160. A haunted house, 1

(Rose)

A storm caught us. A downpour is soaking us thoroughly. The day is dark as night. The clouds hide the sun, only letting thunder strike down from time to time.

This rain is freezing cold and after an hour I'm exhausted already.

We're still going southward, I think? The water on the roads moves like waves under the wind. I cough up water every minute or so.

We need somewhere to shelter. We need one since the storm began, and I've looked for anything since then, without any luck yet.

Finally I see a place to take shelter from the storm. A house still standing by the side of the road. One that remains in a far better shape than its collapsed neighbours.

I get to the door and unfortunately, it's locked. Since I do not expect anyone to still live within, I ask Blume to see if she can open it.

Her vines slither out from my clothes while the rain is showering me. She's not sure what to do actually. I thought she would be able to unlock it with her magic, but it's not that easy.

I resort to violence and try to open the door with my shoulder over a few tries. It doesn't move, but my shoulder does.

A door that was able to withstand the apocalypse obviously won't fail against my light frame and damp shoulders.

While I try to break the lock with my knife, she looks at it and around.

R - What's wrong?

B - I feel something strange about this place. Something I've never seen before and I cannot quite tell what it is.

R - Is it dangerous? Should we go elsewhere to dry?

I'm almost yelling to hear myself through the rain. It's either there or nowhere in sight anyway.

B - It doesn't look obviously dangerous but I truly don't know what is that thing I detect inside.

R - It's rare from you not to have a clue. It's worth being curious. Come on, help me open this!

I feel my body moving differently. Blume takes partial control. I step back and let her move me.

She's suddenly launching my foot and leg against the door in a kick so violent that the door and its frame finally move. The lock then moves inside, and the door opens. My hips hurt.

I rush inside and close the door behind me.

We're in utter darkness of an unknown place. It smells like old dust. But at least, it's dry.

~

I've lift my lighter and set it on the wooden floor of this hall. All we can see around is darkness. All we can hear is the storm, very close.

First, I unpack and undress. I get as much water as I can, out from my clothes. Blume is almost fully regrown in a new way. She hides these kind of ropes, vines, within my body, in places I cannot really see or feel. She comes out if needed only, through that remaining wound on my chest, but also my back, close to my shoulders. And she said she can come out from almost anywhere else, in case of emergency. Yikes.

Some vines remain like ribbons around my body, she's grown enough for that. Everything remains under my clothes, but that part is not under my skin.

When I undress, these odd ribbons around my waist, my legs, my arms and my chest, they all come down and loose, and regroup around my chest they grew from, in the shape of a rosebush where buds remains visible.

R - I like ribbons and that I didn't feel you around as I moved. You still want to grow more?

B - I've yet to finish the ones hidden within you, otherwise I think that's good. I miss the flowers too though.

R - They'll be back next spring. Now, let us see what lies here that you couldn't understand.

I dressed with lighter clothes. I have an electrical torchlight, with those odd tiny yet powerful and resilient bluish lamps. I inspect the shades and discover a typical haunted house. I feel a thrill as I gaze at endless spider webs all around the walls, centuries old furniture and other old items set around.

As I step aside from my lighter left on the ground, I hear the wooden floor make some sounds that old houses do.

R - Please don't tell me what you detected was a ghost...

B - Behind you...

She whispered it in a way so spooky that I jumped around, shivering. But there's nothing to see. She's trembling though? No, she's laughing. Why you!

I slap gently the odd shape she makes around my cleavage. Bad flower, bad. She moves around and the bush disappears, as she straightened herself in ribbons again, and covers my waist like a scarf would. She does keep my belly warmer actually.

Joke aside I kind of expect to meet a ghost now.

Blume isn't sure about where is the thing bugging her perceptions.

B - It's more a feeling I had, or a smell, than something clear I saw accurately. All I could think was, what is that? It doesn't remind me of anything.

R - Then let's search for it. But no more ghost jokes mean little flower.

We open the doors that creak horribly, leading us to a dining room. Perfect.

The style of the house is really old. My friends have very modern houses, with lots of glass and electrical appliances, even if they don't use them much.

Here, it's many centuries older in style. I don't see any screen anywhere. Actually, the style of the furniture reminds me of my old home. Though I didn't buy as many chandeliers as they did here. I did make many more fireplaces built though, and I don't see any here. It was probably a mix of old and new at the time.

We pass by old decrepit places, but without anything unusual. Except the amount of cobwebs, and no spider to see anywhere.

