A Window into the Past

I picked up the box resting it on my knee as I caught my breath. I was only 15 at the time but my stepdad had tasked me with gathering all the stuff up from my grandmother’s house and bringing it to our apartment. It would take me all month at this rate.

I looked out the window and down at the decaying house. squinting at the harsh yellow light glaring through the window, making it impossible to see the house The glare dims down and the shadows reveal the newly lighted house. I gasped and dropped the box. ‘That hadn’t been there before.’

It crashed onto the floor but I ignored it in favor of looking for my phone. It was never where it was suppose to be. I stopped the search when the sounds of chatting floated through the window. My eyes looked into the other house to see fractures  through the houses windows, of life. Little kids shook presents and adults sat around a table.

the window drew me in and I stumbled towards it. Pressing my hand against the window and it rippled beneath it. My heart froze and my chest tightened. I tried to pull my hand away but it wouldn’t budge. The window dragged me in like a dog on a short leash.

Once my arm was completely through, Then I tumbled out of the window face first. only managing to land on my side right before I hit the ground. I groaned promising myself that I would never do that again. I wobbled to my feet my legs shaky and my arm throbbing with pain. I glanced around as I tried to reason with myself. ‘I must have worked too hard and fallen asleep.’ It was stupid reasoning but it was reasoning. In my head, some how, it made sense. It hadn’t snowed for years here so it had to be a dream.

My eyes landed on a window filled with small faces that were watching me. shifting feet as I looked back to the window I fell from. even if it was a dream it wouldn’t hurt anyone to go see if the window could take me back home.

“Are you okay?” My head turned to look at the speaker. I should have thanked him for restarting my heart.

The speaker was a tall bulky man who made me jealous of his heavy coat. The thin coat I was wearing was too thin for this kind of weather.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied. Of course I was fine it wasn’t like I had fallen from a window or anything.

“Did you fall from the roof?”

“No, I….” My eyes locked on the fence behind me. “I fell over this fence.”

“That fence?” He pointed to the high wooden fence behind me.

I nodded. “I was being chased so I took a short cut.”

He frowned. “By who?”

I started inching towards the road. “Oh, who knows.”

All I needed was to get back in that house so it would have been nice if he had left.

“You sure your okay?”

The wind bit into my cheeks. “Positive.”

I wobbled for a second unbalanced by the ending of the side walk. He walked back over by his mail box. “If your sure.”

“I’m sure.” I glance back at the house.

“Have a good day then.” I looked back to him in time to see the door close behind him.

I let out a puff of air which turned to steam. Now that he was gone, I trudged through the snow and towards the house. keeping my eyes on the other house to make sure no one was watching. Then I checked the drive way and saw it was empty. I twisted the door handle and pulled but it didn’t budge no matter how many times I tried. I grunted before looking to the big window. It would draw a lot of attention to brake it but it might be my only option. Looking down and saw the rug beneath me. I leaned down heart pounding in my ears as I pulled back the rug. ‘The key!‘ I picked it up and fumbled with the lock.

Lights flashed in my eyes as a car pulled in. The mental screaming started happening again around this time. The key went in and I stole a glance at the two getting out. One was a frail middle aged woman while the other was a teen aged girl. My heart raced as I twisted the key and flung the door open. My head pound as I raced towards the stairs and then up the stairs. The footsteps behind me only motivated me to run faster.

I looked for the hatch to the attic. Where was it? My eyes landed on a door at the far end off the hall. I darted forward avoiding the grasp of whoever was behind me. I opened the door and slipped in and started searching for the light switch.

My mind raced as I found the switch. I flicked it on and light flooded into the room. my eyes landed on the hatch with the rope holding onto it. I pulled at the rope as the door creaked open. climbing up the latter leaving the shouts down below.

“Jacky be careful!” someone shouted.

The latter creaked and I turned around to avoid her grasp again. Then the latter creaked and creaked until it cracked. Her face went pale and I suck in a large amount of air as I latched onto her arm. She pulled me forward but I stopped myself. My heart slowed to soft thud every second or two and I looked down at her. We met eyes as I lowered her down. I let out my breath as her feet touched the ground and I released my grip and pulled away.

I pushed myself up and looked out the window. My legs were shaking as I looked at the abandoned house. I wasn’t going to wait another second. I raced towards the window and jumped through it.

I landed on my already injured side and laid there for a good minute. happy report, after this I kept my promise and never did that again. sad report, that that day I broke my arm. I pushed myself up which is a tasked in of itself with a broken arm and stumbled over to the side of the house.

I peered over to the front of the house where my mom stood with a baby in her arms and a man wrapping his arms around her. They were talking to a old woman in a wheelchair. The man I had only seen in pictures. “Dad.” I said to myself before I could stop myself. I came out from my hiding spot and noticed the moving trucks. The words ‘Jacks moving company.’ on the sides.

I make it over to my mom millions of questions filling my mouth but only one tumbled out. “I thought we couldn’t afford moving trucks.” My mother frowned. “Mrs. Jacky said she’d help us put a bit and gave us a discount,” She paused. “Are you okay, dear?”

(Thank you for reading until the end! I hope you all enjoyed! If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions please leave a comment! I thinking about uploading something on new years but I’m not quite sure about it. Also, I probably won’t have my spiderverse review out until January but hey! My about page is up so head over there if your interested in that! Hope you all have a fabulous rest of the year!)