Translucent

Chapter 5: C.T. Haywood

"Aileana?"

I stood in the dark corridor again, with the same rain and thunder following. He was on the other side, slowly pacing in my direction. This time, the hiss was clearer and building into a tone. Everytime lightning flashed, I captured more and more of his features–his defined jaw, his pale skin, and he was wearing clothing that dated back to the turn of the century.

"Aileana?" He called out again.

I'm not Aileana, I opened my mouth but no voice came out. When he finally stood before me, his face turned into a frown, more like disdain or disappointment.

"You are not Aileana."

Told you that, my mouth fell open but still, I couldn't speak. Who are you?

The young man said nothing. His face was stiff and still. He slowly turned and started walking away. Unlike any human, he barely bounced. At every step, he maintained to keep his soles flat on the ground, like he was floating.

As I took a step forward, an invisible force dragged me upwards. Then I was lost in the darkness.

* * *

I woke up from my sleep drenched in sweat. My head throbbed as I was straightening myself up on the bed. The boy's face left a vivid mark in my mind. The encounter felt all too real I couldn't possibly go back to sleep. I walked up to the window seat to observe the grounds outside the house. The trees stood still in the darkness. As I was resting a knee on the settee cushion, the seat beneath me creaked, its dragging sound pierced the air, startling me.

My fingers ran across the seat's side wooden surface and quickly detected a movable gap. Nathan totally missed out on this one. I removed the settee cushion to find a latch, which I opened, revealing a hidden compartment. I held my breath as a pile of old items and collectibles sat the bottom of the compartment. Papers stacked on top of each other unruly. I slowly pulled the pile out, trying to get a hold of them so they didn't spill on the floor. After I emptied the compartment, I spotted a black book sitting at the very bottom. The very last item of the entire pile. I produced it and identified the small golden writing on it.

C.T. Haywood

My curiosity kicked. I flipped through the book quickly. The pages were yellow and they felt thin and fragile under my touch. At a glance, I couldn't make out of any legible writings written in nib but the book surely had something in store. I kept it away for later investigation and moved to the pile of papers and cardboards I withdrew earlier. I held them up and flicked through them and identified images on them.

A series of photographs and it's even got faces on them. The colours had faded but the glimpses of faces on them were still clear.

One was a family portrait of four. A build, stern-looking man wearing a pince-nez and a formal suit, sat next to a woman in her forties with dark-haired pulled into a bun. Behind them stood a young woman. The women were dressed in a shirt-waist blouse and a long skirt that reached their toes. Next to the young woman was the very face that had been haunting me. The boy in my dream. Except he appeared younger in the photograph. After I scanned through the foreign faces, I flicked through the next one and yet, it caught my breath.

It was a full-figure portrait of the same young man. His features looked much more prominent on it with his eyes staring into the distance in a stoic manner, like he didn't ask to be there at all. His thick, short hair was swept to the side and his hand clasped a hat.

"Who are you?" I muttered to the portrait.

My question was followed by something icy and soft brushing against my skin. I flinched. The air in the room remained still.

"Hey!" I shrieked. The cold spot on my arm suddenly ceased. Oh great, I'm talking to myself now.

Leave.

The reply jolted me. That was the first hiss I'd ever heard aside from Aileana. I could actually communicate with this thing. He could hear me. He could actually answer my question. This was unbelievable.

"Where are you?" I looked around.

Here.

His whisper was so close that I shuddered. The ghost investigators from Most Haunted would be pleased if they were me.

"Is there anything you want from me?"

The breeze blew across the room towards the door. Its knob pushed down on its own, opening the door and allowing the cold wind coming in. I placed the book on the window seat and grabbed a torch from a drawer to follow the "creature" out of the room into the corridor. Unlike in the daytime, the corridor was much colder and eerier at night.

I want...

"What? What do you want?" I repeated, pointing my torch at million directions.

The corridor was long and spacious. Doors lined up at one side, across a series of windows that allow bright, warm sunlight to flood in at day. However, at night, the windows cast eerie shadows from the outside.

After running along the corridor which felt like forever, the beam finally hit a dead end. The beige-painted wall stretched to the ceiling. My discovery was in vain. However, my eyes caught something uncanny on it. Two black long lines embedded on the wall in front of me and they were connected at the top with yet another one. The surface of this wall wasn't as even either, in fact, it appeared it had slightly protruded. I took a step back, squinting my eyes, and much to my surprise–

It was a door.

Except that it was camouflaged. Even the knob was painted exactly like the wall. What room could it possibly have been? Whoever remodelled the house, if it weren't Nathan, must want this door to be discovered. The location and the way it was treated summed it up.

"You want me to find you? Fine." I twisted turned the knob hard, but it wouldn't budge a bit. The deadbolt barely even made a sound as it moved within its frame.

"Lis?"

A disembodied voice startled me from behind. I turned around to find Nathan holding a cup of coffee. He was leaning at the wall and switching on the lights. Lights flooded in the corridor.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I had trouble sleeping. The mattress is not comfortable. Guess I should call for a repair this afternoon." He shrugged. "What are you doing all the way here? You could've just turned on the lights, you know. The dark gives me creeps."

"Err...I couldn't sleep either." I threw my look away from the door.

Nathan's eyes followed mine. "I know what you're thinking. What a weird-looking door. It's been like that since I first came here to screen the house. But if there were parts of the house that wouldn't be budged, then let them be." He sipped his coffee. "The previous owner did it. I just did what I could to preserve it. Ah well, it doesn't matter, does it? I suspected there's no room hidden beneath those walls."

Except, my brain was saying the otherwise.

"Do you want to take a walk outside then? The sun is going rise in just a moment." Nathan continued.

"No, I'm good." I walked past him.

"Lisa, I know what you've been thinking about me, about what I've done to your family. But if I can't be a father to you then, please..."

"We're not having this conversation." I winced.

"I know it's hard for you but it's for your own goo–"

"Just please stop," I snapped.

He had been trying to bond with me since my mum's divorce, trying to make up for what he had done to my family.

"Suit yourself," Nathan shrugged before he stopped his pace. "By the way, you don't happen to feel a little...colder around here, do you?"

"What do you expect? It's Scotland. You chose to be here." I scoffed.

"That's not..." He trailed off. "Never mind."

I went up to my room to continue my sleep. I want... That hiss echoed again. There was a hesitance in the tone. So despite the entity's presence, I strangely was no longer scared.

You leave now.