THE MURDER HOUSE

Hot wind sneaked over the valley outdoor our new house as my buddies and I unpacked the van stationed on the dusty track. We had lately leased a hoary house in the city outskirts, constructed in the late 1980s. Most of the house had been renovated over the decades, but there were still hints of what the house used to be. The outside of the little mansion was coated faded orange and graced a bloody red-colored door.

  The lawn was outsized with luxurious olive green grass with the common tan brown patches that scattered the turf. I hoisted opposite the house, approving the old-fashioned atmosphere. Suddenly I sensed someone smash my back and I spun around.

  It was my friend, Adriel, standing dead-on behind me. He had a carton in his right arm and gazed at me. “Let’s pick up the pace,” he said. “We don’t have all day.” Annoyed with my silence, he went on with his work.

  I walked back to our van. There were my other two friends; Leo and Jonah, busy unloading the other boxes.  

  “Hey dude,” Leo said. “Will you take this to my room?” He handed me a large box. I situated it in my arms and engrossed it. As I did, I heard the clanging sound of glass against glass from inside the box.

  “Be careful with that,” Leo said, hearing the sound too. “Everything’s glass in there.”

  “Maybe if you didn’t dump the whole thing in it without bubble wrap, there wouldn’t have been a matter of some item breaking down,” Jonah snapped.

  Leo just stared at him as if he’d just told the mysteries of the world. I laughed and went into the house.  

  The parquet screeched when I set a foot in the house. I plumbed the atmosphere of the old rural as I led to Leo’s room.

  Only two parts of the house have been renovated in the whole house. The first one being the kitchen, which now held the latest appliances and accessories. The second one was my room. I was the one who’d found this house online, so I first got to choose a room. All the other rooms had been the same as they were from the late 1980s.

  “What the hell?!” Adriel yelled from above. I sprinted up the stairs and found Adriel in a room. Apparently, he was standing in his own room, observing around contemptuously.

  “What?” I asked, looking around too.

  “Don’t you see,” he replied, pointing to the floor. “It looks like Dwayne Johnson the rock is buried under the middle of the room.”

  I looked at the floor. There was a huge hump in between. “I told you this is an old house,” I said. “You have enough space to put your bed and all other stuff so that the hump is not affecting you. We’re just being here for a week, not years.”

  Adriel looked at me dismissively as if telling, ‘Okay, you can get out’.  

  ***                                                                                      

After we had everything in the house, we all splashed down on the futons, our mobiles in hand.  Well, we did deserve the R and R.

  “So we’re undertaking some ghost chasing tonight boys?” Leo inquired, taking a sip of the ginger ale.

  Jonah slapped his head. “Come on. You don’t believe that hell crap, do you?” 

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a ghost roaming in the hall at the moment,” Adriel piped in. “I mean, look at these walls. They just creep me out.”

  “Oh, shut up.” I yawned. “I think we’ve had enough for the day. Time to sleep. Good night guys.”

  In reality, I was a little disturbed by what might have occurred in this house. In fact, I’ve been fairly doubting my view of ghosts and spirits, but I’ve never perceived anything myself to prove something.  I pushed away the fact that somebody had lost their life here out of my mind. The rent was tremendously cheap for an entire house which indeed troubled me than making me pleased. 

  I entered my bedroom and slipped beneath the bedsheets and relaxed above the warmth of my bed. My body ached from moving after such a long day. After fifteen minutes, I was in deep sleep.

Suddenly, my eyes shot open in the middle of the night. I could hear creaking sounds in the house. The moonlight coming from the window was the only source of spark. I tried to sit up but to no avail. Being practically used to this thing, I readied myself for the typical dark figure standing in the corner. I darted my eyes from left to right but saw no figure. The other thing I realized was that the sound was coming closer to me, step by step.

  Then I started to hear the twitching noise as if someone or something was shifting around me. A cold chill ran down my spine as I started to sweat awfully. My sheets became soaked when suddenly the twitching stopped. But unfortunately, it was replaced by a cracking noise as if the bones of a human body were breaking.

  As I held my breath, I could see long needle-like limbs acquiring out of my closet. They moved slowly, tapping the walls as if they were searching for something. Then all of a sudden a large swollen gloomy mass of a face appeared out of the closet.  

  My heart sank. The creature looked spider-like with eight legs. The reason I say ‘spider-like’ is that it had its head supplanted by that of a human! It had an extensive tongue that seeped saliva, and its eyes were blacked out by the moonlight.

