The big book of short stories

9) The Visit

9) The visit

I stood outside on an old wooden veranda, that should have fallen though years a go and now it was like it was held up by magic. In my hand was the old suitcase that belonged to my father before he passed away.

"you'll be ok, Sonny?" Called out the old woman  that drove the yellow taxi, "It don't look at'll safe!"

"Yer, I'll be-" before I could finish, the taxi driver sped away leaving a crunch and a spray of gravel. Great, I thought to my self.

My eyes swept ouver the whole house: the broken window of what I thought to be the attic; the drive way tht was full of weeds; to the wild over grown hedges and then, finally , to the bronze knocker on the wooden door, that looked as if it had fallen or its hinges more than once.

Tentatively, my hand reached up to use the bronze lion-head knocker. As I touched it, it hit the door without my doing. My hand dropped to my back down to my side. The knocker continued to knock on the door. With each hit there came a reverberating boom of metal on wood. On the third knock, the old wooden door opened slightly.

My head poked though the door to see who was my new foster family. But none stood there. The door fully opened now. There was no one; not a soul in the front room.

My train of thought changed from the fact that there was no one here to being in awe of the room that was in front of me. It was beautiful to say the least; it looked from the 1950's.

"Hello?" I took one step into the house.

"MEOW!!!" And took one large jump back to the sound of a screeching and hissing cat. Before I looked down at the cat at my feet I saw the trail of black hair and the skirt of a white dress out of sight behind a wall of the landing on the second floor.

Then something sharp bit into my ankle, giving me another fright of my life. Now I looked down shock a small black cat off my ankle while shouting at the top of my lungs, "Get off me you stupid cat! Get off!"

The cat flew off my leg and into the arms of a rather tall man with dark black hair and matching eyes. He wore a tight formal suit, that was being torn to shreds by the vicious little beast in his hands.

"Won't the cat ruin your suit?" Stating the obvious, with an ounce of confusion in my question. I should have introduced myself formally, but well, I didn't.

"It's alright my dear boy, I have plenty more. You must be Ethan?"

He looked around 30 but his posh English accent which made him seem much older, maybe as old as this home.

"Yes, sir," I said in my not-so-posh American accent, "You must be?"

"Martin Ruther and I see you have met my cat moon-beam."

I looked back down at the black cat who had a silver crescent moon on her brow.

"Yes, she's a very ... umm ... nice-" I was cut off by the man in front of me as I lied through my teeth.

"What! God, no. You don't need to lie. We all hate her. She doesn't like strangers."

He clicked his fingers and maybe it was a trick of the light but I saw sparks. At that second, the door closed and the light switched on. Must be one of those fancy clicker things.

"Where are my manners, your room is on the second floor first on the left. Don't go into any of the other rooms, please."

I go up the marble stairs that should have been out of place but seemed to fit right in. My ears picked up a silent giggle and I faced to the right. Photo's containing a happy black haired family straightened them selves as I walked down the right corridor.

I opened the door leading into the unknown into the unknown room. It made a quiet creak as it opened leading into a white room. Whose walls were plastered with newspaper articles. Tentatively, I entered the room.

The bedroom was a quite bare only containing a cupboard and a single bed containing a girl around my age. I take a couple of steps closer, covering the length of the small room within seconds. There lay the girl quite asleep. Her black hair opposing her pale skin. Her brow contained the same crescent moon as on the cat moon-beam. My hand reached out touching it. Her frosty skin prickled mine. In a second, her eyelids opened. her black eyes burning into my blue ones. One second that was all it took.

One second and it felt like it could have been my last.

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I could make this one into a proper story but don't know?