Shadow Rings

Prologue

Thirteen Years Earlier...

Daddy forgot to warn the new nanny about the attic.

Micahla wobbled on the stool, reaching up with her chunky hand, for the string to bring the ladder down. She was almost too short. Her legs were shaking too, the Mickey Mouse doll slipping from under her arm, dropping with a thud to the floor. Her breath conming out in short, small, pants; you could even see her breath, as if it was cold inside.

BAM!! "Micahla! Was that you?" Sarah's muffled voice drifted down from up the steps of the ladder in the attic. "Can you come up and help me find the extra blankets; your dad said they were up here. I can't seem to find them."

Micahla thought Daddy told Sarah about the attic, she could've sworn he did. She thought really hard about it. Before Daddy left to go to the banquette, she was playing in the library. Daddy had called, and Micahla raced to the front foyer where Daddy picked her up and spun her around, laughing when Micahla's hair hit him in the face.

"Did you tell Sarah about the attic?" Micahla asked, making sure to whisper.

"Not yet. I'll do it before I head out. Now make sure you remember, don't go up to the attic. It's not safe for you on those steps. So don't get curious now you hear?" Daddy laughed, tickling Micahla, making her laugh just as hard.

Catching her breath, Micahla smiled sadly at Daddy. "When can we move? This place reminds me too much of her..."

Daddy kissed Micahla's nose. "Soon, very soon, now please be a good girl for Sarah."

And like that he was gone.

"Micahla! Come help me! I know your down there!" Sarah yelled.

"I can't come up, Daddy said I'm not a-allowed to." Micahla called.

"Why not, I say you can." Sarah muffled voice said.

Micahla made a move up the first step of the ladder. Her legs wobbled, her eyes were itchy and everything looked blurry like she was about to cry.

There was movement from up above, like someone taking a step. "Micahla Reanne Cook, you better get your butt up here quickly or I'm going to drag you up here."

She hurried up the steps as fast as she could without falling down them. Her feet stumbled on the last step and she tripped up into the attic, into a heap. With her foot throbbing, she lay there, tears in her eyes, she squinted in the dim lighting, peering into the large attic with all its dusty smells, creaks and darkness. Shadows.

Micahla could always see shadows, some friendly and some not so friendly. They always came from up in the attic. They were all her friends, she use to talk to them every day. There use to be a lot of shadows, until one mean shadow had scared them all the way, Micahla never figured out why, the mean shadow made her head hurt too.

There was some rustling coming from the back of the attic. "Micahla?" Sarah's muffled voice called out. "Are you finally up here?"

Mommy use to say "See the light through the shadows, even the darkness has to have light." So as Micahla walked through the attic to the back she thought of what Mommy said to her, all of the friendly shadows, her friends, and the mean shadow not as much.

At the back, she squinted through the dim light. Just the one light hanging from the ceiling to light everything, Daddy had more in here but they all went out besides one. We stopped coming up here after that. The lights out meant that the mean shadow was in control.

Micahla reached the back of the attic, she heard movement from the around the corner of the bookshelf. She looked and the lights got darker, she stopped in her tracks.

"Micahla?" Sarah called from behind the bookshelf.

Micahla looked harder into the darkness, trying to find Sarah. Sarah was being really mean, hiding on her...

There was a squeak of the floorboard from down below her. Daddy? He's home already?

"Come on, you aren't scared are you?" Sarah laughed. "You're acting like a little baby, I guess you always will be one."

Micahla glared in the dim light. Sarah was being mean. She didn't know what the shadows were. She was just a mean and stupid girl. She will show her and get her the stupid blankets and tell Daddy and Micahla will never have to see Sarah again.

She walked closer to the book shelf, and bent down shoving boxes out of the way. She reached in a box, her fingers clasped around the soft blanket edge.

"Micahla? Micahla? Where are you?" It was Sarah's voice, but it was distorted. Footsteps pounded from the floor below.

Micahla threw the blanket back in the box, knocking boxes over and all the things in it falling on the floor by her feet. She turned to run to the ladder.

"Micahla. Micahla. Where are you?" copied a voice from behind her, it was like Sarah's, but not quite.

Micahla stopped dead in her steps. Micahla turned around slowly.

Looking from behind the bookshelf a shadow darker than all the other shadows, more sinister, more mean, more human like. Its teeth shined in the dark, eyes glittering like two dark pools. She wanted to close her eyes, but doing that would make her more scared and everything much worse, so she kept them open.

The Shadow started to become more vivid and clearer. It started looking like a human, skin rippling becoming something else. Blonde hair starting coming from half its head, it shrunk just slightly. It's face becoming like a face Micahla thought she'd never see again...it became her mom, but not like her mom. The face was peeling away from the bone, she looked like a walking skeleton almost with rotting flesh. It smiled a smiled too large to be humanly possible, with teeth that looked sharp as razors.

"Don't you miss your Mommy, Micahla?"