Lizzy and I had always wanted to sneak into the house three blocks from our new home to really see who lives there. It was a beautiful bungalow with a vegetable garden in front.
For the whole one year and eight months we've been in the area, we've never laid eyes on anyone stepping out of the house but the garden has never been overgrown with weeds. When we asked around, everyone looked at us like we both had gone crazy just by asking and that alone had sparked our curiosity.
One night when everyone was asleep, we had tiptoed out of the house. On getting there, I had warned Lizzy in a hushed whisper not to make a sound no matter what. We tried one of the windows and with luck it was unlocked. We quietly sneaked in and to our surprise the window was connected to a bedroom having a huge bed in the center of the room.
The room had an air of luxury and cleanliness to it. I'd say someone had been cleaning and dusting the furniture every day. Since the room was empty, we stepped out of the room quietly into a dark corridor with only the ambience of the lamp outside the house to guide us.
We opened the doors on both sides of the corridor quietly only to find the rooms empty and painstakingly clean like the room we first came out from.
Only a door was remaining to be unlocked which we presumed was connected to the living area of the house. I placed my hand on the door knob but before I could turn it, Lizzy stopped me. Holding my hand tightly like her life depends on it. I knew she was scared and I was too but a certain curiosity to see who owns the garden and keeps the bungalow in such sparkling state, was eating me up. But for her, I decided to go back home and come another day alone, until a sound from behind the door caught our attention.
It sounds like an old black and white television set with the volume turned down. It is not static, it is less of a sound and more of a feeling. We would have turned and left but that sound had a life of its own.
We stood there in silence for an indeterminate period, contemplating whether to just go back or turn the knob. All the while, the sound draws me. I couldn't take it any more and opened the door.
***
I stepped into the living area and Lizzy was right behind me.
The room was eerily silent, no television in sight and the sound was gone. But a delicious aroma was wafting from a room we assumed to be the kitchen. We noticed a flashing light emanating from between the door and the floor.
Lizzy tugged at my sleeve to get my attention. I felt like we were being watched and coupled with the temperature of the room suddenly dropping,I was scared. My heart was racing. The hair on my skin rose giving me goosebumps. There and then I realized it was a bad idea to sneak into someone's house in the middle of the night like thieves.
Just as we were about to turn and leave, the door opened slowly and smoothly bathing the living area with bright blinding light.
Lizzy pulled on my shirt urging us to go but I couldn't. Though scared, curiosity got the better of me and I turned around.
A woman wearing a white nightwear with her back to us, chopping something on a board while a pot was boiling on a cooker by the side. It was a little strange to cook by that hour but what do I know? Since my curiosity had been satisfied knowing someone lives in the house, I decided to finally leave holding Lizzy's ice cold hand in mine.
"Are you already going without really feeding your curious eyes?" An angelic voice said, stopping us in our tracks.
We turned simultaneously and let out a scream of terror.
We ran as fast as our legs could through the corridor trying to reach the room with the unlocked window because our dear life depends on it. But to my utter horror I twisted my ankle and hit the ground hard, just a few steps away from the room with the window. My head cracked against the wall, and I lay there in a daze.
I don't know how I got out. I knew Lizzy jumped over me. I knew I fainted seeing the woman standing over my head with a blood stained nightdress and a knife dripping blood. I literally don't know how I physically came to be in a room with machines beeping nonstop. All I knew was that everything was dark, pitch black to be precise. I could only hear Lizzy and my mother's soft cry from beside me.
"Lizzy…"
"Alex? Mum he has awoken, get the doctor." said Lizzy with urgency in her voice.
"Hmm…"
"Get the doctor fast, he is awake." I heard my mother's hurried footsteps and the closing of the door.
"It's dark." I managed to croak out, my throat was dry.
"It will be okay Alex, the doctor will be here soon." I felt her tears drip on my cheek.
"I can't see you Lizzy."
"Nobody wants to believe me.There is no woman, no house, no garden. Only an old abandoned house stood where the house and garden was supposed to be. They said you probably sleepwalk to the abandoned house and fell leading to the rods piercing your eyes but I knew what we saw, I knew it was the evil woman with the angelic voice but no one wants to believe me, not the police, not even mother…"
The beat of the heart monitor slows down and then BEEEEEEEEP.
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