Based on the onlyonekey storyline
They hadn’t wanted to move, but the economy had left them with very little choice. The collapse of the local economy meant that Ana had been laid off, and Jose’s job as a architect was in jeopardy. With everyone hurting economically, few people were in the market for new houses, and businesses weren’t looking to expand there other. The payments on their house were getting harder and harder to make. When they saw the online ad they couldn’t believe their luck. Not only was their potential new home large—complete with a pool—but it also was substantially cheaper than their current place, and in a nice neighborhood as well.
True, the new house was a few states away from their old one, and their two sons, 18 year old Ramon and 16 year old Miguel, were certainly not happy about their whole lives being uprooted and having to move so far away from their friends. At the end of the day, though, there wasn’t really a choice, and they all understood it. The family packed up their things and loaded them into the moving vans, headed out to their new neighborhood.
The house was just as good as advertised. Better, really; with his trained eye, Jose could see how well constructed the house was. It made him a little worried, to be honest; this whole deal was almost too good to be true. There had to be a catch somewhere, but he forcibly pushed it to the back of his mind. He was intervening for a job at a new company tomorrow, he couldn’t afford to let worry and paranoia overwhelm him.
Ramon and Miguel spent much of the day exploring the house. Miguel thought this place might even be nicer than their old house. The pool alone was enough for him to get excited. Ramon thought the house was great—-he’d been aware of just how drastic the family’s money problems had been, since he was hoping to go off to college in a year—but he also couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something a little bit….off about the place. There was just a weird vibe about it that he couldn’t quite figure out. The whole time as they’d slowly rolled through the cul de sac their house was in he’d been watching out the window, and although he’d seen a number of teenage girls—some of them quite pretty—he hadn’t seen a single guy his age. It was a little strange, he thought.
After looking around the place, Ramon and Miguel helped their mother begin unpacking the boxes, while Jose headed into the nearby city for his interview. Each boy had already selected a room, and half unpacked containers soon cluttered the floors of the various rooms. Miguel’s PlayStation sat slowly slowly booting up as he carried another box down towards the basement. Ramon was in the kitchen placing plates into a cupboard when the doorbell rang loudly. Ana hurriedly rushed over to the door, to find a couple standing there with a redheaded teen girl.
“Hello there! We saw you had just moved in, and thought we’d come over to say hello. We live right down the block there.” The man greeted them. “I’m Joe, and this is my wife Claire and our daughter Emma.” Ana smiled happily. As nice as their old neighborhood had been, the people there had largely kept to themselves. This kind of reception had been exactly what she hoped for. She called for Ramon and Miguel, and her sons soon appeared behind her at the door.
“Why don’t you two go for a walk with Emma?” Joe suggested. “She can show you around the neighborhood.”