It must have taken three quarters of an hour to get the first eleven nails out…It was a warm afternoon, and my salty sweat was starting to drip down my forehead and burn my eyes…I was just drying off my eyes when I thought I heard something from inside the space… A rustling noise and the noise however slight, was a noise nonetheless, this could only mean one thing that something was moving in there, just a few feet from where I was now sitting. The look on my son’s face was transformed to a bored look, to one of slight fear. Perhaps he was somehow in tune to my thoughts, or maybe he could also sense that things were not quiet right with this attic. I considered simply nailing the board back into place…Yet part of me could not do that. I simply had to know…

　　So I took a deep breath and worked on the last nail. As it slipped from the place it had obviously been situated in years, the board came free. The first thing that we became aware of was the smell…It reminded me of rotting meat. As there were no lights put into the space, I sent Jonathan back down to the garage to retrieve the most powerful flashlight I own…He raced down with the exuberance of a ten year old and was back moments later.

　　Jonathan looked at me.

　　I looked at Jonathan.

　　"Well," he said, "are you going in or not?"

　　我用了差不多45分钟才把前十一根钉子拔出来，那天下午很暖和，汗水从我的前额淌下来流到了眼睛里，我正揉眼睛的时候，觉得听到了什么声音从里面传出来…好像是一阵“沙沙”的声音。那声音很轻，但是却很清晰，离我现在坐的地方几英尺以外的阁楼里一定是有什么东西在动。我儿子脸上无聊的表情消失了，此时看上去似乎有点害怕。也许是他看出了我在想什么，或者他也感觉到了阁楼里面并不是正常情况下的安静无声。我本想简单的再把木板钉回去了事…但是我不愿意那样做，我想要看个究竟…

　　我深深地吸了口气，去拔最后一根钉子。当我从墙壁里面把它抽出来的时候，木板掉到了地上，明显能看出来这块板子被钉上去有很多年了。接下来的第一件事就是我们闻到了里面的气味…就好像是一堆烂肉所散发出来的。阁楼里面没有灯，于是我让乔纳森下楼去车库把最亮的手电筒拿来…他以一个十岁孩子最快的速度冲下楼去，不一会儿就回来了。

　　乔纳森看着我。

　　我也看着他。

　　“你真得要进去吗？”他问我。