The Nightlurker

The fantastic landscape of green and golden meadows passed the car so quickly like fast motioned slideshows. I realized, I was there now already, not exactly in the city we were about to head. It felt like seconds since we landed in Edinburgh Airport.

Nathan – my father to be – said it was around three or four miles to go before we reached Aberfeldy. English Countryside really struck me fascinating, plus the weather was fine. All around, I’d seen beautiful sceneries that reminded me of paintings and postcards. I sat still, with Ophelia, my cat, squirming on my lap trying to distract my view. I was thinking if one day I could capture one of these views on my sketches.

I knew nothing about the Highlands except the famous Loch Ness that was said to have kept a prehistoric creature named Nessie. But I remembered the famous lake was located near Inverness, in Scottish Highlands, which was located further in the north from Perthshire. I spent my days before my leaving looking as many as information I could find about my future home. I started scanning my eyes over the map of England, just to see if I could catch Aberfeldy on it.

It was, yes, a small market town – or most likely this place was surrounded by rural areas – but at least it was still visible on the map. It didn’t look so bad either, after I checked on the internet to see what was in there. It was a historical city I supposed, after I saw that there were some old castles, abbeys, old bridge, river, old houses, and a beautiful old bridge as tourist attractions. It gave me an impression that it was a medieval-themed city. The nature surrounding was not bad either, after all, it was located in likely an English Countryside, which meant there would be meadows, fields, and forests. What was even more interesting to find here was the town was apparently surrounded by lochs – long, narrow-shaped lakes – which were typical in the land of Scots.

Then, something came into my mind. Aberfeldy had quite a small population and it was pretty quiet, not as crowded or busy as London. Why else Nathan had to open a branch there?

It was just surreal. I realized, maybe there was a good point of moving here. This place was not as crowded or busy as London, it was more relaxing here. I sat on the back seat, fascinated by the wonderful surroundings. My mum was busily chatting and flirting with Nathan in front. But I didn’t care about it. After all, I had a new life now. Like it or not, Nathan was unofficially my stepfather now.

“Look Julia!” my mother finally felt my presence, breaking my imagination. “Don’t you love this place?”

“I guess.” I murmured.

Yet nothing here would cheer me up, as for what had happened a week ago, when my mother decided to divorce with my father and my world crumbled down. All the happiness I had in my life and it was all caused by Nathan, the one my mother had secretly dated with, or an affair would probably be the best word to choose. If I had the right to choose my life path, then I would rather choose to stay with my father in our simple house back in London, but apparently my mother had a reason why I should follow her and follow this man, Nathan, to be part of their life.

Nathan had actually been part of my life for years, since he was our family friend, not to mention my mother’s childhood friend. They happened to somehow reunite once my mother got a new job in his company, serving him as a secretary, who later she fell for, despite of my disapproval for her relationship.

Judged from his appearance, Nathan was well, good looking, but he was too old for my taste. I considered him as a man who women in their forties would adore. I had to say though, that perhaps nothing was wrong with Nathan.

He was – after all – rich and he owned a major real estate company in Great Britain. He once had a huge house that my mother and I liked to visit sometimes in London, but not until he took my life away. My mother easily just fell for him, forgetting all the life that we’d been through and even worse, it pissed my father off.

To make matters worse for me, in just matter of days, since my mother divorced, Nathan proposed her, but the wedding day remained unknown, for now they were both busy and looking forward for winter to set a wedding date.

“Nathan is a good guy.” My mother said one day, before moving to the Highlands.
She tried to convince me how our life would be much better once we left father, who was – apparently to my mother – would only make her life worse with all the debts he had, that our family’s financial living deteriorated.

I never knew anything about adults’ issues, but I realized that I was only a powerless sixteen-year-old, that I had nothing to do with that.I had a good life in London, and I never wanted to leave it. My friends were all shocked to hear about my moving and somehow wished I would never leave the capital. Even I had tried to complain my mother and resisted on following her to Scotland, but she insisted somehow.

“Your father can’t make a living for us. All this time, we’ve lost almost half of our property. Your father and I had many debts that we couldn’t afford to pay. We could possibly have been kicked out of this house and became homeless, if Nathan hadn’t helped me. That’s why we should thank him. He even has guaranteed that there’s nothing else we should worry about in our lives anymore.”

One thing that my mother couldn’t change from me: Nathan would never be my father, even though he already acted as if he was my father, but due to my dislikes towards him, I tried as best as I could to ignore him and probably pretending he was never there.

“Julia, we’re almost there.” mother suddenly broke my imagination that had been wandering off, passing me a bottle of mineral water to the back seat.

