The Tapes

Oh No! Accidents!

Panic and confusion swirl around my mind. Kate. I'm desperately trying not to cry. My aunt Kate. The woman who had raised me since I was ten. Since I was taken away from my dad. But she was gone now. I'm on my own. Just like Amanda had told Wooly that they were in the first tape. But unlike Amanda, I'm not happy.

I tear my mind away from these thoughts. I've had enough of these tapes. I just want to go to sleep and pretend this was all a dream.

I try to open the trapdoor that leads out of the attic, but it won't budge. I stomp on it, trying to push the trapdoor open. But it seems to be stuck. Strange, I've never had any problem with it before.

After a few minutes of fiddling, I realise that the trapdoor isn't just stuck. It had been nailed down so it can't open!

I begin to break down. I slam my hand desperately against the trapdoor, the bang I make echoing around the room.

"Let me out of here!" I shout, tears falling down my face, "Let me go!"

I think I might be going crazy, when I hear the voice of a little girl - not any little girl, but one I wish I don't have ti hear anymore - in my ears.

"Don't be silly Riley. You know I won't do that, yet." Whispers Amanda in my ear.

"Let me go! Please!" I'm screaming now, but this time there isn't the threatening whisper in my ear telling me I will be staying here for quite a bit of time. Instead there is just silence. In some ways, the response was better. At least it let my know my cries were heard by someone, even if that someone is telling me they won't do what I want. This just makes me feel crazy, shouting at no one.

Slowly, I pull myself up. I think what my mum or dad would do if they saw me like this. My dad would probably punish me. 'Emotion is a weakness, girl, a weakness that will not be tolerated in my house!' I practically hear my dad's voice in my head, as I remember how he reacted when he saw me cry once. Before the actual punishment. Maybe my mum would have more sympathy, but I have no way if knowing. She died when I was just four, I don't remember her that well. But I know if aunt Kate was here she'd help me. She cares about me. Cared, I correct myself. She's gone now.

I go to the table in the centre of the room, where a toy piano - or a xylophone, I'm not sure - sits on the oak table instead of the fake (I think. I don't even know what's fake and what's real now) oven that I somehow baked the second tape in. It has letters above each key, and it takes an embarrassingly long time for me to realise that they are music notes. Remembering the bold letters, I play the notes CBF.

It opens up, to reveal another tape! I feel like I want to scream. When will this end? I just want to go somewhere else, not even in this house anymore. I want to see my friends. Lola promised she'd call me to check his I was settling in to this house, and knowing her, she'd have definitely called at least three times by now.

I look at the tape, which is labelled Oh No! Accidents!

I don't know why I'm doing this, but I put the tape in the TV. It's like I'm not in control of my own body anymore, something else altogether pressing play on this cursed thing.

I get a surprise at the start of the tape.

"Oh, it's you," I hear a voice say. It's Wooly, staring straight at the camera.

"Wooly? What's going on?" I ask frantically,

"I don't have much time - whatever you do-"

The screen glitches, and I hear Wooly crying. When it's back in focus, Wooly has fallen on the floor, his knee obviously broken, his bone even visible. Next to him, Amanda is glaring at him, her face twisted in anger. She immediately changes it to a worried, caring expression when she sees that I'm watching. Out of nowhere, I sort of wish that there was a popcorn machine in the attic.