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    The Thing Beneath The Stairs
    The Thing Beneath The Stairs
    The Thing Beneath The Stairs
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    The Thing Beneath The Stairs

    By Heather Elizabeth King

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A house with a history. An old evil.
    A decision that will change a family's life forever.

    The only thing Barbara Jones wants is to give her sons a normal life, a life she thinks is hers when she moves her family into the pretty Victorian house on the outskirts of town. But after being laid off from her job, Barb sees any chance at normalcy slipping away. She's behind on rent, her seventeen-year-old son is working at a convenience store to help pay the bills instead of studying, and her landlord is threatening to evict her. Barb's life has never been more out of control.

    Then the unimaginable happens.

    Barb didn't know the house she moved her boys into has a history of violence and ritual murder. She didn't know the entity at the center of that violence never left. At first, Barb can't bring herself to believe the entity is real, but nightly occurrences convince her there is something malevolent in the house. And before long, she finds out what it wants from her.
    Would you make a deal with the devil to save your family?

    This is a SHORT STORY.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPink Lily Books
    Release dateMay 3, 2019
    ISBN9781386005025
    The Thing Beneath The Stairs

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      Book preview

      The Thing Beneath The Stairs - Heather Elizabeth King

      The Thing Beneath The Stairs

      Heather Elizabeth King

      The Thing Beneath The Stairs

      ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      The Thing Beneath The Stairs Copyright 2019 © Heather Elizabeth King

      Edited by Maggie Bradbury

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.

      Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

      The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Barbara Jones sat up in bed. She tried to blink, but her eyes were too dry and nearly plastered shut. She’d heard something. A sound from somewhere below the bedroom where she now sat.

      She reached for the bottle of re-wetting drops that she kept on the nightstand, but damned if she could put her hand on the bottle. Her fingers clasped at the empty space for a few seconds, then she sighed when her hand closed around the bottle. In seconds, she’d set droplets of the fluid into each eye, then blinked.

      There it was again. The sound. The scraping sound.

      She looked over at Gabe. He hadn’t moved. He continued to snore softly, not a care in the world.

      That was fine. She didn’t need Gabe. It was probably nothing.

      Or maybe it was a rat. The same rat that had been scurrying around the house all week.

      She groaned.

      Clear-eyed, she slid off the side of her bed, then waited a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness around her.

      Something scraped again.

      She tensed up in response.

      She couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from but thought at minimum it was coming from somewhere on the first floor. Or, God forbid, the basement. That’s all she needed, a rat loose in her mess of a basement. It could hide anywhere down there. Under boxes, inside an old piece of furniture, burrow its way behind a wall. She shivered at the possibilities.

      And there it was again. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

      Her heart was beginning to beat faster.

      It was a rat. She just knew it was a rat. A big, hairy rat.

      She hated rats.

      Her bedroom door swung wide and slammed into the wall. Startled, Barb jumped and cried out.

      In the bed, Gabe jerked upright, a series of swear words on his lips.

      Do you hear that, Mom? It’s the rat again.

      Light from the hallway lit up the dark expanse of her bedroom. Her seventeen-year-old son was standing in her bedroom doorway, pajamas twisted awkwardly on his body, hair disheveled.

      Jason. She set a hand over her heart. You nearly gave me a heart attack.

      I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to do that. Guess I don’t know my own strength.

      Where’s Ben; where’s your brother? Barb whispered.

      He’s still in bed.

      So Jason had checked on him. Good.

      Go back to your room. I’ll go—

      I’m not going back to my room, Mom. I’m gonna get it.

      It’s probably just a little mouse or something, Gabe said, laying back against the pillows.

      Barb wished she could see his face. He had to be annoyed, being awakened in the middle of the night like this. He had to get to work in the morning. She knew that. And she’d woke him up.

      It’s not a little mouse, Jason said. It’s a big rat. I saw it the other day.

      Gabe exhaled. The bed creaked as he pushed the covers aside and twisted to set his feet on the floor. Where’d the sound come from?

      Downstairs. Jason turned and left the bedroom. A moment later, Barb heard footfalls on the stairs.

      He was heading down.

      Quickly, she walked around the bed, grabbed her robe from a hook on the back of the door, and followed.

      Where are you going? Gabe called out to her.

      Downstairs.

      Gabe came down after her. You don’t think you’re being even a little alarmist? You know how you get.

      I heard something. And so did Jason.

      Like you saw a rat going into the kitchen at the bakery the other week?

      Barb paused on the stairs. Hush. You’re too loud.

      Barb didn’t have to see Gabe to know he’d rolled his eyes.

      He did that a lot.

      They met Jason on the first floor landing. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking to the left and to the right.

      I don’t see anything, Jason whispered.

      Maybe if you put a light on. Gabe put a hand on Barb’s shoulder to ease her aside, then stepped down into the living room. He crossed the room in three long strides. A moment later, dim

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