The House Is Alive

Explanation of Escort By Shadow Figures

Chapter 4; Explanation of Escort by Shadow Figures

If someone comes and asks me how last night was, I’d say it was a freaking nightmare. I still haven’t gotten over it. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it. A part of me wonders what I’m still doing in this house that seems to be haunted with every evil thing you can think of, but another part of me is desperate to know what’s really going on around here. I mean, what if the residents are in trouble and they don’t know? I don’t believe in coincidences and I don’t think my coming here is a coincidence. None of that changes the fact that I need some time to calm myself though. This morning especially. I’m lying on my bed with my belly facing the ceiling, and I don’t feel like getting up any time soon. I’m a bit hungry but there’s no strength or desire in me to head to the kitchen. I remember the chocolate chips I kept in the mini fridge before my shift last night. I get up to see if it’s still there. And it is.

“Thank goodness,”

I take it out and munch on it absentmindedly. I don’t know why, but for some reason, my mind is occupied with thoughts about my mother. I guess it’s because I feel like she would know exactly what to do if she were in my situation. Unlike me; I’m completely clueless, if I do say so myself.

Some footsteps from outside my room interrupts my thought. I hear a soft voice and I easily pick it’s Nurse Joy’s. She’s probably checking up on the residents in the facility. The sound of her incoming footsteps get louder, and before I know it, I hear her knock on my door.

“Ernesto?” She calls.

“Coming,” I drop my chocolate chips and head to the door to open it.

“Hi,” she says when she sees me.

“Good morning, Joy,”

“How are you, Ernesto?” She says and stares straight at me with her big aqua-green eyes.

It feels like she will be able to tell, with those eyes, if I lie.

“I…I think,”

“Did something happen?” She asks and I get even more nervous with her direct questions.

“Well…I saw her again,”

“Who, Ernesto?” She asks with a hint of compassion in the tone of her voice. And I'm confused by it.  “Who did you see?”

“The girl…I saw the red haired girl,” I say.

Nurse Joy doesn’t respond; at least not with her eyes. I can see that she believes me. For the first time in…forever, she’s on my side. So I continue. Even though my next statement sounds crazier in mind head, I go for it.

“I didn’t see her face like the first time, because she came as a…a shadow. I know it sounds absurd and…”

“Don’t…don’t beat up yourself, Ernesto. Let’s see. I came with your favorite tea. Will you like to take it? I think it’ll help calm you a little,”

“Okay, but what about the red haired girl. You know who she is, I can tell. Do you also know why she’s here?”

“Some topics are not meant to be rushed,”

For Pete’s sake.

“You’ll get the answers to your questions, the right way, and at the right time. Just focus on doing your job and your job alone,”

“I’ve heard that one two many times here,” I mutter under my breathe.

She hears me. I know she does because she stops walking. But she ignores me and makes to leave.

“You know there was more than one,” I say to her.

“The shadow. There was more than one following me last night. You don’t think that’s enough to be tagged dangerous?”

“You’ll be fine, Ernesto. We’ll all be,” she says and walks away.

This is why I prefer talking to Arnold. Nurse Joy seems to be hiding things always. I’m starting  to suspect her, to be honest. I don’t even know what I suspect she is doing -good or evil- because she seems to have a dual personality. One moment she looks like she’s sad and the next, she’s just fine with everything.

“Ugh!” I sigh and fall on my bed.

“I need to talk to Arnold. I need to see him soon,”

I say out loud so my brain can hear it. And maybe -just maybe- I’ll get the motivation to leave this room soon. The answers I’m looking for are not in here; that’s for sure.

After three more hours on my bed, my stomach reminds me that I’m human and I need to eat. I look at the chocolate chips I brought out moments ago, and I see that I’ve barely had any of it, but I crave something heavier -so to speak- than the chips. I finally head out of my bedroom to fix myself something to eat in the kitchen. The corridor is actually filled with a couple people today. On normal days, most of the residents would stay in their bedrooms, making the whole place super quiet, but today, it looks like there’s some sort of celebration that I wasn’t informed about.

“Hi,” I say subconsciously when an old lady smiles at me.

