CHAPTER 12

TOUCHY MUCH?

❤❤

I stepped inside the last room of the hallway willingly. I felt my pulse in the neck against the nerves, and I knew in my gut that I was standing in the room with someone else. I felt what I thought was a breath over my left ear.

"Miles, is that you?" That was a stupid thing to ask.

I moved my frozen body and turned to my side. I flashed the light. My eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, and... there she was. The one that had been playing hide and seek in the shadows with me from the moment I entered the house. Tall and slender. Long hair and long nails. I got a little preoccupied with the other details that I didn't see her feet floating. She was looking straight at me. Miles was just lying on the floor, where her feet were dangling. I heard the door singing a rusty song while it shut itself with an echoing thud. I rushed to the door, but I couldn't find it. I didn't know where the wall or door was. In a barreling movement, she touched me with her nail on my neck just below my right ear, and I let out an involuntary scream. I heard the footsteps of my friends.

"Margo." I heard Aiden's voice.

"What is it?" Elec never lost her demanding voice.

"Please, don't tell me you saw a roach. I'd kill you," Irsia cursed.

I felt the cold palm across my nape, over my shoulder, and I screamed again. "There is someone in here with me. Open the door," I cried.

"What? Who?" It was Irsia. I promised myself that I wouldn't punch her for this.

"Hurry... both of you," Elec was giving out orders.

She didn't move an inch away from me. I was sure that I was in harm's way. I'd take the entire blame for walking into the God-forbidden house and then taking the most stupidest decision that even anyone infected with CONMISDUM wouldn't have done - I walked into the room where someone was murdered. I didn't stop screaming every freaking time I felt her touch. Then suddenly she was not near me anymore, or at least she had stopped touching me. My friends succeeded in opening the door and I sprinted out. I bumped into Elec and she fell again.

"Ouch," she groaned.

I didn't even help her back up and I turned to see if she was still there, but Aiden was already inside the room.

"There's no one in here, Margo," he declared, and he saw Miles on the floor. Aiden knelt down and tapped Miles's cheek, asking him to wake up. "Miles... wake up," he kept repeating.

"No... there was someone. I swear."

Finally, Miles came to his senses and he woke up with a gasp and stood up instantly. "There was something in here," was the first sentence that he stuttered.

"I told you... I freaking told you," I cried. "Wait... What? Did you just say 'something'?"

Elec scrambled up, standing with her left foot alone. I saw Irsia and Elec's eyes fixated on something. I squinted my eyes to adjust my sight, and yes... there she was again. Floating embedded in the darkness. Just behind Miles and Aiden.

"Aiden," Irsia cautioned. "I think you should come out."

"Yeah... Miles... you too. Just walk slowly to me...," Elec dragged, with her voice truncated.

Again, she was looking straight at me. I felt like no one else was in danger there. I felt like I was the only person in danger there. I felt as targeted as the bullseye.

"Yeah... no sudden movements," I whispered, praying she couldn't hear me.

"Should I turn around, and look?" Aiden whispered back. I was not going to promise myself not to punch him in the gut when we got out of there. He deserved it.

"Shut up," Elec's whispering was muffled from gritting.

I involuntarily took a step back, wondering how Irsia did not see it before I saw it. I mean, she was the one that had both eyes on the details. She could win a gold medal if observation was a sport at the Olympics. As Aiden walked slowly forward, as if he were treading on egg shells, Miles ran out of the room. I guessed that was his backwash reaction to what he had just witnessed. Irsia and I didn't even stay to look if that thing was following us. Elec limped out holding Miles. Miles was a gentleman to hold Elec, though we all ran for our lives. Irsia and Aiden were running at almost the same speed. I was following them both and I saw Aiden having a rubberneck moment. God! He had some kind of guts. As we reached the stairs, I ran down as fast as I could. Aiden slowed down. He kept his pace to match mine. What in heaven was he thinking? Irsia was the first to get down the stairs. Aiden and I were at the same pace, but on different corners of the stairs. Elec was struggling to climb down the stairs, but Miles helped her. She managed to limp down the stairs. The front door was shut. Yeah, I was not so surprised. Irsia pulled the door with all her might. I turned to look back, still holding Aiden's phone in my hand, shivering. Miles and Elec made their way to us.

"What's with the doors in this house?" Elec yelled.

"Yeah... my thoughts exactly," I muttered, drawing in a deep breath.

