July 1, 2020
She awoke, gasping for air and scanned her surroundings. The basement was considerably colder than the rest of Sarah and Edward's house and the sunlight hardly illuminated the room, leaving shadows scattered across the room. Despite being a larger room, the crumbling brick walls felt as if they were closing in. The air tasted like salt and dust. All of it combined to give her an eerie feeling. She couldn't help but feel that in the shadows, in the walls, someone, or something, was watching her.
Standing up quickly, Mabel flickered on the lights. It did little to help brighten the room but did make her feel a little more safe. Finding her breath, she quickly walked back over to her bag that was lying on the ground and began rummaging through it, searching for her pills. Half a bottle of vodka was the first thing that she pulled out. She chuckled at it and set it aside.
"Hee hee hee," A little girl giggled.
Mabel spun her head around quickly but saw nothing. The room was empty, yet, she felt as if something was in the room with her. The sound of another giggle jolted her to her feet. This time, it sounded as if it was right next to her. But there was nothing in the room, nothing at all. Mabel slowly lifted her head, looking to the ceiling. There was nothing.
She sighed a sigh of relief and returned her attention to her bag. Rummaging once again, she found a wallet inside, one that she stole.
"Oops," She said. "Did I do that?"
Mabel couldn't even remember who's wallet it was. She was kind enough to leave them their driver's license as all she wanted was the money and their gift cards, if they had any. And they would never catch her either.
She would always start the night off at the bar, give some troubled young man her fake name, and talk with them about how depressed they were, how they didn't want to have a child, how their wife was a bitch, and so on and so forth. It was always the same thing with the men she found at the bar, they hated their wife and they wanted what Mabel had. She might not have had the looks of her sister, but Mabel knew how to work her way around that. After a night of these men buying her alcohol, they would always rent out a hotel for her to stay with them. Of course, she gave them what they wanted and made them feel like they were a happy man again. What they didn't know is what Mabel put in their drink. They would always pass out before her, allowing her easy access to what they had in their wallets. Sometimes it wasn't much and sometimes she was able to buy herself new jewelry from a single take. At this point, she had a lot of wallets in her collection and a whole lot of money.
Mabel giggled to herself, still feeling the effects of her drinking from last night. She would never betray her family, however. Plus, they didn't know about her dirty little secret. No reason for them to know now.
"We know..." Mabel heard something whisper. She fell to the floor and found a terrible shiver overcome her body. Looking over to the corner of the room, Mabel saw a shadowy figure standing there. She couldn't make out any features, only that it stood as tall as the room with its head tilted to its side.
Feeling panic set in, she started throwing clothes behind her, desperately trying to find her pill bottle.
"Mabel..." The figure whispered. She would not turn to it - she would keep her focus on the bag and find her pills.
58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0BA2QYVZ8J
It's all in your head, Mabel. It's all in your head.
From the corner of her eye, she saw another figure. Again, she would not look at it. She had to find her pills.
The lights began flickering out and whatever sun that was shining through the window began to fade away. Darkness was creeping up and Mabel felt the whole room stare at her. The sound of nails scratching against the bricks pierced her ears, almost distracting her from the sound of something crawling on the floor. She began crying, pouring everything onto the floor. The pills were nowhere.
She pulled on her hair and rocked back and forth, not looking at what was lurking around her. It's all in your head... It's all in your head... It's all in your head.
A hand glided through her hair and she heard a very faint breathing from behind her. Feeling her whole body tremble, she turned around slowly and saw a little girl. Her little girl.
"Mommy?" The little girl said.
Tears ran down Mabel's cheek as she looked at the little girl. It was her little girl but... it was impossible. "Irene?" Mabel struggled to say.
The little girl smiled - her hair a dark brown like Mabel's and her cheeks a bit larger. Only she wasn't right. Her eyes peered off in different directions, her mouth constantly was chattering, and her voice was distorted. Mabel looked behind the little girl, seeing the shadowy figures in the room standing closer to her now.
"Why didn't you watch me, mommy?"
Mabel was left speechless. She knew it was all in her head but the little girl looked so real, almost like she could touch her. She wanted to reach out and touch her little girl but all she could feel is cold. This wasn't her daughter, it couldn't be.
"I'm sorry, my little girl. I'm so sorry," Mabel said, sobbing.
