Curiosity

It was a gloomy, rainy night and Lucy was driving to her house. She was so tired that day at work and she wanted to reach her home as soon as possible. Maybe she was even overspeeding. Thank God there were not any cops around her neighborhood, she was sure of that.

Suddenly she heard the sound of a lightning bolt. She already hated the rain, and lightning even more. She really wanted to get back home and get over it.

"I'm close," she muttered. She reached her usual parking lot and started to drive towards it when she noticed someone in the middle of the road. She quickly put on the brakes and burst out a sudden curse word. Who was that teenage boy and what the hell was he doing on the road wearing no raincoat or anything during nighttime? She had no idea. She knocked on the window of her car to get his attention. But he was just like a statue, no reaction.

"Would you get the hell out of my way young man?"

No reaction.

"Pretty please?"

Still no reaction.

"Fine," she muttered to herself, "I'm coming there."

She got out of her car, opened her umbrella, and went near him.

"Are you deaf or something?"

The boy slowly turned his head towards her and put away his phone. He looked like a high school student with long hair. Really long hair. They were reaching out to his lower back.

Lucy was eyeing him from head to toe when he finally decided to say something.

"There is a mansion near. Take. Me. There."

She glanced at him with surprise.

"Do I look like a chauffeur?"

"I'll pay," he said with a poker face. Lucy was someone who wouldn't say no to money but there was no way that a high schooler could have a decent amount of green to give someone. So she wanted to mock him by saying "I know the place. However, it'll cost you 500 dollars," confidently.

"Sure," he said with a smirk on his face and pulled out the money from his wallet like it was nothing.

Who... was that boy? How could he give that much money to a stranger just to go somewhere close? He piqued Lucy's curiosity quite a lot after this last occurrence. So she decided to take him to that mansion. What could go wrong? She already made a couple hundred bucks anyway, right?

"Hop on, let us go," she said while getting in her car. The boy got in the back seat and they took off.

During the ride, the boy never uttered a single word. Lucy was looking at him through the rearview mirror while driving. Now she could see him better. His skin was as pale as possible and had white hair with reddish eyes. Was looking like that even possible? He was just like a ghost. She was a bit terrified but she always wanted to act courageously, and she was curious to the boot.

When they finally arrived, the boy got off the car quickly and headed towards the mansion. Normally at this point, Lucy would go away and bask in the money she screwed out of the boy. But something was weird. That boy was weird. Why was he acting like a ghost? Why did he have that much money in his pocket? What would he do in a long-abandoned mansion? Those questions and many more were wandering inside of her mind. She wanted to go home but her curiosity didn't allow her to do so. And she decided to follow him. The boy realized that he was being followed but he looked like he didn't care.

Well, she was okay with it, as long as he lets her come. He slowly opened the door to the mansion like it was nothing. When they were finally at the door, the boy stopped and said:

"Do you have... phone?"

"It's in the car. Why?"

When the boy got his answer, he kept walking through the mansion door without replying.

"Rude brat," Lucy thought as she continued to follow him. "Does this mean I have to go get my phone back? If I lose him now, I can't find him again though."

The interior of the mansion was surprisingly, and a bit horrifyingly, well-decorated for an abandoned place. There were chandeliers, incenses, and more brand-new furniture all around the hallway. At that moment, Lucy realized that someone was living there and a tremendous dread sprouted inside of her. It wasn't too late to turn back. She felt like a dumb B-class horror movie protagonist who follows the danger all the time and gets murdered in the worst ways possible. She shouldn't have risked her life, she knew that very well. But that curiosity, that damned curiosity...

The boy started to ascend the stairs of the hallway when Lucy stopped walking. He stopped too and turned his head. He was staring at her like a predator glaring at its prey. His blood-red eyes looked like they wanted to shred her into pieces.

Suddenly, she started to run away as fast as she can.

She knew what was going to happen. She watched enough horror movies to tell so. She knew that that boy is no ordinary human being and probably a serial killer or something. That pale skin, red eyes, long hair, suspicious amount of money he has, his attitude, and him letting her follow were nowhere near normal. Everything about that boy just stank!

"Screw it! I have a wonderful husband, a great career, and a bright future ahead of me. I can't risk all of them just because I'm cursed with the damn sentiment known as curiosity!" She thought while running towards her car with utmost speed.

When she finally reached her car, she quickly started it and drove away to her house.

"Goodness gracious, I'm still alive, am I not?" she muttered to herself when she arrived at her home, safe and sound. Her husband welcomed her.

"Darling, what happened? You're late."

She was out of breath. Without saying anything, she hugged him and said:

"Tom, never let my curiosity make me do stupid things okay?"

Tom wasn't sure what was going on but he hugged her back anyway.

"Y-yeah, sure..."

...

Eivind ascended the stairs of his house and went to the bathroom to take a bath and wash his hair. It was so hard to maintain long hair but he quite liked them. He looked as if he was a ghost, that was so cool for him.

It was a shame that that woman didn't want to come over to his house though. He had no friends or acquaintances in the US and he wanted to make some. He hadn't realized that not speaking much English would raise this much of a difficulty when he came here from Norway. Also, he was a timid guy too.

Maybe it was because he was albino. That is really not a common thing for people to see every day. Also, he couldn't go outside much during the daytime because of his sensitive skin. Maybe she was afraid because she saw him like that during nighttime? Nah, she couldn't have been. He even gave her a lot of money that he got from his rich businessman father back in Norway. He was really sure that she would come over to visit his house. Maybe she wasn't so curious about meeting with other people? Yeah, that was the only reasonable answer. Dang, he really wanted to play some mobile phone games with her. Oh well, he probably should have returned back outside to walk in the rain.

He adored rain.