The Cracked Window

The house creaks and cracks with the slightest touch of wind. I feel as if it could collapse on me at any moment. The wood smells old and damp. Everything is covered in dust.

I can't stand this house. It is too big for one lonesome person like me. A coward I am, Indeed. Old family portraits hanging by the staircases remind me of when this house was filled with life. Now it is only I who remains; Walking the halls night and day when I am most sleep-deprived.

I hate this house. But there is nothing I hate more than that god-forsaken window. It has a crack in it, and sometimes the wind comes through and it makes the room cold. I have no curtains to hang over it, and every time I stare out, I see the reason I stay shuttered in and remain a coward.

I see a dirt town with people and androids bustling through night and day. Billboards in the distance show images of crooked politicians that have made this place desolate. People used to complain a lot about capitalism, always feeling as if they could never make it. Many would ask for handouts from corrupt government systems. They thought at some point the world would get better, but this is what it has become. It scares me to death.

The crack in the window makes everything worse. The bitter air filling the lonesomeness of my captivity reminds me of everything I would rather forget.

I often stare out of the window even though I don't want to see or believe what is going on out there, and I never leave this house. I see how stuck those people are in their minds, they follow through with the madness. However, they seem so brave to fluidly embrace change.

I wonder if anyone knows that I exist. Sometimes I wait for a knock, or for one of the androids to poke its head in and shatter the window. I imagine such an occurrence, where they become angry and ask me why I'm not working. These thoughts have made their way into my nightmares, and I dream of them kidnapping me and forcing me into a labor camp... I digress.

I lay in my bedroom in the dead of the night tossing and turning. The house creaks and cracks. I fail to fall asleep no matter how many times I try. I hear a whisper in the distance. "You did this," it says. I sat up in my bed abruptly. "Hello?" I said, quivering in my sheets. There was no response. After a moment I laid back down.

The house creaked and along came the voice, "You did this." I sat up and began panting. "Hello! Who's there!?" I said loudly, my voice trembling in fear. "You did this!" the voice became louder. "Who are you!?" I yelled. The voice continued to repeat its phrase becoming louder and more distorted. My bedroom door burst open. I let out a scream and hid beneath the covers. I counted under my breath as the house continued creaking with ominous footsteps approaching closer and closer. Then it stopped.

I felt the energy in the room go back to normal. I took the covers off and saw that nothing was there, but the door remained open.

I stayed in bed the rest of the night shocked about what happened. I waited for it to happen again but everything was silent. Was it a ghost? Did someone break in and try to frighten me? Maybe I was just imagining things.

As the sun rose, I got up and went downstairs. I looked out of the window noticing the crack was longer and it was dustier than before. I went into the kitchen to find some cleaner to wipe it down. The dust wouldn't go away, it began to look foggy. I left it as it was, feeling disgruntled by my lack of achievement.

I walked around the house again and decided to go into the basement. It was a nice sitting area at its time, but nothing worked anymore. There were old knick-knacks from my siblings and toys we used to play with. I experienced nostalgia while seeing these relics. They made me feel like they were still here.

All of a sudden a loud distorted yell and the sound of glass breaking came from upstairs. My heart dropped and I hid in the closet. I knew I wasn't imagining anything this time. The door to the basement began to shake, the house creaking, the yelling sounding more distorted. The door flew open.

From the cracks of the closet, I could see the legs of a young woman standing on the steps. Her skin was pale and gray like that of a corpse, and she appeared to be wearing a white dress. It then ran away back up the stairs.

After a few moments, the energy in the room shifted and I felt as if it was safe to come out. As I looked up the steps I saw the door was still open. I was now certain that I was not alone in this house any longer, but was this a person or something else?

As I made my way back to the main part of the house, everything seemed normal except for the smell of gas that was coming from the kitchen. The stove was turned on, and I quickly turned it off. I went back towards the staircase and saw that the family portrait was knocked over. The frame was shattered with glass all over the floor.

As I lifted the photo the faces of my family members were cut out. The house let out a wailing creak. The ominous voice filled the room once again. "You did this," it said. I froze in place, the sun appeared to be set and a white orangish glow shined through the top circular window. "You did this!" the voice grew louder, and the house creaked and cracked.

"Who are you!?" I cried, "What do you want from me!?" The wall of the house poked out in front of me as if it was breathing. It then took the shape of a human sliding its way toward me like it was part of the house and made of wood. I panted and fell backward gasping for air. The thing opened its eyes. Its scleras were pure white and its iris' were pure black as if they were nothing but a pupil.

It came out of the walls appearing as if it had my mother's face. "You did this," she said coming closer to me. The face shifted to my father's face, then the face of my siblings all while saying repeatedly "You did this!" The screaming became more distorted with each word. It sounded as if they were multiple screams. The creature looked deeply into my eyes and it ruptured something within my soul. I got up and ran out the door.

I ran outside panting and kneeling on the ground. As I lifted my head and opened my eyes, what I saw took me aback. I was confronted with trees. They stared back at me in the pitch-black darkness, with only the moon as a source of light. There was no desert. No bustling streets or androids, or billboards. Only green shrubbery was before and beneath me. There seemed to be a forest that looked like it went on for at least a mile.

In utter shock, I dared to turn behind me only to find a demolished house. I fell to my knees screaming out in terror, knowing that not a single soul would be able to hear me. A flood of memories penetrated my mind.

I used to be a part of a political group to dismantle capitalism. My parents and siblings had no idea what I was up to, until one day my father found out. On the way to one of the meetings, my father and mother stopped me telling me how dangerous this was. They wanted to put up a fight to keep me from leaving. Amid the arguments, I had left the stove on and forgotten to turn it off. Shortly after I managed to escape there was a gas explosion in the house which in turn caused a fire. I called the fire department, realizing that I was the only one who made it out alive.

I stood up and looked down at my clothing. I was wearing a white dress and some white slip-on shoes. I walked over toward the house staring into the cracked window from the other side, I saw myself hanging from the ceiling. I put my hand on the window for a moment and turned around walking towards the forest.

A coward I am, Indeed.