Chad and his family moved into the big, old house in June. In the summer, the house didn’t look frightening because it was all lit up and sunny and surrounded by green trees; but, when winter came, it was a different story. The house took on an empty, evil look. It was all gray and scary-looking. The huge trees without their green leaves stretched their spooky naked arms towards the house. The whole house looked like some old haunted house from a horror movie. Chad’s mother said that when spring arrived they would paint the house and it would look a lot nicer, but spring was a long way off.

Chad loved his big room. The house was huge. So huge, that Chad hadn’t had the chance to explore all of the doors and closets yet. The attic was first on his list, but his mother had warned him not to go into the attic. His mother didn’t explain why Chad couldn’t go into the attic either. She just said, “Do not go into the attic!”

This drove Chad nuts! He had to know what was in the attic! What was the big secret anyway?

One night Chad’s mother and father went to an opera and left Chad alone in the house. Chad finished his homework and turned on the television, but there was nothing on but re-runs. He sighed. He was bored stiff with nothing to do. Flopping across his bed, he picked up the phone and called his friend Greg’s number.

The phone rang.

“Hello. Is Greg there?” Chad asked.

“Just a minute,” Greg’s brother answered. After a few seconds, Greg picked up the phone.

“Hi, Chad.”

“Hey, do you want to come over to my house and check out the attic with me?” Chad asked.

“Didn’t your mom tell you not to go up there?” Greg asked.

“Yeah, but they’re gone and they won’t be home for hours. They’ll never know.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll be over in a little while,” Greg said and hung up the phone. “I need to clean up my room first or my mom will freak.”

Chad waited and waited, but Greg did not come. Too impatient to wait any longer, Chad grabbed a flashlight and went up the squeaky attic stairs. He pushed open the old, wood door. It creaked on its hinges. The house had been vacant before Chad’s family moved in, so no one had been in the attic for years.

The attic was dark. Chad waved the flashlight around the room. It was full of cool old trunks and piles of antique toys and books. In fact, it looked like the entire attic was full of the contents of some kid’s room.

Chad went over to the round window that overlooked the street and peered out. The glass was dusty and hard to see through. He leaned forward and started to wipe the dirty glass with the end of his t-shirt. CRACK!

Wood splintered beneath him and he felt his feet plunge through the floor. He looked into the dark hole under his dangling feet and did not know where the hole led. The attic floor should be over the front porch, but instead he was hanging over black nothingness. The blackness swirled beneath him and made a terrifying sucking sound as if the hole was trying to pull him in.

Chad screamed. “Help!” There was only silence. No one heard him yell.

He was alone. If only Greg would get here!

“Help!” Chad screamed again. His hands clung to the splintered and broken wood floor above. His arms hurt. He didn’t know if he could hang on much longer. He was so afraid. Where did the dark hole go? What was it? He struggled to hang on.

“Help!” he screamed again, tears running down his face.

Suddenly, a voice shouted, “Just hang on!”

Chad looked up to see a girl in a pretty white nightgown stretching her hand towards him. Chad grabbed the girl’s hand and the girl pulled him safely to the attic floor.

Chad bent over panting. After catching his breath, he looked up to thank the girl, but the girl was gone. Chad ran down the attic stairs looking for the girl in the white gown and bumped into Greg.

“Did you see a girl in a white nightgown go downstairs? I don’t know her name.” Chad said.

“No, and why would someone you don’t know be in your house and wearing a nightgown?” Greg looked at Chad like he was crazy.

“I don’t know. Come here, look what happened. I was up in the attic and I fell through the floor into this hole, and then this girl showed up and saved me.” Chad took Greg to the attic, but when he began to show him where the hole had been, there was nothing there but the wood plank floor.

“What? I don’t understand! There was a huge hole, I fell through it and the girl saved me!” Chad felt the floor where the hole had been. It was solid like it had never been broken.

Greg sat down on a stack of books and leaned back on a tall pile of newspapers. Something caught his eye.

“Hey, Chad, is this your girl?” Greg asked, showing Chad the old, yellow newspaper.

Chad took the old newspaper and read the front page story headline. It read: “Girl Plunges To Her Death In Unexplained Attic Accident”. The photograph next to the story was of a beautiful girl in a flowing white dress.

“That’s the girl!” Chad shouted. He was shocked.

“But this girl died over a hundred years ago in this attic,” Greg said reading the newspaper. “Maybe that’s why your mom didn’t want you up in this attic!”

Chad and Greg looked at each other as shivers ran up their spines.

“I think a ghost just saved my life,” Chad said in a whisper.

“But where is the hole you fell into? The newspaper story says the girl fell into a hole too.” Greg shook the newspaper in front of Chad’s pale face.

“Maybe they fixed the hole after the girl died,” Chad said quietly. “Man, this is really strange. None of it makes sense. I should have listened to my mom and stayed out of here.”

“This place is giving me the creeps! Let’s get out of here,” Greg said and jumped up from the newspapers. Greg and Chad ran out of the attic, slamming the door tightly behind them.

Chad decided he wouldn’t be going back into the attic any time soon. Something was up there. Something he didn’t want to meet again.

The End

Angeline Hawkes-Craig's stories appear in several anthologies and fiction collections. Angeline has publication credits dating from 1981. She has two novels to her credit (one is out of print and being reviewed for re-release, the other is scheduled for publication 2005 by Cyber-Pulp Press). In 2003, Scars Publications released her book, Momento Mori: A Collection of Short Fiction. The E-book is currently available from Double Dragon Publishing. She is a member of the Horror Writer's Association. Hawkes-Craig received a B.A. in Composite English from East Texas State University in 1991. She is a former middle and high school teacher [teaching British Literature, Reading, Journalism and Speech communications] and writes educational children's fiction [mostly used in Reader programs], Horror and Speculative fiction. Visit her website
www.angelinehawkes-craig.com.

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