This day had started great, took a weird turn, and was about to end terribly. For some reason, I didn't try to call my mother again. Mainly because she didn't try to call me back. Or maybe she did and couldn't get through. In that case, I wouldn't have much more luck.
But also… I didn't feel any urgency to call her back. I should have, especially after her warning, but I felt eerily calm about it all. Like… Like something inside of me knew. Like something told me not to worry. Which should have given me even more reason to worry.
But instead, I tried to shake it off. I ate, and after that I went back into the workshop, pulling the doors back open. With one eye always on the lookout, I managed to get the wiring of the lamp fixed, just to then realize that the bulb was so old that it was barely able to light the room. Luckily, I had ordered bulbs en mass. And even if I hadn't, I was sure my grandparents' bunker had more than enough in stock.
Though, I doubted they were still usable. Who knew how long they had been lying around there? They would probably last for a day, maybe two, before blowing anyway. So I didn't even bother trying. That's why I had a whole box full of new bulbs, in all different sizes even.
Once the bulb was replaced, I installed two of these yellow construction light tripods. I have no idea how they are called, but it didn't really matter. With this, the whole workshop was lit perfectly and finally ready to be used.
Well, almost. I still had to get rid of all the old stuff I didn't even see hiding in the dark corners. So that's what I spent the rest of the day doing. I collected it all and piled it up outside. At some point, I called a dumpster rental company and made an appointment for tomorrow to drop off a roll-off dumpster. With all the stuff I was sorting out, I feared I'd need it. Especially once I started to move out of the workshop and started to work on the house in general.
And since I didn't have a car, the driveway was free anyway. No one could complain. Well, okay, maybe someone could and would because it was a sore sight. But I didn't really care. For today, however, I had to make due with some ugly piles in front of my house.
Once the sun set, I moved one of the floodlights outside to work for another couple of hours. I liked this time of the year. The sun went down early, and rose late. I loved night, I loved the dark, I was most active during that time. Though, the past few days had fucked up my sleep schedule even more. And I feared it would get even worse.
It was around 11 p.m. when I finally decided to call it a day and wrapped up. I didn't even eat, I just got myself a cup of tea and headed to the guest room. It felt weird to sleep anywhere else, especially in my grandparents' room. While my mom was here, she had spent almost an hour in their room. She had locked the door and I could hear her move around, stripping the bed naked, collecting little knick-knacks she wanted to keep, and at some point, I even believed I heard her cry.
I wasn't sure, and I didn't ask. I just let her do whatever she needed to do, and when she came back out, she looked exhausted. But also weirdly at peace. Since then, I hadn't gotten close to their room. She had left the door open and I could look inside every time I passed through the hallway. It felt like a sanctuary I was not ready yet to enter.
I sighed at the sight, and moved on to my temporary bedroom. It would take time to get used to this place, to make it feel like my home, and not something where the ghosts of my grandparents kept living their daily life.
It would take time to say goodbye to the old sofa with the ugly flower print and to declutter the kitchen. It would take time to rearrange the furniture, to change the curtains, to throw out the old pictures that meant nothing to me. I would keep their photos of course, as well as anything that included me. But there were tons of pictures of random people I didn't know. Late pets I had no relationship with. Paintings of different places and sceneries.
Not because it was a lot. Well it was, but that's not what made it difficult. No. The difficulty was stripping their personality away from this place to give it a new one.
Just when I was about to open the door to my room, I froze. I felt… weirdly cold. And before I could pinpoint it down, I felt a shiver run down my spine. A draft, maybe? No… No. This was the cold of the darkness that was sitting at the end of the corridor.
I looked around, and every corner felt dangerous all of a sudden. Each and every inch the light couldn't reach felt like it was breathing, beating, moving. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Were the days of peace over? Did that feeling of a new beginning finally fade to make space for the old dread?
I just hoped that the bulb in my room was reliable and wouldn't blow while I was inside. That shock would probably make me run for my life. I opened the door just a little gap and light flooded out of the room, just enough to put me at ease at least a little bit.
But the moment I opened the door, I screamed. There, on my bed, was sitting a stranger. Someone I had never seen before. The shock of seeing a random man sitting on my bed just… Well, it short-circuited me. The thing that made me shut up, however, was the fact that he screamed right back. It sounded like he was expecting me just as little as I expected him.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" he yelled, jumping from the bed.
"The fuck are you doing in my house?!" I freaked out.
"Calm down!"
"I am calm!"
"You're screaming!"
"So are you!"
And then, we both fell silent. And the silence stretched between us. It was a wonder I hadn't thrown my cup at him.
Now, with the silence filling my mind, I was able to process the situation. There was a stranger in my room. Okay, yes. But he was just as handsome as the two visitors I had. At this point, I was wondering if some kind of model agency had decided to claim my house for their new playground.
"You can see me?" he finally broke the silence.
"Duh? Why shouldn't I? You're sitting in my room. On my bed. In my house."
"Well, technically, that's not your room. It's a guest room. So…"
"Are you shitting me? Why are you in my home?!" I needed answers. The smart move would have been to call the police, but something was so extremely off about this whole situation that it completely slipped my mind. Maybe because he knew this was a guest room. Why should he know that?
"Okay, breathe. This is not how I had imagined it." He sighed deeply and ran his fingers through his black, thick, hair. Shit, he was… something to look at. I should have been a lot more alarmed and angry, but I couldn't help but feel calmed in his presence.
"How exactly did you imagine your break and entry to turn out?"
"Technically, I didn't break and enter. I just followed you."
"That makes it worse!"
"Not like that! Holy hell, why are you always like this?"
"What do you mean, ALWAYS?" Why did he talk like he knew me? Was I losing my shit? Did I hit the breaking point? Was I dealing with a mental breakdown? Hopefully not. I would hate to be yelling at an empty room.
"This is going to be exhausting," he mumbled and pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbing it slightly before he sat back down on the edge of my bed. "This is going to be a weird talk, but since you can see me, we better get it over with."
"I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about, but at this point, I take any explanation that excludes a psychosis."
"I figured," he chuckled, and somehow, it felt… human. Even if everything else about him didn't feel right. "Wanna sit?" he asked.
"I'm fine, thank you," I replied, hands clutching around my cup.
"I've always been around you, it's just the first time you actively notice me," he said, and I regretted my choice to hear him out.
"You better explain this well enough to not make it sound that creepy or I will call the police."
"I doubt they could do anything about me, but I get your point. But I fear I'll need to start at the very beginning."
"Well, I have time."
"Right, not like you ever sleep anyway." He sighed dramatically before he shook his head, almost amused.
"How do you–"
"As I said, I need to start at the very beginning. So, get yourself comfy, it's going to be a long story."
And… well… what should I say? That's exactly what I did.