That Strange House!
_(short story)_
“No... no way. This...it can't be. There's no way I'm going in there let's go back.” Layla said, taking off her pumpkin mask. Her face was brimmed with utter shock.
Henry paid no attention to her. He was trying to make out the sense between the house and the address which he had unfolded. He was in denial yet repleted with the suspense of further exploring this invitation they had received three days before.
“Let's check it out.” He said finally.
Putting back the scrunched paper in the pockets of his grey robe, he retrieved his scythe he had thrown on the tarmac. He had decided to play messenger of death this season and he had delicately took his time in crafting a refined scythe. A useless broomstick and a scythe his father used to cut off the grass in the backyard did a plausible job in bestowing him with that deathly stature. He had pinched a bit of finesse with a black mask painted with a white skull. An indication Layla thought to be out of proportion.
Layla preferred to keep it simple by just putting on a pumpkin mask and a robe. Henry thought it was lame. He failed to understand what Layla was trying to put out. Innovations didn't work on this occasion. It's either you duplicate renown monsters or you stay away from Halloween.
The house was in a bad shape. Part of its picket fence was jagged and some slats where missing while others slanted towards their imminent death. The mail box was dangling from its twisted post, its lid oscillating ominously. The rising driveway was crowded with dead leaves. Some of the house's timberwork was bashed in just a little close to the attic. The way the windows were cracked gave an impression that they would explode any time. It hardly looked like a place that any sane person would live.
Layla glanced at the drowning sun. “It's getting late. Let's go where it's safe to be.”
“I wanna check it out. Maybe they got a hell of a surprise for us.” Henry said with unpleasant excitement. She wished she could see his face under that hood. The skull was no longer visible. There was a blackness that made Layla's skin prickle.
“Trick or treat?”
“They said no trick or treat on the invitation.” Henry said and strode towards the dilapidated gate. His gait was of sinister ambition.
Layla did not see him as her adorable brother but as something with a grotesque agenda. Now she no longer wanted to be around the forlorn house. A wave of terror bolted through her.
“Henry!” she suddenly called in a hoarse whisper, surprised by her own uneasiness.
It was too late to harness him back. The house's will o' the wisp had already clamped his conscience.
Henry hopped over the heaped remains of the gate and proceeded towards the porch.
“For Christ's sake Henry!” Layla seethed and stiffened. She thrust her pumpkin mask onto the tarmac. The maples lining the broadway murmured briefly. Layla glanced at them with contempt and cursed herself forever allowing to be implicated into exploring an idle house.
Henry took pleasure in aggravating Layla's rage. He strode past the driveway where dead leaves rustled patiently. The house now loomed against the departing sun, its edges eroded into irregular shapes that made it look like a tombstone.
When he steppes onto the creaking floorboards of the porch, he suddenly felt a menacing aura in the air. He glanced up and saw old bones and small skulls drooping on strings. His skin rose in gooseflesh. There was a mere glint in him that wanted to quit this whole exploration deal but it was overlapped by the irrestible urge to probe further. The impression exuded by the house's cryptic reception excited him. He thought it would be a cool Halloween party.
But the house was silent inside. He glanced at the oak door, conflicting with his inner self. Softly, he knocked and waited anxiously. No sound was forthcoming. No footfalls or anything.
Layla waited impatiently outside the yard. She vowed that she would not go in.
Without getting any form of hope that there was a living presence in the house, Henry whirled around and began to walk down the porch. The door slowly creaked open, making Henry stall on his feet. Moving only his head, he craned over his shoulders and caught a young girl's face peeking through the slightly opened door. She had white paint on her chubby face and on either corner of her mouth was planted two long fangs which Henry thought were real.
Layla grew anxious towards Henry's sudden stall. She tried to stand on her toes to see what had halted her brother but it was no use.
The peeking girl opened her mouth slightly and some red viscous substance poured out of her mouth and squelched to the floorboards. Immediately, she banged the door shut. Henry was perplexed. He suddenly realized that there was something off about the house. Layla had been right. She was going to be on his case for the rest of the year.
He decided that he would not give in until he saw what that girl had spit out. What kind of Halloween party was this? He thought and trotted back to the porch.
The viscous substance had squirming worms in it. He recognized them after a hard task due to poor lightness of dusk. Panicking now, he stepped back and began to scurry towards the driveway.
A low mist suddenly gathered on the driveway, impeding him from continuing his escape. A blood hound with a spiked collar materailized from the mist, barking fericiously. Henry began to shriek and scurry towards the porch. It chased after him, it's horrible bark growing in his ears.
Layla puzzled now, shifted uneasily at Henry who was shrieking and running towards the porch. She shuffled to the gate with hesitant steps.
“Henry quit this drama shit man. Let's go back home!” She growled.
Henry elbowed the door without thinking twice. It flung in, tottering him to the side until he sprawled on the floorboards. The door shut with a deafening bang.
Layla, now getting irritated, shuffled in heading straight towards the porch...
Inside, it was brazen and mostly smelled of charred wood. Henry recollected himself, panting now, and retrieved his scythe which had clattered out of his clammy hands when he dived in. He tried rattling the door open. It didn't budge. The dread in him surged. His eyes darted around.