"Why didn't you watch me? Why, mommy?" The little girl said as she started losing her skin tone, becoming whiter and more soulless. Mabel backed away, crying as she watched her little girl turn into some soulless creature. It giggled as its body twisted and bones began breaking through the skin. It latched its hand on Mabel's leg and all she could do was scream.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mabel awoke once more, this time screaming. She gasped for air but calmed down as soon as she realized the dream was over. Am I actually awake this time?
Looking around her room, she noticed that the light was already on. Unlike her dream, this light actually illuminated the entire room. Next to her bed, her pill bottle sat upright. She had forgot to take her pills before going to bed. Wasting no time, she took off the cap and threw a pill in her mouth, swallowing it without any water.
She rubbed sweat off her forehead. It was so real to her - she could have swore that she wasn't dreaming. This wasn't the first time she had such nightmares, however. Her pills were the only thing that seemed to keep her from living through them, only their effect seemed to be diminishing every night she took them.
Her bag was sitting on the floor, exactly where it was in her dream. She put on clothes so that she wouldn't scar her nephew's mind. The last thing that he needed to see was her walking around the house with nothing on but underwear. Who knows, however. Maybe if he saw his aunt naked, he wouldn't be so afraid of girls anymore. Mabel chuckled at the thought. She loved her nephew - she shouldn't be making fun of him like that.
A little fresh air would be good for her she thought. The cold, dark room in the basement wasn't doing her any favors. As she exited the room, she saw a large room in front of her - a room she could only describe as being a living room, only like two times larger. Like most of the basement, it wasn't furnished. It had a ripped up couch and a few dozen boxes that belonged to Edward and Sarah but, other than that, the room was largely empty. As well, it suffered the same fate that Mabel's room did, as there was hardly any sunlight that was shining through. She didn't want to know what lurked in the shadows of that room and, so, she quickly walked away from it to the brightly illuminated stairs that were right next to the room.
As she reached the top of the stairs, her sister's cat jolted from out of the hallway into the living room, causing Mabel to jump and feel her hand grasp her chest. She hated cats.
She walked outside, feeling relieved to see the sunlight again. From above her, she could hear the sound of a guitar playing - her nephew. He had a talent for music, not something anyone else in the family had. Although, Lillian did like to sing to Mabel so maybe the Porter children would be musicians yet.
The dog her sister owned was running around the yard, obviously occupied with himself. Holding a stick in his mouth, he sprinted across the field, trampling through flowers and knocking the decorative rocks out of their beds. Mabel smiled. Unlike cats, she absolutely adored dogs. They didn't complain about their lives to her. They simply just rolled over and let her scratch their bellies, something people would never do.
Lucy kept running, never seeming to tire and Mabel's eyes never leaving her. She ran from fence to fence and came back to the center, where she hopped into the little pond that split off from the main stone path. Shaking herself off, she walked over to Mabel and dropped her stick in front of her.
"You're such a good girl," Mabel said to her while scratching her head. She picked up the stick and chucked it as far as she could muster, still hardly going more than half the length of the field. She smiled brightly until her eye caught the figure standing in the middle of the pavilion. It was Irene again, looking as she had in her dreams. This time, Mabel knew she wasn't dreaming. This time, her pills wouldn't get her out of her head.
Mabel watched as the little girl held out her hand, showing a little white flower. The little girl stood still, smiling at Mabel.
"Look at the flower, mommy. Isn't it pretty?"
Mabel stood up and slowly backed up to the backdoor. She rubbed both of her hands through her hair, hoping that whatever she was seeing would go away.
"Where are you going, mommy? Don't you want to watch me?" Irene slowly walked off the pavilion onto the stone path that led to the backdoor. Her smile was wrong, almost sinister looking. Mabel felt tears swell up in her eyes. She just wanted the hallucination to go away.
The music that once played had stopped. The little girls smile died down as Mabel watched her walk to the forest - the little girl's head twisted, always watching Mabel. As the little girl disappeared into the trees, Mabel felt air force itself from her chest.
"Aunt Mabel?" She heard a voice from behind her ask. "Are you okay?"
She turned to see Isaac standing in the doorway, his face looking concerned. Mabel turned her head back to the forest, seeing nothing.
"Yeah, I'm fine," She said. "Just breathing in the fresh air."
Isaac faintly smiled at her. She smiled back at him knowing that, in truth, she was not fine.
58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXl62uF3Tkk