Aiden cursed, "move." I didn't know if it was his strength or if it was coincidence, the door just swung open at his touch.

That was it. We ran for our lives to the gates and outside. We ditched Elec's car there and ran to Irsia's house. Irsia came to a halt and turned back.

"Stop," she ordered.

We stopped and I was the one who stopped so awkwardly. I bent down, holding my knees.

"Are you ok...?" Aiden asked, hunching down.

I nodded, heaving.

"We can't go to my house now," Irsia declared. Because her parents would be home and it could be difficult to explain to her parents what we just did by how we all looked, like we were actually persuaded by a ghost.

We were catching our breaths and Aiden was the first to ask a question. "So, what was that... that we saw there? Actually, I didn't get a good look at it but it was terrifying."

"Didn't look like some trespasser to me." Irsia's words faltered. It was logical, but not the truth.

Elec and Miles were silent. They knew exactly what they just had the pleasure of experiencing. I had to talk. I had to put the truth out there, stabbing, that it hit everyone's logic.

I drew in a deep breath, but it was shaky to all extents. It didn't calm me down. The shaky breath only made me only more furious. "You all... you do realize that it wasn't a human, right?"

"What do you mean?" Miles probed and it somehow made me feel offended. I didn't hold back my stare that showed the heights of displeasure.

"What do I mean? Use the logic, Miles. That house is haunted." I turned to Irsia "And Irsia, the shadow that you have been seeing from your window is a ghost." I turned and looked at Elec. "Why are you so silent?" And I stared straight at Irsia when a realization hit me. "Irsia, how come you didn't see the shadow that I saw downstairs...? I mean you are the one who notices things in a split second." I had this boiling doubt now that she saw the shadow that lurked in the corner, but didn't say anything because she was in denial.

"Whoa, what!! Walker saw that before you. That's impractical." Elec opened her mouth for justice now. "Irsia, you could have seen the shadow that Walker is talking about at least 2 seconds before Walker saw it." She was damn right, even the clouds agreed with her and sent a dauntingly argent lightning.

"Irsia, admit it. You are in denial," I badgered, and I hated it.

"Maybe." She paused.

"Okay. What are you not telling us...?" Aiden took a step forward.

"I've had this gloomy skepticism that it's Ashlyn Emerson's ghost inside Auroville Villa for like a week now." And she had the guts to look at all four of us.

"And you didn't tell us this because...?" I was raging. I wanted to slap her. She could have warned us, and she could have saved us the trip inside the haunted house.

"Ashlyn? You mean the pregnant woman who was murdered there?" Miles asked.

"Actually, there were two murders that night," Irsia pointed out. "I don't know if it was Ashlyn or the other one. I just theorized from the semblance and the ill-boding vibes that it could be something from a phantom realm."

I gave Irsia a displeased, lofty stare and then shifted my attention to Miles. "Miles, how did you hit your head before we arrived?" Consider this my 'I could kill you now voice'.

"I had a train of foretoken thoughts of something. I thought I saw something and then I thought I didn't. I hit my head somewhere in the dark. I thought I saw the trespasser." Now I wanted to hit him in the head. Even Elec gave him a weird look.

"Miles, that's insane," Elec blurted out. "And I don't know how the door of the room I was in, shut on its own. A strong wind blew but I don't think it could have moved the long-rested door. I'm thinking it was..." She trailed off. "Whatever that was."

"Trespasser?" I was not going to let go of what Miles had just uttered. "Or did you hit your head against something on seeing the appearance of a dead woman? Twice, I'm guessing." I paused for him to say something stupid again. His goodness, he didn't. "And don't tell me you didn't see that it's feet weren't touching the ground or that you didn't see it had a killer look in its eyes." I groaned in total disgruntlement. "I don't care if you don't believe that there are ghouls lurking out there digging up bodies." Miles opened his mouth, but I cut him off. "I don't care if you think that it is all some grand scheme of a person to dig up bodies and scare the people. Well, I believe it is the ghouls. And I do believe that ghosts exist."

The conversation was taxing me and I ran out of breath more than I did when we ran out of the haunted house.

"We get it. Cool off." Aiden tried to pacify me.

"You don't understand, Aiden. It touched me. It freaking touched me." I shuddered in the unpleasant thought. It wasn't the chilly air. It was just the thought of the supernatural icy touch.

❤❤