Reminiscing Quietly
Olwen
"Olwen. Someday, things may get too overwhelming for you. I hope it doesn't but if it does, go back to this house and bring the pocket watch with you. I have a surprise for you in my office." Is how I remember it being said.
Olwen sighed. "I wonder If there's anything that will actually happen?" He drove towards his childhood home. His Grandpa's words have echoed in his mind his whole life. He didn't really understand what it meant fully, even until now. But it was the only hope he had right now. It felt a bit stupid, driving this far out to reach this place again just to see if his grandpa really meant something was gonna happen.
The sun was setting just as Olwen arrived in front of a gate that had seen better days.
Home sweet home…..
Olwen parked his car outside the gate and got out, he was a little anxious that his car might be stolen outside of this gate but it seemed like this place had been relatively untouched. This place was a bit far but there was a town ten minutes away by car. No one should have known about this place other than his family and close family friends. The chances of a robber stumbling upon this place was unlikely.
Olwen took in the vast green and forestry scenery that he was familiar with back during his childhood. The smell and noises of the forest was as calming and relaxing as he remembered them to be but he wasn't here for a celebration. His mom and dad had died recently, in a car crash accident.
Olwen laughed a little to himself.
I'm the only one left…
Shortly after the car accident, Olwen was there in that very hospital they were taken to and he was also there when they were declared dead. It was messed up, he wanted to blame that person who was at fault but he didn't want to meet the face of the person who murdered his family. That person was somehow discharged by the police and he never knew why but he didn't care about any of that anymore. He wanted to bask in his childhood house, and think everything through there and what he was going to do going forward.
Olwen went to the back of his car and opened the car trunk, pulling out some luggage's and closing the trunk. There was a smaller gate next to the big one that was used for cars, this smaller gate was for people to enter through of course. After hesitating for a moment, he went through his pockets and got the keycard.
Feels weird using a keycard, I remember when it was just unlocked using a key.
Olwen opened the door and entered, passing through the small metal gate. The small gate locked behind him with a beep sound.
Just ahead was path that went deeper and deeper into the forest. Olwen walked on that path. It was as he remembered, soon he should come across two paths where the left one lead to the river and the right to his house. Olwen went to the right.
Memories flooded his mind as he got closer to where the house should be. He walked along this path so many times then, and he was back here again. Surprising that he could even remember something from fifteen years ago.
Any second now. I should seeing the house.
Turning to his left, which was his north was the Juster Mansion. An old Victorian home standing tall, a relic from at least a few centuries back into the past.
Olwen sighed, he didn't know if it was out of relief or reluctance but being here made him feel all mixed up.
It wasn't as big as he remembered but it hadn't changed at all. Recalling what his dad said back then, it was heavily renovated right around the time he was born and his father had shortly inherited it after his own grandfather had passed away from natural causes.
There used to be family reunions here frequently, everyone at the table and talking to one another warmly. These days, his mom and dad were the only people to visit it in the past 15 years to his knowledge.
"…."
After procuring the key from his pocket, Olwen slowly unlocked the door before grabbing the handle. A loud creaking sound was made as he pushed the door open.
"I'm home…"
He tried finding the light switch by the side of the door.
Where is it….. Oh, there it is.
With a flick of the switch, the lights in the foyer room lit up. On his right was a sign in the wall or picture frame on the wall, it showed a crude drawing of what he could see as a snowman.
huh…. wonder who put that up there?
On the left was a cabinet, on top was a vase filled with dead flowers. That was probably when they came in here around two weeks ago. My parents…
Olwen quickly went in the living room and turned the lights on. He pulled his luggage's to the living room before locking the main door.
"Hah…."
I'm here…. back here after 15 years.
He sat carelessly on the couch, looking over everything in the living room. Other than the place being a little dusty all over, everything was basically untouched. Olwen took a look at the kitchen, game room, storage and the other rooms on the first floor. They were all in clean condition other than the dust.
"Wow…. It's like this place is frozen in place."
It's like opening a time capsule from long ago. Nostalgia was the only thing in his mind this entire time.
Olwen went back to the living room after checking everything out. Out of the corner of his eye, there was teddy bear just below one of the small tables in the room.
"Isn't this Popeye?…."
The teddy bear in his hands was one of his favorite toys, something he snuggled with when he went to sleep back then. He couldn't help but smile just a little at the fluffy thing before realizing something.
"Wow, I really feel old now…"
Popeye was a small plush teddy bear, he had the signature black ball shaped eyes and Popeye was color brown color. Olwen went over to the center table and plopped Popeye on the table. A sense of satisfaction came over him for some reason. It was decided then that he would look for more things like the teddy bear, starting by searching the living room for more things.
"A doll…"
In one of the cabinets, there was a blonde haired doll. It was dressed in a pink dress of sorts and had a reddish pink necklace on its neck. Who owned this? Looking at the doll didn't evoke any memory in his head or any familiarity at all.
Maybe it was left by one of my cousins here and it was forgotten? Weird that mom or dad didn't return this. Well, it's probably been forgotten by whoever owned it. Its covered in dust like the rest of the house, another thing untouched for a long time.
Olwen placed the doll on the table near Popeye and ventured into other rooms to find things that caught his eye.