The car turned towards a small yet long road that could only be passed by a car. Now, where Nathan was taking us to? The path was getting smaller and the car started to go through some bumpy rides as we entered what I would call a forest of birch and pine trees. The forest was not as thick as the ones in Amazon or any other tropical forests. In some open spaces in each side of the roads, I spotted golden meadows and fields of buttercup flowers.

I still had no idea where the house would possibly be. The car started to climb up the road. Possibly the house was located on the top of the hill? If it was on the top of the hill, then would the house be not as big as I thought? It was pretty weird though, Nathan, all I knew, was pretty fond of mansions or even manors.

Then we passed a wider road, still small, but at least wider than the path we’d been through. It was a small residence of old, ancient homes that struck me as villas. The neighborhood was quiet, I didn’t notice a single person was out of the house. But then the car started to head into another small path, leading yet to the top of the hill, but then the car turned left and instead leading us to the slope of the hill.

The car stopped when we reached likely old, large gates blocking our way, which I guessed it was the end of the road. Two thin men rushed to open them and let us enter.

There it was.

The mansion was located on a large open space on the slope of the hill, surrounded by birch trees and even it was partially shaded by them. Birch trees. Typical of this place. Another car had already perched at the edge of the clearing, which I presumed it was the car that carried Nathan’s servants. I thought it would be much like a countryside house.
Nathan parked the car as I got out examining my new house as I was pulling my suitcase. It was impossibly huge and marble white-colored. The white paint had already faded and worn. Four large Greek-looking pillars stood near the main door. I spotted a pair of marble Greek gods statues stood on each side of the door, as if they were welcoming us. Besides, the temperature up here was pretty cold, colder than London, even though it was spring now. Luckily, I already had my beige army jacket on. Maybe the fabric was not as thick as wool, but at least it was still comfortable.

“Welcome home.” Nathan announced in satisfaction when we finally reached the place, along with my mother as she helped me unloading my suitcase. As soon as we all had got off the car, I dragged the suitcase – containing my clothes – and carried the backpack – containing snacks, camera, and scarf I’d prepared – on my back.

A marvelous huge hall was the first room I entered. It was still empty and worn, giving me an impression that it hadn’t been occupied for nearly decades.

“The lorry carrying our furniture will arrive tomorrow.” Nathan’s voice echoed in the hall. “Luckily, this house has already provided their custom beds on each bedroom, so there’s nothing to worry about where we’re going to sleep on.”

Nathan’s tone clearly showed his pride, yet for me, his tone struck me more as cockiness, for he finally got this house as his another property. I wondered if this worn, old house was his dream house.

Then a gust of wind blew past me, sending me shiver all over my body. I turned quickly to the door, to see the door was just swung closed. I believed the wind blowing outside had slammed it.

Ophelia mewed in surprise.

“Now, since we just arrived here, let’s take a tour around the house, shall we?” Nathan announced proudly and started to walk towards a corridor accompanied by my mother and several of his servants.

I watched them moving away and it looked like they ignored me standing here.

It didn’t matter for me though, in fact, I thought to start my own exploration through this house. And it was even better, because I could avoid Nathan. First, I started from the empty, worn and marble-white living room with a fireplace in the middle of it. The floor was parquet, as I noticed, giving me a slight Victorian impression. Later, something weird came upon me. I felt chill behind my neck, like blowing wind. It was, I was sure of it, a gust of wind and I could feel it was blowing right over my shoulder, making them shiver. But I felt more beyond that, as if someone just walked pass behind me in just a matter of second. I stopped and looked back, nobody behind me.

Ophelia mewed again. I presumed she must have felt what I felt. Cats had stronger senses and instinct. But what could that be? This house started to haunt me with some strange atmosphere.

“What are you thinking, Julia? Of course the atmosphere is strange, after all this is an old house.” I muttered to myself. “Not even better than a haunted mansion. Huh.” I scoffed.
An old house, that might be a good excuse. But how long had it been unoccupied? The stronger the strange atmosphere was, the longer this house had been unoccupied. But the strange atmosphere didn’t stop following me and I decided to just ignore it.

I considered myself as a non-superstitions believer. I didn’t believe in such things like ghosts or anything invisible. Ghosts for me were nothing but fictional characters that often appeared in films or TV just to entertain audience. They were like vampires, werewolves, or witches – creatures that didn’t exist and only did in fantasy world. So you can say that I was typical of a girl that wouldn’t scream while watching a horror film because I kept reminding myself and my friends that those ghosts did look scary thanks to the make-up and the supporting sound effect.

Or maybe I was typical of a girl that would exit from a haunted house ride with a still face and a frown, without any sweat and the feeling of fear at all.

