Washington Manor | An exceptionally horror experience

Eight.

FIve hours later, Lizzie awakens from a deep, restful slumber, stretching with a soft smile as she climbs out of her bed and wraps her dressing gown around her while exiting her bedroom. She peeks into her daughter's room to check on her, finding her fast asleep in her bed with her arms wrapped around her new favourite doll. When she peers into Matthew's room, she finds him still sleeping as well, and then heads downstairs to the kitchen for her morning coffee.

As she enters the very cold kitchen, she finds that all of her plates, which were neatly stacked in the cabinet above the countertops, are now all on the floor in a perfect circle. Inside that circle, in another perfect shape were the smaller sandwich plates, and then the bowls in the centre. This gave Lizzie a cold chill up her back, she swore, no...she knew, they were all in the cabinet last night, how did they end up on the floor? How did they end up in perfect circles on the kitchen floor?

Chloe could not have done it, she's not tall enough, and Matthew isn't the type to pull pranks...But maybe he's trying to freak her out so they'll move again? Yes...That's it...That must be it...Matthew must have done it, to pretend the house is haunted or something. She shakes off the chill and collects the plates and bowls, placing them back in the cabinet where they belong. She goes into the cabinet beside it and pulls out her favourite coffee mug, placing it on top of the oven's hob.

She then remembers that she hasn't unpacked her coffee yet, so she turns to a small pile of boxes on dining table and rummages through it, finding her coffee and returning to the oven, to find that her mug is no longer there...That's odd...she could have swore she put her mug on the hob, she looks at the floor, thinking she knocked it off without realising, but there's nothing...She looks around and finds the mug beside her kettle on a counter on the other wall from the oven, she shrugs, thinking she's just tired, it would make sense she would put her mug by the kettle.

Lizzie lets out a shaky breath and laughs at herself under her breath. "You're going mad Lizz" she whispers to herself. "It's been a long ... .long few days with the move...I'm so overtired" She adds to herself. She makes her coffee and moves to the living room, switching on her large TV and watching the Coronation Street Omnibus with a blanket wrapped around her cold legs.

As the morning continues, Lizzie, Matthew and Chloe have breakfast together while watching TV. "Matthew, honey?" Lizzie smiles as his attention is drawn away from the TV and towards her.

"Hmmm?" He mumbles.

"Why don't you take Chloe to the park today and get out of the house?" She suggests. Matthew's mind lights up with the idea, he wants any reason at all to get out of the house for as long as possible.

***

Lizzie begins her daily cleaning routines, playing music on her phone which sits in her pocket as she sings along, mopping the floors, doing the washing up, walking through the house and collecting the rubbish, putting it in the bins outside.

As she moves through the house, making Matthew's bed and her own, she sings and hums happily to her favourite songs. She enter's Chloe's room and begins picking up the dolls and toys off the floor and placing them neatly in her hand painted toy chest. She reaches down and picks up the doll that Chloe found in her wardrobe, left behind by the previous owners. She holds the doll in her hand for a moment, her mind lingering on it.

She's never seen it before, she's sure of it. However....she feels a...sort of deja vu. She feels like she's seen the doll before, although she knows she hasn't, the doll seems to stare through her soul, and feels surprisingly heavy compared to the other ones Chloe owns. As she continues looking at the doll, she realises that it's a porcelain, china doll, and that they are a common type and that there must be millions of them, which is why it must feel so familiar to her.

Brushing those thoughts aside, she places the doll inside the toy chest and closes the lid before going over to Chloe's bed, still humming as she tucks the duvet into the mattress, neatening up her pillows and placing her blankets and teddy bear's onto her bed neatly. Suddenly, she hears the floorboards creaking behind her...

She turns around slowly, suddenly feeling a sense of unease wash over her... When she turns around, she feels like her heart stops in an instant...sitting in the middle of the floor, is the doll she just put in the toy box. It's sitting upright, like it had been placed there intentionally. She shivers, feeling a cold chill run up her spine, she could have swore she put it in the toy box...or...did she? No...She must not have, she tells herself 'sometimes i mean to do something and assume i've done it.' Yes...thats it...thats definitely it.

After an hour of cleaning, Lizzie sits on her sofa with a cup of coffee, trying to shake the sense of unease as she wraps a blanket over her cold legs. Matthew returns to the house, covered in sweat as he slumps on the sofa beside his mother. Chloe smiles excitedly at her mother, looking really proud of herself. "Mummy I won!" She exclaimed excitedly. Lizzie smiles at her daughter, ruffling her hair a little. "Well done honey! You beat your big brother at football, what was the score?" She asks.

"18-10." Matthew chimes in, scrolling on his phone. Lizzie giggles to herself before looking back at little Chloe. "18-10? Wow what a score! I think we have a pro football player in our family now!" She says happily, to which Chloe jumps around excitedly. As Chloe smiles and jumps around excitedly, Lizzie drinks the hot coffee in her hands, hoping it'll warm her up.