Act 1, Chapter 7

Another solution had to be found, and as quickly as possible because you still wanted to tick off the attic today, but you certainly wouldn't go up there in complete darkness.

You were about to give up and reluctantly put the box back in the study room when something fell on the floor on one of the two lower levels.

Goosebumps ran over your body, the shock made you go rigid.

You carefully put the box back on the ground and just as carefully you went down the stairs.

The sound was too faint to be coming from the ground floor and too close to be coming from the back of the house.

Only the basement remained, so carefully and slowly you went down the stairs, you left the door there open and put a weight against it to get fresh air into the room.

When you arrived at the bottom, nothing seemed unusual or out of place until you took a closer look and noticed it.

The wiper had slipped off the wall and hit the floor, making the soundof the impact.

You picked it up off the floor and looked at it for a moment.

"You scared me.." you said to it and put the wiper on the couch, it wouldn't be able to fall from there.

Just as you put it down and your eyes went up, it landed on the workbench.

There, on the workbench, was probably the solution to your little attic problem.

A crowbar.

You walked towards it and took it in your hand, it weighed quite heavily in it.

Didn't you notice it while cleaning up or just forgot it and couldn't think of it when you were looking for a way to pull the ring down?

Whatever it was, it didn't matter now.

Armed with the crowbar, you went back upstairs.

Even with a crowbar, you had to tiptoe and get one of the crowbar's two hooks into the ring and then pull it down.

The door came down like butter as the stairs hurtled towards you and you just barely got out of the way.

'The rails on the stairs must be so worn out that they can't come down slowly' you thought while images flashed before your inner eye of what would have happened if you hadn't stepped aside in time.

It was pitch black up in the attic, but a look at your open bedroom door and the closed window told you that it wasn't that dark outside yet.

Black cardboard was probably also stuck in front of the window there, protecting the room from sunlight.

You hadn't figured out the purpose of the cardboard yet.

You took your phone out of your pocket and turned on the flashlight, which you shone up once.

Already now you could discover a couple of boxes and also a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.

You put the crowbar on the ground next to the stairs before picking up the box, your phone in your other hand.

When you got to the top, you put the box down and looked around the room with your flashlight.

After you got a quick overview you got up and pulled the cord that was hanging from the lightbulb and it turned on.

You held your hand over your phone's flashlight, covering it completely.

The bulb didn't light up most of the attic, so you decided to keep your flashlight on.

You immediately noticed all the dust and spider webs, here was a lot more dust than everywhere else.

The attic was a lot more battered than the basement, but what did you expect?

The basement at least had a function and was used regularly, the attic could not claim that.

Here, too, you went in the direction of the window and pulled the black cardboard from the window.

And here, too, you turned around, but the attic was expansive, despite the light that now streamed through it.

'Surely it's because the sun doesn't shine as brightly as it did in the basement..' you said to yourself as you looked around more closely.

Next to the box you brought up and put down was another one with 'PHOTOS' written on it in black marker.

You walked closer to the box, brushing the dust off of it before opening it and sitting on the floor.

You blindly reached into the box and a few pictures ended up in your hand.

They showed the wedding anniversary of a young woman and a young man, on the back of the photo was a date and the names of both your great-aunt and great-uncle.

You turned the picture over again and took a closer look, you had to smile.

So there they were, on their wedding day.

You had never seen the two so young, neither in photos nor in memories.

The next five photos were also from their wedding day.

On one they fed each other cake, the other was a group photo with all the guests, others were from a photo shoot they did that day.

They were the original pictures, printed on old photo paper and the colors were so pale that you could hardly recognize them.

When you had looked at all the pictures in your hand you wanted to get more out of the box but when you put your hand in blindly again you felt no more paper but something smooth and hard.

You pulled your hand back in surprise.

'Who puts in a box that says 'photos' just...' ,you counted the pictures once, '...13 pictures?'

You put the pictures on the floor next to you after you swept the dust off with your hand.

You took the top of the box and tilted it so you could see inside with ease.

You shone inside with your flashlight, which you also used to get a better look at the pictures.

A board made of dark wood was in it, you took it out.

'A wedding woodcraft?'  you asked yourself and turned the board over.

On the 'back' there was no wedding greeting but the alphabet , 'yes', 'no', 'welcome', 'goodbye', the numbers 0-9 and the top of the board said 'Ouija' as a heading.