Beyond What We Can See

[robotzik_girl]

Dreamcatcher

"I just wish the rain would stop!" I complained to myself, while opening the front door to my house. The light were out so my sister must have been stuck in traffic or something. While I put the grocery bag on the kitchen table, a small white sheet of paper fell on the floor. I picked it up, with the intention to throw it away but something caught my attention. There was writing on it.

"Off to party w Mike. Be home l8ter. Luv ya, Lise. XOXO"

Of course. It was SOO like my sister to be off at a party every night I was surprised that she was ever awake enough to go to work. With a sigh, i tore the paper and threw it in the bin. That was about when i realized I had the night all for myself, and the thought made me smile. I hadn't had a night alone in so long-even with Lise going to parties and all that. I forgot about the groceries in a fraction of a second, as I darted up the stairs and prepared myself for a nice hot LONG bath.

About 20 minutes later I was relaxing in the hot water, letting my thoughts randomly come and go through my head. My eyelids became heavier and heavier until i couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I think I dozed off. I could see my house-our house-, so different from all the others in the neighborhood, with a big iron gate and oval windows. I could make out each and every room through the darkness of the night, but there were no lights on..except for...but it was impossible, no one had been in the study for years..not since...but it couldn't have been! All of a sudden, some weird force drew me closer towards the house, and so fast that i opened my mouth and gasped in horror, afraid i was going to hit the wall. But I went straight through it and right into the old office. Everything about that room creeped me out. The big mahogany desk and the chair, and the fireplace and...well, everything. It used to be my fathers room and we were never allowed inside. I'd only snuck in once and my father caught me. I'd been grounded for a month for that and ever since then my sister and I stayed away from there. Even after my father died I still avoided the room. And now here I was, standing right in the middle of it. But then my thought were interrupted by a sudden movement and I jumped up in fear. And there really was a reason for me to be afraid, for before me stood a thing that made my hairs stand on their ends. It sort of resembled a...human being..only..it was kind of..well ghost-ish would be the right word for that. It was white and it floated a foot above the ground. I tried to speak but my throat made no sound and then, in less than a second, the thing went right through me and vanished and...I woke up screaming like mad.

"Holy Mother of God!" another person screamed downstairs. What was my sister doing home so soon? The next thing I knew she was knocking on the bathroom door, screaming at me:

"What are you DOING in there? You scared the life out of me!"
"I'm sorry I...I fell asleep!" i yelled back, shuddering at the reminder of my dream. "Won't happen again, I promise!"
"Dang right it won't!"
I paused a little before getting out of the bath tub and then I started getting dressed. In the meantime, my sister had calmed down and decided to make herself a little snack. I left my hair to dry on it's own and went down to the kitchen. My skin felt weird in the place where that thing went through me in the scary dream I'd had and I kept rubbing it.
I could hear my sister making a mess in the kitchen, and smiled at the familiar picture in my head. Just for a few seconds, as I went past the study door, flashes of the dream went through my head but i somehow managed to push them to the back of my mind. However, the uneasiness I felt still wouldn't go away.

[robotzik_girl]

Ok. Deep breath now. That's it..deep breath.

"Marissa,, we HAVE to hurry!" I heard my sister shout from downstairs.
"Yeah, Lise, I can't go."
"Whaaaat? Oh come OON!"

Oh dear God she's mad!

"I...I can't do this. It's not happening."

I heard the sound of footsteps getting closer and then a hard bang on the door, and then Lise came in:

"Marissa Howell you move your cute little behind downstairs and stop with the panic attacks! Ok. Look: James...he's..he's gone ok? HE dumped YOU remember? Ooh that smug little arrogant...But hey that's not the point.."

I wasn't listening to her anymore it was too much for me. I could feel another panic attack coming and I think so could Lisa, because she stopped abruptly.
--
Ok now background check: I was dating this extremely gorgeous guy-James. HE was my prince charming-or so i thought. He was smart, funny, stylish, everything I'd ever dreamed of. We'd been going out for over a year now and we wanted to get married-again, or so i thought-so he proposed one day. I remember thinking I then had everything I wanted. Until one night, when he came to my door, drunker than I'd ever seen him. He grabbed my hand, took the engagement ring right off it and then turned around. That was about the time I noticed there was someone else there with him: a tall, red-headed woman. She was..STUNNING. Even I had to admit it. And then he did something that never even crossed my mind. He sat on one knee and asked her to marry him. She looked at me, smiled, they kissed and left in a white shiny limo. That was...well, it WAS crushing
Meanwhile, back in real life..
--

"Lisa, look, i just can't go right now, ok? I know that it's a huge picnic and Emma'll never forgive me for not going, but under the circumstances do you think that she could look away for once? Because I do."

