Angels of Stone

Sarah tiptoed up the decrepit stairs, wincing every time one creaked. Why, oh, why had she let Michael talk her into this? She hated this crumbling, old, ruin of a house; it gave her the creeps every time she walked past it. She always felt like it was watching her. Michael had said that the best way get over her fear was to have a look around and prove to herself that it was just an ordinary house and that there was nothing to fear. HA! The more she looked the more scared she got. The worst part was that the feeling of being watched was stronger than ever.

When she got to the top of the stairs she quickly looked around before heading towards the open door at the end of the hall. I'll just have a quick look in here before I leave and tell Michael how stupid this plan was.

The room smelt musty and unused, but not unpleasant. An old, tarnished chandelier that was missing most of it crystals hung lopsidedly from the ceiling, swaying gently, but looking like it could fall at any moment. The blue and gold patterned wallpaper was peeling from the walls in places and fluttered sadly in the slight breeze from the open door that lead out to a veranda that looked out into the overgrown garden.

She pulled her jacket tight around her and walked out onto the veranda. Ivy wrapped round the rusty ironwork and climbed onto the roof, or cascaded down onto the tiled floor. Glass shards from the broken windows were scattered across the floor, she carefully avoided them as she made her way to the windows. The garden might once have been beautiful but now the weeds had taken over and the once finely trimmed hedges were sprawling out over the knee-high grass. What may have once been a ornamental rose bush that had long since withered and died stood in the middle of the garden, looking very sad and forlorn as it was slowly covered in tangled vines. Half way between the veranda and the rose bush was an old, moss covered birdbath; the bowl was in two pieces, the smaller one half hidden in the grass at the foot of its pedestal. The only thing in the garden that was not overgrown or crumbling was a solitary statue made of a dull grey stone standing just behind the rose bush; an angel with its head in its hands as though it was crying. Sarah stared out at it for a while, wondering how it could have survived intact when everything around it was falling apart.

"So, are you still afraid of this old house?"

Startled, Sarah whipped around only to see Michael standing behind her grinning. "Don't ever sneak up on me like that!" she snapped at him, cross not only at him but also at herself for jumping like that, "You nearly scared me to death then!"

"It was just a bit of harmless fun." he said, still grinning.

"To you maybe, but you weren't the one who nearly jumped out of her skin!"

"Alright, alright, keep your hair on." he said as he walked to the window, "But I don't know how you didn't hear me coming up those stairs; they're the noisiest ones I've ever heard"

"I was concentrating on that angel statue in the garden, right behind the dead rose bush. I was wondering about how I could have survived so well intact, seeing as how everything else is in pieces."

"Your memory as well, the angel's nowhere near the rose bush, see, it's next to the broken birdbath. That's at least five metres from the rose bush."

"What?" Sarah said, confused, "I could of sworn it was next to the rose bush!"

"Well it must have moved when you weren't looking at it then." said Michael, laughing.

"Are you sure we're the only ones here?" she said, looking at Michael suspiciously.

"Of course, why?"

"Well, moving a statue when I'm not looking at it is just the sort of prank Luke would think up. You didn't tell him we were coming here did you?"

"No"

"Well I'm going to check that statue out and make sure he hasn't been playing around with us." She turned back to the garden and gave a strangled scream, her hands flying to her mouth to stifle the sound. Michael spun to see what had startled her, yelping when he saw what it was. The angel wasn't standing next to the birdbath or behind the rose bush anymore; it stood less than a metre away from them, arms out-stretched, fingers and sharpened nails hooked like claws and its mouth open in a huge snarl, revealing wickedly pointed teeth. And yet it still appeared to be stone.

With Sarah still staring at the angel in terror, Michael turned to see if he could guide her out and away from it. But another angel was standing in the doorway of the room that led out onto the veranda. It was a pose identical to the one they had seen the first angel in before it had attacked, or tried to at least, it was still standing there, frozen in mid strike, when he turned to check that it was a different angel to the one in the doorway. Sarah was also still frozen in place, her eyes wide and unblinking in her terror.

Michael turned back to the angel in the doorway. It now stood about a metre away from them, frozen in the same attacking pose as the other behind him. There was a muffled thump as Sarah finally fainted and fell. Michael turned to look at her then his world went black.