Creative writing - Prompt: suspense/horror
My mum called Aunt Vera 'the gloomy one'. She lived in a big house in Sintra all by herself and according to my mum's words, she simply didn't like people. She was a writer which meant she could mainly work from home, but nobody in the family had ever read her books or even knew what she wrote about, because she kept them under a secret pseudonym nobody had ever been able to uncover.
The afternoon before I was meant to leave for Sintra I sat with my friend and adventure buddy Ana at the back of our building, where we liked watching the stray cats playing and she explained to me in detail how very spooky Sintra really was. She swore that spending a whole month in a big old house in Sintra could actually turn out to be the coolest experience of my life because I was bound to come across some of the Sintra's ghosts. I tried explaining ghosts were probably not a thing, but Ana was enthusiastic and convincing enough that by the time I said goodbye to her, with promises to write at least 3 times a week, I was actually excited about the month ahead and secretly hoping something out of ordinary would in fact happen.
The first days at my aunt's house were quite uneventful but enjoyable. I didn't remember her very well, because she hardly ever came to visit us, but I took to her almost immediately. Once I was left to her care, she wasn't as gloomy as her reputation sustained. She welcomed me without too much fuss and let me know she wouldn't be able to entertain me much because she had lots of work to do. But I guessed straight away I would have lots of freedom to wander around and basically just do whatever I wanted to, as long as I didn't get myself in danger or interfere with her work. Coming from a household of overprotective parents, I felt like I had been handed a lottery ticket. She didn't baby me like other adults did but she also didn't exactly ignore me.
The house was big, especially when compared to the tiny 2-bedroom flat I lived in, but after three days I knew where everything was. Aunt Vera had an actual library. Not huge, but still a library. A whole room dedicated to nothing but storing books and reading them! I asked her which books I was allowed to read and she looked at me slightly confused. 'How old are you?' 'Nearly 13' 'Amelia, you can read whatever you like. There are also some art materials in that closet over there. I haven't touched them in years, but if anything is still usable, feel free to use them all up if you like.' I couldn't believe my luck.
By the third day, I knew my way all around the house and the limits of the garden. There was an old greenhouse outside that had seen better days, probably many years ago and a little pond with some frogs in it. Everything was a bit overgrown but unlike my mum, who called the house 'Vera Addams spooky mansion', I liked it that way.
It was the night of the third day that things started going a bit weird. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling thirsty. I was sleeping in what for me was a huge bedroom, with creaky wooden floorboards and old but sturdy furniture. I decided to have some water from the bathroom tap. I knew my way even in the dark now, and there was some moonlight coming from the windows. It was a warm night and I went walking barefoot to avoid waking up Aunt Vera who was supposed to be a light sleeper. I got out of the bedroom, down the corridor and two doors down on the left I open the bathroom door. My hand looked for the string to turn on the light, but I couldn't find it. I tried feeling for the space instead but my hands found a hard wooden surface rather than the tiles I expected to find on the wall. I took one step forward and the door slid gently after me and closed itself, leaving everything in the most absolute darkness. I stretched my arms in an attempt to locate myself and went through my memory trying but failing to remember any piece of wooden furniture in the bathroom. My arms didn't find anything. so I took another step back trying to open the door again. If I opened it wide enough, some light would get in so that I could find my bearings again. I turned searching for the door but in front of me, there seemed to be nothing but and open space. By then I was starting to panic a bit. I wondered if I was in a bad dream but I felt awake enough. I stretched my arms to the side, trying to find the piece of wooden furniture again. Or the door. Or anything really. It was pitch dark and it didn't seem to matter how many steps I took to one side or the other, it was like I was in the middle of a huge dark open space, with no furniture or walls. I retraced my steps mentally, trying not to panic, but all I wanted to do was scream out loud for my aunt. I'm quite sure I would have if I was home, but I was too ashamed of doing it in front of the one adult who actually treated me like a whole person. I squatted down, trying to calm myself. As I did so my hands hit the floor and I had a sudden realisation. I couldn't be in the bathroom at all, the floor had wooden boards. It was the most confusing moment. It was not like the bathroom was easy to miss. I got onto my hands and knees and started crawling. I crawled until I finally felt some sort of surface and felt a huge relief. And then I had the fright of my life. Out of a sudden, light flooded the room. I let out a small scream and covered my eyes, hurt by the surge of light after such a long period of darkness. I expected to hear Aunt Vera's voice, but nobody talked. When my eyes finally got used to the bulb light I looked around. To my enormous surprise, I was in a library. But I couldn't be. Because the library and my bedroom were on different floors altogether.
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