The 19th Century House

Cassandra woke up with a horrible, painful headache laying on the floor. She kept her eyes closed to try to minimize the pain; after a couple of minutes, she got up slowly and carefully, for her headache had only become bearable for the time being. As she opened her eyes, all she saw was pitch-black all around her and tried to feel for the closest wall. She continuously blinked her eyes to try to get a grasp of something that she could see. After a few seconds, her eyes watered up and the tears trickled down her face from the thought of her being blind. She curled herself into a ball against the wall she found and closed her eyes once more with tears still streaming down her cheeks.

“What are you crying for,” asked a boy in the distance.

She jerked out of her position and opened her eyes still trying to see if she could see something. “Who’s there!?” Cassandra said with worry and sniffles in her voice.

Cassandra got sudden chills as she heard the boy’s breath and steps. Each step she heard him take, the faster her heartbeat got and the closer they became. After a few seconds, Cassandra could feel him breathing on her face. Soon she overheard him put something down on the floor as quietly as possible. Immediately after, she heard him take something out of his pocket. She could pick up the sound of zips from the failed matches, and each time she saw the sparks light up and disappear. She started to feel relieved; slow, light tears fell down her cheeks. After quite a few tries, he lit a match and lifted the match towards her face. Cassandra saw the boy clear as day, with his dark brown hair, brown eyes, white shirt with braces, black trousers, and shiny black shoes. She felt embarrassed at the thought of her being a mess in front of this mysterious boy; because of her slightly messed up brown hair, brown eyes from crying, and her left cheek covered with dust and streaks of lines from her tears and her long, white nightgown. After the match went out, all she could think about was how relieved she was that she was not blind, and was just in a very dark room. 

As soon as the match went out the boy told her, ”I will light up the oil lamp, so we can see more clearly.”

The boy lit up the oil lamp, he turned up the brightness as much as possible, so bright that you could see to the end of the room without moving the oil lamp. The side walls were long and full of old wallpaper with flowers and tears here and there while the other walls were short and had the same wallpaper patterns. Soon she went back to business, she did not know who this boy was and what his name was either.

She asked with as much confidence as she had, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“My name is James and I don’t know but there is always a reason but this one I am not so sure,” replied James “And you are?”

“My name is Cassandra and I just woke up a few minutes ago on the floor not knowing where I was.”

“Well, Cassandra we should find our way out of here,” James suggested.

James quickly got up from his position; it seemed like he did not want to wait any more time than he had. He offered her his hand to help her get up from the floor. She hesitated to take his hand but in the end, she took it anyway as it would be the polite thing to do. Once she was up, she noticed her headache was gone as she dusted herself from any dust that collected on her when she was sitting. Meanwhile, James picked up the oil lamp from the floor and searched the room for the door. A few seconds later, James called Cassandra over to where the door was. She held the oil lamp as he opened the door to see if anyone was there. 

As James went outside the door he told her “Come on, it’s safe and surprisingly there is no one here.”

She did as she was told and walked out of the room and asked, “Which way do we go?”

He suggested, “I don’t know but I think we should go right.”

James started walking towards the right side of the hallway as Cassandra looked to the left side of the hallway before catching up to him. Down the hallway were a bunch of old paintings, vases with flowers, and a different type of wallpaper. As they passed through the hall, Cassandra admired all the paintings that they passed by while James was trying to find the exit. They turned right again, there was a dining room on the other side of the door with many set up tables, it looked like parties would be hosted there. Cassandra began to feel the awkward silence radiating from him as they passed through many tables trying to reach the next door. Cassandra wanted to get rid of this awkward silence between them for she loved talking, but did not want to seem like a chatterbox.

As they made it to the door she unexpectedly blurted out, ”Do you like parties?”

Cassandra felt so embarrassed and put her hand over her face. James turned to face Cassandra after being startled by the sudden question.

“Not really, I’m not a party person,” answered James.

She felt surprised that he replied; she took her hand off her face and looked directly at him. As he turned around to open the door, she saw a slight smile on his face which was reassuring. They went on to the next room, which looked like a ballroom.

After reaching the door Cassandra asked another question, “Do you have a family?”

He turned around again and responded kindly, “I do. My mother runs a bakery. My father works as a newspaper writer, gives the daily news, and helps my mom out when he has time. I also have a sister. What about you?”

