What Lies Beneath

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Midnight Arrival

Paul had done what he had set out to do, now all that was left was to go to the house. He knew what awaited him there, but his resolve was not diminished. He had to go there; it was the only way that he could save them. The only way that he could save himself.

He watched from inside the cab as it drove past people and buildings that he would probably never see again. He knew that even if he managed to accomplish what he set out to do that it didn't necessarily mean he would ever get to leave the house.

It was dark out when they finally pulled up in front of the estate. Paul glanced at the clock on the dashboard. The glowing blue numbers told him that it was eleven fifty-four. Right on time.

He paid the taxi driver an extra fifty dollars before exiting the cab with his small suitcase in hand. As he walked along the gravel path leading up to the house, he found that his heart was beginning to race. Perhaps it knew something he didn't? He considered the thought for a moment, but then shook it away. No, he had planned everything out to the letter. He knew exactly what he was getting into. At least he hoped he did.

With his bag gripped tightly in his fist, he rang the doorbell. He had had many doubts about what he was doing over the past couple of days, but there was no turning back now. He needed to do this. He had to at least try to save them. He could hear the bell as it echoed through the entire house. It only stopped when the door swung open to reveal a tiny old woman.

He offered her a kind smile, after all, she was the nice one. He had dreamt of everything that was happening and the things to come. So, when he stepped inside, he wasn't surprised by how old the house looked.

Paul didn't say much to the woman, he had talked himself out over the past couple of days.

As she led him through the house, he made note of where each of the rooms were, though some of them were yet to be occupied by their future inhabitants. When they stopped in front of his door, he managed to offer her one more smile for her services and then he stepped inside.

The room was exactly how he remembered it. He supposed that that was a strange thought, but then again, he hadn't really had any normal ones.

He had so much to do and yet he didn't knowwhere to start. In the end he figured that he could wait until morning to get begin.After all, his day was already very eventful.

Sophie was still standing in the center of her room when she heard the doorbell. She didn't know how long she had been standing there, but she knew it had to have been a while because her legs felt stiff and Charlie was gone.

She rubbed at the small ache in her left temple. How strange, she thought. She didn't remember Charlie leaving or even spacing out.

However, this was not the first time that something like this happened to her. When she was younger, she would constantly suffer from lost time, but then one day it just stopped. Perhaps the stress of Delphine's death had caused her mind to relapse into old habits. Yes, that must be it. She was suffering some aftereffects from Delphine's sudden demise.

With the pain in her head starting to fade, she found that she felt a little confined in her room. So, to escape the feeling she grabbed her sweatshirt from off the edge of her bed and departed from the room.

Paul tried to sleep in the overstuffed bed, but his mind wouldn't shut off. His brain was filled with more images of dead people and the sound of silent screams. Instead of trying to quiet his brain once again, he decided that it was best to give up. After all, the dreams weren't going to go away until he did what he came there to do.