The New Owner

The new owner pulled into the long driveway. She had not come to see the hose before she bought it. The word of the old house owner was good enough for her. On both sides of the driveway were two large stained boulders. The boulders were half red on the top. The bottom of the boulders was half black and half purple. The boulders on the right side were just outside the fence that surrounded a very big yard. As the new owner made her way up to the gate latch to open the door to the gate, she decided to take a better look at one of the boulders. Looking at the boulder to the left of the gate door, she could see a figure hidden inside the boulder. It was a young woman with her hands reached up like she was trying to get out. Her face from the shapes it was making looked as though she was crying. She placed her hand on the stone to see what it felt like because the person looked so real. The surface of the stone boulder was smooth like a plastic bottle. The owner moved her hand back away still staring at the boulder. As she turned back toward the gate, she thought she saw the eyes of the person on the boulder open. She quickly turned back to the boulder to see that the eyes were still closed. The owner shook the thought and the image out of her head. The other boulder she decided on the right side of the gate looked the same. The only difference with the boulder on the right is that it was a male figure etched into the stone. The owner continued with opening the gate to the yard. The old house owner was true to his word about the house from what she could see.

The yard was the size of the floor stretching outward inside of a castle without the separation of the rooms. This yard seemed to really stretch outward in length for a very great distance. There did not seem to be an ending that the owner could see. In the middle of the yard was a very good size house with three pathways outside. The pathway to the left led to the driveway back the way she came in. The pathway to the right led in two different directions. The part of the pathway that kept going straight forward led to the piece of the gate that was just outside of a very crowded wooded area. The part of the pathway that split off in the middle went to the right around the back of the house. The third path in front of the house led to a fountain. There were four long benches that had just enough space to squeeze between them to sit down or look around. Three of the benches had guests made of stone seated in different positions. All of the heads of the statues were turned to stare at the fountain. In the fountain stood a young stone woman holding a lantern in her right hand. In her left hand, she carried a dream catcher.

On this dream catcher, there were letters from A to Z going around each of the circles. Hanging down in place of feathers were strings with coins attached to them. The young lady was holding the lantern in her right hand up looking behind her toward the house. All around her there were stone hands reaching up toward her. The fountain was not turned on at the time. The outside of the house was covered with names. Each name had a different stone flower carved after it. The porch was covered in gray dust blowing around. There were a few cracks here and there but nothing that was not fixable. A porch swing sat in the right corner with a statue of a large praying mantis on each side. It looked like the praying mantises were pushing the swing. There was a matching swing in the left corner of the porch.

On both sides of the outside of the door, there were two mirrors. The mirror on the right side of the door had carvings of vines with little black pearls at the end of each. The mirror on the left side of the door had carvings of mouths with eyes looking out of them. The door handle was a hand bawled into a fist. As the new owner named Anna reached her hand forward the doorknob hand opened. There were no keys to open this house. The man who came to offer the house told her that she had to hold the hand of the house to go in. Anna did exactly as the man instructed her to do. When she placed her hand into the doorknob hand, it closed around her hand. The door opened fast and pulled her inside. There was a pinch inside her hand then the hand let go of her hand. When Anna looked at her hand it was bleeding in the middle like a needle or something sharp and small like that had been shoved into her hand. The door handle hand closed back up. Anna cleaned and bandaged her hand then she began bringing all of her stuff inside. Once Anna sat the last box on the ground, the door slammed shut. There was no handle inside to go out.

There was no light in the room after the front door closed. It was a good thing that Anna's keychain had a small flashlight on it. It was not the best flashlight because the dark was stronger. She was able to see things as she was standing right in front of them with her flashlight. She used the flashlight to search through her things to find her lighter. The room that Anna was in had candles on both sides of the door. She quickly lit them, and that helped to show her more candles in the room. Once she lit all the candles in the room Anna began looking for the instructions that the man gave her.

Pulling the wrinkled paper out of her purse, she began reading what it said. It was another puzzle for her to figure out. It said in order to go out she had to offer a burnt feather with a strand of her hair to the largest flame in the room. Anna looked around the room to see what she could find to help her. After looking around the room she found a chest full of items to make dream catchers. The name dream catchers were on the top of the chest. The chest was hidden underneath a sheet with a folded up chair behind it making the whole site look like it was just a big chair. Anna took one of the feathers and pulled a strand of her hair out. Anna began looking for the largest flame. She looked at the fireplace with the pile of freshly cut wood sitting next to it. Anna placed some of the logs and some other items inside to start the fire. Once the fire was really going, she placed the feathers tip in a candle flame to burn just the tip. Anna blew it out before it could burn the whole feather up. She placed the burnt feather and her hair into the fire of the fireplace.

