House ofGoths
By
MariaBernard
SmashwordsEdition
PublishedBy
Maria Bernardon Smashwords
House ofGoths
Copyright ©2015 by Maria Bernard
978-0-9938067-3-5
All rightsreserved. Although you've downloaded this ebook, it remains thecopyrighted property of the author. This ebook may not bereproduced in whole or in part, by any means, without expressed,written permission. No alteration of content is allowed.
Thank you fordownloading this ebook. If you enjoyed this book, then encourageyour friends to download their own copy.
Your supportand respect for the property of this author is greatlyappreciated.
This book is awork of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, orplaces, events or locales is purely coincidental. The charactersare productions of the author’s imagination and usedfictitiously.
I hope youenjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Once you’vefinished reading this book, please leave a review.
Every littlebit counts. Plus, I love hearing your thoughts.
Dedication
Many thanks tomy husband, Jeff, my very own personal rockstar.
To my readers,thank you for your encouragement.
*****
House of Goths
*****
Chapter 1
“Who do we havehere?” Dorian gasped as he and his two housemates approachedthe old Victorian home they shared. “Dear God, is she... dead?”
“Not dead, just sleeping,” Kell said, hovering his fingers overthe unconscious girl’s slightly parted lips.
“Out here on the old chesterfield, on our front porch, inOctober, why in the world?” Crispin asked the obvious.
The three Gothsstudied the girl, trying to figure out if she looked familiar.
“She's definitely not one of our ex-girlfriends. Do you knowher, Kell?”
“Hmm…” Kell leaned in for a closer look at the small female.She did look somewhat familiar. Yet it was quite dark out and hertousled brown hair greatly obscured her features, making it nearimpossible to properly identify her.
“Well?” Dorian asked. “Should we call the cops?”
“The cops?” Crispin balked. “Whatever for?”
“Maybe they're looking for her? Perhaps she's lost,” suggesteda concerned Dorian. “Surely, someone is missing thisgirl.”
Hearing therumblings of voices in the near distance, Becky stirred but didn’tdare wake up. She hadn't slept this well in weeks and she wasloathed to interrupt her much-needed rest.
Not since thestart of the school year, had Becky felt this level of comfort.Moving into the college dorm had sadly turned from the excitingprospect of forming long lasting friendships to a nightmare ofnever ending gossip and being cruelly shut out.
Becky hadarrived as fresh-faced and optimistic as could be. Her deargrandmother who'd raised her since she was a toddler had scrimpedand saved all her life to send her only granddaughter tocollege.
Gran had suchwonderful aspirations for Becky. Her greatest wish was for her shygranddaughter to get a good education but most of all for Becky tohave a wonderful time at school, make lots of friends and createlong lasting memories.
Unfortunately,Becky's experiences thus far had been the complete opposite of herdear gran’s idealistic hopes for her.
As it turnedout, her dorm roommates were the unfriendliest group of females,she'd ever met. Having arrived a day later than most of the girlson her floor had put her at a disadvantage from the start.
Cliques andalliances had already formed. Roommates had been chosen, bedsoccupied.
No one had madean effort to say hello or to make her feel the least bit welcome.The chill in the air was palpable.
What it wasabout Becky that made the other girls take an instant dislike ofher was somewhat of a mystery to her. The only thing she couldthink of was that she was shy and nervous. Maybe they found herlacking a certain quality. Perhaps they didn't like that she wasn'twearing the latest fashions, that her hair wasn't blonde, straightor severely parted to the side.
When Beckyfinally found an unoccupied bed, the girl who had already claimedit as a good place for her clothes just about threw a fit whenBecky meekly asked if she could have it.
The followingweeks were barely tolerable. College life proved to be cold andindifferent. Classes weren’t quite so bad because her mind wasoccupied but lunch breaks were lonely and desolate. Becky had allbut given up on making any new friends. In truth, she was homesick,lonely and missing her grandmother terribly.
It wasn't thatanyone went out of their way to be cruel. For that, Becky wasgrateful. It was the climate of cold indifference that hurt themost. Perhaps her grandmother had been wrong. College life wasn'tabout forming meaningful friendships. The best thing she could hopefor was to not die of loneliness before going home forThanksgiving.
She was wearyof the endless partying at the dorm, the revolving door of jockscoming in and out of the other girl's rooms. A few times she'd hadto sleep on the couch in the common space to avoid walking in onher roommate and her flavour of the hour going at it.
Not only didshe feel unwelcome, she felt unsafe and vulnerable with all thesestrange guys coming in and out of the dorm. Becky did not want tobecome a statistic. Not to mention, homework and studying werenearly impossible since privacy was non-existent.
When she didspeak to Gran on the phone, she didn't have the heart to tell herthe truth. Instead, she lied and led the dear old lady to believethat she was having the time of her life.
***
“Should we wake her?” Dorian asked.
“No, we'll startle her and she might scream,” Crispin gasped.“The last thing we need is for our neighbours to think we'resacrificing virgins. They already think we're devilworshipers!”
“Well, we can't just leave her out here. She'll freeze todeath,” Dorian fretted.
***
Desperate toget out of the dorm, Becky had quickly taken down the listing fromthe bulletin board by the student services office. As fate wouldhave it, she'd been passing by when she saw him put it up. Shewaited until he left before she dared to approach the board.
It read asfollows…
Room for rentin old Victorian house, conveniently close to campus, shared bythree Goth males. Prospective applicants must be respectful ofdifferences, have an open mind and preferably be Goth.
Well,
