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You
depart from the candlelit living room stuffed with floral print furniture. The
vanilla aroma from the candles clings behind you as you step into the west
leading hallway. Yellow light illuminates your way as you travel down the hall.
The portraits of recent ancestors crowd the twin vertical surface. Their bodies
are blurry and shot in black and white.
The ghostly figures model so that their eyes track the person haunting
the ancestor hall. Red oak floorboards will cry in protest when a heavy foot
lands atop them. You've long since learned to glide across the red oak. Now you
only cause a whimper to rise from the floor. The colorless eyes track you while
the floorboard whines. A scream from red oak comes from behind.
Your whole body halts, and you
hesitantly turn your head to peer behind you. Who it is, you can not tell. You
know they weren't there before. Then the shadow person shambles towards you as
candlelight illuminates their movements. You don't even shout and turn back
around to run across red oak wood. Red screams lift from below as you try to
escape. Chaotic shrieks stalk you as the stranger chases from behind. Your ears
fill with the rapid red beat of your heart. Your humid ear fills with your
huffing breath. Beneath you, your feet tangle. You're slamming into the floor.
The wails from behind warn you of the approaching stalker. You scramble to
stand again and take off. As hot red panic overtakes you, you duck behind
towering black shadows.
Petrified, you shallowly breathe.
The long black shadows conceal you from sight. Your anxiety climbs as you hear
the wails announcing your stalker near. You fear to breathe and sweat stings
your eyes. You can't see the stalker pass you by due to the density of the
shadow. An icy tickle runs up your back from the glass window. You force
yourself not to shiver as too heavy a movement will telegraph where you are.
You bite the inside of your lip to focus on the pain instead of your fear.
Counting down inside your head 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, you can now calm
down. Your lip no longer hurts as you exhale. You realize that you're behind
the heavy burgundy curtains in the west hallway. Not hearing any new movement,
you remove yourself from behind the curtains. You creep across the floor to
avoid alerting your stalker.
Lifting your heels from the red oak
floor so as not to make the floor scream in protest. You somehow managed to
draw attention to yourself. Then your right knee gives out, causing your heel
to slam down. A red scream peels from the floor. You feel eyes scratch over
your skin. Your stalker heard your misstep and now is coming for you. You can't
even think as you run off once more. An agonizing scream chases you down the west
hallway. You continue this fright of
narrow escape for the rest of your life.
