Unnoticed, unheard, unfelt. That had been her life for the past years. Countless people had intruded upon her abode, and each one she sent away screaming. She was the mistress of this house, and even the very walls reported information to her. They just didn't seem to understand. She did not wish to be disturbed. She wished for peace and quiet. She wished to be left alone in her big house, which had been her birthplace and deathbed. She wished to be left in solitude, and reflect on her life, and how it had left her in a limbo of sorts, unable to go either way. But still they came, to call her house home, and to act as if they knew the slightest bit about it.
It was laughably easy to scare away all her temporary visitors. The human mind was quite able to conjure of a tale to frighten them. A mysteriously smashed vase, a message drawn onto a mirror or wall, or a piano in the night was sufficient. The last was her favorite, for it was the only one that brought her any relief at all. Her beloved piano stood the same through the years, just like her, stuck in a ghostly form. In her music, she expressed her life. The tune was always the same, and to her longer staying visitors, it became hauntingly familiar.
It was always the same. First, she played a playful tune, happy and light. The sort that made you imagine a perfect summer day, with a blue sky and fluffy clouds. That was her human life. She had been such a happy girl, full of life and happiness, eyes shrouded to the darkness of human nature. Her guests only sighed in bed, thinking it a wonderful figment of their imagination. They wished. But that was all before he had come. At that part, the music darkened. Fear, suspicion and anger entered the music. He had ripped away that veil of happiness and light. Even then, her visitors did not shift much. To them, it was a simple nightmare, that was all. But it was the next part that sent some running, searching to find the terrible sound. Others simply woke and froze. Still others would scream for it to stop, to shriek that they wanted to wake up now. Her death. It had not been a pretty one, but not entirely unexpected. By then, death had been a shadow, trailing her every step. Sooner or later, it had to overtake her. Starved, broken, and battered, the gun had only finished her off. And so she wrote her memory out in notes. The pain and anger all faded away, turning into agony, and finally, a odd sort of wistfulness as her frail body collapsed under the weight of it all, and her spirit separated from it. She told about the torture, the disbelief, and the feel of warm blood gushing through her fingers as she gazed into the eyes of the leering man before her.
By then, she could usually hear the screamers. But she couldn't find it in herself to care. Let them screech and whimper, they had not suffered a tenth of what she had, and had only skimmed the roiling sea of emotions within her. But sometimes, they didn't scream. Instead, some controlled their fear, and came a-walking. One in particular stood out in her memory, the only child who didn't start wailing immediately. She had heard her tiny footsteps coming up the little ladder, into the attic. Her big blue eyes locked onto the piano immediately, as her hands hugged her dolly to her. She could guess what that little girl saw. Piano keys, all white and black, ringing out a song that reached into your soul, unlocking the deepest depths of human despair, like a hand squeezing your heart. It only took five seconds. Dropping the doll, the little girl had screamed, running away, wailing for her mother. She kept on playing, ignoring the dolly that still lay there after many years.
The next day, the family moved out.
Sighing, she drifted absentmindedly to her piano, pressing a finger down on a random key, the note ringing out clear. Just then, she felt the front door open and gruff voices floated from a couple floors down. So long had she been here, a part of her was forever in the house, and she was able to carefully monitor every movement. Clenching her hand into a fist, she drifted down, wondering how long it would take to scare this one off.