The Murder House

One - Light A Candle

Death lurked at each doorway, hell at every window.

        The ivy clung to her walls as if the veins of her existence were presented to the mortal eye. She was a extraordinary home which house all kinds of people throughout her lifetime, she was more than a house she was an experience, she was the ultimate mother. Her stone walls peeked out through the cover of her greenery that protected her from the sins those speak of outside her walls, her rusted, clean windows opened as the wind whistled lies to her. Lies of happiness and joy and normality, such things she saw as stories in children's tales and for a moment she dared to believe, to hope, to beg that she may too be granted happiness joy and normality. The wind whipped at her trying to warn her of what was to come, yet she didn't listen, she never listened, the Bellerose House never listened because external forces meant nothing to her. The sun could never warn her enough that once darkness dawned no one would dare be seen within her walls. The moon sung sins into her cracked open doors making the impossible possible. She can cut anyone free but it comes with a price, a price the Mother never expected to have to pay. Today was nothing different, the sun blazing on the early August day, the faint breeze welcoming the visitors into their little world called Willowdale. Six houses sat in what is known as Willowdale, the two infamous Bellerose and Thompson houses and those added afterwards, six houses which will forever be branded what they are not. The Mother decided today was the day she would reclaim the children stolen from her, ripped from her tender loving arms and forced upon the ungrateful bitch. She closed the car door and smiled putting on her mask of the day.

       "I'm going in honey," she said to her husband. "You can go now, I'll be fine," she smiled easily. He fell for her smile all those years ago, sweet like honey but so sticky it caught him up in a pool of her own lies. The kidnapper swallowed looking at his hairy hands, the hands she just touched, he could see the unshed blood dripping down his hands and felt the guilt weigh heavy on his chest. "Honey," she said forcibly. "Go away," he blinked his stormy eyes at her. Her own eyes stared at him and he saw the insanity swirling inside her blue irises yet she chose to ignore it as he always had, hoping one day she'd wake up and be different.

       "Okay," his voice was barely a whisper.

       "Be safe, I love you," she pulled him in ignoring the way his body tensed under her touch. Her sharp, long nails dug into his thick arms forcing the fear to seep out of him like blood from a bullet wound. She didn't wait for him to leave, she walked towards the front door feeling the warmth of a family which she never had herself. She kicked open the finely carved wooden door which like the floors are original to the overgrown stone house, the Bellerose House welcomed her with open doors. She walked in and took off her shoes, gently placing them beside the door, then stepping up onto the wood. Like most places in this house it was incredibly warm, the house would warm herself for you or cool herself depending on what you needed.

        She could be your biggest ally or your worst enemy.

        Today, she'd become the Mother's worst enemy. The smell of the wood assaulted her nose, forcing her to daydream momentarily about the history of this great house. The years of sorrow, regret, joy and death all seeped into the houses crumbling walls causing it to pass through each generation. The first time the Mother truly noticed this was the first time she was accepted into this house as one of its own, she opened her heart to the House and in return she opened her door. The lies, betrayal and forgotten lives hidden deep in her core were welcomed to the Mother on a silver platter, and not for the first time, she took it and ruined it. She ruined that trust because she can't control this great House and it rips her apart from the inside out. She promised years ago she'll do to the House what she is doing to her, today is the day she makes good on her promise.