The House in the Hills Read online

  “Fine with me. Denial is the best way to go with this.”

  Harmony stared at him, then shook her head in consternation. “Shut up! And go get ready for work! You’re going to be late.”

  “And you’re going to miss your deadline,” he said and pointed at the laptop.

  Harmony smiled at him, turned to the laptop, clicked a button, closed out her windows and shut the laptop. “Done and done. My work’s over before you even get out the door.”

  “That’s just because you type fast.”

  “That might have a little something to do with it,” she said, a smart-assed twinkle in her eye. “But you need to get ready.”

  “Getting ready now,” he said and left the room.

  Harmony watched him go then picked up her fork and took a bite of the eggs, then chewed. She suddenly shivered, feeling cold. Then she got irritated because she knew what was going on. Marc was always turning the thermostat down, leaving her to freeze all day. She was about to get up and check the thermostat when she glanced over her shoulder at the accordion doors. She let out a little yelp, placing her hand over her heart and felt fear rise up in her as she stared at the person standing just outside the doors. She didn’t know who it was or why they were there. All she could tell was that it was a young woman who was staring into the house, holding her hands over the sides of her face to fight off the glare of the early morning sun. Suddenly, the young woman waved, then pointed at herself.

  “I’m Darcy!” she yelled. “I rent the guesthouse!”

  Oh, Harmony thought and breathed a sigh of relief. While she knew she had a tenant, she had seen neither hide nor hair of her since they’d moved in. In fact, both she and Marc had pretty much decided that she had probably moved out without taking any of her stuff and Harmony had laid claim to the guesthouse for her work studio. However, the door had been locked and they didn’t want to ruin the lock on it, which was this cool vintage doorknob, so Marc said he’d call a locksmith to come out. Then, they simply forgot to take that next step. But it didn’t look like they’d need a locksmith now that the tenant had shown back up.

  Harmony got up and crossed over to the doors and opened it, then extended her hand out towards the young woman. She smiled at her and said, “You scared the crap out of me! By the way, I’m Harmony. Harmony Franklin.”

  “Darcy Flynn,” Darcy said and shook her hand then pulled hers back. “Hi, sorry. Can I come in?”

  Harmony nodded and looked her over as she entered, almost feeling a little intimidated for some reason. Darcy was a very pretty young woman in her late twenties, maybe early thirties. She was dressed casually in a pair of perfectly distressed cutoff jean shorts and a white bohemian top with beautiful red and blue embroidering. Her long, light brown hair was pulled up into a sloppy bun and her feet were bare. She had a great tan and her thin body looked well toned and defined, like she did Pilates or something. She looked like she could be in an American Eagle ad.

  “I just got in last night,” Darcy explained, nodding at Harmony. “Late.”

  “Oh,” Harmony said. “You were on location, I presume?”

  “If you can call a Motel 6 in Death Valley a location, yes,” she said and grinned good-naturedly, then hurriedly explained, “Low-budget horror movie. I got killed half-way through. It was an easy shoot, though. I had to show my boobs, of course, as I am always the girl showing her boobs. But then again, that’s me. I own it. I got great boobs. I paid a lot for ’em. Best investment of my life.”

  Harmony was a little taken aback by Darcy’s candor, but not enough to let it show. Who says something like that to someone you just met? She shook her head, wondering about her. But then again, she was so pretty and young looking that Harmony felt a little pang of jealousy. And she was an actress, too. Apparently, a working one and that meant a lot in this town as most actors and actresses were, in fact, not working. But then again, Harmony might have just felt this way because she didn’t have a lot of female friends. The only women she talked to on a regular basis were her mother and occasionally her older sister, Haley. She was very ambitious and had moved to New York years ago to work on Wall Street. She was very successful and had an apartment in the Upper West Side and dated wealthy and affluent men, but never married or even got close to it.

  However, Darcy didn’t seem to pick up on Harmony’s emotions and glanced over at the kitchen and breathed in. “Oh, my God, that smells delicious. I haven’t eaten any real food in days. May I? I mean, if you don’t mind.”

