Nikor was back in the past, in the times when Paize was still with her in the house. She was chasing Paize up the aged staircase, both full of laughter and smiles. As they stepped onto the second floor of the house, they continued to race to the playroom and as Nikor caught up with Paize, they both tripped into the wall, where the bookcases stood. A slight click sounded as the wall to their left started to slide, revealing a dark and narrow staircase leading to what seems like nowhere.
    Paize looked at Nikor. “Auntie, what’s this?” she asked innocently.
“I don’t believe we should go down there, Pay. I don’t know where it goes and it may not be safe.” Nikor was eyeing the passageway carefully. They had only been staying in the house for 3 months and things were fine. This doorway was certainly not included in the contract and Nikor didn’t know what to make of it. She started to tug at Paize’s arm to pull her away from the thing, but curiosity took the better of her and she wanted to explore the place.
“Please Auntie, we can be quick I’m sure it’s nothing too bad.” Paize was seemingly curious as well. 
Nikor considered it for a couple of moments. Maybe it won’t be so bad if I checked it out to see if it was safe. I would need to do that sooner or later, and preference would be the former. “Ok, fine. But if we ever run into trouble, you run right out. Do you hear me, Paize?” she said with one last thought.
“Alright, I hear you. Let’s go already.” Excitement bled into Paize’s voice. She wasn't used to much adventure and this was indeed one in her mind.
    The only light source they had on-hand was the candle set in the center of the room. Nikor picked it up, lit it using a box of matches, and carried it slowly to the door. She took Paize’s meager hand and they shuffled towards the stairwell, both not knowing what to expect at the end, if there even was one at all.

Nikor was sent back to a time when Paize and her were exploring the unknown of the hidden corridor. Candle in hand, and Paize’s young hand in the other, Nikor led them both down the disintegrating stairway. This was possibly the thousandth time they have both been down there, but mysteriously every time they enter the area, it seems to change. One day it could be made of dirt, as if the groundhogs had dug the large tunnel themselves. Another day, it could have changed to a room fit for even the grandest of them all, set with lavish furniture and elegant decorations. Today, it was a simple playroom.
    “Can we stay in here all day, Auntie? I wanna play all the games before the room changes again,” Paize said with excitement in her voice.
    After considering it for a moment, “Perhaps, but we shall return for lunch,” was what came off of Nikor’s lips.
    They were having the most magnificent time when all of a sudden, Nikor bumped the burning candle and it knocked it over. Flames started growing and before long, the room was engulfed in a blaze.
    “Auntie, what should we do?” Paize’s voice was swamped with fear. Frantically, her eyes dashed back and forth, looking for an exit, even though she knew quite clearly there was only one.
    Nikor started to clear a path from herself to the staircase. Looking over to Paize, she realized that the burning game pieces around her had caught the flames and formed a circle around Paize, making it impossible to leave.
    Wailing and flailing her arms, Paize screamed. “I’m so scared! Take me out of here!” Paize’s cries soon turned to whispers as Nikor watched her niece burn to ashes. The staircase seemed to be resistant of the fire. Tears rolled down her face yet her body made no move to try to save Paize. She didn’t run up to the sink and fill up a bucket of water. She didn’t attempt to call help, even if it was miles away. She didn’t stop to think of a solution. She just stood there, staring at the now ashes of her dead niece. This was how Paize went missing. This was why she never thought about the past again.
She had killed Paize.

There are the types of dreams where you wake up and you want to go back to that world and stay there for all eternity. Others make you glad that you reality pulled you back. The dream that Nikor had this night was perhaps a third type of dream. She didn’t know whether she wanted to risk being awake or going back to sleep since both had its own perils.
    The dream went like so: Nikor was walking into the master bedroom of the house, about to take a shower. This house wasn’t exactly a very modern house. The bathroom had a slight damp smell of wet oak wood and the lights were a shade of heated yellow and dimmed so dark that during the day, the sun would be brighter than having the lights on. Before she could turn the water on in the shower, a black shadow flew by her. Nikor twisted around and stepped out, eyes sweeping the room for whatever it was she saw. Before her heart had a chance to slow down, she saw Paize.
    But it wasn’t Paize.
    Paize didn’t have skin that looked like melted wax. Paize wasn’t scorched until bone was visible to the eye. Paize didn’t have a slit in her throat from her desperate shrieks of help. But there she was, standing there, deformed.
    “Hello, Auntie,” it said with a twitch of an eye, or what seemed to be an eye, for Nikor could barely make out body parts for blood. Nikor started to tremble.
    “Wh-what are you doing here, Paize?” A human could never want to wake up this badly more, Nikor had no idea what was happening.  Nikor’s voice dipped at the last word.
    “I know why you hit the candle onto the floor. I know why you never told anyone. I was having a wonderful time in the room, weren’t you? And yet you called the whole thing an ‘accident.’”
    No, it was an accident. I bumped the candle over, that is all, Nikor thought with terror.
Paize glided over to Nikor without warning. It didn’t even need to walk. It’s grotesque legs couldn’t take it very far, Nikor assumed. The knees were bent inwards, burns unimaginable. Nikor didn’t need any more details about the monstrosity and so she decided to focus on a spot behind the thing.
“Now, now, Auntie. You can’t even look at your own niece? What a shame.”
The water turned on in the shower behind Nikor with a roar. She was forced to step backwards, closer and closer to the water ass Paize neared. With a blink of an eye, Paize was at Nikor’s throat, her fingers breaking flesh. Nikor was pushed into the water. She was suffocating and drowning. The pain burned through her chest and Nikor was clawing at air. Nothing she did harmed Paize in any way.
Paize pulled Nikor to her face. “Why did you come back after so long? To tease me for being dead? You need to tell everyone what you’ve done, and everyone includes yourself. Never light a candle again in this house, never think of only yourself again, and never come back. Then will I rest. I have been tormented for years and that can only be cut short by you. I will gladly end you and stay this way forever if you don’t accept what you’ve done. You cannot be let free.”
Whispers of these words fell into Nikor’s ear. The moment before Nikor slipped into distant unconsciousness, she woke up from the deep slumber. Her bed sheets were damp with sweat and Nikor woke up screaming until her throat was raw. There were marks on her throat, red from Paize’s strong, slender hand. It seemed impossible to Nikor and yet there they were, throbbing with pain. Tears streamed down her face as Nikor locked the doors and windows, and she wrapped herself in blankets.
She was not ready to accept her actions just yet.

