It was a long couple of days for him. Between packing, saying good bye, and trying to forget what was truly going on. Benjamin couldn't really remember anything that was important. Everything was pretty much a big blur to him as he mimicked the emotions of just being fine, even If his heart was shattered to pieces after his fiancée left him just over three weeks ago. But he playing it off as he was just fine. That he wasn't upset after what just happened to him. His parents were actually very worried about him and they wanted to go with him to California. This was a fresh start for him though. He just needed to get away from everything for awhile. He is twenty five after all and lived down the street from his parents. They were always around to pick up the mess he had made. It was his time to finally deal with everything. And he felt himself grow older, not the silly man who just got his license to teacher English for high schoolers. It came crashing down on him quickly but he dealt with it.

Driving for a couple of days, his deep brown eyes were blood shot and he had bags under them that were thick. He needed sleep, he's only been able to get so much since he left Chicago. After four days of traveling to California, he was the only one driving. It was hard for him to just drive by himself. He's a pretty slow driver as it is, seeing as he can't focus as it is. Pulling off his glasses, he wiped his black framed glasses on his shirt when he couldn't read the signs. When he put them back on it was a lot easier for him to see now. It was only Three o'clock in the afternoon but he felt like he could die from being sleep deprived. He had to try to focus on his GPS so he went the right way. And soon enough, he was turning down the street and the house was soon in front of him. A dark looking manor just for him and his sister. He doesn't understand how they are going to be in such a place. "Wow.." He said in a husky voice, his eyes looking over the place as he parked out on the street. The movers were already in the driveway, waiting on him to open up the front door. Shutting off his old black jeep, he made his way out of the car. The heat soon hit him as he was dressed in jeans and a long sleeved red shirt. He was actually surprised and he pulled back his sleeves quick.

"We'll start putting everything inside once you open up the place, sir." An older man said with a big beer belly, as he cracked his knuckles and nodded to the men standing around waiting to start working. "I don't mean anything by this, but why do you want to live in a big house like this?" The guy asked, giving an uneasy look upon the property. The house really was grand but looked run down over the years. Benjamin didn't really give much of an answer as he shrugged his shoulders and made his way up the front steps to open the front door. He stepped inside to push the door all the way open for the movers to start putting stuff away. It was a nice house and it was old. But a not bad type of old as he was discussing where things should be. A leather couch and black coffee table was placed in the living room along with a television. The office had his desk, a couple of book shelves. He had a passion for reading. And soon enough the kitchen had boxes placed inside for him to start putting everything away.

The move was going a lot faster then he thought. He joked around with the movers even though he was ready to pass out on the ground. He was able to keep himself up with the pack of red-bull he bought for the trip. Taking his last can, he practically drank it all down and could already feel his body wanting to move. So he continued until the kitchen was spotless and everything was put away before he moved to his office. He was going to use it for when he's a teacher, all of his paper work would be inside. He can already imagine seeing himself grading papers at his desk. It was a nice feeling and having a little love seat and chairs off to the side, he can take a breath when it gets too much. Maybe this whole move was a good idea. All he really needed to do was find a teaching job. He already got a job being a bartender for the time being.

"Benjamin Lee Davis, if I would have known that you were here I would have been inside helping you." A soft voice called out from the door. He almost didn't recognize it at first until it hit him. It was his sister and he had to peek his head out from the office to see her standing there. Her long brown hair was pulled up into a pony tail on her head as she stood in black short shorts with a white tank top, converse covered her feet. She looked the same to him, maybe a bit skinnier and actually wore make up. He just stared at her as he scratched his head. "Uh... Hey sis." He called out, pulling his sleeves back up again as he wiped at the sweat on his forehead.

"Its nice to see you too, Ben." Gwendolyn said, standing at the front door with her arms crossed over her chest, while pulling the sunglasses off her face. It was a nice day and she was dressed for the weather, wanting to get a nice tan. She was pale but didn't really get tan, she's just a little darker after being here for two years. It didn't really seem like it was going to make a difference though. She just shrugged her shoulders lightly as a smile formed on her lips. They haven't seen each other in a couple of years and it was nice to see him. They both have changed in different ways. She got taller and was more older looking. And he just grew a beard with more tattoos covering his skin.

Both of them pushed forward, her wrapping her arms around his neck and his around her stomach. They might have left on a bad note, it didn't mean that they didn't love each other like siblings do. "I've missed you.." Benjamin and Gwen said at the same time. The movers gave them a weird look but they continued to move into the house with the furniture. "Where do you want your bedroom stuff to go? Which room?" One mover asked. "Uh.." Benjamin pulled back from his sister to think about it. "Gwen, go pick your room first and just one for me. I want a lot of windows." He smirked at her, before he just turned and walked off to the office.

