A week in Granny's house

Chapter 9: Grandmother's other daughter and a wooden message

I woke up, without even a dream, but I was still wet with something. I felt my head, which was the wettest of all, and looked to see blood. When I lowered my hand, I couldn't see very far in front of me; any further than about two meters or so was just blackness.

Brain damage, I thought. How is my head choosing now to start bleeding? I've sustained so much damage, but a simple whack caused all this...

I got off the bed, but my legs fell from beneath me, causing me to fall right off the bed. I dragged myself under the bed and watched Grandmother enter. I noticed something as she walked in: she was faster than usual, much faster.

Can I even outrun her? I asked myself. Even if my legs weren't weak, would I have a chance in—

Something suddenly occurred to me: I also couldn't see very far. I knew I would have to crawl to get anywhere, but between a turbo-charged old woman and slow crawling, I knew that my chances were very slim, but I knew that I had to try.

Even if that means dying...

As soon as I heard her leave, I crawled out from under the bed, out the door, and into the hallway. Lucky for me, I knew the house fairly well, and didn't really need sight that much to navigate it.

I opened the door to the other bedroom and crawled in. As I did, I closed the door as silently as I could and crawled under the bed. When she didn't come in, I came back out. As I did, I noticed something on the shelf. It was a gun butt. I crawled to it and forced myself up so I could grab it. I fell to the ground, and as I did I crawled back under the bed.

Grandmother rushed in, looked around, and left. I crawled out from under the bed and into the lil hallway that led to the other bedroom. I noticed that the bloodstain painting had been knocked down, and that there was a small switch. I forced myself up so I could flip it, then I crawled under the bed as soon as I hit the ground. I didn't even look when Grandmother entered; I just listened as her footsteps came and went. I came out from under the bed, then I noticed the bookshelf had moved. I dragged myself from under the bed and made my way towards the doorway that the bookcase had revealed. What I saw caused me to grab my throat so I couldn't make sounds.

There was a lectern with a book on it, and behind that was an old woman who was bound up on the wall like some sick, twisted decoration. Her hair was short and white, and she wore a white gown just like Grandmother's. Her face even seemed to resemble that of Grandmother's, except there was blood coming from this woman's face. Her skin was the color of Grandmother's, except the face was as dark as charcoal.

There were photographs on the wall, and they didn't help matters. The ones on the left side were of the spider and of what looked like prison bars. The ones on the right were of a dark hallway with what looked like an unlit torch and of a table which seemed to be in the same hallway as the picture next to it.

"Why? Why would she do this to you?" I whispered, knowing I wouldn't get a response. I heard footsteps, so I instinctively hid under the bed as fast as I could. Grandmother entered the doorway, looked around, but didn't leave. I held my breath, wondering why she wasn't leaving, then she answered my mental question.

"Oh, daughter, why did you have to misbehave?" Grandmother asked the corpse. "Why couldn't you be more like your sister? She might've misbehaved, but at least she didn't try to kill me. And at least she didn't abandon her daughter, unlike what you've done to your daughter, Slendrina."

Slendrina...

For some reason, that name clicked something in me, but I wasn't really sure what. I kept listening.

"I took her in from that horrible place. I don't know why you would just let that happen to her. How could you abandon her? How could you leave her to die?"