Thunder rumbled overhead as another summer storm passed through Midnight Hollow. We enjoyed hour after hour of thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. I loved storms and rain. I imagined I’d do pretty well if I had to live in one of those damp, cold English manors in the countryside. I could skulk around the halls in the dim light like the odd creature I was.
The music box I’d found in my room when I arrived played on the night table while I scrolled through my social media feed. The soft haunting melody that filled the air remained as mysterious to me as the first day I’d heard it.
My grandmother had been thrilled I loved the music box and promised me its story, but her cryptic remark paired with a coy smile about how I’d much to learn first left me burning with intrigue.
Back on sunny Lilac Lane–my former home before my parents died and left me in the care of my bizarrely behaved grandmother–my friends spent the early days of their summer vacation lounging by the pool.
I would have been there with them, my dark brown hair pulled up to show off the pink and purple streaks I’d put into it, but I’d been shipped off to the middle of nowhere.
No one wanted me when my parents died. No one except my father’s mother, Althea.
