Autumn has arrived but the humidity of summer does not want to let go... now and then the wet warmth reappears... sometimes lingering for a day or two.
If she looks out the bedroom window late in the evening... there is nothing to see but the street lights... and the peculiar haze that surrounds each one in the damp night air.
Yet, she knows that it is there... just a couple hundred feet away... partly obscured by a wall of mist... too dense for human eyes to penetrate.
And partly by the overgrown trees... that have thrived in the neglected garden... grown strong and sturdy... with thick gnarled branches that have twisted in through the broken windows...
But, if she looks out on a night when the moon is bright... she sees a mansion... dark, mysterious... forgotten by time... and it haunts her every time she sees it.
Often she wonders who lived there... and imagines a home once filled with love, laughter, and happy voices... perhaps even children.
She has tried to tell herself that it is just an old, broken-down building... but that doesn't really work anymore.
It permeates her thoughts... shapes her daydreams and fantasies... and feels as if it has taken up residence in her very soul.
Many nights it invades her dreams... and she awakens in a cold sweat... heart pounding as if it was trying to escape her body.
Strangely, these nightmares seem to happen more frequently as time passes.
Recently, it has become increasingly hard to fall asleep... so she sits in the old wooden rocker... nodding off until her head falls forward... and she wakes with a start... chilled to the bone.
So she allows herself to sleep only after the sun has risen... and she can see all that occupies the space around her.
The familiarity of decades-old furniture has become strangely soothing.
She has walked past it several times... at high noon, when the sky is clear... and the sun is bright.
Just in the course of exploring her new neighbourhood... not to mention her insatiable curiosity.
The entire place... or what can be seen of it through the trees... looks bleak and desolate... as if it was ravaged by fire many years ago.
Some of the tree limbs appear to have pushed up through cracks in the foundation... exiting through the remains of the roof.
They have branched out in all directions... until the house has assumed a grotesque, other-worldly appearance.
It looks like something out of a tortured soul's worst nightmare.
Looking at it gives her an eerie feeling... an uncomfortable feeling that sends cold shivers up her spine.
She does not like to look at it and she thinks that... maybe... she is too close to it for comfort.
She cannot explain it, but... sometimes she is shaken by a strong feeling that the house is aware of her... and is watching her.
Perhaps it is time to move... to find a place that looks - and feels - a little more friendly... maybe somewhere in the city... but cities make her feel claustrophobic.
Maybe she could cover the windows on this side of her little house... but, that might make her feel like a prisoner in her own home.
She doesn't know if ghosts - or spirits - inhabit the house... she has not felt the presence of any... but then... she has never gone close to it... though she has often seen ghostly shadows around the place.
Perhaps whatever is there is confined within the boundaries of the house... or maybe the property.
Maybe it is simply waiting for her to venture closer... within reach of whatever lurks inside... a single entity - or more.
Many times she has wondered what would happen if she went near the old dark mansion.
Would it ignore her? Or would it reach out and pull her into its own world... into a place of eternal darkness from which there is no escape?
Would it be safe to venture inside... or would one simply fall through the decaying foundation... never to be seen again?
In bare feet, she opens the front door, walks out to the centre of the road... and stands there... silent and still.
She imagines cold, insubstantial hands reaching out, beckoning... malevolent minds touching hers... gently at first... growing stronger... enticing... inviting her in.
She looks both ways... the open road promises escape... while the mansion offers uncertainty... perhaps excitement... and possibly danger.
She inhales deeply... filling her lungs with the cold, moist, night air... and then she runs...
