Whisper

Lies

I stand there in the entranceway, shocked. In my worst fears I would've never guessed that this house actually exists. slowing my breaths, I calm my heart rate, and continue on through the hallway. As I do, I come across a portrait on the wall. Facing the photo, I examine the little girl that it depicts. The picture held the transparency, of one that has been there for a while, its edges having a white tint to them. Inside, I see that the little girl in the photo, is holding a brown teddy bear in her arms.
Smiling at the child's own smile, I move away from the picture, and continue along the hallway. As I look up, I am met with the image of cracked plaster, breaking away, revealing the planks of wood behind it. Stepping over more fragments of broken plaster, I enter the first room inside of the house. I realize as soon as I step foot inside the room that no one has lived here for a few years at least, considering the mounds of dead rodents, and other little critters.
Moving away from the living portion of the scavengers, I take out my little furry friend, and cradle him in my hands, shielding him from the cool air, that is heavily scented with decay. Examining the furniture, I see that the house is in dire need of updating, seeing that most of it is from the late eighteen hundreds. Walking over to the window, I see that the ledge beneath is littered with metallic looking flies. As I come closer I look towards one and find that they are of a rather large size, just a bit more than the tip of my pointer finger, and have the average size wings of a house fly, that look to be tiny on the gigantic version of one in front of me. Growing more curious as to what the other side of it looks like, I begin to turn it over with my fingers.
Squealing, I drop the insect, as it squirmed in my grip. My jaw hanging crookedly in awe, I look towards the fly, and see that it shows no signs of movement.
Not wanting to endure another panic attack, I move on. Standing below the light, in the center of the room, I pull the beaded string hanging from it, to see if it still works. I tug on the string again, when I find that no light comes from the fixture. As I turn to the set of french doors, I look through the warped glass windows, leading into another room. I push down on the handle with my thumb, and become surprised when the doors open easily, revealing a smaller room that is completed with an old antique desk, and a beat up wooden couch. Inspecting the piece of furniture more closely i see that has been upholstered with flower printed fabric, that contains mainly cream coloring, and various shades of dark pink.
Angling my attention towards the desk, I see that the top has been finished with the same shade stain as the door frame, for the majority of the top, accept for the upper right hand corner that seems to be missing a rather large chunk out of the top layer, making the contents in the drawer below visible. Looking through the gap, I see a brown thing inside. I quickly step away when I see a skinny tail peek out as the creature repositions itself atop the collection of shredded paper that forms its nest.
As I look up to the portrait hanging above the desk, I see that it is an etching of the house in its prime. Staring at the photo, I see that the large oak trees covering the sides of the house, are seedlings, a mere four feet tall at the most, and the large strains of ivy concealing most of the visible portion of the house that I saw in my brief glance from outside, seems to be non existent. Looking into the portrait, I admire how beautiful this house must have been when this was drawn.
Exiting the small office, I move into the kitchen, and find that there seems to be an odd stench filling the area. Walking over towards what resembles a refrigerator, I wipe off the majority of old cobwebs covering the kitchen appliance, and pull open the off-white colored door. I instantly regret the decision to open the door, as I see the items of food inside, they all appear to be covered in both a collection of spiderwebs, and a thick layer of mold, making it impossible to identify what they once were.
Disgusted, I leave the room, and investigate an odd looking door on the opposite side of the hallway. Finding that it opens up to form a staircase leading to the second level of the house. As I climb the stairs, I find that there is a landing a few steps up, then it curves, up to a hallway. I trip, on one of the steps, grasping the curved, wooden hand rail to keep me from colliding with the ones above. Reaching the second floor of the house, I see that the ceiling is also in roughly the same shape as the floor below.
In the middle of the hallway, there is a wooden latter, hanging ajard along a trap door, opening to into the attic. Ahead, I see that the hallway opens up to four rooms, two along the the walls, parallel to each other, and two at the end, which appear to be side by side. Passing by one of the sets of doors, I rotate the handle and push on the wood, however it doesn't move. Defeated, I attempt the one parallel to it, same response, as I try the closed one at the end of the hallway, I find that it too won't open. Luckily, one of the upper rooms isn't closed. As I step inside, I am surprised to find posters covering the walls, depicting REO Speedwagon, and Chicago.
