10 Get in touch with reality

When her eyes awoken, her pale face turned back to its peachy color. Alive, rather. Her room looked more crowded, on her bedside sat Ada and Grahams stood by the door. Lilith seemed better than she was by the door downstairs. The three of them united in one room. Lilith sat as if the aches has left her head finally. Then the rushing curiosity dwindled to her.

“I would like to continue our tour” she gazed to Mr. Grahams. “But first may we all have our dinner?”

Her energy must be fulfilled. How do humans even fulfill their hollow body with sustenance, of course food. Ada went to grab the tea and cookies beside the bed when Lilith halted her arm to stop.

“May I have the honor to cook?”

It was her full intention to cook, but there is another thing that must satisfy her beside her stomach; the curiosity she has been wondering. What could be the noise coming from the door beside the kitchen room? She wanted to investigate furthermore, her eyes long to see what hides behind the scratched door downstairs. All could only be unraveled if she has enough time to do so, without anything bothering her; through lending her time for cooking dinner.

Around six in the afternoon, she arrived in the kitchen where the side counter touched her white apron and Lilith tied her hair with the lasso ribbon from the apron. Her long-coiled hair frizzed beautifully from the bundled ribbon on her hair. The metal kitchen wares clanked as she washes and cooks for their dinner. She wanted to, at least. But it seems as though even the bread has been touched by the fungus. She checked every corner and cabinets in the kitchens, only pure disgust and unearthly smells welcomed her each drawer she opens, “Good Lawd! What on earth have we been eating then?” she exclaimed while grabbing hook of her nose. To her resounding voice, Ada came to her aid.

“Ada, won’t you tell me. Where are our foods made from?” she turned to look at Ada,

“We have a botanical garden and poultry by the back of the mansion, if that is what you are asking, Madam. I will thoroughly clean the kitchen once again”

A garden, another place to venture in this house. Lilith, too, wondered just how big of an acre does this mansion occupy.

“Is that so, may you please pick out some produce that we can have for our dinner?”

Ada went about as she was instructed.

At last, there is a little delay to her cooking, but since Ada has tasking to do before Lilith could continue to cook, Lilith held the chance to be imprudent and sneak her curiosity out of the wonders. Lilith tip toed her way to the strange door by the kitchen. However, it seems it has been changed. The door before her had no scratches at all, she placed her hands to the door finding the scratches that was once there, but all was gone. The ghostly scratches exists only in her mind now, there were no proof of anything of such.

She shakes the door handle open, but it seems to be locked from the inside. She did not calculate the need of a key to open this door, but she had no time to be wandering in the wide mansion looking for a key.

“Madam, the heavy door will not be opened if you do that. Allow me” Mr. Grahams lifted the handle an inch from the floor as he open it swiftly,

“It was a heavy door? I thought it was locked”

“Madam” he held the door open for Lilith.

Still, there was no pleasure nor satisfaction from seeing the blackness that covered the whole room. There were only brooms and buckets, and other webbed cleaning materials in the closet. She was dissatisfied on her discovery. She stood there for minutes, how could these things make such noise and scratch the door from outside? Surely this is not what she wanted to see, this is not what really is behind the door, she protested.

Ada came behind her “Madam, I have gathered vegetables from the garden” her dress is vividly wet from the wind direction that lead the rain mists to hit her.

“You are drenched, change your clothes while I make the dinner.” She shrugs her dissatisfaction and grabbed the rattan basket Ada hung on her arms.

At 8 O’clock in the evening, a few hours after their feast. She grabbed her bag by the chair in the corner. Her phone lied deep in the pockets of her bag and was felt by her hand. It felt as if she has been living in the Victorian era since her arrival in the mansion, from the mansion itself down to its garments as well as her clothes too. When Lilith took it out from her bag, only from the sight of it made her feel relief that she still has a grasp of the current era, she turned it opened as the blue light reflected on her face revealing her feminine feature, her pointed V jaw line, and her sunken cheeks below the shadows of her eyes.

[No Signal 8:03 23%]

Of course, there is no signal, what can she expect. The nearest house from the mansion would be miles away, since this mansion looks secluded, the structures are from way back to 1800s at least. No doubt there will not be any signal in this place. Lilith did not mind though. She was just relieved to finally have to see something from the current era she lives in. She speculates once more what are the things her bag collected before she arrived in Louisiana.

Aside from fragments of junk, there is a keychain along with the keys, her phone, unused comb, wallet and papers, including her husband’s will. Her eyes glistened to the sight if the papers before she slowly reached for it, unconscious of her full-teared eyes. She closed her eyes as the tear fall from her cheek.

“I am here now, dear. What must I do?” she mutters to the paper as she lay down her back on the bed when,

*THUD*

A sound as if something heavy fell. Her feet wandered down from the bed and tapped the fallen phone. Perhaps this was the noise she heard, yet the thud sounded much heavier. She picked up her phone from the wooden floor and examined it. There was a crack by the side, that could almost form into a web. When she turns it on, however, the screen static as if it fell from a high place and surely her bed might be squeaky, but the mattress is not high to fall from to create this malfunctions in her phone.

The different colors of the static turned black and was no longer working. Out of reach in the reality of her era, the only device in the house that could prove the real year for her to stay sane in this Victorian-like household, is gone at last.