Under the stairs
Now I just want to start with I do not believe in any of this kind of stuff. Ghouls and ghosts they've always been works of fiction to me.
A few days ago though I had an experience that unnerves me and makes me question whether there is anything out there.
I live in the country so there aren't many houses around mine. My closest neighbour lives 5 minutes down the road from me.
Well on the 1st my parents went on a trip to the city where my aunt and cousins live.
As much as I love them I couldn't be bothered with the 3 hour trip there so I opted to stay home.
Being 17 I felt like an adult being left home alone for the 2 days they'd be gone, I was silly.
I've always been a very paranoid person and even if left alone for a few hours you're likely to find me locked in my bedroom with a kitchen knife and a mobile next to me.
I don't know why I was so scared of other people, Humans were the last of my worried as I sooner found out.
On Monday morning I watched my mom and dad climb into our crappy ford focus and drive away.
The day was fine. I spent most of it doing all the chores my parents had left me.
If I did it all on the first day then I'd have more time to myself plus I'd probably forget and then they'd be back before I could get round to it.
One of the tasks I had was to clean out the small broom cupboard under the stairs. It was full of old and new brushes, mops, some of my dads old golfing gear. Nothing that was too important so I just piled it up next to the door.
I crawled in so I could get a better look at what might still be left inside.
It was dark now so I grabbed my flash light from outside the closet door and as I pulled my hand back in I must have knocked something over because the door slammed shut. It almost closed on my hand.
I let out a little sigh of relief. This would be one of the first times I've been left home alone for this amount of time I couldn't be calling my parents back because I broke my hand I don't want them to think I'm incapable of being by myself.
I sat and laughed to myself for a few seconds then turned on the flash light. The little bit of light there was in the hallway was completely gone now.
Nope there was nothing else in here, well apart from a few golf balls on the floor.
That was when I heard it.
Right above me on the top of the stairs I heard the wooden boards creek a little. They only ever did that if someone was stood on them.
I quieted myself instantly, I even turned off the flash light as I just sat there and waited.
I didn't hear anything for a good 5 minutes so I decided to stop being silly, get out and have a look round.
I turned the flash light back on and went to reach for a door handle.
To my shock and horror. There wasn't one.
I tried pushing against the door and trying to pry it open with my nails but nothing.
I started panicking and thrashing around which only made it worse as I slammed myself into the door and heard everything crash behind it.
Where before the door had at least been slightly movable it wouldn't move an inch now I think a golf club landed on the handle on the outside.
The force at which I threw myself into the door though left me feeling a bit dizzy and with the slight feeling of claustrophobia kicking in I think my brain went into melt down mode and shut down.
I woke up well I don't know how many hours later, I could see some light trying to get through the little gap under the door so I assumed it was morning.
My body hurt I couldn't stretch out properly in here, I could lie down but only if I formed foetus position and after a while that got un-comfy too.
I can't say anything much happened in the day. I remember screaming a lot trying to hopefully attract someone over to the house even though I knew it wouldn't work.
I tried punching the door and kicking it, all that did was make me hurt even more.
That night though as the little bit of light from under the door slowly disappeared I got a horrible feeling of dread.
I didn't feel alone in here. It didn't make sense being there was barely enough room for me in here let alone another person but yet somehow it felt like there was someone sat next to me.
Even in that very creepy moment I remembered the tale my parents told me years ago when we first moved in.
It was to try and scare me out of.. accidentally locking myself in the very small room under the stairs.
I suddenly felt very stupid as the story came back to me they told me a very naughty girl didn't listen to her parents and hid in there once when she got in trouble.
They never told me the end but I guessed it was my situation now.
If I live through this I'll ask my parents how that story goes.
I fell asleep again a few hours later but was suddenly awoken by something being dragged down the stairs.
I could hear it something hard being dragged and then hitting each step as it went down.
My first thought was it was my parents which led me to banging on the door and trying to shout for help.
The second I did the noises stopped. I felt uneasy like I'd just done something terrible and was waiting for someone to tell me off.
I wonder if I'd even locked the door, with no dogs and being as isolated as we were it's possible if someone heard my parents were going away they could have broken in.
I was glad I'd thought of a logical reason but still that would mean my house was being robbed and I'd just let them know I was in here.
It was getting cold in here now, much colder than it had been before. I could feel a draft coming from somewhere.
Strange I thought, it's not coming from the direction of the door so that means maybe there's a gap or a hole or something I might be able to break and get out of here with.
When I looked around properly with the flash light which I assumed was nearly out of battery I noticed it, There was a plaster wall to my right there wasn't much of a difference but the colour shades were different and the side hadn't been done properly which is why there was a draft.
I felt so relieved but wait I can't break the wall or the stairs my parents will go mad but they should also understand my situation..
I waited and debated for a while about how I should proceed and I figured the best option was to try and break out.
I hadn't eaten the morning my parents left so the hunger was really setting in now, my mouth felt like sandpaper too.
If I can use the end of the flash light hopefully I can knock a hole into the plastered wall.
I really didn't think it through the hunger was getting to me even if I did break through it didn't necessarily mean there was another magical way of getting out.
If I hadn't of been so delirious I would have never found it. I would have never found her.
The second I hit the plastered wall the whole thing crumbled to the floor. I jumped back as far into the corner as I could as it hit the floor and bounced around.
It was a skull, a small skull but still a skull.
I was too terrified to shine the light where the wall was but I had to, I didn't want to touch anything by accident.
When I did I started choking on the air in my throat and frantically clawing at the door.
To my horror behind the plastered wall was about 25cm of extra room where a small child's skeleton had been shoved inside.
It was then that my flash light died.
I was already screaming but now I could hear noises everywhere.
I heard the front door unlocking and things being thrown around. If I listened closely enough I could hear a whisper too.
My mother slammed open the small door to the broom cabinet under the stairs and pulled me out. After that she let out another horrified scream as my dad came running in.
They calmed me down and rang the police. They told me they'd come back early because I wasn't answering the phone, funny I never even heard it ring.
After the whole experience they told me the rest of that story. They'd always known there was no handle in there and it was very easy to lock yourself in but like I said they always warned me as a kid and it was always a scary place to me anyway so I never went near it.
What they had been told when they first moved in was this.
The family that lived here before us had 2 kids. A little daughter and a son a few years older.
What their parents didn't know was the son constantly picked and bullied their daughter and one day he even tried to rape her. That was when she hid and accidentally locked herself in the small room.
They all thought she had run away as she had done before and expected the police to find her and bring her back again.
One day about a week after while the mother was out with some search teams looking for their daughter.The father noticed a certain foul odour in the hallway near the stairs. To his horror when he opened the door he found his daughter decomposing on the floor.
She'd been stabbed 13 times with a fork, he also found one of his sons marbles in there and assumed the worst.
Not wanting to lose another child he did what he thought was best.
He lied her body as close to the wall as her could and plastered another wall in front of it. He was relieved when he couldn't smell her any more.
Everything was fine until 2 years later when their son on his way to refill his glass of water, fell down the stairs cracking his skull open with shards of glass puncturing him all over his body.
He was alive for another 2 minutes after that as the mother frantically cradled her little boy while the father rung an ambulance.
They said he kept trying to move and talk. He wouldn't stop staring at the top of the stairs while he remained alive.
After that they couldn't stand it there any more and moved out.
They still had a picture of what the family used to look like from an old newspaper.
As I looked at the father I remembered a now horrible and creepy experience from my childhood.
I'd seen the father before. I was playing outside once in front of my house and he came up to the fence and asked if I'd ever seen Annie.
When I said no he walked away smiling and I never saw him again.
