Windows

Seeing White

Chapter One

Leaving your friends, the home you grew up in and basically your whole life can be hard for anyone to go through. Especially after the murder of your own mother. To start a new life, to have a fresh start, are the excuses that Poppy's farther gave her when she heard the news about the move. But she knew the real reason, to forget the pain of their loss. She said her good byes and piled into her fathers police work van heading for the air port.

The three hour long flight took a toll on Poppy's patience, with no help from the screaming kid kicking the back of her seat, or the old man who fell asleep and drooled on her shoulder. The only thing she could do to keep her mind was flip through the old magazines and find out the latest gossip that she thought was a waste of her time. Of anyone's time, actually. A pale looking woman was roaming down the aisle and stopped beside Poppy.

"Is everything going okay?" She asked.

The tired teenager rubbed her eyes, "Yeah, I'm just a little bushed. How much longer 'till we land?"

"Just another hour, dear." She gave a cheery smile and walked down the aisle again before vanishing in thin air.

"Who're you talking to, Penelope?" Her farther, who had just woken up from a nap asked. He had given her the nickname Poppy when she was just a little girl when she had stuffed a whole poppy-seed muffin in her mouth. To her it just stuck.

"No one. Just myself." Poppy has experienced events like this before when she was younger, seeing ghosts every where she went. Some even became her friend, but they never stayed. One little boy she met was by the train tracks near her house; they would balance on the rails pretending to be trains. And every time an engine would travel by, he'd disappear and re-appear five minutes later. Another kid would always be seen around her neighbors pool. It wasn't until her father explained that she wasn't actually talking to anyone that she finally understood. These people were dead.

Certain people are pretty self-explanatory showing how they died with how they looked. When Poppy was fourteen, she noticed a boy walking around a park with a hole in his chest, later finding out that he was involved in a gang shooting just a month before. Others are so banged up you'd have absolutely no idea how they died. This has happened to her before, but now it seems it happens more and more often. The only ghost she wants to see that she hasn't seen yet, is her mother.

Poppy was relieved once the plane landed, she waited as the people in the rows behind her piled out until it was her turn. She stood up and looked behind her to find a woman holding a man's hand and talking to each other in the back rows.. She eyed them until they looked her way. The mans face was half gone as if someone had ripped it off, making him look as though he had been in an explosion. The woman's body was multi colored, showing she had been in a fire. Poppy could guess that they had recently been in a plane crash, with suspected results. She waved to them, they waved back and gave her a big smile. A normal day for her.

Another hour car ride and they had finally pulled into the drive way of their new home. It was an ugly thing, the house, in Poppy's mind. The grass had gone yellow or just completely disappeared in some areas, one of the windows was cracked, and the paint had long since paled and chipped. "This is the house we're going to start fresh in?" She broke the long silence and headed inside. "Way to pick 'em dad." The inside was just as bad as the outside, with a few exceptions.

She placed her bag on the ground and sat at a dusty, old wooden table. Her farther took the seat opposite of her and grabbed both her hands.

"Now I know this don't look like much, Pops, but we can make this work. This'll be fun, just the two of us." He kissed her hand.

Poppy flipped through her gold curls and let out a smile, "I'm in a new place, I need to find a job. And I'm sure you're wanting to get back out there, catching the life of crime, Officer Piper."

"No, no. I need to stay here with you. I'd be a bad father if I didn't."

"I'm going out by myself to find what I need. The movers won't be here for a day or two, go occupy your mind with something." She grabbed her bag and clutched it to her shoulder. She pecked him on the top of his head. "We'll see a movie tonight together. Bye!"

"Make sure you call me if any thing's wrong!" She waved her hand as she headed out the door.

Poppy entered a small book store and flipped through the isles looking at the antique papers. She made her way to the front desk and smiled at the young looking worker as he grinned back. "G'day. Could I have a job application, please?"

"Sure," he reached underneath the counter and pulled out a piece of paper then handed it to her. She folded the paper and put it in her bag.

"Thank you." She made her way out the door and down the street. After she turned a corner, she noticed a man following her. Poppy curved another corner to find herself facing an ally way. She circled around to leave only to find the man standing right behind her. "Excuse me." She tried to push past him, but he blocked her way with his enormous body.

"Where do you think you're going babe?" He moved his body another way to block her again. "I just wanna get to know ya."

Poppy's face grew pale. She slowly reached into her bag. "I'm sorry, but I really have to go now." She took out her pepper spray and splashed it in his face. She turned on her heels and ran the opposite way as the thug grunted in pain with his hands over his eyes.

He swore as loud as he could and dashed after her. "You're gonna pay for that you little-"

Poppy ran around another corner only to find that she was trapped. She climbed onto a lonely trash can and put one leg over the fence. She's jerked backwards and landed on the rocky ground on her back. She coughed in pain as he put his weight on her.

"Now I got ya."

"Please, no." But he ignored her plea and covered her mouth. Poppy closed her eyes tight while struggling to get away. The moment his weight
was lifted from her, she rolled on the ground until she knew she was a safe distance away from him. Looking up Poppy saw the man who had attacked her was lying on the ground, brawling with another man.

"Get out of here!" The other one called. She obeyed and ran, but only to return with an empty beer bottle in her hand. The other man noticed this and faced the attackers' back towards her. She lifted the bottle up and whacked him on the back of his head. Shattering the glass into a million tiny pieces. He fell on the ground with a loud thud, and didn't move.

The man who had helped her grabbed Poppy's arms when she started to wobble. "Hey, are you alright? Did he hurt you at all?" He brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes as tears started to fall down her cheek. "Tell me, are you alright?"

Poppy moved her head up and down. "I don't know what- I was just walking and-" He brought her head into his chest and stroked her hair to calm her down.

"Hey, no more crying. He's not gonna hurt you any more."

Waiting for their smoothies in a corner booth at a little shop, the young man was still trying to calm Poppy down. "I'm Oliver, by the way. We met at the book store, you asked me for an application."

She looked curiously into his green eyes, "I'm Penelope. How did you know I was in trouble if you were still at work?"

"I just got off my shift and I saw that creep follow you. Being new in town I'm sure you would rather start your day off better."

Poppy skidded a little ways from him, "How on earth-"

"Your accent and the reason you're looking for a job kind of gives it away." When she gave him another look he sighed, "If you already had a job I doubt anyone would fire you because of your looks and your sweet Australian accent. Therefore, you must be new in town."

She stared at him before smiling, "But how did you know that I was fired? I could have easily quit."

Oliver shrugged, "Lucky guess."

Their smoothies are handed to them and they head out of the store. "Um, Oliver, if it wouldn't be too much of a burden, would you mind walking me home?"

"Of course."

After about ten minutes of walking, Poppy stopped in front of her new house and turned to face Oliver. "Thank you so much for saving me today.
I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't-"

"Hey, don't think about it." Oliver interrupted. "I'll see you around?" She nodded and wrapped her arms around her new friend.

"Be safe." She gave him a little wave before making her way into the house. Oliver's face beamed, he shoved his hands in his pockets and headed home.

Inside, Poppy stood by the door unable to move thinking about the events that had happen to her on her first day in Florida, she took in a deep breath and ran down the barren hallway to find her dad laying on a bed mattress fast asleep. She kissed him on the head and laid down on a separate mattress across from him. Then dozed off to sleep.

Lots of love goes out to my best friend Abby who helped me a ton on this story! This is my first story published and I'm still getting used to the site. :) So I'm sorry if there is anything wrong or weird with the chapter(s). (It wont let me indent the paragraphs.) Thank you for reading this!