The House

The plane started off slow and then lifted up into the air. I always loved flying and as we leveled out speeding through the air, I noticed the boy sitting next to me. He was sweating profusely and his eyes darted around in his head. He leaned over to me and said in a hushed voice, “I know I’m not supposed to tell anyone this, but I just can’t keep this secret. Now listen close, once you get to Alabama, go to 54 Avenue 21 1/2, Bessemer. There’s a key under the door mat, go straight to the basement. You must! There is no if’s or maybe’s, remember it’s a secret.” The boy stood up abruptly and walked down the aisle. “Wait!” I called out, but he was already gone. I searched the plane several times but the nervous, sweat drenched boy was nowhere to be found.

“Excuse me,” I said to the flight attendant, “Have you seen a young boy, brown short hair, blue eyes, and quite sweaty?”

“No, that doesn’t sound familiar, sorry.” The flight attendant was not helpful at all; I guess I would just have to wait till Alabama to find the boy.

                Mid way into the flight lightning struck near the plane and the sky began to get very dark. The pilot spoke over the loud speaker. “We are about to fly through a small but strong storm and for your safety please put on your seatbelt, there could be some tur-.” The speaker clicked off as the plane lurched to the side. I grabbed onto my arm rest and tugged on the seatbelt, but the plane, it seemed to be suspended in mid air, not moving, not falling just hanging. Frightened screams, concerned voices, and crying babies filled the small space of the plane. I looked around for the flight attendant, I couldn’t see her, and my neck was throbbing from keeping my head from bashing into the plane window, but then, I heard a tap on the window, and that is not something you want to hear 8,000 feet in the air. I turned my head slowly, ideas racing through my head, feeling as though they where colliding and mixing together making crazy thoughts. On the other side of the window was a small creature, resembling a goblin, it opened its mouth and let out the highest, loudest screech I have ever heard. It was a scream that can make your blood curdle, peel the paint off a gym locker, a scream that could end a marriage. I grasped my ears forgetting that the airplane was on its side and slammed into the window, except, no one else seemed to hear the horrendous noise. “Beware 54 Avenue 21 /1/2 is off limits.” Just like that the creature was gone, the plane spun around and we were leveled again. Everyone acted like nothing happened, no one was freaking out except me, I was franticly racing around the plane asking people if they just saw and heard what I did. They all looked at me like I was crazy, like I was out of control, and finally the flight attendant told me to take this blue pill and sit down. I blacked out.

                I woke up in a hospital bed near Dothan Regional Airport in Alabama. A doctor came in and asked how I was, he said I just had a panic attack on the plane, but the only thing I could remember was  54 Dance Ave, Bessemer AL. It must be important, if I remembered that precise of an address.

                Taking a train to an unknown city, in an unfamiliar state, going to an address that I only just remember from a panic attack on a plane from California to Alabama, is not the smartest idea. Do you concur? But something was nagging at me and I just could not let it go for the life of me. When the train slowed and came to a stop, I asked a few people where the address was. They all pointed to the other side of town so I started walking.

I reached the house. The walls of the house where white with black cracks, it looked like a birch tree. Witches. Witches live in houses like this, or zombies or vampires. The house scared me, my brain sent commands to turn around and go on with your life. My legs said otherwise, they carried the rest of my body up the old crackly walk and up the porch steps. I didn’t even ring the doorbell, just reached out and grabbed the knob. It was hot, it shook, I was scared. I was gone.