Chapter 8

There are things we don't truly let go of......we think we have but we haven't.We just lock them up far away unknowingly hoping that they don't crawl back into our lives..........

I close my eyes and somehow wake up again instantly but not in the real world.....

In yet another dream.

However this time the room isn't dark,infact it is the exact opposite of the first dream.The room is bright,very bright, illuminated by white lights.The room it'self is white and large...no gigantic having an infinite range of space but like the first room has no doors and no windows.

I wait for a couple of minutes for anything odd to happen but nothing does to my own disappointment.Because of this I have no idea if should walk further or call out to see if anyone is there.I stand there planted on my feet feeling lost.

Suddenly a little black dot appears in from of me and it starts to enlarge and stretch till it reaches what I presume to be it's maximum level.I stand there watching it till it's done.After that it shows me moving images of a family....

My family

My father,my sisters and my mother.They are in a picnic, laughing, eating and then occasionally playing around.

I force myself to blink back my tears but fail as I watch my mother smile at the rest of her children with so much love......

I wish I could be with them.

But I can't.....

I wipe away the tears and just watch.

Soon after one of my sisters looks directly at me to my very surprise.She points at me and smiles cheekily.Soon after everyone else is looking at me now smiling and I can't help but smile back.They wave at me and gesture me to come to them.

"Come on,come on"I hear my little sister say with her cute little baby voice

"Come say hi to the family"I hear my mother's sweet voice say

I feel tempted to go and I wave back equally smiling.I takes steps forward towards the vertex and reach out to it but by my very touch it implodes and every trace of it is wiped out like it never existed.

Suddenly I feel a strong presence behind me and I turn around slowly and come face to face with a little girl.She is small and pretty with light skin and her hair is done in neat bantu knots.She looks right but at me timidly as she intertwines her finger with her dress.

This act of simple cuteness makes her look harmless but her strong dark aura says otherwise.She continues to stand at the far end staring at me but doesn't speak.

After some seconds,the spot she is standing starts to darken and the darkness spreads through out the far end of the other side of the room but doesn't cross over to my side.A few seconds later a little boy comes from behind her and stands near her.His eyes reflects hunger and sadness and he is painfully skinny unlike the girl who looks well fed and decent.Another child comes from behind the boy then another and a child appears from that child then another and another till I can no longer count just how many they are but I can see that most of them were barely toddlers while others are much older but are still just children.

Non of them crosses the line between the dark and the light,they just stand there and bore their eyes into my very soul.

They all say something in unison but for some reason I can't hear them.

"What?"I mutter lowly more to myself than to them

They repeat it but I still can't get what they are saying.

I squint my eyes trying to read their lips untill the words roles out of their little mouths like a whisper.

.......run

My blood runs cold as the repeat it louder now

....run

....run.....

RUN.....

RUN.....

At that point in time their voices are loud and sharp almost ear piercing and close my ears from the stabbing echoing voices.Its then that I notice their eyes all slowly turning pitch black and it feels like a bell is ringing in my head until suddenly it stops I take my hands away from my ears only because I feel an oozing liquid on both hands.I look at my hands and I see....

Blood....

Thick dark blood....

Suddenly my side if the room starts to become stained with blood red and the lights turn red as well.I look at my blood stained hands trembling and hyperventilating.

I hear a knocking sound in my head louder than the ear piercing scream of the children and I am about to loose my mind when....

I wake up

I open my eyes slower than I expected and I turn then look sluggishly to the door.Some one is knocking.

I go to the door and open it revealing the same familiar maid.

"Good morning"she says smiling, however I fail to return the smile and just stare at her.

"I came to take your dirty laundry and do some other clean up"she continues holding up her basket.

I nod my head and just let her in whilst moving out of her way.She walks in and goes straight to where my dirty clothes are.A disgusted look spreads on her face as she looks at them.

I don't blame her though.They are filthy.

Never the less she picks them up and puts them in her laundry basket.She looks in the direction of the bathroom that is apparently wide open since I forgot to close the door last night.She takes a few steps towards the entrance and looks at it like she's examining the bathroom.

"Ahh I see you cleaned up all by yourself"she says as she turns to me

"Uhh--"I mutter wondering what she's talking about

"It's good to know that a guest can actually help out in tidying up, it makes the work less hectic"she says cheekily cutting me short of my silent mutter.She starts to head to the bed but then stops and turns to me

"But next time don't use the bleach you used,it's a little too harsh.Instead just use the other one in the bottom cabinet,it's not as harsh and gets the job done just as nicely and the smell dies down way faster"she says before going to open the window then places her basket on the vanity stool.

It's only after she said that that things actually becomes clear

"Noted"I say

She looks at the bed and sees the sweat stain.A small frown appears on her chubby face.

"What happened here?"she asks

"...."

"Thank goodness I came here right on time,I need to get this washed right away or the stain will never come off"she says taking off the sheets, comforter and the pillow casings then places them in her basket.

I stand there just looking at her with out saying a word.

"I'll be back in a few minutes to get you some new clothes"she says before speeding off.

I hear her say something about the sheets whiles she does so but I don't give it any thought.

Once she leaves I am engulfed by the quietness of the room.

However,it only takes me a few seconds to get used to it and during this time I decide to take a shower since I technically didn't take a shower earlier on.

I go the bathroom and proceed in taking a shower, while I do so I think why not wash my hair while I'm at it? So I do just that.

I step out of the bathroom with a clean towel wrapped around my body with another smaller towel wrapped around my hair.

I feel a whole lot better as the fragrances engulf the room once as I step out of the bathroom.

