The Ladder

'Milan, go down and open the door. Baa has returned.'
'Milan!'
A hundred things wander in my mind. I will not go, it takes an effort. No, I will not go because I cannot.
I have to, though. I'll get a scold serving otherwise.
But I simply cannot. How can I? I have to get downstairs first...
(the ladder)
...I do not want to go downstairs. I hate it. I hate the ladder. Let mother think I did not hear her.
I scratch the wooden railing on my window aimlessly.
But mother knows I heard her. She's just in the other room. How can I not hear her?
I will make some noise. That way, she might think she was not heard. I will scratch this railing harder. No, I'll open this steel cupboard, its doors yawn loudly everytime I try to open it. Ok. Mom, I hope you're listening to this. You see, this noise is too loud, you might have been saying something, but it easily would have been drowned by this groaning door.
'Milan....E-Milannn!'
No, this is a stupid idea. What is there that can be done? Baa is outside, yes. He has to come in, and he does not want to be left there for a long time. But no, the ladder. The ladder, I can't. I simply can't. But Mom. She wants me to. And she knows. I am obligated now.
It's so complicated. Why don't they understand? It's because of the ladder. I can't go downstairs. But Baa will wring my ears later. There will always be later. It's inevitable. I have to go.
It's always like this. There are so many things I have to consider while doing anything. My face is getting hot and sweaty. I simply cannot tell anybody, because I will not be able to explain.
I'll just simply not go. I'll deal with the consequences later. Now is the problem, I wish I was in the past, or that this present has already happened.
Why can't she go herself? Why do I have to go every time? Why don't they realize my problem in going downstairs. Opening the door is not a problem. Getting downstairs is...
Footsteps approaching the room. The sound of the hasp being turned and squeaked. The crack as the doorflaps are unlocked. The creak of the opening flaps and an angry foot stepping across the threshold.
Ok, panic now. Panic Now! Run.
I shelf all my problems and leap through the narrow space between my mom and the right side of the doorway...
(a whiff of coriander. Tomato chutney for dinner)
Mumbling 'I am going, I am going ni...'
I bound down the narrow ladder to the groundfloor below, three rungs at a time. Rushing mind. The thing. The thing under the darkness of the ladder. I can nearly feel its cold grasp through the gaps between the rungs where the wooden boardings have come apart. Yes, it has been busy prying and tearing the boardings open. On my next step, it'll grab my left ankle. I don't know, it'll probably pull my whole body into its dark realm, and that is simply terrorizing. It does not make any sound- after all, it's just a shadow. I hate it, I hate it from my core. Why doesn't Mua realize this? Why can't she tend to a matter as simple as this?
My left ankle nearly missing the last rung and the leg bowing violently. The knee buckling crazily, but somewhat holding me in place, my left turning out like a bent ruler.
I then jump on my right foot onto the ground so fast my body didnt get a chance to put all its weight on my left leg.
(weepy relief)
(thundering heart)
Control slowly coming back to my mind, I reach the door handle...Baa. He's been there all the time, what will he think? Why I took so long a time to reach here, he won't understand...
I hurriedly open the door, straining my eyes beyond the towering figure of Baa towards the sunny sky and welcoming its rays to come inside and devour the thing under the ladder. I hardly register Baa ruffling my hair (his clothes as old as him and belonging to him like a second skin, and his unrelenting love showing through his creased face). My mind is soaked with the problem lurking in the depths of the dark. I hate uncle. I hate him for not listening to my plaintive cries for fixing the boardings, because it's getting stronger everyday and is feeding on my fear because why else do I feel its presence grow exponentially when I am uncertain and fearing, like a dog growling deeper once it senses the other entity beginning to cringe in fear and cower. Why won't uncle fix it, when it is eating on my heart. Pretty soon it'll be fearful enough to take his notice and then it might be too late and it might start to feed on his fear too who will save us then?
(alone)
I whirl around, and just in time see the last leg of Baa vanish into the first floor's landing...
Alone again, and now even worse- the thing is now awake and alert and it waits for me.
'Baaaa!!!'
Heart quailing and turning into butter, I cry and run up the rungs again, tears flying from my face like drops out of a squeezed lemon, my face and legs numb and heavy with fear. My little nape hairs rising and the skin on my arms and back crawling...
No. No. Gasp, no... the thing... the ladder thing...