A Messy Affair.

Prologue

Miss Emily Tyler, having previous seated herself on one of the hard wooden kitchen chairs, decided that living in Raven Falls wouldn’t perhaps be as bad as she had first thought. The house wasn’t large- certainly not as big as the one back at home- and she knew that it would be difficult to get used to the quietness of the country after the noise of such a large city, but after all: wasn’t it the quiet that they’d moved here for anyway? With a short nod to herself, she leaned backwards and listened as a wooden creak broke the silence.

“Emily? Is that you?” She looked up from the table she’d been studying so intently and blinked twice, her eyes focusing on the image of her exact double.

“Hmm?”

“Was that you?” Emily’s twin sidled over from the kitchen door and sat down across from her. Her hair was messy, and her nightdress wasn’t straight. Emily guessed Ella had just woken up.

“Was what me?” She asked, puzzled.

“The creaking.”

“Well, of course that was me. Who else would you think it could possibly have been?” Emily smiled kindly. “George is out, darling.” She paused, and then added: “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Oh, no. It wasn’t you. I just can’t get used to living here… We’ve been here for what-” she calculated, “a week? I just can’t get used to the quiet, and it does so give me the shivers.”

“Well, you really must give it some time, El, you said so yourself yesterday. Just take things as they come, and I guess we’ll see where we end up. We can’t really afford to be picky now, can we- especially not as Mummy didn’t leave us much money to be getting on with? And, we have to contend with dearest brother George. I don’t suppose it would be much good to let him go now, would it?”

“No.” Ella sighed and leaned back, her chair uttering a very similar creak to that which Emily’s had done previously. “I suppose you must be right.” And with that she gave a weary smile, climbing back to her feet. “You’re always the one who can talk me around. I think I’d better go back to bed now; after all I have to go job hunting tomorrow. Not all of us can immediately get our hands on something as elegant as you now.”

Emily laughed and pecked her sister on the cheek as she bent to receive the kiss. And once she was gone, and Emily had heard the unfamiliar padding of slippered feet stepping up the stairs, she leaned back again (wary of the squeak this time) and drifted into thought about her new job at the Raven’s Fall local library.

It wasn’t until late that Miss Tyler finally decided that sleep would be a rather good choice, and dragged herself tiredly upstairs to bed. Not unlike other nights since the Tyler twins and their brother had moved into Woodland Cottage Emily lay awake, her eyes wide open and searching through the darkness for the hint of something- anything; a light, the sound of a motor car, or train, or even just people out of the streets laughing and having fun. But, as she had every night since they’d arrived, she heard nothing but the sound of her steady breathing and the sigh that escaped her lips before sleep.

That night she didn’t dream.

That same night Troy Lilly had gone to bed as normal: before his wife and after his daughter. The quiet ticking of the clock was the only thing he heard, and just before he slipped into sleep, he thought how ironic it would be for something terrible to happen before the morning, to ruin this almost perfect day.