Scarlet and the Blade of Light
Chapter 5: The Girl in the Window
Traveling further north of them they stopped. The path still continued north to their destination point but there was another road connected to it that lead off to their right, to who knows where? They looked in between for something caught their eyes, a sign stood smack dead in the right angle of the road that led north and the road that led to their right The sign consisted of two arrows pointing in each direction. The arrow that pointed to the north read 'Saint Autumns house'. The name was difficult to read, the wood was old and rotted. The other arrow, unfortunately, the letterings could not be made out at all! But no, this was not what caught the three travelers' eyes. They looked at this particular sign, for there was a raven perched nobly on the 'Saint Autumns house' sign. The three could sense immediately that this was no ordinary bird, it's eyes were so dark almost as if they were hollow, yet so piercing and intense they were too. The black bird was unwavering, it was dead silent on the sign of the Autumns. Demonia and Edlyn exchanged dark looks as Ariadne stepped up to the raven, it didn't even flinch. Most odd, for a bird.
'Why hello there, me and my friends are fellow travelers who seek the old house of haunts, have we come to the right place?' Ariadne communicated.
'The road north can only lead to death and insanity, go back, or take the road to your right, anywhere but further north. The raven communicated back. Edlyn and Demonia waited tentatively, wondering what was being said.
'Saint Autumn, what happened to him?' Ariadne asked.
'Only death and insanity! I shall say no more. You have my warnings!!' And with that, it was as if the black bird came back to life, as it spread it's feathery wings and took off into the sky.
The three looked at one another yet again, exchanging secret looks.
Demonia took a deep breath, "Let's do it."
The three of them nodded at one another, and silently stepped forward on to the road that the black raven forbid them to trespass on. As they walked down in a single file line, with Demonia at the front, Edlyn in the back and Ariadne and Dimble in the middle, Demonia noticed that on each side of the road was just a bunch of wheat fields, still a golden brown color, but limping over, the lot of it untamed, in the middle of the fields stood a scarecrow, old, the rags torn and the cloth covered with mold. They continued, the three noticed that the further they went down this road, the more the air seemed to grow dreadfully cold. Edlyn gasped rather loudly in astonishment as they turned the corner, there it was. The house, which everyone feared. They stood there in awe at the end of the winding dirt road. The house was clearly a two story, it was entirely made out of wood, it was old and beaten down. The front of the house, with the stairs leading up to the front door was oddly crooked with one of the wood pieces that supported the balcony, slightly bent. It was obvious that the house was rickety and that it was vacated…or was it? The skies were gray, the clouds seemed…as if polluted in a sense, and blocking the light of the Sun. There was a dreadful air about this place that none of our travelers were comfortable with. There was also a smaller building next to the house. On top of the small building was a large brass bell. Obviously the man of the house that use to live here, Saint Autumn, was a priest. The area was surrounded by dead grass, and there was also a stone well in front of the house. As soon as the three cautiously made another step, off the dirt road and an inch closer to the house, Edlyn froze. Her heart raced yet the blood in her body turned icy cold, her eyes looked up and she gave a slight gasp. The other two, filled with their own worries, didn't realize that she stopped walking.
Edlyn turned her head up and saw a girl looking back at her from one of the windows on the second floor. The window was cracked slightly and covered with dust as she remembered she saw it, but this time it was fresh, as if the window was brand new, the girl was obviously around the age of 5…but there was a look in her eyes, almost…sinister. Her mouth curved in an evil, cunning smile. She looked straight at Edlyn, gave her a somewhat of a friendly look that was also scary. She was transparent, whatever Edlyn was looking at…she knew wasn't solid. Then the girl waved at her, she waved and mouthed the words, Come and find me. But before Edlyn could wave back or react at all, the girl disappeared in a flash, and all Edlyn could see, was the window back to the state she once saw it; cracked and dusty with curtains blocking anything to see inside…not that they would have been able to anyway, it was on the second floor after all. It took awhile for Edlyn to realize what she saw, her heart fluttered and her body raced with panic. She told her two friends what she her eyes witnessed, and they both took her seriously for once, seeing the true frightened desperation in her eyes. Edlyn regained her courage, trying hard not to falter, and they again cautiously stepped towards the house…slowly…so slowly.
It seemed to have taken them centuries…forever…to reach the staircase of the Saint Autumns house. Demonia looked to the other too, being the very bravest out of all of them, she stepped up the stairs first as her two friends watched. Demonia paused at the door, her hand reached up to turn the knob, but before even touching it her hand flinched, losing her nerve completely. She took a deep breath and decided to look through one of the windows first before doing anything else. Just to be safe…not that they were doing anything safe, what they were doing was absolutely insane. Demonia was slightly shook to just take a peek through the window…in fear of seeing the girl's face randomly popping up to scare her, or something worse.
"You don't have to do this Demonia…if you want, we can just turn back." Ariadne said.
Demonia shook her head and shushed her friend, she pressed closer to the window and looked through, there was nothing particularly interesting to see. It was just a regular dining room…old, definitely old. She could see that most of the furniture in the house was made out of wood and there was a lot of dust everywhere, she wondered how she was even capable of looking through the battered window, the more she looked to investigate, she realized the more the window grew black. She thought that it might have just been her, her head growing queasy from all this pressure, she hope she wouldn't black out. She stepped back to sit for a bit just to be careful with herself, but she realized that it wasn't her head…it wasn't the window either. She looked in surprise and heard Edlyn muttering under her breath in curses, as the three of them saw thousands of little flies trying to cover up the window. As if warding away any prying eyes…and trying to save Demonia…from seeing any further. Demonia stepped back and held onto the wooden banister behind her from falling in fear. This was disgusting.
Edlyn and Ariadne stepped up the staircase finally, Demonia found some courage and inspiration as her two best friends stepped up those stairs. So with a rebellion and a brave heart she never knew she had…she opened that door.