Chapter Seven
A door. An old, stone door. I am staring upon it. I look up. There is a tall stone tower attached to the old stone door. Without thinking, I subconsciously reach out both of my hands to venture into this ancient place. It will not budge. Is this a sign? Is this place whispering out its warning to me? Telling me to turn back? Ignoring its silent alert, I push harder on the door. Giving in, it flings open. The rusted steel lock. Has fallen off. It silently hits the ground.I float into the forbidding edifice. It smells old. It smells of must. I only stand in the entrance, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the blinding darkness.Have you ever noticed, that in almost all horror movies, there is a frightening sound? Whether it be a scream, a moan, or footsteps, the character always proceeds towards the noise. Let's put you in the place of that character. You are in an old, scary, haunted house. It is dark. You hear chains rattling from the room at the end of a long hallway. Now, realistically, would you move towards the sound? No! You would run! You would get out of that house, and go back to your own safe home, and swallow down a mug of hot chocolate. In all of the movies, the character moves towards the sound. It is not sensible!Cessy is very unique. She is brave. She moves towards her fears. She will, quite soon, find out that her bravery could very well be the death of her.There is a staircase before me. It is pulling me towards it. I know that there is absolutely no use in fighting the urge to proceed, so what else is there to do? I step forward. Walking up the stairs, it feels as though the earth is leaving me, slowly making its way to safety.I know I am going to regret this. I gently extend my hand, and touch the hard, cold, stone wall. I retrace the markings once made there. Finger nail markings. Scratches. My hand glides over them with such swiftness. I can't breathe. I fiercely try to inhale, but I can't. My eyes are watering and burning. Again I try to inhale, only receiving a sharp stabbing in my lungs.Everything is silent. Everything is black. I try to move, but am immobile. I can see what I have dreaded all this time. I can finally see sorrow. I see her, with her blonde hair covered in dirt and filth. I feel her pain as she is trying to escape his grasp. I understand her completely. Her very own blood runs down her arm. They do not know it, but tears stream down her torn cheeks.I do not know what I am seeing. I only know of the pity I feel for her. I now notice that i can move, and I jerk my arm away from the wall. Once again, I am in myself. I become aware of how thankful I am for breath, and how good it feels to be able to smell the musty air.Suddenly, I feel as though a breeze of calmness has swept over me, over this tower, and over the world. I am ready to move on. I glide, ever so gently up the stairs. If you were watching me, you would swear the I have wings! One step, two steps, three steps...I'm going to make it. And when I have made my way to the very top, I will find nothing at all. Seven steps, eight steps, nine steps...I will then run home and give my mother and fath-...oh. Yes. With open arms, I welcome back reality.Thump! Thump! Thump! The calmness has rapidly left me as I bolt down the stairs."No! Please open! Oh, God!" Stuck. The door is stuck. I swear I didn't close it. I swear! Why the hell would I have closed the door!? THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! Closer! The blood is pounding in my head. A stinging sensation fills me, and I realize that I could very well die here. What ever is up those stairs is coming after me, and wanted me. It will kill me. I would never again see my mother. She would never know where I went. No one would ever find me. I would become a mystery. I would become lost.In all of my fear, I almost don't hear that the noise has stopped. This doesn't calm me at all. Still, I have no way out. I am trapped.I cannot believe that I am doing this, but I turn around and face the stairs. There is nothing else to do! Lose-lose situation. I mean, I can't just wait here and sit on this freezing stone, and rot, or wait for whatever is up there to come and get me. Perhaps there is a window I can climb out of, or another door that I can exit through upstairs. Nervously, I take short glances around the level I am on. My eyes have adjusted quite well the darkness. Something is in the far-right corner. I walk over to it and pick it up, hoping that it could be used as a weapon. Wood. It is a piece of wood. About two feel long, covered in filth, and obviously has never been sanded down. A sliver of it slithers into my skin as I pick up my weapon. It doesn't bother me, for I am only bothered with the fact that this day may be my last.Foot by foot, I pace myself, up this deadly, spiral stairway. Only a few more feet, and I will be on the very top level of the tower. I shall be face-to-face with the dreaded noise.Here I am. Nothing seems to be out of place, or wrong. Although, this place is very disturbing, or disturbed. I can't imagine that someone has been her within the last 400 years. It's ancient! There is nothing up here besides a door, which most likely leads to a room. I reach out my arm, and get myself prepared to open the door. My finger tips are just inches away from the handle."Help me!" I jerk my back my arm, and fall back into a wall."Oh my..." I whisper under my breath. "Hang on! I'm coming!" I scream. Someone is in that room. I have to get in that room!I start to freak out, and pull on the door as hard as I can. Unexpectedly, the wooden door opens. It takes some strength, but I am prying it open wide enough so that I can enter. From the outside, it doesn't seem as thought the door would be as heavy as it is."I'm here! Are you okay? H-hello?" I am positive of what I heard. I do not hear things. Someone was just in this room. I can feel it. I can feel the life that there once was. Unlike the rest of the tower, this room is warm. It is full of breath. Full of life.It is empty. Completely empty. I start to feel a little uneasy. I pray to God that I was only hearing things. But, there are footprints, bare footprints on the ground. They were formed in this very dust that I am now walking in. I hear my name. I can hear my name being called. I raise my eyes. There it is. I see what is calling me. It is staring right at me, and I cannot believe that I am first noticing it this moment.It is a picture. It is a window. A huge, beautiful, horrible window. I drift over to it, and put my hand to it. I stroke the picture. The overwhelming gloom sticks inside of me, and it makes me restless, but I hardly notice it, for I am too entranced by this window.It seems so life like, and yet, it seems so magical and mysterious. I put my face to it, and close my eyes. I can, even better now, feel its soul speaking to me. I can hear its story. I listen. I listen to the shame, the sorrow, and the helplessness.I open my eyes, and stare past the window. Great. Mom and Gabe. I didn’t think that they would be visible from here. I wonder if they have even realized that I am gone. I can see them in the far off distance. I believe that they are holding hands, and smiling. I can't take it. I never have, and I'll never be able to.It all happens so fast, that I have no time to think, or make a decision. It happens within a second. All I know, is that no person deserves to feel this miserable, and that anything is better than this. The strange thing is, that I don't even know if I feel that way. It is like someone is thinking for me, and moving for me, and living for me at this moment. Unaware of what I am doing, I stare down to the ground below me, through the window. Before I have time to stop myself, I fall.