December 1, 2020
Isaac watched the snow pelt against the window and listened as the wind howled had threatened to tear the very foundation of the house down. It was, perhaps, one of the worst storms he had ever seen and would likely hinder his family from leaving.
The lights would flicker on and off, the walls would create cracking noises, and the trees would sway heavily to the East, as if they would tip over. Within days, the snow would rise a few feet. Luckily, Gabriel had a truck with a snow plow in the garage, so they wouldn't be completely closed into the house.
It was just so random. There wasn't any warning of the storm up until about three days ago when the news had an emergency weather warning. Now, as Isaac tried to watch the news, it would stay on briefly, before going static. At least he had Netflix.
"Hee hee hee," A child giggled.
"Lillian!" He yelled. "What are you doing?"
The giggling continued outside of his door, undeterred by his yelling. "Go away!" He said.
Again, the giggling didn't stop. Isaac jumped off his bed and threw the door open to find that nobody was there. He thought that she had run away when she heard him get off his bed, up until he heard the giggling again. This time, it was in his room.
Isaac slowly turned around to find a little white, husk looking, girl sitting in his desk chair. Her head was crooked and her eyes were a milky white. She looked at Isaac and continued to giggle, only more distorted.
"Wha... What?" Was all Isaac could say. He slammed his door shut and ran to his parents room. They weren't there and, so, his next next best spot was his uncles room two doors further down the hallway. He swung that one open too and, yet again, there was no one there.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Isaac said panicky.
"Mom! Dad!" Isaac yelled. The only noise that greeted him was the wind howling against the building and the faint noise of that girl giggling in his room. He wanted to cry, he was so scared. It was beginning to feel a lot like that day he smoked those cigarettes. Only this time, he didn't smoke and this time, he was certain that this was real. Had he fallen asleep? He smacked himself and, sure enough, he felt it pulse throughout the right side of his jaw.
"Uncle Jordan? Aunt Dana?" He yelled once more.
"Isaac?" A voice said behind him. He slowly looked back, not recognizing the noise. Then, he saw her. It was a tall woman with silky black hair standing across from him. She was quite lovely, yet, also terrifying from the way she smiled at him.
"Who are you?" Isaac asked.
"Isaac? You don't recognize me?"61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCUs020vdFO
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"No," Isaac said, slowly stepping back.
The woman's smiled looked sadder. "Isaac? It's me. It's your mom."
Isaac started shaking as he began to hear the giggling in his closed room again. "You're not my mom."
The woman laughed, as if he was joking. "Of course I am Isaac." She stuck her nails into her skin and peeled back her face. He watched in horror as blood oozed and squirted. Even more horrifying was the face underneath hers. It was his mom.
"No," Isaac said. "No, you're not my mom... You're not my mom!"
He stepped back, coming up parallel to his bedroom door. The door swung open and the child looked at Isaac, expressionless. "Lillian," The woman said. "Do you want to play tag with you brother?"
The little zombie like child limped out of the room and rubbed its dry fingers on Isaac. Isaac felt paralyzed. His legs, seemingly, didn't want to move and escape from the two creatures that were near him. The woman extended her hand out to Isaac and then the paralysis ended. He bolted in the other direction and heard the woman and girl laugh at him. He took the stairwell down, three steps at a time, and ran to the only other place he could think to find anyone.
Thankfully, he was correct. Every family member, as well as Gabriel and Rebecca, were sitting around the table, eating dinner.
"There you are Isaac. We called for you several times," His mom said.
Isaac looked back behind him into the dark hallway. His heart was beating so fast, he felt he might vomit.
"You okay, Isaac?" His dad asked.
"There..." Isaac stopped to catch his breath. "There was someone upstairs."
"Who?" His dad asked again.
"There was a woman and a little girl. I... I think it was the same woman that looked like mom back at our old house."
The table went silent.
"Someone looked like Sarah?" Jordan asked.
His dad cleared his throat and looked to his uncle. "I'll explain it later," Then he looked to Isaac. "Now, are you sure that you saw someone up there? Are you sure that you weren't seeing things?"61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICANSLo34g
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"Edward!" Sarah said.
"I'm just making sure, Sarah. I just need to be positive that it was really something up there and not the house playing tricks."
His dad looked back to him, likely noticing the pale look in his face. "I'm sure of it. The woman looked like mom and there was a little girl that..." He didn't want to talk about it in front of everyone else.
