Deal with the devil

Dos

“What happened, Maria?” Iphigeneia asked as she came back into the dining area of the kitchen.

“You’re right. He’s already asleep. I didn’t want to disturb the old man when he was sleeping, but he suddenly woke up, or at least he opened one of his eyes – a pale blue eye with a film over it – he looked sick – but then he closed it again, and went back to sleep,” she said.

“Just let him rest more, he needs to recuperate some strength if he is sick,” said Iphigeneia.

“You’re right. But I also feel guilty that I’ve left him more or less alone in this old villa and gone to work in the city.”

“But how could you ever find a job in this out-of-the-way place, if you don’t mind me saying,” Iphigeneia said bluntly.

“I know. But still, I feel sorry that I can’t personally take care of him,” she said sadly.

“Well, we’re here now. You can look after him as long as we’re here,” Iphigeneia replied, trying to cheer up her friend.

“Yes. So are you done eating?” she asked, changing the topic.

“Yes. I’ll just clean up this mess,” Iphigeneia replied, starting to pick up the dirty plates.

“That’s okay, Iphigeneia. Leave it.”

“Don’t worry. It’s nothing.”

“No just leave it I said – okay?!!” Maria said, raising her voice angrily.

Iphigeneia was shocked and surprised at Maria’s sudden outburst.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that – just leave it – ok. The caretaker will clean it up. Just follow me upstairs so we can both get some rest,” she said in a milder tone, trying to make up for her sudden angry outburst.

~

Maria had shown Iphigeneia to her room, where she was now lying in bed. But she was unable to sleep, and her mind dwelled on the events of the day. She couldn’t understand Maria’s sudden outburst.

She had never heard her raise her voice in anger like that before. Iphigeneia tried to explain it to herself by thinking that her friend must be tired.

Iphigeneia’s thoughts turned to the old villa. She’d now be spending some days in this mansion of gloom. She wondered whether the atmosphere of the place had taken hold of her, so that she was no longer able to rationally perceive her surroundings.

Because, in her imagination, she felt that there hung a peculiar atmosphere about the whole villa and domain, which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which reeked of decayed matter; and the walls were ingrained with a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull and sluggish, it seemed to her.

She had taken in the prospect of the villa when they had approached it in the car – its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages was great.

There was indication of extensive decay – minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet despite the dilapidated state of the building, no portion of the masonry had fallen.

Wrapped up in these thoughts, Iphigeneia thought she could very well be in one of the haunted houses in the numerous stories and horror movies she had read and seen such as The Fall of the House of Usher and Bluebeard.

However, Iphigeneia wasn’t worried by her thoughts, she promised herself that the next day she would become a tourist and visit various places of interest in the location.

She had even heard there was a beautiful and scenic beach not far away. With such pleasant thoughts running through her mind, she started to drift off to sleep.

But Iphigeneia hadn’t been sleeping that long when she was awoken by some noises. She lifted herself up on the pillows, and, peering earnestly into the intense darkness of the chamber, she could hear certain low and indefinite sounds, which came through the pauses of the storm, which raged outside.

The sounds increased in volume and became more discernible. It was someone or something scratching behind the wall in the vicinity of the antique closet at the opposite side of the room. She looked at the old grandfather clock ticking away, and saw that it was three in the morning.

She tried to ignore the sounds and went back to sleep. But, she hadn’t been sleeping long before she was awoken once again by the scratching, which was getting louder now.

The scratching turned into a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly inhuman—a howl—a wailing shriek of horror, such as might have arisen only out of hell, from the throats of the dammed in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.

Iphigeneia decided to explore where these horrendous sounds were coming from. It almost sounded like the sound of some cat buried behind the walls. Or perhaps it was just her imagination, and the scratching sounds were just rats scurrying back and forth within the walls of this dilapidated old villa.

The only way to solve this conundrum was to inspect the closet and the wall behind it. The lighting was very dim in the room – she couldn’t see any hole or anything in the wall, so she tried peeking behind the old closet.

And there she saw a part of the wall that had been newly plastered over as if to cover up something. However, she needed to move the closet, if she was to free the cat that she imagined was imprisoned within.

Using the strength of her whole body, she started to push the heavy old closet, with the expectation of being able to reveal access to the wall behind. However, before she accomplished this task, she heard a large bang outside her door.

“What the hell was that?” She frantically asked herself.

She immediately ran to the door to check what had happened. She grabbed at the handle of the door, which suddenly opened. Maria appeared perspiring profusely. Iphigeneia invited her inside, and they sat down on the edge of the bed together.

“What was that loud bang I heard?” She immediately asked Maria in a panic.

“That was nothing. Don’t mind that,” Maria just said.

“Are you sure? That was a pretty loud bang, and why are you sweating profusely?”

“Uhm—I was just working out, because I can’t get to sleep,” she explained unconvincingly.

“It’s three in the morning for heaven’s sake,” said Iphigeneia.

“Is that so? You should sleep then, because we need to get up early,” Maria said.

“Alright. I’ll get back to sleep,” Iphigeneia said.

Maria was on her way out, when Iphigeneia remembered the scratching sounds behind the wall.

“Wait a sec, Maria. Earlier I heard some strange sounds coming from the wall, near the old closet,” she said.

“What sounds?” Maria asked, curiously.

“It was like a scratching sound. Perhaps it was some rodents or large insects or something like that?” said Iphigeneia.

“How now, maybe a rat? Maybe it was a rat? Don’t worry I’ll check it in the morning, okay?” she just said, and left the room.

Iphigeneia then went back to bed and tried to sleep, hoping she would hear no more scratching noises.