The young brunette with dark blue eyes couldn't be older than five. She sat watching cartoons early on a Saturday morning. She thought back to the night before.
The door to the room was ajar. It was strange to think why. It has always been shut and locked ever since she could remember. She peeked through the crack of the door and pushed it open a little more. She paid no mind to the groaning the door made to the slight movement it was forced to make.
Suddenly feminine hands grabbed her shoulders.
"You should know what happens to someone when they are curious." Her mother's voice purred. She turned to face her mother, pondering how she could respond. Her mother continuously told her never to go in that room. Even thinking about going inside was taboo, as was wondering why the door was closed at all times.
The child merely smiled at her twenty-two-year-old look-alike, the only difference between the two was their age and their eyes. Her mother's eyes were a lighter blue than hers and if you looked close enough, you saw secrets in the mother's eyes, in the mother's soul, clawing to get out.
"Yes I know, Mom. Curiosity always kills the cat." The child spoke softly. Her mother's eyes brightened with approval.
"You are learning, but you still have so much to learn."
Eight hours later, the child was in front of the old television watching reruns of cartoons.
"Pst." She ignored her mother's call that was coming from behind the couch.
"Pst. Come here!" She continued to ignore her mother's whispers.
"Pst..." Her mother almost cooed in an inhumanly cheerful voice. The cheerfulness unsettled her, it wasn't like her mother.
The child then became aware that her mother's eyes weren't the only eyes that were watching her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her, the woman who continued to haunt her. The woman only said one thing, the child's name, Caroline. The woman screamed it, almost like she was trying to get the attention of a friend who was far away.
"Pst! Come here, Caroline!" Her mother whispered quietly. The child did nothing but look at the woman from the corner of her eye. The woman's body was decaying; chunks of skin were gone, obviously pulled off by human nails. The woman had no eyes, just empty sockets that were filled with blood but never overflowed. It seemed fit for the woman to have no eyes because she could not see what the man was up to. She could not see what the man was going to do, what the man craved to do to the child.
"You want to know why the door is always closed, don't you." Dread filled the child as she recognized the male's deep voice, he showed up whenever the woman did, but he was always closer. His voice had come from right behind her hear.
"Pst! Pst!" The man sighed, still right behind her ear. She didn't dare turn around; his body was in far worse shape than the woman's. Blood constantly drained from his pale and almost skinless body. Some blood he drank from his lip, while the rest poured onto the ground, staining their white carpets, but only she could see the stains. He was a walking corpse but his slow and predatory movements held a purpose. The purpose of his movements stayed locked inside his mind. Every time he saw the child, he could think of nothing else. This child named Caroline had captured his interest, but that was not the only reason why he stalked the unprotected child.
"Pst!" The man sighed again. He did not like the child's mother. She got in the way of his plans. He just wanted her for himself, he doesn't like to share.
"That mother of yours is like a leech." The man stated, not moving from behind her.
"Like you're one to talk." The child replied.
"You're very witty for your age; yes you seem a lot...older. You are very adult-like, do you know what types of things adults do?" The man chuckled in her ear.
"Pst!" She felt the man's fingers -or rather the bones of his fingers- run slowly up her arm. She shivered at the man's cold touch. The child heard the man lick his lips right next to her ear. Blood dripped onto her shoulder. He breathed in the air quickly but slowly exhaled through his mouth onto her exposed ear. It was the very same air that the man did not need, he was already dead, or at least that what she thought. She always imagined him with no beating heart. She did not want to think about how he could still bleed out without a working heart.
"Pst!"
"What?" The child snapped and looked at her mother.
"I want to show you the room."
"...Why?"
"It's time you saw." The mother picked the child up, not seeming to notice her shirt soaked in blood. Her mother carried her to the room door and took out the key. She opened the door and put her child down in the room.
