Chapter 6
The journey to Alberton felt strangely normal, and that's what made me wonder. Dave hummed to the radio, sometimes looking back at Avina who was sleeping in the seat next to him. He seemed almost... happy to be leaving. This sudden trip to his parents' house felt too easy, too planned. He had practically rushed me into the car this morning, talking about family and fresh air. But his eyes still looked tired, just like yesterday.
I looked out the window, watching the land go by. The normal view did not stop the bad feeling growing inside me. My thoughts kept going back to Avina's pale face, and her small memory of a "bad dream." If she couldn't remember what happened, how could she keep herself safe? And how could I protect her if I didn't know what was going on? My gut feeling, which was usually just a small push, was now a strong throbbing under my skin.
As we got closer to Alberton, the houses got bigger, sitting behind tall walls and neat gardens. Then we drove up to Dave's parents' house.
I took a sharp breath.
It wasn't exactly like Avina's house in Kempton Park, but it felt so similar. The same big stone front, the same wide, dark wooden front door, the same very neat but somehow empty garden. It didn't feel warm or welcoming. It looked grand and important, but it gave off the same strange, heavy quiet I'd felt at Avina's place. A cold feeling, not from the air, went through the car. This was not a normal family home. This felt like another strong, cold place, made for the same purpose.
"Here we are!" Dave said, almost too loudly, as he drove into the long driveway. "Mom and Dad will be so happy to see us."
My eyes looked at the house as we got out of the car. There was one part, maybe a side wing, that felt heavier, darker. I felt it, a faint sign of that cold, metal feeling from my dream. It was like the house itself was breathing, but a very slow, very cold breath.
Dave's mother, a tall woman with very neat silver hair and eyes that seemed to see everything, met us at the door. She gave a tight smile that didn't really reach her eyes. His father, a big man with a loud laugh that sounded fake, was right behind her. They greeted Avina very warmly, holding her hands, asking about her new home. Avina, still looking tired but trying to seem fine, greeted them back.
Then they looked at me.
"Ava," Dave's mother said, her voice smooth but cold. "What a surprise. David didn't say you were coming."
"Oh, it was a sudden decision," I said, trying to stay calm like her. I could feel their eyes looking at me, judging me. It was the same way they always looked at me, like I was something strange they didn't understand.
"No, no, darling," Dave's father said loudly, stepping forward to pat my shoulder, a little too hard. "Always room for family! Come in, come in."
As we walked into the big entrance room, the air inside was thick and still, even though the house was large and well-kept. It smelled a little of old wood and something else, something metal and sharp, like the smell from my dream. My senses were screaming. This place felt like a continuation of the wrongness at Avina's house."What's going on in these 2two houses?" I asked myself.
Dave quickly pulled his father away, saying they needed to talk about "work." But I noticed their voices got very quiet when they were out of earshot, and they kept looking back at me. I couldn't hear what they said, but the tight way Dave held his shoulders, and the sudden stiff way his father stood, told me everything. Dave was definitely telling him about me. And whatever his father said back, it was not good.
Avina, meanwhile, seemed to relax a little with her in-laws' attention. She was busy answering their questions about furniture and fixing up the house, pulling out her phone to show them pictures of the new mansion. As she swiped through, she stopped on one picture for a moment, her forehead creasing slightly, before she quickly swiped to the next. I didn't get a good look, but for a second, a dark, heavy door, like the one at their house, flashed on the screen. Or was I just imagining it?
The day felt very long. Their house was perfectly clean, almost like a museum. No cozy places, no messy things that show people live there. Every room looked perfect, like a picture, and it made me feel very uneasy. I found myself pulled towards a long, dark hallway that seemed to go into an older part of the house. I couldn't see the end of it, but a deep cold feeling came from it, making the small hairs on my arms stand up. It felt familiar, like a place I had already seen in a bad dream. The air was heavy there, with a faint buzzing sound, and a far-off, tiny thumping seemed to shake the floor. My eyes kept looking at what seemed like a heavy, dark wooden door at the very end of that hallway – a door that looked exactly like the one Avina had talked about, the one that was always locked in her new house. My skin felt like it was crawling. My dream was not just a dream. This was not just happening by chance.
Later that evening, after a dinner where everyone's talk felt forced, and Dave's parents asked too many questions about my life and very few about Avina, Avina and I were shown to our own guest rooms. My room felt fine, but the quiet outside the door was huge and heavy. I lay awake for a long time, listening, my senses trying to pick up something.
Then, in the middle of the night, I heard it. A soft, quiet cry. A baby's cry. It was faint, far away, but it was exactly the same sound from my dream. It seemed to come from somewhere deep inside the house, maybe from that long, dark hallway. My blood turned to ice.
Moments later, from Avina's room next door, I heard a sharp gasp, then a quiet sob. A soft thump, like something falling from a bed. My heart jumped. She was having it too. The same dream, the same horror, but this time, it was here, in this house. The 'duplicate lies' were not just about their new home, but about this family, about this chilling copy of terror. I knew then that we were in much greater danger than I could have ever thought.
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End of chapter