gho(st)²ories (yan/obsessive chrollo x reader)

Act 2, Chapter 4

You put the book on the low table before you sat down on the seat yourself.

You had resolved to at least look inside the book today to see what it was about before you put it back in its place.

For a few minutes you just looked outside through the open front window, absorbing the nature that presented itself to you.

Behind the house, some of the trees had been removed and the area your garden seemed to mark was a green and yellow lawn.

You occupied yourself with your phone until you closed the sliding door that separates the garden and winter garden from each other, leaving it open just a crack.

You almost forgot about the book again when you watched a few videos on your cell phone.

However, the poor sleep of the last few days made itself noticed, your eyes felt heavy and you felt incredibly tired.

'Only this last video' you promised yourself, after that you would go in and keep yourself busy as not to fall asleep.

But your promise to yourself fell flat when you fell asleep less than halfway through the promised 'last video'.

You woke up when it was already dark outside.

Your neck ached from the uncomfortable position you had fallen asleep in and your upper left arm was a lot colder than the rest of your body.

As you walked in you cursed yourself, at least after a while you were able to sleep straight through more than 3 hours.

Normally now would have been the time when you would have gone to sleep, so still tired you dragged yourself up the stairs.

You changed your clothes with your eyes closed and got into bed, the fact that you wanted to avoid the upper floor forgotten by your tiredness.

You fell asleep again quickly but it wasn't long before you woke up again.

The blanket had slipped off your torso and a chill nestled against your back like a jacket.

'The window' was the only thought that went through your head, but you were far too tired and powerless to get up and close the window.

For a moment you stayed how you were when you woke up.

You were about to reach for your blanket to pull it back up when you felt ice-coldness brush the bare skin of your hip.

Like fingertips made of ice.

It paced gently, taking advantage of your pyjamas shifting up from their place while you slept.

Suddenly you were wide awake and in a matter of seconds you were sitting up straight in your bed, facing the side where the touch came from.

There was no one there.

You looked at the window, it was closed.

You layed your own hand on top tje bare skin on your hip, warming the cold spot.

You ran your fingertips up and down your hips yourself, mimicking what you felt before, and realized with horror that the touch was exactly the same, only that yours had more warmth.

You had stormed out of your room and down the stairs, for some reason you felt safer on the first floor.

Maybe because these strange things have only happened upstairs so far?

There was something in this house that you didn't want to be here and you had no idea how to shoo it out.

Tears welled up in your eyes, you couldn't leave.

There was nowhere to go, your parents house was almost two hours away and if you asked them to move back in with them they would ask why.

They wouldn't believe you, normally you wouldn't even believe it yourself if someone told you what you would have to tell them.

You had never really believed in ghosts but now there seemed to be one in your house and you didn't know what it wanted from you.

You fled into the conservatory whose door was still open.

You had turned on the light in the living room and the conservatory, the entire lower floow was now illuminated.

The brightness made you feel a little safer.

You blinked away the tears that were in your eyes, there had to be a solution to your problem. 

There was a solution for each and every problem.

Looking for something to distract you from your negative thoughts, the book caught your eye.

In your hurry you forgot your cell phone upstairs and there was no way you would go up there again in the dark.

You made yourself tea, as you came to the conclusion that you wouldn't sleep anymore this night and that it, therefore, would be a long one.

You put the hot tea on the armrest of the garden sofa and grabbed the book, you pulled the blanket that was otherwise on the couch over your legs and took the most comfortable position in you could.

You opened the book, it belonged to your great-uncle because his name was written on the first page.

Was it a diary?

You flipped to the next page.

'I'm not crazy.'  was the first sentence that jumped into your eyes and for a moment you doubted whether you really wanted to read the book.

Despite pausing for a moment, you kept going.

'We moved in straight after the wedding, at that point it was just a normal house. There were only a handful of previous owners but the last one died young in the house and it sat vacant for a long time.  My wife and I bought and renovated the house as a wedding gift from each other.  Her younger sister often slept with us due to the proximity of the university and she sometimes brought friends with her.  We had let them have the house for the weekend, we ourselves had been invited to an old friends Halloween party and would be staying with these friends for the whole weekend. The house was deserted and clean when we got back, yet it felt different.  As if we had a pair of eyes always on our necks.'

A shiver ran down your spine, you knew the feeling.

'But that wasn't the only thing that happened. I can promise that my wife and I have had to close more doors and windows in this house than we could ever open in one lifetime.'

You drew in your breath sharply, your gaze darted to the stairs to the upper floor, which you could see from the conservatory.

That's exactly what you had to find out for yourself with the window in the bedroom you were convinced was broken.