FEAR

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

                I turn around quickly but there is no one there. I can feel Samantha’s presence, but she was no-where in sight. The house is completely stone-cold, and I can see the sight of my own breath once again as I breathe heavily.  The house is quiet, and in complete darkness. Shivers are beginning to run up my spine. She is watching me from somewhere. I can sense it.

“Abigail where are you?” I shout.

There’s a thunderous bang which comes from the attic above me.

“Abigail?” I shout again, startled by the noise.

I grab the string from the ceiling and pull it down, exposing the ladder. I walk slowly up the ladder into the darkness, nervously anticipating that Samantha could be up there. I turn the light on and look around at the attic which is filled with countless of old boxes and old furniture. Samantha or Abigail is still no-where in sight.

I crawl around the attic, rummaging through the old boxes. There’s dozens of old letters, photos, and clothes in each of them. There’s one photo that strikes me the most, which is an old family portrait picture which looks like it could be dated back presumably to the early World War one. It’s a picture of a young man dressed in his uniform, a picture of a young beautiful woman in a long white dress, and a picture of a young girl with long-black hair which covered her mask life face. It was Samantha.

I search through more of the boxes finding more photos of Samantha, the soldier, and the woman in each of the different photos. Shivers were running up my spine again as I look through the photo’s. It felt so surreal looking at old photos of Samantha from when she was alive. Each of the photos that Samantha is in, she always has her hair covering her face and she’s looking blankly towards the camera. It makes me feel uncomfortable as I look at each of them. What happened to her?

The lights of the attic abruptly burst, leaving me in the attic with nothing but darkness. I can’t see a thing.

“Daddy, where are you?” Abigail shouts. I can’t see her, it’s too dark. I can’t tell where her voice is coming from.

“Abigail, I’m coming to you. Don’t worry, stay there!” I shout.

“Daddy, where am I? I’m scared!” Abigail shouts again.

I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight, looking at every direction of the attic. “Abigail, where are you?” I shout.

“I’m here daddy.” Abigail says to me.

I turn the flashlight behind me and see Abigail crouching on the floor. She looks severely pale, and her pupils are dilated.

“Abigail, are you okay?” I say panicking, crawling over to her, and hugging her tightly.

“Don’t worry Abigail; everything is going to be okay.” I say comforting her. “Did she hurt you Abigail?”

Abigail shakes her head.

“Come on Abigail, we need to get out of here.” I say to Abigail, trying to pull her with me, but she refuses trying to pull her hand away from me resiliently.

“No!” she roars at me. “We can’t leave!”

I look at her in concern. “Abigail, we have to go right now!”

“No!” she shouts again. “If we leave, she will find us. She will hurt us daddy.”

“Abigail, I promise she’s not going to hurt us. You just need to trust me.”

I grab Abigail’s hand and pull her towards the ladder. There’s a sinister growl that comes from the darkness of the attic.

“She’s coming daddy!” Abigail screams.

Abigail quickly goes down the ladder. As I begin to go down the ladder, I see Samantha’s face emerge from the darkness. Her cruel black eyes glare upon mine.

“Leave us alone!” I shout towards her.

Samantha swipes her hand towards me which knocks me off the ladder and down onto the floor of the hallway.  Samantha stares down at me from the attic.

“Daddy, you need to get up.”

I quickly get up from the floor and grab onto Abigail’s hand. We rush down the stairs and head towards the door, but there’s a woman standing by the door in a long-white dress. She’s the same woman from the photo.  The house suddenly begins to turn bright, like it had just turned the middle of the afternoon.

“Daddy, I’m scared!” Abigail says holding onto me.

“What do you want from us?” I shout towards her but she does not respond.

A man appears from around the corner. It’s the same man from the picture, the one that was dressed in his soldier uniform. He walks over to her and hits the woman around the face with his fist as she falls down to the floor. What the fuck is happening?

“I told you never to try and leave me you ungrateful bitch!” the man says fiercely to the woman. He appears to be very drunk, as his speech seems slurred and he is acting very aggressive.

“What have you done with my daughter!” she screams back at him, placing the palm of her hand on her cheek.

“Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of her,” he laughs. “I’ve taken good care of her alright.” He laughs again. “You stay away from her room.” He says assertively.

The woman stands up and quickly runs up the stairs towards us, as I hold onto Abigail. She runs straight through us like we are invisible.

“Samantha!” the woman shouts as she runs down the hallway towards Abigail’s room.

“Daddy what is happening?” Abigail asks me.

“I don’t know Abigail.” I reply confused.

There’s a huge scream that comes from Abigail’s room. The man runs up the stairs and once again runs straight through us towards Abigail’s room.

“I told you not to go in the fucking room.” He shouts.

I walk to the top of the stairs with Abigail, and look down to the hallway of the room. There’s blood everywhere from what I can see that is surrounding the walls of Abigail’s room.

“You’ve killed your own daughter!” the woman screams. “You’ve killed our daughter!”

The man punches a hole into the walll. “This is your fault this has happened you fucking bitch.”

The woman cries as he points his finger towards her.

“There’s no going back now.” He says to her as he shuts the door. The man looks down the hallway at me and smiles before he closes the door. Did he know I was here?

There’s a scream that comes from behind the door, followed by the sound of a gun-shot. And seconds later is followed by another gunshot. And then silence. Abigail holds onto my hand tightly on each of the gun-shots.

I walk down the hallway towards Abigail’s room, as she continues to hold onto my hand. The house begins to turn dark again as I approach the door. I open the door slowly, and to my dismay, I find that it’s still Abigail’s room.  Had I just gone back in time?