I try to avoid the people on the corridor but it’s not so easy. I don’t know what the deal is with old ladies and smiling but they sure like to do it a lot, and I have no choice than to smile back, else they’ll suspect something is wrong with me. I see Nurse Joy at the end of the corridor attending to one of the residents, and like she could feel my gaze on her, she turns to look at me too. I quickly take my gaze away and I manage to make my way through the small crowd in the corridor to the kitchen few feet away.

I run my fingers on the top of the kitchen counter as I try to take my mind off the things that are bothering me at the moment. I start to check the cupboards, then the fridge for something I can put together for breakfast.

“Cereal?” Arnold says from behind me.

I turn around to see him leaning on the kitchen door.

“Arnold!”

Boy am I glad to see him.

“Someone seems happy,”

“To see you, yes,”

“Well, that’s not something I get every day,” he laughs and I mirror.

I feel pretty relieved having Arnold around right now. Maybe it’s because he always seems to have answers to my crazy questions without pointing out that they are crazy.

“So you’re having cereal for breakfast now,”

“Uh, apparently,” I say with a smile on my face that doesn’t want to leave because Arnold is here. I’m starting to feel positive energy return for me.

“Do you mind if I join you?” Arnold grabs a small bowl from one of the wooden cupboards.

“Not at all. Be my guest,”

“Gladly,”

“It seems we’re running out of cereal around here,” I say as I assess the nearly empty bags of Rice Kripsies.

“Yeah. Nurse Joy was talking about it with Max some time ago. I think they’re having someone restock soon,”

“Oh that’s good,”

“Yeah. Max is a very competent owner, you know. He’s like a father to the residents in the community,”

“A father,” I echo when I remember the things -the shadow figures- I saw last night.

Especially the bigger one. Now that I think about it, there are a couple similarities between the figure of the bigger shadow and Mr Max’s figure. The height, the hunch back, the way they both carry themselves. I feel like I’ve gotten another piece of the puzzle. I mean, I remember the crazy stare I got when I first entered Mr Max’s room the other day. No one was there with me but I heard his voice and I saw his books flip. Now I’m seeing a shadow figure that looks like him. It only makes sense that it’s him. It’s too much of a coincidence. But could Mr Max really be…dead?

“What’s with that face, Ernesto? You look like you saw a ghost,”

You could say that.

I manage a smile. But Arnold knows something is up. So much for being an open book.

“Is something wrong?” He asks. And I nod.

“Tell me; what is it?” He drops the bowl of cereal in his hands and faces me.

He looks worried. In all the craziness, it’s good to know there’s someone like Arnold looking out for me.

“Last night,” I begin. “I was taking my rounds when I saw her. The red haired girl,”

“That girl again?” What does she want?”

“I wish I knew. She keeps following me and I find it very disturbing. Even more, I saw her with someone else. Like a man, standing beside her. It seemed like he came to protect her, or fight for her. And they came in the form of a shadow to me,”

“A shadow,” Arnold says with his eyes wide open in surprise.

“Yes, I know what I saw,”

“Woah,” Arnold looks away.

There’s a permanent crease on his forehead. Like he is trying to understand what’s going on just like me.

“But how come I’ve never seen such around here,”

“I don’t know,” I say and also wonder myself. Most of the strange occurrences I’ve experienced in this house, I’ve experienced alone. Why am I the only one seeing these things?

“Arnold, you knew about the musket, are you saying you don’t know about the shadow figures?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t. This is the first time I’m hearing about them,” he says and I sigh.

I feel really sad that I can’t find anyone with answers around here. The one person whom I think might have some for me, isn’t willing to share, and that’s Nurse Joy. I try to think of a way to approach her with some kind of plea. Will she budge if I tell her I feel my life is being threatened? That lady looks nice on the outside but I can’t say the same for her personality. I also don’t want to be quick to judge. I mean, she could be compelled to do whatever she is doing.

“What do you think I should do, Arnold? I’m not very comfortable about all of this,”

“I think you should find some time to rest a lot. I think you should do something…fun, I guess, to clear your mind,”

“Why, do you think it’s my mind playing tricks on me?” I laugh at the thought of that because I know it’s ridiculous.

But Arnold doesn’t laugh with me.

