The Willow Tree

❖ chapter 3

The car ride was finally over. No more spooky driverless cars, at the very least!

Well, this was just the beginning of it all, wasn't it?

The car came to a halt, and i came out of the car. I saw the house. It was huge– i would call it a castle if i was younger. But it gave me the goosebumps. I stared at it for a while, observing the windows and the design of the house. It was weird how each and every house in this town was painted either gray, white or black. It was so plain, so dull and so cold, empty. Exactly like a ghost town. I was looking at each window before my eyes trailed towards a ghastly slender figure standing in one of the windows, supposedly on the third floor. It looked like as if it was staring back at me.

I took a step back and looked at the ground, rubbed my eyes, then looked back at the spot. It was gone.

Where the hell did that come from? I then headed into the house with Elliot, squeezing his little hand. He looked up at me, with his big blue eyes.

"Are you scared?" He asked, rather politely, looking at my eyes for any signs.

I shook my head, while anxiously smiling. "No, why should I be?"

"Because you've seen him– haven't you?"

"Him?Who's him?" I ask, bewildered.

"Chloe, Elliot, come inside quickly – it looks like it's about to rain!" Mom said, interrupting our conversation. I walked into the house with Elliot, then closed the door.

Weird. Elliot didn't see it, did he? I was imagining things. But what if he did? What if there was something in our house? I shivered from the thought of it, and decided to clear my mind for a while.

We had explored the house a little, packed our rooms and had our lunch. The only area i had not explored in the house was the third floor. At the moment these two words come out of my mouth, Mom and Dad would look at each other suspiciously, like they were gesturing something to one another. I hate it when they did that. I did try asking Mom why i wasn't allowed to go up, but she didn't reply.

"Carrie, come to my room for a second," I heard Dad calling for me. I walked to his room and looked around at the gray colored walls. It was too dull, i didn't like it one bit.

I approached Dad's room which was on the second floor, then hid behind the wall with only my head poking out of it. "Yes?"

"Do me a favour and take this parcel to the post office for me, sweetiepie? You can explore the neighbourhood, too. I heard the neighbours are nice," He suggested, smiling at me from his desk.

"We have no neighbours, dad." I say, rolling my eyes.

"We do. Not so lifeless after all, huh?" He laughed. "Now go get this to that post office. It's right next to the park."

I nodded and took the parcel from his hands, and walked out of the house. I walked down the street, glancing at a few boring looking houses as i walked by. But one house captured my attention– The white colored one. There were clumps of dead flowers underneath lamp posts that looked centuries old. Irresponsible owner, i thought to myself as i walked past the wilted flowers. The house was bigger than ours, more wide. Everything looked old and no longer used. I stepped towards the door, quietly and looked inside.

There were actually people inside. I peeked inside yet again, and saw some strange people in hoods, crowded around. Then i ducked down for a moment and pressed my ear against the door.

"et erit animabus illorum, et erit animabus illorum,"

It was like they were chanting, summoning something. 

Then everything went quiet.

Everything slipped into silent mode, and i could only hear my breathing and my heartbeat against my chest, pounding. I shouldn't be here, i should just leave. But the other side of me was telling me to peek into the room again.

So i decided to listen to the devil in me. I stood up from the ground, slowly. Then I peeked from the door.

And all i could see was the hooded figures looking back at me.

a/n: intensity level: 100%! I'm starting to love how it ended up! Hope you do too– Comment your opinions and views on the story, i will reply! And make sure to follow Lady.Macabre on instagram– that's me!