I was sleeping the whole time the car was traveling and before I knew it, we were already in Baguio City.

My mother woke me up.

“Denise! Wake up. We’re here.”

I opened my eyes and looked around. The place was pretty cool. There were lot of trees and flowers and I could hear the flowing of the river from a distance. But I don’t see any neighbors.

It was a very quiet area.

I took my time getting off the car.

“This is our new house,” Daddy said.

“Where?” Once more, I looked around. Then I saw the house in front of me.

Is this really our new house? Well, I was not expecting to see a mansion since I knew that the house is only a benefit from the company where my father is working. But this one? You can’t really call this a house. It’s quite small and I think it was abandoned for hundred of years.

Well, perhaps I’m exaggerating but I think my parents made a wrong decision. We should have kept our old house.

“So what do you think?” Daddy asked.

“Ha?” I was off guard.

“Isn’t it cute?” mother said.

“Who?”

“Denise, we’re talking about our new house,” Dad answered. “Isn’t it great? We’re like living in a country house in some part of U.S.”

“Dad, are you serious? It doesn’t even look like a house to me,” I snorted.

“Denise!” Mom shot me a warning look.

“Sorry.”

“Let’s go inside,” mom said.

“I really think we should go back to Camp Dangwa. We could live in Jenny’s comfort room instead.”

“That’s enough, Denise,” Mom said. I could tell that she was already getting impatient.

“I’m just kidding. Let’s go inside and check our shed er...I mean, house.”

Dad laughed. My mother gave me a ‘one more time and you’re dead’ look.

I smiled and went inside the house.

This was my first night in our new house. I was tucked in bed, ready to sleep. I still got the same bed but the pillows and bed covers were new. I went out of bed and looked around. I felt uncomfortable in this house. I missed the terrace, the big window beside my bed, the baby pink colored wall paper.

I went near the window and looked outside.

Then I realized that I was staring in a cliff below. Our house was located in a very high place.

What if there will be a storm?

What if it rains too hard and there will be a landslide?

I really think living in this house is a terrible idea.

I woke up early in the morning and found my parents having breakfast in our small dining room. There was a plate of toasted bread in the table and some fried eggs and bacon. Dad was sipping a cup of black coffee while reading the front page of a Sunday broadsheet.

Strange but I feel warm and comfortable despite being in a new house. Maybe because of the familiar scene, having my parents eating breakfast with me.

We haven’t eaten breakfast as a family for a long time because my dad is always busy at work.

“Good morning,” I mumbled.

“Good morning,” Mom returned my greeting. “Eat your breakfast while it’s hot.”

“Mom, can I go out and take a look around? I just want to be familiar with our neighborhood,” I asked as I put some bacon in my plate.

“Okay. But we’ll go shopping first. We need to buy some groceries and a new table cloth. And school days are approaching so you need to buy school supplies.”

“Oh yeah. I almost forgot.”

I was not excited about going to school at all. It wouldn’t be the same faces and I know I have to adjust to my new school. It was kind of hard for me since I studied in only one school since I was in kindergarten.

“And tomorrow, I will enroll you to your new school. You’ll surely love it, I promise.”

“I hope so.”

But I was so sure my mother was just wasting her time.

I was taking a walk in our new neighborhood. I was already half a kilometer away from our house but I still couldn’t see any houses.

I wonder if there were vampires around. It’s perfect hideout for creatures like them.

Then I saw a huge palace. Only it’s not a real palace. It was a mansion covered by huge mahogany trees that you can barely see what is inside behind the high white painted walls.

Suddenly, the gate opened and a black Jaguar came out. It was a car, not an actual animal who will take great joy to devour me . But I still found it creepy, thinking that whoever is inside the car might not be a real human. I guess I should really stop watching Vampire movies.

Then the car passed in front of me. It was on a fast speed that I almost got hit and fell off the cliff. But I managed to move to the safe side. The car’s window was tinted and you can hardly see who was inside. But I knew whoever’s driving that luxurious car could see me, standing like a zombie on the side of the road. My dad used to drive a car with tinted windows so I knew everything about it.

I watched as the car drove fast, down to the zig-zag road. Then I realized, we were on top of of a small mountain. Then suddenly, the huge gate closed behind me, automatically. I was certain that no one came to close it. Perhaps, the security guard or whoever was it has a remote control to close the gate, or maybe...

I was terrified at my own thought so I run as fast as I could, trying to remember the road which would lead me back to our house, and that was everything I could remember on how I spent my first day in our new neighborhood.

The next day I learned that the Cypress Hill, where the mansion is located and so is our tiny bungalow, is part of Villa Mercedes. A thousand acres of land that belongs to Don Marcelo, the owner of the real state company where my dad is working as an agent. And now, my mom will be working in the mansion too as a caregiver to Don Martin, Don Marcelo’s oldest son.Don Martin is a certified bachelor, although he is already in his late forties, and according to my mom had suffered a heart attack that put him in a lifetime paralysis.

The cold morning my mother had taken me to the mansion to meet Don Marcelo and his family was a day I never wished to repeat. My mom woke me up at 7:30 in the morning to tell me that Don Marcelo wanted to meet her only daughter. I haven’t meet the man behind Dad’s paycheck but I was not too enthusiastic to see him even if I’ve been hearing a lot from my Dad how he is fond of children. He sent gifts through my dad during Christmas and once when I graduated from elementary. Although I hate the fact that the Don still thinks of me as a child where in fact I’m already thirteen years old, I made a deal with my mom that she will let me visit Jenny on weekends if I come with her. So I put on my best red dress with white stripes and pink collar and neatly tied my hair in order to look nice and presentable and went with her.