The Room

My family moved into the old Victorian house in the summer of 1975. I was thirteen at the time, my little sister had just turned six two days before we moved. I sensed an ominous feeling as soon as I stepped through the door. I stood at the bottom of the huge white staircase, staring up towards the second floor. I probably should have told my parents that something wasn't right...but I was thirteen and according to them, my imagination was still as wild as ever.

The first night there was tough, at least for me.

I was brushing my teeth before bed and I felt like someone was watching me. I knew it couldn't be my parents nor my sister, they had already turned in for the night; but the feeling of eyes on the back of my head never left until I flipped the bathroom light off and ran the rest of the way down the hall to my bedroom at the end, slamming the door ever so quietly, as to not wake my parents.

I backed away from my bedroom door, bumping into my bed. The branches from the tree outside my window scraped against the glass. It made an awful, terrible, sickening sound that I can still hear to this day. I jumped in bed, pulling the covers up to my chin and laid there, staring. My eyes darted from the window to my door, to the corners of my room. Shadows seemed to dance along the panels of the wall, teasing me. I tried to sleep, tried to think of anything but the feeling of dread that seemed to consume me; nothing worked.

The feeling only seemed to get worse as days turned into weeks and weeks eventually turned into months.

By the fourth month I still felt like someone was watching me. My parents continued going about their day to day activities, not paying much attention to my dinner babbling about how I was pretty sure this place was haunted. Things got pretty horrifying one night in mid-October.

My parents had to go a dinner with my father's co-workers. I had been in charge of babysitting my little sister, as I had been for the last three years, but tonight? Tonight felt different. I begged them, pleaded with them, not to go. To just call off the whole dinner. "Danny, you know we can't do that. Your father will lose his job." My mother said as I sat on the bottom step of our huge staircase.

I knew she was right...I just didn't want to be alone in this house.

They left and I heated up some leftovers for my sister and I. When the food was ready, I stepped out of the kitchen, calling up to the second story for my sister. She didn't answer. I felt a chill run down my spine. I headed up the stairs to her room. Her door was closed and I opened it without knocking. I expected to see her sitting in the middle of room; her dolls and other toys scattered about. They were...but my sister wasn't.

"Maggie?" I said as I walked into her room.

There was no answer, just the branches scraping against her window. I checked under her bed and in her closet but she wasn't there. I started feeling sick to my stomach. If something happened to my sister on my watch, my parents would be furious. I was halfway down the stairs, with the intention to call the emergency number my mother had left for me, when I heard her giggling.

I stopped and turned around, looking back up the stairs. I sighed before heading up to her room again, opening the door once more. Still no Maggie. "Maggie? Maggie, where are you?!" I panicked.

I heard her giggling again. The sound was further down the hallway. I began walking, listening to her giggles. I passed my parent's room and the bathroom and came to my room. I opened the door, hoping to see Maggie. She wasn't there. I was about to call for her again when I heard another giggle and Maggie's voice.

I walked over to my bed, kneeling down and lifting the sheet up. Nothing. I walked to my closet and pulled the doors open, nothing. I was about to close it when I heard her talking. It sounded like it was coming from inside the closet but she wasn't there. I began pulling my clothes out and my shoes. That's when I saw the door.

How could I have missed that?

My heart was racing as I reached for the knob. I gripped it and turned it, opening the door. Maggie was sitting in the middle of the floor. She jumped when she saw me. "Danny!" She exclaimed. She acted like I had interrupted a very important game or something.

"Didn't you hear me calling you? What the hell are you doing in here?" I said. I was pissed.

"Don't yell at me! She doesn't like it when people yell!" Maggie said.

"Who? You know what, never mind, I don't want to hear it. Get your butt downstairs now and I won't tell mom and dad that you were playing a prank on me." I said, grabbing her arm.

As soon as I did, I felt someone or something grip the back of my shoulders and fling me across the room into the opposite wall. My sister screamed. I laid there, feeling sharp pains in every part of my body. As I looked up I saw someone standing over me. I couldn't make out their face because their long black hair was covering it. Whomever it was though, they were wearing a dirty white dress.

My sister screamed again and I rolled onto my stomach, trying to crawl to her. I felt someone grab me by my hair, pulling me off the ground and holding me there. My sister was cowering in the corner of the room, her knees to her chest; screaming. I hit the floor again and began backing away from whomever it was.

Her feet never touched the ground. She seemed to float towards me. I made it to my sister and I protectively put an arm in front of her. The figure raised her own arm and flung it back down, towards us. I covered my face with my free arm, feeling jagged claws tear through my clothing. That was it. I grabbed Maggie's hand, pulling her up with me and running out of the room.

I closed the door behind me. Maggie screamed as someone ran into it. Her screams got louder as she began pounding on the door. I placed all my clothes and shoes back into my closet and closed my closet doors. Maggie was seated on my bed. She was no longer screaming but she was crying now. I moved my dresser in front of the closet door and grabbed Maggie's hand once more, pulling her out of my room and downstairs.

Thirty years have gone by since then. I asked my sister if she remembered anything from that night. At first, she didn't answer me and if she did, it was always the same. "No. I was only six." She would say. Until one night she showed up to my house.

"I remember," She said.

"What do you remember?" I asked.

"You were angry and I told you...I told you not to yell...she didn't like it when people yelled."

"Who? Who, Maggie?" I asked.

"The girl who lived in your closet. Her parents locked her in that room, a year before we moved in. They left her there and a fire started...she died and they never came back for her. They didn't care about her." Maggie said, tears running down her face.

"How do you know this?" I asked, not wanting to believe it.

"She told me."

"When? That night?"

"No....on the way over here." Maggie said.

I turned around and let out a scream before everything went black and the smell of the fire filled my nostrils.