Slendrina: A Short Story (R-18+)

Prologue

The house was very quiet, save for the footsteps of the intruder. The man was in his mid 30s, and he had a very good reason for intruding. He could feel that the truth was near, much nearer than many would think. It was in this abandoned house at the edge of town that the final piece of the puzzle lay. Three years ago, a man committed suicide. His wife and daughter came back home to find him dead on the bed, with a knife on the floor laying in a pool of blood. Shortly afterwards the wife mysteriously disappeared. The last time she was seen was when she dropped her daughter off at her school, from a silver Toyota HiLux. About three months after that, police forces found a girl in the woods with a knife in her hand and blood all over her clothes and face. With guns raised, they commanded her to drop the knife and surrender, but instead of surrendering, she encouraged them to shoot her. They labelled her 'crazy' almost immediately and she was sent to a mental hospital, never to be heard of again. Near the end of that year, a mental hospital closed with reported sightings of a "girl dressed in white" and a strange "presence" felt amongst staff members. Staff members were mysteriously disappearing. The remaining staff abandoned the premises, leaving their patients to fend for themselves. Presumably everyone left behind died of starvation and poor health.

The man had read enough papers and done enough research to achieve his level of confidence on these cases. He was a private investigator hired by the FBI, and quite an expert at that. His job was to solve the causes and end results of cases which were deemed 'improperly solved'. In these three cases, he had one cause and two end results to solve. He knew that if he succeeded, his monetary reward would be huge. After all, this was his job, and he had always felt a sense of satisfaction when he brought mysterious cases to light.

The house which he was intruding upon was said to be haunted. That, of course, didn't stop him from investigating it. He was miraculously very much in debt and he needed the money. Besides, he didn't believe in ghosts. What could go wrong? He wandered around the house some more with his flashlight and a key he found for the cellar door. Shadowy figures could be seen lurking in the dark, at times a girl dressed in white appeared in front of him, and he was beginning to think he was becoming insane. He finally found the door to the cellar and opened it. Once inside, he looked around. Nothing of significance. But he had explored the entire house! What was left to explore? This has to be it, he thought. He walked to the far left corner, and sure enough, sitting there was an old, rotting wooden chest. He could hear footsteps approaching the cellar. Quickly, he opened the chest. In it lay three human skulls and an overturned photo. He quickly flipped the photo the right side up, and to his shock and horror, three people appeared in the photograph. A tall man in a suit and tie, a woman in a white dress and a younger, slimmer woman in another white dress. Suddenly he felt a strong presence behind him. He quickly turned around and there they were. The man and the two women. They stared at him with disfigured faces. The man didn't have a face at all and the two women's mouth were hung open in an 'O' shape. All their heads were tilted one way or another. The younger woman was forever twitching, just like the one which appeared to him dozens of times around the house. Suddenly he felt a sense of guilt and sadness, one which he never felt before. A tear dropped onto his cheek. The ghosts showed no sign of emotion in return, and faded into nothingness.

-~-

"She's so soft," a man's voice said.

"Look at that beautiful gorgeous creature," said the voice of an older woman.

The man stroked the baby. "Angelene, my lovely angel, how can I ever thank you for bringing such a wonderful creature into this world?"

"You don't," the younger woman said in her soft voice. "We brought her in together. We're in this together. Not just me."

"How true," replied the man smiling, as he made his way to Angelene's side. Angelene sighed. She moved up in her bed turning her head to plant a kiss on her husband's cheek.

"I love you," she uttered sleepily.

With a slight smile, her husband replied, "I love you too."