Crystal

By Brittany Diaz

I didnt need this. I was living a great life. Maybe it was a little boring, but I didnt care. It was my own life, and I would have done anything to go back to the way things were.

Of course, I couldnt, because only in a perfect world do we get what we want. Instead, Im sent off on a crazy desperate idea to live in a house where my worst nightmare had come true. Living there was a constant reminder of what I lost. The ghost in the walls didnt seem to make it any easier. I tried to stay strong. I kept my head high and never moped around. I even met someone.

But it wasnt enough; I was losing a battle I had not realized I was fighting. The house wasnt the only thing that made things hard. The house was a burn in my heart more than it was evil. It was this place, this town. It was the thing that lurked in the shadows behind every sad soul that walked around there. It was hiding and toying with all of us. It was after blood. And no matter how hard it was to believe or how unreal it had all seemed to me, whether or not I liked it, something sinister was out there.

How do I survive this?

For the first time in a very long time . . . Im scared.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503516298

Brittany Diaz

Brittany Diaz was born on October 25, 1989, in Staten Island, New York—’90s kid! Since she was a child, she always had a love for artistic expression, from painting to drawing, writing, movies, and dancing. She used to draw on her walls and then sign her name, which made it impossible to deny it was her when she got in trouble. Although Brittany made it public, her talents in drawing would eventually lead to her becoming a freelance makeup artist. She kept up with her writing in private, occasionally submitting short stories to creative writing contests and found herself winning more often than not. Eventually, Brittany became a co-owner to an alternative magazine. She used her talents of storytelling when she was orchestrating storyboard-like photo shoots and brought a dark and edgy aspect to all her work. “When it came down to creating a novel, which was something I had always wanted to do since I was a kid, I thought about so many characters I would love to bring to life. I decided to start with Crystal. There will be many more, each with a different characteristic and journey to go with them. Writing these stories for you all is my greatest pleasure and I hope you enjoy what I bring to the table.”

Book preview

PROLOGUE

I was taking my keys out of my pocket as I approached my building. I was breathing a little heavy but felt my energy slowly making its way back as I started to get a little more control of my breathing.

I opened my door and jogged up the stairs, waving hello to my neighbor who walked past me. I was humming the tune to the song when I made my way to my apartment door, placed my keys in the key hole and opened. A nice cold breeze hit me immediately as I walked in since I left my fan on facing the door. It was a habit I developed each time I went out for a jog. It felt amazing and the whole apartment was nice and cool.

I entered the bathroom and turned the shower on, removing my headphones and turning off my iPod altogether. I still continued to hum to the music that I had been listening to. As the shower was running I walked to my bedroom to search for the clothes I left out. I was planning a vacation to see my sister Leza for the weekend so I packed a little too heavy since I normally ended up staying longer than I intended to each time I traveled. She had just gotten a new house and it’s gonna be my second visit. Last time I stayed for a week when I meant to only stay a weekend. I couldn’t help it. We would get distracted by time and just spend most days watching movies, going out to eat, or just talking and goofing off for hours. So just in case, I packed heavy but now I had to search through my suitcase for clothes to wear to a night out with my friends. I heard my phone ringing from the kitchen so I halted on the clothing search and went to get my phone.

I retrieved it from the kitchen table and answered the phone, which was my mother on the other end according to the caller ID.

Hey mom. I said walking towards the bedroom. But I stopped short when I heard an awful sound from the other end of the line.

Mom? I asked. Again, I heard a weird sound, almost like muffled laughing.

Mom, can you hear me? I can’t hear anything.

Crystal! Oh my god! I heard my mother cry. I have never heard her sound this way before and it scared me. She wasn’t laughing. She was crying hysterically.

Mom? Whats wrong? I said more alert.

Oh my baby…Leza…. Crystal its Leza… She was sobbing uncontrollably.

I kept the phone to my ear, and I regret not hanging up. I listened with horror, at the sound of my mother shrieking as she was trying to say the words that I never thought I would hear in my entire life. She could barely say my sister’s name. I knew what she was trying to say. But I was hoping for something different. I was hoping it was just my mother being over dramatic over something that wasn’t a big deal. But this wasn’t the case.

Please don’t say it. Don’t say it.

Mom…don’t say it. It’s not true. I felt a huge lump develop in my throat.

Leza… They called me and told me…. My baby! My mother sobbed so hard she started to cough.

Mom, no it’s not true. Shes okay.

Crystal, Leza is… She said it. She said again. She repeated it a third time, and continued to cry hysterical.

I stood there in my kitchen clutching my phone to my ear, listening to the ordeal my mother was suffering through. My eyes began to swell, the tears clouded my vision. It wasn’t true. I shook my head. I continued to shake my head until I dropped to the floor, phone still pressed hard against my ear, the line had gone dead since my mother had hung up. The only sounds now echoing through the apartment was the water running from the shower and the remaining words my mother had repeated again in my ear until she could no longer say it again.

CHAPTER 1

I put my box of books in my trunk. The movers drove off fifteen minutes ago so they’ll arrive at the house before I do. I gave them the spare key to place the boxes inside. I didn’t care if it made it harder for me. I just wanted to get this over with.

I lit my cigarette and got in the car, put my iPod on shuffle and let the music blast as loud as it could before the bass could mess up the sound. I wanted to make sure I had no thoughts about what I was about to do to distract me. I had to keep my mind on the road.