“Well, things don’t really appear as they seem sometimes. Just be safe, no matter what. If there’s really danger lurking around here somewhere, we’ll figure out how to stop it,”

“You’re leaving?” I say when he turns away from me and makes for the door.

“Yeah. I have a session with the Nurse. We’ll catch up some other time,”

Arnold leaves, and like my stomach knows I’m now less busy, it reminds me of it’s needs -it rumbles. I return my focus to the empty bowl on the counter and fill it with cereal and milk. I down my breakfast while thinking of Arnold’s last words. They give me little hope that’s there's a possibility of ending all of the craziness. And if there is a chance to create normalcy around here, I’d like to take it. I think about the past security guards that have been here. Max claimed they said strange things about the place. What if he is mistaken? As far as I know, this house is no ordinary one. As far as I know, something has to be done to chase all the bad energy away from here. I’m willing to stand in the gap for the residents, but I’m going to need a lot of information. Past, present, and if possible, future information, on how to get rid of the evil that lurks around here. The question is, where do I start?

Mid day….

The house is less noisy than it was in the morning. Most of the residents are back to their lone state -staying quiet and alone in the bedrooms. I wonder what kind of joy they derive from that. I walk through the corridor looking through the rooms whose doors are open. I walk upstairs -which is something I barely do- and I find a couple rooms I haven’t seen before. There’s this one that has a small basket with pink flowers hanging over it. It attracts my attention because it’s the only door with a basket. And it’s the only door that’s left wide open. I can see the insides from where I stand and I see that it’s half empty. That probably means there’s no owner for the room.

I walk to the door to take a clearer look. The only thing in the room is a small drawer of three layers at the far end of the wall. I decide to check it out so I walk towards it. The first lawyer is completely empty, covered in nothing but dust. But the second layer has a brown folder in it. I open it up to find a bunch of old, black and white pictures. There are a lot of them, actually -the pictures- and they make the folder a little heavy for me to hold. A small wind blows into the room pushing some of the pictures at the top of the folder to the ground and because I don’t have a good grip on the folder, a couple more picture fall to the ground.

“Crap,”

I look outside to see if anyone is coming, like I committed some crime, and I start to pick the pictures up again. I grab as much as I can in my hands so as to be fast with it but just then, one of the pictures bend in my palm and falls out like a stone from a catapult -my hand serving as the catapult. I drop the folder on the floor and walk towards the fallen picture to join it with the rest but my eyes see what sends me to a frenzy.

“The hell,” I mutter.

In a way, finding this picture is good, but it sure is scaring the shit out of me. The girl. I can’t be so sure because I can’t tell the color of her hair from this black and white photo. But the height, the composure -everything is just the same. She is holding hands, in the picture, with…a man, I suppose. I can see the hand of his white shirt and black suit. But that’s all I can see because the picture is ripped. The only person fully showing in it is the girl. I look at the picture for a few more seconds with the little ounce of courage I have left in me, because boy is it hard to accept. Then I search the folder for the other part of it that was ripped. I scatter every single picture on the floor and begin to return them into the folder one after the other but this doesn’t help -I can’t find the other half.

“I need to show this to Arnold,”

I leave the empty room with the torn picture in my hand and I walk out to find Arnold. He showed me his room once but I’m not sure I can remember which one it is and I don’t want to knock on the wrong door. I head to the ground floor, at least I know it’s down there, and I look at the numbers on the door as I walk to see if I’ll be able to remember his. I walk pass two doors and on my way to the third, I hear two people in a quiet conversation.

“Isn’t that Arnold?” I sat under my breath.

“And Nurse Joy,” I hear her soft voice too.

I wonder what they’re saying and why they are speaking so quietly. I’m about to walk away so as not to interrupt their conversation, but I hear Arnold mention my name and it causes me to halt in my tracks. I lean in, closer to the door, to hear what about me he is saying. I still can’t hear enough but I pick out some words.

“He is going beyond his boundaries and that’s a problem,” Nurse Joy says.

How am I going beyond my boundaries? I just walk around the house making sure the people are safe. That’s my job. Or is it because of my visit to Mr Max’s room? I don’t even know the difference between wrong and right anymore.

Arnold speaks up and I try to pay more attention.

