Warmth of the sunlight

I left my house and parents simply because I wanted to be alone. I eagerly wanted to go someplace where no pony know me and die alone. When I graduated I purposely picked a college extremely far away from home. I did feel a bit sorry for abandoning my hometown and leaving my parents behind, but I had a lot of siblings. It shouldn’t be too much trouble for them to lose a useless son like me.

To live alone, I need a house first. (Author: You don’t say) One of my uncles had an abandoned house, so I decided to go check it out.

In fact, this is the first time I had ever talked to my uncle. We chatted, but it was very forced and broken. It wasn’t because that we didn’t have much common topic to talk about. It was simply because I was not the type of pony who could become friends with another.

“I’ve heard a pony drowning in the lake not too long ago. Rumor said he got drunk and fell over.” My uncle said as he pointed his hoof out of the train window.

I followed his hooves. Behind the trees and leaves that were moving backwards, I saw the small lake reflecting the color of the gloomy sky.

“Huh.”

I immediately regretted what I said right away.  I should have acted a bit more surprised. He was probably expecting my shocked face.

“Aren’t you surprise that some pony had died?”

“Well no, ponies die everywhere every day, right?”

My uncle sighed as if he was relieved, back then I didn’t think much of it. Maybe he thought that I was lame to talk to, so we continued our journey without much conversation, which didn’t make me feel uncomfortable or awkward at all. In fact, I was kind of happy not have to come up with things to say. It was tiring trying to fit in a conversation, why don’t I just live alone in the future? When I walk, I tried my best to not walk in the middle of the road. I should just live the rest of my life with the curtains over the window, and I would be totally fine with it.

The house was a two floor wooden house. I trotted around it and end up where I started quickly, and I was happy that the house was tiny. It had a tiny front yard, and I could see some green hoses on the side.

I stepped inside and to my great surprise, there were a lot of furniture. I thought the house was empty and abandoned, but right now it felt like I have stepped into some other pony’s house.

“Had there been any pony living here before?”

“I rented it to a friend’s friend. She passed away already. Since she didn’t have relatives, no pony came and cleaned up the furniture. ”

It looked like uncle didn’t want to talk much about it, so I decided to shut up.

The house gave this feeling as if some pony was living her normally not too long ago, but then she suddenly disappeared. Old film calendar, posters on the wall, eating utensils, books, records… everything left by the previous pony who lived here was still in place.

“Feel free to use any of the furniture, since the owner is already gone.” My uncle said, and then he left to do his own business.

I walked upstairs and found the previous owner’s bedroom. The curtains were opened and the room was warm and bright. There were photos on the small desk next to the bed. I picked them up and saw a happy orange filly smiling at me. On the side of the desk there was a plant. It was still alive, and not dusty at all. It almost looked like some pony cleans up the place every day, which was quite strange to me.

I hate sunlight, so I closed the curtains and explored the other room.

One of the room upstairs was a dark room. Inside there was a lot of photo printing equipments. I guess the previous owner was a photographer, and she was pretty professional as well. I looked around and found a few albums with photos of kitties, puppies and happy children. I wanted to throw them away, but thinking that the previous owner put a lot of efforts into these, I decided to just shove them into the drawer.

I walked out of the room and found the bedroom bright and sunny again. I remember closing the curtains, but somepony opened them again. Could it be my uncle? I wasn’t sure. I convinced myself it was either he or the rail was unleveled, and I closed the curtain again.

I moved in days before the semester started. I didn’t have much luggage since I only need some cloth for change.

The first time I heard the cat meow what that day. I was just hanging around in the living room, and then I heard the meow of a kitten coming from a corner of the backyard. At first I thought it belongs to the neighbor, but then suddenly a white kitty ran into the room. Maybe it was hiding somewhere where I was first here. It looked like it was the pet of the previous owner, still living here even though its owner was gone. I watched it jogged around the room, the bell on its collar jingling.

At first I didn’t know what to do with him. My uncle didn’t tell me about this “buy a house and get a free cat” deal. At first I wanted to live alone, but now I have to deal with this cat as well. I wanted to just toss him out, but then I changed my mind and decided to keep him.

The second day, my neighbor Granny Wood came over and visited me. She stood at the door and chatted for what felt like years. I really tried to avoid contact with neighbors, but since she was already here I couldn’t just kick her out. She came over riding a bike that makes funny noises, and one could hear the sound of metal clinching and rubbing against each other from miles away. At first it was really annoying, but then I just decided to think of it as a new type of music instrument.

