Into Thin Air - 2

What did he see? He failed to gather his thoughts. Was that actually a girl that ran from the living room to the dark hallways? Maybe his eyes are tricking him, maybe he's tired and his exhausted brain is cooking up a story. But he's not sure if the reasonable doubts are even a possibility; it just felt eerie to him.


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He runs after her but unable to catch her. By the time he got to where she was fleeting towards, she disappeared. He looks around, frantically, but there is no trace of her anywhere. His pulse quickened, beads of sweat on his forehead, his mouth is dry like sandpaper. He gulps and his throat pains slightly. The basement door is closing in but he hesitates; he has just seen something, or not seen something, that has him baffled out of his mind. He reaches his hand out to touch the doorknob and twist it. The door opens with a groaning creaking sound. He had only been to the basement once before moving into this house. Since then, he never felt the need to go there and check. Usually, it's the caretaker who goes there to check on things but now he's staring at the frail steps that lead to the dark and dingy room. "Hello?" with a shaky voice he asks.

He hears something. Unable to put his finger on what that sound was, he takes his step towards the basement and halts at the second step. There!!! That sound again. He squints his brows to look through the pitch-black room but he's now sure the patter was of something pacing swiftly. He takes another step as he tries to look closer and grabs the handrail. A silhouette of something moving and that sound. There's a faint cackle as if someone is stifling a laugh, a girl's laugh. "Who's there? Answer me," he says, although he's, to some extent, fearful. Another giggle and this time much clearer. "Why don't you answer me?" He asks.

Bump

He tumbles down the stairs to the concrete floor of the basement. Someone has pushed him and he groans in pain. He grabs his legs as it hurts the most. He feels a drop of sweat at the side of his forehead and winces as soon as his fingers graze there, there is a cut and blood on his fingertips. He looks at the door frame, the girl is standing there but moves away. "Hey wait." He gets up but it pains everywhere. "Wait" he stumbles as he tries to take the stairs. He gets to the door frame and yet again he loses trace of her. He flinches as his head starts to hurt badly.

The music floats again, more mournful than before. He limps a little but walks towards the sorrow-filled sound. He has yet to realize that he's not scared anymore but curious. The girl is sitting on the armchair near the phonograph, a sadness is clouding her face as he circles a finger around the edges of the phonograph. He stops to analyze the scene that's unfolding in front of him but couldn't make any sense out of it.

"You, know this is the tune he used to play when he would be sad." She says.

"Excuse me?" His mind is having trouble registering.

"My brother, Nikolai. He used to play this tune on the piano whenever he got upset. I don't see the piano here. I don't see him either." She's on the verge of breaking down as she finishes.

"Maybe he moved away to somewhere else." He says.

"Maybe." She smiles to reassure herself. Her gaze seems lost,

"Maybe he left. Left me here, alone." Tears spilling from her eyes.

He's taking careful steps towards her, looking at her with pitiful eyes as she cries uncontrollably. He tries to

"Hey, it's okay. What's your name?" He asks, crunching at a distance from her.

"My name?" She looks confused. "My name! But I don't remember my name." More dazed than she was before, she eyes him questionably. "Why don't I remember my name?"

"Beats me." He shrugs, giving her a humorless smile.


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"Huh." Her eyes look hazy as though her mind is deeply occupied elsewhere. She gets us from the chair and walks mindlessly towards the backdoor of the house, humming the tune that was just playing now. He stands up and follows her to see where she's going but she vanishes right before his eyes.

She has vanished... once again.

Into Thin Air

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