  Harmony shrugged then said, “No, I don’t mind. Come on.”

  They went into the kitchen and Harmony prepared Darcy a plate of food, piling on the eggs and bacon. She handed it to her with a smile, then found her a fork in the cutlery drawer, and handed her that as well. Darcy dug into the food while leaning against the counter, her feet crossed at the ankles. After she took her first bite, she moaned with approval.

  “Damn, that’s good,” she said and smiled at Harmony. “I can eat today. Tomorrow, I can’t. Up for another crappy part and, of course, I need to be bikini ready. God, I wish I could get a job on a comedy series or something.” She stopped talking and seemed to consider something. “Or as a showcase model on a game show. That would be an awesome gig.”

  “Would it?” Harmony asked, realizing she never considered something like that as a viable occupation.

  “Oh, hell yeah,” Darcy said. “Everyone wants to be a showcase model. They say they don’t, but if a gig came up like that, the claws would come out.”

  Harmony chuckled a little and smiled at her.

  Darcy smiled back and took another bite of eggs, then looked around and asked, as she chewed, “So, what do you do?”

  “I’m a food blogger,” Harmony said.

  “Seriously? Is that a real thing?”

  Harmony felt taken aback again, but just let it go and said with as much nonchalance as she could muster, “It is.”

  “How does that work?” Darcy asked, as if she really wanted to know.

  “I just basically write about food, recipes, stuff like that. And I check out new restaurants in the area and give my opinion. I was actually a chef but I broke my wrist and that put me out of work for a while and in the meanwhile, I found this. Even though I had to type one-handed for a while.”

  “Men do it all the time,” Darcy countered.

  They both laughed and Harmony felt herself warming up to Darcy a little.

  “So, that’s why these eggs are so good,” Darcy said.

  “No, those eggs are so good because I cooked them,” Marc said, entering the kitchen.

  They both looked over to see Marc, who was now dressed for work in a nice button-down shirt and slacks. He looked very handsome, so handsome, in fact, that Darcy’s eyes lit up at the sight of him. Harmony took note of this and then realized this was why she had felt some intimidation at meeting Darcy. She knew her husband would eventually meet her, as well. While Harmony was not a jealous person and certainly not possessive of Marc, she did know that women were always after him. He was a catch, plain and simple. Not only was he handsome, he was funny and he was kind and he was a good provider. And having a woman like Darcy in such close proximity didn’t set well with her. She didn’t like to admit that to herself, but it was true, so she had to.

  However, Darcy didn’t seem to recognize the potential threat she might have imposed and gave Marc a good, long, almost lustful look. She then said, without skipping a beat and without a trace of irony, “Who’s this tall drink of water?”

  Harmony decided to just overlook whatever this might have the potential to be and said, “Darcy, this is my husband, Marc.”

  “Dang! All the good ones are taken!” she exclaimed but still smiled widely at Marc, then extended her hand, while holding onto the plate with the other. “I’m Darcy. I’m your tenant. And I am late with the rent. But I will hopefully pay you at the end of the week.”

  Marc smiled back at her a
nd said, “No rush.”

  Harmony didn’t let that go unnoticed and watched as the two shook hands, all the while taking each other in. She looked away and felt uncomfortable.

  “Nice to meet you,” Marc said and dropped his hand first. “How are you?”

  “Couldn’t be better,” Darcy said and took another bite of the eggs.

  Marc chuckled and said, “Well, good.” He turned to Harmony and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Gotta go, babe.”

  Harmony gave him a terse smile and said, “Have a good day.”

  “Right back at ya!” he said and exited with a smile.

  Harmony and Darcy stared after him not speaking and, as soon as he closed the front door on his way out, Darcy turned to her and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t sleep with him.”

  Harmony’s mouth dropped as she turned to Darcy, disbelieving what she had just said. She managed to exclaim, “What?!”

  Darcy shook her head as she explained, “I saw the look on your face when he came in here so I just wanted to put your mind at ease. I won’t sleep with him. Every woman I meet usually thinks I want to take their men. I don’t ever do it, but I still get treated like crap because of their insecurities. I won’t do that with Marc. I promise. I like you too much.” She paused and smiled at her, then added with deference, “I mean, not like that. I mean I like you as a friend. You seem cool.”

