Possessed

Chapter 3: The Discovery

"Mom, I'm home!" I yelled as I opened the back screen door of our house and stepped into the kitchen.

There was no reply. The kitchen counters were empty and unused. The cabinets, which still needed a bit of a fixing, were vacant as well. My mom was nowhere to be seen.

As I neared the almost empty refrigerator, I observed a note stuck to it. Removing the fridge magnet that held it in position, I read it out aloud to myself:

Went grocery shopping. Need to get a few ingredients to start cooking. There's leftover pizza from last night in the fridge if you're hungry. I'll be back in two hours. Xoxo -Mom

Dad was at his new work. I let out a sigh. At least I had the house to myself. Which wasn't that exciting, really. It's not like there was much to do in here, except for unloading boxes and arranging the stuffs in them onto shelves. The TV was not even set up, but I wasn't going to work when my parents weren't forcing me to. Nu-uh.

I dragged my backpack up the stairs to my room, which was neater than it had been this morning. Mom had been here, I could tell. There was a pile of neatly folded clothes on my bed. After tucking them inside my closet and changing into my after-school clothes, I debated what to do. We didn't have any homework yet, which took me by surprise. If I was back home now, I would be stacked up with homework already.

The bell rang, a shrill noise, rousing me out of my reverie.

I ran down the stairs in a hurry. Maybe mom was back sooner than she'd thought? If that was the case, I didn't want to keep her waiting, with her hands completely engaged by heavy grocery bags.

I opened the huge front wooden door of our house, and came face to face with none other than my newly acquired friend Odette, who smiled up at me brightly from the threshold. My face lit up. Here was something to do.

"Come in," I grinned, ushering her inside and closing the door with a loud creak. Old houses with their moans and groans.

"Nice place," Odette said, walking into my living room.

"Nah," I said, waving my hand, "It's nothing yet. Wait till we fix it up a bit."

I winked at her and she chuckled loudly.

"I was just trying to decide on what to do," I said, turning serious.

"Well, we could...," she trailed off.

"I was thinking along the lines of exploring my new, creepy house?" I asked more than said.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, excitement written all over her face, "I love old houses! Too bad mine's brand new."

"Well, then, we should exchange," I joked, "Old houses have always given me the creeps."

We both laughed and I led the way up the stairs to the landing. When I was done showing her around the rooms that my parents and I occupied, we started towards two big rooms that were empty. I hadn't had a peek into them till now, so I knew nothing of what was inside. My parents, however, have decided to turn one into a family room with a small game arcade, a setup for table tennis and other board games for my friends when they come over, and the other into a guest room. When I voiced my thoughts out loud, Odette replied with a, "Wow. Your parents are cool."

We both walked towards the first one and I tried the door with all the keys on the key ring that I'd grabbed from the key hook downstairs. None of them fit. I sighed, dissatisfied, and moved on to the next locked room.

This time I had a key for the locked entrance. I turned the dusty brass key in its lock. It turned twice and with a clank, opened wide.

It was dim and shadowy inside. I let my hands wander along the walls and they came in contact with a switch box. I clicked on the light, casting the room alight. If I had any expectation of discovering something interesting, I was sorely disappointed. The whole room, which was a little smaller than my own, was void of any furniture or even curtains at its two windows. Cobwebs hung at the ceiling corners. Some even had spiders crawling on them. My eyes scanned the lengths of the room and a square object covered with white sheet at the far corner of the room came to my notice at exactly the same time as it did Odette's.

"Does that belong to your family?" she asked me, her voice low.

"No," I whispered.

I didn't know why I was whispering. I guess I was afraid of my words being heard if I said them aloud; though who would hear them besides Odette and me, I had no idea.

We edged closer to the object and I held my breath. A feeling of unease filled me. Odette, however, seemed indifferent. I watched her from one step behind, as she walked over to the white sheet and pulled it away after asking me for permission to do so.

Dust rose in the air. The mystery objects turned out to be not-so-mysterious after all. It was just an old, mahogany cupboard with intricately patterned flowers and leaves embedded in it. It must have been quite a piece several years back, which was how long it had been since the last owners of this house. The tension in the air dissipated slightly. I let out my breath that I hadn't realized I had been holding in, relieved.

"A cupboard," I laughed weakly.

Odette's hand reached up but her hand paused in mid-air.

"What?" I asked cautiously.

"Nothing," she seemed to change her mind at the last moment. She turned the cupboard doorknob.

It was locked.

"Wait," I called, holding up the key ring, "I think I have the key for that too."

I took a good look at the keyhole and searched through the numerous keys fastened onto the key ring, attempting to look for one that had a similar structure. On my third try, I managed to unlock the cupboard door.

As soon as I chucked the door open, a gust of cold air greeted my face with such force that I stumbled back a few steps. My eyes watered and I felt my vision go blurry. Immediately, I felt something light, yet lanky, collapse on top of me.

Odette screamed.

Why was she screaming? Did something happen to her? I wondered, concerned.

When I had wiped off my tears and was able to get a good look at what had decided to fall on me, I felt my mouth go dry. On top of me was a skeleton. Not the science lab fake ones. It was a real one, I could tell, from the pungent smell that emanated from it. Bits of its flesh still remained attached to its ribs, legs and arms. I pushed it off and stood up shakily.

"Are you okay?" Odette cried.

I felt nauseous; it was so obvious that I wasn't okay. Still, I managed to choke out a, "Yes."

Odette's eyes roamed around the room, as if searching for something specific. I looked at her questioningly. She shook her head.

"Aries, let's get out of here. I have a bad feeling about this," she muttered, pulling me towards the door.

Suddenly, I didn't feel so scared anymore. I mean, it was only a skeleton after all. No big deal.

"It's only a skeleton," I mused, "You're not scared, are you?"

"No, of course not," Odette replied, looking at me with a shocked expression.

"Then? What's the hurry?"

"It is of a person who was alive once. You gotta admit, that's creepy," she said shuddering at the thought.

"I guess so," I mumbled.

What was wrong with me? My sudden reluctance to leave this room surprised me too.

"Come on, Aries," she finally dragged me out of the room, and this time I let her.

I needed to get out of this horrid room and call my parents to have the thing removed. Even though Odette was with me, I didn't want to stay in this massive structure of a house with a skeleton any more than was necessary.