Life is Hard.

Story by ARMYandBLINK11, please do not copy any of this!
== Chapter One ==
Ruby slowly dragged her feet home, wincing at every honk of a car. She had been afraid of cars ever since she was 10 when her 8-year-old sister had died. The crunch of leaves beneath her feet and the howling autumn wind drowned out the sounds a little, but Ruby could still hear them. She was on Sherlock Drive now, and a bright blue car drove past her, giving Ruby deja vú. It was here, on the spacious Sherlock Drive, next to the cheerful candy shop, that her sister lost her life, and Ruby lost a little of her’s, too.
She skipped down the street- not because she was happy, but because she wanted to get away as far as possible, without running. Running was scary. So were cars. They were both causes of Anneliese’s death. Ruby’s smooth brown hair blew in her face, covering her aquamarine eyes that her parents said was the color of the lake down in Sedgwick Avenue, a shimmering, sparkling, aquamarine, next to lush green bushes and colorful blossoming flowers.
Ruby went back to walking, once she was off of Sherlock Drive. She walked a few feet and reached her family’s farmhouse-style mansion, which was the biggest house on the block. It was three floors, not counting the basement. The front yard was pretty big, with lots of grass, two trampolines to the right, and a shed to the left side of the house, but the backyard was huge, and Ruby’s favorite part. There was a pool with a diving rock and a slide, and a playground as well. There were planters that her mother grew vegetables in, like tomatoes, spinach, and carrots.
She speed-walked to the big, black front doors, unlocked them with a silver key, and stepped inside, making sure to lock the doors behind her. She took the stairs down to her room and sat down on her swivel chair at her white desk. Right after finishing her homework, she heard a knock on her bedroom door.
“Come in,” she said.
Her mother stepped in. “Have you finished your homework?” She asked softly, and Ruby nodded. “Good. Don’t forget to practice piano,” she added and then left the room, leaving an imprint on the white fuzzy mat in front of the door.
Ruby sighed, remembering her mother before the accident. Her mother hadn’t been so quiet back then, playing hide-and-seek and tag with the two girls. But the accident changed everything. Now her mother was as quiet as a mouse, speaking as little as possible. Ruby sighed again, pushed in her chair, and went to the piano room. Ruby didn’t really consider the piano room a room, since there was no door. The “room” was small but large enough to fit a glossy white Yamaha grand piano, a white leather piano chair, and an armchair in the right corner, as well as space to walk the perimeter of the room.
Ruby sat down at the piano, running her fingers over the smooth keys. Black, white, black, white. That was life. Black and white. Crumbling, like the old wall near Lorenzo Street.
She opened up her piano book and started playing Clair De Lune by Debussy, her favorite song. In Ruby’s opinion, the piece sounded like a flowing river on a perfect spring day, birds chirping. It gave her nostalgia, longing for the past, Anneliese’s birthday, May 25.
She shrugged it off and walked over to the shelves lining the living room wall. She opened a keypad and put in the code 8210 and one of the shelves, which was a hidden door, opened slowly, revealing the large secret room. Ruby walked inside and sat down on one of the beanbag chairs in front of the TV. She knew she could go to the theater room instead, but she was pretty sure that her mother -and possibly her father- was in there.
And then she heard a gunshot.
== Chapter Two ==
Ruby jumped a little and rushed outside, but no one was there. She peeked into the theater room, and, with a sigh of relief, realized that the sound had come from their movie. She had no idea why they had to have giant speakers attached to the TV. Thanks to those speakers, Ruby could hear all the sounds from their movie. It was annoying.
She shook her head and went outside again to take a walk to and from the park nearby. On the way, she bumped into her friend, Claire.
"Claire!"
"Hm? Oh Ruby! I haven't seen you outside in a long time," she said. "Did you hear about the crash? Near the big building on Leander Avenue. The one that is like twenty floors and always has it's lights on."
"Leander?" Ruby asked. No one ever went there. It was haunted.
TBA