The lights around the outside of the house conceded to the slowly brightening sky that marked the end of dawn. Jim woke himself up when his head swayed too far to the left. He fell asleep on the seat that Emmy occupied the night before.
Contrary to her declaration, Jean was able to fall asleep quickly as soon as she lay done on a stack of blankets that Matt prepared for her, to the left of the chair. Matt got up and looked out the window. There was a thin mist hovering a few inches above ground. The rain had stopped.
Sue woke up some time during the night and excused herself saying she needed a change of clothes. When she failed to return, Matt followed her to their room where he found her sleeping on her side on the edge of the bed. She did not wake up when Matt repositioned her and placed a blanket over. He left her to have a proper rest but kept the lights on and the door open.
The room’s floor was filled with scattered clothes and medical supplies. Mat
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Matt was left downstairs to cook and clean up. Emmy took Jean back upstairs to give her an early morning bath. As if on second thought, he took pictures of the tracks with his old smartphone before he started to clean. He was starting to doubt whether he locked the doors the night before or not as he wiped off the prints. He shuddered every time he tried to consider just exactly what was happening, or what it all meant.There were no tracks leading out of the house. That could have been explained easily. And if Jean was sleepwalking, locking the doors from the inside didn’t help. He took a mental note about getting additional locks. It did not calm him one bit. A thought kept coming gnawing at his mind, forcing him to confront it.Who… what was it?The terrifying issue of the voice that spoke to him, the voice that both he and Emmy heard took a backseat. Matt remembered Jean coming into Gina’s room. She was sleeping there when he exit
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She tried to make excuses for it. She tried to adopt his husband’s attitude as she bathed her daughter. She failed. So, Emmy tried to find a way to ask her questions without sounding off an alarm or triggering any sort of panic, or an onslaught of questions, from Jean. After bathing her, Emmy pretended that she needed help cleaning up Gina’s room. Jean liked it. The little girl listened and observed patiently as her mom taught her how to fold clothes. When it was Jean’s turn, Emmy started asking the question. “Honey, do you remember how late or early it was when you went to bed?” “I don’t know,” the girl shrugged, “but it was night already.” “After dinner?” “Yeah. Daddy and I, we watched TV. I think I fell asleep.” “You remember anything else?” “Uh uhm.” The girl shook her head. “Do you remember maybe waking up and going to for a drink or needing to pee?” The little girl shook her head again. Emmy could see that
The House By The River: A Paranormal Horror Novel Chapter 18
The door chain locks did not take long to install. Matt placed them at above eye level to make sure Jean would at least need something to stand up on before she could open them. He turned it over and over his head while he installed the locks although the explanation was apparent.If not Jean, then who? Or What?He did not like it. The encroaching feeling of helplessness, brought about the lack of answers to any of his questions. Unwilling to dwell and wallow on it, Matt immediately moved to the next task.He went to back to the garage to return the drill and picked up a small shovel and a plastic garbage bag. They only had big sizes stored outside. He decided it was fine. If any, double wrapping it on itself would make for a better seal and prevent any disgusting smells. He managed to put the severed carcasses away in under five minutes.Not satisfied, and by force of habit, Matt surveyed the area again, this time including both sides of the hou
The House By The River: A Paranormal Horror Novel Chapter 19
They had supper at Gina’s room that night. It was almost entirely silent except for Matt trying to make light of things. His jokes and quips mostly fell flat. Emmy just beamed him a weak smile now and then. Gina did the same as well. Only Jean seemed to be into it, giggling at the silly bits. Emmy called him downstairs once supper was over.“We should sleep together, in Gina’s room.” She said.Matt saw the seriousness in her expression and offered no objections.“Sure hon. I’ll just watch something with Jean until she’s tired. Then, we’ll go up.”Emmy nodded to him, placing a hand on his chest and went up. Matt put the TV on and called Jean down. He washed the dishes and cleaned the counter then joined her. It was a funny show. Although it was not for kids, the laugh tracks helped. She giggled and laughed along as the program progressed. Whether she understood the jokes or not, Matt had no idea.
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Matt’s dreamless slumber was interrupted. He groaned as he felt someone shaking him vigorously by the shoulder. He sleepily opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the tent he put up was already gone. Matt turned on his back to find Emmy kneeling beside him, urging him to wake up.Has she been crying?The expression written on Emmy’s face was enough. Matt got up, propping himself by his elbows and took a look around. He did not speak for fear of waking up Jean who slept beside him. Noting nothing of import, he turned his eyes back to Emmy. She was not looking at him. Her eyes were transfixed on the door.It was open. He squinted to adapt his eyes but saw nothing. Matt realized he might need to talk his wife out of it but before that, he needed to satisfy her. He felt her hand shake while she looked. He decided to pretend he was paying attention as he got up to a sitting position.The next few seconds yielded nothing. It was qu
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He knew it would not last. He knew it would not stand. But Matt did not know what else to say. Sleepwalking was common enough that people apparently made jokes about it on videos on the internet but spontaneous sleepwalking? And both his children together?Compared to his wife, Matt thought he was doing a good job of reigning it in. He went around the room inspecting things, what he expected to find, he had no idea. He admitted to himself that nothing made sense and that scared him. He knew he had to do something, supposed to do something, but what? So, he paced.Finding that it did not help, not him or Emmy, he went to check on Gina and Jean. Emmy had already done it. He did it anyway. First to the older daughter’s bed. He checked if she was comfortable then put a blanket over her. He felt her forehead and was relieved that she wasn’t burning up.Next, he went to where Jean lay. She was already under the covers so Matt didn’t have much to do e
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Voices. It sounded like a gathering of a hundred people was outside and all decided to speak at the same time. The voices sounded like they came from all around the four corners of the house, their words indecipherable. Emmy strained to hear what it sounded like. Matt did the same. To him, it sounded like each voice was talking about something entirely different from the other and each voice carried over eerily to where they were.Emmy ran to where Jean was sleeping and carried her to Gina’s bed. She placed a blanket over her and watched her husband.He peered out the window, squinting. Matt’s eyes was taking time to adjust. On the areas where the house’s own lights was able to reach, there was nothing to see. Meanwhile, the volume of the voices increased, taking in both low and high tones. Soon, the glass panel on the window started to vibrate. It felt like it was coming from deep within the earth. Then, it started to sound like it was ascending.
The House By The River: A Paranormal Horror Novel Chapter 23
Matt came back close to noon and set about preparing the materials he needed for what he planned to do. First, he hauled of a bunch of 2x2’s from the back of the pickup truck and laid it in front of the house. Next, he carried several bags with him and placed it near the lumber. He had several rolls of wires, boxes of screws and nails, boxes of lightbulbs, electrical tapes, and two cheap CCTV cameras.He did not purposely buy the cheap cameras. He asked for something easy enough to set up and was offered those. He could not understand the manual as it was all in Chinese but the man at the store showed him what to do and how to install the software. He showed him the different modes and told him about the limitations. The rep tried his hardest to upsell a better model to Matt but since most of them worked only with home Wi-fi networks and he didn’t have one set-up yet, Matt ended up with the cheapest. The rep was still okay, considering all the other purchases. He
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