Little Footsteps

Fire in the dark forest:

The next day Paula woke with a start. There were screams throughout the house. Mr. Parker was yelling and another man was responding in the same way.

Paula was scared thinking that maybe that was the priest who had come to exorcise the house, so she got up and ran out of the room but she didn't advance much because when she put her feet on the ground she felt water.

Yes, there was water all over the hallway on the first floor. Paula looked around but she didn't know where the water was coming from. Had any pipes broken?

Suddenly her aunt came up the stairs. She was in a bad mood and was carrying a bucket and a rag. The woman looked tired and had dark circles under her eyes.

"Oh, Paula, be careful. Don't step on the water!"

The nephew looked at his feet. "It's a little late for that warning," she thought.

"What happened, aunt?" Paula asked.

"There are people who do hellish things," exclaimed the aunt furiously. Paula was surprised by her tone of voice. "Last night the thieves came back and guess what: They flooded the entire floor. I guess they threw several buckets of water down the hall. Maybe they tried to make a joke but ... There are people who have nothing else to do but annoy others! Of course, as we don't know or have any idea of ​​who are doing this type of thing, the police don't believe us."

"But didn't the police say yesterday that they were going to be patrolling overnight?" Paula said. That «joke» seemed strange, too childish.

"Yes, but they said they saw nothing. I don't believe them, they probably fell asleep," she said furiously and then added with an ironic smile: "And they say that a water pipe must be broken! They said it in a tone of voice as if... as if we were idiots or mentally retarded. Of course, your uncle and I already check everything and found nothing broken, so we think this must have been done by the intruders. The water cannot have appeared as if by magic, even if the police believe that it did."

Mr. Parker's voice came from downstairs, interrupting his wife's monologue.

"A prank! Just a heavy kidding prank! Should I not give importance to that?" it looked like he was about to have a fit of rage.

The voice died out and the two women tried to go downstairs but then decided to stay where they were. The police could deal with Mr. Parker.

Paula thought the water incident was very strange but she said nothing and let her aunt download those angry words while helping her to clean up. That was how Paula knew that the night before had been quite noisy. The Parkers had seen no one but voices of people everywhere. They heard footsteps on the ceiling, sudden knocks, and when Mr. Parker got up in the morning to call the police, he found that there was water everywhere.

Paula thought that everything was very strange, that joke was even absurd but she never thought that something like this could be related to what Daiana said about the village nun but the following night Paula decided not to take the pill that she usually took before sleeping.

The day had passed normally, if one can forget the presence of the police by the house and prowling the forest. They had found nothing and seen something strange near the house; even they seemed to be angry with the parkers for all the work they were giving them. The police thought this whole thing was just a silly joke by the townspeople and they were sick of wasting their time when they could be spending their time on something more productive like... a card game.

At night Mr. Parker took more unusual measures. The darkness had begun to make him nervous. He went about the task of covering doors and windows with wooden boards. He was euphoric and seemed amazed.