The writing is not always on the wall sometimes it is on the back of the medicine cabinet door. One of my hobbies, other than writing, is reusing things I have salvaged, usually wooden things, and making them into something completely different. My best piece was an antique door that was turned into an antique looking cradle. With that in mind, and after getting permission from the owners, today I walked through a couple of abandoned houses looking to see if there was anything that might work for a couple of projects I have lined up. So late this afternoon, on this dark and damp late fall day, I walked through these old houses with two main concerns. I wanted to find something worth salvaging and I did not want to get caught between some wild animal and the only exit out. The first house was largely a disappointment, I guess because I had my hopes built up, although there were a couple of minor things that caught my eye. As I was walking through the house I began to think about all of those creepy movies that I have seen that center on a solo individual in an abandoned house in the country with nothing but a flash light. I made a fast walk through the house making a mental list of a couple of things I would speak to the owners about and the left to go see the second house which was only a couple of minutes away. Between my arrival at the first house and my arrival at the second the day had got darker and wetter and certainly gloomier. This second house was downright desolate, a perfect Halloween haunted house. As I worked my way through the house I was trying unsuccessfully to drag my mind away from the creepy thoughts but that train had already left the station. This house was much bigger than the first with a more substantial second floor. The bigger house made for more hallways and rooms with darker corners which was just coal for the fire that was fueling my crazy train. The 2nd floor had a walk through bathroom, the type you see in big old houses, where the room provides facilities and is almost a hallway between the front and back of the house. I was so intent on watching out for 10 pound raccoons I really saw nothing of interest. When I got to the back of the second floor I found I did not trust the back steps so I turned and headed back to the front. Walking through the bathroom for the second time in less than five minutes I saw everything from a different perspective. The most glaring thing was the medicine cabinet, the door was open. Now the medicine cabinet itself was very unspectacular. It was your standard 1960 era white metal medicine cabinet. The door was open and slightly bent out which considering the condition of the rest of the house was also not very noteworthy. Now keeping in mind I had, by this time, spent about 30 minutes looking through a couple of old houses, slowly self-spooking as I went along. Just a few minutes after I considered the effectiveness of Stephen King’s “The Shining” and other similar works I noticed there were words scratched into the back of the medicine cabinet door. Considering the context the words made the medicine cabinet special. Roughly scrawled in crudely written angled graffiti was “Be Afraid” and below it “Get Out” I am not going to admit that I was but I will concede that I did.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 04:07:22 +0000
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