Sunday Night, the Day Before the Trial Begins

The house appeared over the hill, a stoney facade against the dusk and rain. When lightning flashed, it looked as though the windows lit all at once, as though hundreds of people had flickered a light in each glassy window, and then vanished again with the thunderclap. But Allyson knew there was no one in the house. Not anymore.

Her sister, Kate, stirred in the passenger seat next to her, trying to catch up on sleep. Kate had to fly in from her job on the West coast, all the way back to New England, where the little hamlet of Dyer sat not too far from Boston. Kate hadn't changed much since Allyson last saw her; they had the same dark hair and faces similar enough to be mistaken for twins, even though Kate was three years older, at 21. She wore a small T-shirt over a pair of jeans, and already Allyson frowned at the largess of her sister's breasts. The one place where it was very clear they weren't twins. For years Allyson had heard, "you're just a late bloomer in that area, look at Kate!"

But now, at 18, it seemed like Ally was going to have to live with her small tits for life. Which was fine. It wasn't like anyone looked at her like that anyway. She was too awkward to flirt, and preferred keeping to herself. Maybe that's what Grandpa meant when he said they were alike. She didn't know.

In the back seat, Jenny crooned into the shoulder of her boyfriend, Danny. Ally was uncertain about asking her roommate to join her, but had decided, ultimately, the more the merrier. And it wouldn't hurt to have Danny's muscle with them, just in case. The people Grandpa mentioned - the Church and the Syndicate - seemed dangerous at best, deadly at worst. If Danny, the musclebound lifeguard in their backseat, couldn't handle them, at least he could hold them off while the rest of them ran for safety and left him to die. If someone had to die, Ally was okay if it was Danny. Not that she had a problem with him, exactly. Men just made her a little... uncomfortable.

Danny caught her eye in the rearview mirror. Though Jenny was dozing, Danny was wide awake. He winked a blue eye at Ally, who rolled her eyes back at him. He smiled with all of his teeth. What a dick.

When Ally finally brought the car to a stop, it was at the foot of the hill on which Scream House stood. There was no way to drive up the hill; she remembered that from when she was a kid. She woke everyone in the car and told them it was time to walk. Everyone complained, rubbed their eyes, and finally joined her, pulling their suitcases out into the rain.

By the time they reached the front door, it was nearing dusk. Ally pulled out an old silver key and pressed it into keyhole, turning and pushing the door open with a loud, shuddering creek. The four of them crammed into the house at once to get out of the rain, dragging the wet across the carpet with them into the magnificent foyer.

No matter how many times Ally saw it, she always thought of those fancy palaces in Disney movies when she saw the grand staircase leading down into the foyer. It was a dazzling, marble staircase, lined with a velvet carpet and railings of stainless silver. Two suits of armor stood lifelessly at the base of each railing, tall and dark, plumed with red feathers at the top of their helms.

"Home sweet home," Kate said with a sarcastic lilt, even though neither of them ever, technically lived here, except when visiting Grandpa.

"You didn't tell me you were rich!" Jenny accused, playfully. She tapped Ally's shoulder with her fist, as if the first thing you should have done upon meeting her was tell her the number in your bank account. Even though the number in Allyson's bank account was quite small. Who knew where Grandpa got his money? Mom never said.

"I'll go check the kitchen, see what food's left," Kate said. "I don't want to go out for groceries."

"I'll join you," Danny said. Ally rolled her eyes. Danny was in chef school, and liked to be a part of everything food-related. The one dinner he cooked for Jenny and Ally taste like rat poison, and may have been made from actual rats. Ally was too scared to ask. Still, Kate just shrugged, and let Danny tag along like the excitable puppy he was.

When they were gone, Jenny gently bumped her shoulder.

"You doing okay?" Jenny asked, curling a finger through her blond hair, the way she did whenever she was trying to be sincere. Jenny had these wonderful blue eyes that flickered, dazzled, whenever light hit them. She wore a pink cardigan over a white shirt, neither one sufficient to hide the perkiness of her breasts; her leggings clung so tightly to her that Ally had to look away from her waist so as not to see the outline of her... discretionary features.

"I'm okay," Ally said. She bumped Jenny back. "Just a lot of memories."

"It'll be fine," Jenny smiled. Jenny was always assuring Ally that things would be fine. Maybe everything in Jenny's life always was fine, and that's why she kept saying it -- a fine boyfriend, fine hair, fine tits, fine friends, fine family... "We just have to stay here for a week, right? It'll be a nice vacation. I bought some homework, but I don't think I'm gonna do it. And there's no internet to zoom into classes, so... Vacation!" She laughed and Ally laughed too, to be polite.

"Looks like there's enough food to feed, like, twenty people for a week," Kate called back from the kitchens. "Figure that means everything's going according to plan. Let's pick our bedrooms before anyone else gets here, okay?"

"Sure," Ally agreed, remembering the size of Grandpa's master bedroom. But when it came time to pick, she gravitated towards her own bedroom, the one she slept in as a child. A small room with a queen-sized bed, fading blue walls, and a small teddy bear she used to call Humphrey when she was little.

"Do you want to double up?" Jenny asked, after Ally staked her claim on the room. "Like. Safety in numbers, just us girls, you know? We already room together at school..."

"Not a bad idea," Kate agreed. "At least for the first night. But I guess we don't know each other that well, either." Kate looked at Ally, who felt as though the statement was an accusation leveled at exactly her. Ally sighed.

Maybe it wouldn't be too bad a thing to shack up with one of the girls for the night, just to stay safe. She did trust Jenny, and she trusted Kate, despite her distance from her sister. If she was really afraid, she could even ask for Danny to join them, as silly and stupid as he was...