What Lies Beneath

Chapter Seven: The Sound of Silence

After breakfast was over, the woman who had answered the door offered to give both him and Karen a tour of the strange house. They both thought that it was a terrific idea.

The house was beautiful on the inside. The walls were covered in grey wallpaper and virtually every inch was covered in old photographs. Occasionally, he would spot a window that showed little bits and pieces of the property, but nowhere did he see any friendly creatures.

"How many rooms are in this place?" Wyatt jumped at the sound of Karen's voice. The tour had been mostly silent. Neither of them had really spoken and their guide only talked when she had a quick story to tell.

"There are twenty-nine bedrooms and twenty-seven bathrooms. Though not all the bedrooms are being used as such. Some are being used for storage now. I don't know exactly how many other rooms there are, but other than the bedrooms and bathrooms I would probably say that it ranges between ten or fifteen."

"Has anyone ever died here?" Both the woman and Wyatt stopped and stared at Karen after she asked this question.

"Not that I am aware of." There was something about the way that the woman's eyes shifted around the room as she said this that caused Karen and Wyatt to believe that she was not being one hundred percent honest.

"But there still could have been deaths here that you're not aware of?" Karen didn't look at either of them when she asked the question, instead her eyes seemed to be fixated on a door towards the end of the hall.

"I suppose so, but that would be highly unlikely." The woman's jaw visibly tensed.

"So how many others will be joining us here?" The sound of his own voice shocked him. He hadn't been planning on saying anything, though a change of subject was in order.

Instead of answering his question the lady moved on and started retelling the story about the house and how it came to be. Karen however did not ignore what he said. Though instead of answering his question she smiled and gave him a small wink that sent his heart racing.

When the tour was over, both he and Karen took the opportunity to sit down on one of the many benches that littered the house. The woman who had given them the tour had decided that it was time for her to start preparing lunch and had disappeared around yet another one of the corners.

Wyatt had his head tilted back against the wall with his eyes closed. His breathing was slightly heavy from the long walk. He could feel Karen as she wriggled on the bench next to him. Each time her hand slightly brushed his it would cause his heart rate to increase dramatically.

"How can you just sit there like that?" He didn't open his eyes at the sound of her voice, instead he turned his head a bit towards her and raised an eyebrow.

"Like what?"

"All calm and relaxed like that. Aren't you freaking out?" At this point Wyatt sat up and looked directly at her.

"Why would I be freaking out?"

"Because, this house is totally creepy and the ladies who run it are even creepier and obviously hiding things from us."

"I don't know how to respond to that." Karen let go of a dramatic sigh that affected her whole body.

"Don't tell me that you think that this is all completely normal? I mean, the way that that woman avoided my question earlier, not to mention yours. Seriously, does it really matter if we know how many people are coming here? And then there's the other lady who needs a complete attitude adjustment."

Karen had launched into a full rant about how the house was haunted and the ladies that were in charge were clearly Keeping secrets, but Wyatt had tuned her out after the part about the second lady. He didn't do it because he didn't care or anything stupid like that. No, instead he was listening for the sounds that weren't there.

From the moment that he arrived on the property he had heard nothing. The only sounds came from people when they were talking.

"Do you hear that?" Wyatt asked, interrupting Karen's long-winded rant.

"I don't hear anything." Karen's voice had some venom in it when she spoke. Wyatt supposed that she had figured out that he wasn't listening. Girls seemed to get mad at guys when they didn't listen to them talk.

"Exactly. Where are all the noises?" Wyatt stood up from the bench and walked towards the window at the end of the hall. After having spent most of his life outdoors he had become accustomed to all the sounds that come in nature, though this house did not seem to have any sounds. He noticed it when he had first arrived, but there was just something about the sound of this silence that chilled him to his very core.

He knew that Karen was right, there was something strange about this house.