Chereads / MYSTERY WOMAN IN THE HOUSE / Chapter 5 - CHAPTER 4 - The locked door

Chapter 5 - CHAPTER 4 - The locked door

The next morning rolls in and the kids prepare and leave for school having their mom being home alone. Amanda ensures that the kids never stopped school for any reason. She went with them the previous day to sort their admission and everything they would need to continue their education with ease.

Retrospectively, Amanda was a full staff in the banking sector before James, her husband died. She had a promising career and was fast rising until some of her unit members got caught in a dubious act which got her implicated being part of the unit. She tried as much as possible to obtain exoneration. She called her lawyer but no attempt could help the matter as all the unit members were affected and fired. This prompted James to raise loan for an investment which led to his demise after it failed.

When she got fired, Amanda has since then retired to being a full house wife but thanks to some savings and small yields from investments she had which has been helping them get along and as well, the help of her friend, Kelvin. So, it hasn't been easy taking care of the kids alone.

However, after seeing her kids off to a point of departure to school, Amanda returns in to do the house chores but as she is busy with the laundry, she notices that Natasha's room is open and thinks she forgot to close it.

Not long to that time, she hears the cell phone ring downstairs and leaves the laundry to go pick the call.

"Hello!" She says.

"It's Harry." The other person says

"Who, please?"Amanda questions.

"Harry, Harry, the carpenter." He describes.

"Oh! Pardon me, I did not know you're Harry." She apologizes.

"Don't worry, I called just to tell you I'm in the neighborhood and want to know if you are available." Harry enquires.

"Yes, yes, uhmm, I'm home." She stammers.

A few minutes later, Harry knocks on the door and Amanda lets him in and shows him the locked door up the stairs. She leaves him after a while to continue her laundry not far from the room.

Harry tries to open the door, applying various techniques, using different tools, panting and sweating, and eventually opens it successfully but as he makes the move to enter the room by a step in, the door slams on him injuring his face with his nose disfigured.

Amanda gets suddenly shocked by the sound of the door and as she rushes there, Harry brushes off, running down the stairs trembling and shouting; "This house is cursed! This house is cursed! You gotta move, ma'am! This house is cursed! You gotta...!" He jumps out of the house and zooms out his truck off the premise without collecting his pay.

Amanda, slightly seeing Harry's face when he brushed off, becomes terrified and shivers. She looks at the door and mutters; "Is it true that something is definitely in this room?But what could it be? What could it be? What could it be?" She stutters erratically as she moves downstairs with fear.

Nonetheless, she has to be strong for her kids while they remain in the house. She doesn't want to be a burden to her friend, Kelvin. So, she goes upstairs to finish up the laundry but shivering and encouraging herself after which she prepares something to eat but doesn't seem to have appetite leaving the food partly eaten.

The sun is almost setting when the kids return from school and Amanda welcomes them with hugs and pecks but Natasha meets a plate of cold meal on the dining table and asks with curiosity; "Mom, is this your breakfast? What happened? Why didn't you eat since morning?Mom! Mom! I need an answer."

"Don't worry dear, Mama was very busy today. We'll eat soon." Amanda responds.

Natasha, who was perturbed by what could have been wrong or why her mom prepared meal but didn't eat it, becomes more sensitive to things in the house.

However, the dusk draws near very swiftly and it is dinner time which has to be delayed because the kids are not through with their assignments.

When they finish their assignments and approach the dining table, Natasha again raises the matter her mom shoved off when they returned from school but Amanda assures her of no mishap while they were away but Natasha looks straight into her eyes and says, "I understand you don't want us to be scared mom but I'm sure something happened..."

"Don't be bordered, it's nothing you should worry about, so eat your food before it goes cold." Amanda cuts in, nodding in agreement to Natasha's expression with a seemingly fallen countenance.

"Thank you for the delicious meal, mom." Jude compliments while going to his room but being scared of staying all night alone, he only goes in to pick a story book which he anxiously wants to finish up because of its thrill and suspense.

So, being scared of sleeping alone in their separate rooms, Natasha and Jude had agreed, while returning from school, to stay in their mother's room like the previous night.

Later in the middle of the night, Amanda wakes up to the sound of a door opening outside the room. She gets up gently being careful not to wake the kids. She opens her door but nothing seems to be present there. She then gives a thorough look by moving around to check and discovers that Natasha's room is wide open as if someone opened it.That is when she notices the other room that has been locked ever since being opened and she puts on her phone's flashlight trying to peep into the room to know what might be inside.

"Mom..." A voice sounds behind her

"Uhrrr..." Amanda shouts and holds her chest as she turns swiftly to discover it is Natasha.

"Sorry mom, I didn't mean to scare you. What are you doing? Are you sure about this? Let's go back to bed."Natasha says while Amanda still holds her chest and breaths out heavily. Shewas very scared and it was as if her head wanted to jump off her body.

She calms a bit and tells Natasha to move back while she tries to check again into the room but this time, the door goes 'bang' on her face with a sharp and loud sound.

Extremely frightened, Natasha shouts; "Mom, there is something really going on in this house!"

Amanda, breathing heavily, stutters; "Okay, o - okay dear, okay dear, let's go back inside."

But as they move towards her room, the door suddenly closes leaving Jude alone inside, who suddenly wakes up as soon as he hears the loud sound the door made and his sister's shout but couldn't deduce what is happening until he discovers he is all alone in the room with the door being shut, while both his mom and sister are outside trying to open the door in and alsoseeing that the light starts blinking. Thenhe realizes, runs towards the door and begins to shout; "Mom, Mom, Natasha, what's happening? The light is flickering in here and I'm so scared."

When she hears about the light stuff, Amanda adds more tenacity to open the door anyhow but as hard as she tries with Natasha's support, it becomes more difficult.

Jude, who as well tries to pull the door from inside, keeps screaming; "Mom help! Mom help!"

After a rough try, Amanda uses a sudden vehemence to push the door open and when she succeeds, they hug each other trembling and pack some few things hands could reach quickly. The lights suddenly begin flickering in the whole house as they make their way down the stairs and out of the house.

On their way, Amanda calls her friend to inform him they are on to his place.