THE EMPTY ROOM

THE EMPTY ROOM

Alice opened the door, crossed the room and went to open the window.  A wave of weed scent pleasantly surprised her as soon as she put her face out of the window. Since that room, the most wide, and most bright too, of the house had the view on a vast expanse of green, mainly made up of meadows, but in that expanse of green there were also vines, even trees.

When she and Peter had moved to the country, about ten years earlier, they had agreed that in their new house would be a guest room, which had to be spacious, comfortable and well furnished, as they had not been able to have when they lived in their city apartment. But, during all those years there had never been any guest in that beautiful room.

Not only had they never hosted anyone in that room, but it ( their guest room) had been uninhabited   from  almost ten years.

Just over a month ago was going that especially she, Alice, but also Peter, had begun to hear noises, but even voices, coming from that empty room. How many times they had got up, by night, to check that no one had entered their house. They never had found anyone, and that room had been always empty  when they had gone to check. At first Alice and Peter had heard , especially by night, indistinct noises coming from the empty room. Indeed, they had needed some time, a few nights spent listening very attentively, walking up and down along the corridor, and stopping , to listen with upright ears near (close) every door, to be able to understand where those noises were coming from. Then, day by day, or rather, night by night , those noises had become more distinct , that is, more identifiable , they had  sounded for ( to) Alice and Peter’s ears as footsteps, or as objects thrown to the ground, or as knocks on the walls. Until they had started to hear VOICES coming from that room. They had had the distinct feeling those were voices before they had been able to understand what those voices were saying. At first they had perceived the voices from the empty room as an indistinct murmur ( muttering), whose tone rose and fell, which, even if they could not understand a single word  from that muttering , that : BO-BOO-BOB and :BIB-BIIBIB-BIB, Alice and Peter had been sure that those were voices, which were saying something. Then later, they had begun to distinguish , in those mutterings, some WORDS……as : HOUSE….ROOM….GARDEN…..and even CAT!

How many times , especially at night, Alice and Peter had stood (stayed) close to the door of that room, to listen, with spasmodic attention, to the voices which were resounding from that room, to try to understand what those voices, which seemed also jumping between the  walls of the room, were saying. And then , when, despite a considerable fear, they had dared to open the door, every time, those voices suddenly had ceased, giving them the feeling that they had come out of the door as soon as Alice or Peter had opened the door.  Even if those voices really slipped through the door, as soon as it was opened, of course they couldn’t see them ( those voices). But one night it happened that, as soon as they opened that door___and the voices ceased as always____they really saw SOMETHING slipping out of the door, rolling on the floor.

It was a small yellow ball. Alice and Peter looked at that little ball completely in terror, their eyes wide open, their breath  bated. It was only a little ball, it looked like it was rubber. But to Alice and Peter it seemed something portentous , even monstrous. For them it was as if that little yellow ball had legs, as if it were a monstrous insect . But, since it was only a little ball, it slipped on the floor and stopped against a wall in the corridor, under the window.

Oh, we can swear that they, Alice and Peter, who continued to look at it terrified, their eyes wide open, and their mouth too, would have even expected to see the little yellow ball fly out of the window, but that it would have put wings too, that ball. Which, however, was only a ball, and therefore it remained still against the wall.

How could that small ball have entered the guest room, which always remained closed? Someone had to have brought it there….SOMEONE….but then….there were not only the voices, then there had also to be someone in that room. Alice and Peter were more and more terrified.

When Alice, after numerous unsuccessful attempts_______she about ten times had reached out her hand to touch the small ball, and every time she, trembling, had withdrawn her hand, without touching the ball____finally managed to….not withdraw her hand, and to touch the ball, she was amazed by its rough, almost thorny surface . It wasn’t a rubber ball, it looked more to be of sandpaper. Alice took the ball in her hand to observe it. Then watching it, she noticed two dark spots on its yellow surface . Alice carefully observed the two small dark spots on the yellow of the ball …oh, but they looked like the prints of two small fingertips, the fingertips of a small hand, a child’s hand….but sure, as if a child had squeezed that ball between his fingers smeared of chocolate.

Alice and Peter didn’t know what to do, they didn’t even know whom they could ask for help.

Peter wanted to put the little ball back in the room it had come from, but Alice had insisted on keeping it, and she had put it next to a vase (pot) of bluebells on the living room table. Peter would not have wanted to see that devil ball anymore, so he had also asked Alice to throw the damned ball in the garbage, but she had insisted on keeping it.

A few days passed during which, while they ( Alice and Peter) continued to hear voices coming from that room, nothing other came out of that door when they, every time, more trembling, more anxious  than ever, had opened it. Until one night they saw again SOMETHING coming out of that door. This time a small green and yellow shoe came out of the door, a shoe for a child’s foot.

That small shoe walked out of the door, even if there was no foot into it. Alice, at the sight of that little shoe advancing towards them, gave an inhuman scream and fainted. When Alice regained her senses she was very upset, since she no longer found the little yellow ball she had placed on the table in the living room, next to the vase of bluebells. She, very angry, accused Peter of having thrown it away, when she, having passed out, could not prevent it. Peter hesitated before telling her what had happened. He hadn’t thrown anything away, he said her. But, while she was still unconscious,  from that damned ball it had popped out….oh, he didn’t know how to tell what he had seen. Yes, something had popped out from that devil ball….oh, it was something that looked like a child’s head…oh, but it was not a child’s head, since it had seemed to him that it was made of rubber. But, damnation, even if that something couldn’t be a child’s head, the face, which looked like a child’s ( face), but it was rubber like the head, had started crying, screaming, just as if it were really the face of a child, oh, but it , that thing, couldn’t be a child, he, Peter had kept on repeating. “ And what did you do of that child?” Alice had asked. Then Peter had told her he had brought that head, which seemed to be the head of a child but which,  could not be such one, to an acquaintance of his, a biologist, who claimed to be engaged in very advanced researches on all living beings, and even….even on beings which seemed to be such, that is living, but  which instead were not at all living, just like that head popped out of the small yellow ball.

While they were still waiting for the response that the biologist researcher would given them about that head born from the yellow ball, one night they heard, in addition to the voices, very loud noises coming from that room, as if inside that room someone were throwing the furniture, were banging them, and kicking the walls, the door too. Even if in fear, they opened the door of that room and A BEING, with a big head, with the face of a child appeared to them. This strange being, with a very small body, with very short, tiny arms and legs, laughed coarsely in the middle of the room, shaking his big head and his very little body. He (it) was grotesque, even monstrous.

Alice and Peter were not recovered from the fright that this monstrous being had caused them, that , all of a sudden, a trap door had opened on the floor and a lot of beings , as abnormal as the first which had appeared to them, had begun to come out, one after the other. Soon those grinning monsters had filled that room and they had begun  swarm in the other rooms. They were invading Alice and Peter’s house. Alice and Peter, terrified, ran away from their home.