It was a three hour drive and I didn’t want to take the time to contemplate on what I was doing. In fact I wanted to have absolutely no thoughts roaming through my mind. But of course it was difficult. I was feeling furious, aggravated, frustrated, and tired. Most of all, tired. It’s been hell the past few weeks. I have been called selfish, cold, and heartless. After all that, I got one random complement, decent. I guess the decent part came into when it was explained what I will be doing today. But then of course that one compliment would fade after people started thinking about how weird it was. How weird I am. In their eyes, this was my decision. No one would explain that I had to be begged to do this, which is where I guess the cold part came in.

According to my GPS I had about eighteen minutes left before I would get to the house. I didn’t realize how fast the time went. I’m kind of disappointed about that; I wanted this to take as long as it could. Oh well. I was in the town of Winchester now, my new home. I have only come here once to visit Leza and never really noticed the surroundings. Of course it was a better time then, and I was just happy to be coming here to visit her. The streets were always depressing then, but that feeling would change once I had gotten to Leza’s house. But now that this is my new home town, I really paid attention to the surroundings. There was something about the town that just had a real sad feeling to it. I remember it was really small. There was maybe one tiny outlet that had 3 closed down stores and 2 open clothing stores that were kind of run down and a book store. I knew there was a yoga studio somewhere which Leza had told me to coax me into joining her here one day. There was a small grocery place and I believe a bar or two. I couldn’t remember much else.

Driving past each block I noticed flyers posted on trees and windows, and once I stopped at a red light I noticed the flyers were Missing People posters. They were posted everywhere, some flyers blowing in the wind on the streets. There wasn’t anyone in the road. Granted it was 7:51 pm but still. Apartment buildings I drove by weren’t scary looking but the fact that most of the lights were out in there as well felt a little creepy.

As I continued on leaving the city part of the town behind, I drove into the neighborhood and was nearly there. It was a nice suburban area with the houses going in an order of colors blue and yellow and white. There were flowers in every front yard. However in the dark it didn’t look as pleasant as it sounds. Everything was dark, and there was eerie feeling in the air when you drove by the houses. Lights weren’t even on. It looked as if had it been a bright day, the houses would have a nice colorful look about them that would make Tim Burton wanna use this area for a film spot. Although, it wasn’t too far off to fit a dark eerie movie of his since it already had that gloomy look about it once the sun was gone.

You are now reaching your destination. My gps loudly announced. I drove up to the driveway of a two story yellow house. Although it had two floors it was still quite small. But it was good enough for one person to live in. Leza was in love with it. The mover’s truck drove off as I pulled in so they might have already been done. As I grabbed the box from my trunk, I walked up to the front steps and placed it down so I could open door. The movers placed all my boxes neatly in the middle. I grabbed the box I brought with me and just placed it on top of another box. I stared at the boxes in aggravation not because of the painful ordeal of unpacking but because of the fact I was standing in this house. Thank you mother.

I was sitting in my mother’s kitchen slowly sipping on the hot tea she had made for me against my wishes. I guess no matter how bad the situation may be, a mother will always be a mother.

She poured herself a cup and sat down across from me. It was very late for her; she normally would be asleep by 9:30pm. But right now it was nearly midnight and this day has been longer than it needed to be. I could tell it was uncomforting for her to be up this late but I’m sure she didn’t care about that at the moment. We had buried Leza that day. My mother had the casket closed due to the fact Leza’s body wasn’t recognizable anymore. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath not to think any further about her.

Her house… she had put so much money into it. Mom said quietly still looking at her tea.

Yeah. I know. I said warily. I was pretty exhausted from everything that had been happening. I felt bad about how everyone was feeling, and I felt awful for the wasted effort from my sister who did actually work her ass off for her house.

She was only living there for a month or so. I told her not to go so far! My mother held in a whimper that caused her voice to choke.

I took a longer sip of my tea. I wasn’t sure what to say anymore. I didn’t feel like talking about it at all.

Crystal, maybe you can step in?

I don’t know mom, I don’t know what you want me to say.

That’s not what I mean.

I tilted my head in confusion at her. What the hell was she talking about?

Maybe you can go there? Just for a little while, bring some energy back into her home.

Mom, that’s not really a good idea. I said slowly. I couldn’t even believe she would suggest that.

Of course it’s not a good idea! My daughter is dead! None of this is a good idea! Having to figure out what to do with my daughters belongings is not a good idea! But its whats happening and I need to give her something, one last thing. My mother was getting all worked up.

Mom, it just doesn’t work that way. Me taking over Leza’s house isn’t going to do anything. I had to reason with her. This was an insane idea and I couldn’t just agree to it just to please my mother.

It will! Your little sister put in so much work into that damn house and now, for what? She deserves better than strangers tearing it all up so soon. Please Crystal. She was pleading with me. She was really working in the guilt.

It’s not my problem mom. I’m sorry, okay? I see what you want to do but I just can’t. I have my life at home. I can’t just drop everything to housesit for a year. If it’s so important than why don’t you just do it! I was getting aggravated. Why would she put this on me? What even ran through her mind that she would think I would be okay with this?

Please Crystal; you know I can’t do this! My mother begged. She was right, she couldn’t. Not with my father who was suffering with MS.

Mom, don’t make me do this.

But she did. She made me feel horrible. She made me feel like I caused this. As if I was the one who killed Leza. Leza’s smiling face entered my mind briefly but then I started to think about the day my mother called me. I had arrived at her house the next morning to comfort my family but was greeted by more details of her murder. I couldn’t take it then. I had stormed out of the house and tried to calm my mind by sitting