Hazeh, once inside, shuddered from either the slight cold wind coming through an open window down the hall or at the sudden eerie atmosphere, she didn't know which. The smell of damp crawled into her making her shudder more. Her vision was useless as there was no light source except the dull glow coming from windows, which was odd as her father usually turns every single lightbulb on once he comes home.
"Maybe this house is so old it doesn't have electricity.." Hazeh muttered to the darkness closing in, the skies were beginning to darken as it was early Winter. "Maybe we'll have to leave."
Sighing she held her phone as a source of light and investigated the house, considering she didn't have anything better to do. The house wasn't any better from what it looked like from the outside, old and falling down. She tried to keep the thought of it looking like a haunted mansion from a horror movie out of her head, even if it did look haunted.
The curling green old-fashioned wallpaper hung off the walls, clinging for it's life. There were many scratches on the dark wooden floorboards she walked on.
"Probably a cat." She assured herself. "If it's still here I might be able to persuade my parents to let me keep it."
On every wall there was at least five oval mirrors, that looked quite expensive, blocked out as if someone painted all the mirrors with black paint, she could see they were mirrors because when she scraped away she found her worried eyes staring back at her which made her jump. She was glad no one was around to have seen her be scared of her own reflection.
This house would have been cool to her if she didn't have to live in it, she didn't understand why her parents loved this house so much. Then it hit her, where are her parents?
"Mother? Father? It's me, Hazeh! Where are you?" She demanded at the silence, her patience running thin. "If this is some joke I will not take it light-heartedly."
She began tapping her foot from impatience.
"I'll walk to the bus stop I saw back in the village we passed if you don't answer me, for crying out loud! I'm tired, I'm not in the mood for pranks." Again, the silence replied. "You know what? I've got some money left over from the ferry so I'll use that for the bus! I'll go to Clara's!"
The lights turned on and she covered her eyes with her arm.
"What is the matter?" Her father shouted from somewhere upstairs.
"Why are you shouting, Hazeh?" Her mother also shouted.
"Stop with the jokes already, I'm tired!" Hazeh shouted back, the frustration evident in her tone.
"What are you talking about?" Hazeh's mother quickly walked to Hazeh. "We only went to explore the house, we didn't want to wake you, sorry dear."
"It doesn't mean you've got to announce to the world how angry you are, I don't understand why you're so tired and moody!" Her father raised his voice as he followed behind her mother.
"But... you guys wouldn't answer me, I tried to find you but I couldn't see in the bloody dark can I?" Hazeh replies as her parents stood before her. "It's your fault."
Both her parents quickly looked at each other and then back at Hazeh.
"Dear, your father turned every light in this house on once we went inside..." Her mother hesitated. "We didn't hear you shout either, we'd have definitely heard you if you did-"
"Are you calling me a liar?" She asked, hurt that her parents thought she'd lie about such things.
"Look, I know you don't like the house very much but once we have it renovated it'll look good enough for a princess or the likes of you I suppose." Her father tried to laugh to break the suffocating awkwardness but to no avail. "You don't have to lie to us, you're better than that."
"But-"
"That's enough!" Her father interrupted her. "Your mother and I will look at the rooms at the top floor whilst you calm down. I expect an apology once we're finished."
Once he had finished he strolled down the hall, along with her mother, and up the stairs she hadn't realised were there because of the lack of light from before.
"I wasn't imagining it, was I?" Hazeh mumbled sadly looking at her reflection. "Or I sleepwalked?"
Her reflection.
Hazeh gasped and dropped her phone. The mirrors weren't blocked up with black paint. Looking at her fingernail, which still had black paint underneath them, she realised she had nor imagined it or was asleep. Down at her feet was a grey carpet, not scratched floorboards.
Dinner was silent, her mother would occasionally make small talk with Hazeh but Hazeh was too shocked to reply, her father said she was just being stubborn and they left it at that. The only thing that occupied her thoughts, other than her new home being a madhouse, was how dinner would be if Saad was still here.
"He'd probably say a random lame joke and get everyone in fits of laughter or compliment their mothers cooking and smile." Hazeh thought to herself. "That boy sure did smile a lot, and yet I didn't even realise how much he was keeping the family together."
The windows crashed open making everyone at the table jump from the sudden sound.
"Quick, help me close the windows!" Her father said to her mother and ran to shut the window.
Hazeh stayed in her seat watching her reflection in a mirror that was identical to the ones in the hall.
"I don't like all these bloody mirrors." Hazeh muttered to her reflection before turning away to turn back again.
She swore she saw something move behind her, but when she turned around everything was in it's rightful place. She turned back to the mirror to see something had moved in her reflection, the vase on top of the cupboard was lying down in her reflection but when she turned around it was standing up.
Shaking, she walked up to the cupboard and picked up the vase.
"What are you doing?"
The sudden shout made her drop the vase on the floor, luckily, because the floor was covered in carpet the vase did not break.
"That's more expensive than my yearly wages!" Her father rushed to the vase, inspected for cracks and carefully put it back on the cupboard. "This house is full of antiques and ancient treasures, stop being so clumsy!"
"Sorry," She decided to stay on his good side. "I'll try to be more careful, my curiosity won the better of me."
"Curiosity killed the cat, Hazeh." Her father looked at her once more before sitting back in his seat.
"And satisfactory brought it back." Hazeh replied under her breath.