The Madness Within ✓

XXI.

I took a deep breath, trying to take in this whole situation. I was in a room with a creature that claims that it's my grandma. But.. how..?
The creature stood still, waiting for me to react somehow.

It could be a trap.

I picked up my axe again and slowly began getting out from under the bed, while also making sure that I can see the creature at all times, just in case it tries to attack me. I took another deep breath, my hands couldn't stop trembling. As I turned back around to face the creature again, I scanned its body before looking back at the hole in its face.

„Grandma, is it really you..?" I whispered, trying to find anything that could resemble grandma. But there was nothing. All I could see was a monster, mutated into some stretched out, spider-like being. I sighed and looked down at the ground, letting a few tears drop down my cheeks, then down on the wooden floor.
The creature reached out its hand, which made me take a few steps backwards. While it did claim to be my grandma, I wanted to keep a safe distance between us. It could be lying.

But instead of reaching out to me, it reached its arm out to the cassette player, then pressed a button. The cassette player once again used the voices of various people from all kinds of recordings to form a sentence, always cutting off the audio as soon as the word was said.

„I'm sorry I couldn't tell you anything."

„So.. it is really you? What happened?" I asked, taking a step closer and slowly putting the axe down. The creature pressed the button once again and continued its speech. The way the energy of the voices changed each word was definitely scary to listen to. It kept switching between joyful voices, to aggressive ones, there were ones where people cried, others were emotionless. All of it mixed up together made it difficult to focus on the words, as it all made me wonder where all these voice came from.
It... grandma used a cassette player to communicate with me, but I doubt that all this was already a pre-made recording. It all felt strange. Whatever grandma did, I'm sure she didn't think this would end up happening to her.

„I made a mistake," the voices formed another short sentence together. I wish I could know what grandma was feeling at the moment. Was it guilt? Or fear? Was she happy to see me, or was it the complete opposite?

„What happened, grandma?!" I yelled out, desperate to get as many answers as I could. I wanted to know the truth already. I wanted to know what really happened. I wanted to get out of here already. I can't stand this place. I can't!

If only I knew that all this was only the beginning.

I let more tears slide down my cheeks, not hiding the fact that I was scared all this time. Not only was I scared now, I was hit with the fact that grandma really was.. dead. I should've accepted it from the very beginning, but I really just hoped that maybe there was a chance that it was all a lie. That it was all a joke that grandma made to make fun of me.
But this? This isn't a joke. This never was a joke. My grandma got turned into some strange creature!

The cassette player began playing all kinds of sounds and voices again, forming another sentence.

„The creature that follows you all the time is called The Watcher. There are 13 Watchers. One of them is dead."

„So there really is more than just one.." I mumbled to myself and wiped off my tears, wanting to pay full attention to the information that I was getting.

„They were the ones that killed me," came out from the cassette player. The words 'killed me' were both said by people who were clearly in so much pain, you could tell just by their voices. The empty face was always faced towards me as each sentence was slowly played on the cassette player.

„And now I'm trapped here. I can feel all of my limbs bleeding. I can hear myself breathing. It hurts so much."

With each word, my whole body began trembling more and more. It sounded.. terrifying. Was she unable to die? Why can't she get the peace she deserves? After all she's gone through, why can't she rest?! Why does she have to be trapped here, in this creature and suffer every single day? Why?! Who did this?!
I covered my face with my hands and began crying, letting all the emotions out of the system. It was too much to take in. Realizing how much pain my grandma goes through every single day. Even after she supposedly died, she's unable to rest to this day.

„I'm sorry, Clara. I can't tell you what is happening here. But I can help you find the answers."

I looked up, listening to the voices saying out words and forming sentences. Then I wiped my tears once again, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down.
„Please. Help me."

The cassette player kept working, searching through who knows how many recordings to find the right words that grandma wanted to use to communicate. Another sentence formed itself shortly after.

„Clara. Don't go outside tomorrow at midnight. No matter what you do. Don't. Go."

I frowned and looked out of the window, trying to understand why. Is something happening tomorrow that I don't know about? Is it specifically just tomorrow, or any other day too? What's going to happen?
„Why?" I asked, turning back to look at the creature in front of me. But instead of an answer to my question, the message continued.

„Look in the attic. Once you've looked there, go to the basement. You'll find your answers in these two places."

The attic and the basement? Those are the two places that I haven't checked out, that's true. In fact, I'm not even sure where the attic itself is. I'll have to look for that as soon as possible. I wonder what is hidden there.
There was silence in the room for a second, the wind blew around in the room, filling up the silent air with light whisperings.

After a moment, the creature pressed the button one more time. The voices got back to work and began making up yet another sentence.

„I have to go, Clara. I love you. And I'm sorry."

As I heard the last three sentences, my heart dropped. I wanted to hug my grandma and tell her how much I love her back, but I realized something. She couldn't hear me.
She had no face, after all.
She couldn't see, hear, nor smell me all this time. I don't know how she knew that I'm her granddaughter, and I don't know how she found me in my room, but it was definitely not her sight and hearing that she was using. Because she couldn't use any of that. All there was on her face was a large hole, all the way to the back of the head.

As soon as the sentence was finished, the recording stopped completely. There was silence in the room for a moment before the creature unlocked and opened the window, pushed itself out of it, then ran off into the forest. The way it walked was terrifying by itself, but the way it ran was even more chilling.
After a few seconds, I dropped to my knees and began sobbing, then eventually, more tears fell down my face. This time there was nothing holding me back. All the emotions poured themselves out of me as if I was a watering can. Expect there was nothing I was watering other than myself.

In fact, I was drowning in my emotions.