The Lamp and the Lightbulb

Chapter 9

The light above my head flickers widening my pupils as I stand in the middle of the bathroom floor. The air around me turns cold and I feel chills shiver down my spine. I close my eyes tightly shut as my head begins feeling dizzy like a top that has just been spun. After a couple seconds pass the dizziness disappears from my head and I open my eyes. As my vision becomes UN-blurred I look around the bathroom and all the blood on the floor and mirror is gone. I'm left frazzled as I strip and start the shower.

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I open up the prescription bag on the kitchen table that my mom left for me this morning and I take my ordered dosage with a glass of water. I pull out a chair and sit down unable to not ponder about what occurred twenty minutes ago. Things have been so strange around this house lately. I don't understand what is going on. Was our house haunted? Was a ghost lurking around in it angry and trying to scare me or possibly hurt me? I don't see how these could be true, because nothing like this has ever happened to me before in this house or anywhere else. Perhaps I am seeing things inside of my head, going crazy, going mad even.

I hear knocking at the front door.

I rush from the kitchen to the main hallway and eagerly peek out of the door hole. I see a man standing on the front porch wearing a fancy suit and a red tie with little blue check marks on it. I think to myself whether or not to open the door, I know I shouldn't 'cause he is someone that I do not know, but my curiosity of who he is buzzes in my brain. So I open the front door.

He looks at me and smiles so widely. "Well, hello there young lady! Is your mother at home?" He asks me in an eager fetching yet annoying tone of voice. Kind of like a game show host.

"Um, no. She is at work." I say to him.

The smell of his cologne travels up my nose. I've never smelled something so strong. His blonde gelled hair glistens and I feel somewhat uncomfortable talking to him.

"Oh, that's too bad!" He responds in a gloomy voice.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"The names Phillip Vancouver." He winks at me after saying so.

"Why are you here?"

"Oh, I'm just an old friend of your parents! Haven't seen your mother in quite some time! Here's my number, give it to her when she gets home from work please." He hands me his card and smiles one last time at me before turning around and walking down the porch steps.

I close the front door and lock it behind me. I think to myself of his name. It sounds familiar, yet I do not remember that man. I take the card into the kitchen and pin it onto the refrigerator with a magnet. I pick up the necklace I had found earlier off of the kitchen table where I had sat it while taking my pills and I looked at it sharply. I felt as if it was mine, even though I don't ever recall seeing it a day in my life before today. I take the necklace and throw it over my head leaving it dangling around my neck. My breath leaves me for a moment and then rushes back within my lungs. I felt as if I had just grown stronger. I look down at the necklace that lies flat on my chest and it's glowing, It continues to glow for a matter of seconds and all of a sudden it stops. The air around me seems frozen still and quiet. I can't even hear the sound of the fridge.

The phone rings from the wall by the refrigerator. I walk over to it and slowly pick it up and hold it to my ear.

"Hello?" I ask into the telephone.

The other end of the call remains silent. The only thing I can hear is someone breathing deeply.

"HIDE!" I hear my mother’s voice scream from the other end of the telephone. I drop the phone from my hand as I shudder in fear. The phone beeps repeatedly as it is left hanging by its wire. I run to the small cupboard underneath the stairs and crawl into the dark space. I sit there in pure silence, only hearing the sound of my teeth chatter on top of one another. I can barely breathe. Then all of a sudden someone wraps their arm around my neck from behind my back and one hand goes across my mouth. I try to scream as my eyes widen in terror, but I can't scream loud enough for the hand traps my voice inside of my throat. I continue to panic uncontrollably and before I know it I pass out.