Everything happens for a reason

Chapter 1- weeping

When they tell you 'everything happens for a reason' you may smile and nod, hoping to understand. You may take it as a way to escape the sadness and loss. Or maybe it's just an excuse to help someone else. The sorrow you feel when you see someone expired in a pool of their blood. You use the saying as an excuse to believe it's ok, and that 'everything happens for a reason'. But honestly, nothing happens for a reason.

Saturday morning Talia woke up to the sound of someone weeping in the apartment next door to hers. This had been a constant awakening for the past month, she was used to it. She looked over at her alarm clock on her bed stand, she saw it was close to four. Like every morning the weeping Soul cried from four to five. Talia would try to doze back to sleep, but like every morning, she had to wait until the Soul was asleep.

The Soul, that's what she called the person who cried. No one lived in the apartment 224, not since Amanda Parkins had died five years ago in there. After that everyone who tried moving in, they ended up changing their minds last minute. No one knew why, except for Talia. The apartment was haunted by a ghost called Soul.

After falling back to sleep, Talia awoke again. This time from her alarm clock. She sat up from her bed slowly taking in the morning light shining from her window. She sat on the side of her bed for a while, trying to wake up her brain. She recalled the night, the Soul hadn't gone back to sleep around five, instead, the Soul started frantically pacing back and forth through the apartment. The Soul had never done that before, it had always been weeping, then silence.

Talia decided to ignore the strange events that happened that night, and instead got out of bed and headed to her kitchen. She ate breakfast in silence thinking about what she would do, today she would go to the university, then the library. After breakfast, she got ready for the day, deciding to wear her usual attire. A plain t-shirt, skinny jeans, boots, and her usual black and grey hoodie.

Talia didn't think she was the most pretty thing, she had plain black hair, dull grey eyes and she had a thin face. When growing up her mother always worried about her, Talia had always been very skinny, no matter how much she ate she could never gain weight. After a couple of years, her mother finally gave up and decided she would always be scrawny. Talia excepted this fact, her friends had always worried about her having some sort of eating disorder, but she always assured them she just didn't gain weight. Even the doctors told her it was normal for her body type, so Talia never worried.

She finished brushing her hair and headed out of her bathroom. As she stepped out of her apartment and started locking it, she heard a noise. The sound was coming from the door next to hers, apartment 224. The doorknob was shaking and moving as if someone was locked in the house. Talia stood there, frozen, and curious about what was going on. She finished locking her door, then she turned towards 224. She slowly and cautiously walked towards the door, in an effort to help the person struggling with the door. She reached out her hand, as soon as her fingers touched the doorknob the shaking stopped. Talia tried to open the door, but her effort failed, it was locked.

She let go of the doorknob and put her ear up to the door. She listened closely, hoping to hear someone asking help to get out. But she heard nothing, for a few seconds, she stood there listening. As she was about to pull away she heard a sound, the sound of someone sniffling. Then very quietly she heard crying, it wasn't as strong as weeping, it was small sniffles and tears. This didn't sound quite as loud as the Soul, this was a younger smaller voice.

Finally, Talia decided to speak up, very softly she asked: "are you ok?". As soon as her voice had reached the door the crying stopped. "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you," Talia said in attempts to reach out to the new crying soul. As soon as she finished her sentence she heard someone yell "GO AWAY!" This was the young child's voice, the young soul was mad. Talia stepped away from the door, startled. She sighed and decided it was best to leave this new soul alone. She now had a problem, 224 wasn't haunted by a Soul, it was haunted by Souls. 

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