Chapter Text
Theodora Crain thought she was done letting the past control her. She thought that by giving up her gloves and committing to Trish she was starting a new chapter in her life.
The two were married now and have been living together for a while but once Trish finished her graduate studies they decided to find a more permanent residence. They had picked a place in Boston, not too far from her practice, two floors but cozy as they had not planned on having children any way. As much as Theo hated the word, it seemed perfect.
“You know, we don’t have to unpack everything all at once,” Trish commented as Theo continued to shove and hide her belongings into closets and under furniture.
“Have you met my sister? If Shirl thinks we need help she’ll want to do it herself,” Theo said as she hoisted a box of hats onto the upper shelf of the entryway closet.
“Why not let her then?”
“Because I’d rather spend the night with Shirley, not the taskmaster.”
“Why didn’t you just do it earlier and not five minutes before they’d be here?”
“‘Cause I’m a mess, Trish, I thought you knew that.” Trish chuckled at this.
“I noticed,” Trish said as she gently planted a kiss on her wife’s cheek.
The doorbell rang, causing a slight jolt through Theo’s system in surprise, “who uses doorbells anymore?”
“I’ll keep them distracted while you finish Shirley-proofing the house.”
“You’re the best.”
“I know.”
The party was a small little thing, just Shirley and Kevin to help break in the house. Theo would have liked to have Steven and Luke over as well but was not willing to make them fly across the continent for something like this; part of her had hoped that Shirley would convince them to show up unannounced for a surprise but alas nothing of the sort happened.
Halfway into the night, Shirley made a cue to Kevin that seemed like it was supposed to be more subtle than it ended up being.
“Be right back, ladies, I need to head to the car real quick,” Kevin said before doing just that. Theo waited until he was out of the house before saying anything.
“What was that about?” she asked her sister.
“Oh I don’t know, he probably left his phone in there,” Shirley said unconvincingly.
“Shirl, you didn’t get us gifts did you?”
“What? No, what would give you that idea?”
“Ta-da,” Kevin exclaimed as he reentered the living room holding a wrapped package.
“Surprise!” Shirley said, finally dropping the thin veneer of cluelessness.
“Shirl, I specifically said you didn’t have to.”
“But you never said I couldn't.”
“Come on, Theo, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Trish said as she accepted the gift from Kevin.
It wasn’t that Theo didn’t like receiving gifts, quite the contrary in fact, but last she heard Shirley still had the habit of slashing costs of funerals and didn’t want her getting them anything expensive.
Theo and Trish unwrapped the gift to find a moderately hefty leather bound book, opening it to see it was filled with photographs from all across her life.
“A scrapbook? In this century?” Theo asked sardonically, her smile and watery eyes betraying her true emotions.
“I figured you might like some old memories for the new place,” Shirley said.
“God, some of these are so old, Shirl.”
Trish gasped and pointed at a picture of Theo at age eight, trying to hide her face from the camera, “you were so cute!”
“Were?”
Much of the night was spent reminiscing on old memories and telling Trish stories from the Crains’ youths. Theo couldn't help but notice that one or two pictures were from their time at Hill House, she felt like this should bother her more but it evoked more warm emotions than expected.
Later that night, Theo found herself unable to sleep. Trish slept soundly beside her, and yet she felt within herself a mess of indecipherable emotions. She rose from the bed, careful not to wake her resting wife, and made her way down to the living room, where the leather bound scrapbook lay open on the coffee table, as though she was expected. She sat on the couch and placed the scrapbook in her lap, she gazed upon the frozen memories with nostalgia burning in her mind. Her gaze landed on one photograph in particular: a group photo of the whole family, taken the first day of their life at Hill House. This was the beginning of the end, she mused, the last time we would be happy and together. What I wouldn’t give…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a small scarlet droplet suddenly appearing in the photograph. Theo blinked in confusion a few times before she noticed another fall from her nose.
“Shit!” she whispered harshly as she set the book aside and stood, “why the fu-”
Suddenly Theo’s head began to ache like it never had before, as though her brain was being constricted by some psychic force. Her vision blurred as she felt herself fall, expecting to feel her body impact the floor but for a moment it seemed as though she was just floating in a void.
No, no, no, no, was the last thing her addled mind could think before the darkness took her entirely.
“Theo?” a familiar voice asked as her mind reemerged from the murky depths of unconsciousness.
“Who is it?” she managed with some effort, head still aching, so much so she couldn’t will her eyes to open.
“It’s Steve,” the voice said.
“Steve? Why do you sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like a teenager.”
“Theo, I am a teenager, I turned thirteen not that long ago.”
Theo’s eyes opened, if only slightly, and sought out her visitor. Her vision was blurry, but she’d be damned if her brother in his adolescent form wasn’t sitting at her bedside. Another figure appeared in the doorway behind him.
“How is she?” This voice was familiar too.
“She’s talking but she’s making about as much sense as you do,” Steve replied.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, Shirl - I think her eyes are open.”
“Where the hell am I?” Theo asked.
“The house,” Steve said, “Hill House.”
It would be another day before Theo could keep her eyes open, much less hold a conversation. Her narrow windows of wakefulness were spent questioning her bizarre situation. She tried to tell herself it was a dream but found it an unconvincing explanation; aside from being displaced twenty six years out of time, everything else was normal. Normal, the word echoed in her pained head, nothing about this house is normal. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she felt the side of her bed depress and a palm press gently against her forehead, that was all she needed to know who it was.
“Hey mom,” Theo said weakly.
“Goodmorning, sweetie, feeling any better?”
“My brain feels like an overstuffed pillow.”
“I’m sorry, Theo, it looks like you inherited my migraines.”
Theo warily opened her eyes, afraid that her mother would look like a blood soaked carcass, and was relieved to see her just as she wanted to remember her, smiling brightly. “Get some rest,” her mother said before gently clasping her hand, “love you, sweetie,” and then exited the room, softly closing the door as Theo’s eyes became too heavy to keep open.
Theo awoke a few hours later with the pleasant surprise of her head no longer feeling like a balloon on the brink of popping open. It was such a relief that she nearly forgot that she was somehow ten years old again and back in Hill House, and when she remembered this she jolted upright and wide eyed, reabsorbing this new yet familiar reality. It was her room from that summer, and judging from the look of it, not too long after they had moved in. Any doubts she had about this being a dream or illusion was dispelled when her mother touched her, she felt her, if this was the house’s doing it would have taken away her sensitivity again. She clasped her hands together and held them close to her chest, it felt strangely cathartic to take comfort in her sensitivity when this house had made her hate it for so long. She looked out the window, the day was nearly over. She didn’t have a plan yet, but Theodora knew what she had to do; if she was really sent back in time, she was going to make it her mission to stop Hill House from tearing her family apart.