2.

This house, this new home of the MacDonald's is a fully detached house as are all the homes in the immediate vicinity. Its front and back gardens are fenced off. The house itself is two stories high or four if you include the spacious basement and attic areas. This building is definitely quite a large property for any three people to call home.

There is nothing outstanding about the appearance of the house from the outside. It is as average a looking house as any decently sized house can be. It did also look to be well kept up to this point. It looked clean and there are several hanging baskets all around displaying all sorts of colourful flowerings though mostly that of lavender and buttercups. It may be a little strange to see buttercups in a hanging basket, but they looked well, they looked bright.

Margret enters the house for the first time carrying what it is she took from the car, but not before she takes in a breath of some of that hanging lavender. She soon makes her way down the lengthy hallway and into the kitchen. The kitchen reaches to the back end of the house and from its own entrance down the hall from the front door, it opens up to the right.

Just passed the entrance to the kitchen and to the left, there is another doorway. This doorway leads out to a storage room and to a lower-level toilet. This particular doorway just so happened to be open when Margret entered the kitchen for that very first time. Her walking pace took her right past that door though as she did pass, something briefly caught her eye and also caught her off guard, so much so that it made her jump and drop what she had been carrying.

What it was Margret saw, or at least was sure that she saw, was a dark shadow-like figure of a person, a person a little beyond that doorway looking back in at her. After that jump or initial fright, Margret almost became frozen to the spot she had come to stand in. With her heart pounding and her eyes wide Margret began to turn slowly.

Why is it that nine times out of ten when something of this nature happens, no matter how frightening it may be or how frightening it may feel, there is a need to go investigate? Maybe it is the thoughts that it cannot be real or that there must be a logical reason for seeing something along the lines of what had been seen that prompts an investigation.

Margret begins to take those few steps back towards that doorway and moves into a position where she can peak a look at what lies beyond. She sees nothing out of the ordinary this time round. There is no dark figure of any kind standing there or near to where Margret previously had seen.

There is still a need to investigate so Margret moves slowly out into that storage area. Still there is nothing out of the ordinary to be seen. Whatever had been there, if there had been anything at all, is gone. Martin arrives through to the kitchen area carrying what it is he had taken from the car. Noticing that Margret has gone out to that storage area, Martin moves to make an inquiry of his own.

'Everything alright?' he asks.

'Wha ...' Margret jumps once more not having heard her husband approach. 'Don't do that ...' she says thumping him kinda playfully. Having gathered herself Margret speaks again. 'There is something about this place, this whole town; I don't know what it is but ...'

'... This is a big move for us, I get it. We will be fine, we will be more than fine, trust me, just give it time. And sorry for scaring you too ...'

The two hug for a moment and Martin plants a calming kiss on his wife's forehead before she asks a question. 'Where is Molly?'

'Probably laying claim to her bedroom.'

A move is made to go find her. As Martin and Margret get to the base of the stairs, which isn't very far inside the front door, a visitor arrives to said front door which at this point is still open. A tall, at the latter end of being middle aged, well-dressed lady with long blonde hair tied up in a bun speaks a more than pleasant 'hi' while sporting a more than pleasant demeanour.

'My name is Lexi; I'm your neighbour from the next house over. Just thought I'd come over and welcome you to Castletown.'

'Thank you very much, I am Margret, and this is my husband, Martin.'

Handshakes and greetings are exchanged.

'And have my eyes deceived me or is there a child too?'

'There is indeed, our daughter Molly is somewhere about.'

'Speaking of which' says Martin, 'I better go check on her. So nice to meet you.'

Lexi smiles as Martin begins to make his way upstairs.

'Well, I will leave you to settle in' says Lexi. 'Thought it would be nice to say hi, if you ever need anything, you know where I am.'

'Thank you so much for that, and it is ever so nice to meet you.'

At this particular moment, Margret had absolutely no intention of ever taking Lexi up on any sort of offer though at the same time she thought it nice that someone came to pay a welcoming visit and she was glad of its brief nature too. What could future interactions with this particular neighbour be like? Potentially intrusive ones would be Margret's guess if she were to guess ... a little unfair that might be, even if it would seem likely.

Anything else that needed to come in from the Station Wagon would have to wait as for once Lexi had indeed moved on, Margret closed the front door and went upstairs. Time to go see what the other two thirds of the family are getting up to.

There would be a new moment of worry for Margret once she had come to the top of the stairs, ... her husband was standing silently in the doorway to one of the bedrooms. The moment of worry would soon come to pass when it would be discovered that inside this particular bedroom, Molly had lain down on a bed and had fallen asleep.

Strangely enough and even though she was asleep, Molly looked happy; she looked to be at peace with her new surroundings. Despite what has already come on this day, a feeling somewhat sets in. Maybe all will be well, maybe the move to such a place is the right move to have made, maybe ...

3.

Mid-day on a bright afternoon and Martin is sitting at a small wooden table out on his mother-in-law's back porch. There is a small bowl of salted peanuts on the table, and he slowly picks at them while staring out at the pleasantness of the outdoors. Being warm and dry with a decent strength breeze blowing through the tree tops off in the distance, and with plenty distance to stare out into, it is easy to become distracted. It's not long before the mother-in-law comes out with tea and digestive biscuits.

