The Many Deaths of Samish 1.1
17 October 2007Chapter 1:
Sam Brown flicked the light switch up and down, but nothing happened. Twenty feet away, hanging from basement joists, the old, brown-baked bulb remained dark. He could just make out a pull-string dangling beneath the bulb. Sam grimaced; maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
He turned away from the basement into the welcoming light of the pantry and saw the note Lara had left on the washing machine. The note read, Fear is not a defining quality in a man. The note was held down by a flashlight.
Sam set his jaw and flicked on the flashlight. Afraid! He wasn’t afraid, and certainly not of the dark. At least, that’s what he kept telling himself as he tromped noisily down the old wooden staircase, humming tunelessly – but loudly – and with bravado. Noise was supposed to scare away snakes, and critters, and hopefully other things. What about spiders? He swung the flashlight around the stacks of moldering cardboard boxes, and the shadows seemed to shift like restless monsters.
“Monsters!” Lara had scoffed last night, but she had been grinning when she poked his chest. “That’s your best excuse? In that case, once you’ve found that easel you’d better go ahead and clean the whole basement while you’re down there.” She had thrown a leg over his and pulled herself astride his lap. “I hear monsters abhor a tidy basement,” she said, and she tugged on his collar and rubbed his earlobe between her fingers. “But I tell you what, Sam. If you get that basement cleaned up without a single run-in with a monster, I’ll introduce you to the one that lives under our bed when I get home. I hear she has a taste for brave young men.” He could guess from the arch in her brows and her wicked smile that she had plans with a capitol ‘P’. They probably had to do with the costume hidden in the box in her closet.
Once he made it to the bottom of the stairs without disaster, five cautious steps took Sam to the pull string. It was only after 35 life-saving, yellowy watts filled the room that he released the breath in his chest and relaxed.
