The Old Hag in the Basement

I heard Niels scream from his bedroom below mine, and scream again a moment later at the top of the basement stairs. Were he and Rene fighting? Niels had moved downstairs a week earlier having reached his limit with Rene's constant chattering from the other bunk at bedtime. The split resulted in some friction between the two of them. Niels' screams didn't sound like screams of anger, though, but of fear, and after we stopped him in his flight from the basement stairs and calmed him down he recounted (between nervous glances at the staircase) the tale of his week sleeping alone in the basement.

Niels' decision to move had not been made in haste. We three children had never felt comfortable in the gloomy isolation of the basement, with its small dark windows and single staircase at one end. Others had seen strange things down there. A neighbour kid once claimed he had seen a dark hand reach out of a wall for Rene's throat. A visiting toddler had run away crying after having apparently seen something upsetting at the foot of the stairs. Dad always laughed these stories off, saying there was nothing to them. We laughed too, but had our doubts.

The staircase to the basement was at the west end of the house. The door at the top of the stairs opened inward, toward the stairs, and from it one would descend to the laundry room. A door then lead from the laundry room to the rec room at the centre of the basement, followed by another door to the storage area and guest bedroom at the east end.

Niels had moved into this guest bedroom, but every night from the first he had lain in bed with the blankets pulled up to his chin in fear. Each night he heard heavy footsteps slowly crossing the rec room towards his door. Each night the footsteps got closer before fading away, after which Niels would eventually relax and fall asleep.

On this night, though, the footsteps continued right up to his door. It was then I heard his first scream. Niels ran out of the bedroom, not wanting to wait to see who or what was approaching, and indeed seeing no one as he ran toward the staircase. At the top of the staircase though — as he paused to open the door towards himself — he heard the footsteps again, slowly following him up the stairs. Another scream, then Niels pulled the door open and made his escape.

Niels never returned to sleep in the basement but moved back to his bunk in Rene's room that very night. From then on we three stayed away from the basement after dark. We never saw or heard anything like that again, and we never knew what Niels had narrowly avoided.

Had he stayed in the room that last night, Niels might have sensed an evil presence and then found himself paralyzed, unable to move or make any sound. He would have felt a weight sitting down upon his chest, and had he dared, he would have looked into the large, staring eyes of the Old Hag.