Nikor didn’t plan on killing the child. She never intended to hurt anyone, but it just happened. Maybe there could’ve been a better explanation for why she decided to burn Paize, but this was all Nikor could come up with.
    Nikor has always been a people pleaser. She rarely said no when someone asked her to do something. This wrapped her around herself so tightly that soon she couldn’t stand it anymore. Taking care of Paize turned her dark. She had to smile, pretend she was happy, and this was all by  herself. In a desolate forest. Void of any other contact or activities besides keeping Paize happy. This definitely didn’t make Nikor any happier. She had good intentions, but they were only for herself. She had thoughts on doing something simple, such as abandoning Paize in forest or maybe even pushing her down the stairs.
This was the one way she thought of that no one would find out, because the secret passage is only known to few and the room changes so her body will never be found. That’s why she did it. And she didn’t declare herself insane. She declared herself worthy.

The next day seemed to creep by as quickly as using a butter knife to cut wood. Nikor was always scared that Paize would be standing there, just around the corner. Every step made Nikor terribly anxious. Half way through the day, Nikor decided that there was no need to worry. That she could ignore the dreams, even if they never stopped.
    The dreams kept coming, every night. The pain was getting worse and worse. It might be said that Nikor could just move away, move somewhere safe, but some force kept her in the house. She wasn’t allowed to leave.
    Staring out the window of the foyer about two weeks after the dreams started, Nikor decided that maybe it won’t be so bad if she forgot it all. It might get better if she tried to push it all to the back of her brain. So that’s what she did.
    Nikor climbed the stairs, one by one. Dragging herself into the playroom, she found the button that opened the veiled staircase. Grasping a candle and a match in her left hand, Nikor blindly felt the walls of the space until she came to a room. Her knees fell to the floor and she crawled around the area. Sitting on the cold, solid floor, Nikor lit the candle in the bitter darkness and as the flame glowed, she closed her eyes and tried to push the past into the far corners of her mind where it can’t be reached.  Nikor opened her eyes. looked up, and saw Paize standing in the bleakness. Paize was again dressed in the burning clothes, skin charred.
    Tilting her head slightly, Paize said, “Auntie, what are you doing? I thought I said I didn’t want you to forget.”
    Nikor shuddered. Paize’s black eyes stared back at her with such hatred it was deafening. “Oh, honey, I was just taking some time to myself.” She gulped as Paize took one slight step towards her.
“No need for your lies, Auntie. I know you are trying to clean yourself of the past. That is impossible with me here. No need to continue your weak attempts.”
As Nikor tried to wish Paize to go away, a pain started resonating in her head. The further she tried to push the things away, the more the pain increased. Soon Nikor was screaming in agony, clawing at the pain to cease.
“I would put you out of your misery, Auntie, but what’s the fun in that?” Paize thought for a moment. “Perhaps I’ll make you suffer like I did. Burning in the wrath of the flames. Why don’t you just accept what you did? I’m not complaining this is fun torturing someone like this. I’ll stage it all as an accident, or maybe I’ll just leave the body down here for no one to find. Surely no one would even notice you are gone.”
No words came out of Nikor’s mouth. The pain was too much, and it was starting to spread throughout her whole body. Blinking tears out of her eyes, the atmosphere seemed to change. It was the flame of the candle growing brighter and brighter. Paize’s black eyes glowed intensely white. The soon roaring fire crept slowly towards Nikor’s screaming body. Soon she was consumed in flames. Running up and out of the room, Nikor tried to get to a water source. The sink closest to the room would not run fast enough for the flames to quit. The strain was driving Nikor crazy as she fled down into the main hallway of the house. As she struggle with the handle on the door, Nikor thought she caught a glimpse of Paize outside. The scorched, dry heat outside of the house did no help to lessen the flames. Piece by piece Nikor burned until she was reduced to nothing but ashes on the front steps of the house.    
The last thing she saw was Paize, happily sitting on the swing hung on the tree in the yard from a time in the past.