The House That No One Built

Part 2

Creepy. That was the word for it. A mysterious envelope with an ominous note inside. Serene shrugged her shoulders and tossed the note on the counter. The dust jumped into the air before slowly settling again.

She moved to the adjacent room. Another room with large bay windows. This one had been updated, at least somewhat. Instead of heavy drapes like the front rooms, this one had heavy vertical blinds. They were still made of the same material but the pull chain on the side made it a lot easier to let the light in. Serene turned the blinds and, to no surprise, there wasn’t much light allowed. The sun was brighter on this side of the house so more light made it through the dirty windows than the front. Still, it was closer to moonlight than sunlight.

She turned from the window and nearly toppled over a chair. In the darkness, she hadn’t noticed the oak dining room table and the twelve matching chairs. Along one wall stood a china cabinet, filled with dinner plates, salad plates, soup bowls, dipping bowls, saucers, teacups, coffee mugs, and everything else that might be used in an upper class exceptionally formal dining experience.

Despite nearly falling over the first chair, she noted that there was ample space to walk around the table. She could imagine a team of servers flowing back and forth around the guests seated at the table. There was laughter in the air. A few snide remarks about this or that. Servers that said nothing but went about their work like well-trained servants.

The images she thought she had in her mind acted out in front of her. As real as any dinner party. The servants even moved around her as though she were taking part. She pushed in the chair and all eyes turned to her.

They waited.

She stood still.

Someone gestured to her.

Serene ran out of the room, cut through the kitchen to the base of the stairs, and stood panting. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. She took a deep breath and regained her composure. Her eyes examined the large openings on either side of the foyer and peered into the rooms. Still empty. Still dusty. Still abandoned.

She straightened her posture and retraced her steps to the dining room. Just the furniture. No people. No laughter. No smell of food.

Smell of food? I did smell food.

She exited the dining room through a door at the other end. A hallway led to two more. One, she presumed, led to the ballroom. The other…

Deciding on the unknown, she walked down the ever-darkening, wood-covered hall. Billboard-sized pictures of various landscapes lined both sides, each becoming more and more morose. What started off as vibrant colored fields and hills of flowers ended up as scenes from scorched earth after some apocalyptic battle.

The hallway ended and she found herself in an atrium of sorts. At least it could have been an atrium if there had been anything living in it. What might have been vegetation at one time littered the room. What used to be a beautiful tree in the center was now a rotted trunk that offered no life. Worse, it seemed to drain life.

She found herself feeling sleepy, wanting only to lay on the bench in front of the tree and take a nap. Her footsteps led her towards the stone bench even as her mind tried to refute the very thought.

“Not there,” a voice echoed through the atrium, “never there. Never again.”

Serene snapped awake. She looked around and saw no one. “Who said that?” she asked. The voice sounded familiar. An echo of one she was familiar with.

“This is no place for sleeping,” the voice said.

Again, Serene looked for the source of the voice. Perhaps there were speakers hidden in the planters. Someone was playing a trick on her. She wasn’t going to fall for it.

“Come on out,” Serene said, “I know you’re there.”

“Of course, I’m here,” the voice replied. Then she recognized it. A little distant. A little deeper. The voice that had been familiar to her all her life. Her own voice.

***

This is part two of an ongoing experiment. Where do you think it should go? I’d love your input. If you haven’t already, read Part 1

Published in

Recommend 0 Simily Snaps All Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Originally published at https://simily.co on February 25, 2022.

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