Cassandra answered, “I don’t remember but I know I have a mother and father.”

Cassandra was surprised that James has a sister. He was not chatty in the short time they have known each other so she assumed that he was an only child. James opened the door to a long, narrow hallway that had many doors and other hallways. 

As he started opening a door, Cassandra suddenly spoke again, “What is your sister like?”

“Well, she loves to talk, go on adventures, and being outdoors. She is amazing when it comes to games, we have the greatest time together and I don’t think we ever had a bad time with each other.” He turned to face her and continued, “You remind me of her.”

When he turned to look at the door that he opened all he saw was a big, beautiful bedroom with a different type of wallpaper. He moved on to the next door when Cassandra happened to notice that James was a little older than she was. He opened the door, another bedroom. As they passed down the hallway to the next door, she noticed that there were shadows on the ceiling that were not coming from them. She felt her heartbeat increase and tugged on James’s shirt. 

“Yes?” he asked, confused.

She looked at the ceiling and they were gone, she decided to not say anything at all. He opened the next door, another bedroom. She still looked at the ceiling and a few seconds later they appeared again. She observed them as they moved on to the next door. When they reached the door the shadows came closer to her, looking like they were reaching out for her soul. She jerked and tugged James’s shirt pointing at the wall, opposite to the door. James turned around and saw nothing and simply ignored her. He continued what he was doing, and he was not surprised to see that there was another bedroom. They continued down the hallway to open up the next door. Cassandra looked for them but saw nothing and that frightened her. They made it to the next door; she watched James open the door until a shadow popped up behind James. 

She screamed, “James behind you!” 

“I swear Cassandra if there is nothing behind me … ” he complained as he turned around from the door with his eyes closed until he opened his eyes and faced the shadow.

He leaned back as the shadow got closer to him; after a few seconds, the shadow disappeared. James grabbed her wrist and ran to the end of the hallway. He was frightened, she could see it on his face. James opened the closest door they were near; what was on the other side surprised both of them. On the other side of the door was not a bedroom but a storage room with a shadow. It did not seem awake but asleep until it opened its eyes and stared straight at them.

“Run!” yelled James.

James ran while still holding her wrist, running away from the shadow. Before Cassandra could make it to the end of the hallway, she was starting to be captured by the shadows. She started to see less light as she got captured by the shadows, she dropped the oil lamp without it smashing or burning the floor. James ended up letting go of her wrist and took the oil lamp with him. The shadows dragged her to the room they opened. She was sure she was never going to hear from him and stay locked in the room.

“Cassandra?” a voice whispered in the distance.

“Cassandra?” the same voice repeated but this time louder.

“Come on Cassandra. Wake up,” the voice became louder and woke her up slowly.

“Hmmm …” Cassandra groaned.

Cassandra started to wake up slowly and she began to open her eyes. The person she saw in front of her made her burst into tears even though she had only known him for a short amount of time but it felt way longer. 

“Oh thank god you’re alright, you had me worried” James spoke with relief as he hugged her.

As he wiped her tears, he claimed, “I know where the exit is and the shadows are asleep. Quick get up, we must not waste time.”

He grabbed her hand and led her outside of the room and into the hallway, into the dance room, then to the dining room, into the hallway of art, and finally into the hallway they were first in. And this time they headed left, down a flight of stairs, to the right where a kitchen was, then out of the kitchen and into the fireplace room, then into a big hallway that led to the exit. They made it halfway down the hallway until they saw the shadows and ran as fast as they could. Cassandra stopped because James stopped but when she turned to see he was being captured by the shadows.

James yelled in order for her to hear him, “I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. Promise me no matter what happens to me, you will leave this house.”

Cassandra burst into tears but did as he requested and ran after he let go of her hand. As she swung open the door, she saw the light from outside. She ran and ran until she was a good distance away from the house. She began to see a white light surrounding all around her. She was very confused. She turned left and right and the last thing she saw was the door to the house. A white background was surrounding her until she continued to blink she could make something out of where she was. 

“She came back to us, this might take a few more minutes so please be patient.” a man advised.

She began the pick out where she was. She was in a hospital staring at a white ceiling for some reason. 

The man that came up to her said, “Can you hear us?”

Cassandra replied with a dry throat, “Yes.”

The man noted that I should wait a few minutes before I got up. As she laid there she saw her parents again after a long time. She thought Thank you, Brother.