Chapter-4

I placed the basket full of fruits that Silas gave me on the table, they were apples, peaches and oranges, "you didn't have to trouble yourself," I said, " these are lots of fruits." I didn't know what to say to him, I rarely talk to people and don't know how to say the right words at the right moment,

"Oh! That's just some house warming gifts." Silas said, "Mrs. Rose told me to give them."

"Mrs. Rose?"

"Yeah, she's the mistress of the house and Iam her caretaker, she wanted to visit but she has arthritis so it's difficult for her to walk." he replied.

"Ok, that's too bad." I said, and I stood there awkwardly not knowing what to say.

"How old are you?" he asked

"Fourteen" I replied

"Oh! Your still a baby." he said

" No, I'm not, how old are you then?"

"You guess,"

"You look probably younger than me."

We stood there in silence for sometime, then he started walking around the kitchen and placing his hands on the walls as he moved around, " Do you like this place?" He said, finally breaking the silence, " well we just moved in yesterday, so I don't know." I replied

"Where's your mom and dad?"

"Mom's off to work and my dad he passed away."

Silas's eyes turned blank when I mentioned my dad, he slowly walked towards me and slowly held my hand, " Iam sorry, you must have gone through a lot." he said.

I quickly brushed off his hands and not wanting to sound rude I said softly, "It's not like that." Which only came out in whispers.

He smiled at me, " why don't you come to our house for some tea." he said

"No, thanks" I replied

"No, I insist Mrs Rose would like to meet you she really do."

I barely spoke to people and barely visit my relatives house, how am I going to go to a complete stranger house for tea, he must be mad for asking me to come, "No!" I replied, my words came out as harsh when I said that.

But Silas grabbed my hand and said, "Com'on your all alone, lets have some tea with cakes."

I wanted to punch him in the face, and his smile was very ugly.

"Iam sorry but next time." I said, hoping it would change his mind.

"Have some tea dear." Mrs Rose said, her wrinkled hands reached out and offered me a cup of tea.

"Thanks" I replied, she smiled at me. I didn't even know what I was doing here, Silas forced me to come here and now Iam sitting here next to Mrs Rose.

"It's good to see new faces in our neighbourhood." Mrs Rose said as she sipped her tea, " you know there are hardly anybody staying here, so the more the merrier."

"Well I hope we get along well." I said out loud without noticing, Mrs Rose looked and me and started laughing, "and why do you think we won't get along?" She said,

I didn't know what to say, my anxiety took over me and I randomly blurted out, " I-I mean I hope we stay here peacefully."

'why the heck did I say peacefully' I thought to myself, 'of course we are going to live peacefully.'

"You don't like tea?" Mrs Rose said looking down at the table because I haven't taken a sip of tea yet,

"I do!" I said and quickly tried to grabbed the cup but because I was so anxious I accidentally slapped the handle of the cup and spilled it.

"Iam sorry, Iam sorry." I said and I quickly tried wiping the tea with my hand.

"Oh my!" Mrs Rose cried, "Silas quick bring a cloth."

The tea was already cold so it didn't burn my hand, Silas quickly wiped the table with a cloth and handed me tissue to wipe my hands,

"Iam so sorry." I said, "I have clumsy hands."

Mrs. Rose took a sip of her tea and calmly said, "Don't worry accident happens, Iam glad you didn't injury yourself."

"Thanks." I replied, I was so embarrassed, I just wanted to hang myself.

"What was your name again?" Mrs Rose said

"Brooke." I replied

"Brooke, what a beautiful name for a young lady." She said.

Mrs Rose looked like the typical old ladies you'll see in the movies, she was dressed in finery and had an accent as she spoke, she smelled like cinnamon and looked like she was in her late seventies and like Sophie said she couldn't walk properly and needs her cane for support.

Her house was huge and all her furniture's were old-fashioned.

"Mrs Rose, do you have any kids?" I asked

"Sadly no" she replied, her tune seemed like she didn't care at all, " it's just me and Silas here."

"Just the two of you in this huge house." I said.

"Your welcome to stay here, if you like." She said and smiled at me,

"No thanks." I replied, the way she always smiled at me was creepy, I wanted to get out of here so I tried thinking of some excuse to go home but before I could say anything, Mrs Rose said, " tell this old woman a joke."