After some time, it was dark outside by the time he collected a bunch of other stuff in rooms that weren't locked. Time really flew by fast, exploring the house was a lot more enjoyable than he expected. There were a lot of things he found from journals, picture books, fairy tale books, an old camera. All of it was mostly in the box, but he had brought out the picture book that was hidden in his grandpa's office. He wanted to read about it in a bit.
Guess going here was a lot better than he thought, It seemed kind of dumb considering what just happened recently, but its been oddly relaxing in a way and not depressing going around this place.
He shook his head, this was the time to just take it slow and think it through but he wanted to leave that for tomorrow. Just getting here was exhausting, it took seven hours to get here and it had been a while since he drove for that long. Rest was what he needed. He closed his eyes. He wanted to just stay still like this, even for just an hour and not think about anything else.
"….."
But Olwen just couldn't get his mind of something. He sat up from the couch and moved the doll and another slightly bigger teddy bear he found earlier in on the table in front of him.
Something about these two things just seemed to stay in the back of his mind. He just starred at the two things and it starred right back at him. This lasted two minutes. He then stopped cause having a staring contest with inanimate objects made him feel stupid, it was not like they would talk back to him or anything like that. This was no toy story.
To pass the time, he picked up the picture book. Hopefully reading through it would be long enough for him to become sleepy.
Family Pictures Volume 1... I never knew he had something like this in his office ever.
He turned the pages slowly. He focused on each page, recalling the moments from the pictures in his head. At least the ones he could recall from memory. He looked through each page with no rush. For a moment, he stopped and grabbed a cup of hot chocolate from kitchen and kept reading on.
That was when me and Casey were the seekers during hide and seek. Who took this photo? It seemed like they were close to us. Maybe one of my cousins?
It had been a while since he'd met any of his cousins. Probably not possible to meet any of them now. Most went abroad last he heard from Mom.
Olwen kept flipping through the pages for a bit more. It was quite fun but he was getting a little tired, one more page and he'd go to bed. Upon flipping onto the next page, he was confused by two photos at the end of the page.
What's this?
There was a group shot of his family, like a lot of the photos in this album, but two people in particular had their faces crossed out.
"Who are these two, why are their faces crossed out?"
It was a young man and a teen girl in the photo. The teen girl was embracing him from behind while the young man was crouched beside him in the photo.
Do I know these people, I can't really remember anyone like them?
"Hm..." He closed the book. "I'll look into it tomorrow." Olwen laid down on the couch, covered himself in his blankets, closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.
BANG BANG BANG!
BANG BANG BANG!
"…."
BANG BANG BANG!
"What the hell is that?"
Olwen stood up from the couch. There was no way he could sleep when there was a sound like that coming from upstairs. No way that an animal was doing that right? The only thing he could think of that could make that sound was a person.
What the hell…?
He got a knife from a kitchen before he went to the second floor. If there was actually anyone up here in the second floor. He had to be ready to threaten whoever it was but he hoped that it was his imagination or something. It would be better if it was just nothing but him maybe losing it after feeling empty for a couple of days.
Olwen checked each room carefully and found no one inside any of them. So far so good, the last one he hadn't checked was his grandfather's office. He carefully opened the door enough to have a gap to peer through.
What the hell… Why is this room so dark compared to the other rooms in the house. This room was the one I was supposed to check out... now that I think about it. No no no, I have to see if the room is safe first then I'll get to that.
With the room being so dark, he had no choice but to slip in as quietly as he could and tried groping for the light switch in the room.
It's not working? I can just use my phone's flashlight function. There we go.
With phone and knife in each hand, Olwen opened the door and looked around.
The knocking isn't there anymore. Is there someone sobbing in here? What the hell. Why is there a door there?
As much as Olwen was confused about the strange looking door on the wall just behind the desk. His attention was drawn first on the sobbing. He cautiously approached the study desk and found a young boy. The boy was sitting on the ground with his head hung over, he couldn't see the boys face but they had gray hair. All the fear in his head was replaced with confusion. Who is this boy and how the hell did he get in this house?
"Hey….."
Olwen called out and waited for a response. The boy just kept sobbing and didn't look up to him.
What should be done in a situation like this, He couldn't exactly leave this boy here alone? His first thought was to call the cops but it was probably better to calm the boy for now then call. It didn't seem like the boy was carrying any weapons so he put the knife on the table before he gently touched the shoulder of the boy.
"Hello…..?"
"Ha…."
Throb.
"Hu—"
Olwen's head started aching, and his legs felt weak. He tried grabbing onto the table to try and stabilize himself, but his arms had no strength in them and he fell on his back.
What the hell…
It's like someone was slowly jabbing a knife into his head, and then spinning it around like a screwdriver.
Throb.
What the hell…
This stab felt deeper than the others.
"Ha…."
Throb.
His vision was getting dimmer with each passing second. He tried getting back up slowly without feeling he was about to pass out, but a another jolt of pain made him lie back down.
Is this how I'll die?
His eyes closed. He just accepted the pain of it all. It came sooner than he thought, but he'd be with family on the other side soon enough. Climbing the stairs to heaven hopefully and leave this world.
Throb.
Throb.
Throb.
Throb.
Throb.
I wish I could've cleaned the house a bit more before I left...
Authors Note:
Story is going through a little rewriting here and there.