Willow Creeps

Chapter 9

I stare at the door for a long two minutes with a blank mind. I take a deep breath before finally turning the door knob. It yawns open without a sound which is surprising because I was expecting a creaky sound as a result of not being used for years.

I peer inside before raising my right foot to step in for good luck, at least that's what I believe. There's no smell of dust nor feeling of emptiness. The light that comes from the left corner of the room gives it little colour. I look around as I completely let myself into the room. I walk over to the blind to pull it higher so as to let in more light. The carpet feels so soft against my feet.

The light that floods the room reveals a study. I gasp, what? A study! I've been living in this house my whole life but haven't any idea of what might be in this room. It doesn't look or feel like a normal library though. If compared with the one downstairs, there would surely be a wide gap between them. But the main difference between them is the books.

The study downstairs is filled with varieties of books - novels, poems, biographies and lots of medical textbooks but the shelves here are filled with old looks books, infact they are old judging by the crinkly writings on their spines.

A book on the left shelf catches my eye. It sticks out  like as if it doesn't quite fit in the space in the shelf. I move over to take it down from the shelf but the strangest thing happens while trying to pull the book out of the shelf. The world around me starts spinning or so I think. It's so fast that I fall on my knees immediately.

After a while I think the spinning has stopped, I slowly open my eyes. I open my eyes to see that the library is no more, instead I am in a bedroom. My jaw goes slack. A huge bedroom that could have belonged to a little girl. No,
two little girls because I can see two single beds.

The walls are bright with the three primary colours, with bunny ballerinas all over. Between the two beds stands a book cabinet which holds a photo of two young girls. I take all these in while still resting on the floor in an awkward position.

I try to stand but my knees are wobbly. Finally, I manage to stand in the best possible way I can, though still feeling somehow dizzy. I wander over to the bed next to the window. Embedded in the bedpost is a word in cursive. Moving closer to it reveals that it's not just a word but a name - Aethra. There's something about the name that stirs a memory.

The moment my fingers kissed the name, everything comes rushing in:
     
       Two eight- year- old girls huddled together on the window side bed reading a book. The one with the longer hair pointed at a character in the book and they both laughed.

I wheel backwards, away from the bed and fall to my knees again, my breathing uneven. I can feel myself sink to the floor, aching inside to remember everything. So quickly, the image fades and immediately replaced by another.

      The two girls chasing each other round their room, the one with the longer hair who seemed to be the one of action shouted, " Aster! Give that back!", but the other who seemed to be enjoying their little game was breathless with laughter that she couldn't shout back. The long haired girl caught up with her and their childish laughter echoed...

In a blink of the eyes, another follows.

   Unnatural wind soughing at the window panes. The twins were decorating the house for Halloween. A man with toffee-coloured hair dragged in a basket full of costumes. A woman with the same hair colour as the children was setting the table. Everyone was chatting away and happy until there came a bursting sound that brought with it a figure, no, a shadow that formed the shape of human in hood.
The parents must have been expecting this visitor 'cause they immediately sprang into different positions of protection for their children...

The scene escapes into a blur but not after leaving the screaming voice of one of the twins which in turn leaves me with a splitting headache. I lay with my my face buried in the soft carpet, nursing what I've just seen in my head.

I feel confused because I am quite certain that I am one of those twins. The twin with the shoulder length hair reminds me of the girl I saw in my last dream. Could that eight-year-old be a younger version of her? Could the other twin be a younger version of me?

I am about to conclude that they could be us ( the girl in the dream and I ) when the parents features appears in my mind. I didn't see their faces but only took notice of their hair. The father had toffee-coloured hair while the mother had nut-brown hair just like the girls. Wait, if I am one of the twins, then she's definitely my mother. No, that's a lie.

If the woman is my mother, what about Mum? I mean Mum- the mother who senses my sadness all the time, the one who wraps me in tight hugs, the nurse... But then something else hits me. The colour of the hair. The woman in my memory had brown hair just like the twins, just like me but Mum is blonde. Gosh no! No way.

I manage to push that aside but I am drawn back to the twins, I can't find anything to think about them. I am just so confused about everything I've seen that I hardly feel my headache anymore.

Just then, something interrupts my thought. What is it? I don't know what it is exactly. Before I have time to return to my thinking, I feel something on my shoulders. It's cold but comforting and soothing too. The coolness travels to every part of my body and sends my headache to wherever it came from.

When I feel strong enough to sit upright, I reach to feel what's on my shoulders only to find nothing but can still feel the cold things on my shoulders.

I open my eyes ( not aware that they were closed ) but I am blinded by light which they soon adjust to. For a reason I don't know, I smile at who I see and she returns a smile. The light emanating from her hair is not natural, I think. Though, it jogs something in my memory and, it finally clicks. She is the one, the girl who led me to the big brown door.... in the dream.

🙂🙂🙂
No one is returning my smiles 😔. I understand the fact that you all are peeved at me for updating this late but I'm sorry 😔😔. The thing is  while writing, examination came in the way.
And I can also see how hard you guys are glaring at me. It's because you've been expecting a creepy chapter but this 👆 is what you got, I'm sorry once again. Something happened and I had to change everything. I'm soooooooooo soooooo sorry.
I know you guys no longer love me but I still love you and will forever ♥️❣️💕🥰😍❤️♥️💓💗💞💕💖💝💘.
Thank you all for giving me your attention. 💗💗. I love ya all ❣️.