The Locked Door

Part 2

Andy woke up with a gasp, cradling his pillow before getting himself together. He shouldn't be having nightmares of an old, locked room. He was almost eight, he was a big boy now, and big boys wasn't scared of old rooms!

While eating his breakfast he decided to find the old man again to find out more about the locked room and to prove that he wasn't afraid. Andy found the man rather quick, leaning against an old tree just outside the big forest that surrounded the village and his house. As Andy came closer, the man looked up and nodded to himself “I knew you would come back”, he said. Andy looked down, trying to escape the old mans piercing eyes.

“There's an old tale about a woman and the loss of her children. There's people who still believe in it, and me, well, I think it's better to be safe than sorry. People have seen things in that house, things that couldn't possibly be.” The old man took a deep breath before continuing. “Once, there lived a woman with her husband and their children. One day the man got home drunk, and after a fight the woman left and the man cut the throat of their children before hanging himself. When the woman returned she found her children dead in their beds. She went completely mad. She locked herself into their room and no one could get her out of there. People started to talk. Children went missing after sneaking out at night. Some think they just got lost in the woods, other think its the ghost of the woman who want her children back.” The old man sighed, looking towards the graveyard. “I got old friends buried there. Just the grave, no bodies. They disappeared like so many other children”.

Andy stood silent, trying to take in what he just had heard. The man was silent too, still looking distantly towards the graveyard, lost in his own world.

“What happened to the woman?” Andy finally asked carefully, his voice almost sounding harsh after the long silence.

“I don't know. This was a very long time ago. It is said that she cried so much over her dead children that her tears turned to pure blood. People say this story is just a story, but somehow, kids kept going missing.”

There was another long silence before the old man excused himself and Andy walked home again. He couldn't stop thinking about the woman and the children, now more than ever.

When Andy came home he walked up the long stairs towards the attic as if he was in a trance. On the last step he hesitated, thinking for a second that the smartest thing would be to go back and forget about it all, but he knew he couldn't do that. The curiosity was too strong.