Heather’s hopes were dashed once she and Alex made it through the door. She hadn’t expected it to be easy to find a way out or their friends, but she didn’t expect this. A spiraling staircase leading up. She watched in awe as the stairs formed and wound around and around. The movement made her sway as she fought to keep her focus on the ever-growing stairs. The same staircase they’d just climbed. Where would it take them this time?
“Oh, no! No more goddamned stairs!” She turned back to the hatch door, but it was locked.
She yanked it with all her strength until her hands grew weak. Her fingers slipped off the handle and she fell on her ass.
“I can’t do this anymore, Alex.” Her mouth turned downward, about to betray a frown, risking not being the tough little sister anymore. She whimpered, “Why did I have to follow you guys? Why didn’t I just stay home and play with dolls or something?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Why can’t I just be a girly girl?” She choked on her sob. “Why-did-I-come?”
“Hey, you’re the toughest person I know,” Alex cooed to her. “You were the last one to panic about all this. You were the one who tried to help Clint, while we were all too scared.”
“I figured—” She snorted the snot that was running down her face. “I figured we’d all get out by now. I tried to think like it was all a game, a trick or whatever. That we’d find a way out.”
“We will. Keep thinking that way.”
“I tried to believe it wasn’t really happening. Like it was just a bad dream or a stupid hokey haunted house. But then the fairies—”
Alex scrunched his eyebrows. “Fairies?”
“The evil fairies that chased us in the hall and the staircase.” She grabbed a curl and twirled it around her finger.
She hated doing that, the one girly thing she couldn’t stop.
“Watching and waiting,” Alex said.
She stopped, finger in mid-twirl. “Yeah, that. I wasn’t sure…I mean…well, for a while I thought I was the only one seeing and hearing it. But they are real?”
“Seems so. The voices and the little creatures and the dark smoky monster thing. Check. All real.”
A whisper came out so soft, she wasn't sure if she said it out loud or only in her head, "And Danny. Really gone?"
When Alex didn’t respond, tears threatened to spill from her eyes again.
He nodded. “Remember last summer when we were all playing football in the backyard together and you broke your wrist?”
“Yeah, the wrist thing again. Football with Reid. So—”
“You were scared and really hurt, but you didn’t cry. And you didn’t want to stop playing either. You wanted to finish the game.”
“Cause we were winning.” She let the curl go and absently touched the wrist she’d broken and began massaging it. “Reid was such a jerk.”
“But you didn’t quit. We all made you go, but you didn’t cry the whole time. Not when you broke it, not at the hospital, not ever.”
Alex seemed to be looking past Heather and at the memory. He chuckled.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Cause I just remembered what else you did in that hospital room. You didn’t cry, but you made that orderly cry for sure.”
“Oh, yeah. He was a moron. He deserved it.”
“Nobody deserves a kick in the nuts.”
“He totally did. The way he grabbed my wrist shot a damn lightning bolt of pain through my whole arm. Besides, it was an automatic reaction. Couldn’t be helped.” She could feel a smile creeping up, but forced it away.
She tilted her head, gazing at her brother through squinted eyes. “So…”
“So you’re not a quitter.” Alex reached out to her. “You weren’t then, and you’re not now. Get up.” He shoved his hand out farther until she grabbed on.
After rising to her feet, she felt hopeful, and dried the remaining tears from her eyes.
“Thanks, Alex.” She squeezed his arm.
She was sure Alex was just as scared as she was, but she knew he’d pushed aside his fears for her. And she wouldn’t forget it.
“No prob. Now let’s go. Nowhere to go but up.” He gave her a playful wink.
Heather laced her fingers through her brother’s, and together they climbed the stairs.
When they reached the last step, she said, “You didn’t have to say all that, but thanks.”
Alex shrugged. “I meant it.”
Once again, she felt like an unstoppable force. The tough girl who didn’t give a shit. She sighed in relief and gave way to a smile.
But it was short-lived.
Once they reached the top of the steps, they saw a platform about two feet long, leading to stairs going down. Nothing else.
The smile dropped off her face. “Enough! No more.”
From the direction they’d come, Heather could hear the tiny footsteps climbing the stairs. Shrill chirpy giggles flew up, raking at her eardrums.
“They’re coming,” she said. “The evil fairies are coming.”
She reached deep inside herself and grabbed every ounce of courage she could find. Squeezed Alex’s and led them down the stairs, cautiously at first. But the whispers and giggles were getting closer, pushing them to move faster. Closing the gap behind them. Don’t turn around.
She didn’t turn back to look, she pressed on, faster, galloping down the steps. She lost her footing a few times, but wouldn’t let go of Alex as if he was her anchor. As long as he believed in her, she might be able to believe in herself and not lose herself. Or lose her shit.
But the stairs wouldn’t end. And those nasty little critters seemed to be gaining on them. As much of an athlete as she was, fatigue was setting in. Her calves flexed as she stepped down, down. Thighs burned and tightened as the stairs went on and on.
