I Hear Your Voice

I Hate Being Home Alone

It was six in the evening when Neva finally woke up from her nap. Well, if you count a nap lasting 6 hours. Apparently, her parents thought that she would be well-off asleep because when she awoke they were gone. She didn't even have to get out of bed and confirm whether they were home or not. She couldn't hear their random chatter nor the TV with the sound on blast. She couldn't hear her father's heavy footsteps on the floorboards nor mother rattling through pots and pans in the kitchen. On a Saturday afternoon, her parents should have been  awake, keeping busy and alive. Silence was her confirmation that they were gone. She swung her body out of her rosy sheets leaving them crooked on her queen sized bed. After sleeping for hours, of course she had eventually gotten hungry, but she felt that she was bound to her bedroom. There were numberless things going through her mind as she considered going downstairs to get something to eat. She was hesitant, she was alone. 

She peeked through her white bedroom door which was on the second floor of the house. Heading toward the staircase, the wide entrance below greeted her in a still silence. As she began to descend the stairs, the creepy painting that sat above the stairway was entertained while her eyes were locked downward. She felt that what she didn't see wouldn't scare her, but she knew he was watching her.  

The painting was set in the night sky as a large ship sailed above the clouds, lit by the moon's light. There was a single man of fair skin whom stood in front of the ship. Neva would assume him to be the ship's captain. Sometimes Neva would feel herself vacuous to assume he was watching her, but she had reason. Wherever she went, no matter what angle she stood in, he would change his pose to face her holding a scowling expression on his face. He was like a weeping angel statue, except he was stuck in a painting. One blink and he would glare at her with anger filled eyes. She felt it was because he couldn't escape the painting to get to her.

Once, she took cell phone photos to prove her sanity. She held her cell phone up to her mother to show the difference between the two photos she had taken. In each photo, the captain held a different pose. She stood to the left and the right of the painting. Neva observed the quiet expression on her mother, Eva's face. Neva's birth name couldn't have been any less creative. "What am I looking at again?" Eva questioned. "Look at this one... and this one," Neva said as she swiped her finger across the screen. "You see he's standing two different ways, right?" Eva squinted her eyes before she gave up trying to see what her daughter saw. "Are you okay? He's standing straight ahead in both of the pictures," Eva said. "No he's not!" Neva knew that her mother used to be an alcoholic, but it had to have did something to her long-term vision. Neva sat on the couch baffled about why her mother couldn't see the difference in the pictures. "Neva, I'm tired of hearing about you talk about this damn painting. I don't see what's wrong with it. I'm going to switch it out just to shut you up. I'll tell your father to do it later." Neva smiled with excitement. "How soon is later?" Her mother gave her a raised eyebrow. 

With her cell phone in hand, Neva walked down the stairs and never looked up. She felt an all too familiar feeling whenever she was left in the house alone. Paranoia. With every step she descended there was an automatic response of groans from the old staircase. The afternoon sun was outgoing as it spoke vibrant words of light throughout the house. Eva favored natural light which was loud, but the house was filthy silent. She called her mother's cell phone. There was no answer. She called her father's cell phone. "Hi, you've reached Neil Hicks! I'm unable to answer the phone right now..." She ended the call. She felt ashamed. A normal 18 year old shouldn't be afraid to spend an afternoon at home. A normal 18 year old should love to have time alone from their parents every chance they could get. Not Neva. The atmosphere of the home gave her a reason to be afraid whenever she was left alone.  

Neva opened the fridge to heat up some leftover pizza that they had last night before it was to become stiff and elderly. She had her most desired pizza, buffalo sauce and grilled chicken. She turned on the microwave and it roared throughout the house. Behind the microwave, sunlight peeked in through the window. Neva saw her neighbor from across the street standing in a military position. She'd assume him to be at least 30 years old. He looked filthy. His gray, stained t-shirt had holes in it. He wore cargo shorts and vans with knee high white socks. Neva found him kind of strange, but she liked the out of the ordinary things in life. Unordinary things amused her.

Her parents were absent so she decided to call her best friend, Charleigh. "It's about time you called!" Charleigh said. "I just woke up! What'chu you mean?!" Neva responded, getting her plate out of the microwave. "You didn't JUST wake up. I hear that microwave in the background." "Okay, it's been like... ten minutes." Charleigh had a keen sense of who Neva was as a person. They've known each other since the 7th grade. "Didn't you say you were home alone?" Charleigh asked. "Yes, I'm home alone. Why?" "Stop lying I hear other people." Neva looked around the kitchen to be assured she was alone. She also looked out the window to reveal a most torpid scene. Charleigh hearing people who weren't there were early signs of Neva needing to lock herself in her bedroom. "What did they say?" Neva asked as her robust heartbeat almost burst out of her chest. "I can't tell. It's kind of mumbled." Charleigh said. Neva went into her bedroom and locked the door. "I hate living in this house I can't stand it!" She sat on the edge of the bed next to her cut up nightstand. Sometimes she would get bored and her fingers would eat away at the chippings. Her bedroom was one of the places she felt was most peaceful in the house when she was alone.

The fierce silence broke when she put her best friend on speaker. "You're not alone Neva," Charleigh said. "I am alone. YOU need to stop playing games with me." "I'm not playing..." Her bestfriend fell into something all too common. Silence. "Hello? Are you there?" Neva said annoyed. "I heard a girl, Neva. I'm so serious." Neva tried to brush off her fallacious lie. "Oh yeah, and what did she say?" Neva surveyed her extra-large bedroom. "She keeps saying, 'We were here first... we were here first... we were here first...'" From the alleged voice that Charleigh could hear and Neva couldn't, she didn't know whether to believe her or not. She slid back further into her bed. The silence between them became stimulating. The front door of the house opened. Her father's daffy voice echoed through the house. Neva opened the door and yelled to her parents from the balcony, "I hate being home alone!"  

Author's Note:

Hey! Thanks for reading the introduction to the oncoming chapters which are coming very soon. Up next, Chapter One: Graduation. Neva introduces her three friends and for the first time in her life, has a boy visit her home. Though she's alone with him, the creepiness in the house continues.