Morning all. It is a slightly less frosty Friday than the beginning of the week led me to believe was coming. Its almost like someone took the week out of the freezer and it is only now coming to room temp. And on that cheery image, lets see where today’s prompt will take us. Timers set for fifteen minutes please.
Not sure where this is going, but our main character isn’t going to make it to the car without a fight and I don’t think John will survive much longer. Something in my brain is thinking vampires. More the Nosferatu version than is currently in vouge though. Certainly nothing pretty.
Friday, November 14th: We stepped inside cautiously.
We stepped inside cautiously. Half of the floor boards were rotted out and threatened to give under our weight. Ome of them had already gone, crumbled to sawdust. There were dark gaps in those places, showing the heavy beams used to hold up the structure.
I looked into one of the gaps and saw the shadowy basement below. The cold scent of damp earth and cold stone wafted up. There was another scent as well, one I couldn’t identify. I thought I saw movement below as well. I swallowed hard and leaned back. The board moaned beneath my shoe.
‘Mice,’ I told myself even though the movement seemed somehow bigger. ‘Rats maybe,’ I tried convincing myself. I didn’t quite believe that either.
I backed up towards the door and as I looked up I found myself stepping back over the threshold and onto the porch. The porch seemed somehow sturdier, safer. ‘Perhaps because it is only a few feet above the ground and not above a full basement. If the boards gave way, I would only drop a short way onto the dirt rather into the depths of the dark and not quite empty basement.
As I looked up from the safety of the porch I saw that many of the floorboards were rotten on the floor above. The plaster fell in many places, leaving yellowed plaster along the floors. A random polka dotted pattern. Sunlight poked in through the second story floorboards and for all I knew the roof above.
John started for the stairs.
“It isn’t safe,” I said. I could see the railing sway moving the remaining stairs along with it.
John sighed dramatically. “There is a safety kit in the car, ropes, hard hats and even a first aide kit if you feel you need to get it.”
I nodded and he turned away. John considered anything related to safety to be ‘soft’. At least that was the most polite word he used. Usually there were more offensive ones and all of them were included in his rant about the ‘nanny state.’
I heard them enough times and while I could see there was a case made for over protection, I did not think hard hats and safety lines fell into that category when investigating a multiple story dilapidated building.
I thought ’stupid beyond compare’ was the category for going up those steps but I knew better than to actually criticize John openly. I stepped back and started to turn.
“If you go, don’t bother coming back,” John said. Just get in your car and go. When you get back to the hotel send Steve. He’ll know how to work the site.
Apparently my complaints about the stairs were registered. I frowned. I was reaching my limit with John and had in fact told myself this was the last site for me. Then I would find myself too busy to go on any others. I loves searching abandoned buildings, but I had my fill of John.
‘And he is taking more risks.’
I didn’t need to think too hard about it. “I’ll send Steve,” I said. I continued walking out. While exploring the forgotten had always been fun, John monetized it when he put the recordings on line, which was great for paying for equipment and housing. Lately though he began a one upmanship campaign with another on-line adventurer. Each started striving to out do the others in terms of most extreme sites visited.
Ten til Midnight 