"Fuck this place smells like shit!" My six year old sister Audrey cried out scrunching her nose. I was too shocked to respond to her colorful choice of words.

"Audrey no swearing!" I scolded her finally getting back to my senses as I dusted the shelves to make a new place for my books. She pouted at me and picked up another smaller mop and started dusting her stuffed pony Bella imitating me. Sometimes she's just too cute. Except the times she starts to swear. After I was done cleaning the plywood shelves I took a good look around the house. God my job isn't over yet. There were cob webs everywhere around the house. It was a sunny day outside but I wouldn't know as the windows were covered in thick dust. The floors needed serious mopping and of course there's this mild stench. I can't really describe the smell honestly. It like a combination of bat barf and rotten eggs though I don't know what bat barf actually smells like.

You must be wondering what am I doing in this revolting house, right? Well, I couldn't afford to live in my parent's little apartment after my mom died, as the rent was quite expensive. Let's just say I ended up with too many dues and then the landlord decided to kick me out and I was forced to move from Florida to New York. But looking on the brighter side though, this apartment is close to my college and best of all my boyfriend Rodrick is my next door neighbor.

"Hi babe." I looked around to see Rodrick standing at the doorway. He was wearing a polo t shirt with dark washed jeans. He ran a hand across his blonde hair as he looked at me with those baby blue eyes through his glasses, making him look like one of those cute nerdy tumblr guys. I went up to him leaving the duster and wiping my hands on the apron that I was wearing. Wrapping my hands around his neck, I pulled him closer to give him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Eww gross!" Audrey commented making a gagging noise from behind, making both of us laugh as we broke off. She headed for her room leaving us alone in the living room.

"I bought cookies for you", he said shoving a plate full of cookies in my empty hands.

"Good way to greet your neighbor I see", I said keeping the cookies on the coffee table. As I leaned down to keep my cookies I noticed that my boyfriend was wearing his t shirt inside out.

"You are wearing your shirt inside out. Have you been having wild sex?" I asked pointing my index finger towards his yellow t shirt.

"What? No! "He cried out almost too quickly. God I love to make Rodrick feel apprehensive. I chuckled at his response.

"Just kidding babe! "I said with a flirty wink.

"You wanna watch a movie together or something?" I asked him taking a seat on the couch. Thank God I cleaned the living room earlier.

"No thanks I will pass", he replied. "Besides"-He continued-"I have an assignment to work on."

"How long do you have to work on your stupid assignment? You barely have time for me", I whined getting up from the couch.

"Soon babe. I can see that you haven't taken care of the smell yet", he said scrunching his nose.

"Nope but it's a little weaker now and besides I think I have made a great progress", I said gesturing my hands towards the living room.

"That I can see. Guess I will see you then", he said scanning his eyes all over the place.

"Yeah sure". He placed a small kiss on my cheek and left for his apartment after closing my door.

I plopped on the couch taking a deep breath. God house cleaning is tiring! Now that Rodrick had ditched me I had nothing to do. I am pretty sure Audrey is meditating. Yup, you heard that right. My sister claims that she can see the dead so she often meditates inside her room talking to ghosts. I know it sounds crazy but I obviously don't buy that. Audrey is at an age where kids have imaginary friends, so I actually don't give much attention to it. She even claims to see my mom's ghost and apparently she often comes to visit us. I couldn't hold myself together when she said that. Audrey was two when mom died so I think this is just a way she feels connected to mom.

The sound of a sudden bang on the door interrupted my thoughts. I looked around to see the source of the sound was coming from my bedroom. I walked up to my room which was adjacent to Audrey's one. Surprisingly the whole house had that revolting stench but not my room. The door made a creaking sound as I opened it to find the pendent light oscillating. Okay must be the wind. I thought to myself seeing the open window. But there's no wind outside. Okay that's kind of creepy.

I decided to distract myself and text Casey my best friend.

Wanna hang out at my new apartment?

I can't Grace, I am sorry. My Grandma came over, she's a pain in the arse.

I chuckled as I read her text. Casey's grandma can be very annoying at times. She thinks Casey is not a 'proper woman' so she teaches her to do household chores. Once she made her debone fishes the whole day. Casey couldn't move her fingers as they were so numb.

That's too bad. Good luck! :)

With that I shoved my phone into my shorts pocket and headed over to Audrey's room. Before I could knock on the door she opened it.

"What's with all the negative energy?" she asked observing her surroundings. "I am sure it's because Rodrick came over", she said with an irritated expression on her face, placing her hand on her hips. I rolled my eyes at her. Audrey thinks Casey and Rodrick have a lot of 'negative energy' around them. She even suggested that I shouldn't be friends with them. She can't get any weirder, can she?

"I am bored let's do something", I chimed in ignoring her rude comment about Rodrick.

"Let's watch Barney and friends!" she cried out reaching for the remote on the sofa.

Oh no here she goes...

"No! We are not watching a purple dinosaur with a big butt dancing with a bunch of little kids". I immediately grabbed the remote out of her reach.

"Why not?" She pouted at me and crossed her arms on her chest.

"Because we are gonna christen the apartment by baking a red velvet cake!" I exclaimed. Audrey eyes grew wide with excitement and she immediately rushed to the kitchen taking out the ingredients.

For a few hours we talked about random stuff while baking. Audrey told me stories about her first day at her new school as we baked the cake. I was finishing the last touches on my cream cheese icing that's when Audrey chimed in.

"You know I can feel another presence here".

Great! We have another imaginary friend here now. But then what about the door? For some reason I couldn't help myself but agree with Audrey. Nope there's no such thing as ghosts! God I need to stop hanging out with Audrey.

"The cake's done!" Audrey rushed to one of the many cardboard boxes to fetch two plates for us. She helped herself to two huge slices of cake and rushed off to the living room to watch Barney and friends. She finally got things her own way. I thought to myself as I let out a small sigh. I took a piece of cake and went to join Audrey.

We fought over the remote and at last I won so we ended up watching Pretty Little Liars. The whole time Audrey was bored and finally she fell asleep. I carried her to her room and went off to wash the dishes. Drying the dishes, I placed them on the counter. As I was keeping the red velvet cake inside the fridge something strange caught my eye. I couldn't help but notice the fact that a huge part of the cake was missing. I didn't remember Audrey helping herself to a second serving. That's a huge chunk of it missing. Maybe she was hungry as we couldn't grab a lunch with all the moving going on.

'You know I can feel another presence here'. I replayed the words in my mind.

What if there is? What if the rumors about this house being haunted after the great fire is true? Oh God. I am going crazy.

...............................