Disenchanted

Stained Glass

Chapter 1:

Don't be intimidated. It's just a house.

Nari thought about the lawyer's words over and over again as she parked her new car just outside of the big, ornate metal gate. She thought it was silly when he said it to her. After all, she had never encountered an intimidating house before. She didn't think it was possible.

When she was first told about the house, Nari considered convincing her mother to sell it. She wanted to go to back school anyways, to study psychology, and the money would have paid her tuition and more.

But when things took a turn for the worse with her mother, Nari decided it would be a perfect place to escape to. The lawyer described it as a large, beautiful Victorian house. It came with money, a healthy inheritance from her eccentric late aunt who built the house and left it to her mother. Nari hoped it would be her safe haven.

But she was wrong. As she unlocked the gate and drove down the long, winding driveway she suddenly felt a pit settling in her stomach.

It wasn't the size of the house that made her feel suddenly uneasy, though it was tall and wide with many windows that were boarded up with rotting planks of wood where the lattice had been broken. Something about it just felt… wrong.

But those boarded over windows worsened the feeling in her gut. They somehow made the house seem dead inside, void of life. The wood allowed minimal sunlight in, and she wondered just how dark it would be inside.

Nari was a little afraid of the dark.

Suddenly every little thing was combining into one nervous feeling building inside her. Every little detail of the house, every strange thing the lawyer said to her, made her want to turn around and leave.

But she couldn't go back. Not anymore. Even if it was a foreign land, and she was completely alone, returning to Korea wasn't an option.

When the lock clicked, she grabbed the handle and pushed open the front door. The aged wood floors creaked with every step she took into the house. It smelled of dust and mothballs, exactly like she expected a house that had been abandoned so long would smell.

Nari made a mental note of which rooms were to her left and to her right. The kitchen was right of her, down a small hallway and through a dining room, and to her left was a large living room area with an ash coated fireplace and furniture covered by plastic.

She ultimately decided it would be best to start exploring in the kitchen, so she headed to the right.

Unable to stand the silence, Nari pulled her phone from her back pocket and pulled up her music app. Once her favorite songs began to play, she was almost able to forget that the house was incredibly creepy.

The kitchen, at least, felt like a normal kitchen, with a stove, microwave, and marble countertops. The tile was old and peeling under her feet, but there wasn't much that was eerie about the kitchen.

Soon, however, her forced comfort was disturbed by a scratching sound above her head. Nari only barely heard it, and she was quick to pause her music so she could confirm that she had indeed heard something.

When the house was silent, she heard it again. The hairs on the back of her neck stood upright instantly, and a pang of fear shot through her chest, making it harder to breathe. She gripped the rag in her hand tightly and listened for a moment.

A soft mew of a kitten gave her a little relief. She was able to breathe finally, when she realized that the scratching above was just a cat or kitten, not some scary ghost.

Nari became concerned again seconds later when she heard the mewl again, a little louder, a little more desperate than before. It almost sounded like the kitten was in pain.