Ray's Lament: A Welcome to Dead House Prequel

Chapter #4 Uneasiness

I stood in my bedroom doorway completely frozen with fear. This sickly pale man stared at me, his eyes narrowing into a steady glare

    "Get out. Get away. Get out." The construction worker warned again.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out except for staggered breaths and whimpers. The man gritted his teeth and then took a step towards me. His eyes seemed to go an even deeper red as he stared me down. I started to feel weak. Was I about to faint? No....Please no...not that.

That's when I managed to scream. I screamed and ran out of my room and down the hall to my parent's bedroom.

    "MOM, DAD! SOMEONE'S IN MY ROOM! THERE'S SOMEONE IN THE HOUSE! HELP!" I shrieked.

Dad came out seconds later wielding a baseball bat that he used for protection. He hurried to my room, ready to fight the intruder. I waited in the hallway with my mom, who I stood in front of nervously as she rumpled my hair for comfort. Waiting for a sound of commotion, a crack to the skull, a shout, something.

But no sound ever came. Just an exasperated sigh from my dad when he calmly trudged out of my room, bat hanging at his side. He looked at my mother.

    "There's nobody here, he just saw the shadow of a tree branch moving on the wall." He spoke.

My jaw dropped in shock. How?!

    "What?! B-But, he was in there! I saw him! He had glowing red eyes and nasty pale skin! It was almost like he was....dead! Like a corpse or something!" I rambled.

    "That's ridiculous. Walking corpses don't exist, and I told you before; there is nobody here except for us. Now I want you to go to bed Ray." Dad ordered, irritated.

    "But dad!" I tried, but he only held up a hand to stop me.

    "Don't argue with me. Go." He commanded.

I sighed and dragged myself back to my room, nervously closing the door and looking around for the dead man. As I got into bed, I had a million thoughts racing through my mind.

Who was that man? Was he a ghost? What was he? Why was he in my room? Or was I really just seeing things?

I covered my face with my hands and let out another big sigh. This house was driving me nuts. The worst part was that I knew something felt wrong, but I had no idea what it was....I didn't know what to do....

Deciding to sleep on it, I pulled the covers to my chin to ensure protection from the ghost man in case he came back, and went to sleep.

It was a restless night. I woke up several times during the night, only to hear the violent whispers coming from downstairs again. I tried my best to ignore them and make myself believe that it was just the wind, but something wasn't letting me believe that.

The night was still with no breeze...

The next morning I got up and went downstairs to find my mom in the kitchen. Dad was nowhere in sight.

    "Morning mom." I greeted.

    "Hi Ray, how'd you sleep?" Mom answered.

     "Not well, I was too afraid that the man would come back. And I heard the weird whispers again." I admitted.

Mom put down the newspaper she was reading and stared at me with a face of concern. She pulled out the dining room chair next to her's and patted the seat, signaling me to sit down. I did so and mom took in a big breath before speaking.

    "Ray, I understand that this move has been hard for you. It's not easy to be a kid and to have to leave behind friends, school and everything else, and then be expected to ease into replacing all of that somewhere new. I get that, your father and I both do. But, what we don't get is why you keep feeling the need to make up these wild stories about hearing and seeing people at night. I don't know if you're hoping we'll believe you and use that excuse to pack up and go back to our old home, but we're not." Mom began.