Chuy, the head servant silently roams the hall just across the dining room where the visitors of the stone house are gathered. He carefully walks through the wooden floor as he leaps through the dining room. For decades that he has been working in the stone house, he still puts an effort until this day to make his footsteps as light as possible and as inaudible as possible out of fear of waking the residents; though his age and his frailty challenges him now.
From where he is walking, he hears murmurs coming from the asotea. He pauses walking to confirm the voices that he hears, even halting his own breaths to take a clearer understanding of the murmurs. He confirms the voices coming from the asotea of a man and a woman.
Chuy hides in the dim part of the living room, behind the shrubs as he takes a glance at them and listens stoically;
"I have not been called that name for long," a lady whispers,
"I knew it was you, Nimfa," a young man responds
The lady is still standing with her back against him.
"This will be the last instance that you will refer to me with that name, Teo," she pauses, "And nobody should know that you and I have known each other,"
"Nimfa," Teo whispers,
"Segnor, I appreciate your assistance in finding the lavatory. Old house this big gives me constant creeps which I could not explain," Ana Rosa responds politely without looking at Teo
This acts as a signal to the young man to step back and decides to leave the woman alone. With a final glance at the lady;
"Apologies, Segnora Ana Rosa"
Teo steps in towards the direction of the dining hall.
Ana Rosa gently clutches the hem of her frock before she takes air in. She feels her lungs contracting caused by the unexpected confrontation she had with her husband's nephew. She releases heavy breaths one after another when she notices a movement in the shrubs near the asotea. As she gazes at the shrubs, she thinks she sees a pair of eyes peeking through the spaces in the leaves. These eyes are staring at her, at least that is what she thinks. The fright that rushes through her causes her to take a step back into the railing of the terrace with her eyes still locks at the shrubs. From where she is now standing, she feels the cold wind embracing her which adds chills to the fright that has been building up inside her.
With her right hand, she traces the railings of the terrace. With it, she guides herself and reaches a dead end that makes her to turn around. Before her she sees the vast rice fields still damp from the storm. Heavy winds continue to hit her delicate face, as strands of her hair glides along the wind. Ana Rosa looks far into the horizon and sees rice paddies seem glowing at a distance. But not far from where she is standing, she sees another image. A dark image, or a shadow she supposes, standing in the fields, with only its dirty cloaks peeling out of the paddies.
The shadowy figure is concealed by the rice fields but Ana Rosa is sure of what she is seeing. A figure covered in rugged garbs is in there looking up at her. It's face is covered in dirty cloaks with only its eyes bared, piercing through the fields. The shadowy figure makes sudden movements further concealing itself into the fields
This causes the woman to lose herself and gives in to the fright that she has been trying to fight off. Ana Rosa lets out a piercing shriek as she steps back into the asotea with her scream echoing through the stone house