I'm trying to figure out if anyone reads my ANs, let me know?
Enjoy!
Patricia, Alfie and Amber headed up the walkway to the front door of the house, but Amber suddenly stopped and turned toward Patricia. She closed her eyes.
"Please don't tell me that in that doghouse is the skeleton of a person." She whispered, covering her mouth with her hand.
Patricia peeked over the blonde's shoulder and her green eyes widened in shock. "No, it's not,"—Amber sighed in relief—"that's a dog's skeleton."
Amber gasped, and grabbed Alfie's arm for comfort and followed Patricia into the house, fearfully closing her eyes. When they were standing in the foyer, she opened her eyes and looked around.
"This place looks abandoned." Patricia commented. She looked to the right and then ahead of them and then to the left. She chose to go to the left first where they found a living room. It looked like it could have been cozy and perfect for a small family at one point, but the couches had been torn up and the pictures on the walls faded and the lamp in the corner was broken; a vase was broken with dead roses lying with the broken china. But Patricia noticed that on the fireplace mantel, four pictures were tacked to the wood.
The first was a man, a woman and a young girl with light brown hair and green eyes; they were all smiling. The second was of the same man and woman and the little girl was older. Patricia did a double-take. The third was of the man, woman and girl, only the girl looked a little unhealthy, but they were smiling. And then the last picture was the girl in a hospital bed, looking even worse than in the picture before.
"She looks like Nina," Amber pointed out.
"I know." Patricia mumbled and pulled out her phone, snapping a picture and then turning back to her friends. "Let's go check out the second floor."
Amber nodded and motioned Alfie upstairs. He looked at her and then back up to the steps. He sighed sorrowfully, realizing there was no way out of it, and trudged up cautiously. Patricia and Amber close behind. Once they reached the next floor. Alfie pointed to the first room in the hallway. He pushed the door open and found that it was a master bedroom.
They spread out, opening drawers and shuffling through papers. Amber hesitantly opened a wardrobe door, but found nothing inside except for a pair of dusty trousers.
Patricia walked over to a vanity and boredly wiped the dust off the glass. She immediately jumped at the vivid image of a pitch black spirit with glowing eyes that flashed from inside the mirror. The glass shattered and she covered her eyes.
"Patricia, what happened?" Alfie asked quickly.
"The mirror's just old. Don't worry about it." she waved his concern off and he looked away after a second.
He pulled a purple book off a bookshelf that had been the only book that had no dust on it. He flipped it open and found that it was missing most of its pages. It was a woman's diary and there were only two more pages; two different entries.
"Hey, guys, listen to this." He called and began to read out loud. "'Sophie hasn't stopped talking about that imaginary friend of hers. Yesterday, a man from town brought her back home after Chris and I searched high and low for her. She had been about to jump off a cliff – she told us that her friend wanted to go sledding. She hasn't gotten any better either. She looks sicker than usual but she still insists on playing out in the tree house with that girl.'"
"Sophie must be that little girl in the pictures." Amber recognized.
"And Chris is the husband." Patricia added.
"There's another entry: 'Sophie has refused to leave her room and I don't know what to do! She's kicking and screaming and Chris is at the laboratory. I'm so scared; I don't know how to make her feel better. I know this is that girl's fault; Sophie's imaginary friend. We shouldn't have come here. This isn't healthy for Sophie or Chris and I. Oh, my baby girl…'"
Patricia nodded. "Keep those and let's go look in the other rooms."
Alfie tore the pages out and folded them, slipping them into his pocket as they left the room and entered the next; a bathroom.
It was big enough for all three of them to fit in it without it being cramped. Patricia opened the medical cabinet and Alfie peeked into the linen closet and Amber shrieked in fright. Patricia jumped and spun around, grabbing her friend's shoulders.
"Amber, what's wrong?"
"Th-there was a body of a girl! In the bathtub!" She pointed and Patricia sighed.
"You're imagining things." She stated and shrugged. "There's nothing in here, let's go to the last room and then head back down stairs."
Amber looked back at the bathtub but nothing was there and she breathed out slowly. It was just her imagination. She followed Alfie into the last bedroom; a child's.
"Sophie's?" Alfie wondered quietly and then his brown eyes widened. He pointed at the bed that sat in the corner and Patricia laughed lightly at the teddy bear that sat at the foot of it. Instead of buttons for eyes and a small smiling mouth, it had beady red eyes and pointy fangs.
"Wow, that's some teddy bear. Why didn't I get that for my birthday?" Patricia shook her head in amusement and looked at the TV in the corner of the room. Static. She turned the knob to switch it off, but it remained on. She looked behind it to find the cord and unplug it, but found that the cable was already lying on the floor, unplugged. She straightened and scoffed. "There's nothing in here. Let's go back downstairs."
She led the way again and jogged down the narrow staircase. She turned into a kitchen on her left and walked over to a door that was in the corner. She tugged on the handle, but it was locked tightly.
"Keep an eye out for the key." she declared and opened one of the drawers.
"The meat cleaver in this knife set is missing." Alfie stated and Patricia huffed.
"Do we need to know that, Alfie?" she asked and moved onto one of the cupboards.
"No, I guess not." he opened the refrigerator and freezer in hopes of finding food but found it empty, all except a giant ice cube. But something caught his eye and he stopped himself from closing the freezer, letting the fridge shut. He took a meat tenderizing hammer off the counter and hit the ice.
"Alfie, what are you doing?" Amber asked.
Alfie let out a breath when the block suddenly broke free and slid to the back of the freezer. He set the hammer down and hurriedly put the ice cube on the counter, wiping his hands on his jeans to warm them. "There's a key in there."
"Good job, Alfie." Patricia smiled. "I bet there's gotta be something important about this locked room if they have to freeze the key."
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If you read my ANs, put Sibuna at the end of your review.
"Leaning now into the breeze, remembering Sunday, he falls to his knees. They had breakfast together, but two eggs don't last like the feeling of what he needs."
-Rachel