It was a pleasant enough day in Peaceful Pines, and the Deetzes were celebrating the ever sunny weather with an outing on the front lawn. Mother and father were cheery, but not young Lydia. She sat in the shade of a tree far from the grounds, hidden beneath its mangled branches and imposing shadow. She couldn't stand the light for very long, so she took respite under her own "spooky tree" whenever she could. She could wait there for hours, and her parents wouldn't even notice she'd left. Figures. Her parents never really seemed to pay her any attention, especially when moving to a town like this.
The only things she'd managed to get for herself were a little darkroom in the basement and the tree she sat under. The darkroom came about because her parents didn't know what else to do with it, and so let her have it to fuel her little hobby. That was about the only thing they knew about their daughter, her love of photography. No one else really took the time to listen to her. She'd been at Miss Shannon's school long enough to know those girls wanted nothing to do with her as well. If only there was someone she could talk to, someone who'd appreciate her love of things a little more… macabre.
Lydia took a few photos of the dead patch of earth in front of her. She smiled as a little worm eased its way through the ground. She'd always been interested in these sorts of things, the things most people avoid. It started with a love of monster movies and Halloween, but grew and grew over the years. She took a particular interest in the idea of ghosts, invisible people hanging around still. She felt a kindred spirit to them. As she photographed the dirt, a strange crackling disturbed the spot and out popped a tiny beetle. Lydia laid her hand out and let it crawl into her palm. With her other hand, she quickly tried to snap a picture, but the beetle disappeared as soon as she looked up.
"It must have flown away," she sighed.
Still, she'd never seen a beetle like that just slip away, they were slow crawlers. Hmm...
Finally, her parents were going inside. Lydia took her cue to sneak by them back into her room. That was one other upside to being ignored, she could come and go as she pleased. And her room was decorated just for her! She could truly lavish in her love of the creepy here. Spiderweb curtains, crimson red sheets, and delightfully dark wallpaper, all that she'd chosen herself. If her mother ever came in it would spell trouble, but luckily she had this place all to her lonesome. Though the dead quiet got to her from time to time…
Lydia plopped onto her bed. If only there were somewhere else she could go. Even the walls of her room were looking a little too cheery. There had to be a place where others like her could go, somewhere she could be herself and not hide away like this. Somewhere neither here nor there…
Skittering woke Lydia from her brief nap. She jumped up and caught a glimpse of a little bug flitting about her wall. It scratched at the corner of her wallpaper, peeling it away to reveal a hole in the wall. Lydia leaped to her feet and tried to catch it, but it flew right overhead! She swiped and and swung, but it was no use! It flew right in front of her face this time, before disappearing completely! Lydia stood agape.
Something was very, very wrong.
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