--
Background check no.2:
Emma is an old old old old old friend of ours and it so happens she also knows Horror-James as my sister calls him.
--

My sister sighed but then she gave up. I'm a stubborn person there's really no reason to argue something with me around.
"Pighead" she grumbled. "Fine...just..take care ok? And no more baths while I'm gone!!" Then she looked at her watched: "Oh shoot I have to go!!" she shouted and darted out the door. I heard the door slam and the car start and then it was all silent. It was nice being home alone again, but the memory of the ghost I'd seen made me shudder for a minute. I decided not to get undressed and, for some reason, I went downstairs and into the kitchen. I was planning on cooking something good, so that a part of me could say 'Hah! This is so much better than a silly picnic!'
As I was grabbing the ingredients for a nice tasty stake, I heard a shattering noise behind me and I jumped up startled.

"What the.." a glass had fallen on the floor and the cupboard door was wide open. A flow of panic went through me in seconds. The cupboard door couldn't have been open, i would've smacked my head right into it coming into the room! And then there was another noise. The kind of noise that made my blood stop in its tracks: a low ruffling noise and an even lower moan. And maybe it wasn't the noise, as much as its origin. I gulped and had the strangest feeling ever, like something was pulling me in a certain direction. Right away I knew where I was headed, just like the night from almost a week ago, so I ran to the office door and slammed it open. To my surprise, nothing was in it, so I turned on the lights and looked around, but nothing was out of place. So I just shrugged.

"That thing's getting to me I have to get it out of my head" I whispered to myself and then I heard the moan again. Only this time, when i turned around, the desk was shaking uncontrollably and I screamed at the top of my lungs. Or I wanted to, but no sound ever came out of my mouth as I opened it. And old looking book flew right at my head from one of the shelves and I ducked. the book hit the wall and died on the spot and the desk stopped shaking almost instantly. I was really creeped out but somehow curiosity was stronger than that and so I leaned and grabbed the book quickly. A small paper fell on the floor and I lifted it. It looked really, really old and there was some writing in it. It was so small that i had to grab one of the magnifying glasses on the desk to read it-when did my dad need a magnifying glass? But that was the least of my concerns so I tried to focus on the paper in my hands. Using the magnifying glass, I read out loud:

Through bonds of blood
And bonds of time,
Let what was theirs at last be mine.
The power of the ones before
Let it be part of my core.

I remember seeing a trace of something white with the corner of my eye and the paper magically catching on fire. I screamed as it burned my finger and then I let it drop on the ground. The next thing I remember, I was on a hospital bed...

[robotzik_girl]

I had to admit, I was concerned about my sister Marissa. She'd been acting the strangest way ever since that moment she had in the bathroom. I'd never seen her going crazy like this before. She was the one who was always serious and calm, and she would never stand up someone on their own birthday like this. Her sense of duty was outrageous if anyone asked me, but it was a part of her identity and had been ever since dad had died.
So, now, the fact that she wouldn't come to Emma's "little" party really worried me. I felt like James wasn't the real reason for this. But then, what was it?

By the time I'd arrived to the park, everyone was already there.

"Great, I'm late. Emma's gonna throw a fit!" I mumbled and headed towards a big round table in the middle of it all. 'My god, they're noisy! I'll never have kids.' I thought, as i passed a few boys and girls running around and screaming for no reason.

"Allissa!"
"Emma, darling! Sweetie, Marissa couldn't make it, she's terribly sorry about it..she.."
"Goodness, why?"

Ok. Think fast.

"She's..sick. She's really sick, she must've come down with the flu or something, she didn't want to get anyone else sick..." I trailed off with a reassuring smile. She seemed to have bought it.
"Flu? This time of the year?" Emma pointed out waving at the beautiful summer day.
Or..not.
"We don't know but if she doesn't get better I'm taking her to the doctor tomorrow" I said quickly praying to all the Gods she would get distracted by something.
There was a loud shattering noise and a bunch of screams. We both started and looked at each other.

"Oh, dear...what now?" Emma said in a desperate tone and walked away from me quickly. "Try and mingle, Allissa, I'll join you in a bit!" she yelled back and disappeared into the crowd.

