College students Anna and Ainsley have a final year project, an interview with twenty first century multi-billionaire businessman and entrepreneur Calvert Ghislain. An established Englishman who made his name in the top ten Forbes of America.
But w...
I sat at the kitchen counter, I could not stop shaking and Ainsley had noticed that. It was a Friday afternoon, and I barely had any appetite to eat anything, not even drink a glass of water. I sat at the stool and stared outside the window. I was in my family home, like I had promised my mom, to spending the weekend with them. The death of father had not been a good thing, it had affected us, mostly James, my younger brother, in ways I never knew would.
I mean we all knew he was going to die after the accident that he had been involved in. Half of his body had gone to sleep as the doctor had said it, and most of his organs were not functioning, and to make matters worse he had died on the day of his birthday at the exact time he was born. My mom almost ran mad, and my brother was seen to talking to some kid, well the kid was not seen but my mom could swear she would hear him talk to the kid and would hear both voices.
The shit scared the hell out of her, and she felt like she was dying within, and so she called me to come over. Just after I had left the office of Mr. Ghislain and his world of mirrors, she called to tell me the strangest thing had happened.
"Hi mom, whats up." I heard her take in and out breaths. I could hear how audible it was. She closed the door and sank down to the floor and let her tears ran down her face. I didn't know how I was able to vision it all, but I saw her cry on the blue tiles with no one else in the stalls to hear.
"Mom? What's wrong?" My tone of voice caught Ainsleys attention and he sent me worried glances. Before we agreed to go to the company, we had sorted out our roles. I would ask most of the questions and he could ask a few, but his main job would be to take down notes. We had both agreed, but while in the four rooms and the mirrors that looked at us, I could not do anything but feel the strong presence of the fourth person in the room.
It was strange, at a certain point I heard shuffling of feet, and I thought I was the only one, but he heard them to, the running of feet, the way it sounded on the hard floor. Ainsley looked more than worried and frustrated, and he had asked me what was up, but I could not bring myself to talk without sounding crazy, it was creepy.
But what creeped me out most was the little name I saw at the bottom of the oval picture; it answered the same name as me, Anna, and that was all, it didn't have a second or third name. After all it could mean anyone, any girl, there were thousands of girls that were named Anna, from all over the world, but seeing the name, after I had held the mirror and saw what I saw, I could not help but feel some form of dread. Like it was me.
She sniffed and stood up, she placed the phone on the ceramic tile and ran the water. "It's James, his teacher called, he was in class but took a pass to go to the bathroom, then he started shouting, screaming telling some man to go; to leave him alone. The teachers ran to his aid, but the door was locked from the inside, they tried everything, but the door didn't budge, then all of a sudden, the door opened and they were stunned to silence. I mean they saw James being dragged out but could not see who was pulling him out. One had tried to stop James from going with the strange force, but he was pushed, they saw him as he fought off with some man, some invisible man, but no one could do anything, well until a woman held his hand and he fell to the ground. He was taken to the hospital, but nothing was wrong with him. When she called me, she had said she got my personal number and said something about some strange spirit moving around my family, she claimed it was a loved one or some stranger, I do not know Anna I saw your father#s picture move, his smile it turned to a frown and he was staring at me, I bumped into the wall and felt hands strangling me, I am scared Anna come home, please, I have never felt this alone."
So, I sat in the kitchen staring out the window at nothing in particular. Ainsley had stayed over to help sooth my hysterical mother, and even as I tried calling the woman back, her line was off, like she was not even there. I turned towards the open door and looked at the quiet living room, my mother was on the coach with a blanket covering her sound asleep, Ainsley sat by the laptop, typing away, my brother James was in his room, sleeping to.
He had said he could not remember anything that had happened to him, not even being dragged out of the bathroom by some force. I dropped the empty cup in the sink and made my way up stairs to the first floor, my bedroom was at the end of the hallway, the last room. I opened the door and it moved slowly on its hinges. I stepped into the familiar room that was once covered in pink hearts, but now had a gloomy glow about it, the once bright coloured pink was a dark brown almost black, everything looked sad, even the happy teddies.
By the bed sat a table and my hello kitty clock, and about my head rest was a picture of me and my family, and my two dead brothers. How we had come from a family of six to a family of three was one that was most unfortunate. I pushed aside the curtains and opened the windows, webs of dust flattered in the air and for a moment I was mesmerized by the way it fell slowly with the sun to the ground. Its tiny particles dropped to the floor, and I was sore afraid of how heavy the dust would be on my bed.
I opened the wardrobe and looked at the inner picture that I had painted of me and my dad when I was seven, how time flew. I ran my fingers along the paint and all of a sudden, the paint trickled down the door to the floor, like as if water was being poured from above and ruining the picture.
I stepped aside and watched the happenings with wide eyes, just under the wardrobe sat a pool of black water. I got on my knees and pulled out a sicky paint brush with black substances and hair on it. It was blond hair and no one in my family had such hair colour. Hurriedly I dropped the object to the floor. Mother had warned, strange things were happening in the room, did I even remember having some space under the closet? I did not want to scare mother, she was already freaked out, and I didn't want to add to anything she was going through.
The door opened a little and James stood by it, he was pale, and I was even more worried for him. "He comes in here sometimes to paint." I knelt by him and held his fragile arms. "Who?" He simply pointed at the picture on the wall.
And I swallowed.
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