The House In The Forest

Chapter IV

Chapter Four

It was stupid. Incredibly stupid. But here I was, spending my Saturday standing at the end of an off-road heading to private property that despite being abandoned, I was fairly certain was illegal to break into. And for what reason was I breaking into this old house? Because I was curious about a girl I saw in my dreams, who I decided was real and seeking something from me. Yeah, that sounds as crazy to me as it would to a police officer.

Nonetheless, here I was. The gate at the end of the road was quite lavish, but it was clearly abandoned. It hadn't been upkept, so it was easy to scale over. The house on the other hand, was intimidating even in the daytime. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to break into private property in the sunlight, honestly I was a tad scared to come out here at night by myself though. I wasn't a coward, don't get me wrong, but also, this matter had been built up and nailed into my brain as something spooky. So here we were.

I found a backdoor that was unlocked, and I went in. The downstairs was about what you'd expect, dust and cobwebs, spiders and furniture that hasn't seen it's master in ages. Surprisingly, none of the windows were broken, and the art of the walls was actually well preserved. Old houses were well made, the handicraft was impressive, and this was a nice house. It was a bit sad to see it left to rot in time.

But, while the downstairs was clearly abandoned, the upstairs was not. There wasn't a cobweb to be seen, and the art on the walls had not a speck of dust. The windows in the hallway were open, the curtains blowing in the forest breeze.

Walking down the hallway, my feet felt heavier and heavier as I went. Until I had to stop, I couldn't walk any further. Or so my body tried to tell me. I didn't want to listen. Something told me where I wanted to be was directly ahead of me, and the door coming up in the hallway was open. I wanted to see what was in it.

So I did. I pushed on. And stumbled into a room that didn't seem to want me in it, only to find an empty sitting room, where three chairs stood in front of the window. Chairs that were clearly well maintained. The table between them had plates and cups on it, the remains of what looked like an early morning breakfast between girls on it. Weirdly enough, seeing that, I felt fine all of a sudden. There was no weight on my shoulders, my feet didn't feel like lead, there wasn't any dread in my throat threatening to choke me.

It was all gone, I could only describe it as being accepted. Like the house itself let me in, and was okay with me being here. I had made it far enough for it to accept me. It was a strange feeling, that I was sure I must have imagined. Or so I thought, before I turned around to run right into a girl. A girl with dark hair.

Who almost screamed. Almost, she quickly dropped the books she was carrying and put her hands over her mouth. I didn't know what to do myself, for finally meeting the person I've been saying I wanted to meet, I sure didn't have any words to say. Though, I did just meet a person I was trying to convince myself didn't exist.

After staring at me for a moment, she slowly lowered her hands. "Who are you? Wait, that's not important, you can't be here, it's not safe."

"If it's not safe, then why are you allowed to be here?" I spoke, which sounded a lot ruder than I had wanted to sound. Great first impressive Albert, just great. Impress the girl with rude retorts, that always works.

"I'm allowed here," she muttered, looking away from me like she was pouting. "How did you even get in here? Is it normal for young men to break into houses now?"

"Well in my defense it is an abandoned house, I didn't think you'd really be here," I told her, to which she returned her stare back to me. Those dark eyes really were something, in the shadows of the hallway, they seemed like the abyss.