Notes

"Go." Gus gave me a light shove. " go inside."
I took a deep breath. Even after all these years, I still wasn't ready for what was about to happen next. It was hard trying to unlock the wild memories I had once pinned down and hidden away. I felt like I had beasts in my brain, beasts that would chase me down memory lane and envelope me in a past that I was escaping.
I looked upward at the house. Well, I wouldn't really call it a house. Most houses aren't five stories high with narrow staircases and cobwebbed windows. I would call it some sort of mansion- my mansion. The mansion I had left behind thirteen years ago.
Regaining some of my lost courage, I took one step on the scraggly lawn. Instantly, an image surfaced in my brain. A large woman with a rolling pin and a greasy apron screamed in my face,
" get off my lawn you little-"
I leaped backward, horrified. A small, strangled gasp escaped my mouth. But there really was no one there. It was just the beasts in my brain, forcing me to remember.
Gingerly walking on the browned grass, I made it to the front door. It was the same silver door I had walked out of thirteen years ago. Except the fancy glass was shattered and it's contents were at the dusty doorstep. I gave the door a tiny nudge, and it creaked open.
There was no light, so my eyes took a few minutes to adjust. The magnificent dining room now had a few broken wooden chairs in the centre, and a hook on the musty ceiling that once held a sparkling, lucid chandelier. But the room was just a huge, huge enough to swallow me up. Every step I took echoed throughout the mansion, up the stairs, inside of the blackened chimney.
This is a little too creepy, I thought.
Walking quickly past the dining room, I trekked upward on the stairs. A strange set of emotions boiled inside of me. The old days of dashing up these very stairs awakened within my heart. But the steps were weak and creaked every time I walked. I found my way to the ruins of the first floor. All the doors were shut and I didn't bother to open them. Instead, I just kept strolling down the hallway, hoping I wouldn't trip on something in the dim light. Then the very last door arrived. I knew this door very well. This one I pushed open.
It was an old bedroom. A tall closet took up an entire wall, but the doors refused to open. On the other side was a bed, with ancient furnishings that glowed eerily in the dark. Bravely, I slowLy reached out and touched the bedside.
" Grace! Grace!"
A little girl in a white frock was at the room's door. She had a sallow face edged with serious lines. And the eyes- they were an odd sort of silver. I think I knew her. But how did she know my name?
" I saw something in the attic, Grace!"
I noticed she had a tiny lamp her right hand. For a few minutes, the room basked in the white rays of light dancing around the walls. But she dropped the lamp and ran out of sight. The glass shattered in front of my eyes with a crash.
I screamed. For a few minutes, I simply shut my eyes and forced the beasts to turn back and walk away from me. Then there was nothing. Just me and a broken kerosene lamp.
That lamp was probably here for a long time, I thought. The rest was your imagination. There is no girl. It was just your imagination. Just the beasts, I convinced myself.
I picked up the kerosene pieces. At the bottom was a faint glow. At the bottom were embers- fresh embers.
Oh. My. God. I realised.
The lamp couldn't have been sitting here for years and years. I certainly hadn't picked it up. Someone dropped it recently. Someone must have dropped it just now.