The Girl in the Window

Chapter Three

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A few hours later, Athena stood at the bottom of the stairs at the end of the hallway. She had already been through the other rooms and found that each happened to be the same as the first. Each of them held interview rooms designed for each new member of the asylum. They had held the children's names on a golden, dust-covered plaque on the desks. As occurred in the first room before, everything in the room was a mess. Books and papers were thrown all over the floor and chairs were turned over, and the big chairs were filled with holes.

Everything appeared the same, except the radio. Each room had a radio, but they were all broken and lying in the corner of the room. The only radio that wasn't broken happened to be the one in the first room. Every time she saw a broken radio, Athena wondered, Why would this one be broken and the first one not be? She didn't know and didn't want to stick around long enough in each room to find out. She had quickly gone over everything in the room, making notes of what was in it before basically sprinting out of the room. 

Athena looked through the books that were still together and sitting on the bookshelves in each of the rooms. Each book talked about the insane and how to treat them. There were all kinds of ways to treat them. She didn't know there were so many different ways to provide treatment to them. The ones on the shelves were more humane and talked about ways to talk to them about their problems. Then when she looked at the pages and books torn apart on the floor, sadly, she noticed something completely different. These books were also on how to treat the insane but in torturous ways. Each room had the same kind of books. Each time Athena would read the ones on the floor she would feel sick to her stomach. Finally, she had enough of reading the books and threw the one she held across the room. She then stood up and stormed out of the room where she came to stand in front of the stairs.

Athena couldn't understand why anyone would do any of those experiments on anyone. Especially children. How did any of that get approved by any doctor? She clenched her fists as she stood in front of the massive staircase. 

She shined her flashlight up the staircase and back down to her feet. The staircase was made of old wood, and the same carpet as the floor ran up to the middle of the stairs, creating a runway.

She touched the handle and smiled wistfully. This must have been a beautiful staircase, she thought to herself. She then felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as a creepy feeling as if someone was watching her. Slowly, she lifted the flashlight to the stairs and gasped when it landed on a little girl.

She looked exactly like the girl that she had seen in the window outside. Her white dress had brown and green stains over it and her long black hair hung over her eyes; all Athena saw of her face were her nose and mouth. Her skin looked dirty and bruised.

Athena stood there with her mouth gaping wide at the girl. She didn't know what to do. Should she try speaking to the girl? Should she ignore her and try to walk up the stairs and go past her? Or should she run? Athena didn't know what to do and time seemed to freeze. The air around her turned cold and goosebumps raised on her skin. Never before had she encountered someone in her assignments of abandoned places. Sure, she had taken people to them but never met someone. She had once taken her brother on one of her assignments when he was still thinking about going into a journalism career. 

Finally, she decided it was time to make a decision. She opened her mouth and asked the girl, "H-hello?" Athena was startled when she noticed that fog came out of her mouth. She wrapped an arm around her while she kept her phone's lit up at the girl. She started to shake from the sudden temperature drop. 

The little girl just stared at her, or so Athena thought since she couldn't see her eyes. She remained silent. Athena wished that she would say something. Although, she was still hoping that she was hallucinating and dreaming. Perhaps she would wake up and still be at home. 

"What's your name?" Athena tried again. She couldn't stop her body from shaking. 

The girl raised her hand and pointed to where Athena's hand had been resting on the rail. Athena slowly looked over and, reluctantly, shined her light where her hand used to be. A name was etched into the wood, Effie. Was that her name?

"Effie," Athena read aloud, her teeth were now chattering. "Is that your name?" She shined her light on the top of the stairs, but the girl wasn't there anymore. The temperature fluctuated quickly. It started to go back to normal until it dropped drastically again. Athena then felt a presence to her right. She whipped her body to the right and turned the flashlight there, just to see the girl standing beside her looking at her. The girl's hair was parted slightly showing her glowing, yellow eyes looking right at Athena. Athena yelped and jumped back hitting her back on the opposite railing.

The girl nodded her head, finally answering Athena's question. "I warned you." The voice was high like a child's but came out slow and creepy. "I warned you to get out." Athena registered that this was the same voice that she had heard through the radio and her car's radio. The girl cocked her head to one side. "Why didn't you listen to me?" Her mouth was turned down in a worried expression.

Athena, not expecting her to speak, stood there opening and closing her mouth not knowing what to say. "Well, I-I," she stammered. Her body was shaking uncontrollably. Either from the cold air or the fear that was starting to go through her body. She couldn't tell which it was. 

Suddenly, the ends of the girl's hair started to stand up. Her eyes started to glow even brighter. "Get out!" the girl screamed. Her mouth opened wide causing her jaw to dislocate and a strong gust of wind came out that knocked Athena off her feet and slammed her into the wall behind her. A sharp pain went through her as she hit the wall and crumbled to the floor. 

Athena's phone flew out of her hand and landed on the floor a little way away. She went to grab it and shined the light where the girl once was. She was gone again. Athena now took the girl's advice and ran down the hallway and tried to get out the door, but it wouldn't budge. Her body screamed in pain, but she didn't care. She wanted to get out. She needed to get out. 

"No!" Athena yelled, not caring if the girl could hear her or not. She banged her fists against the door several times and tugged on the handle before giving up and trying to find another way out. She knew that her hands were going to have bruises on them, but again, she didn't care. She quickly checked her phone and cursed when she saw that she didn't have any service. 

She decided to run into the first room. She searched through it and ran to the window. She tried opening it, but it wouldn't budge either. Panicking, Athena looked around for something to throw at the window to break it. She saw a small chair sitting in one corner and went to grab it. When she got there and picked it up, she felt something hard slam against the back of her head. She dropped the chair and collapsed onto the floor; her vision started to blacken. The last thing she saw was the radio and a pair of small dirty feet standing in front of her.

"I warned you," the girl's voice sang out again. Then Athena blacked out.

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Thank you to anyone who reads this chapter! I greatly appreciate it! Please, if you liked this chapter or if there is anything that I could do to make this chapter better, comment below. No hateful or rude comments, please. Also, don't forget to vote!