31 Days of Halloween

Day Thirteen: The House, Part Two

She watched Isabel in the kitchen, drinking her wine. She didn't know that she was being watched, and that made it more fun. She had tried spelling her name out in the Scrabble tiles on the living room table, Bea didn't seem that hard to spell, but the tiles wouldn't cooperate. It frustrated Bea, but in the end it didn't matter. Maybe it was better for Isabel not to know.

Of all the residents of this house Bea has watched, Isabel is her favorite. Isabel likes to play Scrabble with her husband, and she likes to bake cookies. Cookies were her favorite when she was alive. But Isabel could feel Steph's spirit in the house, and that bugged Bea. Isabel's attention should only be on Bea. Although, she did feel bad for Steph.

After Steph was murdered, Bea remembered her coming back home as if she wasn't already dead. Even now, she goes to the hospital to go to work. She continues with her life without realizing she's dead. Bea would tell her herself, but if Steph didn't realize she was dead then she can't see Bea. It was all kind of sad, if she thought about it.

Isabel set her wine glass in the sink and went back up to bed, looking around the dark room as if something was going to jump out at her. Bea giggled, Isabel could be so funny sometimes, and then she roamed the house. Sometimes it got boring wandering the same rooms every night, but Bea didn't mind. Isabel changed up the decorations so often there was always something new to see. One time, Isabel took down the silky curtains in the living room and put up bright pink ones with little birds on them. Bea loved birds once, parrots especially.

But there was one room Bea could never enter. It was the spare bedroom down the hall from Isabel's room. She had decorated it simply, with some plush throw blankets and a multicolor rug, but Bea still saw the twin bed with the stuffed animals piled on it and the little work desk her father had made for her. It was once Bea's room, and it was the room she died in. Bea knew if she went inside that room, something would get her. It was always so dark and spooky, she couldn't bear go inside.

So, Bea roams the house and befriends tenant after tenant. They were like her dolls, in a way. She couldn't touch them or pose them, but if she closed her eyes and only listened it was like her own personal storybook. It was as close to human contact Bea has gotten in over thirty years. She knows that for a fact, she's counted every day since she died. But Bea chose not to be sad over her death; it was something no one could change.

When morning came, Isabel dressed and made herself a coffee to go. Bea wished she could go with her, see the outside world again, but it wasn't possible. But Bea could watch Steph now, and Steph was showering again before 'work'. But Bea didn't want to watch that part, so she went up to the attic, hoping to kill some time.

"Hey, Bell. Do you still live at that old house on Pine Street?" Pepper, Isabel's best friend at her accounting job, said. She plopped herself on Isabel's desk, a stack of papers in one hand.

"Hello to you, too, Pepper. Yeah, we still live there, why?" Isabel smirked at her friend and the oversized blue bow attached to her head.

Pepper tossed the papers onto Isabel's desk, making an audible thump. "Did you look into the history of the house before you bought it?"

Ever willing to play detective, Isabel rolled her eyes. Pepper was prone to the dramatics, ever since Isabel started here a few months ago. She learned quick that when Pepper got something stuck on her mind, she wouldn't let go of it and Isabel's house has been an enigma for her lately.

"Look, all I'm saying is there's been a lot of death in that house. Think about it, your house is probably full of ghosts." Pepper threw out her arms in a rough guesstimate of how many ghosts it would be. Now, Isabel was laughing.

"There was one person who died, and she died in a back alley or something. She just owned the house, nothing scary about that." Isabel tried to continue typing but Pepper blocked her view with the papers, wiggling them in her face.