'Now there lovey' she says, 'pour yourself a nice cuppa.'

Now Grandma May as she is known, being grandmother to Molly obviously enough, is a buxom lady in her early sixties who feels that she is quite a bit younger than what she actually is though despite that, she does dress appropriately and at most times she tries to act appropriately too.

She lives alone in a fairly large home of her own and is more than comfortable with staying there as opposed to the consideration of taking things elsewhere. She wouldn't trade the place for anything and is more akin personally to times gone by than with more modern days. There are too many memories within this place, she couldn't bare being away for too long. Grandma May has her health; financially she is as secure as she can be, so for the time being this is where her life is.

Of course, with such a move that the M&M's are making, one of their main concerns is that of leaving behind Grandma May. Grandma May is more than capable of looking after herself being years away from being considered in any way old but still, Castletown is so far away.

'I know what you are thinking' she says as she sits on her side of that wooded table.

'What?' he says pouring tea for them both, 'I haven't said anything.'

'You don't have to, I'll be fine. You guys have a fabulous opportunity. Take advantage of it. All going well and if you want, you all can move back here in a few years' time after you have made your fortune.'

'It is nice to have your backing; I'd hate to think that you think bad of me for taking your daughter and granddaughter away.'

'Nonsense, you are a good man taking care of your family. Besides I am well able to use the likes of Zoom, facetime and other things of that nature. None of that is beyond me, you know. We all will get to keep in touch. And always remember ... Hallowed be thy name ...'

'What was that?' asks Martin not being entirely sure that he heard what he thinks he has just heard.

'Hallowed be thy name' says Grandma May as if what she had just spoke is something which is perfectly normal to say, though almost as soon as she had said it this second time round, her whole demeanour changed.

She now stands and with anger taking control of her face and anger settling into her voice as if she were unable to articulate a point or get a point across. Perhaps there is something more to it than that. She once more says 'Hallowed ... Be ... Thy Name ...'

Martin quickly moves back into his chair in shock as to what is happening, though as soon as he hits the back of that chair his surrounding change. The pleasant bright surroundings, or at least what had been pleasant and bright, all of a sudden turn dark. There is a reason for this. Martin is not where he thinks he is. In fact, he is quite a bit away.

He awakes in a cold sweat. The time is shown on a digital clock close by and to his left. It is three in the morning on the first night in the new Castletown home, and as soon as he awakes, he sits up. This in turn wakes Margret.

'Hey, what's up?' she asks after having taken a moment to assess what is going on.

'Believe it or not ...' says Martin almost gasping for breath, 'I just dreamt that I was with your mother on her back porch. Thing is that it didn't feel like a dream. It so felt like I was just there.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, and the strange thing is that she, your mom that is, didn't quite seem herself.'

'Tell me about it tomorrow honey, I'm going back to sleep. It has been a long day.'

Martin moves his tongue around in his mouth. He can feel that there is something in there that maybe should not be. He puts two fingers in and takes out a peanut not unlike that which had been in a bowl on the table within that strange dream he had. How very odd.

Instead of attempting to return to slumber, Martin moves to sit at the side of his bed. How could sleep possibly come back to him anytime soon within the instance he so happens to be in? No such problem for Margret. Martin turns to her and considers just how much the day just gone really has taken out of her.

A moment or two passes after which Martin is sure that he can hear voices speaking from somewhere else within the house. Even though these voices are too low or too quiet to make out what is being said, Martin is positive that one of the voices belongs to his daughter, though who else could possibly be within the house?

In her own room, in her own bed, Molly is sitting. She is awake and has been for a little while at this point. As well as that, she is not alone. There is a man in her room, a stranger, someone who no longer belongs to this world. Despite this presence, Molly is not scared, she is not frightened. She is perfectly at ease with the fact that someone she does not know has come to pay her a visit in her own room so late at night.

'Hello there young lady' he speaks while moving from one end of the room to be at Molly's left side. 'Are you well?'

'Yes, ... I'm fine' she replies with a little giggle as a rather large smile takes a hold on her face.

'My name is Matthew. What might your name be?'

'I'm Molly.'

'Nice to meet you Molly, and who is your friend?'

'Her name is Polly-Anna.'

'Oh, I do like that name. It kinda reminds me of some old friends of mine.'

There is noise coming from out in the hallway. Molly's dad is approaching the room. Both Matthew and Molly can tell that someone is coming so Matthew has something to tell Molly before an arrival can be made.

'Listen, can you keep a secret?'

'Sure.'

'You gotta promise not to tell anyone I was here; you can do that, right?'

'Yes, I can do that.'

Matthew smiles and vanishes. It is right after this point that Martin enters the room.

'Hey missy, what are you doing up? You should be sleeping.'

'I am not tired daddy.'

'Must be that sleep you had earlier, huh? Anyway, who were you talking to?'

'No one dad. It is just me and Polly-Anna here.'

'Polly-Anna, right, I must just be hearing things.'

Martin tucks his daughter properly back into bed.

'Goodnight sweetie, see you in the morning.'

'Night dad.'

Martin is out of his daughter's room no more than three or four seconds when he can hear her giggle. Rather than go back in, he just rubs his head in wonder then makes his own way back to bed.