Short Story Step 2

Creative Writing: Short Fiction

Nolan Cabral

1/25/21

“C’mon hurry!” Zack snapped in a quiet but rushed voice. I looked up at my best friend climbing the rickety ladder, which was missing rungs, and a paint job. I was holding the old ladder for him, worrying it would snap in half. Zack could be considered a rough guy. He was the type of guy you would find at motocross derby mixed with a skater bro.  Josh our other accomplice who I can only describe as pudgy, mama’s boy was looking nervously at the old beaten ladder. “I don’t think I can do it…” Josh muttered. It appeared he was hiding behind his long blonde hair. The old ladder stretched up the side of the weathered building and reached the very first window, which happened to be broken. This building must have been built in the 1700s, it was set upon huge stones that raised it above the river beside it. The light brown trim that used to decorate the dark brown siding was rotting and falling away from years of wear. The crashing of the river on the rocks behind us seemed to muffle our voices. “I’m not going in by myself!” Zack spat over the roar of the waterfall. I looked over at Josh and knew by his nervous look that I was the one who had to follow Zack.

I grip onto the two beams of the ladder and take a deep breath. I wait until Zack is completely off the ladder and through the window to begin. I ascend the old piece of wood praying it would hold my weight. Thankfully, Josh was holding it steady from underneath. Before I got to the broken window, I took a deep breath and looked around. I took a glance at the roaring waters that were crashing over the dam maybe 50 feet away and it gave me some sort of a comfort feeling. I crawled through the window being careful not to scratch myself on some of the shards of glass that were left behind. I was in the infamous “creepy building”.

            Faint light peered through the cracked and smashed windows that filled the river side of the building. Plumes of dust hung to the light rays that were dancing in past the trees outside. As soon as I got my bearings straight in the cluttered room I gasped. This place was like nothing I have ever seen it was full of odds and ends that any normal person may get lost in. There were old typewriters, aged furniture, stacks of books, boxes full of bottles, and all sorts of indistinguishable junk. I started to daydream about all the weird things that were in this building when I heard a squeal. “Hey, you aren’t gonna’ leave me down here alone!” I had almost forgot that Josh was there. Zack stared at me with a look as though he expected me to help our friend. I walked back over to our criminal entrance and poked my head out to look down at Josh waiting to climb up. I grabbed the top of the ladder and held it steady for him. “Don’t do any funny business please” Josh squeaked while slowly clambering up the ladder. I listened to his plea and pulled him in the window when he finally reached the top. We had finally made it in.

            Just the day before our criminal activity, the three amigos were participating in their almost daily walk around the neighborhood looking for any sort of fun. Zack lived in an older clustered neighborhood that was centered around a river with a roaring dam. The rapids underneath danced along cutting through large stones. Josh and I had always biked to Zacks house seeing if we could find something new to do. Zack was the one to always get us into trouble. One day we were hanging out down at the river throwing rocks and doing things kids do, when Zack had a bad idea. “Why don’t we go see what’s up with that building across the river?” he asked us with an evil grin filling his face. Zack had always been the troublemaker of the group and we followed his lead blindly. This is what got us into this mess.

            After pulling Josh through the window, we took a second to fully grasp our surroundings in this unknown territory. Neatly between the piles of Junk and antiques were walkways intersecting the clutter. This place was as much as a maze as the math homework I finished for Mrs. McCarthy.  One thing was out of sorts. Our friend Zack had vanished without a trace when I was fumbling with Josh through the window. “So… Where is he?” Josh nervously muttered. You could tell he was scared when he let his blonde bangs cover his eyes trying to avoid eye contact. “I’m sure he is just around the corner Joshy” As soon as I was finished comforting my friend, creaks of old stairs filled the room. The slow nature of these creaks sent a shiver up my spine. I looked at Josh and I could tell he was more unnerved than I was, this gave me a new confidence. “Let’s go check it out. C’mon!” I told Josh grabbing his arm and pulling him in the direction of the creaks. We followed a path that cut through the junk. The path followed the side of the wall we entered from which was lit up from the windows. We reached a new doorway, through this was a relatively empty room compared the large room we were in before. Of course, this room held the stairwell that the creaks and moans were coming from. Before I could pull Josh around the corner to see what was upstairs, we heard a voice. “Woah… You guys have got to check this out…”

            Letting go of Josh’s arm I scrambled to the base of the stairs to see my friend Zack staring through a dimly lit doorway. There was a broken window at the top of the stairs that let us see his facial expressions. His jaw was wide, and his eyes were the size of ping pong balls. He must have seen something interesting. Josh followed right behind me making sure we did not forget him. Both Josh and I raced up the dark stairwell to see what our friend was so surprised about. Zack entered the room giving us space to peer through the doorway.        