Besides, the information about Aberfeldy didn’t mention anything about haunting in this place. The huge corridor led me to rows of bedrooms that reminded me of hotel rooms. I entered them one by one. Each of them had the same size and Nathan was right, worn, dull, single beds filled each of them. Other than that, nothing else, the rooms were empty except the beds. I didn’t count how many rooms there were, but then I came into the end of the corridor, to find probably the biggest room among all. I assumed it couldn’t be Nathan and mum’s bedroom, since I guessed it didn’t look like the main bedroom. The main bedroom would be much bigger than this one.

“Wow, this is great.” I muttered to myself as Ophelia walked besides me.

The Victorian-themed room was beautiful, with reddish brown, wooden wall. But it was the smell that I couldn’t stand. It didn’t smell like a stench, really, but it was like it hadn’t been cleaned for years and yet dust covered almost every single corner of the room. I wondered why Nathan had his people cleaned this room before we arrived here.

However, I considered it was the most beautiful room among the others though, with old queen-sized bed with no sheets put on it and the faded maroon carpet, which was very dusty, not to mention the huge windows, without curtains. Next to the window was an old, unused fireplace, since Nathan said earlier that he was going to put a heater. That room reminded me with a suite room in a hotel. I imagined what this room would like once it was furnished. Perhaps my flat screen should be attached to the wall across my bed, a wardrobe in the left side of the bedroom, and two couches and a table across them.

This room would definitely look even better once the furniture was here.

I noticed a large wardrobe wrapped in a white cloth that seemed to have been worn by time. Hesitatingly, I moved towards them to reveal a huge walnut closet. Dust puffed out of it once I took off the cloth from the closet. Apparently the dust itself managed to fill into my nostril, resulting me to cough. Then I opened to reveal a dark big space inside. With a space as big as this, I was not sure if all of my clothes would fit into it.

Later, I moved to explore more and found doors that later revealed yet a large bathroom with bathtub with Victorian style. But likely the other rooms in the house, it looked worn, musty, and unclean. And since it was a bathroom, you could imagine how it smelled.

After finishing my exploration, I went back to the room. Without any hesitation, I threw myself on the bed, which created a strange squeaking sound and the puff of dust rose. I guessed the bed was as old as this manor. It wasn’t bad either, in fact, I might call it good, soft, and puffy. I didn’t know how long it hadn’t been used, but at least it was still comfortable.

When I finally lied on the bed, I realized how exhausted I was. I’d been through almost seven hours trip from London to this place. I stared at the ceiling blankly before my eyes started to close...

Aileana...

My eyes were wide opened in sudden. The gust of wind blew again, strangely. I noticed none of the windows were open. So where did it come from? And the ghostly at likely muttered a name... And it sounded like...Ai...Aileana, as if it was the gust of wind that formed a sound like a moan or a whisper. It distracted me from my sleep so I sat on the bed.
I jerked my head out of the open door. The corridor was empty and quiet. Where the heck were Nathan and his house tour? I guessed it must be someone who was calling someone else named Aileana.

Whoosh...

The wind blew again, and this time, it looked like it left a mark. I felt like I saw a glimpse of someone, a figure passing swiftly like a shadow, and then disappeared. It looked like the wind had swayed the door close, open, close, open, repeatedly. But I was sure it felt like more than just a gust of wind. The glimpse, which I was sure it must be a hallucination, was watching over me and I was sure at it. As if this room had eyes and they were now glaring at me. Invisible eyes.

“It’s just my feeling.” I sighed and sat at the edge of the bed. “Right, Ophie?”

I stared down at my cat lying on the floor and looked at me questioningly, as if she didn’t know anything.

Aileana...

I stared at the door which was now half opened. I gathered my courage.

“Who’s there?”

“Julia!”

The appearance of my mother shocked me.

“We’ve been looking for you everywhere.” she said. Nathan appeared behind her.

“I thought you were with us.” he interfered. I tried not to pay attention to him as much as possible.

“Well, mum, you know me. I won’t get lost.” I muttered.

“I was just about to ask which room you’re going to pick.” My mother said, looking around the room.

I pointed absentmindedly at my room. “Well, I just found a decent one.” I said. “Anyway, I was wondering if you have any female house staff member named...Aileana?”

Nathan and my mum’s faces turned into a frown. They exchanged looks.

“Aileana?” Nathan replied. “No as I remembered. Aileana, such a distinctive name.”

I rolled my eyes to ignore him.

My mother chuckled as if it was a joke. “Never mind.” she told Nathan. “Oh, look, it’s already 5 in the evening. Go take a shower now, darling and sleep early this evening, tomorrow is your first day at school here. You’d better prepare for it.”

I raised my eyebrows in agreement before they left me alone, again in the room, leaving me questioned and wondered about Aileana.