Gwen stood awkwardly for a moment as she didn't even know where she was going. She just nodded as he looked like crap as it is. He seems pretty tired so she wanted to help a bit, her stuff needed to be brought inside herself. So she just looked around before coming across the staircase off to the side. "I guess I'll show you." She said with the mover following after her as they walked upstairs. She had to glance into a couple of rooms to pick which would be hers and which would be his. That got settled quick and she made her way back down stairs to talk to him. "Ben?" She called out. Not getting a response since he was out side in his car grabbing something, she just frowned and started to walk around the house. Going from one room to the next to see what the house is like. It was cute, but big for the two of them.

Finally, the large Victorian that sat at the end of Fair Banks lane had finally come into new ownership. The old house had sat vacant for the last six months, and fallen into foreclosure once again. It was a habit with the property where owner after owner was either run off in the middle of the night, or was suspiciously killed in one way or another. There had been many investigations held, but the LAPD had always come up short, ruling the deaths an accident and assuming the unpaid bills were the result of reckless owners. Little did they know that the stories about the house were real, there were ghosts that roamed the hallways, malevolent spirits that frequently did harm and any real estate agent with half a brain should have known better than to bring a client in for a walk through.

Somehow, in spite of its bloody past, the house had once again been sold. There was a flurry of paranormal activity inside from the spirits within, always happy to have new humans to play with. The sounds of doors opening and closing, the echoing of footsteps across the bare wooden floors remained unheard by the workers outside. The men were merely waiting to start their day, to unload the large moving truck that most of them were currently leaned against. As soon as the doors were opened, all activity would cease. Most spirits didn't like to give themselves away so quickly.

Most spirits, however, weren't Travis Cray. He had only been dead for a few years, but he was still unaccustomed to his new form and longed to walk with the living once more. Being stuck inside the house all day, every day—with the exception of Halloween—had grated on his nerves since the day he had become trapped. It was strange being a ghost, feeling alive but not being able to connect with anyone or anything who wasn't exactly like he was. That was why he was always the first one to come out, pretending to be the next door neighbor in order to continue to grasp at the fleeting sensation of his own life. He knew, of course, that he didn't belong there anymore, but it never hurt to try.

“Someone's here,” Travis announced, looking down at the street from the second story window. A black jeep had just pulled up, and a man had gotten out. It was safe to assume that he was the owner, and sure enough, the doors to the manor were soon unlocked. The movers began to make their way inside, depositing couches, chairs, televisions, and many, many, brown boxes labeled with various rooms in mind. The spirit activity ceased as it always did, but Travis hung around. He, like all of the other ghosts in the house, appeared when they wanted to, and could easily be in a crowded room and still be invisible. He was very interested in the new owners and wanted to know all he could about them.

In the living room, Travis was busy looking through a box of books with the intention to take a few of them for himself. He loved to read, and it was one of the only things to do in the house. Consequently, the basement now housed a great number of stolen books and Travis had been adding to that collection ever since his death. Still invisible, he looked over when he heard voices and was surprised to see a girl standing in the doorway. Moving closer, he watched as she, apparently Benjamin's sister, hugged her brother. She certainly was a pretty girl, perhaps a little young, but she was full of life and Travis was already drawn to her.

As Ben left the house, going out to his car, Travis followed Gwen along, watching as she intrusted the movers on where to put things, and then picked out her room. He continued to follow her, silent as ever as she explored the house and when it was time, he ducked around a corner and became visible once more. Straightening out the shirt he had taken from the son of the last owner, Travis knocked on the wall behind Gwen.

“Hi,” he smiled, always friendly. “I'm Travis. I live next door, I just thought I'd come introduce myself.” He held out his hand to her, hoping she would shake it and that he hadn't frightened her by his sudden appearance.

Just as Travis had been watching the scene take shape, Haley Ryan had been as well. New owners weren't exciting to her, and it was often that she would stay hidden for weeks at a time, not wanting to bother with them. It was only when the humans annoyed her, did she come out to play and even then, it was to scare them into leaving the property for good. Not since Travis had Haley encountered a human she liked so much, and the poor man hadn't even owned the house. She still remembered seeing him, thinking how unstable that ladder looked beneath his feet, and he had such a nice smile that the blonde girl wanted to see it all the time. It had only taken a little kick with her foot to send everything crashing down to the floor, but the way in which Haley got her friends was a secret—one that was meant to be kept.

It wasn't only Travis who had been watching from the window, and Haley had been curious about Benjamin from the moment he stepped out of his car. He was different looking, much younger than the previous owners of the house, and she wanted to know more about him. Already in the back of her mind, the blonde girl could tell that this one was special. He was more special than Travis had been.

