-Habits-

Jackie had two very odd habits, well; I thought they were odd anyway. Doll and Tony never really noticed them, but they always bothered me. I didn’t know why they bothered me so much, but they just did. I never said anything about them or questioned them for that matter. Well, like I said, nobody else really took any notice of them besides me.

She’d always stop everything she was doing at exactly 5:55 AM or PM. It didn’t matter which one it was but the time was always exactly 5:55 and it was unnerving. She’d just stop in the middle of the hallway or somewhere nowhere near the Grandfather Clock we had and just stare through the wall at it. It was kind of like she could see it through the wall or something and was just kind of staring it down through a wall or a door. I’ve seen this happen in person too, probably the weirdest shit I’ve seen by far.

I remember her walking down the hallway that leads from the kitchen to the dining room with plates in her hands, just like normal. I’d help her set the table for dinner and that’s how I saw it in the first place. You see, the Grandfather Clock that we had was in the living room which was only a door away from the dining room. I glanced down at the watch I had on at the time and it currently read 5:54 PM, so everything was going normally and how we had planned it too. Tony and Doll were sitting at the table at the time and were chatting about something while I took a seat across from them.

Now, because they had their backs turned to her they didn’t see what I saw. Jackie was walking behind them with a faint smile on her sickly pale face when she suddenly just froze. Everything just stopped for her, she didn’t move, she didn’t blink. The only thing that moved was her left hand, which was twitching violently. She just stood there, her right eye lid twitching a bit.

I blinked, for a split second...

My eyes found her face again and my heart lurched up into my throat as I felt the blood drain from my face. I hadn’t even looked away from her for a second… She was staring right at me, a grin sharper than razor blades plastered on her face and her monochrome like eyes wide; her pupils dilated into snake like slits. For a moment, I was terrified of the child I had raised. I didn’t blink this time, I couldn’t. I had a gut-wrenching feeling that if I blinked a second time…That she’d be standing over me with that crazed grin.

As quick as it happened, it was over.

She continued walking, making her way around the table and sitting next to me. She struck up a conversation casually, as if nothing happened at all. I couldn’t comprehend what had happened, nothing clicked at all. My heart was still pounding at the event that just took place behind my families back. I would’ve just played it off like an illusion or a trick of my mind…I would’ve…If I didn’t know that the thing that stared me dead square in the eye with the grin of a maniac wasn’t the child I raised. That wasn’t her. Everything about the thing I stared down was not her.

But, I started taking notice of this habit more and more and I paid more attention to it. I thought that whatever happened that night would happen again, but it never did. She’d just stop, turn her head to the wall and stare straight through it at that damned clock.

However, that was not the strangest habit she had.

This happened multiple times a day, all at three different times. 2:11 AM, 12:00 PM and 7:03 PM.

Again, nobody would pay any mind to these damned habits, and this has been happened within the first month of her living with us. It took my two years to officially notice these habits and now that I put more mind to them, they’re probably the strangest things I’ve ever seen so far. I still can’t believe that I’ve managed to keep up with all these times and dates. I’ve kind of been keeping a journal about these things, I know call me paranoid.

At exactly 12:00 AM, she’d stop what she was doing and walk off to the basement door. She’d never actually enter the basement, just stand there staring at the door. She never took any notice of the people around her while she stared and she’d occasionally knock on the door like she expected someone to open it.

It was always locked from the inside, and I had the key. It’s one of those doors that you need a key to open both sides type thing…

The basement lead to the laundry room so there wasn’t really anything of interest down there.

Or so I thought…

At two in the fucking morning, I woke up to get something to eat and happened to pass by the basement door. I stopped when I realized that it was wide open.

Okay, that was odd…

I went to close the door but I found myself staring into the darkened abyss that is the basement. I personally brushed this off as the wind having blown the door open. However that made no since because it was locked from the inside, so had would a draft have blown it open?

But uh anyway, I almost had heart attack just as I was about to close the door. I happened to look down the stairs that lead into a void of darkness and saw a pale face out of the corner of my eye. I gave it my full attention and I swore my heart stopped for a brief second. On the sixth stair of the basement stood Jackie.

Now, I normally wouldn’t have been startled by this if she wasn’t starring up at me with a look of pure malice and hatred. Her face was contorted into a smirk of pure glee; her incisors almost gleamed in the dim light of the basement. I could just barely make out a smear of blood that stretched up the length of her jawline and over her nose.

God, I think I’m going crazy... Because the second I blinked she disappeared, or well…just kind of vanished... I wanted to brush it off as a trick of the light or something more logical... But with the fuck ton of shit I’ve seen over these past few years, It wouldn’t surprise me If I was losing my mind.

Either way, every night at 2:11 AM she’d stand at the sixth basement stair and just kind of look out into the sea of darkness. Always the Sixth step, never the seventh or fifth. Hell, I don’t even know how she got down there without me noticing. When that door opens it’s squeaker than Tony’s voice after Inferno sexually harasses him. Yeah, I went there.

Now, the one that happened at 7:03 PM, December 12th of 2015 on a Saturday was a onetime thing. But, it still sends chills down my spine whenever I think about it.

It was an accident for the most part, but still. It’s something that I thought I should keep track of just to make sure that it didn’t happen again.

She was in her room, which was surprising. She never went up into her room, she always sat at the kitchen table and usually fell asleep there and Doll would give her a blanket. So, it was odd to go and knock on the door and get a reply. This is kind of how the conversation went;

“Hey, uh, Alexandra?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you feeling okay? I mean you never go up here…by yourself anyway.”

No reply.

“I know how you get when you’re alone, so I just wanted to check up on you.”

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

That was odd, considering she never said thank you unless someone held the door open for her or something deserving of a “thank you”.

“Oh…uh, dinners ready. I went ahead and cooked because I kind of thought you weren’t feeling well…”

No reply.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?”

That’s when I heard it. It sounded like four individual knives were running down the other side of the door creating a long scraping sound. It sent chills up my spine as the scraping came to a sudden stop.

I could’ve sworn I heard a light giggle come from the other side of the door.

I flinched back as there was a heavy bang from the other side. So much force was applied to the bang that the door actually chipped a little.

I heard someone come up the stairs and the sounds stopped abruptly, allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief.  Surprisingly, the person coming up the stairs was Doll. She looked genuinely concerned for me, and so was I.

When I looked back at the door, the split in the it was gone…

I think I’m losing my mind…

I’m not entirely sure that what I saw happened, but I think it does have something to do with Jackie’s habits…

I’ll keep an eye on her; she’s been acting weird lately.

Vince/Stalk, Tony, Doll/Silence belongs to-
(c)1InsaneSilence1

:,D