Ptolemaea | Henry Creel

Haunted House

GUYS!!! THERES HENRY IN THIS CHAPTER WOOOO!!!

I wont spoil too much but i thin kyou guys will really enjoy this 

HAVE FUN!!! <333333

The walkie-talkie Lucas had given me crackled incessantly. Its static cries went uninterrupted the entire walk to the Creel house. When my shoes finally met the creaking wooden floorboards in the foyer, I clicked it off. A silence settled over me, but it was hardly a comfortable one. The air felt charged with something intangible and oppressive. 

Something was watching me. 

I came upon that realization as soon as the door shut behind me. The stained glass rose-- which had been partially shattered, probably by vandals--  allowed the faintest hint of light to pour onto the oak wood floors, but the night was unrelenting. It persisted throughout the home, shrouding everything more than five feet away in near-complete darkness. I was essentially blind, and my nerves and overactive mind hardly did me any favors. 

From my place against the front door, I could see adjoining rooms to my left and right. Ahead, there was a hallway that opened to a larger room, probably a kitchen or living room. Closest to me was a grand staircase made of dark mahogany wood. Moonlight illuminated the first few steps, but the end of the staircase seemed to ascend into nothing but darkness.

The rooms beside me, their open door frames, made me feel all the more vulnerable. It was so dark I couldn't tell where one room began and the other ended. I was walking through a nightmare, feeling the promise of something dark and lethal without knowing what it was or where to find it. The sensation of eyes on my skin made my palms sweat and my heart hammer in my chest. 

I slowly leaned down and dropped the walkie-talkie beside me. I never looked away from my surroundings, not even for a moment. Though I couldn't physically see it, I felt the presence of something all around. Watching me, waiting for the moment I lost control. I may not have known what exactly the threat was, but I knew I wasn't safe. The lack of definition, the unknown, made my paranoia even worse.

I clicked on my flashlight-- courtesy of Lucas-- and the hallway ahead was illuminated. Anything outside of the beam of light was completely indiscernible, blurring into the shadows. Still, the flashlight offered me a modicum of comfort and I'd be damned if I was just gonna turn around now. 

I took a deep, centering breath and persisted down the hallway.

The house itself was in a state of disarray. Dust bunnies and shattered glass littered the once beautiful, polished wood floors. Cobwebs had collected in every corner. The only movement I was able to discern was that of spiders, creeping away from my flashlight as I tried to take in my surroundings. I swore I kept seeing something in the corner of my vision, but each time I whipped my head to face it, it was gone. 

My paranoia brought the darkness to life. It made the house seem alive and breathing in a way that wasn't possible. I tried not to peer into the shadows for too long, afraid my mind would conjure up a face made of cobwebs or the sound of shallowed breathing. 

I shined a light on a tilted mirror, then a painting that had been faded after years in the sun. 

A gasp slipped past my lips when the flashlight showed me a clock. I nearly dropped it. 

"Fuck," I whispered under my breath. I pressed a hand to my hammering heart and tried to collect myself. Fuck, I really should've waited until the morning. 

That grandfather clock looked so unassuming in the hallway. All of the furniture surrounding it was dark and wooden, and the clock was no different. There was an energy omission from it. Frenzied. I wasn't sure if it was just in my head, or if it was my abilities picking up on something that my five senses could not. I wiped my hand over the glass separating the face of the clock from the base. Dust collected on my fingertips