As the movers went all over the house, Haley did some inspecting of her own. She walked around Benjamin's office, looked through his papers and over his pictures, trying to get a feel for who he was. Getting know someone was difficult for her, but she had a trick up her sleeve, and Haley was able to watch as much as she wanted, hear whatever she wanted and then work that information back into a future conversation. She faked it like the best of them, and even had in life as well. Just because she had been murdered, didn't mean that her skills had all gone to waste.

Fluffing her blonde tresses in the bathroom mirror, Haley quickly slipped down to the backyard. She walked around the side of the house, making it seem like she had come from the next house over. Ben was at his car on the street, a place that Haley was physically unable to go, so she hung by the front gate instead and wore a friendly, slightly flirty smile.

“Hi there,” she grinned, tilting her head as she looked at Ben. “I wondered when someone was going to buy this place.” She hadn't, actually, and the only previous perk to having humans in the house was furniture. It was much easier to come out in the open when there was something to sit on.

The house was large, larger then she first imagined when she stepped out of her old ford pick up truck, it simply was a house for a huge family. They should have moved in years ago so they could all fit in here with her parents and her older three siblings. This would have been the place to be, not the crummy two story house to fit the seven of them and two dogs. Too bad, this would have been pretty interesting years ago. The outside was a bit run down and some of the flowers were overgrowing in the front area. Benjamin and her were going to have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks. He mentioned to her about how their parents would be coming in soon to see the place once they got everything settled in. That just brought a shiver down her spine as she hasn't talked to her parents in awhile about everything. They always liked to make sure that she was okay but she just wanted to be left alone. Once she left her family, she wasn't really planning on talking to them for awhile. Gwen was happy to see her brother today though. She was closer to him then her other siblings. All of them were married with babies on the way and they all had lives of their own. Ben was soon getting ready to do the same thing and that made her mad. She didn't really care for his fiancée because she just wasn't too great of a person, and maybe she could only see that. Now it almost seems to be out now that the girl left and moved on. At least that's what she heard from a voice mail that her mom sent her.

Gwen was off in her mind when she was ducking in and out of the different rooms on the main floor. She would casually stop to stare at things Ben already would put away and would have a memory from the little things hanging around. An old picture of the family at Lake Michigan, she was only about five years old and had the cheesiest look on her face and Ben was standing next to her with an ice cream cone straight up in the air. Her older siblings just hung in the back with their arms around each other as they laughed at Ben and her. "God.. I can't believe he still has this picture." She said to herself, glancing up at the sound of movers walking threw the hallway, before going back to pick up the picture. Her parents must have given it to him she concluded to herself. It was just weird for her to be seeing it again, as she didn't have a lot of pictures from when they were all kids. When she moved out, she didn't take a lot of stuff. She just spontaneously left two weeks later after she graduated high school to come to California. Shaking her head, she remembered how mad her parents were when they came home to see her gone. That just put a frown on her face when she when to go place it down back where he had it, though a sudden sound frightened her causing her to drop it.

Whipping around as a gasp escaped her just as the picture came crashing to the floor, the sound of glass crushing underneath it. "I.. Uh.." Gwen looked up at the man standing in the doorway and at first, she was a little shocked to see such an attractive man. She just froze looking at him before she stepped forward to shake his hand when she felt a piece of glass crunch under her shoes. "Oh Ben is going to kill me..." She frowned, dropping to the ground to flip the picture over. She stared for a moment at the glass on the ground. She didn't really want to cut herself when trying to pick it up. "I'm sorry I kind of freaked out. I'm Gwendolyn Elizabeth Davis. But just call me Gwen." She said, a light laugh escaping her at her long ridiculous name. "Could you help me? Sorry, I just don't need my brother running in and seeing this mess." She laughed a little more, not realizing she was doing it because he was cute. It's how she always was around cute guys.

Looking at the picture, she started to just place the pieces of glass on top of the photo so she could place it into the trash and not have it in her hands. She just continued to try picking up the pieces lightly, already cutting her finger. "Damn.." She muttered, bring her finger to her mouth as she placed the picture on the ground and used her other hand to pick up the pieces. She was able to get some of the pieces but some were so small for her to grab. She needed a bandaid to put on her finger.

When Gwen tried to get her finger to stop bleeding and to try to get this stranger to keep talking to her, Benjamin was off in his car trying to look for some CDs to play in the house while trying to clean. He liked being able to jam so he could actually do stuff. And he didn't really want to get into a fight with his sister. The last time he saw her, he got into an argument about Jess. Gwen complained that she was cheating on him and just wanted to bring him down. He yelled at her and about a week later she left for California. It bothered him a lot as they haven't talked since then. And all they could do today was hug each other. Their relationship was strained, they both could tell. But he didn't need any crap from her about Jess leaving him. So he continued digging for something to listen to. AC/DC, Frank Sinatra, Journey, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Beatles. That's all he pulled out as he doesn't know what he wants to listen to right now. He needed the movers to leave first but they seemed like they will be heading out pretty soon.

