Paranoia || ✔

i m m i n e n t d e a t h

It's been a week since my dad's death, and my mom is full of grief. She's starting to drink all the time and there's nothing but emptiness in this house. Oliver hasn't showed up ever since I found my dad's dead body. I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive them. We had dad's funeral a couple days after his death. Mom left early. I put make-up around dad's neck to try to cover up the bruising from the rope. He wouldn't want people to remember him like that the last time they see him. Nobody has the strength to do anything. We've all became severely depressed. Dad wouldn't want this. 

I sit in my room and watch TV. Oliver appears next to me in my bed, startling me. "What do you want." I say rudely. He just looks at me and says sorry, but I don't believe him for one second. "Sorry won't cut it. You murdered my dad and almost my mom. Do you know how much she's hurting? Do you know how much she drinks everyday? You caused her to be like that, Oliver." I look at him, pain swimming in his eyes. "I wasn't the one who murdered him, I told you that already. It was Aileen." "But why?!" I yell. "But why would it be her? Why would she kill him, Oliver? He didn't do anything to her, or you, or anyone else." He doesn't answer and I just sigh.

"I'm sorry." He eventually says. I turn towards him, and put my hand on his cheek. "You are real, aren't you?" I ask and he stares at me, not blinking, then he just chuckles. "Of course I am real, but I am also dead. So I guess the right answer is- I was real at some point." I let that sink in for a moment. "And even though I'm dead, I still have feelings." He adds and I don't know if I like where this conversation is headed. He leans in to kiss me but I turn my head the other way, making him kiss my cheek. This isn't right. I'm living, he's dead. 

"Oliver...I- can't. I'm sorry." I say, keeping my head looking away from him. "Oh, it's uh, fine. I better go." He says awkwardly. "Uh..yeah." I agree with him and he disappears. Not what I expected to happen. What if all these people that are trapped in this house are just something from my imagination? Could I be living a dream? Like that monster in the basement, could it really hurt me? But yet again, Aileen killed my dad...or was he just really going crazy in this mad house? 

I run out of my room, down the billion flight of stairs and to the basement door. Time to find out if these monsters are actually real.