Weeping Willows

There's Madness Afoot

Chapter 36

Elizabeth hustled out of the room turning right to head down towards the stairs. She would have marched on if the hallway hadn't become dark. She brought her hands out in front of her afraid of running into something, forgetting she had been holding onto her skirt. Fortunately for her she didn't seem to be holding it anymore as there was nothing hindering her movement. Looking down she fully expected to see her dress and was surprised to see a t-shirt and jeans in the dim light spilling out behind her. Heading back into the room confusion clouded her face as she saw the crates and tables instead of a bedroom. Just what on earth was happening to her? She wondered as she made her way back over to her painting. Reaching out she touched the canvas completely stupefied to find the oil paint dried already. That's odd, she thought knowing it took longer than a few minutes for that to happen. Picking up one of her palette knives she scraped at the paint flaking some off. She watched in fascination as the flecks drifted in the air to the floor. Elizabeth checked the paint tubes to make sure she had used oils and not acrylics by mistake. She hadn't been wrong however as each tube of paint clearly said oil. It wasn't possible though as oil medium took a year to dry completely. And clearly the painting that was wet only moments ago was now bone dry. Shaking her head Elizabeth backed away from the piece, chaos overtaking her mind. Her eyes moved down to the now set stain on the floor vividly recalling the young woman cleaning paint from that exact spot. Chalking it up to exhaustion she decided to call it a night. Elizabeth left the room using the flashlight on her phone to guide her through the darkened house. After going through her nightly routine on autopilot she snuggled beneath the covers on her bed. She found her room to be uncomfortably chilly again tonight and realized she had forgotten to call someone to check her thermostat. She made a mental note to do so tomorrow and hopefully everything that had happened tonight will just have been some weird dream.

The next morning Elizabeth was still sleeping when everyone showed up. She was deep asleep when someone crawled into the bed with her. Spooning her from behind their breath fluttering the hairs along her neck every time they breathed. She snuggled down into her pillow further trying to get away from the tickling sensation. The person behind her snorted in response before reaching their hand up to tickle at her nose. Swatting the hand away Elizabeth turned her face to try and bury her nose into the pillow. Next the intruder tickled at her ear. Again, Elizabeth swatted at the offending hand becoming more coherent with each light itch. Eventually she woke up enough to register the body behind her shocking her out of slumber completely. Stilling Elizabeth hoped that some how Ryan hadn't ended up in her bed. Turning her head slowly she was afraid to find out who it was. Just as her face made it to her shoulder a head popped over her from behind causing her to yell out in surprise. She hadn't been expecting the sudden afront and definitely hadn't expected it to be Jan. Elizabeth felt a moment of relief before launching herself at Jan irritated that she had been woken up.

The two of them began rolling around trying to shove the other off the bed. Jan was pushing so that Elizabeth would get up and going. Elizabeth was pushing so that she could go back to sleep, although at this point, she was wide awake and wouldn't be able to anyway. The bedding was balled up underneath them leaving Elizabeth in nothing but underwear and a slightly oversized night shirt. Both of which were part of the new clothing the girls had coaxed her into buying. She had just managed to shove Jan down underneath her and their hands were locked pushing against the other. Both of their hair was full of static and floating around them in a disastrous mess. They were so lost to the mini battle going on between them that both had forgotten there were others in the house.

The bedroom door slammed open as Ryan and Clayton rushed in to see what the commotion was thinking the girls were in trouble. All four came to a complete halt, holding as still as statues in utter shock. Jan was beneath Elizabeth, her head and torso hanging from the bed on one side. Her silver hair sticking out and floating around her head as the static caused the short tresses to reach out for the bedding and floor. Her arms flung out in akimbo while her hands were deadlocked with Elizabeth's. Her grey t-shirt had pulled out from where Jan had tucked it into her black leggings and the bottom of it was flopped over her mouth and nose. Her lower half was still slung over the bed with one long skinny leg wrapped around one of Elizabeth's while the other was sticking out in the air with the one slip on shoe she still had on dangling from her toes.