"My name is Rosemary. Call me Rose," she said.
"That's a pretty name," I said.
Rose nodded and smiled. "Well, my time is up for today. The sun is setting and I should really prepare myself."
I expected her to finish her sentence. Like, okay? Prepare herself for what? Bed? I just assumed it was bed, as it made the most sense to me. I had wondered if she lived in the mansion, but I didn't want to ask those questions yet. She waved goodbye to us then started walking forward, away from us and away from the mansion until we could no longer see her.
***
We were allowed to see our rooms after supper. That's what Mr. Harmon told us.
We were all now sitting down, waiting for the food to be served. Caleb was too small for the chairs which were for people my size or taller if you wanted to actually reach the table. This dinner table was twice the size of my old bed. It was so huge. There were four chairs on each of the table's sides and at the end of the table were Mr. and Mrs. Harmon's chair. Caleb was told to eat on the couch by the TV in the living room, a privilege we had never gotten back at home. I sat at the table with the Harmon's. We were quiet, and it felt bit awkward until the food was ready.
...
The food was great. I couldn't believe Mrs. Harmon cooked this wonderful meal all by herself. I thanked her for the food.
"You're welcome," she said. "So, tell us about yourself, Emily."
I didn't go into too much detail about myself. I just talked about my love for sports, video games, shopping, going out with friends, and oh I almost forgot, hide and seek.
When I said hide and seek, they looked at me like, isn't she a little too old to play hide and seek? That's what most adults think for a fourteen-year-old. I told them that I don't like just regular hide and seek. I prefer hide and seek in the dark. They seemed intrigued by this statement.
Mr. Harmon cleared his throat and linked his hands together.
"Well, I can assure you that there will be no hide and seek in this house. The house is far too big for that and someone could get hurt or lost. My art could get destroyed. I wouldn't want any accidents."
To be honest, this fact made me mad. It upset me to know that I couldn't play my favorite game in my new house, with my new foster parents. It was silly to ban hide and seek. It's not dangerous.
I controlled my anger and nodded my head. There was no one to play hide and seek with anyway, so I just accepted this. I guess I would just have to find something else to do.
Without notice, I started to cry. I wish my parents were still alive. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to be at home where I could play hide and seek with Abby.
Chapter 5: "Sure"
After excusing myself from the table, I went into the living room with Caleb, and we watched TV until we were called upstairs to the second floor by the Harmon's. Once upstairs, Mr. Harmon took Caleb by the hand and told him to look at his new room. Mrs. Harmon and I followed them inside.
Caleb and I gasped at the same time as looked around his new room, his aquarium and dinosaur themed room.
He had his own king sized bed, way bigger than his old bed. It consisted of dinosaur sheets, blankets, and T-Rex shaped pillows. The walls were blue, green, and painted with all sorts of wild forest colors. To the side of his bed stood a huge lava lamp that almost reached the ceiling. Around his room were all sorts of toys, planes, race cars. There were even model cars like Dad used to have.
Caleb was smiling from ear to ear. I knew he was still sad about losing Mom and Dad, but right now, he was happy, and it made me happy that he was.
Mrs. Harmon called me over. She said we would a look at my new room now.
The room was painted light pink with purple polka dots in all sizes all over the wall. My bed was queen sized with pastel blankets and pillows. There were a few toys, like electronic cars and planes, stuff I actually liked. I don't know how the Harmon's knew I liked that kind of stuff, but I've always preferred it over toys. There was a huge makeup kit on the desk and few books for writing poetry. There were also paint supplies. Like Caleb, I got a lava lamp, except mine was pink and his was red.
"We hope you like it dear," Mrs. Harmon said.
I turned to her noticing her arms were out for a hug. I nearly started crying. She hugged me.
"If you ever need anything, just tell me. I'm here," she said while stroking my hair.
Caleb and Mr. Harmon came inside my room. We thanked the Harmon's for everything. They suggested that we get ready for bed because it was late and that we would have all the time in the world to play and enjoy our new rooms tomorrow.
***
I think it's completely safe to say that I'm really depressed right now. Getting over my parents was not going to be easy. I started to cry. I didn't mean to either.
I stopped crying when my door opened and I saw a short Silhouette standing in my doorway.
"Caleb?" I asked, getting up.
"I'm scared," he said, not coming into the room. "Can you come sleep with me?"
Before I could answer, Caleb walked away into the darkness. I went after him. I looked to the left and saw his silhouette walking in the wrong direction and toward the stairs. Of course, I rushed over to stop him. I didn't want him to fall and break his neck. It was pretty dark. By now, I figured that Caleb was sleep walking. His room was actually in the other direction. It was hard catching up with Caleb because it was too dark and I couldn't find a light switch around. I finally got by the stairs where Caleb was waiting. It was still hard to see him. I took his hand and carefully started leading him toward his room, quietly.
