I would just have to accept it. I would have to accept, that I was moving back to the place I was born, whether I liked it or not. The place I was born was a little village town called Goldengate Woods, in the middle of the English countryside.


You’d think I would be happy to be moving back, but I couldn’t even remember what any of it looked like or who anyone was. I’d rather stay in the city, that I was familiar with. Why my mum was dragging me back to this tiny unknown village was beyond me. She was taking me away from my only and best friend Emilee. Now, I had to make new friends. Emilee had always been there for me, but now I had no one except my mum.


However there was nothing I could do, so I just stared out of the window at the empty fields, accepting the fact that I was leaving the city behind. Every now, and then some of the fields housed cows and sheep, that were eating grass or just laying around.


I watched them intently until I could no longer see them. I turned away from the window to address my mum, who was concentrating on driving as if we were on a busy road in the city, but there hadn’t been the sign of another car for at least half an hour.


"Mum, why do we have to move back to this village? It’s like it doesn’t exist, not many people have heard of it. Can’t we just go back home?" I moaned.


"I have already told you. I have a new job there and besides, we are nearly there. Why don’t you give it a chance? I know you’ll like it," she replied smiling.


We didn’t look the same. She had blonde hair whereas I had light brown hair. The only feature we had in common was our brown eyes. My mother told me, that I got my looks from my father. I guessed she was right because, from the pictures I saw of him, we did look slightly similar. That was all I had of him: photographs. I didn’t have any memories of him because he died when I was just a baby.


I sighed and turned back to face the window. When I did houses and farms began to come in to view. The gardens were all filled with bright coloured flowers and some of which I didn’t even know the name of. My mum had been right. I did like it.


We kept travelling forward and soon I could see the village hall. It was huge and very old. The bricks were cracking in places and moss-covered almost every area. Despite its age, it was very magnificent. I felt as if I stepped into a history book and was enjoying it. Outside this amazing building, there were giant stone horse statues that in their own right were just as magnificent.


My mum turned the corner on to a street of houses. In the end, there was the most splendid, cute little cottage that stood on the edge of the woods.


Coincidentally, this cottage was painted in my favourite colour. It was painted in a pale shade of blue, and the small garden was decorated with flowers and ivy. I couldn’t take my eyes from it, and my excitement grew as we drove towards it. When we stopped outside I couldn’t almost believe it. Was this my new home?


"Is this our house?" I asked, my mum in awe.

"Yes. Isn’t it beautiful?"

"Very beautiful but wasn’t it expensive? A cottage like this must cost tons of money. How are we going to afford it?"

"It is expensive but the landlord was kind, he let me rent it at an affordable rate. I’m not too sure why, to be honest. It was in perfect condition when I viewed it. He said something about it being empty for ages. That he was happy that two old residents were moving back. That’s why he wasn’t too bothered how much he rented it for, I guess," she told me.

"Well, it is amazing anyway."

"It is, isn’t it?" She agreed and got out of the car. I followed and she locked the car doors.

When I got out, I breathed in and smelt the air. It had all the normal smells you’d find in the country: animal poo, the fresh smell of plants and grass. These smells contrasted with the sweet nectar of the flowers. The smell of them all together made me feel a bit sick but I would have to get used to it.

When I stepped inside the cottage my feet met the grey carpet, and the fibres felt soft even though I had shoes on. The softness of the carpet showed that it was brand new.

In the rest of the room, there was some new and worn out furniture. The sofa was modern, black and had a faux leather material. As for the other furniture they were oak wood and some look worn out like they could fall apart at any second. The dining table was small and square in shape and it’s black cotton and wooden chairs were pushed neatly under.

I looked up to the ceiling and saw that there were cracks, but it wasn’t clear if they were the design of it or if it was with age. There was also a door that I assumed lead to the kitchen.

"Why don’t you go pick out your bedroom and have a look around, while I go to the shop to get something for our tea, " my mum said.

"Okay," I said and then she left locking the door behind her.

I went upstairs to pick which bedroom I wanted. The grey. carpet extended all the way upstairs. I guessed that it would be in the bedrooms too.