They were getting shorter, smaller, making it harder for them to keep their footing. What once were foot-long steps, were now about six inches. Heather stumbled again, skipping a step. Alex held her up. She righted herself and they flung themselves down the staircase.
A whoosh of air flew past them, and it was enough to shake their footing. They stumbled down the last few steps and fell into a twisted heap.
Panting, she pulled herself off of Alex. “You OK?”
Alex got to his knees. “I think so.”
“Listen.” Heather brought her index finger to her lips.
There was no sound. No footsteps, no laughter. Nothing.
She pulled her brother to his feet. As she surveyed their surroundings, a sense of hopelessness crept up her back like the shiver of a chill. She shook it off. They stood on another small landing, with the stairs they’d just fallen down behind them, and another set of stairs going up looming in front.
Alex’s eyes widened. “What the f—”
The wind howled again, stealing the words from his mouth.
A savage sound that made Heather think a pack of wild coyotes had crept into the room. It came at them from the stairwell before them. The frigid air wrapped around her, making her shudder.
“It just got wicked cold in here, didn’t it?”
Her words turned to steam as they left her lips.
“We shouldn’t stay. Gotta move. It’s too cold.” Alex wrapped his arms around himself.
“Hell no. That’s what the house wants us to do. It wants us to climb those stairs.” Heather planted her feet.
“Or it wants us to be afraid of the cold and go back the way we came.”
“So what do we do, then?”
Alex’s teeth chattered. “Maybe we should go back. It’s getting colder.”
“Or maybe we should go forward. Like a challenge to see if we can get past the cold.” Heather crept closer and huddled against her brother. “I don’t know which way to go, Alex.”
“Me neither.”
Alex leaned in closer to his sister. “We have to agree. We’ve got to do this together. Let’s weigh our options—”
Another howl of wind blew past them, sending Heather’s curls up around her face.
Alex pulled her closer. “We need to decide quick.”
From the way they’d come, another challenge urged them to decide. Voices.
“Watching…”
And then from the staircase ahead, floating down on the chilly air, as if in response, voices whispered, “Waiting…”
“Either way is awful, Alex. What do we do?”
Gusts of wind raced at them, stinging Heather’s eyes and momentarily blinding her. Her hair flung across her face. At first, it came from the front, then it headed back at them from behind, as if the wind were a thinking entity. The force pushed them, urging them to move forward. It was so strong that Heather could lean back into it and not fall over. Her toes began to cramp from fighting its strength.
“What do we do, Alex?”
Her words were muted in the wind.
“Watching…”
“Waiting…”
Wind whipped and howled, swirling up, around, and over them. Leaning back, then forward with the ever-changing flow, Heather couldn’t keep up, pushing and pulling at her brother to stay upright. Her legs were exhausted and she just wanted to sit.
And then the floor beneath them disappeared.
Heather’s arms flapped helplessly as she fell through the air. She tried in vain to grab a hold of Alex. His face was contorted in fear as they plummeted into the unknown. Visibility grew worse as blackness closed in more the further they descended. It seemed to be consuming them. No longer able to see her brother or her hand in front of her face, she released the scream that’d been building since they’d first ended up in the hallway. Out of her mouth it went flying up the hole they were falling from. Then it changed direction and hit her like someone was screaming with their mouth pressed to her ear. She shook her head, covered her face and kicked her legs out, frantically.
Somehow the scream pushed past her, down the tenebrous chasm, echoing out, bouncing off the walls, waiting for her.
Before Heather could wonder if they would ever stop their descent, her body slammed into something. She heard Alex thud nearby, with a grunt. It sounded like something wooden had broken his fall, but she couldn’t be sure. All she could make out was the faint outline of his figure on the floor, to her right.
Lucky or not, she’d landed on her bottom. Besides the initial shock that raced up her tailbone, there was no pain. She rolled to her side and felt nothing. Maybe an achy butt tomorrow, but for now—
There was a crunchy, crumbly feeling under her hand. She scooped a handful of whatever it was up to her face, but it was too dark to make out what it was. She opened her hand and felt the stuff run through her fingers, like sand. The smell of smoke teased her nostrils and she sneezed. She shook her hand out but couldn’t help that feeling of the heebie-jeebies crawling under her skin.
“Alex?” she whispered. “You okay?”
Alex groaned. “I thought you’d never stop screaming. You okay?”
Heather felt around blindly but only came up with more of the sandy stuff. “It wasn’t me. I mean, it was, but it kept going. Like my scream was alive. It was everywhere.”
“I know. It was like you were yelling right in my ear, but I couldn’t feel you near me even when I reached out.”
Heather sneezed again. “What was that sound when you landed? Like you broke something.”
“I think a chair broke my fall.” Alex moaned. “My leg aches, but I’m all right.”
“Something broke my fall, too, but I can’t see what it is. Feels like a pile of sand or something. It’s all over me.”