"Your hands are so cold," I said to him.
He didn't answer me.
"Caleb? Are you awake?" I asked, looking down at him now, trying to see if his eyes were open, but it didn't seem like they were.
"Hey? Caleb? Are you awake?" I asked again.
"Sure..."
I don't think I'll ever forget that terrifying sound. Till this day, it still bothers me. That wasn't Caleb. The voice I heard was slow and grim and sounded a bit like an old dying woman. Scratch that, two dying women. I definitely heard more than one voice. I started to back away and as I did, I saw two eyes open, staring right back at me. These eyes started to rise higher and higher until there were just two eyes floating over me.
My body wanted to collapse. I screamed and as soon as I did the eyes vanished, just like that. The lights on the third floor came on. The Harmon's ran out of their room and toward me, asking me what happened.
***
It was hard for me to explain everything, but I managed. Mrs. Harmon sat next to me on my bed with a cup of juice. She was telling me that it was probably nothing. She started going on about how maybe I'm just too stressed out and that I'm seeing/imagining things.
She offered to sleep with me, but that made me feel a bit awkward, so I declined. She went back to bed. I tried to go back to sleep but it just wasn't happening. I didn't exactly want to stay awake either. This was going to be a long night.
Chapter 6: Nightmare
The last four days had been completely normal. I learned to get more comfortable in our new house. I also noticed that the Harmon's weren't around all that often. Mr. Harmon stayed in his room or in his workplace, while Mrs. Harmon spent most of her time in the garden or in her room cracking up at some talk shows. I've been starting to feel lonely lately. I mean, can you blame me? I wasn't in school yet, no one lived close to the Harmon's, and I had no one to do anything with. I couldn't even play hide and seek! Even Caleb avoided me. He spent most of his time playing with his toys or his scooter, which he found out was electric. Whenever he saw Mr. Harmon, he'd get excited and would follow him around. Mr. Harmon seemed to like that because he would take Caleb's hand and they would walk around and talk.
Bored out of my mind, I decided to go to the garden. Mrs. Harmon was there watering the plants. She looked exhausted. I went over to her and asked her if she needed help.
"Why, thank you,
" she said, standing up and wiping her forehead. "This is the last one. Boy, even though I love flowers, I sometimes regret buying and growing so many."
I smiled. "Yeah, it looks pretty tiring."
She sat the flower sprinkler on the ground and wiped the dirt off of her hands using a rag that she carried on her shoulder.
"I wish Mr. Harmon would let us hire someone to do this, but he's so worried about people stealing from him. We've had some occasions like that," she said.
Okay. In my, mind I was thinking, but they have someone...right? I needed to ask because I already met their gardener, Rose. She was here, watering the plants and talking to me. Even Caleb saw her.
"I thought you had a gardener," I said, realizing my voice shook as I spoke. "I mean, Caleb and I met her. She was out here watering the plants like you do. She said her name was Rosemary."
Mrs. Harmon looked at me like she was unsure if she should believe me or not. She opened her mouth to speak then closed it and nodded. "Rosemary, huh? She was our old gardener. She's been doing that for some time. I think it's time for a restraining order," she said with a laugh.
I laughed too. "Wow." I felt better knowing that now.
"If anyone ever comes here, just come inside ASAP," she said in a serious tone. "Don't talk to them. People often come here and I can't say if they're all friendly or not. We have some priceless things in this house so if you ever see anyone around just come on inside and let us know. Got it, peanut?"
My mom used to call me peanut too. My small smile was replaced with a frown. I scratched my hair a bit then nodded.
"You okay?" she asked, placing her hand on my shoulder.
"I think so," I replied. "I was wondering if we would start school in September. I think I'm just a bit lonely and need some friends."
"Of course, you will start school. Mr. Harmon already hired some teachers for you and Caleb. You two will be home-schooled," she said.
Ew, I thought. I did not want to be home-schooled.
"But...but what about having friends?" I argued.
"Well,, no one lives close enough. Besides, friends aren't going to help you be successful in life. A good education will," she said, looking at the house. She then turned her gaze back to me. "A good education will make you successful."
My eyes widened at her statement. It upset me more than it should have. That was a bunch of nonsense. Sadly, before I could say anything, she started toward the house.
"Gotta start dinner now, darling," she called to me before walking inside the house.
***
I woke up in the middle of the night. I was sitting on a chair and in front of me was my window. The outside seems to be zoomed in at me. The moon was a huge ball of white perfection. The light from the moon made the garden glow. It was truly beautiful.
