✔ | PAINTED IN CRIMSON | T. SHARPE

FOUR | PARANORMAL

❝ There'll be no rest for the wicked,
there's no song for the choir,
there's no hope for the weary,
if you let them win without a fight. ❞

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FOUR | PARANORMAL

I blamed my aching body and tired mind, sure I was imagining things. Just like I had planned, I went to explore the house the next morning. I found myself sitting in the library paging through an old book about taxidermy.

"Weird interests, though," I muttered under my breath as I read a few words. With a sigh, I closed the book and put it onto the table and took another one. It was a poetry book and I read the name at the bottom of the first page.

"T. Sharpe." I frowned, "You had a beautiful handwriting," I read one or two poems and moved to another book. Everything was organised in alphabetical order, whoever had done it, was a very patient and dedicated person.

The light filtered through the large window giving the perfect illumination to read. I felt like I could spend the entire day reading in there. Finding a new book every day and enjoying it with a hot cup of tea, just like I used to do in cold days.

I was carrying a notebook just in case I had a fleeting idea or even better, finish another chapter of my book. I began slowly, taking my time and determined to write one paragraph. When I realised I had spent three hours in there and had written two chapters, it was enough for that day in my opinion, so I decided that it was time to change the environment a bit. I collected my stuff and stood up, ready to go down the few stairs in the library. My eyes fixed on the coat of arms in the newel post and I ran my fingers on it, "It's, it's a skull?" I looked like it, and It had the same inscription of the fireplace, 'Ad montes oculos levavi', in the lower part was another phrase in Latin, "'Mors vincit omnia'." Which means: Death conquers all.

I was surprised to read that, who'd like to have that phrase on a family crest, or have a skull in it? "Strange family we have here," I continued my way to the staircase, with my notebook under my arm. I had decided to go upstairs and explore that part of the house, but I stopped walking when something caught my attention. There was a large door before reaching the foyer, it was closed and it matched with the wooden walls so I didn't notice the first time, "An elevator!" I exclaimed under my breath. It was as old as the house and actually I had never seen one of those in person but in history books. I saw the kitchen and the door to the great hall with the piano from there, "How didn't I notice this before?" Because of the scare that the cat gave me. There was another closed door and I went and opened it, it was a door to the foyer. You cold get to the kitchen from the foyer, the hallway and the great hall and also get to the elevator. Interesting design. I bit my lip as I thought if the elevator still worked. Its door was stuck, so I put my notebook on the floor and slid my pencil in my pocket with the keys to my car, to open it with both hands. It didn't look like it would drop suddenly, of course I was careful, I tried putting one foot in first and see if it could bear the weight of my body. It did. I got in and moved the lever and it went down to the mines.

I opened the door and stepped out of the elevator. If the house was cold, the mines were freezing. I made my way towards an open vat and saw the scarlet clay in there. I -as the very curious person that am- pulled out the pencil from my pocket and used it to touch it, moving it side to side and then examining the residue on it.

I took another look at the place and frowned when I saw a bunch of suitcases piled up on a side. There also was a bigger one and it was open, inside was nothing but a pair of white gloves stained with clay. I squatted down to take them in my hands, "These are a woman's," I pressed my lips together when I saw the word 'Enola' in the lock of the suitcase. That's when I remembered. I came to the mines with my parents before leaving that day and we saw the suitcase as well but that was all, the name made no sense at all.