This place was like nothing I had ever seen before. Above us you could see the beams supporting the old roof with not much insulation. I imagined this place would be awful in the winter. The real point of interest was this circular, stained glass window that was set on the high on the wall parallel from us. This mosaic piece sat right underneath right beneath the crest of the roof. The window captured light from the sun but was somewhat covered by branches on the outside. This created a magical effect of colors and shapes that glistening and dancing across the room. The light from the window illuminated the vast number of odds and ends that this space housed. There was a center runway that split the room in half. Surprisingly, this runway was kept clean and had no sources of junk or any disturbance. Both sides of alleyway were filled with different chairs, couches, bed frames, mattresses, and weird cabinets. There was all sorts of different items and junk laying on top of and filling any space that the owner could have found. At the end of the alley was a shallow set of stairs that reached up to stage that sat directly below the colorful window. The stage was full of old posh chairs, sitting in them were piles of old books. Old fashioned globes were place randomly around the chairs with no rhyme or reason. There were two large draping curtains that hung behind the stage, the red and yellow frill were worn from years of dust and exposure. I thought to myself that those must have been there to cover the stained glass on particularly bright days. As we entered the large room together, taking it all in. Josh noticed something. “Look up on the stage” he whispered. Although I was not sure why he was whispering considering we were the only ones in the room. But I followed his direction. Up on the stage was this one chair in the center with a singular book on it.

We approached the stage slowly, it felt as though a force was weighing on us, making every step harder. Zack bravely persevered and reached the shallow steps that would reach up to the black topped stage. The stairs let out an ugly creek as Zack used them to step up These stairs had not seen action in years. The moment Zack had finally reached the stage he stopped dead in his tracks. He was directly in front of the mysterious book, his gaze was fixed upon it. Josh and I followed his lead and stopped just before the steps. “Josh, Jake don’t touch it…” Zack fumbled this sentence out of his mouth. This worried me, Zack had always been the courageous leader of our group, and to see him stirred instilled a new fear in me. Looking at Josh, he seemed to be growing more nervous by the millisecond.

Josh and I rushed up the stairs to get to Zacks side. The creaks and moans of the steps roared as two people ran up them.  But as soon as we reached either side of him and could see what he was seeing, we fell into the same trance. I could not move; fear had taken over my body and was in total control. The black leather book sat on the red antique chair, untouched by dust like the other objects around the room. The book was in pristine condition as if somebody had bought it the day before. In silver letters that contrasted the neatly bound black leather the book title read “The Exorcist”.

The air was still in the room. Until the faint sniffle of Josh appeared. His breaths got heavier and heavier until he started into a sob. “I WANT OUT!!!” Josh yelped turning away form the book and running down the stairs. This noise would wake up any ghost or demons that were dormant in this forsaken place. I followed Josh trying to calm him down and comfort him, Zack did not want to be left alone with the cursed book, so he came as well. “We never should have come here” I thought nervously to myself. Reaching the middle of the alleyway, we all were stopped in our tracks again. A loud high-pitched screech filled the room. At this moment I had never been more scared in my entire 11-year-old life. Zack, Josh, and I stood in the middle of this massive room expecting our doom.

From out behind one of the mattresses at the other end of the room, by the door we entered, entered a small white figure. This ghost was no more than a foot tall, with a ghostly scarf following behind it. The three of us and the ghost were about to be face to face. The pale figure reached where the colorful mosaic glass was shining in from around 20 feet in front of us. We could now clearly see the ghostly apparatus in full detail. It was all white with patches of deep black covering its body. It opened its mouth to bear tiny razor-sharp teeth. It was not a scarf that followed the ghost, but it was a tail, a tail that stood up straight in the air almost if the ghost itself was scared. Two tiny triangle ears poked out either side its head. The ghost laid down and started purring???

We bolted over to examine our new friend. This kitten seemed as if it could not have been any more than eight weeks old. “We have to save the little guy.” Zack commanded. Josh and I both agreed silently. I was too scared to even dribble out a sentence. Suddenly out of the blue Josh sputtered “Zack, you’ll have to carry him I’m allergic” while fixing his bangs. Zack picked up the kitten who seemed very accepting to him. He placed the kitten in his shirt holding him like a kangaroo mother. “Package secured” Zack muttered. We all started to briskly walk to the door trying our hardest not to disturb anything that we had not already. I knew that nobody had any interest to be in this awful place any longer.

We flew down the stairs, zig zagged through the corridors, and retraced our steps back to our entrance point. Zack went first being careful as possible to climb down the ladder while holding the kitten safe in the other arm. I admired him for his courage, and it seemed like he knew what to do. I let Josh leave next knowing he was surely about to pee his pants if he would be in here any longer. Finally, after Josh had disappeared from my view and confirmed he was on the ground. I crawled through the window, placing my feet securely on the top rungs of the ladder. Thankfully, Josh would hold the ladder while I was climbing down just to make sure I was safe. Once my feet touched the rocks of the riverbed a weight lifted off my shoulders. My friends and I were ecstatic to leave that building and would have never expected to find something like a kitten in there. We all took a few seconds to relax and rest. Zack looked at both of us back and forth holding the kitten up in the air. “Oreo is a good name…” he struggled to get out cleanly. Josh and I had no energy left to produce a verbal answer so we both nodded in agreement.