  “Ohhhhhkayyy…” Harmony said and shook her head a little. This Darcy, she could tell, was going to be trouble. A little or a lot really depended on how close she let her in. And she wasn’t about to let her in that close.

  She shook herself, not liking how she was feeling, but not being able to get past it at the same time. She knew that she had an irrational dislike for Darcy, and even Marc at that moment, too. She didn’t like the feeling, either. It was so negative and Harmony liked to try and stay as positive as she could. But something… Something was affecting her and she knew it could lead to some disruption in her life. This made her wary.

  And so, she turned her thoughts to Darcy. Perhaps she could just move out. But she couldn’t just ask her to leave, could she? And she really wanted that guesthouse for herself. It would be the perfect studio. She stared at Darcy, wanting to just ask her if she ever considered moving, but then she thought better of it. The rent she paid—when she paid it, that is—would help significantly with the mortgage. Yeah, she probably would just have to put up with her until she moved out on her own volition. That would be fine. She could get over this. It was just symptomatic of having a new person in her life that she hadn’t expected. Once she got used to her being in the guesthouse, she’d get over all these irritations, especially the irritation of not getting the guesthouse for herself.

  Darcy, however, didn’t appear to pick up on any of this. She smiled at Harmony and said, “Now that we have that over, how do you like the house?”

  Harmony decided to play nice, although she wasn’t up for a conversation right then. But she responded to Darcy’s question with genuine gratitude, which was what she felt about getting the house of her dreams, “I absolutely love it.”

  “You know someone died here, right?” Darcy asked and finished off the rest of the food off the plate.

  Harmony visibly shuddered. Even though she had tried to put that out of her mind, it really did bother her. And now Darcy was bringing it up, just like Marc had a few minutes earlier. Why couldn’t anyone ever let well enough alone? She measured her words and responded with as much respectability as she could, “Well, not technically, no. She didn’t actually die here. She died at the hospital.”

  Darcy eyed her dubiously. “Right…”

  Harmony took note of this but let it go and hurriedly tried to steer the subject matter in another direction, “Did you rent from them?”

  Darcy nodded and set the plate down on the counter. “I did. They were a nice couple. He was a producer on this movie I did a few years ago and they bought this house from a flipper, I believe. Anyway, I’d just broken up with my boyfriend and he offered to rent me the guesthouse.”

  “That was nice.”

  “It was. For a while. Then she got jealous, the wife I mean. Madeline was her name. I don’t know what happened. It’s like she was nice at first then she suddenly turned into this bitch and I mean bitch.” She shook her head, a look of agitation crossing her face as this seemed to really bother her. “She accused me of sleeping with Henry. That was her husband’s name. I didn’t sleep with him, though. But then again, neither did she. I’d guess that’s where the problems started.”

  Harmony digested this and nodded. So, it wasn’t just her who felt this way around Darcy. She did give off that sexy vixen sort of vibe with a hippy overlay. Men dug that and their women got threatened by it. It was part of life, not a nice part, but a part nonetheless. However, for a few seconds she felt vindicated in her feelings: So, it’s not just me… And that felt good. “Oh,” she said. “Were you here when…? You know, it happened?”

  “What? When she died?” Darcy asked and shook her head a little. “I was not, thank God. I was actually on location when it happened, just outside of LA. Henry called me a day or so after and told me I could stay or leave, he didn’t give a fuck. He was really disturbed over the whole thing. And then I heard about him… Let me just say, he was not the sort of guy to commit suicide. But then again, after something like that happens, it can really fuck a person up. The whole situation was fucked up, come to think about it. They weren’t right as a couple. They were really two people that just did not go together, you know? They didn’t get along at all. Sometimes I wondered why they were even together.”

  “Why do you say that?” Harmony asked, becoming intrigued by the story of the former owners.

  “She was very… How do you put it? Waspy? I mean, very. Very East Coast, Ivy League sort of person. I didn’t even know what a twinset was before I met her.”

