It's Not What It Seemed

I looked proudly at my newly purchased loafers. It's a heeled loafers, and I really liked it. I saw it on an online shopping platform, and it's on sale, so I gladly took the bait! I purchased it without really having a thorough check on the reviews.

It arrived unexpectedly while I'm still at the first day of our shooting for a school performance task. I'm the scriptwriter, so I was really needed there because I need to help them whenever they needed to do revisions with the lines.

I picked up my backpack and scanned myself for quite some time. I looked at myself on the mirror and turned around until I'm completely satisfied.

"Ma, I'm going now!", I called my mother.

She's in my aunt's house, and it's pretty much across ours, so we somehow shouted whenever we're talking in distance.

"Do you already have the fare?", she shouted back.

I rummaged my backpack and I fished out my purse. I opened it and smiled.

"Yes, Ma!", I answered.

"Okay, take care. Don't be out too late, and don't go somewhere else after your shooting."

"Yes, Ma... Understood," I assured her.

"Bye then! Don't forget to eat your lunch! And your meds, don't forget to take them."

"Yes, Ma. Take care also, and yes, I will not forget about my meds! Byeeee!", I said while waving at her.

I locked the door and closed it gently. I gaze upwards, and sighed. The sun immediately beams at me, and of 'course I beam back at it.

'Ohh... It's gonna be a nice day with my new loafers!'

Or so I thought.

---

The whole day passes without much delay during the shooting process. They're already speeding up the scenes that will be taken here in this old house because somehow they insist that they felt something eerie from it.

I'm not really a hundred percent believer in paranormal stuff, but I do have a fair share of unusual experiences with supernaturals. However, I choose not to dwell on that because that will only instill fear in me, and that will consequently ruin my experience here.

It's almost 5:00 p.m. when we finish our shooting near the abandoned pool. I stayed for a while near the shade of the small bougainvillea in the playground. There are still some of my classmates lingering near the pool—some of them exploring the ruined greenhouse while most of them posing near the brightly colored bougainvillea that thrived near the pool area.

"Hey Gette, can you take a picture of us?", a voice called.

I whirled around and saw it's Elym. I smiled and nodded. She handed me her cellphone, and I immediately looked for a nice angle to capture them.

"Okay—wait, could you move a little bit there? It's against the light, and I don't want to make you look dark...", I instructed while adjusting the camera.

"Here?"

"No... There.. Move a bit to your right... Yes, that's it. Perfect!"

"Now—on the count of three, two, one—smileeee!", I exclaimed as I clicked the camera button instantaneously.

"Good, here—kindly choose the best shots. I'm not really good at taking photos, so pardon me, my ladies," I joked as I handed Elym her phone.

She laughed. "Oh please, Gette, don't act like that! Anyway, we'll be going back to the mansion. Aren't you heeding back now?"

"I'll stay here for a bit because I wanna relax here... You see, it's been crowded here earlier, and now I can enjoy it to myself!"

"Okay! See you then!"

"See you there, Elym! You too, Cate!"

They waved at me as they heeded back the doorway of the mansion.

I then proceeded to the monkey bars to hang out for a while. I was humming my favorite song and was just dangling from the monkey bars when I felt somebody push me.

I chuckled because I thought it was just my classmates who were pushing me.

"Hey you skanks! Cut it out. I'm relaxing here," I said as I tried to peer over my shoulders to see who it was.

But before I could turn my head, my body swung, but this time it's much stronger.

"Hey! Hey! Cut it out! This isn't fun anymore!", I shouted. My body continued swinging due to a strong force that kept on pushing me.

I continued pleading for it to stop. I know it's definitely one of my height-deficient classmates because I could easily see who was pushing me if he or she is tall.

I continued swinging until my knee bumped the hard metal of the semi-circle monkey bars. That's where I loosened my grip from the monkey bars. I tried landing safely, but unfortunately my loafers gave in to my weight.

I yelped in pain as my ankle buckled. I landed butt first on the ground, and for a few seconds I sat dazely, but the moment I snapped out, my anger immediately swelled. I turned around to see who the skank pushed me, but my anger was soon replaced with confusion.

'I'm alone here...'

I slowly stood up and saw all of my classmates were on the front doorway. They're all busy packing their stuff. I whirled around and saw the gate of the pool locked from outside.

'So it's just me all this time?'

A chill ran over my spine, then I remembered the rumors from the residents near that mansion.

"It's a beautiful house, so why did the owner abandon it? I mean, it's such a waste! Why would you spend millions for renovations just to abandon it, right?", my classmate asked curiously.

The woman looked at the mansion pensively, then answered, "There's no such thing as a perfect mansion as roses without thorns because it is said that that house is a cursed one. Owner after owner would abandon it because misfortunes would befall on them and their family. The latest owner lost her husband and her children got sick, so she just left that house and went to another place."

"Is that really true?"

The other woman sighed and shook her head. "Well, no one knows... But would you abandon a beautiful mansion if it isn't cursed?"

'Cursed?'

My confusion gradually disappeared, and later on it was replaced with fear. Without hesitation, I stood up and ran towards the mansion. When I arrived, I calmed myself because if they knew what happened to me, they'd panicked too. I uttered a prayer silently to calm my senses.

To distract myself, I arranged my stuff, and that's where I noticed a slight pain from my ankle. I looked at my new loafers and frowned.

Its heels almost came off, and I was really disappointed in how it turned out. For the remaining time in that mansion, I just browsed my phone to divert my attention from that incident. But I could resist the temptation to check it out for the last time.

I looked at the monkey bars and saw my classmates nonchalantly sitting there. I'm glad that they didn't know what happened to me there, because if they knew, they wouldn't be sitting there carelessly. They too would have experienced the fear that I experienced.

When it's almost time to leave the mansion, I took some pictures of it. The mansion looks so beautiful and dreamy from afar, and to be honest, you couldn't guess anything unusual from it. But like the beautiful loafers that came into ruin that day, it changed into something uncomfortable.

As the last ray of light disappeared into the horizon, I looked back at it.

Gone were the dreamy mansion facade, and now devoid of light, it stands forbidding. Waiting and biding for the next owner to come.

And indeed, behind its mysterious beauty hides a pricking truth.