The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Climbing Curse   
by Kathleen McCluskey 

The stairs stretched before her, a twisting path of cold marble disappearing in the darkness. She places one foot on the first step, her breath coming in slow, measured exhales. The air here is thick, stifling, pressing down on her like an unseen force. It whispers as it moves around her, slipping through the stone banister.

Turn Back.

Her fingers trail along the smooth railing, slick with an oily residue that smells faintly of rust and something sickly sweet, like dying flowers. She feels distant, almost dreamlike. Her steps feel heavy, sluggish, as if she’s moving through water. Each step is more lethargic than the last. Her legs trembled with the weight of something other than exhaustion. She looks down through the banister, the endless circle of staircases make her head swim.

She isn’t sure why she is climbing.

The house is silent, but the silence feels unnatural, like it was stretched too thin. Her footsteps offer no echo, barely an audible sound. They feel muffled. She tries to remember what had brought her here, her mind is hazy. Her thoughts keep slipping through her fingers like sand.

Still, she climbs.

The shadows around her seem to pulse, shifting just out of her vision. The higher she goes, the more the house feels wrong. The banisters curve unnaturally, the angles of the hallway stretch in ways that shouldn’t be possible. The skin on the back of her neck prickles. She feels eyes on her, though she somehow knows she is alone.

Or she should be.

She swallows hard, her throat dry. A part of her internally screams to stop, to go back, but her feet move forward. She feels compelled by something that she cannot control. The air grows colder. Her breath curls in the dim light, wisps of fog that disappear just as quickly as they form. Yet the feeling of cold eludes her, even the marble doesn’t feel chilled.

Her pulse hammers in her ears.

She reaches the landing, her body tense. Her mind is clouded with dread. Then she sees it. A body crumpled at the foot of the stairs below, limbs twisted at odd angles, dark hair spilling across the floor. Blood pools beneath the head, thick and dark. The chest doesn’t rise. The fingers don’t twitch. The lips are parted in a silent scream and the eyes stare blankly into the darkness below.

The body is hers.

A choked sound escapes her throat, gruff and harsh. Her vision began tilting, the room spinning. It doesn’t make sense. She’s here, standing at the top of the stairs. But yet, she is there, broken and lifeless at the bottom of the stairs. She shook her head.

The memory comes rushing back, screaming into her mind.

The suicide. The broken marriage, the financial ruin and her beloved in the arms of another. The tears and the leap. The weightlessness. The way the world spun violently as she tumbled. The crack of bone against the marble, and the sickening silence that followed. She remembers hitting the marble floor. She remembers the stillness. The peace.

She remembers dying.

A whisper curls around her ear, soft, coaxing.

Again.

She gasps, jerking backward, her body trembling. But she isn’t in control. Her foot lifts against her will, stepping forward. A force guides her, silently leading her to the edge.

Penance.

She wants to scream, to fight it, but she can’t.

The world blurs and the fall begins. Her body twists, weightless for a fleeting moment before the impact comes. It was sharp and deafening. Blinding pain as bones snap, nerves ignite then the darkness swallows her whole.

Silence, and then a breath.

She places one foot on the first step, her breath coming in slow, measured exhales. The air is thick, pressing against her like an unseen force. It whispers as it moves around her, slipping through the marble banister.

Turn back.

She climbs.

.

Fiction © Copyright Kathleen McCluskey
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Kathleen McCluskey:

The Long Fall: Book 1: The Inception of Horror

Lucifer always cunning and intelligent challenges father to a battle of wits. Being the angel of light he casts a judgemental eye upon mankind. He begins a war with his fellow archangels and God. Michael, along with his siblings defend their home and mankind from their deranged brother. Broad swords and hand to hand combat drench heaven in blood. The four apocalyptic steeds are released, each having their own destructive power. Betrayal and lust are at biblical levels. Understand the very creation of evil and the consequenses that transpire in the first of THE LONG FALL series.

Available on Amazon!