Witch's Skin, Page 3

  Chapter 3

  Looking across at stacks of yellow-spined magazines leaning against the wall, Suzi wondered where she was and why she was lying on the floor. She had a vicious headache but she didn’t remember falling and nothing else seemed to be hurt.

  Still confused, she sat up and looked around the attic until her attention focused on the plywood door she’d been laying against. It didn’t have a doorknob and she wondered if it even opened. A cold draft blew under the bottom edge of the door, spreading its dank chill into the gloom that seemed too heavy for the single electric light overhead to dispel. Thunder rumbled outside, heavy raindrops pounded the roof, and for a few seconds she felt like she was up on a movie screen in a horror movie, but unlike the movie victim she could hear the collective mental shout of the audience, “Don’t go in there.”

  She shook her head to clear it of the absurd image and let out a little laugh, but made no move to open the door. She had no desire to know what was behind it, she didn’t want to touch it, she didn’t even want to see it any more. She got up, pushed the bookshelf back into place and replaced the magazines in approximately the right order, working as fast as she could. The physical exertion almost warmed her but she couldn’t shake the chill until she was out of the attic with the door securely closed.

  Downstairs, amid the familiar surroundings of her own furnishings, her nerves began to settle, her headache went away and her thinking cleared. When she showered to rid herself of the clammy, clinging attic dust, her skin sloughed off like she had a bad sunburn. She had to scrub herself everywhere with a rough cloth until her skin was a smooth, healthy pink before she felt clean.

  After her shower she sat on her couch in a warm robe in front of the picture window, drinking a large mug of hot chocolate to warm her insides. By the time she emptied the mug she was pleasantly relaxed and had decided she didn’t want to move out of this lovely old house, she just had to stay out of the attic. There hadn’t really been anything up there to frighten her, it was just a silly case of nerves. Attics did that to her. There was nothing interesting up there anyway, and she had a clean, dry basement with lots of storage space.

  Best to avoid the attic entirely.

  The End.

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