Chapter 5.4 The Attic

I ran to the door that led to the small staircase to the attic. That is when I think Matt began to realize what my plan was. I heard him moan a bit. Then he spoke out.


“Where in the heck are we going?”

“Trust me Matt. Just come with me real quick. There is one place that I need to check before we leave and it will give that bird a chance to calm down so we can move out of here without loosing an eye or something.” I pulled the entrance to the staircase open just a bit so the bird could not fly in and ruin my plan. A smell met my nostrils. A smell of stale air and dust. Matt caught a whiff.

“That smell is horrendous!” He cried. This line would be another classic line of JMH that we would use over and over again when the appropriate time would arise. After saying it, we would double over in laughter thinking it was the funniest thing we had ever heard in our entire lives. No one else ever had a clue why it was so funny. Oh well, that does not matter.

“Do not worry about how it smells. If there is money up there, you will forget about it after we find it. Now let’s go.” I looked around really quickly to check for the bird. When my eyes did not pick up on its movement and I realized it was a good of time as any to make a break for the attic, I opened the door to the stairway a little further. “Go ahead,” I said. “You go first.”

Matt looked at me as if I had just asked him to bite off his right arm. “What the heck do you mean I should go first?”

I knew we did not have time to argue. The bird would be back any minute and there really was no telling where it had gone during its disappearance. It may have left to get reinforcements or maybe to pick up a sharp object to stick in into its beak in order to make his attacks a little more violent. There was no telling. There was not telling what sort of evil we were dealing with here. It seemed as if the beast was just some ordinary feathered friend or fiend, but everyone probably thought that of bats until Bram Stoker wrote Dracula. From then on bats were looked at in an all new way and not in a positive light.

“I have the camera Matt. I can not really tell where I am going. If I fall and break this camera, my grandma will kill me. She just said I could borrow it and that was over a month ago. I think she has forgotten that I have the thing. But when she does remember and wants it back I want to make sure that I can give it to her without throwing a bunch of pieces in a sack.” It was true. The plan was just to borrow it for one quick evening and video tape one of Matt and my parodies of Wayne’s World in his mom’s basement (I’ll talk about these things later) but I forgot to give it to my grandma. She had not asked for it since so I figured if she did not ask for it then she was not really needing it for any special purpose. I would put it to some use and give it back to her when she asked for it. This was in the 1990’s and the dang thing is still in my garage. I am not really sure if she ever missed it or figured out where the thing went.

“Then give me the thing and I’ll hold it. That way you can go first. After all, this was your crazy idea. Don’t you want to be the first one to see the supposed safe?”

Matt had a point. This had been my idea. I swear I must have been some great explorer in my past life, because I have always been one for seeking out the unknown and wanting to be the first person ever to lay his eyes upon a certain place or object. This time was no different. Matt’s speech moved me, got to my heart. I am pretty sure Matt knew it would, that was why he had said it. I handed him the camera, or the Anvil as we used to call it. The camera was by no means like the cameras of today, light, small and compact. This thing was huge and bulky. If you carried it around for too long of periods of time you were really putting the future of your back at stake.

“Here.” I said proudly. “I will go first. I will risk my life for the sake…” I never got to finish my last statement because I heard the return of fluttering wings, fluttering vengeance and death. Our friend was returning. It was returning with a vengeance! The sounds of the flapping seemed more intense this time. More anger was prevalent. I opened the door to the stairway and jerked my head towards Matt. “In here quick!”

I paid no attention to the fact that the closet door had been shut and latched from the outside. If I had taken time to let this sort of information sink in I probably would not have taken the time to climb those stairs that day. I also forgot at that moment about the extreme stench coming from the attic, or how Matt put it, the horrendous smell. That was not the most important thing at the time. The most important thing at the time was getting away from our angry feathered friend and getting away close enough in order to stay within the house so I could test the legend of the safe and see if it was true or not. It also did not register with me that neither Matt nor myself had any sort of lighting source except for what God was providing us from the outside. Within that stairwell however, no light was being let in at all, and glancing to what seemed like the top of the stairs, I was not sure at the time because it simply was too dark to really tell, there was not light source coming from the top of the attic either. Then I remembered when we had walked the circumference of the home that there were no windows in the attic portion of the home. As Matt slammed the small door shut reality suddenly sank in. Though he was shutting out the vengeance of our feathered tormentor, he was also shutting out our one and primary source of light. I began to shudder a bit and did my best to mask my worry. Nothing I could do about it now and I was not about to let Matt on to my uncomfortable feeling.

