Beware the Dybbuk ~ Part Three

 

Beware the Dybbuk

By Robin Renee Ray

Part Three

 The four looked for about an hour before they found the entrance to the basement. It was well hidden in the small room off of the kitchen where the cleaning supplies were kept. Mike looked back at his siblings as he pushed the heavy door open, wishing the lights would just come back on, because not even he wanted to venture down into the dark. Not after the sun had gone down, and not after all the help had left. The house was creepy enough without going down into the unknown. But they all knew it had to be done or they would be sleeping by candle light.

          “You’ve got to be kidding me. I don’t want to go down there,” Cindy said leaning as far as she could without taking the first step.

          “You can’t see more than a few steps in,” Gabby added, stepping down right behind Mike.

          “Too bad we didn’t think to bring any flashlights,” Sam said as he pushed on Cindy’s back.

          “Stop it you little jerk, you’re going to make me fall.”

          “You’re such a girl.” He pushed past her and Gabby and walked down side by side with his older brother.

          The steps went down one flight, coming to a small landing before turning sharply then going down another. The girls were holding hands, too afraid not to, while the boys used their candles to search for any sign of a fuse box. Large stone pillars stood like frozen giants in the middle of the stone floor, surrounded by years of accumulation of old furniture, boxes and things the four did not recognize. Dust and cobwebs coated everything as if no one had been in the basement for a very long time.

          “I think that’s an old furnace, maybe the fuse box is over there somewhere,” Mike said and started walking to his left.

          “This place looks like something right out of medieval times. I sure hope we don’t see any old bones chained to the wall,” Sam spoke as he turned in a circle, following his brother.

          “You say one more thing like that and I swear you will hear nothing out of me but, beware the…”

          “All right, Cindy!” Sam snapped glaring back at her with his brows wrinkled together. “Do you really think that is something to say in a place like this? What I said was nothing compared and you know it.”

          “Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

          “Really?”

          “Really. It was out of line. But please don’t try to freak me out, at least not until the lights come back on.”

          A few seconds after Cindy had spoken, Mike found what he’d been looking for and hit the switch and the lights came back on. All squinted at the bright light overhead. “It wasn’t a fuse, there isn’t any. Someone had to have come down here and pulled this thing down to cut the power off. There is no way it shut itself off,” Mike said as he turned to look at the others.

          “Don’t you start,” Gabby frowned shaking her head.

          “I’m not starting anything. Ten to one that Mr. Gray did it on his way out just to be a prick.”

          The sound of a door slamming upstairs had Cindy and Gabby running around their older brother. The sound of a second door slamming had Sam going around behind all three. “What the hell was that?”

          “Someone’s still in the house, Sam,” Cindy whispered. “Mike, I’m scared.”

          “Me too,” Gabby whispered even softer.

          “Sam, look around for anything that we can use for a weapon. You two stay down here.”

          “Like hell we will! There could be some secret passage and whoever is up there could come down here and…well, I don’t want to think about what could happen if you leave us alone down here.”

          “I have to agree with her on this one, Mike.” Gabby began biting on her thumb nail.

          Sam found some old gardening tools under the steps and handed Mike a shovel and kept a rusted pitchfork for himself. Mike shook his head and swapped weapons with him. “I don’t want you to end up stabbing me in the back, little man.”  As they were making their way back to the steps that led up to the kitchen, Gabby noticed a small door about half the size of a full size door, behind where Sam had found the old gardening tools.

          “Hey, wait just a minute. Look at that, what do you think it is?”

          “Man, whoever used that must have been really short,” Sam replied.

          “You have no brains in your head, do you?” Cindy rolled her eyes.

          “I was just joking.”

          “Maybe it’s one of those laundry shoots? You know, like the one grandpa had,” Gabby said as she walked up and leaned down to get a better look.

          “Don’t you guys think we need to go check out what was making that noise up there?” Mike asked as he turned and came back down the few steps he had gone up.

          “To be honest, I’m not in that big of a hurry.” Gabby reached in and twisted the brass handle and pulled the small door open. Dust blew out and she jumped back holding her nose. “Oh my goodness, it smells like something rotten.”

          “Check it out, there’s a treasure chest in there,” Sam said and quickly set his shovel down and began to reach in and get it.

          “Don’t you think you should wait until you have gloves on?” Gabby asked.

          Sam looked back at Mike and smirked, then reached in and pulled the dust covered wooden box from its cradle in the wall. Another door slammed in the depths of the home and he almost dropped it. Sam tried to hand the box to Cindy but she refused so he looked at Gabby who just stood there shaking her head, so he sit it down on the ground and grabbed his weapon and he and Mike took off running up the steps with both girls close behind.

~ῲ~

          After looking through the first floor they checked the rooms they were staying in, but found nothing. “Hello!” Mike yelled out. “We know you’re still here.” They all stood by the banister on the second floor waiting for someone to reply, but got nothing in return.

          “I promise I’m not trying to freak you guys out but maybe this place is really haunted. And don’t start up with that other stuff Cindy, because I’m not joking.” Sam gave her the most sincere look that he had.

          “Believe it or not, I agree, Sam”

          “There has to be another explanation. It’s an old house and what we heard could have been anything. I say we get a good night’s sleep and then get this place packed up as fast as we can. Dad’s depending on us.”

          “I’m not sleeping way across the hall, Mike. If we’re staying then I’m staying in the same room with you and Sam.”

          “I’m not staying by myself,” Gabby frowned.

          “Whatever, just get your things and let’s get to bed. This place is going to take us longer than a week to get packed up and the sooner we get it done the sooner we can get the hell out of here.”

          “Can we go back down to the basement and get the treasure chest?” Sam asked wiggling his brows.

          All three siblings said, “No!” at the same time.

~ῲ~

          He stood in the dark shadows below the staircase, listening to the four talk. It wasn’t until the young boy mentioned ‘treasure chest’ that he had changed his plans on scaring them throughout the night. At least, not until he went back down into the basement to see what the boy had been talking about.

To be continued...