What Lies Beneath

Chapter Thirty-Four: Those Who Linger

Greyson sat his suitcase down by the entrance. He had been wrong. The inside of the house was not beautiful or totally decrepit. Instead he found that it was somewhere in between. The paint seemed to be fresh, but the decorations and furniture seemed to be from a different era entirely. The walls were covered in old photographs. The old images didn't depict anything special. They all seemed to be of the house before it was clearly abandoned.

As he moved further and further into the room, he found that the small hairs on the back of his neck seemed to stand more on end. Since the moment he stepped foot on this property, he had felt like he was being watched.

Everything inside of him screamed for him to run. It told him that this was not a good place to be. Not needing to be told once again, Greyson slowly backed up towards the door. He had almost reached his suitcase, when the large wood door slammed shut.

Whipping around, he ran to what was once his exit and tried to wrench it open, but it wouldn't budge. Not giving up, he placed one foot on the wall and pulled with everything he had. Even with all that effort he was unable to pry the door open. When his strength ran out, he fell to the ground in defeat. Once again, he found himself in a terrible situation. Why did this always seem to happen to him?

Immersed in his self-pity, he was oblivious to the girl standing in the entrance watching him.

"Are you alright?" The sudden sound of the soft voice caused him to practically jump out of his own skin.

Scrambling to his feet, Greyson found himself straightening his clothes and fixing his hair. "What?"

"Are you alright?" The girl asked between giggles.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Greyson rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"You sure, cause, I just found you sprawled on the floor a few seconds ago." Greyson watched the girl as she folded her arms across her chest. Who is this girl, he wondered?

"Yeah, I'm fine." It was only when he answered that he realized that they were both speaking German. "How do you know German?" He couldn't hold back his question.

"Oh, yeah. I learned how to speak German when I was six. It's no big deal." She wandered into the room and stared at the old photographs on the wall. Placing her hands behind her back she rocked on the heels of her bare feet.

"Yeah, I guess. So how long have you been here?" Greyson moved towards her, curious. Who was this girl? He didn't dare to get too close to her. He found that he felt awkward under her gaze, even though she was a good two feet shorter than he was. She shifted her gaze from the photo to his reflection in the dusty glass.

"I don't remember, but it feels like a long time." The girl turned away from the mirror like glass and looked down at her feet.

"So, can I ask you a really strange question?"

"I suppose." Now looking at the boy again, the strange girl tilted her head to the side.

"Is this place haunted by any chance?" It was a strange question, but since the moment he first stepped foot into the house, he had an eerie sense that there was more than met the eye within these walls.

Instead of answering him, she broke out into a fit of chilling laughter. "We should get going." Not bothering to wait for him, the girl turned on the heels of her feet and began to skip down the long corridor.

"Hey! Wait!" He didn't want to chase after her, but the thought of being alone again in this creepy house seemed even more terrifying than following the shady girl down the hall. So, pushing past all his reservations, he proceeded to chase after her down the dimly lit hallway.