  I tried to shout but I couldn’t. The creature’s face was coated with tiny glimmering black hairs. Its size was as much as a king-size bed.

  The creature grew closer on my wall and all I could do was to watch. Then suddenly it shifted its position to the ceiling right above me and started scratching itself with its two front legs.

  The next thing I realized was that the creature was disappearing into the wall as if it was being eaten by an imaginary snake. First, its legs disappeared and then its abdomen.  At last, all that was left was its creepy face alongside the long tongue. The face stared at me as if it had not eaten anything for years.  Those unfriendly lifeless eyes were jeering into my soul. I could hear it grousing and the drips of saliva hit my chest. The scary face then opened its wide vicious mouth and wiped out into the ceiling.  

  My body was lastly free, and I jerked out of my bed yelling. Just when I did, I heard the echoing of screams all over the house. I realized I wasn’t the only person who saw something.

(To be continued…)

PART #2

The next day I woke up, I utterly dashed to the hall. Adriel, Jonah, and Leo were sitting on the futons, debating something.

  “Hey guys,” I said, not in a very friendly tone. “What’s up?”

  “What’s up?” Leo repeated. “This tells us you’ve nothing to do with this conversation.”

  “And I’m sure you’ve nothing to do with the conversation because you’re sleeping in the grandest room of this rusty little house,” Adriel snapped, glaring at me.

  I looked from one friend to another. They all held disgusted faces. Jonah, who was deep in thought, spoke up.

  “Anything strange happened to you last night—or this morning?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I sighed and narrated the whole incident of the spider-like bug with a human face. All of us looked at each other once I finished.

  “Almost the same kind of thing happened to me,” Adriel finally said. “But that creature didn’t come from the closet. It did from the ceiling and again disappeared into the same place.”

  “Same with me,” Jonah added with a tone of regret in his voice. “We shouldn’t have come here in the first place.”

  I looked at Leo who didn’t seem convinced at our accounts. “How can there be a bug with a human face that too of such size?” he asked, “How can it disappear into the ceiling? There is something called physics, isn’t it?”

  “Get some experience yourself,” Ariel huffed. After some time—which seemed like hours—I came up with a plan.

  “Let’s be here for today,” I said. “We will keep all our emergency things with us and stay together.”

  “What if the same thing happens even more dangerously?” Adriel questioned.

  “Everything which happened yesterday could be sleep paralysis,” I answered. “Let’s even have our mobiles with us so that we have some evidence if the same thing occurs again.”

  “Something is creepy about this house,” Jonah said, rubbing his chin. “The price is fairly cheap for an entire house, even for a week. I really hope this house doesn’t have a haunted history.”

  Neither of us could respond to Jonah like we did yesterday with a laugh. I turned to Leo and asked, “Nothing happened to you?”

  “No,” he answered. “But I heard a lot of screams and sounds which turn out to be yours.” He shrugged, leaning back to the cushion.  

  The day went slowly and everyone was dished in their own thoughts. Jonah was working out something on his laptop while Leo although was scared; he was trying hard to suppress it by making jokes. None of us wanted to laugh, though.

***

  The sun set down, and my anxiety increased minute by minute. I really wanted to leave, but we’ve paid the whole week’s rent. I didn’t want to waste all the money if this entire incident only turns out to be because of our fancy minds.   

  We had dinner, sitting together on the futon. Nobody seemed interested in speaking a thing. I finally broke the silence. “What were you looking at the whole day on the pc, Jonah? I asked.

  “Researching on the history of this house,” Jonah answered in a dejected tone. “And I did find a lot.”

  “What?” Leo and Adriel questioned in unison. They looked at each other but didn’t laugh as they always used to.

  “This place is haunted as I’d thought,” Jonah began in a low voice, looking start into my eyes. “On December 13, 1984, a man named Isaac Thomas Jr. shot and killed his mother, father and his three siblings while they slept at this very house.” Jonah swallowed his voice even low. “Thomas was hanged for his murders. This incident made the house infamous and the house became available for stay again in 1987.

  “In January 1988, the Ellis family moved in along with their three children. But they lasted only 25 days in the house. They said frightening supernatural events took place and linked it to the murders in the house. One of their kids said that he saw an unknown person standing in the corner of his room one night. And they said objects moved on their own. Mr. Ellis also claimed that sounds were coming from the walls as if people were talking.

