My father left us a lot of money after he died. I always knew he was a rich man but I didn’t realise how much he was worth until his will was read. The number of zeros behind the figure that landed in my bank account gave me chills and I was sick for a few days.
Daddy was stingy. The only thing he owed us was the roof over our heads, food, cloths (only when it was absolutely necessary), a good education and nothing more. He didn’t have any extra money to lavish on those things he considered irrelevant.
Our house wasn’t painted. Our sitting room was sparsely furnished. Our family car was an old rickety Volvo station wagon and a Mercedes Benz which Daddy
drove to church on Sundays and on very special occasions. So now you see why I fell sick after I received my inheritance.
I had a couple of things to do with my money. The first thing on my list was to get my own house in a fancy part of town. While hunting for a place, I came across one or two accommodations that didn’t match my taste until I saw this particular one that checked everything on my list. It was a detached bungalow located within the serene and lovely Castle Estate.
The realtor was surprised when I settled for this particular house. She reminded me that the house had been unoccupied for a very long time and I told her it was because her clients lacked good taste.
I settled into my new home and I was happy about my newly acquired landlord status. I was proud of myself. Coming home from work everyday gave me a lot of joy. However my joy was short-lived when I began to notice strange and spooky occurrences around the house.
I live alone and I like everywhere to be spic and span. I was worried when I started to see towels on the floor, the bed not made, the fridge door open, water running, lights on and so on. I knew this wasn’t just me imagining things, there was definitely something wrong somewhere. I became afraid of my house. I talked a few friends into staying with me from time to time but none of them could stay more than one night. They all said the same thing about a young girl who usually stared back at them when they looked in the mirror in the visitors room. I have never been so afraid in my life.
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I left my new home to stay with a friend for a while and by the time I returned, it was as if everything was back to normal. The house was exactly the way I left it and I was happy to have my sanity back.
I moved around without fear just like I used to do when I moved in newly. That night, I enjoyed a good night’s sleep until about 2am when a persistent tap on my shoulder woke me up. I froze on my bed, the air-condition unit seemed to suddenly stop functioning. I was sweating profusely. I felt the tap again and a female voice called my name. I turned slowly to see who it was and there she was standing by my bedside, a young girl in her teens. Her hair was tangled and the flesh on her face was mangled, torn and dropping off. I could see her bones and part of her teeth. She had no eyeballs but there was a sort of grey light way back in her empty eye sockets. And she had no nose on her face. Then she started talking. It was like her voice was coming and going and it sounded like a whisper. She begged me to be calm while assuring me that she wasn’t going to hurt me.
Being calm wasn’t something I could do at that time. I was shaking. She told me how her friend killed her in what was now my house and used her blood for money ritual. She couldn’t rest in peace after she was killed and she needed my help to revenge her death and also bury her remains properly.
She said she had tried to get the former occupants of the house to help her but they always ran away in fright but she hoped I would not be like them and leave her in pain. She let out a soul wrenching sound that pierced my heart then she leaned forward to touch my hand. Her bony hands were cold against my skin. It was like a scene from a horror movie. I tried to scream but I felt a choke forming behind my throat. Fear ripped through my heart and my body as I slipped into a deep and dreamless oblivion.
I woke up after what seemed like hours and I looked around trying to convince myself that what happened earlier was only a bad dream. I heaved a sigh of relief when I didn’t see anything. As I sat up on my bed, I realized that I wasn’t alone anymore. The young girl suddenly walked through the door and came straight to my bed. I screamed as loud as thunder and I thought she’d disappear if I did that but she didn’t move an inch. She watched patiently as I continued to scream then she asked if I was done. I knew at that moment that I was in for more than I could bargain. She touched me with her cold bony fingers and I passed out for the second time that night. In my subconscious mind I could hear her telling me that she will be there waiting whenever I wake up. This is obviously going to be the longest night of my life. I don’t know how long I was out for but when opened my eyes she was still there.
To be continued..