Heads of werewolves and big skulls hung on the walls. There were other creepy masks that he couldn't recognise. A small wooden table leaned against the opposite wall. Several candles burned with an eerie steadiness. There were other heaped contents which Henry couldn't discern.
“Hello is anyone home?” He hollered on trembling lips, tightening his grasp around the handle of his scythe. There was no response. Just the cryptic silence of the house. He shuflled towards the table. There were old pictures lying around of some crone and a little girl. The one he had seen peeking through the door earlier. He reached out to the pictures and picked them up.
The pictures were as sombre as the living room. It seemed that the crone and the little girl were very close since they had so many pictures together. In most of these pictures, they were in gypsy costumes, pumpkins, werewolves, ghosts and other dreaded monsters. Henry felt demotivated at them. He wondered what their relevance was.
There was s slight tug at his shoulders. He turned around with a jerk, scattering the pictures down. His scythe clatttered onto the floorboards. Before him stood a chubby little girl in what appeared to be a Frankenstein costume. She was grinning from ear to ear, a viscous substance drooling from her jagged teeth.
“Hello Mr Reaper! Welcome to my Halloween party!” she said and cackled.
~~~
~~~
Layla bust in through the door, stumbled and went sprawling a few feet away. Her own high breathing surprised her. She jerked to her feet and scanned the living room.
“Hello! Hello! Henry!... Henry!” Her shouts echoed all over the other rooms. The werewolf heads embedded on the walls silenced her.
“Werewolf trophies... human skulls... oh my God,” she was whispering to herself...
‘Part II’
"Werewolf trophies... human skulls... oh my God", she was whispering to herself."I really need to search Henry and get out of this creepy house", she said to herself. Henry saw her a distant apart ," Layla? Layla!!",he called out but weirdly she didn't seem like she noticed him, rather he felt like he had been turned into a ghost. "She can't hear you", the girl spoke as he turned his face back to her. "Wait what? Please, please we just-we will never spit any word about this house, let us go okay? We just, we didn't mean to barge in, please let us go", Henry pleaded like a youngster, his face had turned pale from fright, his hands were trembling and was panting a bit sharp, he gulped afterwards. The girl kneeled down and took off her right costume hand and started drawing down the wooden floor with her little razor sharp nails, pointed at the end. "Leave?...But the party hasn't started yet, we should await for the others", she said glaring down at what she was writing. Henry could hear them faint scratch sounds as she wrote. He looked at what she was writing 'I am hungry, I am hungry', she wrote, Henry widened his eyes and his heart rate escalated and started pumping rapidly like a stampede of a thousand bulls. The girl saw him looking and she faced up at him , with him froze still like a statue as she smiled wide revealing her jagged teeth once more with the vicious stuff drooling from them. "Please , please just-",Henry stifled his sentence as he faced aside at Layla and saw her climbing upstairs searching for him, "Henry?!",she called out as Henry rashly dashed heading behind her . "I'm here!! Layla!!, Layla!!",he arrived near her behind her, he attempted to put his hand on her shoulder quickly then he felt an excruciating pain of claws on his side left thigh as he cried out loud. It was the girl, she tightened her grasp and that made him scream more due to the agonizing pain then she pulled back his thigh and he fell with his front and coughed a bit. Layla felt a rather chillness on her shoulder and she halted and faced back over her shoulder. "You really are a naughty boy", she grabbed his left leg around his ankle and started pulling him back to the living room. Henry was both flummoxed and surprised about her weird strength that enabled her to pull him that conveniently. "Laylaa!Laylaaa!",he yelled scratching down the wooden floor looking for something to grab while he was being dragged. Layla rubbed both of her shoulders, her breath escalated a bit. “Right just about now, I think I heard a whisper stating my name,..I surely must be hearing things, I need to find Henry now”, she spoke to herself and proceeded with her steps upstairs. She arrived in the upstairs hallway. The air was a bit thicker, there was a fog present down the floor. She gulped and took the first step along the hallway. As she was walking she came across some pictures were on the wall which some of them were a bit bent and some down the floor. She pulled one from the wall and gazed at it, witnessing another picture of the chubby girl and the crone beside her wearing werewolf masks. Layla’s face shifted to both flummox and frightened at that very momentum. She put back the picture and continued her little quest. She came across a room at the left side beside her, it was closed. She stared at the handle breathing a bit heavy and deliberately started to reach it attempting to open. She grasped the handle twisted it as it opened and a crack sound was produced while she opened it. She slowly peeked inside and gazed around, it seemed like a bedroom, the way it was displayed inside made it clear that it was a child’s room but the bed ,the pictures ,the wardrobe, everything were really old. “Henry?”, she spoke as her voice traveled all over the room. There was no sign of him. She slowly closed it. She noticed another room at the right side, but this one was a bit opened. She sighed, “okay”, she braced herself and grasped the handle and slowly pushed the door open, she waved her head inside, it was another bedroom, she saw someone sitting on the bed. The person was a bit fat, facing down with her hair hanging down with a dress on but she couldn’t