(18+) Someone in the dark

Ch. 19: Pitter-patter

"I didn't think you came down here," I stuttered. Just when I thought I couldn't get more scared, this house proved me wrong by throwing something else and even more petrifying in my face. The way the girl stared at me while she slowly turned her head into an inhuman angle made me so nauseous, I wanted to throw up.

"Oh, I do a lot of things I'm not allowed."

Her voice was eerily calm and sweet, and a wicked grin spread across her pale, blood-smeared face. One that never reached her eyes. Hers were the most soulless I'd ever seen, and they had a weak glow that seemed to get stronger the closer she got, like she used my energy to come to life.

"Oh, my god..." I whispered. I'd already figured out that it probably wasn't the portrait of Samuel that would end my days. Maybe it wasn't the walls or the slimy worms, either? Maybe it had been the girl all along? The child in the attic who had been crying every night and who now seemed to float above the floor on a cloud of weak fluorescent fog? Whose eyes now pulsated with a sickly deep red that looked like fresh blood being pumped through an open artery.

This must be the house revealing its true identity. Time was up, and whatever this girl was, would most likely transform into something uglier than any words can express, and drag me into the pit of evil. I was already so consumed by terror that when he slowly reached out her hands to grab me, all I could do was to look at her pale-white skin with the blood vessels forming a black map of coordinates. It looked so tiny. So how did I already know she was capable of reaching around my entire torso and squeeze every ounce of air out of my lungs until they could never function again? That her dirty nails would cut into my flesh like dull scalpels and drain my blood? That in about a minute or two, I'd be dead?

An odd calmness surrounded me just as she stopped right in front of me. Instead of breathing, my ribcage vibrated, and my muscles were non-responsive and useless. This was it. This was my destiny, and everything that led up to this made me question what had ever been important in my life. What was real when I had to believe the sight of a little girl growing into a tall beast in front of me? She was like a generator of evil energy and all I could do was to surrender.

The first touch ripped a tear out of my eye. A cold palm grasping my arm like a plant forming tendrils as it climbs, only super-fast. And the smell was brutal. Now that she was standing so close, the stench of death attacked my airways, infesting my lungs with a lethal army of neurotoxins. I could see her teeth, and anything normal and childlike was gone. Now they were laser sharp spears that looked way more like the ones you see on sharks. And the more the demon grew, the wider the jaw opened, until it looked like it would swallow me whole from above.

But then everything stopped.

"You... Found him?"

I heard the words, but I'd never guessed a little girl could sound like a thousand dead souls. I didn't understand what she was talking about either, so I just stared at her while her entire being played fast rewind in front of me, until she'd returned to her original form. Her eyes went from glowing sockets to normal ones that beamed with joy. Her unhinged jaw with razor teeth became a wide smile, and she clapped her hands.

"You found him! You found Pat!" she exclaimed and pointed at something behind me. I was too morbidly panicked to turn around, and too confused to guess what she meant. So I coughed and cleared my throat twice before I trusted my voice enough to ask.

"W-who's Pat?"

But instead of answering, she kept pointing and giggling.

"You found him! Pat! Come here, boy! Come here!"

I heard a bark that I immediately recognized. Then pitter-patter of paws against the wooden floor.

"Oh, I've missed you so much! Where have you been?"

It was like I'd been untied from heavy chains, and I could finally move to see my furry four-legged friend jumping around the girl with pure joy. He was ecstatic, and so was she.

"Is Jack... Pat? Is it your dog?" I stammered, but I couldn't help but to smile with them. Or try, at least.

"Yes, it's Pat. I lost him. I let him out before I went to bed, and he never came back."

That must be why I only saw him in the evenings, and why she was crying at night. She couldn't sleep without her best friend.

"I was going to look for him. But then I fell down the stairs and died," she said, and explained it so simply that it broke my heart. "It was so cold, and I couldn't close my eyes even though I tried. I wanted to live, but they didn't help me. Nobody came."

I felt devastated for this poor girl with the bloody nightgown and bare feet. She died. Alone. And no one cared. If it wasn't for what I just had seen, I would probably have picked her up and given her a hug. But Jack took care of it. Pat. Her dog and best friend, and probably the only one who cared for her. Except for me. I cared for her, too.

"Thank you!" she said and giggled when the dog showered her with kisses.

"Why are you thanking me?"

She turned away from the dog to look at me and she looked so happy and at peace that I had to laugh through my tears. It was such a genuine, loving, and completely unexpected moment.

"You kept him here. He says you gave him food," she explained, like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. "And you loved him enough to make him stay."

She blinded me with another big smile of gratitude.

"You're a nice lady."

Then her smile fell, and both she and Pat looked around as if they'd heard something. I didn't.

"Just stay away from the colors and abandon the light. It's dangerous," she whispered, and I was about to beg her to explain what that meant when she jumped up and ran down the stairs together with the dog.

"Keep playing my song!"

Your song? Which song? The song we played in the conservatory?

"You're Susie?"

<><><>

Back in my room, I studied the frame that had haunted me. Instead of faces painted with horror, they were looking at each other and they were smiling. This must be the closure they needed to get peace. A tiny glimpse of shared love in a world of evil, and maybe also their only way to escape from the power this house had on everything that was trapped inside of it. And I helped them do it.

I walked over to the window and stared into the darkness. The moon was absent tonight, so I didn't really see much of the garden. It was like me. I was here, yet you couldn't see much of me anymore, either.

I thought about my mom. I wondered what she was doing and why she didn't pick up the phone that day. Did she miss me? I sure missed her. If only I could call her. I would gladly give my life just to hear her voice again so I could tell her how much I loved her, but I was losing it, anyway. Did she look for me? Nobody knew about my whereabouts because it all happened so fast. I was supposed to call her when I got here. But since I couldn't, nobody would know where to search.

"I love you, mama."

I sighed and tried to get as much oxygen into my lungs as possible, but they were stiff and dysfunctional, just like the rest of my body. The cold air from the open window made my tears feel like ice beads as they rolled down my cheeks, so I jumped down to close it. But then I hesitated.

What was that? There was no wind today, but still I could hear the sound of dry leaves trembling in the breeze. Or was it whispering? Nah. That was stupid. Who would that be? The girl, Susie, was gone together with her dog. So it was just me, my boss, Leo, Samuel, and Mrs. Lee in the house. Besides, the sound didn't come from inside the house. It came from the garden.

I strained my eyes and squinted as hard as I could, but it was way too dark to see anything. But there was no doubt. It really was whispering. Or maybe just another hallucination inside an exhausted brain? Still, a vague idea was forming in the back of my mind, and I had no one to share it with other than him.

Michael. My boss. My love.