By the kitchen on the back of the house, a door leads to an inside garden. I take a look through the window since that door doesn't open. It's dark in the patio, and the rain is falling right through that little roofless square. Actually, it really falls through. There's no ground stopping the rain there, since I see no puddle below. It's a hole leading deeper down...

My torch can't see the bottom from here. I can see the other walls around this patio or false inner garden at this level, and the clouded sky above, leaden and angry. What lies below is a mystery.

I search for the stairway leading downstairs, and cannot find it. There's one going up, but none going below.

What?

I make another round across of every room on the ground floor, looking for the stairs or any door I would have missed.

When I reach the hall again, I'll go up if there's definitely no way to go down from here. We might as well see what's on the floor above our heads.

I take a closer look at the walls, but the only hidden door I found were leading to a broom closet and disgusting toilets. There was a mud and mushrooms inside, and little frogs lived there. Their eyes reflecting the light spooked me. I guess this place is a nest to them they can reach through sewer pipes. Smart.

I reach the hall again. My bag has moved and my lighter is gone. I'm a little scared now. Looking around, I see that the clothes I hanged to dry are gone too.

What?

R - Blume, are you pulling a prank on me? I'm no longer in the mood.

B - This wasn't me, sorry. I'll be more cautious about what's around don't worry.

She slithers around my limbs. We're walking together almost.

Since all the doors on the ground floor creak, that might have gone upstairs.

So I climb very carefully, torch in hand, knife in the other. My heartbeat is strong.

I hear someone sobbing. A cold shiver runs through my spine. I whisper to Blume.

R - Does this sound human to you?

B - I'm almost certain there is no human but you in here...

But I do hear a sob, turning into crying. As I go for the first door, I hear footsteps running away from the door in the room behind. The laugh I heard next was probably just my imagination.

Because this somehow reminds me a lot of my youth at home...

I used to hear my sisters run and laugh or cry behind every door, even in the middle of the night. The eldest of my younger sisters could have such a sinister laugh at times, it spooked us all, and made us laugh.

She loved playing the maniacal villain, and she was impressively good at it.

I enter the room, but she's not there of course. Thank goodness...

The bed is less dusty. I see footsteps in the dirt, running toward the wall on the side.

I'm swallowing my saliva without ease. I am spooked. I still go take a look very carefully.

The walls corner actually has an opening, narrow, leading to a room behind. A piece of wall is missing in the angle and someone very slim can go through.

I go back and go to check the room behind. The other door is rather far along that creepy corridor. Lightning strikes and I gasp.

I open the door during the rumble from thunder, and I see a human silhouette standing on the bed, and suddenly screaming at me. I scream too and fall backward.

The door shuts itself in front of me.

Ok, now I'm really feeling uneasy.

R - What was that!

B - I honestly don't know.

R - You're joking, right?

B - I wouldn't. I don't really share your fear but by your sensations I realise how scared you are. What I can tell you is that it's not human despite the look.

R - Then what is it, if not one of you!

B - That's the thing. It shows no energy the likes of me would use. It looks as empty as the furniture around us to me, in term of radiating energy...

R - Shit...

I stand up, my heart beating fast and my butt hurting me from the fall.

I tremble as I go back to open the door. I'm almost ready to fight anything that would jump at me.

The room is now empty. Figures...

I look around. The bed here too seems less dusty, as if recently used. Footsteps and drops of water lead to the corner of the room again, on the other side.

Of course, she went back to the other room through that gap.

Something still isn't right. The room doesn't look like what I saw through the gap in the wall before. I go look in the corner here and realise there's a third room hidden between these two.

My house was definitely less spooky, even with me and my three sisters playing as ghosts to scare each other inside, on nights our parents were gone.

As I look inside that room, a face comes yelling at me. Not a 'boo', something more abstract. But enough to make me gasp strongly and jump abruptly.

Then I do hear a laugh, and footsteps, disappearing downstairs.

It's mocking me... Like her.

I notice my lighter on the ground there. It did take it.

I stretch an arm and ask Blume to grab it. Her vine leaves my arm and stretches. She's about to grab it, when a hand suddenly snatches the lighter away. Then the vine gets bitten and I feel a sharp pain running through my nerves. Blume pulls back quickly.

R - I felt that! It bit us!

B - Sorry, I needed to grow some nerves in my body. They're still an extension of your body though.

R - I noticed! But what is that thing? It really acts human. Though childish.

