•• Wattys 2018 Winner •• Wattpad Featured Story ••
One day, a wind blew into the town of Millstone and didn't stop. Slowly people moved away. It was like the town was trying to clear itself out, as though it was preparing for something sinister.
Whe...
"There's nothing in there. No furniture, nothing."
"Great, so the guy's just moving in." The wind gusted. "Harper, I think we should go."
"Hold on, let me look for one more second," I said. I couldn't accept that we had found nothing. Something had happened that Friday night, and I needed some sort of answer. Some sort of justification to make me believe that I wasn't losing it.
"Harper," Jeremey whined.
"Wait!" I gasped. At the corner of the room there was an open door. And when I squinted, I could make out stairs... stairs leading down. "The basement, Jeremey! We need to take a look in the basement."
I turned away from the window and began stalking around the building again.
"Where are you going?" Jeremey hissed, following behind me.
"There's got to be a window to the basement, or maybe a door or something." I turned around the corner of the house. There, up against the side, was a wedged cellar trapdoor. "See, look!" I turned around behind me and shone the light on Jeremey. He squinted and held his hand up in front of his eyes. "Sorry," I whispered.
"Are you going to go down there?" Jeremey asked, incredulous.
I wandered over to the steel door and pulled at it. It budged an inch before the metal chain lock caught and held it. I let go, and it slammed shut with a thunderous clank. I froze. Goosebumps shot up my arms. The echo seemed to go on forever, a gunshot in a silent night.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jeremey said. "Come on, let's get out of here!"
"No, wait." I paced past the door. A couple of feet down the wall at ground level, was a tiny window—a window looking into the basement. "There!"
I lay down flat on my stomach, my face pressed up to the window and my phone light in hand. I shone it through the glass. Years of dust and water damage had yellowed and clouded it. I could hardly make out anything. I propped my phone in the dirt so the light shone through the glass, and I rubbed the side of my fist against the pane to clear as much dirt as I could. Satisfied, I cupped my hands on the sides of my head to get a better look.
The basement resembled any normal basement. Cabinets lined the walls, full of dark boxes of unidentified objects. A work table stood in the center of the room, a few tools abandoned on top of it. Boxes covered most of the rest of the floor space, but there, sitting in the far corner of the room, was the crate. It was larger than any of the other boxes... and it was open. I could see into it.
Empty.
My eyes darted around the room, trying to identify something that might have been in the crate, but nothing stood out. It was just tools and boxes. What could it have been? Where could it have gone? My eyes strained. I didn't blink, afraid I'd miss something if I shut them for a second. They burned.
Suddenly, something shot out from behind the crate. A pale, bony hand grasped the edge of it, gripping at it and turning blue in the light from my phone. My jaw dropped open, but no words came out.
"Lights!" Jeremey shouted.
I blinked my burning eyes. The hand was gone.
"Harper, headlights!"
"Shit." I scrambled to my feet.
"Run!" Jeremey hissed.
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