The House Is Alive

Escorted By Shadow Figures

Chapter 3: Escorted By Shadow Figures

It’s mid day already and I head to the pergola in front of the facility to stay under it because of the heat of the sun. I sit on one of the foamy covered benches and place all my tools on the floor. I have a whetstone, some oil and a blunt knife with me and I settle down to sharpen it. I find myself thinking about the things I have discovered, thanks to Arnold, about my new place of work. Each time I catch myself thinking about it, I either shiver, or my eyes simply twitch on their own. I pour some oil on the whetstone and watch it spread for a few seconds. I’m looking at the whetstone and the oil but I’m not seeing either one of them. Instead, I am seeing myself have a one on one conversation with Max where he tells me everything I want to know without giving me the ‘always mind your business’ speech. I hear something fall behind me with a heavy thud, like a stone falling to the ground. I sharply turn to look at it and I do find the stone but I don’t see who threw it. I look up at the house window to see if there’s anyone there, and I find someone. I don’t get a full glimpse of the lady -just her face partially covered with her long red hair- because she runs into her room the moment I catch sight of her. I know she’s probably shy but i don’t know if it’s a good idea to call for her or let her be. My gut says let her be and so I go with it. Just a minute later, she drops another stop and this one falls pretty close to my leg. I look up the window and she hides again. This time, I decide to find out what she wants.

“Hello?” I call. “Miss?”

I walk out of the pergola to take a closer look at the lady behind the window. I see her peeking out again and I hear her giggle.

“Do you need help with something? I don’t know why you’re throwing rocks at me,” I say the second statement in a low tone; thinking to myself.

She doesn’t answer me still. It seems she has returned inside because she doesn’t peek through her window again for a long while. So I return to my blade under the pergola. I start to sharpen it and I get really engrossed in it that I don’t hear the final stone falling my way until it drops on the roof of the pergola, breaks a spot open and nearly drops on my head if not for my fast reflexes.

“What the hell!” I say and look up the window but it’s now shut.

I wonder why she’s pulling such dangerous stunts on me. I see Arnold walking out of the house, he must have heard the loud crash from the impact of the stone of the roof of the pergola. He has his eyes on the roof with his brows furrowed and his mouth left open.

“What happened, Ernesto?” He asks.

“I really have no idea what’s going on. There’s this girl upstairs that won’t stop throwing rocks,”

“Girl?” Arnold asks, looking at me funny. “What girl?”

“The girl. The red haired girl up there,” I say pointing at her room.

Arnold stands still and looks at me for a few more seconds. Like he’s waiting for me to come back to my senses and tell him what really happened.

“Why are you staring at me like that? I’m being honest,”

“Yeah? But I don’t know of any girl that stays in that room, Ernesto, and I have been in this very community for years,”

“Are you sure?” Are laugh dryly. He has got to be kidding me, really.

“Completely sure, son,”

His answer scares me. Because I sure as hell didn’t throw three stones at myself.

“What about Nurse Joy? Do you think she’ll know this girl,”

“I don’t know for sure but it won’t hurt to ask, I guess,”

I leave my tools under the porch, eager to find out who this mysterious girl is, and we head into the facility to ask Nurse Joy if she knew any red head girl within the community. We find her in the kitchen talking to someone that seems to leave immediately we step in because we don’t see who. She turns her focus to us and looks confused as to why we are here.

“Are you both okay?”

“I know I am but Ernesto thinks….,”

“I saw a girl,” I interrupt Arnold. “A red head girl. She was standing by the window and throwing rocks at me,” I says and Nurse Joy’s facial expression changes, I notice it sharply.

“Did you also see this girl, Arnold?”

“No. But I saw the crack on the roof and the rock on the floor, scattered to pieces,”

“This…,”

“Red head girl,” I try to help her when I see she’s struggle to describe the girl.

“Right. This red haired girl, did she say anything to you?”

“Well, no she didn’t. She was just peeking through the window at intervals after throwing the rocks and I think she found it all funny. She was laughing,”

“Hmm,” Nurse Joy turns to the kitchen window and backs me and Arnold. “Return to your post, Ernesto,”

That’s all?! I want to ask but I try as much as possible to refrain myself from confronting the Nurse even though I think she knows something. I mean, what was the point of the direct questions? But I guess I shouldn’t blame her; they’ve told me countless times to mind the house and not the people.