It would be really easy for anyone else to get used to this place,the good life here is tempting but the evil aura is not and neither are the dreams.

I sit on the bed with the towel still wrapped on my body not having any clothes to put on.As I do so I can't help but notice the mirror on the vanity vividly reflecting the image of the scarred hideous thing staring right back at me.

At my soul.....

For some reason I don't look away.I stare and so does my reflection with her face masked with an unforgiving frown,her skin once a dark blessing now a hideous burden squeezed and burnt by steam and fire.

I hear the voices of my family.The echoes of their screams engulfs my memory.

I remember it so vividly like it was only yesterday.

I was eight years old when it happened.

Twelve o'clock.I remember it clearly.Not a minute late,not a minute earlier.It was exactly twelve o'clock.The ungodly hour that no soul would suspect that such a ghastly incident would take place.

That night I was forced to wake up by the choking smoke that engulfed my room.

I was confused and scared and I had no idea what to do but call out for my parents....But no one answered.

I was at the point of tears as I coughed my lungs out finally escaping the room only to be greeted with the fire that was consuming my home.

"Mommy"I remember shouting out but no one answered

"Da--"I tried to shout but only ended up getting choked by the smoke in the process.

I managed to jump passed burning portions of the stairs still shouting out their names.

Suddenly I hear my father's voice call out to me then everyone else's joins

"Where are you?"I yell still trying to make out exactly where they were from the smoke.

"We're here"I hear my little sister's voice

"In the kitchen"she states

At that time I knew where they were but the question was how do I get there and how do I get them out?

The smoke was already choking my lungs making it hard and very difficult to breathe and my eyes watered from all the smoke.Never the less I had managed to find my way to the kitchen when a portion of the ceiling falls right in front of the door blocking me from entering.

I hear my family screaming for help and one of my sisters crying obviously from fear.

I was scared......why wouldn't I be?

My home was collapsing as it durned down with my family and I in it yet I couldn't seem to help them or myself.

I hear more of the ceiling crack above me......

and that was it.....

The last thing I heard was my family's last screams as it faded once I lost consciousness.

Even till this day I still don't know how the fire had started.

Or how I survived,all I remember is waking up in the hospital.

Suddenly, something within me shifts and clicks like as though it's a door opening.

....the door of my inner mind

And anger creeps up on me slowly like a snake.My sadness now replaced with a mix of hate and disgust as I start recalling what it first felt like to see myself through a mirror after the fire.

I remember the feeling of digust, repulsion,anguish then shame.

I remember how I was scorned, sneered at and even laughed at by the people who saw me.And how can I forget the screams of fear.

......The loneliness,

The sadness

The many weeks I cried myself to sleep...

WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME??!!!!

I throw anything I can grab- which happens to be my pillow-at the mirror and it turns upside down the other way revealing the black blank back side.

I swear if I had gotten hold of anything stronger I would have broken the mirror.....

But I don't care.

The sound of the door knob turning snaps me out of my painful flashback and I rush to the bathroom too ashamed that someone might see me like this.

I close the door as I wait for the person to come in.

"Miss I brought your clothes"says the familiar maid

I open the door slightly and peek at her.

"I'm over here"I say from where I stand

"Oh"she says before walking over to where I am.She stretches out her arm that held neatly folded clothes to me.

I take them and thank her softly before shutting the door.

"You're welcome"she says in her usual cheeky tone

"You know you don't have to be shy around me,I'm a female just like you you know"I hear her say

You are most definitely no like me

I would love to scream those words at her but then again she knows nothing of my past or who I am so doing that would be wrong, especially since she's genuinely just trying to be nice.

Never the less I put on the clothes which turn out to be another over sized outfit but this time instead of a night gown,it's an oversized grey hoodie dress.

I wonder where they get all these clothes from.

I cover my head with my hoodie before coming outside.

The maid however seems oblivious of my presence as she continues to make my bed whilst humming a tone.

"I put some new fresh clothes in your drawer, they're a bit oversized but don't worry we'll go shopping for clothes your size later"She says out of nowhere startling me a bit

"Oh so you noticed me"I mutter a little too loudly

She giggles a little like as though I just cracked a good joke

"You're funny you know"she says now fluffing the pillows

"I'd have to have lost my sense of smell to not notice you"she continues now straightening up and looking and me with a smile dancing on her lips.

"Oh"I reply lowly

"So"she says

"We never got the chance to introduce ourselves"

"I guess not"I reply a little awkwardly

"My name is Ashanti"she says cheekly in a way that makes me wonder how she always manages to always be like this even with the gloominess of the mansion.

Never the less I reply

"I'm Mirai"

After that there is a brief but suffocating awkwardness that takes over the room.However Ashanti swiftly brings it to an end.

"So what do you think of Mr and Mrs Noel?"she asks

Who now?

"They're just lovely aren't they?"she continues not allowing me to speak

"They're so kind and gentle"

"..."

I sit on my bed obviously tired of standing allowing her to chatter her heart away.

She goes on and on talking about different things and aspects of her life and I learn many things about her by just sitting there watching her.I learn that she is an orphan and had stayed in an orphanage more than half her life,she also tells me about the children there and how they were mean,she tells me little about her past lovers even if that wasn't necessary,then she tells me how she got here wrapping it all up with how kind Ada and Nicodemus who I know to be the Noels are and last but not the least how perculiar Jasmine is and how she just needs a friend-although I won't argue with the fact that Jasmine is perculiar though.

Even after all this she still seems to find something to chatter about and I can't help but feel fascinated at how fast her mouth goes up and down and sides ways so fast without her stuttering even once.

"Are you always like this?"