Abby spun around, fists up, ready to defend herself from whoever or whatever was behind her. Instead of an intruder, all she saw was the pale pink wallpaper that encased the room. Outside, the rain continued its steady downpour. She could hear the rain beating against the roof. Abby's dark eyes flitted back to her lone shadow against the soft glow of the lamp. She massaged her temples, trying her best to rationalize what she thought she had seen.
It's late. I'm tired. This cabin is creepy. It was probably a piece of furniture. I'm imagining things.
Remembering what brought her to the pink room in the first place, Abby inched towards the closet.
"Are you in there?" she asked aloud. There was still no response but she didn't expect one. She quickly pulled the door open and saw...nothing. It was empty.
Abby stood still, trying to hear any other unusual sounds that would indicate whether she was alone or not. After a while, she gave up, thinking that perhaps the laughter was also something she imagined. She decided to sleep in the master bedroom. Still feeling a little uncomfortable, she left the light in the hallway on. The thrum of the rain hitting the roof lulled her to sleep.
The next morning, Abby was woken by the sound of someone screaming her name. She stumbled out of bed and crawled to the window.
"Hi, Abby!" Wally was outside, waving his arms in the air. Standing next to him were three women and a man she didn't recognize.
"I'll be right there," Abby called out before rushing to put on some appropriate attire.
A few minutes later she was introduced to Chuck, the man who would install her telephone line. The three women were volunteers that offered to help clean the cabin.
"I'm Maria, that's Joanie and she's Yvonne," a stout middle-aged woman said. "We're here to help you get this cabin in tip-top shape."
"I'm Abby. It's nice to meet all of you. I'm so glad you're here. I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be able to get this cabin in order before Mr. Carter arrived."
"When Wally told us you only had two days to get this cabin in livable condition, we just had to help," Maria said as she wrapped an arm around an uncomfortable Abby. "Speaking of Mr. Carter, we were all surprised that he wanted to buy this cabin in the first place."
The other two women nodded which prompted Abby to ask, "Why is that?"
Maria looked around her before leaning in and whispering, "You didn't hear it from us, but someone was murdered here."
Abby felt a slight chill course through her body. "Murdered?"
"That's right. Murdered. It happened over twenty years ago but some of us still remember it," Joanie whispered.
"This is such a small town," Abby said. "I wonder if Mr. Carter knows."
"My mama said it was a big secret back then. I was only ten at the time. They tried to keep it hushed up."
"Why would they do that?"
Yvonne shrugged. "Don't you ever watch soap operas? This may be a small town but there's always one family that's more powerful than the others. I would assume they didn't want the news getting out. It was a big scandal back in the--"
"Yvonne, what nonsense are you sputtering to a stranger?" Chuck growled.
All three women jumped. Maria stepped forward from the trio and pushed her shoulders back. "Chuck, Abby has a right to know about her cabin."
"It's not her cabin. It's Alex Carter's and he knows all about what happened here," Chuck muttered.
"What was that?" Abby asked. "He knows about the murder?"
Chuck sighed in frustration. "Yeah, he should with all the snooping he did around town before buying the place."
"I told you before and I'll say it again, Chuck. That handsome man wasn't snooping. He was just getting to know his future neighbors," Maria corrected him.
Chuck harrumphed. "What future neighbors? That man isn't going to leave the city for us bumpkins in Bayless."
"Speak for yourself. I'm no bumpkin," Maria said tossed her dark hair behind her shoulder. "I'm a sophisticated lady. I won the Ms. Bayless beauty pageant all my years of high school."
Joanie frowned. "We never had a beauty pageant."
"Well, I would've won if we had one," Maria snapped.
"Do you even know what sophisticated means, Maria?" Chuck asked. "Never mind, I'm just saying that it's odd for a man like him to come here. It's suspicious if you ask me," Chuck said as he tested the receiver of the phone.
"No one did ask you," Yvonne sneered, rolling her eyes. The other women nodded. "In fact, I'll have you know that my mama told me the Carter--"
"Enough!" Chuck slammed the phone down. "I wouldn't have brought you three here if you were just going to gossip. I thought you wanted to help Abby clean."
The three women muttered something Abby couldn't hear and began grabbing cleaning supplies.
Chuck had the grace to look chagrined after the women left the room. "Sorry about that. Those three are notorious gossips. I wouldn't listen to too much of what they say. They've been that way since they were little girls and somehow I married the ringleader. They're harmless if you take everything they say with a grain of salt."
"No worries. I appreciate their help." Changing the subject, Abby looked around. "Where's Wally?"
"I think he went outside to the shed," Chuck answered. "Since the roads didn't flood, delivery men should be coming to deliver some new furniture and appliances. Mr. Carter's secretary was specific about wanting the old furniture stored in the shed in the backyard. Wally said he'd make sure it was cleared out to store the old stuff."
Abby listened to Chuck explain the ins and outs of having a landline before accepting a sheet of paper that was to be Mr. Carter's contract with the new phone number. After he had finished, he said he would join Wally outside. Abby went upstairs to help the three women. Each woman had claimed an area of the house to clean. Abby was given the pink room.
She glanced at the box of toys and pulled out a rag doll with bright red hair. It had clearly been dragged around by its arm which showed some frayed threading. She grinned, thinking of her own childhood doll, and placed it on top of the box. She was about to sweep the floor when she heard someone laughing.
"Not again," Abby groaned. She left the room to find Maria scrubbing the tub in the Master Bathroom.
"Hi Maria...this is going to sound strange but while you've been here, have you heard someone laughing?" Abby asked.
Maria looked up, eyebrows knitted together. "Laughing?"
"Yeah...like a little girl's laughter."
Maria shook her head. "No, I haven't heard anything. This is an old cabin though and it's in the woods so you could be hearing some weird bird call or something."
"A bird?"
"Or something." Maria grinned. "Why do you ask?"
Abby lightly touched a bead of her bracelet.
I'm not crazy.
"No reason." Abby smiled before walking back to the pink room.
She began sweeping and swung the closet door open to clean inside there as well when she saw it. On its back in the corner of the closet was the rag doll with red hair. Its arms were draped over its face, as though it were covering its eyes. Abby shuddered and took a step back.
"Abby?"
Abby jumped at hearing her name and turned to see Maria giving her a quizzical look. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?"
Abby licked her lips. "Yeah. Sorry. I guess this old cabin has been making me a little jumpy." She picked up the rag doll, not understanding how it ended up in the closet.
"Oh my. I haven't seen that in almost twenty-five years," Maria exclaimed.
Abby held up the doll. "You recognize this?"
"Of course. How could I forget? The little girl who owned it carried it around so much that we almost thought it was a third arm. I was still young myself but that little girl was just too adorable."
"You know who owned this doll?" Abby asked.
"Of course. It's been years but I haven't forgotten. It belonged to Sheriff Don's daughter."