Teagan was running late for work and kept stumbling around the kitchen. She grabbed her lunchbox from the fridge, threw the strap over her shoulder and let it hang on her side. Then she grabbed her keys and ran out the front door. Amelia watched from the window as Teagan tossed the lunchbox in the passenger seat and slammed the car into reverse. As she was staring from the front window all she could think about was the crawl space and the lost items in its void.
Amelia had decided earlier that night that she would go back into the crawl space after Teagan left to see if there were any other items lost within its void.
Isaac was upstairs in his office working on an assignment for his job. He had a deadline to meet but Amelia knew it wouldn't be achieved for at least another hour. So she toppled out of her hammock, let out a long stretch, and casually walked down the stairs to the basement.
Usually the crawl space door was locked. But a few weeks ago Isaac forgot to lock it back after grabbing an old HDMI cord from one of the storage bins. Since then Amelia had been sneaking in and out of the crawl space at all hours. She covered her tracks by always closing the door behind her, leaving the smallest bit of space so she could slide one paw in just enough to open and close it.
Amelia carefully opened up the door and crept inside.
The floor was like a maze with stacked storage bins. Each one was meticulously labeled to describe what was in the bin. Teagan enjoyed creating do-it-yourself projects so most of what was in there was hers. Amelia walked to the middle of the entranceway and sat down.
"Where should I go today?" She asked herself as she looked between each row of bins. "I found that worm behind the "Wood Burning Supplies" bin. Let me try over here near the "Sewing Supplies" bin.
Amelia walked over to the front row and squeezed in between the bins. She had absolutely no plan as to where she was going, but she hoped that she would at least find something worth her while. Even if it was just a cockroach that she could rip the legs off of and paw around until it was lifeless.
As she was turning the corner something caught her eye. It looked as if it were a tail of somesort.
"That lizard needs to stop wandering around here and find a way out. It has until tonight before it becomes my new toy," she hissed as the tail disappeared.
Amelia slowly walked down the row as she followed from behind. She followed the lizard for a few minutes before realizing that she had gotten lost amongst the bins. She wasn't sure what row she was on now and didn't recognize any of the bin descriptions. She looked through the slits in between the stacked bins and tried to find the crawl space door. But all she could see were endless grey bins stacked on top of each other.
GYOTAKU SUPPLIES
UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER KIT
RESIN MOLDS
Amelia was familiar with going into the crawl space. But she usually would wait for something to pass by as it tries to find its way back outside of the house. She had never gone past the first couple rows of bins.
The lizard scurried ahead of her.
ASSORTED ALTOID CANS
STAINED GLASS KIT
BATIK SUPPLIES
As she turned another corner she reached her paw out to grab the lizard's tail. But just as she did, it disappeared again. She knew she had touched it. She could feel the lizard's soft skin caress her pads. But the tail slipped from her paws before she could sink in her claws and drag it towards her.
Amelia, now frustrated, looked up and saw a bin that appeared to be open. The lid was laying on top and wasn't securely snapped to the main storage area. It looked as if someone had opened the bin and not closed it behind themselves.
"It must have gone in here," she thought to herself.
Amelia took a deep breath, reached up to the top of the bin, and exhaled as her body slithered through the opening.
There was absolutely no light in the bin. It took her a moment to let her eyes adjust to the change.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The bin was filled with layers upon layers of toys, non perishable foods, clothing, toiletries, and even trash. It looked as if someone had built a fortress out of the most random things they could find. Amelia wasn't sure of what she had stumbled upon, but everything in there looked familiar.
That's when it hit her. She knew what the things were. They were some of the missing items that Teagan and Isaac had been searching for.
Amelia started to walk around the bin, making sure to take note of what she was seeing. She looked closely in search of an item that would be worth her time and efforts to carry out of there.
The bin seemed much larger on the inside than it did from the outside. The walls were so tall that Amelia had to balance herself and jump from object to object in efforts to climb up the side.
At this point she had forgotten about the lizard and directed her focus to finding something that would make Isaac happy so she could be rewarded with a treat.
She saw something metal at the very back of the bin. It had the words "2017 VBA CODE" written on the side with a marker. It was a flash drive that Isaac had lost when they first moved in.
Amelia scurried up the pile of items and reached for the flash drive. She grabbed it and quickly tossed it into her mouth. Making sure to keep her jaw tightly shut as she pounced back down.
She stopped for a second and took another look around the bin.
"I wonder how all of this got in here," she asked herself. "I haven't seen some of this stuff since we were in our old apartment."
Amelia, with the flash drive still in her mouth, reached towards the opening in the bin and slithered out. Making sure to leave it slightly open so she could come back the next day and search through the items to see what more was in there.
Once she landed back on the crawl space floor she recognized the bins that were in front of her. She looked in between the slits and could see a dim light glimmering at the end.
"That must be the door," she thought to herself.
She made her way down the row of bins and climbed through the crawl space door.
When Amelia brought the flash drive to Isaac he was ecstatic. He rewarded her with her favorite treat, a wet cat food packet that resembled those Go-Gurt yogurt snacks for kids.
After basking in the attention, she spent the rest of the day resting on Isaac's desk, occasionally waking up to watch his computer screen as he sorted through all of the documents on the flash drive she had found.
YOU ARE READING
Domovoy
Teen FictionIn this eerie tale, Isaac and Teagan adopt a stray cat, Amelia, who they rescued at just a couple days old. Years later, as they settle into their first house, Amelia detects an unsettling presence lurking within its walls. Mysterious disappearances...
