The Widow - NEW! - Teaser

There was a recluse house at the end of Mill road, hidden behind pines. My sister Clara and I knew, like every children of the neighborhood, that the lady living there was a widow, an angry children abducting widow to be exact. Yes yes! It’s true. Rumors say many children who adventured close to the house disappeared and were never ever found again. Now, I wasn't as gullible as Clara, since I was the older brother, I had to be the strong one you know? Protect her. But sometimes, I liked to scare her with stories about the house and the witch living in it. She was only 10 and still got to believe what I said sometimes. Now, when we were younger it was more easy to imagine all sorts of things about that recluse place but getting older, all we wanted is to actually know the truth. Our mother said the woman living there was actually a very kind and nice woman, but she just prefered to stay alone than have social interactions with other people. Sometimes we could see a car parked there, an old buick. Mom said it was the young man she hired to do her groceries and all, so she wouldn’t have to come out. During Halloween, the house at the end of Mill road was always considered the haunted mansion and no kids would get close, mostly because of the crows, but also because of the rumors and numerous stories. 

Well, I had enough of all the bullshit. One day, me, Francis, 13 years old, and not scared of that house and that widow anymore, I decided that it was time to know the entire truth about it. 

“You’re crazy, she will abduct you and keep you as a freaking slave in her basement.” Said Clara.  

“You’re so gullible. Nothing’s gonna happen to me. I’ll prove to you that there is nothing wrong happening in there. You’ll see.” I said. I knew that I needed preparation. I didn’t want to just go up the front door and ring. Appearances are deceiving. I needed to sneak on her property, get inside the house and find evidence…or not. Hopefully, I would just come back empty handed and prove to my little sister that there are no abducted children in there and no illegal black magic. I prepare my expedition. Flashlight, gloves, slingshot, cap, good shoes, rope, black clothes, little swiss knife. I would have brought my baseball bat but that would have been too obvious. 

“Francis, you can’t just go there, it’s not permitted, you’ll be caught.” Said Clara while I was preparing. I drew a plan of the place from what I knew. There was the driveway, the main entrance, the backyard, the tool shed, some trees. I had to find an entry point, which could be a basement window, or the backdoor, or even the second floor window next to the oak branch. That one would be tricky. 

“You’ll stay here with the binoculars, okay?” I say, pointing an area on my drawn plan. “When I go inside, you wait 1 hour. You start the chrono on your watch. 1 hour! Okay? If I am not out after 1 hour, you run back home and tell mom. Do not come to get me, understood? You run back home.” I tried to explain the plant o my little sister, but she was shaking with fear. She finally agreed to be my partner in crime and we waited for after dinner, when the sun starts to go down, to go on our expedition towards the end of Mill road. 

“This is a bad idea.” Clara said while we were walking down the road. 

“Shut up and stick to the plan.” I said. We got closer to the pines, we could see the barely lit house, creepy as hell. “Alright, go to your spot, I’ll get closer from the woods around there.” I said pointing around the house. Clara was shaking, scared and obviously still believing in whatever rumors. I jogged away, hiding behind a bush, then ran in the pine woods to go around the house and aim for a basement window. As I got closer, I took a look back at my sister, good girl got to her binocular spot and was looking at me. I raised a thumbs up at her, and focused on my target. I crouched behind the small picket fence around the property and, making sure nobody was looking, I jumped over and crouched, crawled behind the tool shed. Alright, now, I looked around the corner of the shed to aim for the basement window on the side of the huge house. There were lights on from a window of the second floor, some porch lights keeping the creepy house lit from the outsides. I decided to use my slingshot to break the light bulb lighting the area I wanted to charge in. It took me 3 times to finally get it, but I managed to hit the light. It became dark. I dashed. Almost fumbled on a root, but managed to reach the house exterior wall undetected. 

I crawled next to the basement window and looking inside, dark as a bottomless pit of despair. I used my flashlight to look inside from the window, it wasn’t locked. My lucky day, I guess. I pulled the window up, looked at my sister, and ducked inside the house and fell down to the floor as silently as I could. I left the window opened for my way back out. started my watch's chrono for 1 hour. I knew the widow was in the house, I needed to be extra careful. I used my flashlight to look around. There was nothing really eye catching. Furniture with drapes on them, boxes, crates, a dusty storage room. Stairs. There was an old wooden door with light coming from under it. I tiptoed over and looked through the keyhole. 

I could see her. The widow! She was there! She had long black hair, she was slim, wearing a dress and, looking down, she had black high heels. She looked like a very fine woman in her mid 40’s. She went to the side I lost sight of her. Then she came back into view and crouched, placed something on the floor. What was she doing? She was standing in the middle of the room, looking down at something. She was playing with something with her feet. 

I tried to move my head a bit to look through the keyhole better. 

Oh my god.

Was that….. a shrunken living kid on the floor?

Oh my god!

To be continued…..