Before You Read:Check out the picture that the story describes. Maybe even look at it as you read.
Just google "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" and the name of the picture.
THE THIRD-FLOOR BEDROOM
It all began when someone left
the window open.
The house was in the middle of nowhere. It couldn't exist. It shouldn't exist. It was impossible…
But it did.
The words reverberated in his head for what seemed like hours. Here he was, in the room where he died. It hadn't changed a bit. But he already knew that it was a lie. The room had changed a lot. The dresser near the door was sleek, shiny. His killer hadn't left the house for good. He could even sense the presence of Death as he was in the room. He knew that Death would be watching him right now. Testing him, helping him… as he was meant to. He shivered at the thought of Death. It had told him what he needed to know. He knew what he needed to do. He didn't need to see Death again, ever. But apparently, Death needed to see him.
He pondered his thought for a moment. Death had said that he was meant to see and change a series of events. Fourteen events. In order. The first was the window. The room. The dresser. The everything. A soft wind blew through the room. He felt it lightly brush past him. He knew that he had eternity to figure the puzzle out. But he didn't want to take that long. Death was getting impatient. He felt the walls and the furniture. Even the ceiling. He felt the entire room pulsate with life energy. The walls lied, too.
"Wait." He thought. What had he just said? About the walls? His Amnesia was already clearing slowly.
He felt strange. Like he was being controlled by a cosmic force. He watched without surprise as the doves on the wallpaper came to life and circled around him. They were cooing and soothing him. The birds where tricking him. They wanted his soul too. He peeled the wallpaper off the walls, and ever so slowly the cryptic messages underneath the wallpapers began to show themselves.
"They LIE."
"Trust the Birds, they said. You'll be fine, they said."
And finally…
"FOR THE LOVE OF ALL GOOD CLOSE THE WINDOW, BOY!"
The birds turned black and freaked out. They all shot towards the window in perfect unison. But the boy was quicker. In a single motion he closed the window, and the tainted birds flew into the glass and disintegrated. The room began to fade. The colors blended, the event was ending.
"Well done" The boy heard in the distance.