The corner of the wall to the right of the room opened up. Anna walked over to the wall to pull it open. Inside the wall were switches that she began reading what the names said that they were for. The names were too faded to read, so she began to just start flipping the switches. The first switch turned the lights of the house on. The second switch removed the metal shutters from the windows. The third switch caused a loud bang somewhere upstairs. The third switch put out the fire in the fireplace along with all the candles in the room. The fourth switch opened the front door. Anna decided she would see what the rest were for later.

Anna stepped outside to get some fresh air and lock up her car. Anna walked out toward the garden area that was just past the fountain. There was a group of black roses mixed in with the rest of the flowers in the garden. The tips of the roses were each different. Some of them were white while others were dark purple or dark blue. One rose stood out the most because it was the only black rose that the tip was not a dark color. The tip of this rose was bright silver with a kind of sparkling to it. Anna reached down to pick the flower. When she pulled the flower from the garden, the fountain began to work. All the stone faces that were seated on the benches were now turned looking toward her. The young lady in the fountain had changed her position. She was now standing outside of the fountain on a new pathway that led to the forest. The woman was no longer stone when she looked back at Anna. She smiled as she began to walk down the pathway. She stood just outside the wooded area where there was now a door that was not here before. She looked at Anna waving for her to follow her through the door. Anna went back inside the house to grab her flashlight and the instructions that the man had given her. She placed the paper in her pocket and walked to where the young lady was standing. The young lady was wearing a name tag that said Josie.

Anna followed the young lady through the door that led to a field. There were black roses everywhere even growing from the trees. Anna stared harder at one of the trees that she thought she saw movement. There was suddenly an arm reaching out with roses growing from it. The eyes of the trees were all red but the figures did not seem harmful. Anna continued to follow the young lady to another fountain that had steps that led down. At the bottom of the steps was another garden full of flowers with faces on them. These were not your average flowers. The flowers stood up when Anna walked by them following the young lady. Inside of another door, there were more steps but these steps led up instead of down. At the top of these stairs, the sky was purple with a white sun. The ground was covered in what seemed to be orange dust. There were ships floating in the air like balloons. The steams were all a minty green color. Anna stepped out of the way of the stairs that she had just come up. The flower people were all coming up and ran to the ladders hanging down from the ships. Once they were in the ship a robot's arm grabbed them then place them into a machine that they never came out of. There was more orange dust falling to the ground as this happened to each of them.

Large spiders that were people began to come out of the shadows and eat the orange dust. Anna stood staring at all that was happening with a look of shock on her face. She felt something grab her arm and pull her. Anna looked to see the young lady pulling on her arm for her to follow her. Anna followed her through another forest into a small farmhouse. Inside this farmhouse the horror that was before her made Anna want to run back the way she came. All of the furniture in the house was actually people. The bed had people laying on wooden boards with a sheet over them. Their feet could be seen sticking out of the sheets that they were under. A man was laying across them reading a book. He stood up once he realized that Anna and the young lady were in the room. This young man could not have been more than 17 years old. The letters on the shirt had the name, Adrien. When he walked by the mirror his image changed. He looked like a blurry yellow shadow in the mirror. The young lady walked over to him and her image changed in the mirror. She looked like a blue and green butterfly. The mirror was being held by a man who peeked out from behind the mirror with a look of terror on his face. The yellow shadow man caught him then made him put the mirror down. The yellow shadow man took the man from behind the mirror to the kitchen. When he came back, he was covered with a brownish sappy substance. A young man came out from behind the other mirror to go after the yellow shadow man. Suddenly the young man was on the floor and became a brownish sappy substance. The yellow shadow scooped it all up with his hands to drink it all. As he drank it, he became a brighter yellow like the sun.

Everything went fuzzy then Anna could feel herself falling when she woke up she was back in the garden. Everything was as it was before she saw everything that had happened. Anna decided that it was all just a dream until she noticed two new figures that looked just like the older and younger man seated at the edge of the fountain. Anna shook her head and decided it was definitely a dream that she had. The things that she had seen in the dream could not be possible. Anna began to walk back inside of the house but decided that she was going to fill her bucket with cleaning water first. After Anna filled her cleaning bucket she went back into the house.

Anna decided that she was doing to clean differently than she usually did. This time she was going to clean each room as she discovered it. In case she was going to be sleeping in the room, she was in she sat the bag that her sleeping bag and pillow were in on the couch just past the fireplace. It was a soft golden couch underneath the sheet that covered it. The couch pillows had just the right amount of fluff to them while the couch cushions had just the right amount of toughness to them. Anna uncovered all the other furniture in the room that was all gold just like the couch. In the armchair sat a very life- like doll with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing an old-fashioned long dress. It was a light brown with golden trim. Everything else that she was wearing including her jewelry matched the dress. The long silky gloves went all the way up to her shoulders. The floor was a very dark smooth wood like touching plastic. There was not a lot of furniture in the room that she was in. All that sat in the room were two large couches on each side just a little past the fireplace. An end table at each end of the couches that matched. The rest of the room was surrounded by paintings. All of the paintings looked very real to Anna. Anna was able to safely clean all the paintings to bring them back to life from under all that dust.