“That’s alright,” I say, calmly.

I head back outside, to the pergola, to get my tools -my knife and the whetstone. And to my surprise I don’t find it. I feel like my stomach just shifted from its position. I can see the whetstone and the oil but the knife isn’t where I last kept it. I search round and about the pergola, between the flowers, under the bench and I find nothing. I sit for a while to think of where I could it be; perhaps I took it into the house with me. I’m about to head back into the house when I hear giggling. Of course, it’s familiar; it’s the red haired girl’s laughter. I look up the window and I see her again. She appears the way she did earlier with her hair covering most of her face that I can barely make out any part of it. It’s possible for me to see her elsewhere and not recognize her.

She’s waving something at me. At first I don’t see what, but when I look closely, I see what almost makes me faint. My knife, in her hands. I check the floor where I left it to make sure it really isn’t there; to assure myself that I’m not seeing things again. I look back at the window and she is still there with my knife, giggling without a face -at least, I don’t see a face. I run into the facility to report the situation to Nurse Joy.

“What’s the matter, Ernesto? Why are you running?”

“The girl. She’s got my knife. I was sharpening my knife outside before I came in here with Arnold. I went back to get it only for me to find it…in her hands…inside her bedroom,” I also try to make sense of the words coming out of my mouth but I can’t.

Nurse Joy has confusion plastered on her face and I totally understand it but it doesn’t help my situation. I feel drained. Everyday I spend in this house is a day with less and less energy. Everything drains me.

“You know what?” I say and try to smile. “Never mind,” I give in.

“I’ll be in my room till it’s time for my shift, in case you need me,” I say and turn to leave.

I’m walking like a zombie with no life in me, no desire to dream. I’m sure that’s what stimulates the show of compassion from the Nurse.

“Wait,” she calls and causes me to halt in my tracks.

I try to hide the forlorn look in my face as I turn towards her.

“Do you mean this knife?” She holds it up. My half sharpened knife dangling between her finger tips.

“Yes. How did you get it?”

“You dropped it on the counter when you and Arnold got here. I also wondered why you dropped it but you must have done so absentmindedly,” she says and hands the silver ware over to me.

“I…I guess so,” I’m confused as hell but I guess her explanation makes sense.

What then did I see with the red head if it wasn’t my knife.

“Ernesto, if you need to take a break from work we can talk to Mr Max,”

“No. No, I don’t need a break,” I say but my eyes betray me; they start to do the twitching thing again.

“If you say so,” she sighs and minds her business and I’m grateful for that.

I take my knife with me and return to my room, then lock the door tight behind me. Whatever forces are trying to drive me nuts and driver me out of this place will not work. I came here to work and earn a living and that’s exactly what I’ll do. I get the rosary in my bag and make to pray with it. I’m not exactly sure how to pray well but I’ve seen my mother do it a couple times. I clasp my hands together and close my eyes to pray, but I realize I can’t do it. Not the prayer but the closing my eyes part. The moment I shut them, I hear her giggling again -the red head. She’s in my head now. I try my best to shut it out and for the first few seconds it doesn’t work. It’s not until I yell

“Get out!”

That’s when it stops. Finally, there’s peace and calm around me. I feel relived; though just a little. I look out my window and see that evening is fast approaching once again. I’m about to get up when I notice the cotton. I remember how old and tattered it looked -with some of its thread handing out- when I first got here. But for some reason, it looks quite different today. Did they change it? No. I doubt; it’s the exact same design and I can see an area that was formerly patched up, still patched up. But if it’s the same one, how can it be looking this clean? Almost brand new.

“Oh well,”

I ignore the curtain and get off the couch. The looks of a curtain is the least of my problems right now. I head to the wardrobe to get my uniform. I hold it up to assess it and it looks pretty rumpled so I decide to visit the laundry room to iron it. As I head out I see that the facility has got an august visitor. Well, he isn’t exactly a visitor but we really don’t see him regularly around here. His presence sort of reminds me of the time I heard his voice in his bedroom but he doesn’t give me enough time to think about it, thankfully.

“Ernesto,”

“Mr Max. It’s good to see you,”

“I can say the same. How has work been for you?” He asks and I’m not so sure how to answer.

“I hope you aren’t having issues with your coworkers,” he says when he sees that I hesitate.

