not an exception. "What's the big deal?"

"It won't be good for us. I just know that." She told him, turning and pacing back and forth along that carpet of his room. "I've been feeling these weird vibes ever since we got here. Something's gonna happen."

"You're paranoid." He grinned at his sister, who had stopped pacing to glare at him. "I'll admit, I've been getting weird feelings, too, but nothing's gonna happen. Every house we move into, you say that it's haunted or we're not gonna last one night in it, but, you know what? We've survived." Maurice, the children's father, had switched jobs many times before, and the family had moved a lot, much to Alberta's dismay. She liked their first house, because it felt safe, and every other houses she saw felt, well, unsafe.

Noel, on the other hand, liked moving. He felt adventurous moving to different places, like he was going to discover something new. Every house they moved into, he searched for something, anything about the history of the house. He was especially excited about the mansion that they had just moved into, for it was very old.

Little Maris had only moved twice before in her life, since she was so young. And she didn't mind moving at all, for in her head, she could pretend that she was a princess, being taken to her castle, to live happily ever after, the end. Of course, this never happened, and it never would, but, in her mind, there was always that possibility that it could.

So, Alberta was the only one who didn't like moving. Really, Nora didn't like moving very much either, but, for some reason, the thought of cleaning a new and different house excited her. She liked to be in charge of things, but, unfortunately, cleaning was the only thing she could really keep under control. Sometimes, though, the children would mess up the room in which she was cleaning, but, she just cleaned it again, not even bothering to say anything to the children about being less destructive while inside the house.

"Well, this house is gonna be different." Alberta finally thought of a comeback, but not a very good one. Glaring at Noel one last time, she turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door to Noel room, and then the door to her room, waking up her parents, and Maris. Her mother came out to see what all the commotion was about, but found no one in the hallway, and simply went back to bed. Maris was afraid that some monster was coming to get her, but she simply hugged Teddy tighter, and he comforted her, so she fell back to sleep quickly.

**********

The next morning was somewhat peaceful. The family brought most of their possessions into Maison de Chagrin. Nora dusted the floor a bit, which was quite strange. Nobody understood how the beds were made, because there weren't any footprints in the dust in the hallway. No one really thought about it much though. Noel was too busy trying to find an old movie he wanted to watch. Alberta was looking for the attic of "Le Maison," as she called it. Maris was playing with the toys that came with her room. Maurice had begun to try to tame the weeds that had overgrown the backyard. And, of course, Nora was dusting the floor, and only thought about the fact that there were no footprints in the dust for a few moments.

Alberta walked noisily along the hall, as she searched for a door that could lead to the place that she wanted to go. For some reason, she had decided to wear some high-heeled shoes. Most likely, she did this to bug Noel, since she was mad at him for taking her favorite book, and hiding it away, in the attic, coincidentally. She was reading the book for the third time, and was almost finished with it. Noel knew this, of course, and questioned her about why she was mad that he had done this.

"You've read it before, you know what's gonna happen. Why do you care?" He asked, smirking evilly at Alberta. She tried almost desperately to explain just why she had to read it again, but he kept interrupting her, so she gave up, and began searching for it. He called after her that, "It might be in the basement," and, knowing that her twin meant the opposite of what he was saying, Alberta began to look for the attic.

So, she was clumping around quite aimlessly in her shoes now, looking for the attic. She had passed Noel's room twice, and the door was open, so she could see inside. But, much to her dismay, Noel was unaffected by the noise she was making. He was tossing things around his room, barely glancing at anything, much less up at Alberta as she passed by. Of course, after Noel took her book, Alberta took the exact movie he was looking for. He hadn't figured that out, yet, obviously, as he ran from box to box.

Alberta then noticed a door at the end of the second floor hall. It was quite strange, since she had gone up and down that hall at least three times, and she hadn't seen it before. She just shrugged it off, blaming it on being unobservant. Then, ignoring the vibes that were coming from it, which were stronger than any other vibes she had gotten anywhere else in the house, she opened the door. Behind it sat a long stairway, which led into darkness.

Hesitating for a moment, she slowly began to ascend the stairs, her heels sounding like shots on every step. The stairway seemed to go on forever, but she finally saw the top. She shivered when she saw it, for it had suddenly appeared before her, bright light shining down upon her. She still kept going, for she knew that her book was up there. If Noel could make it, she could, too.

When she finally did reach the top the stairs, she was panting slightly. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she surveyed the attic. It was very big, stretching over the whole house. It looked as though there were many other room inside of it. Sharp turns that led to other rooms, most likely, for Alberta couldn't see around some of the curves, were scattered all around the attic. And, finally, many windows, placed parallel to each other, allowed much of the early afternoon light to seep into the attic. None of the windows were covered with dirt or dust, like the other windows in the house, Alberta noted.