Once upstairs I opened the first door I saw. The room was a medium sized bedroom at the back of the cottage. It was painted red. There were a single unmade bed, a bedside table and a wardrobe.

I made my way to the window and glanced down into the woods. I didn’t know why, since I hated the woods. They always creeped me out. Emilee had forced me to go into the small park woods where I use to live when we were little. When we got out, I was almost in tears.

From that day on I never went back in them. The reason for this had been because the towering trees had made the paths so dark, and lonely. It also took us about an hour to find our way out so I knew we were lost in there. Dark, lonely woods wasn’t a place for two little girls to be. Emilee had insisted that we weren’t lost and maybe, I wouldn’t have been so certain that we were if it had been a little lighter.

My eyes found a muddy path. I let my eyes follow it until it disappeared further into the woods.

Suddenly, I felt as if someone was watching me from inside the woods. I looked around, briskly but I couldn’t see anyone. I couldn’t tell if it was just my imagination or not. That was also one of the many strange and unexplainable things that happened to me or around me. I’m sure that other people often experienced times they had sworn they had seen something out of the corner of their eye, but with me, it was so much more than just glimpses of things that weren’t there. I saw solid figures that flashed in front of me and was gone in the blink of an eye. Sometimes even catching details of their face and it didn’t stop there with the strange disturbances. There was something very wrong with me. Something not quite normal, but I was afraid to tell anyone except my mum or Emilee in case I got locked up for being crazy to think such things. Anyway, whether it was my imagination or not I quickly turned around and left the room. I started to look for the other bedroom, hoping that it didn’t also face the woods.

It didn’t take long for me to find it and to my delight, it was on the opposite side of the house so it faced the rest of the street. This bedroom was smaller than the other one, but it would do. In fact, it was very cosy and I loved the pale orange colour in which it was painted. I made my way back downstairs to view the kitchen.

The kitchen wasn’t very big so I knew now, why the dining table was in the living room. I heard the door open so I left the kitchen and saw it was my mum, with a few bags of shopping. "Vicky, will you go to the car please and get out the pans and plates while I put the shopping away and make a start on tea?"

"Sure mum," I said and then she handed me the car keys. I went to the car and got out the boxes that were labelled pans, plates and cutlery. I had to make several trips back out to bring them all in as they were very heavy.

It didn’t take my mum long to make tea and once it was ready I joined her at the table. "Do you wanna go see the play tomorrow, at the village hall for your birthday, when Emilee comes around?" She asked me.

"Yeah, that will be good," I answered. Emilee was only coming for the day so we didn’t have long to hang out, but if we went to see the play we might have some fun before it was time for her to go home. The both of us had always loved the theatre. It was one of the few things we had in common.

"I really think you're going to enjoy living here. It’s a new start for both of us. You might even make some new friends." I highly doubted that. There were quite a few things I was good at, and making friends wasn’t one of them.

"I doubt I will make friends but I am already beginning to like it here. This cottage is amazing. I love it," I said.

"At least try to make friends," My mum said.

"Of course I’ll try."

We finished our tea and got ready for bed because we were both very tired from moving and travelling. I turned off my bedroom light and climbed into bed, feeling very excited. I was wondering what tomorrow would be like, and what my school would be like. Would I make friends as my mum said? I just couldn’t stop thinking of all the things that could happen or change now that I lived there.

I closed my eyes and was drifting off to sleep when I was suddenly awakened by a strange scratching noise. I sat up quickly and the noise continued.

Not again. Not now. I’m fed up of this stuff happening to me, I thought to myself.

Then I realised it was coming from my wardrobe. I tried to convince my self that it was just my imagination or a little mouse, but the sound grew louder and louder.

Soon after a horrible hissing sound filled my ears almost like the sound of a snake, but not quite. It didn’t really sound like an animal. Human maybe, but it was too hard to place it to something. I couldn’t tell what the sound belonged to. I laid back down covering my head with my duvet in fear, trying to think of anything but the scary sounds, and soon the noises ceased but I was still in fear. I closed my eyes hoping that morning would come, soon.