The House Beside Mine

“You should go to a therapist.” I can’t count the number of times my mother and I have had this type of conversation in the past.

She was so convinced that I’ll slowly become an insane being solely by the fact that I can see ghosts and monsters everywhere I go. She arranged me to therapists every now and then and I would run away after that. Not wanting to be bothered by the living as I have had enough just by the dead.

I have been staring at the empty house that was on a perfect view from my bedroom window. Why wasn’t anyone buying this? It’s a great house. Although I was wishing that maybe, one day, I could see a faint trace of a shadow inside the house just so it could ease the creepiness I felt inside.

Come to think of it, it’s been years since someone lived in there. As to the owners? I have no clue to where they are right now. They never showed up in front of my front door to offer us fresh apple pie like any other neighbor would. And I wasn’t the type of person to befriend everyone inside a small neighborhood. I just find it weird. No growing vines, No traces of piling dust, No spider webs. The pool was even cleaner than ours!

I was expecting to wake up with a pleasant breakfast consisting of my favorite cereal and strawberry pancakes, not to a girl throwing rocks of various sized outside my window. I turned on the lights and walked towards the window to open it.

“Hi! Can you help me?” It was a small black-haired girl wearing a wet hoodie. That’s when I realized that it was raining heavily. I was so confused because the street lights weren’t on and the only source of light was from our house. Other than that, it was pitch black.

I didn’t reply and instead grabbed an umbrella to go outside. Good thing my parents didn’t wake up from the loud noises or else, I would’ve been caught by now. We don’t own a dog, too. So the house was completely quiet but all the lights were turned on. Did mom and dad forget to turn them off?

I almost wanted to scream so loud when I saw a dead body lying beside the standing girl. I didn’t see that from my window! “I’m so sorry, but I really need your help!”

“Did you kill him?!” I was panicking. There was so much blood on the grass! The girl was staring at me, waiting for me to take a step closer to her. “No! I found him... on my porch!” She defended herself. I quickly turned on the flashlight of my phone and rushed towards them.

I have never seen so much blood in one position before. It was redder than what I expected it to be. The girl was soaked but all she did was stand there, stare at me as I examined the dead body. I was already close to crying... I didn’t know what to do! I have never been in a position like this before!

I felt my grip loosened around the umbrella. My breathing was unstable and I felt like cold sweat was now clouding my body. I saw a kitchen knife still stabbed into his body from the side. From this point, I was so close to screaming until my mom and dad wake up. I didn’t care! This is the worst!

I lifted the hem of the dead body’s shirt and saw a tattoo, it was a smiling sun that embraced a crescent moon. I turned to the girl, “Do you know him?”

“No! I just... I just saw him on the porch. Please... I don’t want to go to jail.” My mind was so clouded right now. The heavy rain didn’t help me to think straight at all. The girl was already crying which made me feel more pressured about this.

“We’ll... bury him. Wait for me here.” I looked around the house to see my Dad left a shovel around here. The garage was always locked because my Dad cared for his tools more than he cared for me. So I was thankful to the heavens when I saw a shovel lying beside a bush. Guess he forgot to put it back in.

I quickly went back to the girl. “Help me carry him.”

The girl just nodded and didn’t say a word. I expected the man to be heavy since his bulky muscles won’t ever lie, but he was way lighter than I expected. Way. Way. Way lighter. I scanned the whole place to search for a spot to bury this guy. It can’t be on our yard or my dad will go nuts!

“My backyard has a good spot... Let’s bury him there.” We carried the man towards the next door house. I was dumbfounded for a second. She lives here? How come I never saw anyone move in here? I have been stuck at home for a month now, I would’ve at least heard trucks when she moved!

I didn’t focus much unto that and just went ahead and tried to dig up a hole. I was struggling to dig it. My body was too weak to dig up a big hole that was fit for this big guy! It might take me a year to do this. The rain wasn’t stopping either so I had no choice but to let go of the umbrella and just focus on the main agenda.

The hole was pretty much big right now after a few minutes of digging. But it wasn’t that big for the big guy to fit either. I’m probably wet right now. My underwear’s probably wet and I might be waking tomorrow with a 40 degrees Celsius fever. I can already feel my tummy turning. I was nauseous.

“Let him go...” The girl whispered. I turned around and saw her holding a plate with a pink cake. I frowned as I saw that. I didn’t hear her enter the house at all! “Where did you get that?”

“I made it... for you.”

I was debating whether or not I should accept the cake. I suddenly felt hungry even though I ate like three hours ago. “Come on... take a quick break.”

I was staring at the girl, trying to figure out what she wanted to do. She just smiled at me and gestured at the cake for me to eat it. The rain stopped too. I looked at the hole and the dead guy before I placed the shovel on the ground and grabbed the cake. She seemed satisfied with my reaction.

I took a forkful worth of cake and shoved it in my mouth. I was about to compliment her because it tasted amazing when I felt a crunchy feeling as I bit into it. I opened my mouth to grab what was it and saw a piece of paper.

Poisoned. See you in hell.

Before I could turn to the girl, she quickly kicked me on the stomach and I fell inside the hole.

“Ah!” I looked around my room. I was in my room already! I touched my clothes and felt it was dry. I looked at the digital clock on top of my table and saw it was 8:00 in the morning. I wasn’t even feeling any headache or something.

What was that? Was it another spirit that wanted to communicate with me? Why did it feel like... it was real. It was so realistic! Until now, I can still feel the pain whenever I touch the wrist that did the majority of the shoveling in my dream... was it even a dream?

I just shook my head and went inside the bathroom to prepare. I even applied a pain reliever patch on my wrist because it hurts so bad. I felt like my wrist was torn apart and just glued back on by using a cheap school glue! It felt as if it was cut down by a chainsaw!

I heard the door bell ringing so I quickly went to the kitchen. “I’ll get it!”

I opened the door only to see a girl holding a plate of freshly baked strawberry cake. “Hi! I’m your new neighbor!” She greeted me and held the plate higher, to showcase it. I just stared at her. She’s familiar. And the cake... I think I saw that one before.

My dad showed up. His top was missing and he looked like he was in the middle of constructing something that was totally unnecessary from the amount of furniture we already have inside this house. “Hi! Welcome! Come on in!”

The girl smiled at me and went inside the house. I looked outside the house to see if anyone was still in there.

“What... the... hell?” There were no houses around us! Just trees and never ending road!

I was stoned for a moment and was about to close the door when I saw a piece of paper on top of our floor mat. I picked it up and opened to read what was inside it.

Poisoned. See you in hell.

“What...” I turned around to see my father’s back facing me and the girl staring directly to me. My eyes fell on the tattoo behind my father’s back. It was a smiling sun that’s embracing a crescent moon.

I saw my dad ate a piece of the cake before I could even warn them. “No--!”

Too late.