The Shadow

The basement

Like always, I was woken up by the first rays of light in the morning. It was pretty early, I checked the time and it was 6 o'clock. I went down, pretty sure that everyone was still dreaming. I decided to wait for mom to make the breakfast, meanwhile I took a trip around the house. I went to the kitchen for a glass of water. While the glass was filling I took a look around and my eyes rested on curtains behind the stairs. i closed the tap, drank up quickly and walked towards those dark blue curtains. The reason why the curtains locked my sight, was the beautiful blue colour, it was just my favourite shade. I moved those silk curtains to find an old wooden door with rusty hinges.

Fortunately, the lock was broken. As I opened the door, an air of uneasy trepidation hit me. which made me even more curious to know what was inside. It was dark inside, I was holding the walls for support while climbing down the stairs, when I felt the switches. there were three switches, I hit one randomly which seemed to do the work, the room lit up with a light not that bright, yet it made things visible enough. I was so overwhelmed with the contents of the room that I did not bother with the other two switches. i climbed down the stairs rapidly to enter the basement.

The room had lots of overhead blue and white lights. There was a black piano right in the middle of the room and scattered throughout the room were some kind of flat boards covered with white cloth. i randomly uncovered one of them to find a beautiful painting of the lake at night. I curiously uncovered all the other paintings. But after seeing them I so wished that I hadn't. They were all so dark and cynical. Then suddenly one very surprising fact hit me. If the piano was not covered then, how was it so clean, no dirt had accumulated on the piano which was not normal at all. according to what dad had said, this house had been abandoned for over a decade now. Then in an unnoticed corner of the basement i found a huge antique clock. The freaky part of it was just when I pulled down the white cloth from over it, I noticed that the second's hand moved once and stopped working. Now, to my great terror the clock stopped at 3 o'clock. From all the horror movies I had seen I had learned that clocks stopping at  3 o'clock was never a good thing.

But then i told myself that this is real life, not some movie. Although my conscience was forcing me to believe that there was something eerie about this room. before I could discover anymore, I heard mom's voice calling out, "Leanne, where are you?" 

I yelled,"I'm down here in the basement mom..." I was not sure if mom could hear me from down there so i made for the stairs. I climbed out of the basement and said, "I'm here mom." But, when i came out i saw mom was not there.

I called out to her but there was no reply, then i went up to mom and dad's room and knocked. Mom opened up rubbing her eyes, she said, "good morning sweetheart, did you want something?" 

I was shocked, I asked, " I'm sorry did i wake you?"

"No, that's okay," she smiled.

"Actually I thought i heard you calling me," I decided to say.

"What? no i just woke up.." she replied.

"yeah, alright my mistake i guess," I said shrugging. 

"Come on sweety lets make you some breakfast.." she said getting things ready for the breakfast.

While eating the cereal i said, "Hey mom did you check out the basement?"

"The basement.... we have a basement?" she asked, confused.

"Yes, i was down there when i heard you..... I mean when I thought I heard you calling me."

"We were pretty tired yesterday, we must have missed it out," she informed.

"Well, its not your fault considering the location of its entrance, is behind the stairs... its very easy to miss," I reasoned.

"Good Morning ladies..." I was interrupted by dad. "Hey Edward, Leanne found the way to the basement" mom said. 

"We have a basement?" he asked with a surprised look.

"Here come on, follow me" I moved those blue curtains and opened the door and something struck me,I remembered that I had not switched off the lights, but there it was, Dark, just like the first time I saw it. Anyway i thought that I might have switched it off. mom and dad entered the basement and came out just as overwhelmed and creeped out as i did. Well there is a lot of stuff that we could sell.

"Dad could you not sell the piano, its really beautiful and i want to learn," I asked.

"Alright i won't," he agreed.

"Hello, where are you guys i'm starving" Leo cried out.