“I think my bike is about to break.” She said to me.

I think it’s already beyond repair. I thought, but of course I didn’t say it.

But when we shift topic to the previous owner I would find myself actually listening. She was a young Pegasus named Sunny Wings. She had always walked around with her camera, taking photos of the neighborhood. She had pretty good reputation for being a kind and position mare. However three weeks ago, she was murdered at her front door, and the murderer was still unknown.

She looked at the floor I was standing on. I realized that I was standing right where she died, so I panicked and took a step back. This is freakin cheating, my uncle never mentioned about this. It’s not even that long ago.

“She passed away so suddenly, her cat must be so troubled, who will feed him now?”

She said so as she left, riding her ridiculously loud pike.

I don’t see how the kitten was trouble. It was healthy as if some pony was feeding it every day on time. There were opened cat food in the garbage can, and they looked fresh. Did some pony broke in and fed the kitten?

The kitten didn’t seem to notices that sunny wings had left. He lived his normal life normally like nothing had happened. I find it hard to explain, other than the fact that the kitten might be just extremely stubborn and stupid.

But the more I looked at it the more strange it looked. The kitten acted as if somepony close to him was right there. At first I thought it was my imagination, but there were just too many strange things with him.

Sometimes he would look up at the air and raise his ears. He would also close his eyes and meow in joy as if somepony was petting him. He would also try to rub himself against the air, and then fell as he hit nothing. And then he would run around the house as if he was chasing something, jingling his bell. It looked like he thought Sunny was still living here, and he was actually surprised and puzzled at my existence.

At first he wouldn’t eat what I feed him, but soon he accepted the cat food I fed him.

One day after I came back from the school, I found the kitten sleeping in the living room. He really liked an old shirt from the previous owner, and he was using it like a small bed. I tried to take the shirt, but he quickly picked up the shirt with his teeth and ran away. He considered the shirt more important than anything else.

In the living room there was a TV and a small wooden table. On the top of the TV there were a lot of cat shaped decorations, but I have already put them away. The TV was playing a new episode of “My little human”. I turned the TV off and walked upstairs.

I left Sunny’s room the way it was and turned another room into my own bedroom. It felt a bit unusual to sleep in the bed of some pony who was already dead. Every time I walk by the front door, I would think about Sunny who died right there. There was no witness of the murder, but people nearby did hear her arguing with another colt.

I found the album left by Sunny and decided to take a look, and my mood immediately turned gloomy. Sunny seemed to enjoy walking around town and taking photos of everything she saw. She took photos of her happy neighbors, and the photos were filled with joy and happiness. She must’ve been a very positive pony, a total different ponyality from me.

I felt a bit hungry so I went downstairs and decided to get some food, but then I heard the sound of TV coming in from the dining room. I remembered turning it off, but now it’s on again. Was it broken? I walked over and saw “My little human” playing, the room was empty except the kitten who was sleeping on the sofa.

Same thing happened the second day. As soon as it was time for the show, the TV would turn on by itself even if I was not home. Even if I change the channel, the remote would be been moved and the channel would be change back. I thought the TV was broken, but it didn’t feel that way. It was almost like there were some pony who was watching me, and slip in and change the channel when I was not looking. And every time when the show was playing, the kitten would always jump on the sofa, looking as if he was lying against his owner. I felt like there was somepony other than me living here, who watched “My little human” and was the real owner of the kitten.

Sometimes when I was eating I could feel somepony looking at me from the back. I turned around, but I only saw the kitten napping on the floor nearby.

I always close the curtains. The sound of bird singing makes me want to shut my eyes. The only thing that could make me feel calm and peaceful was darkness and cold air. But when I wasn’t looking, the curtain would be opened as if somepony was telling me to open the window and let in some fresh air. I looked all over the house, but I couldn’t find anypony.

Once I was looking for the salt. I thought that Sunny should have it in the house, so I didn’t went out to buy any.

“Salt… salt…” I murmured. And suddenly when I turned around, I found the bottle of salt resting in the center of the table. It wasn’t there just a few seconds ago. It was as if somepony knew where the salt was, and they couldn’t stand watching this college newbie anymore and found it for me. And I could have only one guess about this.

It must have been Sunny. Her ghost was still here. Since she showed no sign of harm, I decided to not move out right now.