“Some of the things he says he sees, he’s not supposed to be seeing them. At least not this early. Do you think the house has imprinted on him?”

Imprinted on me. Oh heck no. Of all the things that could happen to me in this life, a creepy house imprinting on me should be the last. It shouldn’t even be on the list. What?! No. My mind is unable to process what Arnold just said. My stomach sinks inside me and my legs feel like cold noodles under me. What kind of luck do I have. Arnold’s voice becomes louder and it sounds like he is coming out of the room. I make to leave before they find out I was eavesdropping, but my feeble legs fail me. I stumble.

“Damn it,” I mutter.

“Ernesto?” Arnold says when he walks out of the room.

“What are you doing on the floor?”

The ripped picture is on the floor and I quickly hide it under my knee.

“Stretching a little. I feel soreness in my joints,”

Really, Ernesto. Of all the lies to tell in a time like this.

“Stretching,” Arnold echoes.

“Yeah,”

“Nurse Joy could take a look if you’d like,”

“Oh no, I’m fine, really. I’ll just return to my room and rest a little,” I get off the floor and try to take the picture with me but that doesn’t go so well. I try to get the picture from under my knee but it manages to slip off my grip,”

“What’s that?” Nurse Joy asks. Of course she’d be observant.

“A picture,” Arnold says as he needs to pick it up.

“Where did you get this?” He exchanges glances between me and the picture with his brows furrowed.

“In a room upstairs. That’s the red haired girl, isn’t it?” I say, looking at Nurse Joy because it seems she’s the one who’s more knowledgeable about her.

But she doesn’t answer. She sighs and looks away.

"Joy, if you know something, why don't you say it?" I ask.

"Because there's no point. At least to me,"

"What do you mean, there's no point? They were busy chasing me last night while the rest of you slept. I'm not sure but I think they were the ones that rendered me weak because for no known reason, I couldn't move my hands and legs easily. I tried to run for my life but I was dragging myself on the ground. In fact, Joy, I thought I was going to die,"

"Why would you think that, Ernesto?" Arnold asks.

"Because she said so. The red haired girl, she said it to me directly,"

"She said you were going to die?"

"Well it wasn't definite, but yes. She said 'you could die'. And those words pierced my chest, Arnold," I say and Arnold turns to Nurse Joy.

She shuts her eyes. She looks like she's about to give in even though she doesn't want to. I wait patiently and my patience pays off. 

"She's the owner's daughter,"

Finally! Some answer. Wait. The owner?

"What owner? The...current owner?" I ask, a part of me hoping it's not Mr Max's daughter.

"Yes. The current owner,"

"But I saw her with someone else. A male, father figure, I suppose. Wouldn't that mean her father is...."

"I don't know who the other shadow is and that's the truth. I only know about the little girl. She's Mr Max's daughter, yes, but I know Mr Max is very much with us. I watched him grieve his daughter a lot when she died and that's why I haven't been comfortable speaking about here all this while. It would be nice if you respect Mr Max too, Ernesto,"

"I want to, believe me. But it's hard to ignore any of this. I mean, why is she after me,"

"Maybe it's because you intruded her bedroom,"

"But I didn't,"

"You did. Mr Max's room used to be hers. All of her belongings are still in there. The room is sacred and no one is meant to go there. Now that you know, I hope you'll stay away. For your own good," Nurse Joy says.

Letting go is easier said than done. But I guess I'll have to try. As long as the red haired girl doesn't hurt anyone here, I guess I don't have to do so much in the end. 

I leave Nurse Joy and Arnold alone. I try not to think too much about the conversation they were having before I got here. At least, I don't have the desire to think about it now. My heart feels a little heavy. There are too many unknowns in this house to be comfortable and it saddens me. I get to the door of my room and my eyes strays to the edges that are chopped. Or were chopped. It looks good as new; all the edges are smooth. First it was the curtain turning from rags to beauties, now it's the door. 

I'm too tired to go back and ask if they changed my door or something so I just walk into my room. I lie on my bed in jealousy. Yes, I'm jealous of the same house that's after my peace and sanity.  It feels like I keep getting worse while the house gets better. If that makes sense.

"You'll do fine, Ernesto," I say to myself. "Things will change for the better, with time,"