Part 3

The door is shut tight, but I can hear Abigail on the other side. She's shuffling around on the floor. It's a weird scraping sound - like sandpaper on carpet - and I can hear her breathing and a combination between a moan and a tuneless hum.

I wanted to call in to her and introduce myself, but when I opened my mouth, it went dry and I found that anxiety had gripped my throat. I couldn't talk to her.

I left the upstairs as quietly as I came.

 

I just heard a knock at the door. I know that the rules said not to answer it, but I'm at least going to take a look through the peephole.

 

Nobody was there. I swear I heard someone rapping at the door, but when I looked through the hole, nothing was there.

I'm going through the ground floor now. I've got about fifteen minutes until I need to feed Abigail, so I'm spending the next ten trying to see what I can find.

I think I found Miss Yates's room. It wasn't locked, so I went in. It's extremely tidy - to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being a guest room. There's a bathroom connected to it, but the toilet doesn't have any water in it, and the bathtub is brown with hard water stains.

In the corner of her room, she has a big vanity table, and there are a bunch of papers on it. They look like letters or something.

Holy shit! This is a copy of my post from a few days ago! The one that was taken down...

There's another one of my post from Tuesday! I think this is Gwendolyn's handwriting... it matches the letters that I got with all the rules...

 

It's time to feed Abigail.

The food she has me giving her is this reddish-gray mush-looking stuff. It reminds me of pig slop. Miss Yates has them all portioned out in plastic containers. Next to the fridge is a big stack of plastic trays - like the ones you eat off of in elementary school. She told me to feed Abigail one portion on a plastic tray every hour.

Just like she told me before she left, I slid the tray with the mush under the tiny gap beneath the door.

 

Holy shit, she just started screaming!

It's fucking loud!

Oh shit, I forgot my picture!!!

 

I just slid my baby picture under the door and she stopped screaming almost immediately. I can't believe I forgot that! I need to pay better attention instead of trying to write this all down.

I've never heard a kid make that kind of sound though... It was an angry scream from the back of the throat, like a dog's growl but more high-pitched and human.

I can hear her eating now. She's slurping away and sniffing at something.

 

I went back downstairs. I couldn't stand listening to her any longer. It reminded me of the time I watched the animals at the zoo as they were fed by their handlers. Next hour, I'm just going to feed her and leave. The sounds she makes are unnerving, and being alone in this house isn't helping.

I've been trying to watch TV, but I can't get into anything. I don't think I can sit still for very long - I'm all sorts of anxious. Those copies of my posts in Gwendolyn's room are really getting in my head.

 

I just heard another knock, but I don't think it came from the door this time. I think it came from one of the locked bedrooms upstairs.

I went up there and called out, but nobody called back. There are three other rooms aside from Abigail's that are all padlocked. I'm thinking it came from the one closest to the stairs, but I can't see anything when I put my head on the ground and look under the door. Not even light shows through.

 

Doing that gave me an idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but Abigail's door doesn't sit against the floor. There's another inch or so beneath it so I can slide the trays down. I'm going to see what I can see under the door.

 

There's a little girl in there for sure! That's about all I can make out though... There are plastic trays from her hourly feeding littering the back of the room, but I saw her feet. She's wearing pink slippers and a cream-colored nightgown and she's shuffling back and forth from one side of the room to another, muttering or humming or whatever it is she's doing.

I know what the rules say, but I'm starting to feel bad for her. She's been locked in there for god knows how long, and I don't think there's a bathroom or anything for her... I might want to call somebody after this is all over.

 

Shit! I just heard another knock from that room by the stairs!

I didn't notice it before, but when I turned around in response to the noise, I noticed an attic entrance at the top of the stairs.

I went downstairs and found a flashlight in a drawer in the kitchen. The hatch doesn't have a lock on it, so I think I'm safe to go up.

It's all sorts of dusty up here. There are storage boxes covered in dust everywhere up here. I went through one and found that it was full of baby pictures. They all seemed to be of infants, but the date range was enormous. There are pictures from the 1920s in here, and all of the babies are not even a year old. I wonder if my picture is going to be added to them. The thought gives me chills.

I just heard a thump on the other side of the hall. I'm pretty sure it came from Abigail's room. I'm going to see if I can get over to her ceiling from here.

 

Okay, I'm over her room now. It looks like small holes have been punched in the ceiling, like mice or termites have been gnawing away at parts of it. I'm going to see if I can see Abby from here.

 

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. I'm out of the attic and I'm never going back there! She saw me, I think! Or at least, she knew I was there. I looked into one of the holes and saw her standing there. She's small and has brown hair that covered her face in oily clumps. She was sitting in the corner of the room, holding my baby picture intently and muttering something. She suddenly stopped muttering and looked up at the ceiling. I have no idea how she could have known I was there, but she did! She looked up just as normally as if I'd called her name. She stood up and sniffed at the air and as she looked further up and got closer to me, her hair started to fall away from her face. She HAS NO EYES!

There are just flat flaps of skin where her eyes should be, but nothing else! Her eyeless gaze held mine, sharing a moment of pure terror, and I know it sounds crazy, but I think she could still see me somehow.

I got out of the attic as soon as I could, but I don't think it was soon enough. She began to scream again and I ran downstairs. It's much louder than the first and I can feel the vibrations from the noise in my chest. I turned the television on as loud as I could, just like the instructions said.

The noise is giving me a headache, but I can't seem to get the screaming to stop!