Rena sighed in disappointment as she looked out the window of her new room.

  "With every step, we're getting further away from decent civilization," she murmured, staring into the deep forest.

  Her wonderful mother had just decided to move in with her newest boyfriend’s family because they had a big house.

  But that wasn’t even the biggest problem.

  The real issue was where they’d moved to.

  A forested town, on some random mountain in Canada, in the middle of fucking nowhere. There were barely a few thousand people living here, yet the place was stupidly huge, and one part was practically a ghost zone.

  At least the house was big, with an upper floor and a basement. There was enough space for everyone, and Rena finally got a separate room away from her two younger brothers.

  She never liked having a lot of people around her, so the situation wasn’t ideal, and the strange smell of the place didn’t help.

  But not just the place, she hadn't met many people yet but they all had a weird smell.

  But it’s not like she could gone anywhere else.

  She had to accept it, and having her own space made it quite a bit better.

  Although it was a bit small.

  Come to think of it, there were a lot of people living under one roof.

  She started counting: Reynold’s parents. His younger brother, Gabriel. Sometimes his sister. An alcoholic uncle, Ray, in the basement but idk about him.

  Then Rena herself, her two brothers, her mother, and Reynold himself.

  Ten people.

  Ten fucking people.

  How great. Ten people for one and a half bathrooms. she thought sarcastically.

  As her head began to overheat from all the mental math, she gave up and turned back to the window.

  After a few minutes of zoning out, she noticed white flakes started to fall from the sky, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

  “Maybe it’s not that bad after all…” she whispered.

  It had been a long time since she’d seen real snow, but she had fond memories of it from her younger days.

  Sighing, she stood up and forced herself to continue unpacking. Her room was depressingly empty, except for her bed, desk, and the pile of boxes.

  Plus, it was Friday, so she had to finish everything over the weekend, since school started on Monday. How exciting.

  After a few hours of dragging, sorting, and shoving, she finally threw herself on the bed, exhausted.

  Most of the boxes were gone. Tomorrow she’d finish the rest and clean up the ungodly amount of dirt that had somehow ended up all over the floor.

  She looked around with a satisfied expression.

  The room was already much cozier. Her desk was full of her stuff, her closet was packed with clothes, and she even stuck a few of her posters on the walls.

  All that was missing was a carpet in the middle of the room.

  Rena glanced at the clock on her shelf. It was already seven in the evening, and she felt like she’d been run over by a truck.

  She was gross from unpacking, and a bath sounded nice, but she didn’t have the mental energy to leave the room just yet.

  Reynold’s family was overly social, and they drained her dry.

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  As soon as they arrived, the whole family had practically stormed out to greet her and her brothers like they were returning war heroes. They’d fired off questions nonstop for at least two hours, telling stories and laughing way too loudly.

  Although they switched suddenly, Reynold's sister Helena went home and the others left to do their thing. Still, Rena wanted to die.

  Her silent suffering was interrupted by a shout:

  “Everyone, dinner is ready!” It was Reynold’s mom, Samantha.

  Right on cue, her stomach growled angrily. She realized she hadn’t actually eaten anything today.

  With a groan, she got up and left her room.

  As she walked down the hallway and stairs, she noticed something else, the house had a very specific vibe, but in a weirdly good way.

  It looked like a well-kept haunted house, with its many doors, strange wallpaper, and narrow hallways.

  And with that thought came another:

  She hadn’t brought her holy water.

  Hopefully the house didn’t come alive at night.

  Not everywhere, but in older places like this, it wasn’t uncommon for her to see or hear things she really shouldn’t.

  When she was little, she told others about it, but they just sent her to a psychiatrist and said she was hallucinating.

  But she never believed it, mainly because of her other problem.

  In a few moments, she reached the ground floor and the dining room, and her jaw just dropped.

  There was food on the table. A lot of food.

  Her mother never cooked, she and Reynold always went out, so Rena usually ended up cooking, if there was anything in the house to begin with.

  What a welcoming surprise. she thought, her stomach growling.

  “Ren- oh, can I call you that?” Samantha asked cheerfully as she laid out the last few dishes.

  -Yes, I don’t mind… - Rena said quietly.

  “Great! Then come here, sit down. The others should be coming soon too.” Samantha seemed weirdly happy.

  Rena wasn’t good with new people, so she stayed quiet, though she could tell the woman wanted to chat.

  Samantha worked briskly, setting things in place, and soon enough the rest of the household began to arrive.

  First, her two younger brothers came screaming and pushing each other down the stairs and into the kitchen.

  The older boy, Micah, shoved the younger one toward Rena and shouted, “He stole my dragon!”

  Trying to look menacing with his impressive 1.4-meter height.

  “Do something with him or I’ll beat him up.”

  -I didn’t do anything! - Ollie screamed, tears starting to fall. “He just went crazy again!”

  “We ca-” Rena had just started to speak, but Samantha interrupted from the background:

  “I bet it’s just lying in one of the boxes.”

  Micah gave her a murderous look but remained silent and sat down next to Rena.

  Ollie just stood there, sniffling near his sister.

  “God…” Rena sighed, then picked up the small boy and put him on her lap, trying to comfort him.

  “It’s alright. I believe you didn’t take it… you haven’t even unpacked your stuff yet.”

  Ollie didn’t say anything, just sniffed silently.

  After a few moments, footsteps echoed from the hallway, and Ollie immediately stopped crying and locked in. He moved away unobtrusively and sat on one of the chairs.

  Gabriel stepped in.

  Gabriel and Reynold looked exactly like twins, light brown hair, dark eyes, tall and thin like sticks, with pale skin.

  “Gabr-” Samantha started, but Gabriel just glared and ignored her.

  He didn’t look at anyone, just sat down and started playing with his phone.

  He was not like that before.

  But Rena was grateful he didn’t try to talk.

  But his complete lack of interest bothered her a little.

  She wasn’t the most social either, especially not in the evenings, but even she had manners.

  It seemed she wasn’t the only one. Samantha’s smile flickered when she looked at her younger son, but it quickly returned as she glanced back at the children.

  Rena felt uncomfortable under the woman’s gaze, no one had ever looked at her with that strange emotion.

  Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by new arrivals.

  “Hey kids, being hungry?” Came from the irritating voice of her mother’s boyfriend.

  Kate and Reynold entered the dining room, smiling beside each other.

  The two people fit together, in Rena’s eyes, they were both mad and annoying.

  But in appearance, they were complete opposites.

  Her mother was curvaceous, short, with dirty blonde hair and brown skin.

  Reynold was… not.

  He was just a stupid stick.

  But in personality, they were made for each other.

  He sat down close to Rena and gave her a stupid smile. Then Kate came and sat beside him.

  Her mother looked unusual, calm, with a smile on her face.

  She never showed emotions.

  There might’ve been a smile on her lips, but her eyes were still empty. She probably just wanted to appear sympathetic.

  Rena found it disgusting.