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The Thing in the Attic |
| Written by Wesley Freeman | |
| Tuesday, 27 November 2007 | |
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Share it:      It lived in the attic. Danny didn’t believe me, but I knew it was there. Sometimes it would wake me up at night, hearing it shuffling back and forth across the ceiling. I would lay there in bed trying to figure out where it was or what it was doing. Sometimes I would hear it walk real soft to just over my head and stay there a real long time like it was listening or something. I would lay real still and try not to breath too loud and watching the ceiling to see if the thing was going to try and break through. Soon it would move again and I would feel better. One time when I was real tired I didn’t wake up like I normally did to the thing’s shuffling. Instead I heard a creak coming from the hall. I knew what the creak was cause a few weeks before my dad had gone up into the attic for some suitcases. When he opened the attic door it creaked real loud and my mom told him he should oil it. Well, I woke up to that same creak, but I knew my mom and dad were asleep cause the hall light was off. I was so scared I couldn’t move. I just pulled the covers close to me and watched the open crack in my bedroom door, hoping the thing would not figure out how to come down. A few minutes later I heard the attic door shut again with a soft bang and the thing shuffle away from the door back to the other end of the attic. Danny was my best friend in second grade. We used to drive Mrs. Harrington crazy in class. Danny would tap on his desk and she would turn around to him, and then I would tap on mine from across the room and she just couldn’t figure out who was making the tapping. The whole class would be laughing. Kids at school thought Danny was cool, which he was. Whenever someone had a birthday party he was always invited. I used to sleep over at Danny’s house when he invited me on the weekends. He wanted to come over to mine sometimes, but I always said he couldn’t because of my mom. I told him she had real bad headaches and didn’t like the noise. But really I didn’t want him over here because of the thing in the attic. Somehow I felt like it would be dangerous for another kid to be in the house. One day Danny’s mom met my mom and my mom said she would like Danny over sometime rather than us always going over to his place. Danny’s mom said she didn’t mind the noise and didn’t want to be a nuisance or anything with her headaches and all. Course my mom didn’t know what she was talking about so I got in trouble. The next time Danny asked me about coming over I had to tell him about the thing in the attic. I told him about the noises and how I didn’t think it would be good for him to be there. Instead of him being afraid or something he got really excited and said it was probably a squirrel or rat or raccoon or some other animal and we should hunt it out. I wanted to believe him, but I knew it wasn’t true. He kept asking and asking me about coming over, so eventually I asked my mom who said yes. Danny wanted to hear all about the thing although he said he didn’t believe it was anything but an animal. I told him about the one night it almost came out of the attic and how it shuffled back and forth all the time over my head. He figured whatever it was, was making a nest or something and that if we went up there we might find some baby animals. I told him my dad had been up there only a few weeks ago and hadn’t seen anything, but Danny still thought there was a chance. We made plans for him to spend the night on Friday and didn’t talk about the thing anymore. The weekend came and Danny brought all his stuff over and we piled everything in my room. After dinner he told me that he had brought his brother’s slingshot that we could use as a weapon against the animal in the attic. I was kinda hoping he forgot about the attic. Later he asked about the attic door, so I showed it to him and told him how the ladder pulled down real easy. He said after my parents went asleep we could go hunting since my parents slept in a room on the first floor and the attic was near my room upstairs and they wouldn’t be able to hear us open it. Eventually bedtime came and Danny and I went to my room to plan for the evening. I told him how the noises in the attic usually woke me up at night and that it would probably be late when we heard them. Danny said we could talk and tell stories and stuff until it got late. So we did. Danny talked a lot. He talked about hunting with his dad and brother and how they would sneak up on animals and shoot them and stuff. It sounded real cool and I was glad Danny at least knew how to hunt since that is what we were going to be doing. A little after Danny tiptoed to my door and opened it and then stepped out into the hall. I followed right behind him. The noise was still coming from the attic, but it seemed to stay right over our heads like it knew where we were and was following us somehow. Danny didn’t seem to notice, but still kept real quiet as he headed for the attic door. When he got to it, he used the stick I showed him to pull down the door so we could get the ladder down. As he pulled on the door the noise the thing was making stopped and it got all quiet. The door opened easily, but didn’t creak at all cause my dad had just oiled it three days ago. Danny and me couldn’t reach the ladder cause we were both too short, so Danny told me to stand in his hands to reach up and grab it. I didn’t want to cause I was still real scared and just wanted to forget the whole thing, but Danny wouldn’t let me. Danny said I was being a fraidy cat and that it was just a squirrel that was scaring me. I said I still didn’t want to reach up to the ladder, so Danny told me he would, but I had to give him a boost instead. I did and he got hold of the ladder and pulled it down. The hole above us was real dark, so Danny pointed his flashlight up there to see if he could see anything. He asked me where the light switch was, but I didn’t know cause I had never been up in the attic. I said that I thought it must be somewhere inside cause my dad always had to bring a flashlight up there in order to find the light to turn it on. Danny said he would go first, but I had to come right after. I said I would just wait down here and watch, but Danny said he would tell everyone at school I was a fraidy cat if I didn’t come up with him. I didn’t like it, but I followed as he started to go up one step at a time. When Danny got to the top of the ladder so his head poked