“It is dark in here.” I heard him say. Then I felt something brush my shoulder. I hoped it was Matt.

“Is that you?” I asked trying to make sure it sounded as if I was joking. I hoped that my voice was not shaking.

“Of course it is me.” He responded. “Who did you think it was?”

I really did not want to take the time to let my imagination run wild and respond to that question. The only way I could think about responding was to joke. So I opened my mouth and let one fly. “Just don’t grab my butt or anything.” Even though it was dark I could make out the outline of my friend. He was shaking with laughter.

“Don’t plan on it man.” He said. “So now what do we do?”

Good question. Again I knew I was flying by the seat of my pants here so I had to give him a quick response. “We go on up. I think it will lighten up a bit up there.”

Matt agreed. “I sure hope you are right. I can not see a dang thing through the lens on this camera. If we are going to pick up anything on camera we are going to have to have some sort of huge light source up there.”

I put my hands out and felt my surroundings. The stairway was not very large at all, maybe five feet wide if that. I put my hands, one on each wall and began to make my way up. The stairway itself began to shrink in size as we got farther and farther to the top. I began to turn sideways in order to have enough room to continue. I knew that if I was having difficulty fitting in the tiny area, that Matt had to be having problems as well. He was both a little larger than myself and also was lugging the Anvil on his shoulder.

“You okay?” I called out in a whisper. I was not sure why I was whispering, but again I did not want to let my imagination run wild to try and come up with an answer to my question.

“Yeah.” Matt answered. “Just getting a little tight in here. How much farther is it? Can you see anything yet?”

Again I knew I had to respond quickly. I was not going to lie to my best friend however, so I was honest as possible. “I am starting to make out something.” Even though I was not able to see anything, I was not lying either. My eyes had begun to adjust to the dark so I was seeing a little clearer in my surroundings. It is all about how you word and select your word choices when speaking.

“What is it that you are seeing?” Matt asked. I could sense that he was actually interested in what I had to say. He was actually wanting to know what was going on.

“I’m not sure.” Again, I was being honest here. The lighting was not good enough to make out what any of the objects were. And I was starting to see some objects up there. All sorts of twists and shapes were beginning to form in front of me. I was not only interested, but at the same time I was getting a little worried. Just what if something was up here calling this area its home? We were invading its home now. Its privacy. I shut the idea out of my head because I simply did not want to think about it. Ghosts and the supernatural were things that really did not bother me. It was the living that we really had to worry about. Those often were the real dangerous things we had to worry about in our lives. Whether they were human or animal. It was always best to keep a heads up when dealing with either. “It still is to dark too tell what is really up here. Just give me a minute and we will be at the top of the stairs. I should be able to get a better view up there. Better lighting.” Again, I was hoping that the lighting would improve when we got to the top of the stairs. Only time would tell.

Suddenly I felt Matt brush up against me. At first I thought his fear and emotion was getting the better of him. Then I realized that he was actually trying to move me out of the way and get past me. Was he wanting to go first? This was impossible.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Let me by. I have the camera and I want to be the first to capture and document all of this on film.”

I was not sure how to respond to this comment. Was this the same Matt Hails that I had grown up with through high school? The same Matt Hails that was often scared of his own shadow? “Are you sure you want to do that?” Again I was curious, but I did not want to make it sound as if I did not have faith in his judgment. Matt knew that I knew he was a fraidy cat. He just did not want me to let him know that I knew. Make sense?

“Yeah. Let me passed. I want to go first.”

