The Hallway

Chapter 5 - Bodies

September 30, 1996 - 4:00 P.M. - Present Day

It'd been a few weeks since the encounter with the man, and awhile since the last flashback/nightmare. I had told my mother, and she had called the police. Nothing had been done, for they didn't know who the man was. Maybe things would go back to normal soon. It was Sunday and my mother was taking a nap. I decided to see what else the strange book had inside, since I had left it for awhile. I got it out from under my pillow and opened it up to where I left off.

There were a few more letters from the couple, but one page really caught my eye. It was the tree in my backyard, the one my tire swing hung from. It was drawn identically, but without the swing. Whoever drew it made it where the ground was transparent, and you could see underground. Inside, the dirt and soil lay the girl from the other pictures. On the page following, there was a morbid, sickening letter.

Honey,

She's in the yard now, she's safe. We did the right thing. I killed her and buried her. If anybody asks, she was riding her bicycle and got hit by a car. I'm sorry we had to do this, but it felt... right.

All My Love.

My heart sunk. I quickly jumped up, taking the book along with me. I ran out of my room and down the hallway. My legs shook as I stormed down the creaky stairs. Calm down, Addison. I kept telling myself that. There was no way. But, if the room from the pictures was there, then... No. It can't be. My mind raced as I swung open my back door. I walked outside, steering clear of the tree. I sprinted over to our tool shed and roughly opened the almost-stuck door. Inside, it was dirty and dark. I slowly crept in. There were no lights, but I could clearly see our stone shovel on the wall.

I wanted to grab the shovel and get out of there as fast as I could, as it was pretty creepy. As I walked in to get the shovel, the door shut behind me. My screams were silenced in the sound proof shed. I screamed and pounded on the door. Finally, after a good 5 minutes, mother came outside.

"Addison?" She opened the door and gave me a hug. "How did you get yourself stuck in there?" She asked, concerned.

"I.. I don't know. I uh, came in here to look for a tool, I was going to play.. farmer! Yeah, I was going to pretend I lived on a farm. Then as I walked in, the door shut by itself. I was so scared."

My mother rolled her eyes. "Addie, that isn't possible. Cmon, it was probably just the wind. Also, you should not be playing with tools like that, they are not toys. And what is that book in your hand?" She reached for it.

I quickly swiped my hand away and put it behind my back. "N-nothing! It's my diary, you can't read it mother." I lied.

"Where on earth did you acquire that?" She asked.

I shrugged, "I found it in my room when we moved and it was empty!"

My mother rolled her eyes and patted my shoulder. "Well, I'm going to go read, Addie. Don't get yourself too dirty before dinner." I nodded. As soon as she went inside, I grabbed the shovel and ran over to the tree. I kept looking back towards the house to make sure mother wasn't coming out. I began shoveling. It was exhausting, but I managed to get a pretty good hole. I hadn't found anything yet, but I wasn't finished.

I decided to take a break from digging to go inside. My mother gasped when she saw how dirty I was. I had disobeyed, so I was not aloud to go outside. That must have meant I had to wait until night to go out and dig. I ate dinner with my mother that evening, acting natural. I apologized for getting so messy.

Late that night, my mother had gone to bed. I lay down in my bed, faking to go to bed as my mother had tucked me in. That was an hour ago, she was surely asleep now. It was 10 pm, and it was pitch black outside. I trudged through the yard in nothing but my silk pajamas. I started digging again.

After almost 10 more minutes of digging, I saw something white sticking up in the soil. It was a bone... My heart sunk as I continued digging to find the skeleton of the little girl, just as shown in the book. I screamed at the top of my lungs. My mom came running out. "Oh, what now Addison! I told you, you are grounded for the night! You aren't to go outside, missy. Plus, its 10 pm!" She came out and looked down. She screamed and blacked out.

"Mother!" I bent down to her. She was out cold. I was full of panic as I stared at my fainted mother and the body. All of a sudden, I heard voices. So. Loud. They were screaming at me to dig next to the body. Screaming. Voices. They. Wont. Stop. I plugged my ears and started crying. They. Kept. Screaming. I started to dig over the screaming. I saw just a glimpse of something else in the soil on this starry night. My stomach did a backflip as I uncovered the body of another little girl. She was laying in the ground with a dog beside her. The moon shined down perfectly on the body, making it so obvious it was there. Like I was meant to be here seeing this in this moment.

I had never been so terrified. I have never been so afraid of something. Out of all the insane, paranormal, and just horrifying things that had happened in my life, this one was BY FAR the most horrifying. The girl lay lifeless. She was limp, she was deceased. I screamed, I started to hyperventilate. Why?

The girl was the one in all my flashbacks.

The one on the couch, the one in the basement, the one at Christmas. It all made sense now. Seeing her body laying here. She was haunting me...

Or so I thought.