"Huh!?" I was confused, why did she say at all of a sudden, "what do you mean?"

"Humour me with a riddle." She said and she placed her cup on the table and came closer to me as of waiting for an answer.

"Look Mrs Rose Iam sorry, but I have to go now, my brother is coming home soon and—"

"What has eyes but cannot see." She said, "they have eyes but all they see is nothing."

My blood started to boil, why is this old woman playing with riddles all of a sudden, I just want to go home.

"Not going to answer," she continued, " well then let me ask you a different one."

"A Needle!" I replied, 'might as well just play the game with her and finish it fast' I thought

She looked at me with a slight grin and answered, "incorrect, the answer is a blind man."

I laughed, is she serious? What kind of stupid answer is that?

"She always likes the twist." Sophie said out of nowhere,

"When did you get here?" I said

"Oh I was standing here the whole time." She replied and smiled.

Mrs Rose have a chuckle before clearing her throat and said, " ok I'll give you an easy one"

'great let's see.' I thought

Then she slowly began," you see a boat full of people, yet… there isn't a single person on board, why?" She moved her fingers as she spoke, that riddle didn't even make sense and I didn't want to waste my time playing so I just answered, " I don't know."

"That's a funny answer." Silas said, I just gave him a glare, which he didn't seemed to notice.

Mrs Rose slowly cleared her throat and said, " the answer my dear, it's because they're all married."

"Iam never going back in there again," I said as I angrily opened the front door of our house which made the loud creaking noise, " what kind of answers were those, they were as stupid as she looked and Silas telling me to come back again? Like hell I would."

All those talks with them was making my head spin so I went up to my room to rest and as I walked up the stairs, the frames on the walls seemed like they were moving so I quickly turned around to look but they stayed still except that the pictures inside the frame seemed to be staring down at me it gave me chills so I quickly ran up to my room.

I kept thinking about how the people inside the mental asylum felt, they must have felt the same way Iam feeling now; all alone nowhere to go, no noise from the outside, just me and the furniture and the alarm clock ticking so loud. The silence nearly killed me of so I decided to play some music to lighten up the room just a little bit, I took out the recorder from my closet and placed it on the table, next I rummaged through my closet again to search for a decent cassette to play, I took out one by one and checked the names on it; 'Atomic doggies, Justin learns to Rock, Highway boys…..'

"Oh! I like Highway boys" I said and took out the cassette and played it in the recorder, at first the cassette made some humming noise but after sometime it stopped, I pushed the play button again and the cassette started to roll and made the same humming noise but stopped after a while making a zipper noise.

"What's wrong with this?" I said and started hitting the recorder and pushed the play button again but it still made the humming noise before stopping, so I took out the cassette, tried twisting the spools and rubbing the edge of the cassette with my shirt to make sure there isn't a single dirt on it and placed it inside the recorder for one last time but this time the cassette didn't move and the recorder didn't make a noise, I pushed the play button again and again but it didn't work,

"Really now?" I said with a sigh and pushed the 'stop' button, "nothing is going right today."

I kept the recorder back inside the closet and turned my back but I stopped when I heard a clicking sound inside the closet and the music started to play-

'In a world like this where some back down…'

I quickly opened the closet door, the recorder was playing the song, "didn't I shut it down?" I clearly remember pressing the stop button, the song continued for awhile then suddenly the song distorted and made all kinds of horrible noise, I quickly pressed the stop button, the song stopped playing, my heart began to race I just stood there frozen still holding the recorder when I heard two knocks above me, it was coming from above my room, then there was another knock and followed by several knocks until it stopped.

I couldn't move I didn't know what was going on, I slowly let of the recorder and took a few steps back when there was another knock above me but this time it was followed by a sigh as if someone was up there after that it remained silent all I could hear was the alarm clock ticking and my heart beating my chest, all very quiet when someone spoke to me from the ceiling above.

"что ты здесь делаешь"

I screamed as soon as I heard the voice speaking above my room, it sounded Russian, my thoughts were all mixed up, I was feeling dizzy I didn't know what to do my breathe was getting heavy, there's no way someone is up there, there's no way because I know that above my room is nothing else but the roof.