I did not argue with him. I squeezed next to the wooden side of the stairway the best that I could. It took a little bit of creative maneuvering, but Matt finally moved by and started up the stairs ahead of me. Before he actually began his ascent, I notice he paused a bit and sensed that he was having a bit of second thoughts. I did not say anything, just waited patiently to see what he was going to do. Then whatever motivation he needed to find, he found it and began his movement up the stairs.

It seemed like we were going into the darkness forever. The more we climbed the darker it got. The darker it got the longer and higher we seemed to climb. I began to doubt my judgment of making a run for the stairs to elude the bird. I began to wonder if it would have been smarter to have headed for the door or to duke it out in the former living room area of the home with the bird from hell. Then all my doubts were answered by the spoken voice of my friend.

“It is starting to open up a bit.” Matt said. I breathed in a sigh of relief, again forgetting about the horrendous smell that Matt and I had encountered when we first opened the doorway. Just like with any bad smell, after you are around a scent for a long extended period of time, it sort of becomes a part of you and you really do not notice it. This had become the case. But psychologically, my mind was not going to let me forget about the smell, or what could have been causing such a scent.

“Just keep moving a bit more. I am right behind you.” I was never one that felt the sense of being claustrophobic, but this time period I think I was beginning to experience such a phobia for the very first time. I wanted to get to the top of that staircase soon, or I wanted to turn around and head back down the way we came. Luckily, Matt thought out the dilemma quickly and he continued in the upper motion.

“I think we are here.” I heard Matt say as I felt him stop.

I agreed with his assumption. The area did feel like it opened up a bit and the air was not so dense. It felt as if there was some movement and circulation of the staleness, even though it was just a bit. Enough still helped out the air in this area. I nudged Matt in the back.

“Can you see anything?” I asked him hoping that he would provide the answer that both satisfied myself and him at the same time.

“Give me a second.” He responded. “I need to bring the camera down to my side for a minute so I can get a better view up here. The camera is blocking my view a bit.”

I felt him bring the camera down to his side as I had to move a step down in order to compensate room for the large object. I could make out Matt’s head. It was turning from side to side surveying the area around him. I was not able to read his body language on whether or not he was satisfied by what he saw. I waited for a oral response. Then one came.

“Jeremy.” He said slowly. I was not sure what the tone he was using meant. It was either one of complete disappointment or complete dismay. I was not sure which one I was hoping for.

“What?” I asked ready to hear anything. After one deals with a bird from hell, they are pretty much ready to take on anything. This being the case in this situation.

He paused before I felt a smack fall down upon my shoulder. I yelled out in pain. Did he just hit me? And if so, why did he do it?

“What was that for?” I cried out. “What in the hell did you hit me for?” I was waiting for his response before I struck him back. All is fair when one is dealing with their best friend.

“Didn’t you say there was supposed to be some sort of safe up in this attic?”

“Yes.” I responded. “That was the story that I have heard.” And it was the truth. I had been told that story for years, I just never had read or seen anything to verify the truth behind it. But that was what our purpose was here was it not? “Why? Do you see it?” Again I was very hopeful in my tone.

Again the hit. This time it was there was a little more force behind it. More than the original strike. “Hell no!” He said drawing out both the words hell and no as if he was trying to stress his frustration and disappointment with me. “Safe. There ain’t no freaking safe!”

“What do you mean there is no safe up there?” I pushed him out of the way and made my way to the top of the stairs. “Let me see this for myself.”

I made my way to the top of the stairs a little relieved at Matt’s discovery but at the same time extremely disappointed. Safe. That was all I had heard about since I had been able to drive and search these back country roads for adventure and excitement. Oh, you have to go check out the house down next to the great bridge towards Ashley. There is supposed to be a safe in the attic filled with loot. No one had ever gone to the attic to check and have been able to return and tell their tale. No one! I should have known better due to the fact no one had ever gone to the attic and returned to tell about it, yet Matt and I were at the top of the staircase viewing the legendary attic and the only obstacle we had to overcome was some crazy damn bird.