Chapter 1 - Moving.
I took one last look at my old house. The empty windows, dark slate roof and the empty swing in my back garden.
“Rebecca!” My sister called. “We have to go.”
I picked up the last box of my things and myself to the back seat of my sisters red Toyota.
“Honestly,” she said, twisting her sandy blonde hair around her shoulder. “You’d think we had all day to get down to Whitby.”
My sister, Alyson, had been offered a new job. She was a photographer and some big corporation had seen some of her stuff on deviant art and had immediately wanted to hire her. So, that’s where we had to go live now. It was a long distance from Aberdeen to Whitby about 7 and a half hours by car! I really wasn’t looking forward to this. My sister loved driving though - it was the only little pleasure she had…after…my mum and dad died.
They died in a plane crash about 2 years ago. I was only 14 and my sister had only just turned 22. She became my guardian after that and at times I feel she really lost part of her social life, she spent so much time trying to look after me - and be mum - that she really didn’t have much time for her friends or for boyfriends anymore. Even now she was moving for my benefit, I was going to be leaving school next year and we really didn’t have enough money for me to go to university. This job meant more money - which meant college for me and even less of a social life for her. Keeping that in mind, I tried not to moan about moving too much. I was going to miss my friends terribly though, even the little things like the taste of Scottish water and the crappy Scottish TV.
I relaxed in the back seat and read “most notorious unsolved murders.”
I loved non-fiction books. Especially books about murders - maybe that made me weird, I don’t know.
I caught my sister frowning at me in the rear view mirror.
“What?” I asked, slightly annoyed.
“ Unsolved murders? What are you, Hercule Poirot?”
“What’s wrong with unsolved murders?”
“It’s just a bit… middle aged. Don’t you like fantasies?”
“No.”
“Do you know that Whitby has lots of Vampire Folklore?”
“Oh really?” I said, not amused.
“Yep. Bram Stoker wrote “Dracula” there. Apparently he based it around all the dead bodies that kept being found on shore.”
“Most likely due to crashed boats. I doubt there radars were up to scratch in the 1800's”
“Oh, Rebecca. You ruin all my fun. What if you go down to Whitby and fall in love with a Vampire?” She said and winked at me in the rear view mirror.
“Alyson, you’ve been reading way to much of Twilight.”
“Shut up.” She laughed.
The next few hours passed slowly. I fell asleep once we were past Carlisle. It was sunny when I woke up. I rolled down my windows and rubbed my eyes.
“We’re here.” Alyson said, smiling.
We drove down quant little roads. Whitby was a real sea front city. I could see lots of hills and boats, everywhere.
The houses were old, white walled and had terracotta slated roofs. I couldn’t see any sort of modern housing to contrast with it.
My sister drove for 20 minutes until she parked near a slightly more modern block of flats.
“This is home.” She said and unclipped her seatbelt.
I stared out of my window, unsure. It didn’t look like a very nice place to live. I instantly missed home.
She had been down the week before with the moving van to put our essentials into the flat.
She smiled encouragingly to me.
“ Well, get a box then.” she laughed.
I got out of the car and picked a box randomly out of the boot of the car.
She unlocked the door of the front of the flats and we got into a tiny, dirty looking elevator.
She pressed the second floor button.
As soon as we stepped out the elevator I noticed how much it smelled like a hospital. The long lights overhead blinked on and off.
My sister led me to the door “2b”
“2b or not 2b!” She laughed.
I shook my head.
“Cheer up.” she said.
She turned the key in the lock and opened the door.
The flat didn’t look too bad.
I went into the living room first. It looked very clean.
We had nice polished hardwood floors and the beige couch from our old living room. The walls were a nice white colour and my sister had decorated the spaces with some of her photographs. We had our big TV at least. I looked around at the kitchen next. It was very small and sat beside the living room. It had a sitting table that came out from the wall. There was black and white checked linoleum design on the floor.
The wall was a sky blue.
I looked into the bathroom after that - fearing the worst. It was nice though. The bathroom was a soft peach colour, with a big shower, a clean looking toilet and a pedestal sink. I turned finally to my room. If it was minuscule I was going to die of disappointment.
The room was BIG, probably bigger than my old room. The walls were a deep yellow. My bed was big, I had a nice large chest of drawers too. My sister had left my laptop on my bed.
She had a picture of her and me framed and hanging just above my bed.
She came into the room.
“You like it?” she smiled.
“Yeah, its great.” I said.
“ it should be a good size for if you have some friends stay over.”
I smiled half-heartedly. I imagined it was going to be difficult to make new friends here.
“ I bet there isn’t much crime here. No murder mysteries for you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, there is only about 13,000 people in Whitby..”
“Are you joking?!” I cut in. With that small amound people it was unlikely there would be much stuff to do. I came from a city where there was at least 200 thousand people and even then there was hardly anything to do!
“No.” She said, sounding amused.
“Oh my god.” I groaned and threw myself back on my bed.
“Bet you’re looking forward to school tomorrow.” she sniggered.
I spent the best part of the night trying to sleep. I was sending my friends emails and IM’s and I felt pretty depressed. I don’t think it had hit me properly until then. I curled up into a little ball and waited for morning to come.
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