Grabbing the CDs in hand, he shut the door of his jeep and locked it all up before coining around the side to get back inside. Hearing a voice from the gate, he looked up to see quite a beautiful girl standing there staring at him. He could feel his mouth open slightly at what she was doing here by talking to a guy like him. "Why hello there." Benjamin smiled anyways as he pushed up his glasses on his face as a light blush covered his cheeks. "You were wondering Huh? Well I bought it, so you don't have to worry about it anymore, sweetheart." He smiled, flirting when he shouldn't be. He could feel his smile flatten quick at that thought as he cleared his throat and walked over to her. "Its nice to meet you. I'm Benjamin. You can call me Ben if you like otherwise I like my whole name." He shrugged, placing his hand out in front of him for her to shake as he shifted his CDs over into the other arm.

"So what's your name? And how long have you been living around here?" He asked, wondering about her already. She was really pretty and she seemed interesting so far. He wanted to meet the neighbors and they seemed pretty friendly around her. Everybody waved at him when he came out to grab stuff. Though many gave him some dirty looks, he didn't really understand why since he didn't know the history of the house. He didn't even think anything was wrong with the place. His parents just told him it foreclosed, that's all. Looking at her, that blush was yet again clear on his face making him have to look away from her as he moved into the compounds of the house.

Even though these new people had just moved in, the house already felt more lively. Travis was one of the only permanent guests who had been sad to see the last family go, even if they hadn't been all that interesting. There was just something dismal about the empty rooms of the house, the lack of footsteps over the creaky floorboards and the deafening silence that washed over everything. Not every spirit agreed with Travis's love of the living, of course, and there were a choice few that chose to stay hidden whenever there were humans around. They were harmless; it was those who came out to play that were the ones to worry about. Spirits like Haley were dangerous and unstable. Travis didn't want to see anyone else fall victim to this strange place.

As the girl turned around, Travis hadn't noticed the picture in her hand, but the sound of shattering glass startled him. He hadn't meant to sneak up on her, but it was something that he had become increasingly good at ever since dying. “Sorry,” he chuckled, smiling sympathetically as he looked back from all of the glass on the floor. “I didn't mean to do scare you,” he explained, shaking her hand.

Crouching down on the floor with her, Travis helped to pick up the bits of broken glass. The shards were sharp and a few stuck into his fingers, but there wasn't much pain. He didn't feel much of anything anymore, and had been mortally wounded a handful of times in the house, only to get up and walk it off like it was nothing. A few cuts on his fingers in exchange for a conversation only seemed too easy. “It's nice to meet you, Gwen, and I really am sorry about this.” Travis continued to pick up the shards of glass, but he couldn't help but notice the picture. He moved some of the glass aside. “Is this your family?” He sat back on his knees and pulled the sleeve of his shirt over his hand before reaching out and wrapping it around her finger. Some pressure would stop the bleeding before she could get a bandage on it.

Perhaps the most dangerous thing about Haley was that she knew she was pretty, and that men were weak. Where there was weakness to be exploited, there was always power to be had and Haley always felt the need to be in control. Most of her short life among the living had been spent trying to stay on top—to be the most popular, the most pretty, the most fun, the most anything. It had become an obsession for her, and the blonde girl certainly wasn't one to play nice when it came to someone standing in her way. There was the time during her freshman year of college, when a senior hadn't wanted to date her anymore and Haley had slashed his tires and anonymously threatened to have his new girlfriend killed. In death, Haley actually was a killer.

However, Ben didn't need to know any of that and Haley didn't have a problem keeping it from him. It was easy for her to reign in the darkness and fool strangers into thinking she was normal. Reaching out, the blond shook Ben's hand and peered over at the CD's he was holding. “I'm Haley,” she said, walking with him toward the house. “I live next door with my step brother, Travis.” Because that was an easy lie, and something to be assumed when she was sure that her friend had already come out from the shadows. As long as Ben and his sister didn't actually go next door, her lie would be the truth.

The blush Ben wore on his cheeks was sweet, and Haley liked him already. It never took her very long to fall for someone, and she had taken a liking to Travis in record time without even speaking to him first. The tattooed man at her side was perhaps faster than that. “You don't look like the type for a house like this,” she mentioned as she eyed his CD's once more, “but at least you like good music. Is that Journey?” She smiled and reached over to tap the side of the album. “I love them.” Her music taste was rather outdated, but Haley could still sing along to Don't Stop Believing with the best of them.