All of a sudden, a man walked into the garden. He was dragging a woman around by her hair. Her screams were terribly loud. She struggled to get away from him, trying to pry his hands off of her. He dropped her to the ground and started beating her face with a rock he had picked up off the ground. He yelled words of hatred, but I could only hear her screaming. She screamed and screamed as he beat the life out of her.
Then i t was over.
That was when the man looked into the window that I was sitting in front of. My eyes widened and my heart started racing.
He stood up and balled his hands into fists. That was when I saw his face. It was Mr. Harmon. His angry face stared at my terrified face through the window.
"WHY WERE YOU WATCHING?" he yelled. He started to yell words of hatred and ran back toward the house until I couldn't see him anymore.
I couldn't seem to sit up. I could only look out the window. My body sat there, completely paralyzed. I yelled for help, but my voice was muffled and unclear for some reason. Somewhere behind me, I heard footsteps approaching me. I felt the presence of someone behind me. The figure walked out in front of me. It wasn't Mr. Harmon. It was a girl. She stood there, mouthing words that I couldn't make out.
I can't explain how horrified I was. There was a time in my life where I never would have imagined something like this happening. I could tell that it was a girl, I was sure of that, but get this. Her hair was ripped out in patches. There were some long, bald, and short strands of hair. Her face had some serious deep slashes where the blood dripped out of them and onto the floor. Her body, well I couldn't see it due to the darkness of my room.
By now, I was starting to feel my body loosen from the paralysis. The girl was still mouthing words to me. As soon I realized I could move, I got up from the chair. I ran outside of my room and into the hallway. I bumped into a silhouette about my size. I looked behind me to find the girl slowly walking toward me. There were male voices screaming my name from downstairs. It was Mr. Harmon. So far, I was dealing with a girl, a silhouette and an angry, crazy Mr. Harmon. I closed my eyes because, well what else could I do?
I woke up in my bed looking around like crazy. The sun had just risen and everything in my room was normal. There was sweat on my forehead. My heart felt heavy. I told myself over and over again that it was just a dream. But it felt so real. Too real. However, I was thankful it was just a dream. I tried to shake it off, but my horror quickly became a reality. In my room, in front of the window, was a chair. As I edged toward the chair from my bed, I saw the footprints on the floor begin to fade.
The footprints weren't the only thing fading. The blood was being sucked into the floor.
And just like that, the footprints and the blood are completely gone, leaving behind no sign of their prescence.
Chapter 7: I Decided to Explore
I never got over that nightmare. I tried to tell Mrs. Harmon about it but she proclaimed that I still wasn't over my parent's death. Like that made any sense.
As the weeks passed, Caleb and Mr. Harmon got close. While Caleb, Mrs. Harmon, and I just became more distant from each other. Mr. Harmon never really associated with me except for a "Hey!" and "How are you?" every now and then. I think Mrs. Harmon was just annoyed with me at this point. Caleb on the other hand... I don't get why he doesn't talk to me anymore. He doesn't even say hi or bye. He talks to the Harmon's as if they are his best friends. I didn't worry too much about them. Mrs. Harmon did buy me a phone and a laptop two days ago. She even got Abby's number for me. This made me feel less lonely. Abby and I often text . We even got Snapchat. I snapped her pictures of the place. She screen-shotted them, saying the mansion was so beautiful.
***
Two months with the Harmon's now and things have just been the same routines for me, although Mrs. and Mr. Harmon have been arguing often. Why? No clue. I've been super bored and besides Abby, I had no one to talk to. When I'm outside, I often try to locate the abandoned house that was out in the distance back when Caleb and I first arrived. Whenever I saw it, I thought about going over there. It looked pretty cool.
Today I was in the garden when I heard a noise behind me. I looked behind me and to my surprise, I saw Rosemary. She started watering some plants.
"How are you, dear?" she asked.
I stood up and told her I was fine then start heading back towards the house. I was going to tell Mrs. Harmon she was here but I changed my mind. I wanted to ask her some things. I walked back toward her.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked.
She watered more plants and said sure.
"Do you know why that house down there is abandoned?" I asked.
"I'm surprised they didn't tell you," she said. "That's Mr. Harmon's first house. He lived there since he was a kid."
"Really?" I said. "It looks awful now."
"Well, there was an accident. His parents died there. They were murdered, to be exact," she said, paying attention to me now.
"How?" I asked.
"I don't know. No one really knows how," she said. "But Mr. Harmon wasn't killed."
There was a moment of silence between us.
"When you worked here, did anything ever
strike you as odd?" I asked her.
"Worked, huh?" she asked with a chuckled. "I guess they told you they've fired me?"
I scratched the back of my head while giving her a fake smiled. "Yeah."
"Yes, he did," she said.
"Oh." I said.
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