You have talked to the dead!

Lilith went to the door next to hers, to her sister-in-law’s room. She knocked to make known of her presence but there was not a sound that responds to Lilith’s knock.

Anxious, she opened the door in worry something might have happened to the woman while she has left her unattended.

She flung the door opened but the room was empty.

Her eyes explored the corner of the room, but she was not there nor any trace of her as well as the flowers that she left on the vase.

“Ada” she yelled while chiming the rope that connects to a bell where Ada and other servants have rested at.

She continuously pulled the rope until Ada came rushing behind her, “Madam? Heaven’s sake, I thought the dead has risen! What are you doing here, madam? How did you get in?” she huffed.

“It has always been open”

“What- “

“Where did Flor go?”

“Madam?”

“Where is she? She’s unwell she—”

“Miss Flora is dead! Have been for years, madam” sweeping her sweat with the apron attached to her dress, “And we have always locked this room”

“No, she cannot be, I have tended, taken care of her for the past weeks!”

“My goodness, madam. How can that be? She had been… gone!” covering her lips in disbelief and shock. “You…have talked to the dead?” she leaned closer to Lilith.

“No, she cannot be dead” Lilith insisted.

“Oh, madam”

Her face, Lilith cannot fathom, was it joy? Worry? Disbelief? Her eyes were to be filled with tears and her wrinkling smile line have emphasized. If Lilith could describe, she looked rather desperate in her eyes.

Ada was about to say something, as she opened her mouth but retreated quickly and swept away the tears from her eyes.

Gulping, she said “Well, if there is nothing more, I will be downstairs cleaning the library” she bowed and left.

Lilith plopped on the bed, Even Ada said she is…dead. Well, it would make sense, how she suddenly disappeared. Maybe she is? No, cannot be. Although her belief was somehow infected by irrationality, and superstition.

Ghosts and other living creatures are only absurdities and mere superstitions to her which she did not believe. Her belief stayed strong in her mind; she lived her life rationalizing everything,. A single noise from the kitchen? Lilith would have checked it and get a baseball bat to ‘greet’ the 'visitor' in her house, in the middle of the night.

She had always had a strong heart and a strong mind; she does not believe a mere ghost would haunt her for no definite reason, nor did it occur to her when similar situation befalls to her in the city life.

But not in here, the mansion is located in a rural area. The mansion is filled with wonder Lilith could not fathom each one. So many oddities have happened that her brain could not even process.

Maybe they’re right…

Even upon having a glint of belief, Lilith feared not of her sister-in-law. As she remembered the words Flor had left to her.

‘I’ll be with you always. You are a good woman’ it could have sounded something chilling after being informed that the woman had been dead, that a ghost has left words to her, as if a binding curse, but not for Lilith.

She saw the face of the woman in which they claim dead, gave warmth expression as they utter those words. Lilith was not afraid of ghost, not to Flor, at least.

She whispered, “If I really do have that ability, I wish to meet my husband again” She rubbed the

metallic ring on her finger, and softly kissed it.

Looking back, she examined once more the room before plugging the door closed.

The boot pounded on the wooden stair that noised the quiet mansion. She headed directly to the library and explored the wall full of books, a section for the living dead, ghosts, and other fantastical superstition that she once did not believe, something similar to sorts.

After brushing her hand and grasping on the book that caught her attention, she pulled it out and sat on one of the sofas that lied especially for reading. Nearby a table and a lamp, with picture frames and such, she began reading the content of the thick book.

Although she planned to read such, she discarded the thought of finding one for the book’s cover as well as its title, which piqued her interest. Something crawled and touched her heart as she read the book ‘lead me to the mansion’

The reading consumed her day, she had her lunch in the library, glued in the fantastic book she had picked. Mesmerized by the profound words the author of the book had constantly used in his work. Lilith was completely emerged reading the book.

She had turned on the near lamp by the table, for the window behind her supplied no light anymore, and rather darkness of the outside.

As she reaches for her tea cup, she had picked it but was surprised when she sipped but not a drop had fallen on her parched lips. It was evening now, she realized.

She gazed on the window behind her, supposedly to gaze at the beauty of dusk. A shadow figure had its right hand leaning on the glass, caught by Lilith’s peripheral view on the window.

It grinned.

Lilith stood up from her seat while glued her eyes to the window, but it vanished as she blinked. It wasn’t a dream! Backing away, Lilith fumbled her hands on the table and had closed the book unintentionally.

Tempted to move, she dared not to leave her sight on the window where the shadow was at. She yelled for Stewt. Since it is becoming evening soon, Stewt should be awake by now. She called for him from the library.

“Madam!” a response from afar.

“Here, in the library!” she yelled back.

The boy made his way to the library, huffing from all those exercises for him, “Yes, madam?”

“Nothing, I don’t know I felt the sudden need of accompany” she patted the boy’s shoulder. Hiding the fact that for a moment, she had seen the shadow, wearing a mask of Stewt's face.

The sight plagued her mind, but she did not dare inform it to the boy.

Stewt saluted and proudly to Lilith, “At your service, madam!”