The Quiet
Alison Hilary Tesh
The moonlight shown through the small attic window, spreading silver light over the wooden floor, casting long eerie shadows. Paige moved slowly through the room, so different to how it seemed in the day, the light making it seem as though it was only half-there, not wholly real. What had woken her up she wasn't sure, except that she had felt an overwhelming need to go to the attic and look in the Book. She always trusted her instinct. As she had entered the room the shadows had watched her, the pale figure in white moving silently across the hoary space. She came to the open Book and noticed with slight surprise that it was open to a blank page; destined to be filled with future spells and potions, destined to be filled in accordance with her destiny, destined to be filled for future generations of witches. She breathed, reveling in the peace of the house, with the deep tick-tock of the old grandfather clock floors below her being the only sound in the silence.
The unnatural silence. Unnatural maybe because she was used to a house full of noise, of laughter and action, of movement and life. But still.....
Paige felt the sudden need to shout, to break the silence, to wake her sisters, but she couldn't find the voice to, feeling as though she had no right to shatter the blanket of quiet. A movement in the shadows caught her eye, and turning she froze in shock. No... For there in a puddle of light, in the space she had walked across not five minutes ago, was a figure, lying as though thrown to the floor, the instantly recognisable long dark hair hiding her face. But Paige couldn't move, couldn't find the inner energy to move towards her sister... And as she stood there, captured by the moonlight, she saw the open Book of Shadows again, the empty page no longer blank but headed with the words... The Silence