Emanuele Stefanori & Michela Guida, translated into English by Ruth Stephens
Chapter 6 – Help!
With his elbows resting on the kitchen sink Paolo watches the water flowing from the tap. He takes a deep breath, fills a glass and drinks it all in one gulp. His hands are trembling, his knees likewise. In an effort to calm himself, he washes his face in the cold water.
Sitting on a kitchen chair, he remains immobile, staring into space. The minutes pass, one, two, maybe ten, Paolo doesn’t know how long he has been sitting there, as if hypnotized.
“It’s not possible. There’s no such thing as ghosts. There’s no one in this house except me,” he tells himself over and over.
Getting up to fetch another glass of water he goes over to the window. He’s about to open it when he hears the sound of running water. He turns instinctively towards the sink , but the tap is turned off.
“Oh, no, not again!”
Paolo doesn‘t know whether to venture upstairs again or whether to try and ignore the sound. But the water keeps running, unchecked and at times accompanied by a metallic sound, like that of a chain. It‘s impossible to pretend nothing is happening.
“Is anyone there?” he calls, in the grip of panic But there’s no reply.
Almost on the brink of tears, he steps onto the bottom stair. And at that moment he catches sight of an old, black and white photograph on the wall on his right. A man of about fifty and a beautiful woman with sad eyes stare back at him.. Turning his eyes from those two figures he continues upwards, still conscious of their presence behind him.
Reaching the top of the stairs he clenches his fist and then realises he has nothing in his hand.
“Oh, no! I left the rolling pin in the kitchen!”
By now he’s outside the bathroom and it’s clear the noise is coming from there. Slowly he pushes the door open. The room is in semi-darkness. To his left the sound of the water suddenly increases in intensity. Paolo is about to turn his head in that direction when he hears a bloodcurdling scream and sees an ill-defined figure coming towards him.
The figure is wrapped in a white sheet and moves in a jerky, aggressive way. Paolo tries frantically to get out of the room. He’s almost in the corridor when, behind the white sheet he sees a face: huge dark eyes, black streaks as from tears, mouth wide open.
It’s a terrifying sight. The young man, scared out of his wits, can feel his heart thudding in every part of his body and is so gripped by fear that he can’t even manage to scream. He descends the stairs at the speed of light, his only thought being to escape from the monster and from that house.
Back in his own bedroom, Paolo is shaking with fear.
“This is not just a silly legend. The ghost really exists, many people have seen it…..trust us, there’s still time to get away from that house!”
The words of the restaurant owner now have real meaning; he was right – it’s not a joke.
Without any hesitation, Paolo collects his things together, closes his suitcase and in a few minutes is outside that benighted villa.