Malik really felt like he could be dead.
The entire world around him was different now, with a new set of rules and creatures that had been wanting to hunt him down, and he was stuck in a room with a little, old lady, staring at a fire.
He brought a hand up to his face and found it wet.
Oh.
So that's where all his emotions had gone. That's why he felt so hollow and empty inside.
"You said that there was a way to leave this place," Malik mumbled out to the lady, hoping that she would answer him and take his mind off his current living situation.
"Mm, yes. I did," she replied.
Malik was dimly surprised that he hadn't thrown up yet, considering everything that had just happened to him. He resisted the temptation to look at his fingers again. He resisted the urge to feel over the wound that had killed him again.
There was no point anymore. He was dead.
"So, what is it?" Malik asked of her, his voice slightly stronger this time.
He was beginning to feel so tired.
"There is a ceremony that you can take part in, upstairs: The Circle of Dead Chairs," the old lady replied, beginning to stare off into the fire.
Malik wondered why she, herself, hadn't taken part in the ceremony, considering she was dead and all, and was still here, looking to have been in this room for much longer than he had been in this house.
"What do you do in it?" Malik asked her instead.
If she didn't want to move on out of his haunted house, than she was free to do so. It didn't matter to him. He wanted to get out of here.
"You sit in a circle with all the other people who have volunteered to take part on wooden chairs and holding a candle, and confess your greatest sin to them, and bear their judgement. If you do that, then you vanish from the house forever."
Malik liked that Mrs Drumming was quick and concise. She got to the point without any hassle. He could appreciate that.
"Does the judgements have any impact?" Malik asked, trying to make his tone more polite, but failing to remove the subdued emotions he was feeling from his voice.
"I do not know," she shot back too quickly.
Malik's eyes snapped open now.
She either did know, or her not knowing was something that she was sensitive about. Either way, she sounded as if she wouldn't give any information away on the subject any further.
"What about the monsters?" Malik asked her instead, shifting topics, hoping that she would be more generous with her information on something else.
"I do not know the specifics, but I can certainly give you to somebody who has more knowledge of them. He was a scientist, when he was alive, you see. He claims that he would not be satisfied leaving this place, if he had not studied and catalogued every portion and part of the manor," Mrs Drumming decided to impart.
Malik could tell that she was not telling him all that she knew.
"So don't include the specifics. What about the monsters?" he decided to pry into her.
"They reflect some aspect of your actions in your previous life," she snapped back at him, her beady eyes shining in the darkness above him.
She looked even more like a threatening raven or crow, even closer up, her face twisting as if she really was a bird about to peck at his insides, and at his face and brain.
She wasn't a threat though, being an old woman.
"There's more you haven't told me," Malik warned her, turning his face to stare into her eyes.
He may not actually be very capable at glaring people down, but staring into a person's eyes could scare them just enough to make them do as he wished, like when he had to keep three year olds running around the sweet section in line, or wannabe shoplifting teenagers.
Malik continued staring into her eyes, waiting for her answer and watched her do the same to him, only she was able to pull off a proper mean glare.
Her anger was no match for what his Grandma was capable of. Whenever he had tried to outrun Grandma, everything that she threw at him had the power to travel around corners. Nothing could beat the fear that she could put into people, whether they be the business of men of more wealthy establishments who had criticised her Christmas ornaments, or the gossiping ladies down the street who found her prices too high, complained every time, yet still kept coming back out of convenience.
Nothing could beat Grandma's glare.
And he'd never be able to see it again now.
Malik wasn't phased by anything that this old lady could throw at him.
"I cannot be certain about the scientist's words," she eventually settled on.
Malik had honestly been expecting a bit more of a fight, as he watched her turn away from him and towards the door.
"All I know is that thing come out at midnight and vanishes again at sunrise. It can not get into the rooms, but it can chase you upstairs. It is sometimes blind, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes, it is deaf, and sometimes, it is not. They are extremely quick, but a little stupid. Outrunning them is not possible. You are safe in these rooms. They won't come in if the door is locked, but if left unlocked, they have a chance of getting in, and..." the lady paused, her voice trailing off, staring off into the darkness and towards the barricaded door.
"So why do you keep your door unlocked?" Malik asked her back.
"There are people like you who need help from people like me," the lady gritted out, her hands beginning to strain and form into fists.
Malik knew that she was lying.
She had on purposely kept her door unlocked. She had only mentioned the one monster that had prowled around outside. She did not trust some supposed scientist about them, yet she was at least able to give fine detail about them.
She knew about the ritual to pass on from this place, but she hadn't undergone it.
"What happens if the monster gets you then?" Malik asked her, keeping his eyes locked on her hands, judging her emotional reactions.
He may not be so safe anymore, trapped in this room with this insane woman. He may not be able to sleep tonight with her around.
"I don't know," she whispered out, her voice wheezing and rasping, with age and grief.
"There was a woman here, once. On one of the nights, she wanted to attempt the ritual, but left too late, on her own, after the others had already left for it. The monster caught her leg. She began screaming out what was happening to her. She was dragged into the wall, where the monster came from, and then she just started screaming. She kept screaming until her voice broke. She sounded like she was being tortured, and we never saw her again."
Malik let her have her moment of silence, letting the crackle of the fireplace be the only sound in the room.