Little Footsteps

Playing hide and seek:

It was a long night. Paula could not sleep. For the first time in many days, she didn't feel so tired, her head didn't hurt either and her thoughts refused to emerge. Paula started making plans; she wanted to go down to the basement at that time, when Mr. and Mrs. Parker went to sleep and believed that she was also sleeping because of tea. Now she was sure they wouldn't suspect anything, because they would never think she was awake. What would she does if she found the boy there locked up? They would escape together, she thought determinedly.

Silence invaded the house and only the tick tack of the clock could be heard in the distance. It was a supernatural silence in that place that usually cracked at the slightest breeze like a nutshell. Paula, who was accustomed to noises, took it as a blessing. At least this way she would be safe if any of her family members suddenly woke up and happened to wander around the house that night.

She was about to get out of bed when she noticed something weird: the clock stopped working... Nothing was heard, the silence was absolute. It seemed the calm before the storm. Then she heard the unmistakable sound of a door opening. She paid attention and realized that something was wrong...

The door, which had opened, was from the lower floor, not that of her family members, as would be logical at that hour. Then she heard those little footsteps again coming from the stairs. These footsteps climbed the stairs slowly, trying not to let the wood creak, so Paula felt fear. What was that?

The footsteps stopped in the corridor and almost immediately began to approach Paula's room. The girl got out of bed while looking at the door. She was shaking and on the edge of panic, then watched as the handle began to move. Paula almost screamed but the door didn't open and the handle stopped moving.

The woman was still as a statue and let almost a minute pass before she had a coherent thought that made her move: What was she afraid of? Surely those footsteps belonged to the poor boy that had escaped the confinement and was looking for her to help him.

Paula approached the door, she was afraid and who wouldn't have it? Her thoughts stirred at the rhythm of her heartbeat. Was the boy or someone else behind the door? After sighing, Paula opened the door. On the other side, there was no one. Paula was confused, so she went out into the corridor that was in darkness and as lonely as ever. Only the old yellow light bulb was on. The shadows hugged her figure.

Paula was scared and almost came back to her bed, but just then she heard the steps on the stairs again.

"Hello! Is somebody there?" the girl whispered. Her voice came out weak and trembling from her throat.

Paula waited, but there was only silence until suddenly, as if it were an answer to her question, she heard the little footsteps again, down the stairs. The girl almost ran down the corridor to the stairs. She was barefoot, so she almost made no noise, but only saw darkness.

The dim light of the bulb only illuminated the first steps of the stairs, and then Paula went down a couple of steps and stopped to get her eyes accustomed to the darkness.

Suddenly, she thought she saw a small shadow. Because of the distance and the darkness, Paula didn't know whose shadow it was, but it seemed to move, so she knew it wasn't the shadow of a piece of furniture.

"Hello!" she whispered but there was no answer.

Frightened but determined to discover the mystery, Paula continued down the stairs, trying not to make noise. In the lobby, the darkness was even more intense. The moonlight that entered through the kitchen door was the only thing that illuminated the place that was almost empty.

Paula stopped in the middle of the hall and looked around her; she was attentive to the slightest noise. Then she discovered that the clock was stopped.