The Stairs Creak, Sarah Teare [best contemporary novels .txt] 📗

1943

The morning was dark and grim.  On the horizon a thin line of light faded into the inky sky.  Snowflakes fell to the ground.  SLowly the fog dispersed.  Gradually, the sky begame lighter, finally settling into a creamy gray color.  The wind howled and scraped the trees against the thick windows.  

Despite the cold, Mynna Stark woke up and dressed quickly.  Mynna didn't even bother to eat breakfast before she threw on her thick warm coat and ran out of the door.  Wasting time was not appropriate at this time.  She pulled her shawl tighter around her as she set out.  The morning was lifeless.  Not a sound was uttered, none other than the crunch of snow under Mynna's rough boots.  She saw barely any movement this morning.  Most animals would be hibernating during the winter.  A few does started this way and that. 

Finally, Mynna could not hold in her anxiety anymore.  SHe brooke out in a run.  It was slow, since she had to pull her feeet out of the heavy snow with every step, but it was still faster than running.  Heading towards the dense forest, the beathed in a gasp of crisp air.  The brisk wind grazed her face, causing her cheeks to flush with color.  Sniffling, she continued her tiresome journey.  When she finally entered the woods, she didn't care about the low hanging branches that scraped and whipped her face.

Nothing mattered to her right now.  Nothing but her innocent children.  In her brain she could see them grinning at her, they were probably scared and missed ther mother.  She had missed them.  They were so innocent.  She felt horrible about what had happened to them.  Why them?  She had already lost one.  She had never found Peter in the fire.  He had never been saved.  There were no sirens from the town.  Only the earth shaking explosions.  She still didn't know why the bombs were set off by that small town.  It must've been mistook for somewhere else. She remembered waking to the smell of smoke as she woke up and hear her childrens screams.  She ran to the forest, only to realize she had forgotten to find Peter.  She cursed herself for forgetting him.  She cried, realizing that he must've died in the fire.  She had been truly desperate to let the woman near her children.  

Through the dense trees she sighted the cabin.  Cold and boring it stood.  It emitted no light.  It looked deserted, had she not known that people were in there.  Slowly, she crept towards the small hut.  She chose her steps carefully.  If you had asked wy he hadn't just kept running, she couldn't have answered you, but she had felt a sense of sacredness.  Things had been performed in the cabin that hadn't been done for a very long time. 

When she reached the doorknob she stopped.  She was afraid of what she might see.  She had thought of this moment for so long, but to no avail.  Ever since that fateful night, she had rarely, if ever, found herself not worrying about them.  Were they safe?  Were they happy?

She shoook these thoughts out of her brain as she turned the doorknob and entered the seemingly abandoned cabin.  She stepped over the threshold and into the dim cabin.  Nearly burnt out candles were scattered into a maze on the floor.  On the walls, crude symbols were drawn with a thick, dark, inky substance.  Mynna flinched when she caught the scent of burning flesh. 

Nearly paralyzed, she explored the halls.  She hear a noise below her, and assumed that her children were in the cellar.  As she treaded down the steps, a feeling of dreak overcame her.  The dim light from scarce candles threw shadows against the cellar walls.

"Hello?"  Mynna asked the darkness.  She had never before felt this way.  She was sick with fright.  Holding onto the wall for strength.  

"I see that you've arrived.  And just in time, too!"  said an unseen voice. The voice was feminine, but raspy, and deep for a woman.  Out of the darknes stepped a woman.  Tall and old, but no less elegant.  She had icy blue eyes that peirced you to the very soul.  SHe had long silver hair that fell to her waist in waves.  She wore a long mourning gown, making her nearly invisible to see when she stood in the shadows. 

"I think that it's a mighty good time for you to give me my children back," Mynna said, regaining her composure and firm determination.  

"You shall have as you wish, but you'd better be careful what you wish for,"  The mysterious woman said, with a smirk curling her lips. 

"I don't care if they have scars, they will always be my children,"  Mynna said, becoming impatient and annoyed with the lady.  

"Well then, I won't stand in your way.  Look behind you,"  the old lady said with a full on grin now. 