"Well," Alberta said softly to herself. Her voice sounded high and thin, and her heart was pounding fast. The attic felt strange. Very strange. "If my book is up here, I'm gonna find it, even if this attic is filled with ghosts." She laughed nervously, then began to walk around the attic.

The air was heavy in the room, and had a slight scent to it. Alberta couldn't figure out what the scent was, but all she knew was that she wanted to get out of the attic as fast as she could. Wandering over to one of the windows, she attempted to open it, but found it stuck fast to the frame. She tugged at it with all of her might, but couldn't force it open. She finally gave up, and began walking around the attic, searching for the familiar cover of her book.

Alberta looked for at least an hour in the attic, opening doors to different rooms, and closing them. She had yet to find her book, and she was becoming irritated. She finally decided to go down to Noel and demand that he find that book and give it to her. Before she could even begin to walk over to the staircase, she heard a soft sound behind her. Breathing, that was what it sounded like. Laboring and heavy, it seemed to call to her.

Alberta turned slowly, gazing into a darkened corner. The breathing seemed to be coming from behind there. She slowly began to walk toward it, but stopped in her tracks when she heard a voice. "Alberta," It whispered, almost tantalizingly. "Alberta."

Peering into the dark, not moving from her spot, she saw a door in the shadowed corner. It looked old, covered in cracks, and chipped red paint. A small light glowed under it, calling to her, just like the voice was.

Suddenly, she took a step toward the door, almost against her will. It was like she was being pulled by someone. Or something. She took another step, and tried to cry out, but found herself unable to, like something had gagged her. "Alberta."

Before she could step into the shadow that cloaked the corner of the room, she heard another noise behind her. "Alberta!" Finally breaking out of the trance she was in, she spun around, and saw Noel standing behind her. "What're you doing up here?" She glared at him, striding toward him.

"You hid my book up here," She accused, poking him in the chest, trying to intimidate her twin, but, somehow falling short.

"No, I didn't," He replied, looking around the attic. He then looked back at Alberta, pulling out the book she had been looking for from under his shirt. "I had it with me the whole time. Now, give me my movie." Alberta grabbed the book from him, and immediately pulled the video from under her shirt. Noel took the tape back less eagerly. Alberta then glared at him, walking past him, and down the stairs.

"I've been up here for an hour," She called over her shoulder, as she walked down the stairs, Noel following her closely. "Looking for nothing, because I thought you put my book up here. This whole house gives me the creeps, but the attic is the worst of all." Noel didn't respond, just trying to catch up with his sister. Alberta ranted to him the rest of the way down, asking him why the attic door was on the second floor, rather than the third, but not giving him a chance to answer her, continuing to blather about this and that.

Finally reaching the bottom, Alberta flounced to her room on the third floor. Noel hesitated, looking back up into the darkness that had fallen at the top of the stairs. He then shivered, shut the door behind him, and went the opposite direction of Alberta, planning to set up the TV and VCR in one of the rooms on the first floor, and then watch his movie.

Standing at the top of the stairs, watching the twins the whole way down, was a woman. She looked like a regular person, from far away. But, on closer inspection, it was easy to see that she had a rope wrapped tightly around her neck. Her neck, which was broken, was at an odd angle, making her head tilt to the side slightly. Her wrists were slit, and dried blood was caked around the cuts. Other random slashed covered her body, and her dress, faded and moldy, was torn because of this.

She grinned an eerie grin as the door shut. Then, she turned around, giggling evilly, and tossing her tangled, dirty hair that was once a beautiful blonde. She walked back over to the room in the corner that was covered in shadows, went inside, and slammed the door shut behind her, causing another long, jagged mark to appear in the door. Some of the red paint on the door loosened, and then fell to the floor, crumbling upon impact, and turning brown.

"Albertaaaaaa . . . "

A/N: I've decided to change the ending of this, and forget about what the idea was first going to be. It'll be a trilogy, I guess, since there are going to be three stories. I won't reveal anything about the next two stories, or even the end of this one. The titles, though, are on my bio, if anyone wants to know them. And, at the end, the door was supposed to be covered in blood, if I didn't state that clearly enough.

For those who are reading my other horror story, Checkmate, I'll probably have another chapter posted soon. There will be a few more chapters after that, and then I'll conclude the story. And then there's Burgundy. I'm stopping that completely, for now. I may finish it sometime or another, but right now, I just want to write this, and Checkmate. I really want to start on the second story of my trilogy, but I have to finish this, first. I'll try not to rush myself, though I might sometimes.

Please review. I don't really know what I'll call the trilogy, but if anyone has any ideas (it has to do with this story so far, since I'm the only one who knows the ending, and what the next two stories will be about), I'll take them!