The paintings began to move like watching a live show on a projector for outdoor movies without a screen to watch them on. On the large part of the right wall past the corner wall with the switches was a large painting that really got Anna's attention. In the middle of a field stood what looked to be a kwanza cherry tree. The tree began to move slowly at first until it was fully standing. Anna then noticed that the tree had arms and legs. The top of the tree was hair puffed to look like the top of a Kwanza cherry tree. As the person began to walk quicker in a shaking motion toward Anna, the door slammed shut again. The metal shudders of the windows closed along with the door again. This time the room was not dark because the house lights were still on. As the person got closer to Anna she could see that where the eyes should be there was on fire.

The reddish- brown hand reached out holding a piece of paper. Anna hesitantly took the piece of paper out of the hand. The paper said to tell the secret of the house to the door of the past. Looking at each painting in the room that had come to life there was a secret that Anna discovered. The secret was hidden in the painting of the house that she was in. The house was full of many characters from different times of life. The painting was called The Faces Within Sharing The Truth Outside. In this painting, there was one figure that did not match up with the others. She looked to be from a more recent time wearing a pair of jeans and a grey tank top looking out the front window on the right side of the door. Her hand held a paper up to the window with very small writing. Anna searched until she found a magnifying glass. She used the magnifying glass to read the small writing that said my name is the secret. After learning the secret Anna stood in front of the door with a paper on the front of the door that was covered in tiny writing that said The beginning of the middle in the past made from the future. A statue of an ear was facing out from the painting of the door in the painting next to the stairs on the left side. Anna leaned forward to whisper the secret that she had discovered into the ear.

The door opened and led to a darkened outside world. The sky had gray and black clouds mixed together. The sun was a darkened bright red that burned the eyes if Anna stared at it for too long. Grass growing from the ground was not the average grass from the normal world. It was black shiny glass growing in patches from the ground like regular grass. Anna stood staring below where she could see them swimming around like they were swimming in a pool. They were all swimming below the shiny glass growing out of the ground. Anna began to move forward out into the open. When Anna took a step forward the door behind her closed leaving her trapped in this new haunted picture that waited all around her. The door would not open at all when she tried to pull it open. Anna had no choice but to look for a way back. When Anna stepped forward again there was a loud screech this time that made her have to cover her ears. When the screech was done, the door was gone. In place of the door, was a record player sitting on a very small table. A record was already placed on the record player waiting to be played. On this record, there were words marked everywhere. An envelope rested on top of the player waiting to be opened and read.

Anna opened the envelope to discover another riddle for her to solve. The riddle was to play the song of the silence to wake the voices of those waiting to be heard. Anna heard a tap below her where she looked down to see what it was she was a pair of the brightest green eyes that she had ever seen. The young blurry lady below her reminded her of the young lady she saw looking out of the window of the house in the painting. These bright green eyes were staring back at her. The young blurry lady was pointing at the record player. Anna placed the needle of the player onto the record. There was the sound of just wind at first.

A loud cracking sound began in the ground that was just in front of Anna. There was now a hole in the ground of the grass that was made of glass. The young lady came up out of the hole with her back facing outward in slow motion. The green- eyed young lady was in a standstill motion looking as though she were still in the water below. The ground began cracking all over and people came up just as the young lady did. They were all in their spots that they had come up in at a frozen standstill. A rollercoaster in the shape of a pretzel with a tiny bite missing appeared in the air held up by nothing. There were steps leading down to the ground for people to walk up. There was carnival music except it was being played all wrong. There were skips to match the now moving people's steps. All of the holes in the ground had closed. The people walked in a shaking floating way backward to the rollercoaster. The people did not sit in the seats of the rollercoaster. Each of them stood facing the seats as what looked to be red ribbons that came up out of the ride's seats. The ribbons attached to the people's legs and arms like glue.

The sky began to yell above with a loud growl that turned out to be thunder. The lightning from the dark bluish now formed circle of clouds that just formed above the rollercoaster ride was the color of gold. It looked and sounded like the lightening was actual gold that was striking down to hit the ground. The rain began to fall from the clouds. The rain was a purple sticky substance that stuck to everything. It smelled like lavender that was getting stronger the more it rained. It was thick and fell with loud thuds like large hail falling. The clouds were beginning to stretch out in her direction.

