We are Haunted

In the family's duplex is Mrs. Lewis, a widow and mother of three whose way of life left people in the dark, she had a special room she had always restricted her three daughters from entering, despite their desire to. However, one fateful night, she finally decided to let them in, leaving them with an unforgettable memory.

The new house she built years after her husband departure stood in the center of the village. A building that left the village marveled, wondering about the sudden wealth, a question that remained a mystery.
As the family gathered in the room, a mixture of excitement filled the air. But what should have been a joyous occasion quickly turned otherwise when everything took a dark turn, leaving her daughters afraid.

"Mother, why are we here? I thought you said we are only going to have a fun night with you today."

"Erita, we are here because this is where we should all be as a family."

"No mom, you are only with me, Riam and Mari aren't here. I don't like the sight of this place. We have to leave mum, don't you think so? Mother, why are you shedding tears?"

"Am I? Now you have to follow me to where I would want to show you."

"Mum, I'm scared. We shouldn't be here. We have to leave now!”

"Hahahahahahaha, follow me Erita, you must follow me!!!" She said forcefully as she dragged her wrist.

"Mum, stop!!! You are hurting me! Let me go please," Erita cried out in severe pain as she woke up from her sleep only to see her mother lying just close beside her lifeless.

Riam, the eldest sister, took control, guiding her siblings towards the door in an attempt to escape. As they approached the door, Erita heard a voice.

"Did you hear that? Mother just requested we continue playing her music," Erita said.

"Come on, we have to get out of here, your imagination is playing with you and that can instigate fear in all of us," Riam said as she dragged her youngest sister, Mira.

Mira, whose love for her mother was unquenchable, still saw everything as a joke and refused to leave the room with her sisters as she laid beside her crying for her return. Riam, the eldest who understood the incident more than her younger ones, had to act protective.

Source

After all efforts to make her sisters understand that the body lying on the bed would never wake up proved abortive, she had no choice but to drag Mira to the door while Erita followed, looking all confused with the dream she had.

Getting to the door, it was locked, an act that left Erita scarier than ever.

"Riam, what's going on? You have to do something to get that door open,” Erita asked fearfully.

"It was never locked when we got here. What is happening? Does the mother's room have an automatic lock we don't know?" Riam asked in a very confused state with fear running down her spine too.

"Hey, everyone, look. The music box is hanging in the air," Mira shouted in a fearful manner, with her hands wrapped around her sister's waist.

"Are we being haunted in our own mother's house? I'm getting confused with the whole happenings. Maybe there is something mother didn't tell us about this place," Erita said fearfully as she narrated her dreams to her sisters, as she couldn't harbor it to herself any longer.

Fear clouded their soul as they mourned the loss of their beloved mother. Riam needed to protect her siblings from being hurt, but how would she succeed in making that possible since the door was locked, and they obviously couldn't fly out through the window?

"I think mum is trying to make us strong and get adapted to living in this house all to ourselves. Remember how we had always feared staying alone whenever mum left us to get groceries. Maybe all this going on tonight will get us strong enough to conquer our fears. We just need to prove to mum we can surprise her by getting our eyes closed. I believe whatever wants to consume us will do so without us knowing since our eyes are closed instead of keeping our eyes open and getting scared to death," those were the words Riam had to convince her siblings to stay calm.

Immediately, the two siblings surrounded their elder sister's side as their only source of protection. With her instruction, they all closed their eyes in a sitting position and slept off in that spot, only to wake up the next morning seeing the door wide open, a magic that left them in shock.

It was a fresh day, and Riam and her siblings rushed to her mother's only brother, who after listening to the girls' stories, informed them it wasn't ordinary.

Riam, who felt her uncle was trying to tarnish her mother's image and make a mockery of her because she was gone, confronted her uncle angrily, refusing to let him follow them to the house.

But Erita tried to encourage her sister to be patient and understand everyone is confused. Mira, who was confused by everything going on, found solace in Riam. Their Uncle, knowing how traumatized the whole situation had been on the girls, tried to take things easy with them. Together they journeyed back to the house.

Getting there, the door was already shut with blood inscription "let the dead bury the dead. No entry!!!"

"Your mother's house is now a haunted house, and the only thing we can do now is to find the reason behind that,” their uncle said.

"How do we do that?" Erita asked curiously.

"The only person that can see beyond the physical is Amadioha, and we have to rush there as fast as we can." Together, they journeyed to the shrine.

"Hahahahahahahaha, I didn't have to wait this long. I knew you people would find me. Maybe I would have granted her longer days to live before her due date, but she disobeyed my orders."

Riam shouted in her last voice, "don't tell me you are the cause of my mother's death!!" She said as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Hey, Riam, you have to watch how you speak. You don't speak to the gods in that manner," her uncle tried to calm her down.

"Your mother came for what no one could offer to her, and I offered everything that can make life fun and exciting, but she refused to listen to simple instructions."

"What instructions because my mother told us everything we enjoyed was luck and luck can shine on anyone,” Mira cut him from speaking further.

"hahahaha, that was where she played you girls like kids you are. She got everything from the only source. “The giver and the taken”, I warned her of that special room meant for only her and the gods, but she broke the single rule she promised to keep."

"Were you the reason behind my horrible dream last night?" Erita asked, infuriated.

"Your mother was only trying to appease the gods by tagging you along with her, but your spirit was too strong and your hands were clean of impurities."

"Return for her spirit is mine. Do with her body whatever you will. To get into the house, you have to appease the gods, add salt in water and sprinkle that on the door three times and repeat "mother's house" three times. Only that way you can get into the house unharmed and get her body out of the house," Amadioha warned them strictly on the instructions.

As they returned, the family members gathered with the villagers as the ritual was performed, and her body was taken out and buried. Immediately the body was taken out, the door shut on its own with an inscription, "mother's house belongs to me." As they laid their mother to rest and left behind the haunted house that had once been their home, the sisters found themselves beginning afresh with their uncle's support,