through the hole, he flashed his light around to see if he could see anything. I asked him if he could, but he said all he saw was boxes and old junk. He walked up a little more and then was able to climb inside. I followed slowly, but it was hard cause the ladder shook and I was feeling shaky myself. As I got to the top I could see Danny’s flashlight on the roof of the attic as it moved around. When I poked my head through I couldn’t see Danny cause some boxes were in the way, but I did see where his light was. I whispered to ask if he had found the light switch, but I don’t think I was loud enough cause he didn’t answer. The light kept moving around so I stepped up in the attic so I could try and go to where he was. I didn’t like being there by myself in the dark. The last time I heard the noise in the hallway it was only a short distance away from the door when we opened it. I looked around in the dark to see if I could see any spot near where the thing could be hiding. It didn’t look like anything could be too close, but on the other side of the boxes where Danny had gone would have lots of places to hide. I wanted to get over there before Danny got too far away. I stood up and tiptoed quickly around the boxes and saw that Danny was pretty far away on the other side of some junk that had been piled in the middle of the attic. He was looking at the wall near to where my room was below him. On the other side of him were many boards standing up on their ends with gaps between them so they held up the roof or something. Beyond that was all dark, black attic space. I didn’t like that Danny was so close, cause I figured if the thing would hide anywhere it would be back there in the darkness where it would be hard to reach. I whispered to Danny again to ask if he had found the light yet. He didn’t seem to be paying attention at all and just kept using his light to search the wall. As I got closer Danny paid more attention to that dark space beyond the boards and pointed his flashlight back there to see if he could see anything. There was too much stuff in the way for me to see what he was seeing, but he acted real excited when he looked in that area. When I got to him he turned his body sideways so he could slip between the boards and get a better look. I tried to whisper louder for him to stop and wait, but my throat was real dry and I barely made any noise at all. I looked through the gaps in the boards and saw that Danny was balancing on some boards on the floor that had a bunch of fluff between them. He was pointing his flashlight at the far wall where I could see there was a bunch of the same fluff all piled real wide and in a sort of round shape. That is where Danny was slowly making his way as he balanced on the boards. Again I whispered and this time made more noise. I told Danny to come back cause it was dangerous out there. He told me he just wanted to look at the nest. I think it was a nest. The nest of the thing, and I was sure the thing was watching and not liking what we were doing. I tried to look into the darkness all around to see if I could see any movement, but I didn’t have a flashlight and nothing at all was visible. I even looked for the attic light myself, but I was too afraid to move farther away from Danny. I wasn’t even sure I could find my way back to the ladder without him and the flashlight. Then we heard a creaking and shuffling sound from the other corner from where the nest was. I couldn’t see that way at all cause of the boards were in the way and I didn’t want to try and squeeze through to get a better look. Danny wobbled a little as he heard the noise too, and shined his flashlight in that direction. It didn’t look like he saw anything cause the noise stopped and he pointed the flashlight at his feet while he got his balance back. Then there was more rustling and a hissing sound from the same spot. Danny turned again to look and I saw his eyes get real wide. Then I couldn’t see anything cause he raised his hand in front of his face and when he did that the flashlight shone right in my eyes. The hiss turned into a screech and then Danny was screaming. The flashlight dropped and I could just see that Danny was loosing his balance and falling over backwards and then he fell into the fluff and there was a large crack and a bang. The fluff gave way and Danny was still screaming as he disappeared. I screamed and I screamed not knowing what was going on. The flashlight had fallen in the fluff and I was surrounded by darkness and the thing was in there somewhere with me. I don’t know how long I was screaming, but the next thing I remember was I saw a flashlight and then the attic light came on. My mom was there holding me and guiding me back towards the ladder. I told my mom the thing had got Danny! It was killing him and we had to save him! She didn’t answer me, but took me down the ladder and then walked me into the kitchen where we stayed. I kept telling her she had to help Danny and to get Dad to help Danny! She didn’t answer, but then I heard sirens coming down the street. The sirens stopped at our house and I ran from my mom to go see them to tell them to help Danny, but when I left the kitchen and ran into the living room I saw where Danny was. Danny was in the middle of the room lying between two halves of the coffee table with his neck bent all funny and his eyes were staring with that same look I had seen in them in the attic. I wanted to go to him, but my dad stepped out and caught me and gave me back to my mom who took me away into the kitchen again. Was Danny dead? He hadn’t moved at all and I was scared. The thing had got him and Danny was dead! Lots of police and firemen and doctors came in and took Danny away. That was the last I saw of him. When I went back to school it was different without Danny there. Everyone knew that I was with him the last time he was alive. Kids ask me what happened, but I don’t talk about it. We didn’t stay in the house for long after that. I was too afraid and my mom and dad brought me to some doctors so I could talk about what I saw. The doctors said Danny got scared seeing an animal and lost his balance and fell, but I knew it was the thing that attacked him. I was so afraid we eventually had to move. We are in a new house now and have been here for a few months. I was feeling better and thought everything was going to get better. But last night I woke up in the middle of the night. There was lots of shuffling coming from the ceiling over my head.
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 November 2007 ) |
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