Anna looked around until she saw behind her what looked to be a house at a little of a distance behind her. She began running to the house that was behind her as fast as she could. The closer Anna got to the house the more the shape changed. Anna was now standing in front of what she thought was a house. Looking at what was in front of her all Anna could do was stare at the odd figure that was in front of her. The house was a huge female stone head with eyes for windows and a mouth with a porch coming out and a fence going around it. The door on the mouth opened up with no light shining out of it. Looking behind her, the clouds had stopped coming her way. Another stone head of a male was at the part of the missing piece in the roller coaster pretzel. The mouth was opening just as the rollercoaster began to move. When the roller coaster reached the missing piece it just flew right into the stone heads mouth. After a few minutes, there was a tap below Anna's feet again. She looked down to see the same bright green eyes she had seen before. The young lady was pointing behind Anna. Anna turned around just as the stone heads mouth closed around her.

It was pitch black for a few minutes as the panic began to settle in. A man with a torchlight came forward to dimly light up the area where Anna was standing. He was waving for Anna to follow him down the pathway in front of him. Anna followed him without hesitation down the pathway to an edge leading out to nothing but dark water below. In the middle of the water, was a tiny boat just floating there. Anna looked at the man who she could not see that he also had letters on his shirt. The letters on his shirt spelled out the name Xabin. Xabin handed her another paper then jumped in the water below. Anna watched him come back up then swim to the boat that he climbed inside. Anna read the paper that Xabin had given her that said sometimes the only way is to jump into the emptiness below.

A strong wind began to blow behind Anna that after a few minutes knocked her into the water below. It was not cold or cool like water should be. It was warm and starting to heat up the longer she was in the water. Looking in the direction of the boat Anna could see Xabin standing in the boat staring at her. Xabin was waiting on Anna to make her way to the boat. Xabin was now pointing behind Anna for her to look back. Anna did not look she just began swimming toward the boat in the water that was now hot like being in a very hot bath. Anna made it to the boat and just as Xabin reached his hand down to pull Anna in the boat there was a very loud crash behind her. After Anna was in the boat and the boat was moving she looked in the direction of the sound. The crash was of houses falling into each other as they just kept falling into emptiness.

Anna drifted to sleep to be awakened by a hard pinch on her arm. Anna opened her eyes slowly blinking for a minute. She began to look around startled and confused for a second trying to figure out where she was. Xabin was gone and so was the boat that they had been in when she fell asleep. Anna was laying on a bed that was just floating in the air. The pinch Anna had felt was a cloud that had latched its teeth onto Anna's arm. When Anna looked at it the cloud, let go. It began trying to rest on her lap like a puppy. The little cloud pushed at her hand waiting on her to realize what it wanted. Anna realized that it wanted her to pet it. She began to pet the little cloud that loved the attention she was giving to it. It was like a cotton ball with some extra fluff to it.

Xabin from the boat was back except he was on his own bed next to hers. He had his own little cloud to keep him company. They had not spoken to each other at all. They just seemed to be traveling through this odd world together. They had reached land just as the beds turned upside down to drop them down onto the ground below. Xabin led Anna to a door in the shape of a painting frame. The painting in the frame looked like the inside of the house. It was the living room that she had been in before she ended up in this world. Xabin pointed to the painting then walked into a completely different painting. Anna stepped into the painting to be back in the living room where she had been from the start. Anna was exhausted but decided that before she went to bed she needed to step outside to get some air. Anna opened the door to step outside on the porch. The scenery changed as soon as she stepped onto the porch. Anna was in the painting of the kawanza cherry tree that turned out to be a person and not a tree.

Anna looked around trying to figure out what was going on and why she was inside of another painting. Anna realized she had never made it out of the first painting that she had stepped into. She had just been traveling from one painting to another. Anna's hair began to change to the color of the top of the tree. Her body was being changed into the tree trunk. Anna was now the full tree looking out into those same green eyes that she had seen a few times before. She was wearing a name tag that said Annabella on it. Annabella smiled at Anna as Xabin from the boat appeared inside this painting. Hand in hand Annabella and Xabin walked right out of the painting to leave the house. Anna was trapped until someone came to set her free. Looking out from the painting Anna could see a rocking chair that was not there before. The arm dangling from the rocking chair was turning into a crumbling dark red dust. The dark eyes looking back at her from the chair with the melting smile pointed with what was left of her left hand. A paper appeared inside of the painting in front of Anna. After the woman finished the rest of her crumbled into dust.

Anna was looking at the new paper that had appeared in front of her. She began to read the paper that said sometimes you should see what is reaching out to you. See with your eyes fully opened not partially opened. Anna's eyes closed as she faded into the tree to wait for someone to set her free. The new home seekers pulled into the long driveway. Annalee opened her eyes to look at the house. She looked at her husband and told him that she wanted something different. The car pulled out to drive off and not return. This lonely house is waiting for a new Anna to come along to open the doors. Is your name Anna or would you like to take Anna's place?