  After they left, the house stayed unoccupied for a long time. But a few families did stay in the house even after these incidents. Nobody ever claimed there was something unsuspicious, and nobody was ever attacked. And I’m afraid we’re the ones under target after the Ellis family.”  

  I looked into Jonah’s eyes and realized they were totally filled with fear. My body was bursting with goosebumps and they weren’t because of the weather.

At around 11 p.m. we decided we’d be spending the night in my room. We took every needed item and bolted ourselves inside. Suddenly, the current went off. 

  “I was sure all the heck would happen tonight only,” Adriel complained. “Thank god we have our torchlights.” 

  We took out our torchlights and shined them around the room. Suddenly I realized that Leo was not among us.  The hair on the back of my neck stood up like sharp needles.  “Where’s Leo?” I queried, looking around the room. “He was right behind us.”

  Jonah and Adriel too realized that Leo was nowhere and excelled their flashes all around the room. But Leo was not in the room.

  “He must be outside,” I said. “Let’s get him here before something happens.”

  We got out of the room and rushed to the hall. It was totally dark and a chill ran down my body. Suddenly, a human lookalike body sprang into my way.

  “Ahh!” I shouted, and the voice echoed around the house. Jonah and Adriel abruptly stopped behind me. I flicked my torch at the creature and the face was very familiar.

  “Leo!” Adriel yelled. “What on earth are you doing here?”

  “You all thought I was a scared poke right?” Leo laughed. “And it turns out you all are the real scared pokes!” His laughter rebounded all around the hall.  

  “Not funny Leo,” I said coming back to my senses. “If you’re so brave, then prove it. Don’t try to scare us like a kid.”

  “But I didn’t scare you, did I?” Leo started to laugh again, doubling my anger.

  “Okay,” I said, “if you’re that brave enough then I challenge you. If you can stay in the darkness of any of these rooms for 10 minutes, I’ll buy you whatever you want. You ready?”

  “Fine,” Leo snapped back. “Which room do you want me to go in?”

  I didn’t expect Leo to answer like that, but I was up for this. “To your very room,” I answered.

  “Sure,” Leo said. “And if you guys try to prank me, I’ll be the winner by default.”

  “Now go in, Mr. Brave,” I huffed leading the way to Leo’s room. “See you after 10 minutes.”

  Leo went in and locked the door from inside. I, Jonah, and Adriel stood outside, and I started the stopwatch. “Is this necessary?” Jonah asked, his voice trembling.

  “It is,” Adriel answered, rooting for me. “After all, he thinks he is so brave. This is the best possible way for him to prove.” Adriel folded his arms and looked at me.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. But deep down inside I had a feeling I shouldn’t have done all this. 

  Five minutes passed by. The house was getting icy cold all of a sudden.  None of us were talking, and after a few more minutes passed, Adriel said, “I guess this house isn’t haunted as Leo said—”

  Just as Adriel said this, the doorknob started to go up and down horrifyingly. One of the screws came out. “Leo! Stop doing your vile stunts,” I said, trying to catch hold of the stirring door handle. “You aren’t scaring us any longer.”

  “What?” Leo answered from inside. “I can’t even see the doorknob. You all are doing to scare me.”

  The doorknob was moving like crazy, and I didn’t know what exactly was going on. Suddenly I heard Leo yell at the top of his voice from inside. 

  Jonah and I started banging the door. “Leo, open the door!” Adriel screamed, “what’s going on?!”

  The yell from Leo grew louder and without thinking much, we kicked hard on the door together. The door flung open after a rigid struggle. Leo was lying on the floor, pointing his trembling hand towards the bed. He was half-unconscious and his shirt was soaked with sweat. Jonah and Ariel lifted his hands onto their shoulders and just when we were about to leave the house, a huge gunshot echoed around the room. Someone just fired from the darkness!

  Suddenly the lights turned on, and we saw two dead bodies lying with their backs to the bed. They had blood all over their bodies. “Run!” I said, helping the knocked-out Leo.

  We managed to out of the house even with the few gunshots flying at our back. As soon as we got out, I ran towards our van and got it started. Once everyone was in the van, we drove out of the area.

  None of us said a single word for the next twenty minutes. Finally, Jonah said, “I noticed the time when the doorknob started to move rapidly. It was around 12:15 a.m. . . .  Exactly when Isaac Thomas carried out his murders.” 

Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of my imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. || Contents of this story should not be reproduced in any manner without permission.