Chapter 3 The Visitor, part 2

 

Note: to go to start of SEA DOGS click on  this LINK below

The Beginning; Prologue - The Attic

Chapter 3 The Visitor, Part 2.

Like his father, more than three years before him, he had uncovered, what looked like the entrance to an old cellar, which had been blocked & sealed a long time ago. John remembered his father’s work in the kitchen, but he was surprised at the find. Why had his father not mentioned it? He could see clearly that the wooden trap door had been re-opened recently, as some of the wood used to block the entrance, was newer. Around the top of the door, once he had removed the boards blocking it, in the right hand corner, there was a small opening. It revealed the dark space below. John broke the seal on the boarded trap door & it creaked as he pulled upward & it opened. A rush of cool, damp-smelling air hit him in the face as he switched on the torch, that he had found in one of the kitchen drawers. The smell that floated from below was strange & uninviting, but his boyhood curiosity urged him on. He slowly descended the stairs to the dark & silent room below. Immediately it was obvious to him that there was another opening, perhaps an old entrance into the room from outside, which allowed the flow of air. There was a tension in the air, something that he couldn’t explain, but hesitantly he went on. His torch beam flashed on the glistening moisture, which was present on the stone walls, grey in colour that matched the steps & hard stone floor below.

At the foot of the stairs was an old, half broken bakelite light switch. John carefully flicked it on & suddenly the small cellar was lit by the old swaying light bulb. Its filament flickered a little & then it burnt a little more brightly, before dimming once more. This was due mainly to its age, although the quality of its brightness was reduced by the amount of dust & dirt which covered the glass.
There were no windows, but there was a door at one end next to the stairs, which he found to be a small, disused storage room. Although the cellar was lit, to some degree it was still too dark to see the far end of the room. At first John’s torch beam moved too rapidly to see it, but he noticed that there was something back there in the dark. He retraced the light to the middle of the wall & studied it for sometime before he realised that the hairs on the back of his neck were all stood on end at once. It was more than shock that he felt. It was a feeling of sheer terror & it unhinged him. A crawling feeling came over his whole body as he stared. Unnerved, he reasoned that this must have been hidden long ago & that he suddenly wanted to run, but he couldn’t.

      John’s mind filled in a micro-second as he fathomed that his father’s change in personality, particularly in the last year before his death, had noticeable begun soon after the time he had worked in the kitchen alone. He understood completely from that micro-second on that his father, like him, had stumbled upon it. It was something that he felt sure that no one in their right mind would want to come within a thousand miles of, let alone discover it in a hidden cellar under their house! Obviously his father had tried to deny its very existence. He had hidden the truth, shielded the family from this horror. Maybe the hell he suffered in order to carry such a burden had shortened his life. John shuddered as the sweat rolled down his brow, as he tasted vomit in his mouth & the fear cut in.

However, things were different now that the house was paid off. They could sell up & move far away from here, perhaps to Australia, where his parents had friends that had emigrated. He even remembered that there had been talk of selling the house. His father had broached the subject, but his mother had dismissed it, after she failed to understand why. For his father could give no real explanation for his suggestion. Eventually, against his mother’s wishes & there had been arguments, the house was put on the market for a short time. Without any interested parties coming forward, just before his father’s death, the “FOR SALE” signs were removed. Since then his mother had decided to stay. The house represented an important part of the life the family had shared together, she said. Indeed, there were many happy memories.

Originally when his parents bought the house, all the money they had saved was used as the deposit & for renovations. Therefore their finances were stretched, with the monthly mortgage & endowment payments to make. John knew that they had bought the house for a lot less than it was worth, because there had been problems regarding its sale due to legalities & its past reputation; which the family had dismissed as nonsense. However, it now seemed that something terrible from the past was lurking hidden in a secret room. It all now made perfect horrible sense. His instincts told him that there was only one thing to do. And that was to run!
 John pulled himself away & puked as he did so; some of which splashed down the front of his shirt on to his trousers & then to the floor. He suddenly felt dizzy as all his energy drained, but somehow, without any real explanation, he still managed, perhaps instinctively, to scramble at break neck speed up the stone cold steps on all fours to the top, grazing his hands as he went.

He trembled as he closed the cellar door as fast as he could with his bloodied hands, concealing it with pieces of wood. He couldn’t escape fast enough! A deeply disturbing feeling came over him, as the reality of the find quickly set in & he vomited one more time on the kitchen floor. It was terrifyingly apparent to him that he had uncovered something that could only be described as evil. Sickened by the thought his guts churned & he urged as vomit filled his mouth for the third time.

He dragged himself from the kitchen to the living room when his scared mind was suddenly jolted by the sound of the door bell & he jumped.

CLICK HERE to jump to next installment of SEA DOGS!Written by T.R.Vinnicombe (aka Dr. Peter Hodgkins) ©2009 all rights reserved & none of the contents of this site can be copied or used in any way without the written consent of the author. Published online by MicroHotStar 2009.

Deep & dark, as drawn by the Author.