Who's Watching You

 A mother who will be introduced to you as Elaine cleaned houses and offices for a living. To the offices, she took her three children. Rose is the oldest, Faith the middle, and Sam or Samuel the youngest and only boy. The three children accompanied their mother every week to the offices to help her clean.

One beautiful sunny morning Elaine trudged up the ramp to the main door of the two-story building with her children following behind like little ducklings. Except they weren’t so little. The youngest was eight years old. He was a tall skinny kid with blonde hair and blue eyes. The middle child who was already introduced as Faith was thirteen. She was very quiet and reserved. She had beautiful brown hair that fell in curls and ringlets which she kept down at her shoulders. Her matching deep brown eyes along with a creamy fair complexion made her look as though she was the oldest. This brings me now to the oldest. A tall eighteen-year-old. She had brown hair mixed with blonde natural highlights. Her hair was straight with a slight wave you wouldn't know because she always kept it in a ponytail.

The building that day had a strange and eerie feeling that it had never had before. Elaine and Rose felt it instantly, though they did not mention what they felt until after they all left. It may need to be mentioned that this family, particularly Elaine and Rose possessed a gift that involves seeing, hearing, and or feeling a person or people who are no longer living. In simple terms we shall say, they are mediums. This gift however can be an overwhelming and daunting task. The family slowly walked into the dark building. The children waited for their mother in the hall while she locked the main door. Dark shadows were cast onto the walls by the dim light flooding in through the front door. The whole building had a heaviness about it that was very overwhelming. 

With her children close beside her Elaine walked down the hall past the stairs and to the next door she had to unlock. The thick heavy air was no better once inside the door. Elaine informed her children that they were to stay right with her. This was a statement she only made if she felt danger near. On a normal cleaning day, the family would start downstairs and when Rose was finished she would always go ahead upstairs to begin the cleaning there. But not this time! Elaine had announced her rule and Rose was happy to obey it. As Rose cleaned she could not shake the feeling that she was being watched.

When the cleaning was finished downstairs the family walked up the inside set of stairs to the upstairs part of the office. This office was big and had four other offices in it, but they did not have to clean those. Just the back office that was two stories with its own set of stairs, along with the upstairs public bathroom for patrons coming and going from the other offices, the upstairs hall, and the public stairs.

Once upstairs the heaviness in the air had died down a bit. The family went to work cleaning leaving the stairs, hall, and public bathroom for last. When Elaine was ready to go out and clean in the hall she announced that she forgot a trash bag and needed one. Rose, wanting to spare her brother and sister from the awful feeling downstairs volunteered to go. The layout of the stairs was one that Rose had fallen in love with from the moment she first set foot in the building. The building was old as in limestone foundation and pre-civil war old. Then the stairs were probably considered a real beauty. Now they were laid with dingy wore carpet and scratched flat white paint. They were the example of yet another slightly un-kept historic building that now only showed its age. What it looked like once upon a time is now a distant memory.

Rose slowly crept down the stairs and when she turned the corner not yet reaching the last four steps, cold chills covered her body. Elaine having medium gifts past these same gifts unknowingly to her daughter. Along with this she also possibly "taught" Rose to love the paranormal. This being said, paranormal events did not scare Rose often. Most of the time she begged to go in places that she thought might be haunted. But this was different. Had it been a spirit trapped in the building watching the family's every move, Rose nor Elaine wouldn't have paid it any mind. But as I said, it was different. As Rose stood right above the last four steps looking straight at the darkroom. She debated going back upstairs, but she said she would get the trash bag. Rose did not just feel something watching her. She knew it was there! As soon as she turned the corner and her body became covered in cold chills she felt it watching her. Rose stepped down the last four steps and into the darkness of the room. The heaviness made her chest hurt. Whatever was watching her was not just watching. She felt it so strong when she turned the corner that it was probably close enough to reach out and touch her. It followed her back to the bathroom where the trash bags were stored. Rose was trying to hurry! She was gentle and quiet with her steps yet quick. She grabbed the trash bag and walked out of the bathroom. She felt it following behind her! Quickly she walked over to the steps and ran up them. When she turned the corner the feeling instantly left her. As if it could go no further.

Rose did not turn around she just continued up the stairs. Elaine had already opened the door to the hallway. Dreading every second Rose grabbed the vacuum and walked out into the heavy air. At least it was not nearly as bad as downstairs. Rose began her vacuuming but quickly stopped when she saw a wasp sitting on the banister in the hall. Samuel was terrified of bees and Rose being the oldest was careful and tried her hardest to shield him from them. She ran inside the open door and told Faith and Sam to go wait in the side room and close the door. Sam did not want too but when Rose informed him that it was a bee he was quick to go into the room with no further questions. Rose walked back into the hallway and stopped in front of the bathroom door. "This bee is watching me." She said to her mother. Elaine being the person she is continued her cleaning but began singing "I always feel like someone is watching me" Rose continued with her work as she was used to her mother's silliness. Elaine, however, being more in tune with her gift heard a woman's voice whisper, "Someone is watching you." right as she finished singing. It was a strange coincidence. Rose had been talking about the bee watching her, but the bee was the least of their worries. This made Elaine want to get out of the building quicker than she already did. She did not tell Rose about what the voice said until they were home. The voice is not what scared Elaine. The building was indeed haunted although Elaine's family were the only ones that knew. Unless someone came in who also had the same gift.

When the cleaning was finished everyone walked back downstairs. Rose was dreading this and could not say anything because she had not yet told them what happened. Although walking downstairs with her family to leave made the last task worth it. The last task happened to be taking the trash down to the basement. It was normally a job that made Rose more curious about the building every time she went down. Along with an occasional feeling of uneasiness due to a random item moving on its own. Rose slowly opened the creaking basement door. Without the light on the stairs looks so dark no one could see a thing. She pulled the string, turning on the light at the top of the steps. With the bag in hand, she slowly started down the creaking wood steps into the dark, damp basement. Once at the bottom she flipped the switch turning on the light in the basement. It was a dim light but a light all the same. Rose walked the bag over to the corner where they were told to put it. She thought for sure that the heavy feeling and the closeness of being watched by something evil would be felt in the basement. But it wasn't, in the basement was the safest she had felt while the family had been there that day.

The building is haunted. What Elaine and Rose gathered from talking about what happened once they reached the safety of home was this. Something evil was in the building that day. Why? They still don't know. The "ghosts" that are always in the building were in the basement that day. That is why it felt so safe, however, one of them did come upstairs to tell Elaine what she already knew. That something, not someone was indeed watching the family that day. And the ghost woman probably knew what it was and was warning Elaine.

Elaine went to clean the week after that and the dark sickening feeling was gone. That however was the last time though that she cleaned that office. Probably for fear of it happening again. And for wanting to keep her children safe from what lurked in the shadows.