  Harmony nodded and imagined a very Junior League sort of woman.

  Darcy continued, “And, well, he was a movie producer. So, you can imagine. I mean, he wasn’t the typical sleazy type, like a hustler or a con man. I mean, he was educated and super nice and he actually made real movies but cheap straight to video or cable ones that you never heard of but had good earnings. However, no critical success. He wanted that acceptance though, of course, and would talk about it; talk about trying to find something to do that would get him notice and kind of propel him to that next level. That’s the type of guy he was—very ambitious.”

  “Okay,” Harmony said, nodding, imagining this guy.

  “But Madeline,” she said. “She was on the other end of the spectrum. She looked like the kind of woman who needed to marry a senator or a congressman or something. But a movie producer? No. Like I said, they just did not go together.”

  “Huh,” Harmony said, becoming really intrigued by what Darcy was telling her.

  “And, I guess, it showed,” Darcy said. “Their two worlds like, sort of, collided. And they fought like cats and dogs, those two. Once they woke me up around two in the morning fighting around the pool. And I sleep like a rock, seriously.”

  “What did you do?” Harmony asked.

  “I covered my ears with my pillow and cursed a lot under my breath,” she said and laughed a little. “But I didn’t call them out on it or anything. But it was hard living here with those two. But I stayed, you know?”

  “Even with all that happening, you never wanted to leave?” Harmony asked.

  Darcy shook her head. “And go where? Some crappy apartment in a bad part of town with weirdoes on every corner? Nope. I may be a working actress but the work doesn’t always pay that much, if you know what I mean. I don’t want to live in some rathole.” She stopped talking and nodded, mostly to herself as if she’d made up her mind to stay and her reasoning allowed it. She gave Harmony a slight smile and said, “So, how do you feel about living here knowing what happened?”

  “Truth
fully, I didn’t like the idea at first but then I felt okay with it after we moved in. The house feels fine, you know?” she said, nodding. “We’re going to get it smudged. You know, just in case.”

  “What’s that? Where they take parsley or something and burn it?”

  “I don’t think it’s parsley,” Harmony said, shaking her head slightly. “You know, it’s just… Why not? What could it hurt to do that?”

  “It’ll stink up your house for one thing,” Darcy replied. “I mean, why do it? Why?”

  “You know, bad vibes. Ghosts. Things that when you say out loud make you sound kinda crazy.”

  Darcy chuckled and said, “You do sound kind of crazy, I’ll give you that, Harmony.” She left the kitchen and walked over to the living area and sat down in the Eames chair. She put her feet up on the coffee table, then swiveled to face Harmony, who stared at her from the kitchen. Then she genuinely smiled at Harmony, nodding slightly as if she somehow felt she’d found a really good new friend.

  Harmony eyed her with suspicion, not getting taken in by Darcy’s friendly, laidback manner. On the surface, Harmony wanted to like her. However, there was something about Darcy that disturbed her and it wasn’t just the fact that Marc might find her attractive. Nevertheless, there was something else there, too, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She’d just have to wait and see how things turned out before she made her final judgment. Even so, she followed Darcy into the living room and sat down in the other chair facing her.

  “I don’t believe in ghosts,” Darcy said. “Do you?”

  Harmony thought about it. She did. She didn’t like to admit that to anyone, but she did. She believed in ghosts. But she had her own theory about ghosts. Like, she didn’t believe ghosts were uncivilized, formless entities that scared the bejesus out of people by just randomly popping up out of nowhere. She didn’t believe they really haunted places and, if they did, she didn’t believe they did it to make trouble. She felt like they were people who just didn’t want to cross over into the unknown. Like they were hanging back and holding on. She didn’t share these feeling with anyone and probably never would. It was something she’d always felt, even since she was a little girl. Maybe she’d gotten this belief from a movie she’d watched or a ghost story she’d read but had since forgotten. But it felt like the belief had always been there. That was one reason why she’d had such hesitation about buying the house. However, she wasn’t about to share this without anyone, least of all Darcy, so she just said, “I don’t know.”