Laura found an old push button light switch and tried it. To her surprise again, the chandelier in the room lit up.
"How are you doing that?" James said.
"Magic, dear...." she said, a bit sarcastically. "It doesn't hurt to try... it has paid off twice now."
Suddenly a hoarse, croaking voice called out from the next room. “After all this time – visitors!”
From a darkened room beyond the cavernous entrance hall, a tiny hunched back figure hobbled into the room. She was a withered old woman with a tangled nest of long, thin, silver-white hair. Clothed in tattered rags, the woman shuffled along slowly with the aid of a gnarled, wooden walking stick.
“I... I'm sorry, ma'am,” James said. “We didn't mean to intrude. We thought this place was abandoned and the door was unlocked. Our car broke down...if you could just call for a tow truck, we'll be on our way..." There was something about this old woman that instantly made all of them uncomfortable. More than just the fact that they'd essentially broken into her house.
“Don't be frightened,” cackled the hag, somehow sensing their collective distress. “I get so lonely here."
"Let's just leave," Laura whispered to her husband.
The hag looked right at her. "Oh, don't be going so soon," she said, smiling a toothless grin.
