Scary stories

 

 It was unknown to Freddie what might be in Maggie's room. But here he was in the basement waiting for her. After all, Monica her sister had no need for him. She was busy with a book and a cup of tea.

As he looked around he awoke her open laptop. He didn't think it would be so sensitive, but there were the words, like an omen. HOCUS POCUS.

He sighed with a smile. "Is she a witch or something," he laughed under his breath. Her room was quite a cozy gray. There were bits of Maggie's personality, everywhere. Even the plushie rabbit he'd won for her at the recent Harvest festival.

Freddie thought of the fond memories. How endearing she looked in her schoolgirl outfit. However, she was past those days. In fact, she was a college student he'd met in the commons one sunny afternoon in late August. They stared at something rather abstract in the student art exhibit.

"Did you make it?" He'd asked then of the gloomy castle covered in spiderwebs.

"No." She shrugged and they talked about the Gothic moment and how it was about the age of youth, and how time moved quickly. Maybe it wasn't quite true, but it was a pleasant enough conversation to continue to the coffee shop. Since then, they met after class for coffee and conversation. It felt as if it were burgeoning into something much more. But maybe she was just putting a spell on him. 

He took a moment to smell her fragrant cardigan of bergamot and cinnamon at her desk. It wasn't new. It was thrifted. These were things he knew of her. She didn't spend her money freely.  He adored her ingenuity, and yet she was still a mystery. 

Their lips had never touched. In fact, they'd never held hands. But just having her to talk to was splendid enough. He loved taking her seriously.

Just when he was about to give up on the notion that she might show up, he heard a rattle from behind a door. Freddie winced hard. He couldn't imagine anything in her closet, but he couldn't help to investigate. Only, it wasn't a closet. But a doorway to a deep dark stairwell. 

"Freddie," said a faint voice.

Freddie shivered with a squint. "Maggie!" He shouted back.

It felt so cold in the darkness. Freddie took out his phone and turned on the flashlight. The stairway was built of rocks and steep as well.

"Freddie." 

The voice was melancholy, yet persistent. "Is that you?"

Freddie took a deep breath. The door slammed shut. It closed tight. There was no turning back. What was he to do?

He rang her cell, but it was so faint. Her mobile had been in her basement room all this time.

"Maggie! What's going on!" He hurried forward but tried to keep the light on the ancient stairs. His legs started to hurt as he kept forging into the darkness of the steep stairwell that felt endless. He was so out of breath by the time he reached the bottom.

"Freddie!" Finally, the voice grew louder after he reached the bottom which meandered into a cave of icy stalactites and a frozen ground. 

"OH MY GOD." 

It was all he could manage to say. Maggie was in chains. Freddie felt faint. He felt so bewildered. He didn't know what to do.

"Come closer," she said. Maggie, in a withered nightgown, pulled at the chains as if she could not go on much longer.

Freddie squinted as if he knew he wasn't strong enough either.

"Let me bite you," she told him it was the only way to free the both of them. Freddie thought he might choke on his own phlegm. After all, he had no idea this would be the beginning of a long and lasting relationship.