Chapter 63: Flora's High School

The whole south wing looked forbidding to Flora. She had not gone to all the areas of the house and had seen only the rooms where she had worked including the laundry area, the kitchen and the dining room, but there was something about the silence and the atmosphere of the south wing that made her a bit more nervous than usual. For one thing, it was darker than the other places she had been to, lending much to its ominous atmosphere. There were only a few lightbulbs on the ceiling that shed just small circles of focused light on the carpet. The plants and decorations casted eerie shadows and patterns on the walls and it was not quite easy to imagine peering eyes and dark faces looking and sneering at her.

Flora had not felt the same feeling since high school when she and Perlita were forced to stay later than their classmates to clean the classroom as punishment for coming in late from recess. They had become so engrossed with sharing stories and recalling the movie they had just seen