Charles found the old book when he was 12 years old. It was stuck in behind an old bookcase in the attic of his house. The cover of the book was missing and so were some of the pages inside. It was a book of frightening ghost stories but without the cover, Charles could never been sure if the stories were real or just made up.
Lying in bed at night, Charles would read the stories quietly to himself. They terrified him, but for some reason, he couldn’t stop himself from reading each one again and again. His heart would be pounding and his breath would catch in his throat, yet he still felt unable to put the book down.
There was only one illustration in the book, a solitary strange photograph in the middle pages. Charles could never bear to look at it. Something about the photo unnerved him but he found himself string at it for hours. He never understood why the photograph held such a strange fascination for him.
There was nothing in the picture that should cause him such fear and dread. It merely showed an empty metal staircase leading down into darkness. Could it be the fear of something or someone lurking in the darkness? Perhaps it was the fact that the rusty metal steps looked as if they were covered in blood.
For some reason, the photo terrified him so much that he finally reached breaking point. He ripped it out of the book and threw it in the trash. Charles thought that would be the end of it, but he found that he was unable to get the picture out of his mind.
When he fell asleep at night, he would see the empty metal staircase in his nightmares and he always woke up drenched in a cold sweat. The strange photo haunted him for years. As he got older, he would often be reminded of the photo and then the nightmares would start again. It was as if what he had seen in the photo could never be unseen.
Walking home from college one night, Charles took a shortcut through a dark alleyway and came upon a scene that seemed all too familiar to him. Up ahead, he could see the same rusty metal staircase that had haunted his dreams for so many years.
Charles felt a chill go up his spine and he had the sudden urge to flee. But his curiosity got the better of him. He had to find out why the staircase had disturbed him so much.
Charles approached the staircase cautiously, staring down into the darkness that lay below. In his terror, his mind began to recognize strange shapes in the pitch black. He could hear odd sounds and moans coming from underground.
As Charles stood at the top of the stairs, he began shaking with fear. He was about to turn and leave when he heard something strange. A whisper or a low groan. He looked down and started screaming.
- Kiddo
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