A Key/Noon/Falling Leaves

Waking up, Ashlynn looks over at the clock sitting on her nightstand. The green numbers were blinking furiously at her. There must have been a storm during the night that knocked out the electricity again. Stretching across the bed her hand slipped beneath the pillow and brushed against a small, cool piece of steel. Folding her fingers around it, she pulled her hand back out and sat up on the bed.

Opening her hand, she revealed an old skeleton key laying on the palm of it. Crinkling her forehead in confusion she turned the key over and over with her fingers. Where did this come from, she wondered.

Scenes from the previous night began to flash through her mind. Realizing that they weren't pieces of a dream, a familiar rush of fear came over her. No, these things were part of a reality that until last night she thought only existed in stories. And the key she was holding in her hand was only  part of the proof that was uncovered.

She grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand to check the time. Panic bubbled up inside of her as she realized that it's already past noon and she has five missed calls from Stacia, her best friend. She should have been at school hours ago. Brushing her fingers through her hair, only to get them tangled up in the mess on top of her head, she jumped out of bed. After a quick shower she got dressed quickly and was on her way out the door. But not before shoving the key into her pocket first. She couldn't wait to find out what Stacia remembered about their little adventure.

 Getting in the car, Ashlynn noticed the leaves falling from the trees in her backyard. A sure sign that her favorite season was in full swing. The scarlet leaves were gliding through the crisp, autumn air to their final resting place on the ground below. Pulling out of her drive way she made her way to the end of her street. Only six blocks from the high school now, she had to come up with a plausible excuse for being tardy. She had no doubt that Principal Higgins would be calling her dad to ensure that he was fully aware of her tardiness for school again.

It didn't matter how hard she tried to concentrate though, her mind was still clouded with memories from the night before. Her and some friends went snooping around an old abandoned house out of boredom. With Halloween being tonight, they thought it would be fun to explore the object of century old, local legends. They sure didn't expect to discover that the legends hadn't been a hoax after all. The gray, tattered house sat up on a hill at the edge of town as though it was looking over the entire county. Some people even claim that they've seen the shutters of one window close together in a wink like it was letting everyone know that it knows something  we don't.