A Stormy Night: Stories to Read by Candlelight

Hatch

The cellar stairs creaked under Rosaline and her brother Gerald's feet as they crept down them at an unholy hour.

"Why are we coming down here again?" Gerald asked his sister as he rubbed his eyes. Rosaline turned to him and nearly blinded him with the flashlight, causing him to throw his arms in front of his face.

"I told you," she said as she aimed the beam back toward the bottom of the stairs, "I heard something down here." Gerald groaned,

"It's almost midnight," he said, taking a deep breath, "can't this wait until morning?"

"No!" Rosaline hissed, "Now be quiet, you might hear it!" Gerald stopped in his place and listened carefully, but there was no sound.

"You're totally right," he said as he stepped down further into the dim lit darkness, "there was definitely a s-" Before he could finish, he was startled by a noise coming from the back of the cellar.

"Was that-"

"Scratching?" Rosaline whispered, "I told you I heard something!" Gerald nodded slowly and as his sister landed on the same step as him, they walked in unison until they felt cold concrete underfoot.

"Where was it coming from?" Gerald asked as they hung a right and the light shone into the small space. To their right were the stairs, underneath which were totes and boxes containing holiday decorations and old dishes, and to their left, was the play area that housed a small television and board games strewn about on an old section of carpet. To the back left of the room was the door that lead outside and was securely locked, but directly in front of them was a door that they hadn't seen before. Rosaline aimed the flashlight at it to reveal a white door with chipping paint where a shelving unit usually stood. The shelf had been shoved to the right slightly, and there were scrape marks on the floor from the metal legs. The door itself had three padlocks on it, two above and one below the door knob, and the paint near where the door met the jam was chipped and scratched away. The wood beneath was gouged deep with long, thick, scratch marks, and wood shavings coated the floor near the base of the jam.

"What do you think is in there?" Gerald asked as they both stopped short of the door. There was a sudden thud and the door rattled on its hinges.

"Nothing good," Rosaline said, "look." She pointed at the padlocks, all of which were hung loosely on their latches, unlocked. The siblings glanced at one another and each took another tentative step forward as the door shook again, only this time, latches holding the locks fell off their screws and the door swung open quickly, hitting the metal rack behind it with a thundering crash. The siblings jumped in unison and peered into the ceaseless darkness before Rosaline slowly brought the beam up to illuminate what was behind the door. Staring back at them were two deep, red eyes and a set of dripping fangs. For a moment, all three remained frozen until the creature in the darkness came running out on all fours and the siblings turned and ran back the way they had come, around the corner and back up the stairs until they collided with someone at the top. When they both looked up, the flashlight beam illuminated their father's face and cast his shadow across the wall behind him in an eerie fashion. Rosaline and Gerald both rambled in unison,

"There was a beast in the cellar-"

"And it had razor sharp teeth and-"

"Glowing eyes and-"

"Slow down," their father said, stopping them both and sighing heavily, "you said you saw a monster in the basement?" They looked at one another and nodded before looking back at their father, who sighed again audibly before grabbing them both by the shoulders and turning them around,

"Go," he said as he gestured them down the steps. They hesitated at first, but slowly walked down the steps and onto the cold ground. Their father stopped at the bottom, reached into the large freezer, and retrieved a hunk of meat from within.

"You guys weren't supposed to find out about this until you were older," he said, placing a hand on each of their shoulders, "but now that you have, you both had might as well feed him." Their father led them to the wide open door and turned on a light near the lock that illuminated the small room, revealing a bed, desk, and the furry, black creature within.

"Kids," he said, tossing the meat inside, "meet your brother."