It was after he had finished the flooring when the dreams started again. Only these were different. While the first one had been confusing it also had a calm feeling once he had found the girl in blue. Unlike the first one they were not shrouded in a fog but everything had a grainy and rough feeling to it. These new ones left a bad taste in his mouth so to say when he would awake from them. Though where he would wake up was not in his bed but other various rooms of the house.
After a long day of restoration consisting of stripping the walls of their previous wallpaper and applying a new one, Connor fell into bed exhausted. Closing his eyes the moment his head touched the soft pillow he felt himself peacefully drift off into sleep.
“I don’t know what I am going to do if she dies.” A man muttered to himself as a poured himself a drink from the decanter. Downing the entire contents of the glass he poured himself another before walking over to the green velvet love seat and taking a seat. An hour earlier the doctor had arrived to examine his wife, after he had finished he suggested to him that he would need to get his wife’s affairs in order. The door of his study opened and his maid began to walk in before she saw him there sitting dejectedly.
It hurt her to see him this way. From the moment she was in his service she had fallen at the site of his clover green eyes, though he had never known. “Master Warren is there anything I can do for you?” She asked concernedly as she crossed the floor boards of his office. Knocking back the rest of what the glass contained, he then said quietly “There is nothing anyone can do.” Getting up to pour himself another he walked clumsily back over to the decanter, the effects of the liquid contents were distressingly obvious to the maid. “Master Warren perhaps I shall get Kenneth to help you to bed if you wish.” She said putting her hand upon his slumped shoulder.
Feeling her touch he turned around to look at her, squinting at her with his glazed over eyes as if he didn’t recognize the maid that was in his service for over 5 years. He couldn’t even form her name in his head as he looked at her. She saw him looking at her confused and a little unkempt, his thick brown hair falling around his face. With out thinking she reached out and brushed a lock of hair out of his face, tucking it behind his ear. When he didn’t push her away she boldly took her chances, knowing it was wrong what she was about to do and that she should care that Master Warren’s wife was slowly dying in one of the rooms above. But she didn’t, in fact she didn’t care much at all of anyone else’s feelings. The feeling of her lips upon his justified her actions. Though at first he responded sluggishly but it wasn’t too long until he responded with vigor.
Suddenly awakened from his dream was the sound of a crash from another room, Connor realized that he was standing in where the office of the house was. Looking around the room in his mind’s eye he could still see the remnants of his dream. Trying to shake off the dream he shook his head as he went to find the source of what had awakened him. It didn’t take long for him to find what had made the noise. On the floor of the kitchen he found broken green glass and a label, the remnants of a beer bottle. I must have not put it on the counter all the way. Connor thought to himself as he went to retrieve a dust pan and brush from under the sink, the dream already forgotten.
The following day he struggled to pull himself out of bed. The warm cotton sheets were all to inviting, it was hard not to resist wrapping them back around himself and drifting off. But he had things to do and he was already falling behind in his renovation schedule. Swinging his legs off of his bed he heard someone knocking on the door. Softly cursing to himself he made his way downstairs, quickly rubbing his eyes and smoothing back his hair that had come loose. Pulling open the door he saw that it was Jade.
“Hey did I wake you?” She asked surprised her necklace catching the light of a high afternoon sun sparkling in . “Yea, I haven’t been sleeping well. What time is it?” He asked yawning as he scratched the stubble on his face; he could feel the heat emanating from the floorboards of his front porch as the sun was high and bright in the sky. “It’s after 1 in the afternoon. I wish I could be just waking up right now.” She said wistfully. “Anyway I stopped by to let you know I’ll be having a small get together at my house next week if you would like to meet some people from this area.” She said trailing off noticing Connor picking at the weathered wood on the door.
“Yea, I’ll try to be there.” He said distantly his mind on waking up in that room as he began to shut the door. “Umm ok bye!” Jade said uncertainly before the door clicked shut. Walking through his house the floor boards creaked, yet another thing that needed to be fixed. The door to the room was slightly adjourned; sun was shining through the window creating a streak of light on the floor. Before opened the door fully Connor hesitated, his hand barely millimeters from the metal handle.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling he opened the door. From where he stood outside of the door way he knew something was off. His eyes roomed the room starting at the faded and striped walls that had seen better days quite some time ago. From there the kept going past the dusty baseboard to the floorboards following the cracks in the boards they all lead to the center of the room. In a crumbled heap lying on the floor was the marionette he found in the basement.
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