Without a Sound

For once, I didn’t wake up to Mikey having a nightmare or the smell of blood. I woke up and immediately smelled the sweet fragrance of roses. When I opened my eyes, the room appeared to be perfectly normal at first. Then I saw the vase.

Instead of holding artificial roses, they were real. I grinned, feeling really happy. Mikey had not only remembered that I liked roses, but he had taken the time to cut them for me from the garden and put them there for me. I couldn’t keep myself from smiling.

I got up and walked over to the dresser. I closed my eyes, put my nose right over the roses, and took a deep breath. Then I sighed, feeling strong and complete. I needed to thank Mikey for the roses.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a piece of paper stuffed in one of the roses that I hadn’t noticed before. It was a whole sheet, folded until it was just a small square.

I unfolded it slowly, taking my time. I wasn’t in a hurry. The note was very simple. It said:

Charlotte,
I’ll be back at around dawn. I left food in the kitchen for you.
Mikey

Once again, his simplicity amused me. The words were like a skeleton, but they were held together by the feeling behind the note and the roses. I liked words, because they always had so much more meaning behind them than could be seen at first glance.

I took a change of clothes into the bathroom, took a shower, and got dressed. I was actually starting to fill in my clothes. I touched my cheek, and I didn’t just feel bone anymore. My skin was spongy and soft like it was supposed to be.

After I brushed my hair, I went down to the kitchen. While I ate the food, I thought of what I could do to figure out Mikey’s secret on my own. I saw that it was a little bit past midnight. I’d slept more than I usually did, but I still had a few hours until he came back.

Of course! I felt like hitting myself in the head. I was so stupid! How many times had I overlooked it? Mentally, I pictured the layout of the second story. It was just a hall with six doors. On the left side were the girl’s bathroom, Mikey’s bathroom, and the TV room. On the right side were the girl’s bedroom, Mikey’s bedroom, and… the mystery room.

I’d never been inside. While I had been awake, Mikey had never been in that room either. He always seemed to look at that door warily every time we were in the hall, though. The answer had to be in there.

I cleaned the dishes and then walked up the stairs. So I guess I was finally allowed to take the stairs by myself. I hadn’t even noticed before. Huh.

I stood before the third door on the right for minutes, feeling guilty beyond belief. I wasn’t even doing anything wrong! Mikey hadn’t ever specifically told me not to go into this room.

Still, I turned the knob very slowly. Holding my breath, I pushed open the creaky door. The room was dark. I spent a few minutes searching for the light switch. Before turning on the light, I closed the door behind me. When I turned on the light, I was amazed.

The walls were one huge painted mural: a perfect image of the enchanting garden outside. The only thing that interrupted the flowing look was a shelf on the wall in one corner. On the shelf were hundreds of bottle of acrylic paint, each one a different color or hue.

The floors were wood, and the ceiling was painted a blue that matched the sky perfectly. There were even a few white, fluffy clouds. The room was far from empty, though. White sheets covered several unknown objects. They were everywhere. I could see that I would barely be able to walk around the room.

I went to the closest sheet and rubbed it with my fingers. It had a silky texture to it. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see what was under it, but I pulled it off anyways.

It was beautiful. No, it was more than beautiful. No words could describe the painting. Every stroke had been so carefully planned out that nothing was out of place. It almost looked like a photograph. It showed a little girl – the same little girl from Mikey’s photograph – playing on the front porch with a doll. The detail was unbelievable.

I looked at the signature in the corner. I couldn’t read it, but I knew it was too short to be Mikey’s. So who had painted it? I coughed. Dust had flown off the sheet and gathered into an annoying grey cloud. This room hadn’t been touched in years.

I ignored it, let the sheet fall to the floor, and went to the next sheet. This painting didn’t have a person in it; it was of a bubbling stream. The signature was the same.

The next painting made me blush a little. It was of Mikey sleeping peacefully in his bed with just a sheet wrapped around his waist to cover up the part of him that wasn’t meant to be seen. It looked exactly like him, except that I’d never seen such on innocent expression on his face. That painting made me realize that he used to sleep peacefully and undisturbed. He hadn’t always been plagued by nightmares.

The next painting made me shiver. It was much darker than the others. Two people were lying on the floor. The little girl looked perfectly fine – except that I knew she was meant to be dead. There was not a drop of blood on her, but I saw it in the way she was painted. But Mikey, lying next to her, was coated in blood. I thought it was coming from his neck. He was not quite dead yet. I could just feel it. Shards of broken glass were littered carelessly around them. I was horrified.

That was when I felt it, and my stomach dropped a thousand feet. It was real blood, and it was right behind me. I recognized it as Mikey’s blood.

When I turned around, he was standing in the doorway. The look on his face was mind blowing. He looked like he was dying, being cut into pieces. That was how much pain he must’ve been in. But even with so much torment distorting his expression, I still saw the fury.

He was infuriated at me. Because, somehow, I had inflicted this pain. I already felt tears of sorrow welling in my eyes. But I had gone too far. This was something an apology could not fix.

Glaring icily at me, he said in a deathly quiet voice, “Get out of my house.”

And I ran past him. I’d never been really afraid of Mikey before that moment. But there was something in his eyes that terrified me. It was an ancient, murderous enmity that I knew nothing about.