Excerpt: Only $2.99 in ebook Rose dug through the big trunk, laying things around her in stacks. A lot of what was in the trunk were canceled checks and house hold expense receipts. Getting to the bottom of it, she repacked it and moved to a box. Opening the flaps on top, she sat back on her heels. Photos greeted her. A large eight by ten print of the man she had seen limping out to the car and again at the pool looked up at her. Although it was black and white, she could see he was handsome. He was sitting at his desk and seemed to have been typing and stopped and looked up, as if thinking. Behind him was the wood paneled wall and it had a door standing partially open. There was someone, or something there, hovering in the doorway looking down at him. Their features were hidden in shadows, but whoever it was, did not look friendly. In front of him sat the black Royal typewriter. The scent of roses suddenly drifted up from the box. “No way!” She was shaken. Suddenly, the attic seemed to be closing in on her and she could hardly breathe. She had to get out of there and out into fresh air! Jumping up in a panic, she rushed towards the steep stairs. Something caught her foot and she started to fall. Her hands went out, thrashing wildly, searching for something to grab onto. Her left hand felt cloth and grabbed on, while someone took hold of her shoulder, keeping her from plunging head long down the stairs. It was a hand and it calmed her. Stopping where she was and looking around, there was no one there. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing straight out and chills shook her body. What she had grabbed hold of was a dress on a dressmakers dummy. With her equilibrium restored, she let go and as calmly as possible, walked down the stairs holding tightly to the handrail and closed the door. Going into her bedroom and out onto the balcony, she leaned against the rail and breathed. It took a few minutes of clean air to clear her head. Looking at the river, she spoke aloud, “What the hell just happened? It was just a photograph!” Then two things hit her. Nathan looked a lot like the man sitting behind the desk, and there was a door hidden in the paneling behind the desk. Again, she shivered violently at the thought of seeing someone or something standing in the doorway. How could a picture of the typewriter put off the scent of roses? Finally getting herself calmed down, she headed down the grand staircase and turned left into the office. Stopping just inside the doorway, she stood studying the wall to the left. The wood paneling was beautiful. Studying it, she could not see a door of any kind. On impulse, she stepped farther in and turning, looked at the wall with the entrance door in it. She guessed the distance from the door to the back wall at about eight feet. Going out the door and around and behind the staircase, she opened the door to the next room. Stepping in, she looked to her right at the wall. It was plaster and there was about eight feet from it to the doorway she had just entered. Going out into the hall she paced off the distance between that door and the one to the office. Calculating her stride and the number of them, there was about twenty two feet between them. That left about six feet unaccounted for. Standing in the doorway to the office, she furrowed her brow, deep in thought. They headed back through the front door and as they stepped into the office, the air in front of them seemed to shimmer. It was at that moment they heard a screech of rage coming from the other room. Nathan pulled his gun and cocked it. Cautiously, they crept down the hall and into the room. What they saw would remain forever etched on their brains. The house had shifted and the room was there. A tall skin covered skeleton with its brown skin, dry and deeply wrinkled, stood in the opening eyes blazing red with hatred in the dark shrunken face. As it whipped its head around, long coarse black hair flew in all directions. “How dare you disturb me and my child?” It screeched. In its arms was a mummified child about the size of a one year old. It lay unmoving. The apparition stalked out of the opening towards Rose and Nathan. In its other hand was a long cruel looking machete. “DIE, DIE, DIE!” Nathan did not hesitate. At pointblank range he fired five times into the chest of the thing. It did not stop, but continued to advance jerkily towards them. Suddenly it stopped as if listening and backed up, going into the room it had just come out of. In a voice straight from the grave in a low hiss it screeched, “You die!” She jumped back into the opening and suddenly the wall moved back to its original position and she was gone. Shaking, Rose asked, “What just happened?” “To tell you the truth, I don’t know, other than I have to go change my underwear.”
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 17:08:52 +0000
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