Blume is not sure.

I hear the footsteps heading down and below again.

I now look for the way inside the hidden room.

The vine bitten isn't wounded but it still hurts. Unlike her previous body, this one is truly sensitive and a part of me.

It moves far quicker too.

In the first room, I find the hidden door behind shelves. They hold no book but old plastic discs that shine with interesting nacre colours.

I open the door to a narrow room that is mostly a thin corridor and the abrupt stairways heading down, down to the basement.

As I head down, I notice spots of humidity around the stairs. It took my wet clothes down there too. What for?

In the basement, there's an opened vault door. It's rusty and very thick.

A bank vault?

It looks less interesting around here. The walls are plain, sad, and the furniture inexistent. This place has less style.

Inside the vault, another stairway goes further down...

There it begins to look far less fun.

I distinguish clearly visible marks of nails against the inner vault door, and along the walls inside.

There are stains on the stairs that are not from humidity only.

Something horrible happened here. And something remains.

The stairs going further down are dirty with marks of human presence, and demise.

I reach another heavy door at the end, also left open. Behind it I hear sobbing again. I go in. My light sees the girly silhouette running away while I hear it giggling.

This place is like half a floor of the house. There's a wall surrounding the patio still. She went behind the corner. I go after her.

I reach the final room. The wall to the inner garden is broken apart, and a pool is gathering the water.

Some kind of giant mushroom grows next to it, with roots stretching into the water.

The silhouette is hiding in a corner, behind the large thing, like an animal.

As I ask her, my flower assures me she detects nothing harmful coming from it. There's something she cannot understand standing there however. It looks human. It's not.

As I get closer, I realise that the mushroom is actually an enormous amount of flesh, pressed together in a giant meatball, that goes gelatinous in surface. I begin to recognise bones of various natures protruding from it or just beneath the surface, and clothing too...

That large pile of flesh is starting to decay and has a very large hollow, larger than a human being.

I begin to get it.

This was an incubator. An egg...

An egg for this?

The human silhouette now looks scared of me and tries to hide, holding onto my wet clothes.

I stop, a little sad. I pity that thing scared of the light. It never left the nest, even though it probably was a recent birth given the little decay.

I remember Blume saying that beings-like-her crave humanity, they're envious of human life and try to get closer to it very naturally, intuitively.

That one before me seem like a good example of this. Like Blume, she's working her way toward becoming more human, though in a very different way.

That thing is scared, trying to crawl behind the broken egg of dead flesh and into a corner of the walls. I wonder if I can help or tame a little this odd being?

~

I wait and sit, but it remains scared of me. It doesn't reply to me. My calls remain unanswered. I don't get closer, not to panic her more than she already is.

The storm is still raging outside, the rain falling into the pond here.

I end up making a bet and shut my light off. We go back into the darkness of a cave, barely opened to the sky through the patio.

Which reminds me that with the strong door at the entrance, there was no way out from this house for that thing...

I hear her move. She moves in the dark mostly. My torchlight did scare her. I see her eyes glint through the dark, more like an animal than a human. Those are the eyes of a nocturnal animal.

She steps slowly closer to me, as I wait, sitting on a rubble. My knife is attached to my leg. I'm unharmed.

She looks at me, cautious. I smile and say hi.

She jumps at me and pushes me down to the ground. I'm ready to defend myself if needed, and so is Blume, but she doesn't attack nor bites me.

All she does now is laugh. Sitting over me, holding my shirt, she's laughing.

I wonder what is so funny.

She comes closer and takes a few more whiffs at me, with animal curiosity it seems. Her hair falling onto my face is tickling me.

I grab her wrist and begin to stand up. She giggles and doesn't run away anymore.

Now she's sitting like me, right in front of me. Her eyes are piercing me. She never blinks.

I ask her a few things but all she does is giggle and smirk as if something she can't say was incredibly funny.

She cannot contain her laughter anymore and burst out laughing again.

She's laughing very loudly in the middle of the storm, in a gruesome basement where she was probably born, alone.

She's probably lost, yet she finds the situation instinctively more amusing than anything that could ever be in her mind.

I end up lighting my torchlight again, through a cloth to soften the light.

She gasps at it but stays there.

I can see her face calmly at last.

Its shape was fuzzy, uneven, uncanny. Now it's calm, and my heart skips a beat.

I thought she looked somewhat familiar...

But this much familiar looking is unsettling...

~