Rose

8. Her Past

Rose's Past

I used to live in a little town near the Blue Hue Frost Forest. My parents both owned a bakery shop and were busy people which meant most of my time was spent alone. But during one sunny day when I was around six years, an unusual noise grabbed my attention when I was cycling down the neighborhood. I heard some noise behind me and saw a truck lifting furniture from the back, and realized that someone was moving into the house next to mine.

I turned my bicycle and paddled through the house's to look who our new neighbors were. Maybe it was someone of my age? The idea made me giddy. Finally someone I can play with. But instead, I found a skinny lady dressed in purple. Watching me with her beady eyes; of which one was colored green and the other blue. Her cheeks were hollow, showing her cheekbones and thin brown hair was tied in a bun. She looked like one of those women from supernatural cliche TV shows.

But something more had creeped me out. She was watching me without blinking her eyes for a whole minute. And something inside me was telling me to turn away as far I can from her. So listening to my guts, I quickly tried to make a turn. My cycle wheels squeaked when I took an unsteady turn. Although, instead of finding an empty road, I found a tree in front of me. In fear, my body froze and I had automatically closed my eyes while waiting for the impact. But it never came. When I finally opened my eyes, I found the unusual woman holding my back seat.

Oh, she saved me!

There was no denying that this was even creepier. The last I remembered she was at least 11 feet away from me. How did she...? But my pondering died when she spoke. "Watch where you are going," Was all that she said. I gulped down and nodded while quickly turning. Slowly this time. After that, I quickly cycled back to my home and ran upstairs to my room. I was shocked by what had happened that day.

After a few days, I started seeing her more often. After all, she was my next-door neighbour. She used to always visit our bakery and even started talking to me. Eventually, I started engaging in the conversations, ignoring the bad vibes. It turned out her name was Jennet Gracia,  a 21-year-old artist who was selected to join an art college nearby. After hearing that I relaxed a bit and shrugged off my creepy vibes about her.

My family started interacting with her a lot, too. We used to have dinner together and often talk until one day my parents suddenly had disappeared. It was one casual night in the middle of August. Just, as usual, my mother came to my room to tuck me in my bed. But unlike the other mornings where I would find my dad cooking bacon while my mom baked cakes, they vanished. The police were just as confused as everyone and searched for them for 6 months but after that, they gave up and considered them 'dead'.

There was no news and everything had seemed to move in a blur. It was Jennet who had invited me into her home with open arms. It seemed as if she was the only one who had the wits to handle such situations and I was extremely grateful for that but no, I was wrong, I was VERY wrong.

After I had shifted to Jennet's house, the nightmares began - consisting of my parents. Of them screaming for my aid, and every night I used to wake up and cry until I started taking sleeping pills to prevent them. I hadn't told Jennet about it because I was a little suspicious about her. Once the numbness was gone, I started noticing things about her too. One. She had a brown leather journal which remained locked. She constantly wrote in it every night using a feather. The second odd thing was the lock I'd found near the fireplace, revealing a secret room. My mind started to fill with the worst-case scenario but I didn't do anything. Not until I had solid proof that I was in danger. And so I waited for years, and in those years, I got interested in music and started singing in many choirs. Jennet always approved of my music and seemed to be extra interested even when I sang. She would always stare at me with a gleam in her eyes while I used to sing.