I sighed and went to find a quiet place to think. This made me smile at myself a bit, considering how, usually, I would be the center of the party, rather than the one that needs peace.
The park was bigger than I remembered and possibly greener, I couldn't tell. I easily found the small waterfall that used to be my hideout as a kid. It was surrounded by trees and bushes and there were plenty of flowers, just as I remembered. There was a small wooden bench nearby and I sat down.

As I stood there asking answerless questions, I wrapped my hands around me. It was really cold for a hot summer day. The wind started to blow harder and I noticed, not without certain surprise, that I was shaking. There was a low ruffling noise behind me, like steps..only...different, in a way. I turned around and almost instantly someone--or someTHING covered my mouth. I froze on the spot. and then, I had a weird feeling. I wasn't talking, and the person holding me wasn't, either, but somehow, I could hear the words clearly in my mind:

"Your sister is in trouble. Go home and take care of your family.." the voice drifted off and I jumped up. I was on the ground. There was nobody there but me and reason told me it was a dream. But there was something the voice said, that made me fully stand up. I ran for the car.

[robotzik_girl]

..I was in a hospital bed. I couldn't move and my head felt kind of heavy. Other than that I didn't feel sick at all. I could hear the beeping of a monitor nearby but the noise was faint and kind of distant and so I focused on what I could hear that was closer. There was movement and I heard someone sighing, and the sound of a door opening, or closing, I couldn't tell exactly.

"Doctor!" I heard a familiar voice: my sister's.
"Miss Howell. Your sister has suffered a head trauma and she was deprived of oxigen for quite a while..."
"But then...she'll get better right?"
"Most likely yes." the doctor paused, and I could hear the hesitation in his voice when he started to speak again. "Miss..Howell..the police and the firefighters searched the area, they coudn't find a single logical explanation for this fire.."

At that point I managed to open my eyes just a little bit so I could see their faces. I did my best to stand still because I knew the moment I showed any signs of waking up the conversation would be over. I needed to hear.

"The whole room was on fire and in spite of that your sister is in perfectly good shape, except for her index fingertip, which is slightly burnt."
"Doctor, is there a point to this conversation or am I to stand here listening to you rambling while my sister is lying next to me?" Allissa's voice shot up an octave and her face looked angry. The doctor backed away. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to be disrespectful..."
He was interrupted mid-sentence by a man in a police uniform who came into the room. I didn't like the guy from the start. He was agitated, impatient, and there was something ferocious about him, but I couldn't say what. I opened my eyes fully, to distract everyone from what would've probably been an unpleasant conversation. They all looked at me and the doctor started checking my vitals.

"Welcome back, miss Howell." he said. "You seem fully recovered.."

"Miss Howell..." the guy in the uniform interrupted. Both me and my sister looked at him. He put his had on Allissa's arm. "A word?"
"Go.." I whispered and my sister left with the officer. Or whatever he was.

--
Later That Day
--

"We need to talk. Marissa what happened in there?"

Allissa had spent over an hour in an improvised interview room with 2 police uniforms who were apparently baffled by how I ended up in the hospital.

"Allie...what..what happened to me? I swear I don't remember anything I..."
"They said you fell and hit your head and passed out. They said the room was on fire. Listen, it's very important that you understand: dad's study was on fire, but the rest of the house was fine. And they said you should've been dead by the time they got there..Burnt alive. But you're fine! Rissa this isn't normal!"
"Are..are you saying that it was better if I burnt alive because then it would be normal?" I tried to scream, but the words came out more like a whisper.
"No! My God, no! I'm happy you're ok." Allissa sighed. "It feels horrible not knowing what to say to those guys..They keep asking me over and over: what do I know about what happened? Where was I? Where were you? Who was-"
"You're right. It wasn't normal." I said. it hurt to see my sister suffer like that. "That day, in the bathroom. I thought I'd had a dream, but...I saw..this thing..like a ghost. Don't make that face at me! I..started to float and somehow got into the study. And then I saw it and it went through me and I..woke up screaming."

I paused for a moment to look at my sister. Her face was white and she looked as if she were struggling to just hear everything I said. I waited until she regained her composure.

"Yesterday, I was in the kitchen after you left, I heard a noise in the study, went inside. The..um..I found this piece of paper with something on it, I read it and it caught fire, it burned my fingertips and I must've passed out, because I don't remember anything else."

There was a long pause after I finisihed. Alissa stood up and started pacing nervously through the room.