Priscilla

S1 ⭒ Episode Nine

"What's your name? Who's your daddy?..."
♪ Time of the Season • The Zombies.

SCREAM FOR ME

Priscilla Wolfe

Halen is haunting me, I fucking swear it.

Luckily for me, during the rest of the tour of the Manor, he was silent. I took him to the library, the theater, the storage rooms, the common rooms on the third and first floor, and explained to him all of the protocols surrounding an emergency and overall living. I didn't care for going out in the snow, but from the stain glass windows in the stairwell, I pointed out to him the new pool house and the green room in the greenhouse.

He didn't say a word. He nodded silently and let me proceed.

I should be grateful. But, the entire time, there's been an incessant clicking sound following me around. And with that, the same in-pitch wolf whistle I heard the very first night he arrived.

I know it's him.

I can't prove it, given that every time it happens, he's gazing off away from me, nodding at what I say like he's listening very intensely, but, it has to be, right?

His tall tales of the ghost of Lou Crocket are all nonsense. I refuse to let him tip me that far into delusion. He's obviously being a trickster, trying to give me auditory hallucinations with his mind games.

He's playing the role of a haunting spirit to scare me.

That has to be it.

I'm not going to confront him. On the off chance I'm wrong, I refuse to look like a fool.

But, if I am wrong...

I'm gonna need a doctor.

And a cigarette.

We fall back to my bedroom and when he walks inside, I close the door behind us and clasp my hands, "Well, that's it. That is the end of the tour. So... I'll leave you to do what you do, I suppose. The day is yours." I wave and smile as I back up toward the door.

Please, forget about the bet.

"Mmm, Miss Wolfe. I am not so easily swayed by a sweet smile." He slowly sits down in my arm chair with a barely audible grunt and leans back, crossing one leg over the other, "Have a seat."

"Why?"

"Because I said so. Sit down."

I feel the tension coiling in my jaw and I curse under my breath, walking toward the couch across from him. I sigh as I collapse onto it, "What can I do for you now, your highness? Need me to tend to your wounds again?"

He stays silent and stares at me.

"What? What do you want?"

Nothing.

"Hello?" I wave my hand, "I'm not getting any younger here. I would like to get this day over with."

"I will talk when you lose the attitude."

"So... never. Great! Finally some silence out of you," I praise the heavens above with a smile and grab a newspaper from off of the table, "Oh, look at that, today's Sunday Sweetness story: 'Heroic Man in Lovers' Valley saves Baby Bats from Frozen Sewage pipe.' Awe. How lovely. What a gentleman."

"Thank you."

I stop reading and look up, "Excuse me?"

"Page two." He closes his eyes and rests his head against the back of the chair comfortably.