The House
(A one scene story)

As she walked down the street of her old neighborhood, she remembered the awfulness that was left behind there. The neighbors that had lived there four decades earlier where not the nicest of souls. There were some good times had there, but most, were clouded with disillusioned memories she feared.  Though not for certain, she sloughed it off and continued onward down the street. When she arrived at her childhood home, it wasn't at all like she had remembered. New people changed many things only leaving a hind of her past to view.

The house had been the subject of her dreams in the last five years, and so she pondered; why? But did she REALLY need to ponder she pondered, because she already knew the reason for the dreams. It was due to the restlessness that was inside of her, or rather, the unsettled pain that had emoted from that house. As she walked around the outside of the property, she remembered the reason she was no longer allowed to stay there; there was a slight yearning to go inside, but she dared not because if she did, she knew the dreams would only worsen.

She approached what was once her bedroom window, peering in as much as she could. She could almost hear the echoing loneliness that was stored up in the wall of her room; her room where toys were always kept up on a shelf, a shelf that she could not reach. An empty room where only she could play, and friends were never, allowed or invited in. A room that had held all her secrets, and the secret fantasy life she was forced to invent, to ease the emptiness within. Haunting memories of fearful nights flooded her as if she was in that room again, in her bed, in the dark. Alone. Always, always, alone. Often her body would become paralyzed with fear of the dark, and what more that darkness would do to her. She KNEW what that darkness held. There was never anyone to comfort away her fear, and the darkness was eventually allowed to take over her mind, body and soul...