Haunted House Part 1

"Why, Sean?" I asked after standing right beside him. "There's no one inside. I think the door opened by itself." I widened my eyes; how could something like this happen? I looked inside the house, and indeed, there was no one inside. So, who opened the door just now? "Let's just go inside. What do you think?" Sean asked, seeking my opinion. "But there's no one inside, we shouldn't enter without permission." "I know we shouldn't enter someone else's house without the owner's permission, but what can we do? It's already night, and we need rest. Let's just ask for permission to stay in this house tonight. Besides, maybe the occupants of this house are inside. Come on, let's go in." Sean entered without waiting for my answer, and I had no choice but to follow him. As soon as we entered the house, a cold breeze hit my body. I began to shiver from the cold, my hair stood on end, and I felt dizzy. Usually, this was a sign that a ghost was nearby. I instinctively scanned the surroundings to find the presence of the ghost. "Why, Leslie?" Sean asked, seeming to realize that I was looking for something. "I feel the presence of a ghost, but I don't see its figure." "Maybe it's just your imagination." I shook my head because I was very sure that what I felt was real, not just imagination. "I've felt things like this many times; it's definitely a sign that there's a ghost nearby." "If that's the case, where is the ghost? You yourself said you didn't see it." "I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure there's a ghost in this house." Sean sighed softly. "Never mind, don't think too much about it. How about we go around the house to find the owner? Maybe they're in a room." I nodded in agreement, and again, I followed Sean, who walked ahead of me. We checked each room in the house one by one. The first room we visited was the living room. It looked tidy, not too dirty, so I thought if the owners were away, they hadn't been gone for long. The next room we checked was the kitchen. This room was also tidy and not too dirty, although I could smell the scent of dust that hadn't been cleaned for quite some time. "Leslie, we're lucky. There's a lot of instant food here." I followed Sean's gaze; indeed, there were many instant foods in the refrigerator. "Are you planning to eat them?" "Aren't you hungry?" "But this food belongs to someone else; if we don't ask for permission first, it's like we're stealing." Sean sighed, perhaps annoyed because I had been contradicting him since earlier. "I've already said we're in a tight spot. Let's just leave money; consider it buying these foods." "Fine, whatever you say," I replied, not wanting to prolong the debate. "Okay, let's continue searching in other rooms." I nodded in agreement. We resumed our journey. The next room we checked turned out to be a bedroom, judging by the items inside. The room looked neat and spacious, and when I looked out through the window, I realized that the room faced the pine forest. "Leslie, let's check the other rooms." My daydream was shattered when Sean said that. I followed him again to check another room. Now we were heading to the second floor, which seemed to be the family room as there was a large television placed there. Similar to the other rooms, it looked neat, with no signs of anything bad ever happening. Then our steps continued towards another room. "It looks like a child's room." I agreed with Sean. Judging by the size of the bed and the cartoon-themed bedsheet, it was clearly a child's room. Many toys were placed here. Unconsciously, I approached a shelf full of toy cars and robots; it seemed like the owner of this room was a boy. As I focused on the neatly arranged toys on the shelf, I was shocked when something hit my foot. It turned out to be a large toy car that children could ride. "Sean, did you deliberately hit me with this car?" I squinted my eyes as I asked Sean. He was mischievous, surprising me in such a way. One of Sean's eyebrows raised. "What do you mean?" "Don't pretend not to know. You just hit me with these toy cars, didn't you?" My index finger pointed to the toy car right in front of me. "I didn't do that." "Lie. How could this car move on its own and hit my foot?" "How should I know? It definitely wasn't me." "Then who drove the car if not you? There's only you and me here." "Maybe a ghost. Haven't you forgotten that the door opened by itself earlier? You yourself said you could feel the presence of ghosts in this house." I instantly fell silent, Sean's words were true. If it wasn't him, could it really be a ghost? I scanned the room, but once again, I saw no ghostly apparitions. "Leslie, I'm really hungry. Let's go to the kitchen and eat." Even though I was still curious about the ghost that had just pranked me, I couldn't deny that I was also getting hungry. "Alright, let's go to the kitchen." So, I chose to follow Sean's invitation. Upon reaching the kitchen, we cooked instant noodles. It was quick to make, and now two servings of spicy noodles were in front of us. Sean eagerly devoured the noodles, unlike me, who ate slowly because my mind was still disturbed by all the strangeness I found in this house. "Why are you daydreaming?" I blinked, caught once again by Sean while daydreaming. "No. I'm not daydreaming." "Huh, it's clear that you're daydreaming. Are you still thinking about the ghosts in this house?" Sean really understood me; it seemed I could never