Innocence (Chapter 3: Encounters of Undeniability)

Chapter 3: Encounters of Undeniability 1

Carolyn did not tell anyone about the kitchen cupboards. She would shut the cupboards each mourning before she prepared breakfast. Then, again before lunch. It was like clockwork. Every day, Carolyn could expect the cupboards to be open. It had crossed her mind that Eliza may have been right. Maybe there were others living in the house. Not invisible people, but ghosts. She had read about such things, but assumed them to be completely fantastical and thought believers to be unsound in the head. Now, the shoe was on the other foot. These things were happening, and she was becoming a believer.2

It came to the point where she could barely stand to be alone in the house anymore. She did not want to scare the children, so she kept it all to herself and hid things the best she could.3

~~~4

About two weeks after the blender incident, things had calmed down in the Robinson house. The family was settled into the house and adapted a daily routine. Anna found a job at a coffee shop in town, and began taking interest in a guy named David. Eliza met the neighbor girl, Tiffany. They were about the same age and the only girls in the area, so, consequently, they were at each other's houses constantly. Mike opened an office on Main Street and his business took flight. Carolyn took walks. She did anything to get out of the house on the days that she was left alone.5

It was a hot and humid Tuesday when Carolyn did not go on a walk. It was Eliza's birthday, and she was going to make a cake. She had just finished cleaning up after breakfast when she went into the basement to put some clothes in the wash. It was about ten thirty in the morning when she went into the kitchen.6

As she walked through the door, a sudden drop in temperature took her breath away. The cold of the room made her body shudder. Carolyn looked around the kitchen. Frost was beginning to form on the windows and in the sink. Her breath came out in quick white puffs of vapor.7

Rubbing her arms together she walked to the bar and picked up a spoon. Quickly she tossed it to the floor and stuck her fingers in her mouth. The spoon had been numbingly cold to the touch. What is going on here? Carolyn thought.8

Creak. BANG!9

Creak. BANG!10

Carolyn whirled around. She clasped her hands over her mouth and walked slowly backward. It was happening.11

Creak. BANG!12

Cupboard doors were being open, as if by some invisible arm, angrily flinging them open.13

Creak. BANG!14

Carolyn wanted nothing more than to run from the kitchen and never return, but she couldn't take her eyes off the sight before her. She just kept backing slowly away, until she had backed herself up against the wall.15

Whoosh!16

The door to the refrigerator next to her flew open. Carolyn screamed and ran, but not far. She tripped over a chair and fell to the floor.17

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!18

One by one all the drawers slid open.19

"Stop it!" Carolyn screamed, "Leave me alone! Get out of my house!"20

All the commotion stopped. Carolyn, knees shaking, stood to her feet.21

"It's gone," She whispered through her tears, "It's finally…"22

She stopped because from the corner of her eye she saw it. A teacup was hovering about five feet off the ground.23

"Please," Carolyn sobbed feebly, "Leave us alone. Please go…"24

CRASH!25

Without warning the teacup shot across the frigid room and smashed into the wall, just inches from Carolyn's head. Carolyn just screamed and ran from the kitchen, from the house and down the street.26

She ran to the park where she collapsed in a park bench and sobbed. "I'm crazy," she said to herself aloud, "I'm seeing things and I am crazy."27

But she knew she wasn't crazy, and she knew she couldn't face this alone anymore. She wanted to move. Leave the house, leave the town, and go back to their old house, but she knew she couldn't do that. She couldn't uproot her daughters. She couldn't jeopardize Mike's new career. Eventually she decided she would talk to Mike and see what he thought should be done. He would take action and fix everything, provided he didn't dismiss her as crazy and blame the wind. A twinge of guilt passed over her as she thought of Eliza.28

~~~29

Pat. Pat. Creak. Pat. Pat. It was the sound of soft footsteps on a creaky wooden floor in the silence of the night30

Anna awoke from a deep sleep. Someone was in her room. She steadied her breathing and closed her eyes tight. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her body. Her ears burnt with it. She swallowed hard and opened her eyes again.31

A young girl looking out the window was silhouetted against moonlight. The fear left Anna, and the tension drained from her body.32

"Eliza," She asked softly, "What are you doing?"33

The girl did not respond.34

"Eliza," Anna spoke a little louder, "Are you alright?"35

Body rooted in place, the girl's head spun back toward Anna. The girl's eyes were gone, but bloody sockets stared directly at her. This girl was not Eliza.36

Anna wanted to scream but could not find her voice. She wanted to get up and run but was paralyzed in her bed.37

The rest of the girl's body turned to match up with the head. She lifted her arm with an extended grotesque mangled finger pointed directly at Anna and cocked her head to the side. With a sickening ripping noise the head rolled to the floor, followed closely by the left arm, then the right.38

Anna's eyes snapped open and she bolted upright in her bed. In a panic she looked around her room. Empty. No bloody girl. No severed head or arms. It was just after midnight and she was alone in her room. It had all been a dream. A nightmare, a disgustingly vivid nightmare.39

Anna sprinted to the bathroom and threw up. On her way back to her room, she noticed a light on downstairs and heard voices. From the hallway she could see her parents in the study, hunched over a stack of papers, engaged in a hushed conversation… (To be continued…)40

COMING SOON: Chapter 4. A Past Learned and a Cast Expanded