The ABC's of Fear

Aerophobia- Fear of Drafts

Annalise was moving into a new house. She didn't have a ton of money, so she hoped to find a cheap one. She did. It was in the woods and it was like a log cabin except wooden. It wasn't like those cabins you see on TV though. It's boards had a good sized hole in between each one and it had absolutely no paint.

Technically it wasn't even for sale. There was no for sale sign and it seemed that no one live there. There was nothing inside the cabin to indicate someone had lived there for a long time. The only thing was a couple pieces of furniture. The furniture was a bed, a couch and a dresser. They were all covered in cobwebs along with the corners of the room. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. Sure it would need some work, but it was free, so it was worth it.

Annalise brought everything to the house and laid it out on the lawn. It took five trips because of the big, heavy stuff, but eventually she got it all out into the woods and on the lawn.

After all Annalise's stuff was at the house, she began cleaning up the dust. Since the dust was in big clumps, she just picked it up, and put it in a trash bag she'd left out of her bags. It was hard work and it took an hour just to pick up the clumps. She then had to take another half hour to clean up the rest of the dust with a dust pan and brush that she'd also left out of her bags. At the end of this, her back was aching. She wanted to take a break, but there was nothing to do other than sit on the bed, and quite frankly she didn't want to do that with the old, yellowing sheets.

Annalise stripped off the yellowing sheets and put them in the dust filled trash bag. She then opened all the drawers to make sure there wasn't anything inside them. There wasn't, but the wood was rotting so she moved it out of the house. Annalise would, later, put her new own dresser in its place. She then got the old bed out of the house. The wood was rotting on that too. The couch wasn't in that bad of condition, but Annalise figured there were probably all kinds of germs and stuff clinging to it. The couch was hauled out.

Next, Annalise opened her suitcase with her tools. She pulled out a hammer and some nails. Annalise used the back of the hammer to take the nails out of some of the older more rotten boards. She replaced them with the new boards she'd bought at the store yesterday after seeing the house. These boards were wider, so there weren't any huge gaps in between the boards.

Annalise then went over to her Jeep. She opened the back car door and pulled out her can of light blue paint. Annalise walked back over to the cabin and went inside. Once inside she began painting the wood.

After that, Annalise walked outside and back over to her Jeep. She put the paint can back in her vehicle and pulled out a folded up lawn chair. She then began exploring the woods with the chair in hand.

After a while she found a clearing. She went to the middle of the clearing and unfolded the lawn chair, sitting it on the ground. Annalise sat down in her chair and took her phone out of her pocket. She swiped her finger across the screen and dialed her best friend's number.

"Hey! Where are you? I went by your house earlier and you and your stuff wasn't there. Did you move?" That was just like her best friend. Asking multiple questions while also talking a mile a minute.

"Hey, Claire. Yes I did move. I'm out in the woods. I 'bought' a cabin in the woods." Annalise secretly put air quotes around bought. She didn't want her best friend to know she just called the house her own without permission from anybody.

"Oh, really?" Claire squealed in delight,"I'll come by right now and take a look!"

"Uh, actually can you come by a little later? I'm still trying to move all my stuff in."

"Sure. Five o'clock sound good?"

Annalise checked her watch. It was three thirty. If she worked hard enough she might be able to finish setting up and take the old furniture to the dumpster. "Umm. . . Okay, see you then."

"Bye!" Claire squealed again before hanging up.

Annalise shook her head with a smile and got up. She then folded up the lawn chair and began making her way back to the cabin. On her way the trees rustled as if there was wind. Everything else, including her hair, stayed perfectly still. She shrugged it off, trying to not let it bother her too much.

A couple minutes later she was back at her cabin. She first began opening the kitchen boxes and putting them away into the freshly cleaned cupboards. While she was doing that she felt a draft. Suddenly, after a couple minutes of the draft being there, the wind blew harder.

Annalise sat the plate down onto the counter in front of her and turned to the front door. Then the draft flew in and began encircling her now more like wind than a draft. Annalise's eyes widened in surprise and her mouth opened a little bit. The air took that moment to gush toward her face, suffocating and killing her.

***
Claire arrived at the cabin. The door to the cabin was wide open, which to her, was nothing to worry about because she's in the woods. There was no reason for Annalise to close the door.

Claire got out of her car and walked over to the cabin. She took one step inside and gasped in horror. Her best friend was lying dead in the floor eyes wide open as if she'd died in surprise. Annalise's was was completely blue.

Claire ran away and back to her car in tears. She quickly called the police to report the death. She gave them the location of the cabin and then left.

***
The next day, Claire woke up to the ringing of her door bell. She quickly got up and ran over to the front door wondering who it could be at such an early hour. It was only seven am!

Claire looked through the peephole, and saw two policemen at the door. She put her hand on the door knob and as she was turning it she felt a draft. Claire opened the door.

"Hello, officers how may I help you?"

"Your friend stole the house," The policemen said as they turned into the same wind/draft that killed Annalise. The wind-draft swirled around Claire. She screamed in horror and then she woke up. She sat bolt upright in bed, sunlight streaming in through her window.

Claire quickly grabbed her phone and called Annalise to figure out if the whole thing was just a dream. The call went to voice mail. Claire quickly got up, got dressed and ran out the door.

A half hour later she was at the cabin in the woods. She went inside. The walls were blue and the plates Annalise had been trying to put away when she died were still there. Claire cried again as she left.