Shaking my head, I remember my mother telling me, that she listened to those bands as a kid. How old these people must have been. Turning around, I leave the room behind me, and wander back down to the first level. Lightly touching the wall with my hand as I walk down the hallway, just to know that it is there. Now at the end of the room, I peer through a narrow gap between the white lace curtains, and the glass, searching the prairie behind the house for the little boy.
Finding that he isn't there, I turn my attention to an unseen door, that perfectly blends in with the wallpaper, making it undetectable, except for the metal latch that appears to just be hanging on the wall. Lifting the handle off of the tarnished brass that it rests on, I yank it open, revealing a second set of stairs leading down. Climbing the steps down, I see that it opens up to a small cellar, containing mostly plastic bins and weathered cardboard boxes, all of which are encased in a thick layer of spiderwebs.
As I look to the shattered windows, I see that there are clusters of flies down here as well. Standing on the stairwell, I spot a gap in the towers of boxes, near the corner of the room. Making my way over to it, I shift the boxes in front of the space. I jump back from what lies in the space, two green wooden rocking chairs, residing below a rather large mirror. Resting in the chairs, are see two bodies, next to each other, barely visible beneath the layer of cobwebs.
Slowly returning to the opening, I inspect the mirror above them, wondering if there is any significance for its presence. Staring into my reflection, I examine the blackened edges, and the golden lettering that peeks through. Finding that the letters appear to be written in a different language, I am about to turn away from the mirror, until I see out of the corner of my eye something white appear in the mirror. Turning back to the mirror, I am met by Maggie's reflection standing ghostly behind me.
I turn around and find that I am alone in the room, focusing my attention on the mirror, I watch soundless words flow from her mouth. I am so sorry. The words lightly appear, in my head before fading away. Turning away from the mirror, I am startled by a sudden presence before me. Slowly backing away from the being, I turn and run along a passageway between the cardboard boxes. As I turn a corner, I am stopped dead in my tracks by a pair of glowing yellow eyes peering out at me from the darkness. I look down, and see that I have been halted by the same black cat that I saw in the barn. The creature looks at me with pleading eyes. Please set me free. The message passes through my head in the same manner as the one before.
Standing in silence, unsure of what my next action should be, I locked eyes with the cat and was overcome with the feeling that I know her. Watching the cat's fur stands on end, I turn back to the way I came, but find, that end of the path is blocked as well. Not sure if the path would continue beyond the cat, I stall for time, as I turn to the woman in front of me and ask her,"Who are you?" As I finish the question I unintentionally back into the cat, causing it to let out a low rumble in its throat, as if to growl at me. The woman doesn't speak, instead she gestures towards the cat with a shaky hand. Turning my attention towards the creature, I watch in amazement as it doubles, and then triples in size. As I look at the lion sized house cat, I back up, and reach into my bag for something to defend myself with.
As I shuffle through my bag, I feel my elbow nudge the pouch hanging at my side. Astonished, I watch the chipmunk leap out of the bag, and land on the floor, facing the cat. Just before I reached down and scooped the chipmunk up, I noticed that the creature was rearing up on its back paws. Letting the scene play out, I watch, speechless, as the chipmunk grows into a person that I haven't scene in a very long time. Looking over to the cat, I see that it does the same.
Standing in silence, I stare at the two people in front of me. We stand eye to eye, none of us dare to say a word. I stare at Maggie, and Danny, my mind filled with questions. As I open my mouth to ask one of them, the memories come flooding back. That night in the barn, I turned back around from the door, and saw Maggie standing in front of the first few boxes. She must have frightened me, and I jumped back, and whacked my head on the wall.
I died that night. By my knowledge of this event, everything comes clear, all of those old items redirecting me to my childhood, the fact that I couldn't feel any pain, it's all because I'm dead. I look back to the woman in the straight jacket, and now know that she was trying to warn me. The child in the woods, I'd seen him before in the family photos, it was Danny. The knife that he had been holding was dripping with his blood, not someone else's, because I thought that I killed him, because I didn't watch him more closely. As I look to him I see that he understands, and I look to Maggie with the same look in my eyes.
I watch as she accepts the gesture, as white light shines through the wall. I join them in line as we stop and stare at the pocket of light for a brief moment, before stepping into it, allowing it cover us in its glow.