26 The Bauwen's House

At noon in Zuideinde, inside an old abandoned house, Graham Hymes was watching a blood-stained bed sheet that occasionally squirmed and twitched. Inside it was a ghastly apparition that he had trapped using his blood. The ghost was shrieking in pain from time to time, which stunned him each time it did so. Graham had tried to plug his ears with crumpled paper to reduce the effect to some extent, but it did not work. The shriek's damage was at a spiritual level.

He left the twitching bed sheet alone and went to check the old house. He needed to find the clue about the bizarre image of rings and eyes. He left the main hall with the broken chandelier where he had fought with the ghost and went to the nearest room ahead of him.

He entered the room through the doorway with the broken door lying nearby. It was the living room. Although all the chairs and tables were broken, they still exuded their exquisiteness. They were designed in the style that was popular in the Republic a very long time ago. There was also a broken bookshelf on the floor, but all the books were gone.

The living room had nothing to take note of, so he moved along. The room was connected to a dining room, again with everything broken. From the looks of it, there used to be six chairs around the dining table, probably indicating the number of the family members. He had seen a faceless portrait of a man and a woman, presumably the owners, but not of any children.

"Val, all the furniture inside this house seems to be broken. What do you think caused it?" Graham went into thinking.

He had the idea to divine it later, but for now, he had to move on. He searched all the rooms without doors being in his way but found nothing. There was, however, a door in the kitchen that probably would lead to the basement. It was locked shut and looked too sturdy to break open, and the lock looked too intricate to pick. He put down his briefcase and tore a piece of paper off his notebook and wrote a question on it.

'Is the clue I'm looking for behind this door?'

He took out a lighter and lit the paper. The flame consumed the whole paper quickly, indicating a positive response. He now had to get behind the door.

He tore off another piece of paper and wrote a statement on it.

'The key to this door is somewhere in this house where I can reach.'

He burned the paper and it slowly turned into ashes, which meant the key was inside the house and he could reach it, but not that easily. He cleaned up and picked up his briefcase.

Graham went back to the main hall and the bed sheet was still there, and it was still twitching and shrieking. The stunning effect was really apparent the closer he was to the ghost. He let it be and walked up the stairs to the second floor.

The second floor of the house was just as derelict as the first floor; however, all the doors were still intact. Graham tried opening the door nearest to him and it was unlocked. He entered the room and found himself in a child's bedroom. It looked like a girl's because there were patches of pink paint on the wall and broken dolls on the floor. The bed had no mattresses and was missing a leg. There was a doll of a girl in the middle with a nail stabbed through its chest. Graham etched it in his memory for later use in divination. He didn't dare to touch it, however, because his intuition told him it would be dangerous.

Besides the doll, there was nothing else of interest, so he walked out of the room. He went to the door next to the child's bedroom, but the door was locked. He tried kicking the door open but it wouldn't budge, so he gave up. He walked down the corridor to the right and tried to open the door at the end of the corridor on the right. It was not locked, and he entered the room.

The room he just entered was noticeably bigger. It had a king-sized bed that still had the mattress on it, but the mattress was ripped apart. Some of its springs were protruding from its frame. There was a vanity mirror that was broken into pieces near the bed, and a fallen wardrobe on the floor. Graham checked the wardrobe, but since it was fallen, he couldn't open it, so he destroyed the back and looked inside. There was nothing. He then checked the bed thoroughly, including under the mattress, in which he found a small rusty key. It looked too small to fit into the door in the kitchen, so he guessed it must be for another door.

After he had found the key, he searched the room again but found nothing, so he got out. He went back to the locked door and tried the key, but it didn't fit. He then walked down the corridor to the left and opened a door on his left. It was not locked, so he entered the small room. Inside, there was a smashed bunker bed for two people. It looked to be a boys' room. There was drawing on the wall, which could only be partially seen because the paint had peeled off. Graham searched the room carefully, leaving no mattresses unturned, but found nothing in the room, so he walked out and went down to the end of the corridor.

At the end of the corridor, there was a door and it was locked. He tried to insert the small key into the lock and it fit. He carefully unlocked the door and entered the room. Strong musty smell penetrated his nose right away. The room behind the door was dark; there was no window from which the sunlight could pierce through. He was only relying on the light provided by the sunlight coming through the corridor windows.

It was hard to see inside, so he had to use his eye power, but even then it only gave him booster vision, not night vision. There were more dolls inside the room, and they looked creepy from afar. Graham had to get close to even see their features. The dolls were all different. Two dolls looked like adults while the other two looked like boys. There was one doll lying in the corner that looked like a baby. The dolls had something in common: all their eyes were gouged out. However, there was no nail stabbing their chests.

"Val, what do you think about these dolls? In total, there should be six of them, the same number of chairs in the dining room. I think each doll represents a family member," he analyzed, "But why are their eyes gouged out. Is that some kind of symbolism? And then there is the doll that gave off a dangerous feeling. It had a nail stabbed through its chest," he said while observing the doll, his chin rested on his hand.

Besides the dolls, there was also a cradle that was smashed in half. Graham searched under the cradle for the key but didn't find anything. He then had an idea and tore off a piece of paper from his already thin notebook. He wrote a statement on it.

'It is safe to touch these dolls in this room.'

He burned the paper and let the flame consume it. It quickly burned entirely, which meant the dolls were safe. Graham put away his lighter and took out his knife. He picked up the dolls one by one and shook it violently, listening to any clanking sound from inside. The two adult and the two boy dolls had nothing in them. When Graham shook the baby doll, he could hear the faint sound of something heavy rubbing against the doll's inside. He stabbed the doll in the back to make an opening and took out a big bronze key.

"This key looks ancient. I wonder if they are still in production these days," he said while observing the key in his hand. It was the size of his palm and there was some complex design at the base.

Having found the key, he made his way downstairs and saw that the bed sheet was still writhing.

"It seems ghosts have unlimited stamina or something, Val," he muttered.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

The shrieking of the ghost stunned him, but it was not as effective now that Graham was really used to it. Searching the house while being accompanied by occasional familiar shrieking was far better than deathly silence. He let the ghost be.

He went back to the kitchen and inserted the bronze key to the lock. It fit perfectly and Graham turned the key. The sound of the door being unlocked could be heard amidst the intermittent shrieking. He carefully opened the door and cold air blew out of the dark staircase. He took out his lighter and lit a candle to illuminate his path, and after making sure it was safe to do so, he proceeded.

Graham walked down the stairs to the basement. The shrieking became very quiet, like he had entered a different place altogether. He walked down carefully, trying not to slip.

"Val, I wish I had your eyes," he wistfully said. He had considered switching, but his memory was much better than Valentine's and his divination might still come in handy, so in the end, he didn't do it.

Step... step... step...

The sound of his footsteps echoed in the dark. After walking down for what he felt like forever, he finally reached the end of the staircase and there was a door there. He opened the door, hoping it was unlocked, and it opened with a loud creak. The door was heavy, so he pushed it open slowly, with each push created the loud creaking noise.

He entered a big, dark room with his candle as the only source of light. He walked deeper into the room and was surprised by what he saw.