Crowns & Chaos

seventeen

Almost three weeks had passed since my first "date" with Peter. My parents had flown out to Wilton a few days after the date, so I'd been getting used to living on my own. 

I'd never lived fully alone before, having either been in residence or living with roommates. To be fair though, I wasn't completely alone. 

There was Ron, somehow ever present. I often wondered when and if the guy slept. He was there before I went to sleep and back before I woke up. There were the guys that did night patrol in their cars on the street and on the doorstep.

They changed almost daily, but I'd managed to figure out who most of them were.

 Alan was an older guy with a balding head who liked to play solitaire on his phone when he had a break. Eric was super chatty about Dungeons and Dragons, Paul had hair so blonde it was practically white, and Justin rarely spoke to me unless he absolutely had to. 

Christine was also a regular, the only girl I'd ever seen that was on my personnel. She was probably late forties, with a tattoo sleeve and a crazy mane of brown hair. She was nice, a calming presence among all the men. She often rode with Ron and I when I had to go somewhere, and was by far my favourite agent, second only to Ron, who was becoming like a fun uncle. 

You know, the fun uncle that carries a gun and scares away anyone that gets too close. 

I also had a cleaning lady named Allison that came every few days, usually while we were out. I had protested, but Theodore had thought it was unfit for a lady of my standing to clean my own house. Whatever. Allison was really nice, and she had three kids she was trying to feed, so I had gotten in the habit of hiding extra cash in her jacket and purse when I had the chance. I also made sure the cupboards were stocked with granola bars and things for her to take home. She didn't often accept the help directly, but I tried my best. 

Apart from that, and the occasional facetime call with Adriana when her classes were slow, my human contact was getting pretty limited. I saw Peter every few days as well, but that was mostly just appearances. 

I tried to get out of the house once a day, but I wasn't ever left unsupervised. People also had the habit of conglomerating around me when I went out, either asking me about Peter or my clothes or weird random things. I once had a lady ask the exact length of my eyelashes. I had to tell her that I unfortunately didn't know, before Ron whisked me away. 

It was a little lonely, but I didn't need to tell my parents that, even when that was all they asked about when we called. 

But honestly, being alone had its perks too. I could watch whatever I wanted and I knew I wasn't bothering anyone when I paced around at night or made snacks at three in the morning. I tried to convince myself that it really wasn't that different than what I was used to. 

There were only three things that I noticed were different about living alone. 

1) It got painfully quiet sometimes, so I usually had music playing or the TV on.

2) The pizza guy starts to recognize you after you order for the third time in one week. I assume the security team also probably wasn't what he was used to. 

3) The house was definitely haunted, despite how often I tried to convince myself it wasn't.

Yes, the house was haunted. I wasn't a particularly religious or spiritual person, but it becomes abundantly clear once you're supposed to be the only person in a house when something else is actively moving things. 

Not things in the bathroom that I would expect Allison to touch, or things that I could do and then forget about, like kitchen cupboards, but weird things.

 Like one morning I came downstairs to find every clock in the house stopped, even the grandfather one in the living room. Or when my bed was always made when I came home, even when I purposefully left it messy. I'd ruled out Allison, because she only came a few days a week, and Ron rarely came in the house. 

Classic ghost things too, like windows and doors opening and shutting, what sounded like someone playing the broken piano in the attic in the middle of the night, and lights turning on and off. 

I'd become pretty good at ignoring things. I wondered how on earth we'd never noticed the stuff happening when my parents were home, so either we were all really oblivious because we were so busy, or the ghosts were introverts and only came out when I was alone. 

Regardless, it wasn't a huge deal. They weren't doing too much damage, and I was still a little convinced that I was imagining the occurrences. That was, until a few nights into the third week since my parents had left. 

I woke up in a cold sweat, gasping. My eyes flew around the room blindly, landing on the digital clock that said 2 am. I could have sworn that there had been someone in here. It felt like someone had been blowing on my face and touching my hair. Heart racing, I reached over and tried to turn on the lamp beside my bed. My stomach sunk through the floor when I clicked the switch and nothing happened. I switched it on and off a few more times, just to be sure. 

I bit my lip, feeling like I was rooted to the bed. I was sent spiraling back to the days of my childhood, when I was scared and would go curl up in between my parents until the nightmares went away. 

But there was nobody to go to now. 

Fighting off waves of terror that were only emphasized by the darkness in the room, I sank back onto my pillows, closing my eyes and pulling the blanket up.

"You're a grown woman, Evie. There's no such thing as ghosts, and you're going to be fine." I told myself.

I settled back in, hoping desperately that sleep would find me and that this would all seem like a silly dream in the morning.