Staircase

She crept to the foot of the stairs.  As much as she tried to deny it, the door at the top was calling her and she found it near impossible to stay away.  She had to see what was up there.  Why was there such a connection?  Were the rumors true?  Did she really believe the stories?


She looked away for a moment.  The room downstairs was quiet- everyone was sleeping.  But still, she felt like someone was watching... gosh, she hated that feeling.  It was just like that moment when all-of-the-sudden, she got a chill, and was freezing.  "It's just in your mind", she told herself.  "You are bigger than your imagination, or these stories even... it's just stairs leading to a door, which is holding old things.  There is nothing to be afraid of."  And yet, even after she reassured herself, she couldn't shake it.  But she had to.  She had to try and find it.


She started walking up the stairs.  The railings on both sides did little to steady her, but she grasped them anyways.  She reached the landing at the top and stopped.  From this point,  she looked to her right (through the small hole in the wall) and saw the great room below.  It was so still.  The middle of the night.  So still, and quiet.  Why did she have to do this now??  But she knew that she couldn't explain this to anyone else, and she needed her aloneness to protect her - just in case.  She had seen the chest once before, when she was much younger, being moved in to the attic after her grandparents moved.  And the whispered conversation a few days later between them and her parents had done little to relieve the suspect about the contents.  Why were they trying to hide the blanket, and that book??  And what of the bullets that were said to never be revealed to anyone?


She snapped back to reality. It had been years, but the door had been locked and never talked about.  But now that she had the key, and the little bit of courage that she could muster, the time was now.  She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and put the key to the lock.  With a clank louder than she had expected, the handle creaked in the silence of the room, and the door gave slowly.  Must greeted her as she cracked the door open.  She switched on the flashlight and gave the light a slow sweep over the room.  That was probably the scariest part... you never know what you'll find in the center of the flashlight beam.  Especially when you gazing into a dark, long-forgotten attic.


And then there it was.  Over in the corner, hidden haphazardly behind some old pictures, she saw it!
But the creak on the step behind her caused her to lose her focus.  She turned around, gasped, dropped the flashlight, and everything went dark.  The dark figure covered her, and he could be seen smiling slightly.  But then he quivered... she had gotten too close for comfort.  And she had to be stopped.