The Third Word

Chapter 47

I took a Taxi home and it cost me all the money I had on me. I could go to the hospital, but I had made up my mind to face it, whatever the fuck it was. I would not let it ruin my life anymore. 

Home-

"How many times already?" I sighed at myself for not being able to step inside the widely open doors of my house. The hall was lighted and I couldn't see anyone inside from where I stood.

"I'm back. I bet you love seeing me terrified." I said as I entered the hall. My bag was sprawled on the floor, untouched.

I was still confused about addressing the air by 'Ethan' or not. I wasn't sure if I had seen him on the crossroad or not. I didn't know if I was going crazy or not.

I checked the house. At least a burglar didn't break in. Nothing was missing. I checked all the bathrooms to brush off the paranoia that killer documentaries had clouded my brain with, the ones in which killers hide under the bed or in the bathroom. Even thinking about it creeped me out.

I didn't turn off any lights that night. I locked myself inside my room after checking the closet and behind the curtains.

"Where's my phone...?" I fumbled and sweat trickled down my forehead. My phone was supposed to be right there, near the bag. But I didn't see it the moment I had walked in.

I had only one option- Go downstairs and call on my number through the landline.

"I can find it tomorrow." I told myself and tried to fall asleep but the thought was bugging me. I needed to find out, no, I was desperate to find out whether I needed a doctor or an exorcist. I was just Seventeen. I couldn't go on with that fear all my life and finally go nuts.

"If I find my phone where I dropped it, I'm sane and there's nothing in my house. And if I don't... huff, I know I will find it." I mustered up as I opened the door and stared down the stairs. It was quiet. So quiet that it was scary.

The wood under my feet creaked as I climbed downstairs. I searched under the rack and the stool right under the switch board where mom kept her favorite flower vase.

After a vain attempt, I sought to call on my number from the landline. I punched in the numbers but didn't dare to press the 'call' button.

I backed off once and recollected my breath.

"If that thing...or Ethan...meant to harm me, he would've done it already." I said and took a few steps towards the landline again when all of a sudden, I stopped. My eyes were teary and jaw dropped.

I could hear my phone ring.

It was very faint but I could hear it ringing nearby.

I didn't want to follow the sound like a fool instead of running outside, but I could already feel myself walk towards my parents' room, where the sound was coming from.

I narrowed my eyes, afraid of seeing what I was about to see. I leaned into the room, not stepping inside just in case the door shut behind me. I saw my phone's screen on, kept on the nearest corner of the bed.

"Please don't do this to me." I begged," You can hear me right?"

The phone stopped ringing and the screen blacked out.

I took hurried steps towards the bed, grabbed my phone and ran out of the room before it slammed shut behind me. I screamed and sprinted up to my room and locked the door. Pressing my back against the door, I recollected my breath before speaking. A smile formed on my face, which I bet would've looked like a maniac's had I seen the mirror, before speaking," I'm being haunted. I'm not insane."

To think that I was happy about being haunted was absurd. But only I knew how relieved I felt when I could finally say that I wasn't going crazy. I didn't need a psychiatrist and I wasn't going to be thrown into an Asylum, locked up in a dungeon.