clearly make out its clear form because of the gloominess. Somehow she wasn’t certain what she was looking at , she peered a bit harder struggling to make out the person as it quickly looked up to her. Layla’s heart ached with a sudden knock with her eyes wide open. It resembled an old woman of seventies, it smiled wide revealing the same teeth as the girl’s with the red stuff escaping her mouth then she hastily shut the door panting hard, she was sweating out of the blue. “I’m seeing things, I’m seeing things, I’m seeing things”, she whispered to herself panting sharp. She quickly opened the door again and it was gone. She breathed a sigh of relief and closed back the door. “See, my grandmother has been waiting for this moment for a long time now, she’s sick, so she spends time in her bedroom”, the girl spoke, facing the other way with her hands behind her back while Henry was tied to chair. “Grandmother? Th-the crone? In-In the picture?”, Henry said while he stammered. “How rude of you, calling her a crone, perhaps I need to teach you some manners” “No! No! I’m sorry okay, I-I didn’t mean it!”, Henry said with fright and the girl’s head turned around entirely facing back at him with its wide smile. Just right about Layla turned around she faced it in front of her as it shrieked with its mouth wide open. Layla screamed out of fright. It went for a bite on her neck but she blocked it with her arm against its neck then she pushed it back and quickly turned around opened the door she exited earlier and went back in closing shut the door still grasping the handle. It the handle started to move revealing that someone at the other side of the door was trying to open it, she kept on grabbing the handle. “Go away!!”, she yelled then it stopped. She kept on her grasp even though it had stopped. She heard a shriek behind her, she froze, her heart started to race and she gulped. She slowly start to turn her head behind her over her shoulder. She saw a baby sitting on the bed. She turned around and glared at it while painted with terror. It laughed fidgeting its hands. Layla just stared at it, it kept on laughing, and laughing until it started to choke and started to cough out a dark purple jelly substance. Layla leaned her head back a bit, her chest rising and falling. The substance began to spread all over and poured down the floor and start to flow toward Layla. She quickly turned around to reach for the door then she felt her ankle grasped and she fell, she felt herself being pulled by a hand, she looked back and saw a purple jelly hand which had been formed out of the substance pulling her up. “No!! No!! Let me go!!!”, she yelled, she was entirely frightened, fidgeting and substance spread all over the entire room, flooding it whole. She held her breath and closed her eyes. The feeling was nothing similar to being under water, rather it was heavy. She started to swim back to the door, she couldn’t see clearly nor make out the position of the door handle. She reached for it but couldn’t grasp it, she waved her hand a couple of times but she was missing it, she was losing her breath. Her movements were now slow, she waved her hand the last time and finally grasped it and opened it as she and the substance poured out of the hallway. She coughed out some of it while she was down the floor, she suddenly heard footsteps behind her, she looked back and saw the old woman heading towards her walking rather weirdly. She got up quickly and dashed downstairs. “Henryy!!Where are you!!Henry!!”, she called out climbing down. Henry faced back after hearing her while he was an inch close to being eaten by the girl then he leaned back and fell back with the chair. Layla saw the chair as it fell, but she saw no one on it and she froze looking at it. She slowly kneeled down and picked up an iron rod which was down the floor and slowly started to approach the area where the chair had fell. Then she heard a loud shriek behind her and saw the old woman coming after her and it attempted for a bite and she forced the bar against her open mouth and the iron rod started to burn it and the old woman cried out loud and it backed away. Layla took another step back, and felt like she stepped onto a person. She quickly faced back down and saw Henry tied to a chair while he was down. “Henry?! What the hell?!!”, she yelled then she saw the girl, “what the hell is that?!!!” the girl attempted for an attack and Layla picked up Henry’s scythe and swung it as it stabbed the side head of the girl and she fell a distance apart. Layla quickly began to untie Henry. “I’m glad you’re okay”, Layla said. “Me too,…iron!!”, he said. “What?”, she questioned. “The iron!! Iron can burn supernatural beings, the same as rock salt” “Ohh that is why!!”, she said. “And that is why that girl didn’t want me to make contact with you, because if she did we would have seen each other earlier, I think somehow she turned me into a ghost”, Henry said. “That’s,…horrific!!”, she said. She had not yet finished untying him. “Watch out!!”, Henry warned her and she turned around and blocked the girl’s bite while it climbed on her grabbing Layla by her waist, forcing her back with her arm against its neck, but the girl felt stronger than the old woman, it tightened its grab into her waist and Layla cried out. “Layla!”, Henry reached to Layla while he was still down handing her the iron rod. She reached it with her other hand then she finally grabbed it and stabbed massively into the girl’s forehead, and the girl fell down as well as the old woman. Layla quickly untied Henry and they both rushed back to the front door and opened it and escaped out. “Oh my God are you okay?!”, Layla asked looking at Henry’s rob at the thigh which had blood on it. “Its just a scratch don’t worry about it”, he said. “We are never doing that again you hear me?!!”, she yelled. “Yeah…yeah”, he said as they rushed out of the gate finally to the driveway.
