"Attic Room" is one of the October Writing Challenge entries that was chosen to be a featured story.
She walked up the rickety stairs to the attic, wincing every time the wood groaned under her weight. Her curiosity couldn’t take it any longer. She had to know what was behind the door that now stood before her. Well, that wasn’t completely true; she knew exactly what was behind it as she took another timid step forward. Behind the rotting oak door was a future, but she couldn’t remember whose. Fingers tingling, she slid back the rusty latch and swung open the door. Standing in the doorway she stared into the room that had been calling to her for days, whispering its secrets to her as she slept. Stepping into it, she was engulfed by a silence so loud that her ears ached and darkness so bright it burned her eyes. After hours, minutes, seconds of standing in awe under the dust covered doorway, the darkness faded, leaving her staring into a peculiar room. Her eyes danced along the words that scattered walls and rested on time which lay broken on the stained oak floor. Tiptoeing forward to look out the small round window that filled the room with light, the girl hopped carefully through the maze of broken clocks, smashed mirrors, abandoned newspapers, and ripped up dreams. Her fingers brushed the cold glass as she stared out of the murky window. A gasp sat caught in her throat as she looked out into the dark blanket of sky and the infinite stars that lay on it. Walking slowly away from it, she ventured swiftly through the empty room to stand back in the doorway. Looking down at the rickety staircase, she wondered to herself what was down there.