Siblings.

Prologue.

Since the death of Jim and Edward, the inhabitants of the small neighbourhood overlooked by the old mansion had grown mixed emotions over their behaviour and almost discriminate judgement towards the boy named Edward. During the years that followed some of the small population moved away – unnerved by the towering hill that still held the memories of the boy who had changed most of the resident’s lives. The Boggs family still stayed put, both Peg and Bill determined not to let the short but eventful stay of Edward disrupt what they had put into the neighbourhood.

For the first few months, neighbours who had once enjoyed happy conversation with them had shied away – the suggestion of hidden talk of the family always in their thoughts. But gradually as the winter turned into spring, and then into summer, the temptations of friendly barbeques helped to bring the families back together.

Kim had become a changed girl after what had happened with her not so dearly missed ex-boyfriend and beloved Edward. The faking of his killing by her hands had led to a confusing ordeal with the police, which had in the end come to no conviction.

It was not until the following winter that snow descended on the colourful little array of houses, a cool remembrance of the winter before. For hours, on many a night, Kim would gaze out of her chilled window toward the dimly lit confines of the hilltop house – her tired eyes playing tricks with the shadows, tempting her heart to flutter if she caught a glimpse of the mysterious Edward. Sometimes she would go up to the gates, her fingers loosely curled around the old bars. But her ability to enter the confines of the wild gardens were dashed as someone was nearly always present nearby – and when she thought about it, why would she need to go into the walls of the mysterious house, Edward was dead of course?

Years trickled by with the sweet pace that was of suburban life and soon Kim was off to University – her teenage fantasies of ever meeting Edward again left with her stuffed animals. Unbeknownst to her she would not see the place of her childhood for another ten years. Peg, now left with only one child to care for, became deeply interested in painting. Her adoration for make-ups seemed to be mirrored in her love for paints – in her mind there was not much difference between the two.

It had been three years since the neighbourhood had disconnected itself with the hilltop and its towering house and many people just thought of the eventful months with Edward as just a dream that each of them shared. So when a taxi drove into the little neighbourhood, why would anyone expect that what sat within the backseat of the yellow car would remind them of what had become just a dream?