The Locked Door

Every summer I used to go for holidays to my aunt Jane. She lived in a huge, old, wooden house which stood lonely on a high hill. In order to get there you have to defeat winding road. The house looked quite uninhabitable and were in a terrible condition. Aunt Jane was an old widow, who was living there only with butler named Maloney, so she wasn’t able to care of such a enormous building.
My cousin Annette and uncle Thomas have died 5 years ago, when I was 11. My mother told me about it and the story of their death was rather creepy. Supposedly one night young Annette climbed up the stairs to the roof and fell down. She died instantly. After that uncle was woebegone and eventually he committed suicide by one shot in head. Aunt Jane never talked about this. After Annette death she started to keep the door to the roof locked and also to Annette’s room.
It was June of 1980 and I was 16. As usual I was waiting for Maloney on the railway station but he didn’t arrived on time. I was disappointed, hungry and angry. After 5 hours of waiting, I saw a Maloney. He looked exhausted and sad. I asked him what happened, why he was late but he said nothing. He took my baggage and went toward the carriage. I stood there with one\'s bare face and have no idea what to do. After a couple minutes I decided to go after him.
Weather outside was horrible. Lighting flashes were acrossing the sky which was wholly covered in dark clouds. It was also dull and foggy. Eventually we arrived and it was almost midnight. I ran into house in order not to get wet. Aunt Jane was waiting for us. I hugged her and we talked for a while. Than I decided to go to sleep. I said good night and climbed up the stairs. When I was walking through the corridor I heard the door shut behind me and at that exact moment the lights went out. Suddenly I started to hear footsteps, so in panic I decided to run to my room as quick as possible. I open my door and immediately shut it behind me. I took latchkey to close the door just to put my mind at ease. I struggled in the darkness to find some candles that was always kept in the shelf, but finally I found them. I lighted one of the candles and looked around the room. Everything was just as usual and it made me to feel comfortable. A few minutes later a fell sleep.
The next day I told about this strange event my aunt. I was surprised when she said “ Really? Oh it must be only a dream don’t think about this.” I thought that “She is hiding something and I will find out what it is.”
One day I was alone in the house and it was great chance to ransack the house. I started for the locked room of Annette. I try the door but it didn’t budge. I went to the kitchen and searched some keys. At last I found a key in a box and a piece of paper on which was wrote “ Do not use it!” and on the other side “Annette’s room.”. I was so excited that I ran on the first floor and within seconds I was in front of the room. As soon as I stashed the key to keyhole, the door opened with noisy creak. In that moment a terrifying view un folded itself before my eyes. I looked in consternation of what I had seen. In the very middle of the room was standing a small coffin which was surrounded by various flowers especially daisies. The windows were curtained by a long, dark and impervious to sun shades. I took one step forward and saw that the coffin was opened. I felt a thrill on my whole body. Suddenly it got cold and I noticed a white human shape right in front of me. It started to approach towards me and I couldn’t move. Out of the blue the phantom said “Don’t be afraid Mary, it’s me Annette.” I couldn’t believe of what I had heard. “You must help me!” she begged me. I didn’t know what to do. I was so shocked and thrilled that I wasn’t able to say anything. After couple of minutes I lost my consciousness.
When I woke up I was lying on my bed. I looked on a clock and it was 11 a.m next day. Everything seemed to be normal without one thing. On my left hand I had small sing which looked like a letter “A”. I went through the all things which happened last night and I decided not to tell about them anyone. All of a sudden my aunt entered the room. “Would you like to eat breakfast, my darling ?” she asked. “Yes, I will go down right away” I answered.
During the meal I asked “Where did you find me? I don’t remember what had happened.” Aunt Jane lifted her eyes up to me and said without emotions “In Annette’s room.”. Than there was dead silence. Finally aunt said “You don’t understand what you have done. You released a bad ghost. I kept this door locked for a 5 years. In order to protect myself and other people.” she stopped. “Why? What was behind this door?” I asked quickly. “It was Annette or it would be better say her ghost. Oh she was so young when this all had started. One day Annette began to behave strangely, so we called for a doctor. He made a diagnosis that Annette is a mental patient. I remembered that my legs sank under me and uncle lost his heart. Nothing was able to cure her. The medicines didn’t bring any better off. Annette was very sick and consequently went mad. That night when she died we decided not to bury her on a graveyard. We wanted to have her body near us and this was our the biggest mistake. Annette became to haunt in the whole house. She even made her father commit suicide, so I had to locked the door and promised myself never opened them again.” she ended. After that we went for a long walk.
When summer was drawing to an end I knew that I will never forget this holidays. I promised aunt to come back here in next year, but in January my mother received a telegram in which was wrote that aunt Jane died week ago. “It was my fault. I released the bad ghost.” I thought.