“Oh no, Sir. In fact, I think the community people are good people,”

“Excellent. It’s good to know that everything is alright with you. You must be taking the advice I gave you then,” he smiles and I mirror his smile.

“I’ll see you some other time then,” he says and leaves.

A huge part of me wants to call him back. A huge part wants to ask: do you know anything about the red haired girl? Have you experienced any strange trappings in your bedroom before? Do you also hear the musket firing at night? But I don’t ask. Like always, I don’t want to sound like a lunatic. Maybe Nurse Joy is eighth after all; maybe I need some time out, to get myself again. Because this isn’t me. There’s something off that I can’t point my finger to yet. I don’t think it’s healthy for me to continue without finding out what’s going on with me.

I walk to the laundry room as I think of what to do next. The room is half empty with just two washing machines and one ironing board. I turn on the switch of the iron and it starts to flicker.

“I hope I don’t burn this man’s house,” I say to myself as I observe the switch.

It stabilizes eventually and I’m relieved. I start to iron my clothes when I hear the wind whistling, loudly, outside.

“Don’t tell me it’s going to rain again tonight. It’s not even the rainy season,”

I reach for the windows to shut it before the wind forces it to slam shut. I feel something love past my face quickly but because I don’t see anything, I simply assume it’s the wind. I return to the ironing board and the switch starts to flicker again. This time, the lights flicker with it too. I become a bit worried and I turn off the iron. My clothes are still rumpled but it’s better to be safe than sorry. If the switch burns and carries anything with it in flames, there’s no doubt, it’ll surely come off my paycheck.

I leave the laundry room with my half ironed, half rumpled shirt. It’s just two hours left to my shift and I have to be ready.

Hours Later...

It's quite late at night and most of the residents in the community are asleep already. They have the lights inside their rooms turned off and I'm left with the few lights outside the building and the flashlight I got from Mr Max. 

I take my normal rounds and walk round the facility making sure everything is intact and the environment is safe. Later on, I start to feel really tired for some reason and it doesn't make much sense to me because I didn't do more than sharpening my knife during the day; I can't say what has got me this tired and weak. I try to walk it off but it seems to get worse by the second. My bones feel heavy like someone's pressing down on them and I can barely stand on my feet. It's not until my stomach starts to rumble that I accept I need to take a seat and get myself. I head to the pergola -as it's the closest place, to me, with a seat right now. I start to massage my legs first and just as I do this, I hear giggling.

"Again?" 

It sounds just like her -the red haired girl- I can never forget how she sounds. I turn to her window but I don't see her there. I know I should be relived but I don't feel that way. In my bid to return my gaze to my legs I see a a figure before me. It has a human shape but it looks like a dark shadow. Not flame, not dust, but like a dark space assuming the shape of a human being.  And as audible as possible, I hear the shadow giggle. And yes, it giggles just like the red haired girl. I want to tell but it seems like I've lost my voice. I've lost everything-I can't even move a muscle because I haven't been able to absorb the things happening before me right now.

"Ernesto, you could die here," the shadow says.

That is enough to send me running. I can't say where strength came from, but I ran for me life. I could die? Why would she tell me that? Who is she? I still feel the heaviness in my bones but I run till I'm far away from the pergola. I find a bench in front of a small building and I sit there to take a breather. There's a fluorescent bulb on here and I'm able to see. But minutes later, I begin to wish I am blind. I see my shadow casted on the floor but that's not all. There's another shadow beside me. 

"No, no, not again. Not the girl again,"

I'm about to pick myself up to run again but i feel something very cold behind me. I turn around to see the shadow figure, standing still and saying nothing. It turns it's head to the left like it's trying to study me. It doesn't have eyes but I feel it's gaze pierce me deeply. And before my eyes, another shadow figure shows up behind the first. It's taller. A bigger. I pick to my heels again and run like my life depends on it, because it does. I notice that I keep seeing the shadow figures. They are following me and I don't know why. I run till I start to lose my strength, and my mind. And when I can't take it anymore, I fall to the ground and yell.

"Leave me alone!"

And they do. Gratefully, they do. I sit on the floor, panting. I feel strength coming back to me like it was the presence of  shadow figures that were sucking it out before now. 

Let the morning come already. This place is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do. Lord, let the morning come.