I am forever in debt by Maeva. She has been my lifelong friend since I can remember and has done nothing but the best for me. She has never found a soul mate for herself, but she found me one roaming at God’s Acre. While I was asleep she found him quite lonely and knew by the instant she saw him that we were meant to be together. John Church.  What a strong name, I love just the sound of it. When Maeva introduced me to him, it was love at first sight.
Since then, Maeva induced a plan for me to check every lock and boarded up window of mine six times. Six times it needs to be checked. It needs to be checked six times. For this I am forever in debt to Maeva, for she has saved my life countless times.
For most of my days I spend time at our house that my parents left me with my beloved John. My father was a very popular priest and when he died, he left me a grand estate in an open field. Although now it is not so open, for Maeva told me to dig holes throughout the front and back yard so that when a criminal tries to rob us, they will trip often. She also suggested installing a barbed wire throughout the field for protection. Now most of the barbed wire is rusty and frail, and the grass dead and uprooted. I would maintain these things but Maeva brilliantly revealed to me that someone could assassinate me while out there, and that I must not leave her alone.
Thankfully for Maeva, I now have John who pushes away any terrible thoughts I have. Every day I make him the most perfect of meals. Six ounces of orange juice and scrambled eggs is how he loves his breakfast. John has never lied nor left my side. John will never disagree with anything I say. John will never question Maeva or I. John understands everything.
Maeva once told me that I should wear my yellow sundress for she heard a rumor that it is John’s favorite. I now only wear my yellow dress and I wash it six times a week. Never on Sunday. Sunday nothing may be done. Nothing may be done on Sunday.
But as of late, my beloved John has been ill. I asked Maeva to take a look at him, but she declined.
“Why? Why must we let him lay there all day? He is so skinny these days you must check on him.” I pleaded, but Maeva did not want to.  She told me that she suspected an intruder had come into my home and has gotten my John sick, and that I should not, must not go into his room any longer.
“But Maeva,” I begged, “his room is my favorite room. It possesses the golden windows, it is where the sun sets. Please Maeva, I swear I checked everything six times like you said.”
“No, you didn’t. Do you not remember? Six times everything needs to be checked. Everything needs to be checked six times. You must check everything six times. It is a simple rule that you did not obey. Now look what you’ve done. Do you think this is a joke? Do you think I do this for no reason? I do this for you, Sybil, for us.” Maeva grabbed me by every muscle in my soul and threw me in the room next to John’s and locked it shut, six times.
In this room in which I served my rightful punishment there was only a bed in the center of the room. The bed had deep purple pillows with black blankets. The walls were frivolous in their appearance and the floor was a soulless brown. For hours I felt Maeva watching me with such menace and venom that I was frightened to breathe deep enough to make my lungs leap out of my chest, for Maeva would take this as a threat. I feared to sleep, for I still often get night terrors, and Maeva could take this as a threat.
Later that night I grew very cold, so I wrapped the covers around myself. At an instant I heard Maeva shout from the other side of the door, “You are a true snake, a true worshipper of evil, you do not deserve the things I gave to you.”
I heard Maeva open the door to John’s room, and the sound of a cage rattling open, along with many high pitched squeaks. I then heard a wincing from John and then the door slam shut. The door locks were checked six times. Six times they needed to be checked. They needed to be checked six times.
“You’ll be happy to know that rats indeed love the smell of blood, and that your husband will rot away, similar to how you ruined me with that intruder infecting our house.” Maeva shouted. I began to cry.
Throughout the night I heard John’s terrible cries for help. His coughing and gotten bad to the point where even the slightest inhale made him cough for several minutes. While this was going on I felt Maeva’s amber eyes beam down on me. In the pocket of my yellow dress I clinched my small copy of the Bible, and prayed for God to forgive me for not checking the locks.
It had been three nights since I have brought disease to the house from my ignorance. John had ceased from coughing. Maeva was still sitting by the door. But she had acquired a slight cough. And I heard the weak ringing of a metal knife jumping up and down. I suspected she was shaking a great deal.
The very thing Maeva and I feared the most happened, and it is spawned from my crudeness. My crudeness killed my family. My family was killed by my crudeness. Small sounds amplified into an immense overhang. The ringing of the metal knife grew taller and pierced my organs. Small coughs overlapped and infected my inner eardrum and stepped and squeezed it. I pinched my skin as hard as I could to come back to reality but it grew even louder. I now began to bleed from my arms. Another cough emerged into the air and rattled my ears. I clutched my Bible. The ringing continued on and on and on and on and on and on and entrapped me into a corner. Into a corner I was entrapped. It entrapped me into a corner. I clutched my Bible even harder now but it still grew louder. The knife still gashed into my eardrum.  Another cough rang now. I kicked the wall John and I shared and my ankle fractured towards the right. All sound ended. I let out a sigh but with the noise of the air emerging from my lungs the noise returned and grew louder now with the fierceness as if it had been cheated. I kicked again with my left foot causing a similar fracture but the noise still stayed. I punched the wall now and my wrist buckled and snapped. All was quiet once again. Once again everything was quiet. Quiet returned once again. I feared to move or even blink for the noise would surely come back, and with even more hatred for me than before. A small cough emerged and the sounds came back. Are they not pleased? The ringing still hung over my head and tensed every nerve in my body. I slammed my head against the wall. The noises were even more potent. Do they need more? Is their hunger not yet satisfied? I threw my skull into the plaster once more. The squeaking of the rats returned now. Is this my punishment from God? Is he not pleased with the great precision I checked the locks six times? Six times they needed to be checked. They needed to be checked six times. No he is furious I did not check the locks six times. I hurled my head once more into the wall, and all was quiet.