An Unwelcome Guest

0

Prologue / Sneak Peak
0 - An apple out of reach

There is a buzzing in the walls. Do you hear it? Do you feel it wrap around you like a cage made of smoke? It can see you and hear you and know you. Are you afraid? Frightened? Or perhaps comforted by the whines and creaks of the old house settling into a more comfortable position. 

If this was your way would you even be here? Isolated in a cabin in the woods for an entire winter you don't think you would have chosen this for yourself but the decision was made before you were even aware it was a question that needed an answer. 

So you sit in a bed that you borrow from this crooked place, mind hazy and annoyance playing on your tongue. The lights were out, something that could not be fixed no matter how many times you fiddled with the switch, a fuse must have flipped. 

The house was cold and unwelcoming so you didn't even try to brave the hallways with the yellow flower wallpaper. You haven't been there long but you still see these hallways as endless and damning, you inwardly thank the universe that these hallways had actual ends to them. 

The room was getting colder, perks of waking up in the middle of the night when the fire was nothing but embers apart of you wish you just slept on the couch in front of the fireplace again, you're quick to dismiss the thought quicker to get out of the remaining warmth of the blankets tugging on a sheepskin jacket a gift from the very person who put you in this situation. 

You put on your shoes an old and scuffed pair of boots that serve you well, grabbing a torch and a knife you made your way through the door into the hallway where your least favourite wallpaper is trying to peel itself off the concealed wood.

Luckily you have minimized the time spent in there by power walking to the end passing both the bathroom door and the study, some would call it obscene you would call it practical. 

The lounge at a short glance with the torch seemed normal, nothing where it shouldn't be until you further inspected the fireplace where it looks as if the fire had been purposefully snuffed out the remaining ash, coal and wood soaked with water. 

This wasn't the first time this has happened and it ranked number three in the reason you hated being here. Shaking your head you started to make another fire in the fireplace, torch held between your teeth to see back open to the rest of the lounge, you tried not to tense when you felt something you can faintly recognize as a hand by the base of your neck. 

This is reason number two: the house was haunted and from the little you know about this stuff you knew not to mess with it, instead, you opted to ignore it which usually works wonders if you turn a blind eye to new blue stains on your skin and clothes and the touches and misplaced objects and- Okay maybe the list goes on awhile but no hostile act has been made besides maybe the snuffing of fire and you weren't keen on the touches.

Touches like this one that felt akin to static made your head hazy, ones that felt like someone was trying to talk to you to receive attention. You continue working on the fire until its soft glow spreads across the room and the feeling on your neck fades. You don't move content to sit in front of the mesmerizing flames for now.