"That... what?"
"It looked like a husk or something. I..."
"A husk? Isaac, you haven't been taking anything, have you?"
"Edward!" Sarah yelled once more.
"No, I promise. I haven't done anything, I swear."
Edward took a sigh and stood up from the table. "Isaac and I will go take a look. We'll be back in just a moment."
Edward grabbed Isaac by the shoulder and guided him down the hallway. "I'm sorry, son, I didn't mean to say that. Can you forgive me?"
"Sure, dad."
"Thank you. Now where were these ladies that you saw?" Edward asked.
"They were by our bedrooms."
They both walked up the stairway with Isaac slightly trailing behind his father. His dad flicked on the light switch which delayed momentarily before turning on. That wasn't an effect of the snow storm. The house, naturally, had bad wiring, even with his dad and Gabriel's renovation. Despite having replace wiring in the house and bringing it up to code, the house still acted like it was built in the 1900s.
His dad grabbed a flashlight from his bedroom and they began scanning each and every room for a sign of anything. They checked the closets, under the beds, behind curtains and dressers, and even the ceiling. Every room was clear and nothing was lurking in the hallway. They slowly made their way down the end of the hallway where, on the left, the stairwell to the attic was.
"Have you seen Lillian go up there anymore?" His dad asked.
Isaac shook his head as his father slowly walked up the stairs and lifted the trap door. His dad stayed in place for what felt like a moment before he called out, "Dad?"
Then, his dad looked back down and shut the trap door behind him. "Nothing up there."
They proceeded down the last hallway, inspecting the last two small rooms and the rather large shoe closet. Occasionally, he would hear his dad whisper something to himself and could hear words like 'loyal' and 'married.' He didn't bother to ask what he was saying.
As Isaac presumed, the last of the rooms were empty and his dad looked back to him. "Well son, unless the two are hiding in the other hallway or somewhere downstairs, I don't think they're here."
The manor had two hallways up top and four hallways on the first floor, two in front and two behind the stairwells. As well, there was the entire basement, which was mostly just a large family room with a bar and a ping pong table, a pool table, and an air hockey table. Of course, there was also the massive wooden doors that led to the tunnels that Gabriel's father was said to have dug out but no one was allowed in there.
So, theoretically speaking, the two woman could be in many other locations. However, Isaac assumed that these two woman weren't something that were physically real and perhaps his father was correct and he really was just seeing things.
"Well thank you for looking for me anyways," Isaac said.
His dad put his hand on his shoulder once more and smiled. "You're welcome son. Just remember that one day you'll be doing this for your son and/or daughter. You'll have to be the brave one day."
Isaac smiled from one cheek. Being brave was easy when you had to deal with a person. This, however, wasn't something he felt he could brave towards. How could any person be brave when the thing tormenting them wasn't real?
"I will," Isaac replied.
"Good. Now let's go have some dinner. Your aunts and uncle are going to be here for a while longer because of his storm so you better get use to having them around."
Isaac followed after his dad down the hallway and looked back once more. Hopefully, the storm would end soon.
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Edward scanned around the attic room, only seeing a queen size bed and rose pedals covering it. As well, there was a table to the side with a candle and a little radio playing some kind of slow, romantic, classic music. On the bed was the woman he had seen. It was the woman with black silky hair and she was naked from head to toe. The only thing to be seen on her body was an emerald amulet.
"Edward?" She said. "My, my. I didn't know you would be coming up here."
He couldn't find any words to say. His eyes were glued to her body and its every perfection.
"That's okay. You don't have to say anything," She added. The woman slowly walked over, knelt over, and kissed Edward on the forehead.
"If you ever want to join me..."
"Dad?" Isaac's voice said from underneath him. He looked back to her and her smile. She walked back to the bed and laid back down.
"I'll be waiting for you."
Edward closed the trapdoor behind him and could feel his heart beat racing now.
I'm a loyal man. I'm a married man.
"Nothing up there," He said.
Every urge in his body wanted to go back into that attic.
God, please give me strength.
And so, they checked the last few rooms and Edward tried to forget about her. He loved his wife but that woman... that woman was his last test to prove himself before God.
God must have thought this was funny though. He put her in the mansion with him and trapped them in together for a snow storm. He had a funny way of doing things and Edward knew... it was going to be an interesting and long winter.
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