FLESH covered LIES

The Burden of Loneliness

"...Hello?" Jonathan's voice sounded mildly annoyed, and crackly. Either he was already miffed off, or the connection was just bad.
"Uhhh hey Jonathan, it's Gerda."
"Oh hey." He said, and I heard his voice soften slightly. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I mean I guess everything's fine, I just... are you free? Like, right now." My heart was pounding in my chest. I hated phone calls. Talking to people in real life was bad enough for me, but to have to have a reason in the first place to physically call them up, and to not even be able to see their facial expressions and body language made my social anxiety start to grip my body with its sharp claws all over again. 
"Sure. Is there a problem? You need me to come over?" He sounded genuinely concerned, and I didn't blame him. He probably got the socially awkward vibes from me when we first met, so I had no doubt this wasn't what he was expecting at all.
"Yeah actually, that would be great." I replied, breathing an internal sigh of relief.
"K, I'll be there in ten." And he hung up, just like that.

I collapsed onto a chair, breathing heavily as the cold fingers began to loosen on my insides. It was done.

As soon as I heard the knock on the door I jumped straight from my chair and broke into a run down the stairs. I already felt as if this secret had been kept for too long, although it had only been yesterday since I had seen the bald creature for the second time. It was eating me up inside. I had a responsibility to sort this horror dilemma before it developed, for all I knew, this creature had already planned it's victims. I shuddered in disgust at the thought as I reached the great front door, and using all my strength, I pulled it open.

Jonathan was smiling up at me from the bottom step, but almost instantly my relief turned to confusion. Standing next to him was a tall girl. She was smiling too, her pretty complexion and pale green eyes greeting me kindly. I was shocked. Who was this? I could feel the hand beginning to clench again.
"Hey Gerda." Jonathan said. "This is Harissa my half sister."
Dammit. How the hell was I going to tell Jonathan about my problem with her here. She had this georgous hazel coloured hair, cropped to a pixie cut and swept behind her ears. She looked slightly older than Jonathan and me, but only by half or year or so surely... And that was when I saw that she was still looking at me expectantly. I pulled myself out of my daze,
"Hey, I'm Gerda. Oh wait dammit Jonathan already...." the hand was clenching inside of me yet again.
"Shall we go inside?" Jonathan interrupted, saving the day as he seemed to always do.
"Yes. Let's." Harissa said and we began to enter the house again.

It took me at least twenty minutes to get Jonathan alone, so when I did, I spurted everything I needed to say out as quickly as possible.
"Somethings happened. Something bad. Or at least I think it is I don't know I just need to..."
"Woah slow down please." Jonathan held up in hands to calm me down.
"Come on Gerda. We'll go into the other room again and talk it through with Harissa okay?"
"No." I said firmly. "You're the only one I can talk to about this."
"Gerda, I don't think you understand. Harissa and I tell each other everything. And I promise whatever it is, if you can tell me, you can tell her too."
I shook my head and bit my lip.
"It's just, I don't know her and...."
"You don't know me. Think about this Gerda"
So I did. And I realised that he was right. I had only known him for a week or so, and here I was just about to trust in him the thing that was gnawing away at me and making me feel ill every second of my miserable life.
"Okay."
I didn't have time to argue. I wasn't sure I could carry this burden for very much longer.

When we went back into the library, Harissa was curled up in my spot on the window sill with one of the old battered books from the shelves. She didn't even hear us enter, so oblivious from the outside world, it was as if she had been absorbed into the story, just like I was when I read.

"Alright. Fire away" Jonathan said when we were all ready. So I did. I told them everything. The creepy feelings I felt when I was alone in this house, the bad dreams I had been having, and of course, the bald man which I still hadn't put a proper name to. The pair listened carefully, and it wasn't until I was finished that I noticed Harissa had been taking notes the entire time. And looking over at the paper, she wasn't just scribbling little bullet points, it looked as if she had written a full description of everything I had been saying. Yet another thing that we had in common. A need to write. I blushed at looked down at my feet, feeling awkward in the silence that followed my tale. Then, Jonathan rose and began to search through the books that littered the library shelves. When he had finished his search, he came back to the table with at least ten seemingly random titles.
"What are you...?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" He said answering my question with a question. "I'm  finding out what this creature you saw was."
I did a double take.
"What, so you believe me?"
"Of course we do." Harissa chirped in. "We knew something was up with this place. It was just a matter of time." She took a step closer and looked right into my eyes. "Gerda. Telling us was the right thing to do. Together we can tackle this horror story how it should be done"
Her eyes were so bright and full of energy and belief. She really thought we could this.

Tyler came bounding into the room, and I pulled my gaze quickly away from Harissa's. Tyler was jumping around all over the place.
"GERDA. PLAY WITH MEEEEEEE PLEASE"
I laughed. "Alright Tyler. Let me just show Jonathan and Harissa out."
Tyler spotted Harissa and looked up at him with his hypnotic stare. 
"Pretty." He whispered. I felt an unexpected pang in my chest, of goodness knows what, as Harissa chuckled at Tyler and packed up her things.
"See you next time Gerda. It was nice meeting you."
I smiled shyly and showed them out with their pile of borrowed books.

*             *            *

Alone, after playing with Tyler for a good couple of hours, I decided to wander the house and see if I could find anymore clues to point me in the right direction. The one place I hadn't yet been to was the attic, so I headed up there now, taking a flask of hot tea to keep me comfortable.

As soon as I took one step onto the creaky floorboards of the attic, I knew this would be a lot harder than I had originally thought. There was piles and stacks of old stuff, blankets, books, papers and music. All coated in a thick layer of dust. It was saddening to see all these beautiful treasures locked away and forgotten.

Delving deeper into the depths of the room, the attic began to lack any sense if organisation. The blankets seemed to be draped over furniture, chairs, tables and boxes, and the environment had an almost homely feel, as if someone had been living here. I chuckled to myself at the absurd thought, and sat down in the midst of it all, drinking my tea.

It was then that I spotted it, a pile of books with slightly less dust than the rest, and a pair of black glasses resting on top. They reminded me of Mr Sed's square rimmed ones, and I smiled sadly. I still missed home more than anything. Memories of my old school came flooding back to me like nostalgic waves, as I clutched the dark glasses to my chest. The tears began to flow as I sat there, getting myself covered in dust, dirty and hot in the stuffy attic, but at that moment, nothing had ever mattered less.