Do Not Look

Chapter 10

Sandra woke up with a heavy head, and not to mention, a splitting headache. She touched the back of her head and winced in pain. There was dried blood all over her clothes, the face and her hair tangled in it to form a mush. Somewhere there was water dripping, the floor felt moist and smelled of mould. She got up and sat leaning on the wall for support. She took in the sight before her.
It was a medium sized room, with wooden floors and ceiling. It was occupied by a variety of things, old chairs, tables, mattresses and like. A stairway right in the middle led upwards. From whatever faint memory she had of the previous happenings, she guessed this room was probably just beneath the reception area. There were pipes adorning one side of the ceiling and it was leaking. Thankfully though, a small crack in the top corner of one of the walls let in some light. That's how she knew it was daytime.

Sandra was starting to feel nauseous. The previous night was like a horror movie fast forwarded. A lot to take in, a lot to accept and make sense of.

"So this place is haunted by Michael's family," Sandra shuddered, she felt a chill down her spine.

And Michael was bad news. Apparently he added something in her food every night for sedation and did whatever voodoo he was doing. She fell in his sweet talk.

"Gentleman my foot!" Sandra mumbled as she strained herself to get up. She was sore allover and had her clothes muddied and torn, in all likelihood from the dragging. She fumed in anger, at the same time felt sorry for herself. Her eyes welled up, " How am I going to save my poor self?"

She steadied herself, "Where there is a will, there is a way". She just had to find it. Sandra started limping around the room in hope, moving the chairs careful not to make a lot of sound. She noticed that they were not the kind of furniture she had in her room, these were more cushioned and expensive with hand stitched embroideries. There were even some kid's toys, cupboards and kitchen utensils.

Out of nowhere one of the cupboards opened by itself gradually. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she started to feel cold... The light wasn't enough to see what was inside. Sandra stood still, waiting. And then she saw them, the two eyes! They were pendulating, and bit by bit a formless shadow spread out of the cupboard.

"Help.....mmee.... Help me...."

Sandra trembled back in shock, stumbled on a chair and fell to the floor. This time she was stuck, there was no way to go. Like a small kid she inched herself under a table, held her legs close to her, shut her eyes  and hid her head between her knees.

"Help mmeeee", it hissed in her ears, she could smell rotten meat.

"Make it go away! Make it go away!" She sobbed.
And it stopped. That was it. But Sandra stayed alert, quivering and sweating profusely. Waiting.

She didn't know how long she had been staying so, but finally she started to calm down. Her mind unwound and Sandra started thinking.

Help me

What was she afraid of? Whoever or whatever these supernatural things were, they have never hurt her, except for the girl throwing the doll at her head of course. But then she had to agree she was acting extremely idiotic. It was in fact someone in flesh and bones who hurt her. She felt they were always trying to tell her something but she would scream or run or faint all the time!
What was she afraid of? It was the fear of fear itself, the fear that something bad might happen, that she might die. Now, having had 2 blows to the head by a psycho black magician and locked away in his basement, death seemed almost inevitable. If this was going to be her way out, she would take that chance.

Sandra inhaled and exhaled deeply. She carefully opened her eyes, nothing. Sigh of relief! But then, something moved on the table above her head... And the little girl just dropped down her head from above to look under the table at Sandra!

"Aaah!", Sandra shrieked in surprise!

" Why won't you help James? I like him too you know. But I like you more.", she tilted her head and smiled, and went back up.

James??!! So Amy?!!
Sandra hurried out. There was no girl. But the cupboard was still open. Sandra got up shakily and moved to the cupboard. It was empty, she searched in and out.
Nothing.
On an intuition, Sandra pushed the cupboard aside. And there behind it, on the wall was a small door, half her height. Maggots were crawling from underneath it. And the door had a huge hexagram painted with red on it, wait! Was it blood?!

"Let's go in?" the little girl held her arm and smiled wickedly. " Let's see what daddy is hiding.."