The Third-Floor Bedroom

I ran down the stairs as fast as I could because I knew that today would be the day that I would find the answer to my most burning questions. Last night my Great Aunt Molly, who had lived in this house before us, said that she would answer my questions about the third-floor bedroom once it was my thirteenth birthday. The thirteenth birthday was important to her for some bizarre reason; all she says to me is that it was the year she found out the secrets of the "lost room." For some other reason when ever I tell my dad about my visits with her he tells me in a sarcastic tone, "Right son, right. Which great aunt?" I ran past the bathroom and past Kelly, Jan, and Sue's room as fast as a car. I backed up a bit because something unusual caught my eye; the room was clean and he beds were made. "They must be waiting for the birthday boy." I thought to my self. I started to run down the second flight of stairs when I realized that there was no bottom just a black pit. I walked down a little more and suddenly the lights went out and the pictures on the wall dissolved into the wall. I saw a figure floating around as if it was looking for something. I figured that since there was no way to get back up so I tried helping and asked," Excuse me, but who are you, and if you need any help I can help you if you want, I do live here."
I think that the ghost thought that I was funny because she giggled and replied in a voice that sounded so familiar, as if I heard it last night, "You are just a boy. A little boy, no more, no more intelligence than me probably. You can't know what I'm looking for. You probably don't have it." She giggled again and continued looking. With every motion her old fashioned dress twirled with her. It was a knee-length dress that was sort-of like a picture I had seen in a book before on the 1500's. Her hair was a little past her shoulders and was very curly. On the top of her head there was a medium sized bow.
I figured that I wasn't going to get any answers from her so I went back up the stairs when I heard her voice whisper a warning, "I wouldn't do that. You don't know what's up there little boy."
"Yes I do. If I came down than there is a way back up." "Nope, no way back up from here. Eternities have been wasted by the Smith souls down here, who on their thirteenth birthdays found their way to exactly where you stand now, Alex Smith." "How do you know my name?" "I spoke with you last night. I'm here to answer your questions you have on the lost room. I'm your Great Aunt Molly!" "How is that possible? My aunt is not a ghost!" "Then what am I?"
I did not answer, it was a trick question.
"You ever wonder why your parents don't believe you when you tell them about me? They never heard of me."
"Well are we related then?" "We all are related!" She giggled and sort of jumped. A ghost suddenly appeared near her and then about five others followed. She continued, "We are the Smith souls! My name is Molly, and they are Lily, George, Jesse, Jake, Joe, and Anne. On our thirteenth birthdays we were brought here by them, well, actually led. You see they would lead us through a bunch of challenges and finally we would reach the room." "What room?" "My old bed room. Five hundred years ago my window was shut when word got out that there were burglars who robbed by night. My younger sister, who is here now Lily, dared me to open it. I did. The minuet it left the window sill the birds painted on the wall came out and grabbed me." "I tried to close the window, but it just wouldn't budge. I ran down stairs to get mother, but by the time we reached upstairs the door was closed shut and locked." Lily broke in. "Well as I was saying, the birds shoved me in a picture frame. Once I was in the picture became a portrait of me. My body was locked in the picture but my spirit was free to roam about the cellar. Then ten years later Lily, was as she says-" "Let me tell it. Anyway a bird flew in through my window so I tried to go catch it. It flew through a series of hallways and rooms that I had never seen before. I don't know how, because I did not go in through the door, but then I got to her room and remembered the open window. I put my hands slowly on it, but the birds grabbed me and added my body to the portrait. As the years went by our brother's and other sister's children came to us to join the portrait. But not just any children, they had to be like us; like what we like; almost be our twins. So far there are only seven of us, but now there will be eight!"
Suddenly they all vanished and I heard a chirping noise coming from the bottom of the staircase. I followed the noise through many rooms mesmerized. I don't remember what happened next, but I found myself in a room that I had never seen before. My guess was that it was the third-floor bedroom, since I had never seen it before. As Lily said I did not go through the door, I went through a hidden panel. The room looked so old and there was a single window and it was open. I went over to close it, but the second that my hand touched it suddenly thousands of birds came off of the wall and started attacking me, so I removed my hands. I kept looking and saw a painting with seven thirteen year olds in it.
"What were you looking for downstairs?" I asked them.
"The porthole that will take us out of here." She replied and shrieked, "Run away."
I turned around and saw the birds coming back and then a huge ghost that grabbed me and shoved me into the painting. The next thing I knew I was in the painting next to the girls and boys and to this day I remain here not aging a day.
Not many others came to us, only three: Linda, Barney, and Mary. They were the last ones to come. Each day we look in the cellar for the porthole that will get us out of the painting. Five months after Mary came to join us, someone broke into the room. The year then was 3086, 1086 years after I came. He was a man in a futuristic suit wearing a goggles and a helmet. He looked at us all in the picture, body and spirit adjoined, and frowned. A woman in a similar outift came in. She asked him,"What's in this old room? Nothing worth studying I presume?" He paused and said, "Nothing but forgotten memories. It's ready for demolishing." They left the room and about five minuets later the room and house exploded in a fiery explosion. Slowly our bodies and spirits began to burn in the fire. We were completely destroyed in order of our coming. As I burned there slowly watching my ancestors die permanently I thought to myself, "To think it all began when someone left the window open."