Why me?

Untitled Part 5

"So, Alice... Tell me a little bit about yourself", said grandma Berta as she poured some sugar into the hot tea that burnt Alice's tongue a few moments ago. Alice took in a deep breath, her tongue sticking out, since she was trying to cool it. "I... I like music, I guess", she said in a low voice, looking down at her knees, where she could see dirt stains on her shorts. "Oh, well, that's-"

Alice stopped listening and she turned her head in alarm. She could hear some giggles that were quiet, but were slowly rising up to louder and louder. "Who is this?", she asked, "What's going on?" Grandma Berta wiped the devious smile off her face before Alice turned to her, and changed her expression into a confused one. "What do you mean? I don't hear a thing", she tilted her head to the side. Alice was looking at her with disbelief. The giggles continued, as if they were mocking her, as if they were trying to make her believe that she's crazy. "Maybe you should go splash some cold water onto your face. It might help get your thoughts straight", grandma advised her but as soon as Alice nodded and turned her back to her when she got up, that smile spread across Berta's face again and her fingers intertwined as if she were the evil character from a horror movie awaiting her victim. Her eyes narrowed with a wicked look in them, but again when Alice turned to her to ask for direction, her facial expression changed in a middle of a second. "It's on the second floor, first door to the left". The giggles weren't stopping... Alice covered her ears, but as her arms started to hurt from the unnatural position she lowered them down and kept moving quickly as she thought she might escape those bone-chilling sounds. When she got to the top of the stairs, she looked down to find nothing but her shadow as if mocking her for being a silly girl, for believing that she might actually see something unusual. Alice stayed in that position for a while when she suddenly felt a rush of cold air brush against her skin and a dark shadow that was running passed behind her, and the giggle couldn't be heard anymore. Now it were those loud grunts that soon enough turned into multi-voice whispers. Alice's eyes widened and she turned to it in horror, only to see a face of a woman staring at her from the dark corner of the second floor, her eyes wide and red with blood that was dripping down her pale cheeks. Her mouth was open and from them flew out a couple of insect that slowly made their way towards Alice. She couldn't move, her whole body was numb of fear so when the bodiless head started to get closer, she was as stationary as an indoor bike. When the head approached her enough, it het out a loud, ear-deafening scream and a pair of bruised, bloody hands pushed her down the stairs. Alice tumbled down with cries of pain and when she reached the bottom of them, her eyes met the head's that was still hovering at the top of the stairs, grinning at her with a sinister look on her face, and then she suddenly vanished with the giggles of the children. When grandma Berta heard the commotion that Alice's fall made, she took her time and slowly  got up, put her tea down, slipped her slippers on her legs and started walking towards the sound, slowly and calmly. It was rather obvious that she did not care a single bit about Alice and also that her happiness was the last thing on Berta's list. "Oh, you poor thing! You must have stumbled. I do admit, these stairs are quite steep, but don't worry, you'll get used to them". She then took Alice's shaking hand  into hers and pulled her up in a abrupt way that made Alice let out a little, insecure cry. As she was a skinny little girl, she was easy to pick up which Berta did as soon as she got her hand under Alice's back and then not-at-all-gently put her on the bed where Alice buried her head in a pillow to hide her tears. Every body part hurt her from stumbling down and she was still shaking with fear. When she heard grandma leave the room, she started quietly weeping and clasped her hands together to pray. This cannot be happening... Please, God, help me. I want my mommy and daddy back.