CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I entered into silence. The house was still. I noticed through the banister a box of dolls spilled on the top of the stairwell, the light shining on them through the upstairs windowsill.
I ambled into the living room.
"Moth-"
I stopped there. But why was I so certain this woman wasn't my mother? Why was it when that stranger came to my house and claimed me to be her child... that I was so taken with the idea that it was truthful? Why did she seem real? Why did 12 years with this woman seem so... not? I wanted to see her. Why? WHY?
"Mom?"
Nothing.
"MOM!"
BOOM! A large explosion from upstairs triggered another earthquake. The entire foundation of our home began to tremble. I latched onto the couch for balance while trying to dodge the chunks of ceiling tiles plunging from above.
Luckily, the shaking ceased after ten seconds. That was a short round. I leaned up and tiptoed over the scattered pieces of the ceiling as the landline rung from the kitchen.
Reluctantly, I answered it, watching cautiously over my back in case a certain someone was watching me from upstairs.
"Marilia, it's time we talked. One on one."
It was Elaine's voice.
"Who?" I said.
"Timothy? I thought Dolores was sent to take you out!"
"What?"
"Timothy, it's not safe for you to be in this house anymore. If you're able to move as we speak, GET. YOURSELF. OUT."
"And go where?"
"ANYWHERE ELSE. STAY ON THE ROAD. WALK ONLY IF YOU NEED TO. BRING A FLASHLIGHT. DON'T WANDER OFF INTO THE FOREST, AND STAY AWAY FROM CLOAKS."
"I..."
"I'LL FIND YOU TIMOTHY. I'LL KEEP YOU SAFE."
"I HAVE TO GO."
I hung up and unplugged the landline from the outlet.
YOU ARE READING
The Shaded
Mystery / ThrillerFrom his mother's peculiar obsession with dolls to warnings from local townsfolk, Timothy Vont begins to grow suspicious. With an absent father and an uptight and eccentric mother buried in her work, life shouldn't seem THAT out of sorts, right? No...