hide anything from him. "Yes, that's how it is. I can feel their presence clearly, but I don't see any apparitions." "Come on, let it go." "You're always so relaxed, even though maybe the ghost has something to tell me." Instead of responding seriously to my words, Sean was laughing. I squinted my eyes, displeased because he was laughing at me when I felt there was nothing funny about what I said earlier. "Don't laugh. I'm not joking." "I'm amazed at you, Leslie. Every time you sense the presence of ghosts, you always think they want to convey something to you." "Because it's usually like that. Even the ghost of the grandmother who visited us in the hotel was like that, she came to me because she wanted to convey something." "Huh, don't remind me of that grandmother ghost. I'm annoyed when I remember she disturbed our first night." This time, I laughed; it turned out Sean was still upset about last night's incident. "I'm seriously upset with that grandmother ghost." "She apologized. Come on, forget about it." "You're the one who brought it up again, so I remembered the annoying incident from last night." I continued to laugh, Sean's irritated expression looked funny to me. "Don't think about ghosts anymore. Remember, we're on our honeymoon." "More like we're stuck in this strange place. It seems like a remote area with few inhabitants because I don't see any other houses except this one." Sean cleared his throat, perhaps feeling offended by my words because he was the one who caused us to be stranded here. If only he hadn't invited me to sail the sea with a speedboat, such an incident wouldn't have happened to us. "Yes, yes, once again, I apologize for my carelessness that led us to be stuck here. After we finish eating, let's go straight to sleep. Tomorrow morning, we'll leave this house. We'll ask for help from the people in this area; I'm sure there are other houses besides this one, we just have to find them." "I hope we don't have to walk far tomorrow." Sean grinned broadly. "If you're tired, I'll look for it myself." "And I'm alone in this house? No, that's absurd. I'll go wherever you go." "I'm just kidding, Leslie. How could I leave you alone in this house? I promised not to leave you again. I can't break my promise." I just nodded, not commenting further and chose to finish my meal quickly. "Don't forget to pay for this pasta we're eating, Sean," I said, trying to remind him because I still felt uncomfortable eating someone else's food without permission. "Yes, don't worry. I'll also pay the rent because we're staying here tonight without permission." Sean resumed devouring his food eagerly, so it didn't take long for his plate to be empty. "You have to wash your dishes, Sean," I reminded him because he didn't seem inclined to put his dirty plate in the sink. "There's no soap for washing dishes." "Try to find it. Maybe it's in that top drawer," I said, pointing to the drawer I meant. "Ck, never mind. Let's wash the dirty dishes tomorrow. Now quickly finish your meal. I'm very tired and want to rest as soon as possible." Our conversation ended there. After finishing dinner, we went to one of the rooms. The room on the first floor, with its window facing the pine forest, was the one we chose to sleep in. I was lying down, but for some reason, my eyes couldn't close. My heart felt uneasy; I hoped this wasn't a bad omen. "Why aren't you asleep yet?" Sean asked. I thought he had been sleeping since his eyes were closed, but I was wrong because he was still awake. "Why are you still up yourself?" "Because I heard you sighing several times. What's wrong, Leslie? Can't sleep because we're staying in this house without permission?" I snorted; perhaps that was one of the reasons I felt uncomfortable and restless like this. "I already said I would pay the rent. I'll leave the money in this room before we leave. Come on, don't think about it anymore." "It's not just that issue that's keeping me from sleeping." "Then what's the problem?" Sean asked, looking curious. "Don't tell me you're still thinking about ghosts." Sean's guess was spot on; indeed, that was another reason I couldn't sleep. "I'm very sure I sense the presence of ghosts in this house. Moreover, the door opening by itself and the toy cars moving on their own and hitting my foot are undeniable proof that there's a ghost." "The ghost doesn't show itself in front of you, right?" I nodded because until this moment, I hadn't seen a single ghost appear in front of me. "In that case, just ignore it. If the ghost wants your help, as usual, they will appear and show you their world of memories before they died." I was stunned; what Sean said was true, but there was still something bothering my heart and mind. I jerked when Sean suddenly pulled my hand, bringing our bodies close together, with no gap separating us. "Enough, don't think about anything. Rest now. Close your eyes and sleep," Sean said while one of his hands embraced me tightly, and his other hand gently stroked the top of my head. Getting such sweet treatment from Sean, of course, made me feel comfortable. All the anxiety I had been feeling since entering this house suddenly disappeared. I followed Sean's words, trying to close my eyes. Indeed, I had to sleep and rest because who knew what else would happen to me and Sean tomorrow. But my only hope was that tonight, Sean and I could sleep soundly. No disturbances from any figures that I believed inhabited this house.