The Robes Had Eyeholes

Chapter 1: Friend's Closet

The first thing I noticed was that the robes had eyeholes.

They hung at the back of a closet in my friend’s parents’ bedroom, behind winter coats and plastic garment bags. Long, white, and pointed at the top, they looked almost bright in that dim space.

My friend Rebecca pushed the coats aside and whispered, “Those belong to my dad and grandpa. We’re not supposed to know about them.”

Then the floor creaked in the hallway.

Rebecca dropped the coats so quickly that one wooden hanger struck another. For a moment, the closet seemed to whisper around us.

We stood perfectly still.

“Girls?” her mother called from downstairs. “You want some lemonade?”

Rebecca closed the door.

“Coming,” she shouted.

She smiled at us, but her face had gone pale.