His heart was pounding.
He was sure he had just seen the doorknob turn.
Also, the radio was on, he was positive that he had heard the tail end of
the Phillies game, Thome struck out! Or
perhaps he was just trying to busy himself to steer away from the fact that he
was feeling lonely. Whatever it
was, the boy was was confused as to why there was a three-foot high door at the
bottom of a stairwell in a long abandoned house.
He was nintey0nine percent sure that door wasn’t there yesterday, but
that was yesterday.
Two days prior, the Evans family had moved into the house next door to
the old Krutch place. The Krutch
family residence had been abandoned for at least twenty years, but oddly enough,
it showed absolutely no signs of aging, on the outside or inside, yet no one
ever saw anyone working on it. There
were stories that old John Krutch still lived in the house and just roasted pigs
and made weird noises as children passed. Like
I said, those were just stories. No
one knew what sick things really went on in there.
That is, until little Chris opened the front door for the second.
He hadn’t heard the stories about the house next door yet, it was the
middle of July when he moved, he didn’t make any friends yet.
There was a beat-up shed by his old house that Chris had made into a
fort; he had the idea of making that whole house into a giant fort where he
could go to escape from everything.
As he walked down the stairs, his heart was racing faster, he kept
thinking to himself, ‘This is all just one big dream!’
When Chris got to the bottom of the stairs, he looked up and noticed that
one of the ice skates was missing from the hook up above.
‘That’s weird’ he thought, ‘they
were both there yesterday when I tried them on!’
Then he glanced to his left and noticed that the carpet in the corner
looked strangely familiar, he must’ve seen it at the Home Shoppe.
Chris inched closer and closer to the door at the bottom of the stairs,
when he finally got to the door, got, he blinked, and the door was gone.
He was baffled, was he imagining things?
Surely that’s how his brothers would explain it.
So
Chris marched back up the stairs and out of the old house, all the way to his
house he was running. When he entered his house, he didn’t talk to anybody, he
just went straight into his room. Suddenly
he realized where he had seen that carpet before, it wasn’t at the Home Shoppe
in his old town, is was right here in his room, only now, it wasn’t.
The floor was bare. Then
something gleamed from under his bed, he knew right away what that was.
Somehow, the second ice skate was in his room.
By this time, Chris was really confused.
He decided the best thing to do would be to sleep on it.
When he woke up, his carpet was back and the ice skate was gone.
He dressed himself as fast as he could.
If you saw him, surely you would have laughed, who in their right man
wears white camo shorts. Anyways,
Chris ran down the stairs and to the old Krutch place as fast as he could.
He entered the house and ran down the stairs, and then he saw them.
They were the weirdest little creatures!
Bringing things, taking things out; keys, socks, notebooks, you name it,
they were moving it, and all through that little three foot door in the
basement. One of the little
creatures caught his eye; it was carrying an envelope.
It ran over to Chris, it only stood to about his knees.
Chris took the envelope, opened it, and started reading:
To:
Mr. Christopher Evans
148 Huntington Place,
Middletown PA
So, you have found out my secret. You
are the only one alive who knows, and I plan to keep it that-----
Suddenly one of little creatures yelped from behind.
Chris turned around, but not in time.
He saw a huge gray figure towering over him.
That was the last thing that Chris ever saw.
Now, he is reduced to a mere slave forced to work for Krutch.
Taking things in, bringing things back.
You see, I am, or perhaps “was” is a better word, Chris Evans.
Running between houses, creating magic doors in abandoned houses,
stealing people’s socks and moving things around.
If you’ve ever misplaced your keys, or maybe you’ve lost a sock in
the washer or dryer, now you know what really happened, or that 45 dollar call
to some unknown village in Africa, yep, you guessed it, that was us too.
So now I sit here, and tell you my story, and maybe it will end up in
your dresser, or notebook, or maybe even in your gym locker, who knows.
Just make sure you heed my warning and stay away from those abandoned
houses, they’re deadly. Remember,
curiosity killed the cat.
