Phantom [h.s]

Thirty seven

I hear noise around me, but I'm not quite sure what it is, other than to describe it as multiple sounds put together into one chorus. Laughter, talking, faint music. My vision is blurred, but it soon comes into focus.

I am at home-but it isn't decorated like my home is. Looking around at the ornate furniture and unfamiliar people standing around it, I draw the conclusion that I am in Harry's home, in the foyer, below the chandelier. This is not my home-this is Cadence Manor as it was meant to be.

Why am I here?

I begin to climb one of the staircases, and feel as if an invisible force is pulling me along. I push past people lingering on the steps, nearly tripping over my own feet as I reach the second story of the house, turning to begin to walk down the hall.

And I find what I was being pulled toward.

Harry walks down the hall, an arm around Ava and his other arm around Max. All three of them are laughing, Harry in a black shirt and Ava in a black dress. Max wears a dark blue shirt and holds a drink in his hand.

They stop walking when they reach me, and my feet feel heavy as if weighed down with something. Ava and Max stare blankly past me, but Harry's dark eyes stare straight into mine. The two at his sides drift away, stepping around me and down the hall.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asks me.

"I don't know," I say.

"You need to get out of here," he says, but his tone isn't urgent. He says it almost matter-of-factly.

I part my lips to reply but suddenly he's gone, and I'm alone in the hall. "Harry?" I call, finding that my feet aren't seemingly stuck to the ground any longer and beginning to walk. I turn the corner at the end of the hall but find myself in the same hall as before. Confused, I turn the corner again, but the same thing happens. I break into a run, anxiety building inside of me as I call Harry's name again, only to be met with no reply.

When I turn the corner to the same hallway another time, I stop and turn to go the way I came. Instead of arriving in the same hallway, I arrive in a room.

I hear noise that starts off soft, but crescendos into loud yelling, the words incoherent yet harsh. It's a male and a female voice, and I almost cringe listening to the brutality of the tones in their voices.

It's dark, and then a light flicks on, and I'm staring straight at the empty frame of a mirror, blood on the baseboard. A single shard of glass hangs off the frame, big enough for me to see my reflection in. I see myself in a similar black dress to Ava's, and when I look down at my hands, they are covered in blood.

Not my blood, like last time.

I turn my head and see something on the floor-no, not something-someone. Harry. I can't see his face, it's turned away from me, but his black shirt has switched to the white sweater I'm familiar with, and when I step around his body to look at his face, his eyes are empty. Dead.