Page 16 of Origins
Everything seemed normal, so why was—
Tap. Tap.
The noise echoed throughout the otherwise silent room. A slight tapping—the sound a knife would make when tapped against a glass. And while it wasn’t the most frightening thing that the residential ghost had subjected me to, there was most certainly an unsettling atmosphere in the room.
I could feel it, and something was different this time.
The small bedroom only consisted of a twin-sized bed. The head of said bed was under the solitary window, which was currently filled with the soft moonlight streaming through the glass. Some feet away from the foot of the bed stood an old vanity. It was low to the floor, and the most distinguishable characteristic was the large, oval mirror affixed to it.
Professor Hamway was a collector of various antiques—including small knick knacks. For display on the vanity, she had chosen tiny glass perfume bottles. She was also meticulously tidy, and the various sized bottles were organized on the top of two glass trays.
Other than these items, a houseplant, and a small bedside table, the room held nothing else. Nowhere for anything to hide. And—thanks to the moonlight—I could clearly see that I was alone.
Yet—something wasn’t right.
I had just pressed my back against the headboard, when the chill in the air increased. Again—the tapping echoed throughout the area. It was soft, but close. The sound definitely originated from this room.
I felt stupid for being afraid—I had decided earlier that I could handle this on my own. I wouldn’t be able to do anything acting like this. But I couldn’t stop from huddling into a ball and pulling the sheet more tightly around myself.
Tap.
This time, I was watching. So I didn’t miss the slight movement on the top of the vanity.
One of the bottles had been lifted slightly into the air before being placed into its previous position just as slowly. This time, without pause, another bottle lifted. Another tap.
My breath caught. I had no idea what to do.
What Iwantedto do was run away. It had been easy enough to pretend that things weren’t going on when I onlyfeltweird things—even falling sensations, or objects moving. But it was entirely different to actuallyhearthings, and not see the perpetrator.
This was a whole different, eerie level.
The scene repeated itself again—a larger bottle this time—when something else caught my attention. A shape, resembling the beginnings of a shadowed figure, began to appear in the reflection of the mirror.
It was barely there—a dark cloud at the bottommost corner of the mirror. In fact, it could have even been a trick of the light. But somehow, I knew better.
The bottles weren’t touched again. But as seconds passed, the shadowy figure began to grow in size and visibility. It continued to grow until, at one point, it was barely passable as the blurred reflection of a child.
Nope. I couldn’t deal with this on my own. It was definitely time to go! The last thing that I wanted to do was to draw attention to myself so I moved up in the bed slowly as I uncurled and touched my toes to the wood floor. My slippers were there at the bedside, so I pushed my feet into them and—just as silently—began to inch myself out of the bed.
Sleeping outside seemed like an excellent plan right now! I just needed to get there without being noticed.
Unfortunately, I only made it to the foot of the bed before a floorboard creaked beneath me—the sound echoing loudly throughout the room. The figure, which had been swaying slightly in front of the mirror, froze at the noise.
I couldn’t breathe from fear.
A long moment passed, and another. The air became tangible as the atmosphere shifted. It was as if—while I hadn’t been the focus of the ghost’s attention before—I certainly was now.
Everything inside of me wanted to run—to hide. Ignoring problems and pretending that nothing was wrong, for me, usually resulted in those issues going away. This was how I had survived so far.
It was why I had never given my abilities a chance. It was too dangerous.
But…hadn’t I decided earlier that I had to figure this out on my own? Nothing was going to change. I’d never learn anything if I kept going on with the status quo.
I had done many things outside of my comfort zone the last couple of days. Why not this? I can muster up the courage to confront this ghost-child directly!
Keeping that in mind, I forced my pounding heart to calm as I took a deep breath. My nerves steadied after a tense moment, and I straightened up from my hunched-over position.
“Hello,” I held out my hand in front of me in a placating manner as I faced the mirror. Trepidation and curiosity was thick in the air, but for now I wasn’t feeling anything hostile.
