Darkness

Darkness...

The storm outside was picking up steam as she slowly tried to find a match to light a candle. The power had gone out not even five minutes ago and she was already panicking. She hated the dark. You cannot see where you are going or anything hiding that may want to jump out at you. She finally located the matches she had left sitting out on the kitchen table earlier for exactly this reason. She struck a match and the flame lit up the tip. However, before she could light the candle the flame on the match went out. She dropped the match and tried to light another. Again she struck the match and it lit up. Again when she went to light the candle the flame on the match went out. She tried again and again but ended up with the same result. The flame on the match would go out before she could light the candle.

She eventually gave up and dropped the box of matches back onto the table. She then remembered she had a flashlight in a kitchen drawer somewhere. She turned around and took the two steps towards the kitchen counter. She stopped just before she bumped into it. She reached out her hand and felt around for the drawers. She opened the first drawer below the sink where she usually kept the flashlight. She felt around in the drawer trying to find the flashlight.

She finally found it and wrapped her hand around it. She withdrew it from the drawer and tried to turn it on. However, no light appeared when it turned on. Figuring that the batteries must be dead. She reached back into the drawer and felt around for the pack of batteries she knew she had in the drawer. She took a few batteries out of the pack and placed them on the kitchen counter. She took the other ones out of the flashlight and put the new ones in. She tried turning on the flashlight again and this time it worked. She gave a sigh of relief as she at least had some form of light now.

The thunder outside all of a sudden boomed causing her to jump and lose her hold on the flashlight. It rolled along the floor and kept rolling. It rolled to the top of the stairs leading down to the basement. She tried to grab it before it could roll down the stairs. Unfortunately, she was unlucky as she almost had a grasp on it. It slipped from her reach again and tumbled down the stairs. Disappearing into the basement. She knew she did not have any other flashlights on the main story or second story of the house. She had also used up all the matches she had trying to light up the candles. She knew that she had to go down those stairs into the darkness to get the flashlight as it was her only source of light.

The wooden stairs creak as she slowly and carefully makes her way down the stairs. Her hands were firmly pressed against the stone wall to her right. She kept to that side of the stairs as the other side had no railing or wall to keep her from falling. Two steps before she could reach the bottom of the stairs she tripped. She swore that it felt as if something had grabbed her ankle through the stairs and caused her to fall. She shook it off just thinking it was her imagination playing tricks on her. She looked around for the flashlight and saw that it had rolled all the way to the other side of the basement. She slowly made her way across the basement towards the flashlight being careful not to bump into anything.

She had finally reached it and went to grab it when she noticed that the light on the flashlight had begun to flicker. Shrugging it off and just thinking that the flashlight might be banged up from falling down the stairs she ignored it. Once she had the flashlight firmly in her grip she tried to get the flashlight to stop flickering but was unable to. She tried removing the batteries and putting them back in and even resorted to smacking the flashlight against her thigh. Nothing affected the light as it just kept flickering. Giving up she slowly made her way back towards the stairs.

Before she could even make it to the stairs. Something grabbed the shirt she was wearing at the back of her neck. Not enough force to pull her off her feet but enough force that she could feel that it had definitely been tugged. Thoroughly spooked now she tried to make her way faster to the stairs. As she was almost there her flashlight decided to stop working as if all the power in the batteries had been drained. She could not see anything as there were no windows in the basement. It was pitch black. She knew she was close to the stairs so she reached out her hand trying to find the stone wall of the basement.

Instead of a stone wall, her hand came into contact with something that felt like clothing and was as cold as ice. She tried to withdraw her hand from the object, but before she could she felt a hand grip her wrist. This hand was as cold as ice and felt as if it was drawing all the warmth away from her. Quite freaked out now she used the flashlight in her other hand and swung it down on the hand holding her. As it impacted the hand it let go of her as if startled. Now beyond freaked out she desperately tried to find her way to the stairs. She finally found the wall and quickly made her way to where she thought the stairs were. Finally reaching them she felt as if something was watching her from behind her. She slowly looked over her shoulder and saw a glowing figure just standing six feet behind her. The figure was of a woman dressed in old-fashioned clothing that looked like they were from the nineteenth century. The figure reached out as if trying to grab her again. Figuring she was having none of that she quickly climbed the stairs back to the safety of her kitchen. One in her kitchen she slammed the door shut to the basement. Also at this time her flashlight decided to start working again and was not flickering.

Thunder boomed outside and lightning hit the ground outside the kitchen. It lit up the kitchen highlighting an old picture on the wall above the kitchen table. It was a painting of the woman she had just seen in the basement. It was a painting of the wife of the owner that built the house. According to what she remembered hearing from neighbors. It was rumored that she had died in the basement during a storm just like the one happening outside now. It was said that she had tripped down the stairs trying to grab something from the cellar and had tumbled down the stairs and snapped her neck. They had said that she tends to haunt the basement during storms trying to bring other unfortunate souls to accompany her in her unrest. She had just thought these were stories when she had first started living in the house. But now that she had encountered the spirit she knew better.