However, when Mynna turned around, it was not the children she had expected to see that were there to greet her.  Her greeting was her heart being ripped out of her chest by a pair of long claws.  She gasped as she was lifted off of the ground and then thrown across the cellar.  Mynna crumpled to the floor, still waiting to see her children.

Michael Stark had always admired Hannah from afar.  She was popular, and spent most of her time with friends, while he spent his time studying and attending lectures.  It was the perfect, "She's way out of my league," situation.  THat's why he was astounded when she asked him to Prom.  Sure, they had kn own each other since the 3rd grade, when she moved into his neighborhood, but they rarely, if ever, spoke to each other.  Little did he know, that she too had been a secret admirere of him.

Three years later, the happy couple married after an awkward, but happy relationship.  Soon, the family of two became three, then four, and finally settled at a family of six.  They had a quaint little house in the suburbs of Chicago for eight years.  That was when Micahel received a phone call from his father saying that he had inherited the mansion his grandmother had lived in during World War II.  He was told that he needed to go to Germany and at least see the property before he made any decisions.  So, Micahel and Hannah took a vacation while their children stayed with Hannah's parents.  

When they got to the property, they marveled at the sight.  To the east lie a vast forest stretching farther east and south behind the mansion.  The mansion was on one of the peaks of a small mountain, overlooking a village.  All in all, it was amazing.  To breathe in the fresh air, without the city's polution.  They had both always loved the outdoors, and this was just what they needed.   

The inside of the mansion was just as breathtaking as the property they had already seen.  As you walked in through the large, and heavy wooden doors, engraved with scenes of people dancing, there was a staircase covered with a thick red velvet rug.  All over there were old antiques, an old telephone, gramophones.  Nothing seemed to be more recent than World War II.  

After they had settled down and explored the rest of the large estate, to find the stables behind the mansion, and had found the dining room, kitchen, library, study, and all of the other rooms in the mansion, they hiked down the mountain to the small village at the bottom.  Once they were there they were in the town they conversed with the locals and finally went to a small cafe for a light dinner.  

When they entered the cafe a band was playing a beautiful and lively jig that sounded kind of like a sailor's song.  The atmosphere was friendly and very kind.  NObody seemed to exclude each other and everyone got along well.  They ate their dinner as people came by and asked them if they were new in thick German accents.  When they said that they were only visiting people would continue to comment that they should move there.  The couple laughed it off, but agreed with them.  

While Hannah and Michael were eating their dessert, the band began to play a beautiful but haunting song.  It told the story of a family whose's house was posessed by evil spirits, and slowly posessed their children sending the wife into insanity and the husband to become a drunk. The song had a beautiful piano meldoy accompanied by a violin.  Finally, after the song ended Michael asked a passing local what the backstory was of the song.  "The song is about a couple who lived in the town a couple centuries ago.  Supposedly, they moved into the town and were happy for a while, until they started to hear strange noises.  It was your basic modern horror movie, their children finally got posessed which send their mother over the edge, and drove there father away.  Nobody quite knows what happened to the house or the mother and children."  

"Well, that sounds kind of cheesy, but it made a good song,"  Hannah said cheerfully.  "Well, we'd best be going, we still have to get back, honey." 

"Do you guys need a ride, I can give you one,"  he asked pulling out his keys.  Hannah and Michael looked at each other and finally decided that it was already too dark to hike back, so they accepted.  While on the road, they found out that the young man's name was Jonathon Layton.  He was actually a journalist from America and was here to write a story about the village.  

 When they saw the lights from the mansion they asked him to let them hike back from there.  He let them out and told them that he worked at the cafe so if they ever needed him to just come and get him.  They thanked him and passed their way.  

Together, the happy couple walked back and laughed about how great they felt.  They loved their children, but it was great to get away for a while.  Finally, Hannah tackled Michael, and they rolled down the hill, laughing and bruised, because they never realized there were rocks on the hill.  They felt free and like they were soaring.  When they got to the mansion they got in bed without even bothering to change.  Finally, after hours of talking, they young man and woman fell asleep.