Chapter 1 - Chapter One

Chapter One
She stalked off down the dark hallway dragging her feet as she went. She didn’t want to leave; the business was none of hers but of her fathers. He had recently been hired to work in a factory in London some nine hours away. Gemini had lived in the small town of Cornwall for as long as she could remember and wasn’t just about ready to leave all of her friends behind. Slowing her pace, she struggled to prolong her last day at the old house. A shout from downstairs echoed its way to her ears.
“Gemini! Get down here and help me load everything into the van!” Her father bellowed, storming into view at the foot of the stairs.
She nodded silently and hurried into the living room. The carpet was barely visible through the wall-to-wall sea of boxes containing their belongings. She couldn’t stand the sight of it and suddenly an overwhelming urge to run back to her room and cry flooded over her; but she knew her father wouldn’t allow it. He wouldn’t let her cry. Boys don’t cry and neither should you. He had always told her. Her father had wanted a son. Had wanted more than anything to have someone to pass on the family name and watch rugby with. Unfortunately, shortly after Gemini was born, her mother was taken by a terrible illness and left the family without a son or mother.
This hadn’t been an easy concept for him to grasp and so saying, Gemini had grown up a tomboy. She was strong, stubborn, and willing to take on any challenge her father presented. Regrettably, she had now found something she couldn’t handle, and it was the one thing that could possibly make her life better in more ways than she could have imagined.
Picking up the two closest boxes to her, she set off out the door to the front driveway where the moving van was parked. / It was nine when they started, and by the time they had finished, the sun was high in the sky and her wristwatch read 1:15. She slumped exhaustedly onto the curb as her father did a final inspection of the house. She couldn’t bear to look at it and let her head fall dejectedly into her arms.
Suddenly she felt a hand rest itself on her shoulder and turned to look up into the smiling face of her best friend, Kyleigh. Jumping up, she near tackled her and they both hugged for a few moments.
“You’ve gotta promise to call me as soon as you can alright? We must hear how the house is.” She laughed, trying not to look too disheartened.
Gemini smiled in spite of herself. “I promise. But no having fun of any sorts while I’m gone right?”
There were footsteps behind them and Gemini turned again, this time to see her boyfriend of four years walking up to her. For a couple seconds, neither of them said or did anything, then, without warning, Gemini wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her. He pressed his forehead against hers and kissed her softly on the nose. She smiled and kissed him back. There was silence between them as they embraced for a final time. Without saying a word, she stepped back, her hand held fast in his as she began to walk away.
As her fingertips fell from his grasp, a single tear slid down her pale face.
Her father shouted from the cab for her to hurry up and with a last wave to her friends, she climbed into her seat and closed the door.
They drove on through the day, the poorly air-conditioned van making it hard to concentrate on anything. The hours passed slowly and soon the sky before them began to darken, streaks from the setting sun highlighting the clouds and sending shadows crawling across the road. By the time the van pulled up in the driveway of a small indigo house, the moon was high overhead and silvery stars littered the sky.
“Get the sleeping bags and pillows from the back. I’ll be inside.” Her father growled over his shoulder as he inserted the key into the lock on the front door.
Opening the back of the van, Gemini saw that the items she had been sent to retrieve were sitting close to her where she could easily reach them. Dragging them across the pavement, she made her way to the open front door.
Inside, the house was filled with shadows, the only light coming from the windows and what appeared to be her father’s room. She laid his things inside his door and then turned back down the narrow hallway that led towards the back of the house. At the end of the hallway she was faced with a door, which swung open, to reveal a small darkly coloured room with thick carpeting and two windows on the right and facing wall.
Setting down her possessions in a corner, she strode over to the facing window and rested her elbows on the sill. She found herself gazing off across a small backyard and onto the back of a facing house. Parallel to her, a window was set into the creamy brown surface texture of the house’s back wall. The room beyond it was shadowy and dark. As her eyes adjusted to the light she could see something moving within it. A person paced back and forth in front of the window, apparently unaware of her eyes following his or her every movement. She was much too tired to think and when the figure stopped suddenly then backed out of view, she hardly noticed.
Slowly, she began to let her eyes wander again. Across the backyard, along the stone wall separating the two properties, and to the houses on either side of her. To her left, the yard was bare; the space taken up only by a small, shrivelled garden covered in weeds and looking in dire need of attention. To the right stood a massive willow tree, towering over the house and everything around it. It looked to her as though the tree had lived there longer than any of the houses around it. Up near the top she noticed what looked to be a cleared area, perfect for her hammock. She couldn’t wait till the next morning when she could check it out for herself.
A noise from across the wall made her jump and her head snapped up to see the window across from her being opened. With one swift movement, she was back in her room and out of sight. She sat in the dark for a couple moments, regaining her breath, then peeked timidly through her window and was astonished to see a boy leaning his head outside from the other house.
He looked to be about her age with long red hair that came to nearly shoulder length and flipped out at the bottom. Thick bangs fell across his forehead, partially shielding his eyes. A bridge of freckles lined his nose and lightly covered the rest of his face as well. He squinted into her room. He must have seen her for he didn’t take his eyes away. After a few moments, he disappeared back inside his room and shut the window.
Gemini slumped against the wall and let her eyelids slide shut; she didn’t even bother to crawl into her sleeping bag.

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