You Shouldn't Have Come

There were a lot of things that had to go. Owen was even taking care of everything that would remind Milan of the scene in the kitchen. With the carpet ripped from the hallway leading to the kitchen, Owen had to leave and find a replacement. Milan just worked on cleaning the family room on his own.

Unlike earlier, Milan rolled up his trousers and his sleeves. He was now mopping the floor to remove dirt that stuck to the floor of the family room. While he was doing so, he was visualizing the layout of the funeral later. He had to make sure the visible places would be sparkling clean.

Footsteps. Milan heard footsteps coming from upstairs. He looked up and frowned as he was alone in that house. No one should have been there aside from him and Owen. Then again, with Owen outside to fetch new rugs, Milan had to check it out himself. He didn’t check the second floor when he came, either.

“Could someone be living here already? It’s just four days…” Milan didn’t even know if a person was that callous. If this was a city on the mainland, it would be inevitable. However, this was an island village. Whoever decided to phrog in this house would be known by someone for sure.

Milan took a knife from the kitchen and circled through the family room to get to the staircase. He stood at the foot of the stairs and looked up at the two flights of stairs he used to climb up and down in a hurry. If he was slow, he was bound to fall when their father ran into them there. Just that childhood injury made Milan bite the end of his tongue. He wanted to spit, but he didn’t want to clean it just as readily.

He then began testing the steps. The house was only abandoned for just four days, but he felt like he had never seen life in this house for decades. Moreover, the smell of the air didn’t lose to the one in the shed. There was no way no one lived on the second floor, but Milan couldn’t help but feel like it.

“H-Hello?” Milan called out as if someone would answer him. He peeked from the turn and feared seeing something on the second floor. When he stepped into the landing, his entire body began to tremble in fear. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t even move at that point.

Footsteps then echoed from the second-floor hallway again. Milan sucked in air and took another step on the second flight of stairs. He kept on looking at the second floor, his hand clawing at the wooden handrail next to him.

On the sixth step, he could peek from the floor. His eye level was as low as the floor, but he could look around to find the second-floor hallway. Someone was running around, and he wanted to make sure it was just some kind of cat or raccoon. It could even be a wolf. Milan just wanted it to be an animal rather than anything else that he could imagine.

“Hello?” Milan called out again, his feet stuck on the sixth step. His entire body was fighting his decision to climb higher. However, the view was making it harder for Milan to feel pacified.

His mind was powerful, and he didn’t want it to send him into spasms again.

When Milan took the seventh step, his eyes zeroed in on a corner. It was the doorway to the room belonging to him and Florence. He didn’t know if that was still Florence’s room, but it was as if something was pulling him into it.

“Is someone here?” Milan climbed another step and blinked his eyes. He didn’t know what was going to show up, but his armed hand was already growing weak.

“What are you doing here?”

Milan froze when he heard a voice that he had never heard for so long. A cold sweat dripped down his entire body, even if the place was rather cold. His eyes were stuck on the doorway to their room, but something walked into his peripheral vision. The footsteps grew closer at a slower pace, and it didn’t help that the rose-colored long skirt covered his eye.

He quickly spun with his eyes closed. He dropped the knife and hurried down the stairs and to the main door. With a swing and a slam, he was already out of the house. Milan even pressed his back against the door behind him.

The street in front of him was empty, and it was because everyone was either at work or school… or just sleeping in their homes. No one saw him grow paler than a sheet of paper while leaning against the main door. It was good. He didn’t want to explain what happened.

“I’ll just…” Milan would run back to Corey’s house, but what would he tell them? Right now, only Owen knew about his tendency to hallucinate. Whether it was a real ghost or not, something spooked Milan on the second floor of their house. He even heard his mother’s voice.

…

When Owen pulled up in front of the Sheppard Residence with his small truck fitted with some décor for the funeral, he saw Milan sitting on the steps on the porch. He lifted his brows and walked up to the man.

“Milan, what’s wrong? Did you collapse again?” Owen reached out to caress the man’s head. “What did you see? Can you tell me?”

“Uh, it’s my mom. Haha… I didn’t see her, but I heard her voice.” Milan sighed deeply and made a strange smile. “Do you think I’m crazy?”

Owen shook his head. “Your mind enslaves you because your nightmares are all you know. Where did you think you saw her?”

Milan stared at the man before clearing his throat. “Second-floor hallway. Be careful. I think I dropped the knife somewhere on the stairs. I thought it was an animal, so I brought a knife.”

“Do you want to come with me?” Owen opened the door and peered in the direction of the stairwell. “We might find something interesting on the second floor.”

“Will you catch me if I fall?” Milan laughed and got up from his seat. “I’m not ultra-light.”

“You’re not a whole cow, either. Have faith in my arms.” Owen reciprocated the laugh and walked inside the house. He got to the stairwell first and saw the knife Milan was talking about.

Milan followed him in with a smile on his face, but it somewhat fell when he saw the stairwell. The knife he brought was stuck to the cement wall next to the landing, and someone even had the liberty to carve words using the knife.

[You shouldn’t have come home, Milan.]