Page 21 of Treacherous

"For what?" Max asked as he folded his paper and stood up.

"For moving us slap bang into the middle of the Texas chainsaw massacre," I hissed, disgust filling my tone.

Max rolled his eyes and moved towards the sink to wash his mug. "We're in Colorado, Teagan, not Texas."

"Did you know a girl was murdered in the house across the street?" I demanded. "And a man died in suspicious circumstances afterrapingsomeone in there?" It sounded worse when I said it like that and I felt like vomiting.

The image of Lee's face flooded my mind and I flinched. "Mrs. Carter looks like someone took a freaking hacksaw to her face."

"Yes, I knew all those things, Teagan," Max replied and that kind of threw me. The tense set of his shoulders and the defensive tone in his voice also confused the hell out of me.

"You knew," I huffed haughtily as I planted my hands on my hips. "So you knew about all that crap and still moved us here?"

"It's a great location," he replied tightly. "All of that happened over twenty years ago andnoneof it was Kyle or Lee's fault."

"I really think you're missing the point here, Uncle Max," I moaned. "The fact of the matter istwohuman beings died across the road from us in vicious circumstances." I raised my hands in despair. "Haven't you ever watched the Poltergeist?"

He stared back blankly.

"Ugh, forget it." I pressed my fingers to my temples. "I'm going to my room. Which room did you unpack the holy water in?"

"Teagan, stop it," Max told me as he walked over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "You know better than to judge people by the actions of others."

"I'm not judging the Carters. I know they're good people," I told him honestly. "I'm just judging how likely we are to have paranormal activity in our neighborhood."

"Oh for the love of god," Max grumbled and pinched his nose. "The only paranormal activity going on around here is in your imagination."

"Mocking is catching, Max," I told him in a petulant tone. "And another thing, could you please talk to..."

The sound of our front door opening and then slamming shut caused my words to stick in my throat and I did what any ghost-fearing person would do. I covered my face with my hands and froze.

"Teagan."

Oh god it knows my name…

"Teagan, I was wondering if I could borrow your trig…Oh hey, Teagan's uncle."

"Call me Max."

He speaks to dead people?

"Niceshirt, Max. My dad has that in blue."

Moving my hand away from my face, I let out a sigh of relief to see Hope looking at me peculiarly. "Oh, thank god it's you," I breathed as I clutched her arm in relief. "I thought you were a ghost."

"You're a really weird girl," she mused as she stared at me. "You know that, right?"

I nodded and sighed heavily. "It's an issue I'm dealing with."

****

Chapter 5

Teagan

"God, I'm starving," Hope grumbled as she carried her lunch tray over to an empty table.

I was coming to the end of my second week as the new girl and getting into the swing of things. I now understood that under no circumstances should Ieveruse the girl's bathroom on the second floor. I still shuddered thinking about who I saw in that cubicle...

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