Demon House

Chapter 2

Black. Empty nothingness. A lonely expanse. I awoke in a room, of sorts. I could barely see a thing. A broken something in the corner, just a collection of broken planks, could have been a table, chair, anything. Inside there was a lantern, the only source of light in the room. It emitted an eerie yellow glow that seemed to cut right through you. There was no moonlight or natural glow, the artificial fire was no comfort. Lifting my head, I saw two other bodies led on the floor. As I began to gain more awareness, something became noticable, more painful. There were chains on my ankles, digging in to my skin. I saw a key hanging on the wall, too far for me to reach, I tried to stand but my chains were dragging me back down.

I started to use my hands to drag myself across the floor, I barely moved a few inches before my chains started pulling again. Another inch and I had stopped. I was close enough to touch one of the other bodies. I began to rock it back and forth. "Come on wake up!" I yelled. Then it started stirring on its own, " Raven?" It mumbled. "Ash! Is that you??" I whispered. "Of course its me, who else would I be the boogeyman?" She said jokingly. I looked down at her ankles, " You have chains too." I sighed. "Looks like we might both be stuck."Ash asked," Is that Charlie over there?" I just shrugged, it probably was. " We should try to wake him up, he's closest to the key, then we might be able to get out of here." We both started to call out his name, getting louder and louder, then the floorboards above us started to creak.

"Stop!" I whispered. "Something is listening above us!" Dust fell on our faces, falldn from the cracks and rotting wood from above. Then the other body started to stir. " Guys? Where are you?" Charlie called out. " Charlie shut up! There is something listening!" Ash hissed. We all kept deathly silent until we heard the unknown creature walk away. Immediately I turned to Charlie and asked him if he could reach the key on the wall. He began to turn towards the wall, gripping the edges of the unevenly placed floorboards."OW!" He screamed. " I got a splinter." Now, with only one hand, he continued to try to pull himself towards the key. He reached the wall and managed to lean his back up against it, but his chains looked like they were at their limit. We could hear the floorboards creak again, it was coming back. Charlie's yell had been heard by the mysterious monster.

"Quick!" I screamed, as quietly as possible. With a final little strech, Charlie reached the keys before collapsing onto the floor in agony, blood began to flow from the cuts in his ankle. He unlocked his chains and stood up, leaning against the wall. He limped over to me, progressively getting lower and lower, falling slowly towards the floor, his ankle providing no support for his body. Barely reaching my hand, Charlie collapsed, the key falling into my hand. "Charlie?"I whispered."Charlie?"I repeated, beginning to tear up. My chains unlocked, I rushed back to Charlie, putting him sitting up against the wall. I threw the key to Ash, who hastily came over, held Charlie's hand in her own."Ash?"muffled Charlie."Charlie! Hang on we'll get you help, you just have to hold on..."pleaded Ash. We both looked down at his ankles, still bleeding, swollen, alreay infected from the lethal air. "Please, just leave me, get out of this cursed place, there is nothing more you can do for me. Get yourselves out. For me..."Charlie said, gasping for each breath. Then his eyes closed. And they didn't open.