Room for Rent || Chaennie

Chapter 7

One Friday night, Jennie was all huddled up on the couch in the living room, hugging a colossal bowl of popcorn, happily munching away as she watched her favorite horror movie – The Exorcist. She had the volume all the way up and was enjoying the thrill of each and every scene when all of a sudden, Roseanne appeared beside her.

Jennie almost upset the entire basin of goodies but managed to stabilize herself before it happened. She briskly set the bowl down onto the coffee table and reached for the remote control, animatedly attempting to get the movie to pause, finally succeeding after several attempts.

"I'm sorry, was that too loud?"

"Yeah..." Roseanne had her hands over her eyes.

"Did it frighten you?" Jennie stifled a laugh.

"No! Of course not... I'm way too old to be disturbed by such things!" Roseanne removed her hands at once and bowed her head to stare at the floor.

"Why're you avoiding the screen then?" Jennie teased.

"I'm... I'm not! My eyes just feel kinda dry... the weather today is horrible..." Roseanne covered up.

"Come join me!" Jennie patted on the empty space beside her on the sofa.

"Ah no, it's fine, really... I have some assignments to complete... I was just wondering if you had any cotton wool I could use to stuff my ears with."

"Oh, Roseanne, it's almost one! Who does homework at this time? Come on!" Jennie stretched out, grabbed Roseanne's arm and dragged her onto the couch.

Before Roseanne had time to leave, the movie had resumed. As such, she could only keep her gaze fixated on the girl beside her because she was much too afraid to even look at the screen. Ugh, why did she have to pretend to be brave?

After an agonizing half an hour or so, the film finally ended (much to Roseanne's delight and Jennie's disappointment).

"It's such fascinating movie, isn't it? The storyline and all the visual effects... incredible!" Jennie sighed contentedly and was about to make her way to the kitchen to drop off the empty popcorn bowl when she felt a tight yanking on the sleeve of her pajamas.

"W-where are you going?" Roseanne looked pretty shaken up.

"The kitchen, silly. Are you okay?" Jennie chuckled.

"F-fine. I think I'm just tired..." Roseanne faked a yawn. Truth of the matter was, she just didn't want to appear timid in front of Jennie. That wasn't the way she wanted to be seen. She was supposed to be the braver one. If anybody needed protection, it would be Jennie.

"Ah, I see... well, go to bed then. Have a good night's sleep! Sweet dreams!" Jennie smiled before heading off for the kitchen.

Sweet dreams indeed.

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Roseanne lay in bed, feeling more awake than ever. The weird voices and noises from the movie just seemed to keep echoing in her ears. The harder she tried to shut her eyes and go to bed, the worse it got.

Her imagination soon got the better of her and Roseanne started fabricating a thought that perhaps some possessed girl was lurking beneath the bed, ready to jump out at her anytime. She pulled the covers up a little higher, trying to make herself feel safer but to no avail.

It was so dark and eerily silent and Roseanne's pulse was picking up speed with every additional second that passed. She hadn't seen a horror movie in a really long time and the one she had to sit through that night was really the perfect ingredient in helping to conjure a sleepless night. In her state of terror, a knock on the door caused her to scream at the top of her lungs.