The House at the End of Magpie Drive (Aug 2020)

Part 4

Reza was running late that Saturday morning, so I started painting the front porch with the early spring flowers. I dated the painting -March 20- and put it up in the guest bathroom. The guest bathroom was always full of drying paintings and Reza always insisted on a tour of them when he came over.

When Reza finally arrived, I jumped over the porch rail to greet him. He dumped his overnight bag at the foot of my bed and I gave him a tour of the drying paintings. He picked up a small one hanging off the shower rod.
"Who's this handsome fellow?" He joked, turning the painting about in the light. I blushed a deep scarlet. The painting was of Reza climbing a rock face to the top of a waterfall. The sky was the pick-blue of dawn, and the trees were just starting to leaf out. "It's beautiful," Reza whispered, so softly that I hardly heard him.

We cooked dinner, chatted with Julia, and made hot chocolate to take upstairs while we watched a movie. I had an old laptop with a disc player, and Reza brought over an old movie. It wasn't even 7 pm and the sun was just setting when we started, all curled up on the floor in a pile of blankets and pillows.

When we were just getting into the movie, I heard the folding stairs unfold in the study across from my bedroom. Reza jumped, looking around excitedly. I was surprised; the stairs hadn't come down since I moved in 6 months ago.

"Should we be concerned or is it just Julia?" Reza asked.

Julia's words on the table echoed through my head. "Stay out of the attic, Tomey."

"Nothing to be worried about, I'm sure it's fine. Julia did this the night I moved in." I shrugged off the urge to go back up into the attic. We continued watching the movie.

The cat faded in, just as I had seen it leave the morning after I went in the attic. It stretched, yawned, and then sauntered out the door. Reza got up and followed it. I paused the movie and scurried after them.

The cat hopped up the stairs of the attic, pausing to rub up against the handrail at the top. Reza stayed at the bottom of the stairs, looking up into the gloom. Julia's warnings left my head completely and I jumped up the stairs after the cat. Hesitantly, Reza clomped up after me.

The chairs were covered in the dusty old blankets, and the chandelier fragments were indistinguishable under a thick layer of dust. I took Reza's hand and led him to the back windows.

"This is cool, just wait for it." I could hardly contain my excitement. Reza surveyed the room carefully.

"All right, but I have a weird feeling about this." He wiped some dust off of a chandelier fragment hanging from the ceiling, unsure whether it would disappear at his touch.

The cat curled up on a purple armchair. No one else occupied the other chairs. Funny, I hadn't noticed the cat the first time I came up here, only the morning after.

Sunshine streamed into the windows, and the blankets lifted. Everywhere, little prisms glittered brightly. This time, I grabbed a chair, a green dining chair. Reza sat in a brown office chair. The chairs lifted off the ground and began their gentle dance around the room.

From the right side of the room, the chairs started to rock. An armchair was flipped over, and another dining chair was toppled. I jumped to Reza's chair just as my chair was knocked over, wrapping my arms and legs tight around him to stay on.

One by one, the chairs were thrown off the track. The dance lost momentum and the chandelier pieces started to fall to the ground, splintering into tiny shards. A horrid wind came rushing up around us, howling in my ears so loud I couldn't hear myself scream. Reza and I were whirled off the chair and up into the peak of the ceiling. The chairs came after us, chasing Reza and I like foxes during a hunt. We were pressed into the ceiling so hard that I wondered if I had become paper,

The ceiling faded to black, engulfing me so fast that I gulped for air. I couldn't feel Reza anymore. The blackness was cold and bitter. Then the scene turned to a blinding white all of a sudden. I closed my eyes, trying to shut it out. It was pointless. The light stabbed into your eyes, your mind, your soul. It hurt and it was too bright.

When I slowly opened my eyes to a squint, the light started to flicker. Large, red words were painted in the air.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO IN THE ATTIC EVER AGAIN TOMEY."

I cringed, waiting for the blow.

"AND YOU," the words angled to my right, where I assumed Reza was standing. "YOU KNEW THAT I COULD DO THIS. YOU KNEW THAT THE EQUINOXES WERE MINE AND MINE ALONE."

Reza must have sat down on the floor, but I couldn't see anything other than the dark red words in the painfully bright sky.

"I CANNOT LET YOU LIVE IN MY HOUSE LIKE THIS ANYMORE. I WAS KIND, I ASKED SIMPLE THINGS OF YOU, AND YET YOU DO NOT RETURN MY RESPECT. YOU BOTH WILL BE PUNISHED."

My body lost all feeling immediately. I felt like I was turning inside out. Then I felt nothing.