Perils of Pauline

Tabitha’s hands were trembling.

That was the first thing I noticed. They almost repelled from the walls, opposite poles of a magnet wanting to be as far away from each other as possible. But she continued to run her hands across the walls of the dusty room. Her eyes were closed, lips parted slightly, face contorted in agony, she was surely feeling something that we couldn’t.

‘What are you doing?’ David asked skeptically raising an eyebrow. He was leaning against the door frame of the library, sipping from his favorite mug. I made him a steaming cup of tea knowing full well Tabitha would give him a headache. When I had brought a psychic to our new house claiming it was possessed, any other husband would have reacted badly. Especially if they personally loved everything about the house. But not my David. He just sighed and let me do what I needed to do.

I didn’t want things to go this far but I simply couldn’t control myself anymore. There was something about this house you see, it was tearing me apart from the inside. It seemed to breathe with me, warm and slow like a beast in a deep slumber. It knew my touch. The number of wounds it inflicted on me since we moved in, I’ve lost count. I stopped sleeping since we moved in here, the strange screeching and moaning of the house at night drove me into a state of numbing delirium. David claimed all old houses creak like that at night but I knew it was more than that. I felt restless, itchy, hungry.

‘The aura of this house. Something about it…’ Tabitha answered sagely. I had found her standing alone outside the grocery store I usually go to, and I just knew she was there to help me. It was like serendipity. She told me she could read people and places, a gift she had been born with as a baby. I told her my plight and she immediately offered to help.

‘What about the aura of my home?’ David asked mockingly. I knew he didn’t approve but he didn’t have to nag like that.

‘Don’t you feel it?’ Tabitha murmured softly, she had grown paler after coming inside the house, it seemed to draw the life out of everything.

‘Feel what?’ I asked hesitantly. My heart was beating loudly.

‘Every place has an aura. I feel these auras in the form of smells, my strongest sense. Usually old houses tend to have spirits in them, not harmful per se but simply an inconvenience. Those houses smell of smoke. Your house is just wrong. Ever since I met Pauline yesterday, I can smell the rot of this house. It smells of putrefied flesh. There is something sinister here. It will do unspeakable things to you not because of vengeance but to be amused.’ Tabitha made a sound like an invisible hand was choking her neck, strangling her, preventing her from saying what she was going to say.

I brought a hand to my heart which continued to beat loud and fast. I knew something was wrong. I just knew it. My throat was dry, tears were already welling up in my eyes but I held them in not wanting to vex David more than I already had.

‘What do we do?’ I asked, voice cracking mid sentence. The books in the library seemed to shudder from fear too, quivering in their tightly packed shelves making a disturbing noise, leaving me feeling dizzy. It was the house laughing at us, I knew it.

I turned to see David massaging his temples. I knew how he must be feeling right now. He adored this place. He had chosen it carefully, attended the open house, researched on its history and even talked to the neighbors. He did everything to ensure we didn’t end up in this situation. What’s more, he even spent his entire life savings on buying it in one go without any installments.

‘This place is special Pauline.’ He had said then.

‘What do we do?’ David asked suddenly, waking Tabitha up from her reverie. She looked up at him with an expression that could only be described as pure, unadulterated terror.

‘Run.’

Then she packed her bags and left, walking in long and fast strides. She was running away herself. It did that to people, this insane house. I walked towards the doors slowly and shut the massive oak doors, latching them up. I just stood there, leaning against the door with my eyes closed.

I could hear footsteps approaching me. Then I felt arms pulling me into their warm embrace. I snuggled closer, breathing him in.

‘I’m sorry she said all that baby. Sometimes these people lie. They claim to be psychics and fool you to take your money.’

Tabitha hadn’t even collected a fee, you moron.

‘I know.’ I said sniffling, burying my face into his chest. ‘Hey David?’

‘Yes love?’ He was caressing my hair slowly.

‘I have this gut feeling, like you are going to die. Leaving me all alone in this house.’ I said slowly looking up at him. His expression remained calm, still stroking my hair.

‘Baby you keep saying that these days. This is our home. It will never hurt us, never hurt me.’

Of course not.

‘I know.’ I murmured kissing his chest.

‘Then why do you think I’m going to ever leave you hm?’ David’s voice leaked a small amount of panic now, as it ought to.

‘Because I poisoned your tea.’ I smiled up at him showing my pearly white teeth, admiring his beautiful face. After all I only had an hour or so left to do that.

My heart beat faster in anticipation.

I kept trying to save David. I told him everyday that the house did things to me, that it was as alive as me, that it urged me to hurt him. Each passing day, the house pulled me deeper into its embrace of insanity. I wanted to get him away from it, I was too far gone to ever leave this wonderful place but he still had hope.

But alas! He heard only what he wanted to hear and now he had to face the consequences. Did the Gothic Revival architecture matter now David?

The hilarious part is that Tabitha knew. The old hag could read the house and me like a book. She even tried to save David, props to her. But in the end, she could tell she was too late. So she did what any sane person would do.

She left.