She stared into the darkness. A tingling chill ran up her spine as she stood in the doorway to the basement. The light switch sat at the bottom of the stairs and that light switch was the only thing that could save her from Mr. Silly. She was scared of Mr. Silly. Every night Mommy and Daddy checked her closest for Mr. Silly but she always told them Mr. Silly only lived under her bed. But they wouldn’t check under her bed, they would act as if they hadn’t heard her, and then go to bed. It was a good thing she had a lamp to keep Mr. Silly away.
“Honey,” Rachel jumped at the sudden sound of her mother’s voice, “go get the chicken out of the freezer.”
“Mommy I’m scared!” little Rachel yelled back, keeping her eyes on the abyss.
“Now Rachel, Mr. Silly doesn’t live in the basement, okay?”
“Okay…” Rachel mumbled.
Rachel stuck out one tiny foot and reached down to the step before her. Rrreeeeee the stair cried as the little girl stepped onto it, Rachel replied with a frightened whimper. She stepped down another step, reaching out to the railing beside her which was level with her head. Clutching the railing as if it she were hanging from it she went down another step. The rest of the stairs were eaten up in darkness and for all she could see they could have disappeared for good! She could take one more step and fall into a never ending hole.
“I have to get the chicken,” Rachel whispered to herself as she took another step.
Rrreeeeee, the step was there, only six more steps to go.
Something slimy wrapped around her leg.
Then the feeling was gone, just her imagination.
She continued down the stairs, squinting into the darkness. Finally she stepped onto the dusty cement floor of the basement; the light switch was most certainly near. Rachel slid her hands up and down the coarse cement block wall, searching for the switch. Thump-thump…thump-thump, echoed through her ears, was that her pulse or Mr. Silly’s footsteps? Her hands zoomed this way and that until, finally, she found the switch and flipped it with a triumphant chirp.
Light exploded into the basement. Rachel jerked her head this way and that, staring intensely at the mostly empty room, no Mr. Silly. Across from the stairs was a pearly white rectangular freezer that held, somewhere in its depths, chicken. Beside it resided the washer and drier. A mountain of dirty laundry sat on top of the washer machine, anxiously waiting for its turn.
Rachel skipped to the freezer, humming the tune to a song she never even recalled hearing. As her hand touched the freezer’s handle she heard the door slam and the lights suddenly cut off. The chills returned at the base of her spine and galloped up to her neck where she shook them off with a frightened twitch. Thump-thump…thump-thump, she swung open the airtight-freezer door and its light shined out. She backed up towards the giant fridge. Her eyes scanned the rim of light before her.
A slimy green foot was just inside the circle, connected to something hiding in the darkness. Rachel gasped and looked down at her shin, an emerald green slim in the shape of a hand print clung to her leg…something truly had grabbed her on the staircase. Another warty foot suddenly joined its twin, plopping down like a toad landing its leap.
“Mr. Silly,” Rachel whispered and then, as all young girls do when scared, she raised her head and screamed.
Nothing came out. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t scream, she couldn’t escape. The five year old shuddered and took a step back and her heel hit the edge of the freezer. After a mute yelp, she climbed into the freezer and shut the door.
The one-sided lock clicked.