The Haunting Of Keller Estates

Prolouge and Chapter 1

Fear:
/Fir/
An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat.

Prologue

March 15th, 2022
3 AM
"Grab your sister's hand and be very quiet." Gretchen Lowen instructed in a panicked whisper to her four-year-old twin daughters, as she led them across the spacious living room and into the formal dining room. The house was encased in darkness, the deepest, terrifying darkness. They could not see anything in front of them.
Gretchen stopped. She listened. Sweat beaded on her forehead and upper lip. Pressing her back against the wall, she inhaled a quick, deep breath through her nose and then felt the pocket of cold, chilling air engulfing them as it had upstairs. It was near them. It was stalking them. Her heart pounded erratically within her chest, scared that it would attack her and her girls again at any moment. Mia peed on herself. The urine soaked into her pajama pants, and she stopped, making Moira and Gretchen abruptly halt.
"I pee peed mommy!"
Gretchen bent down, hugged Mia's little body to her chest quickly, and suddenly screamed as a stabbing pain landed across her upper chest. Gretchen gasped in pain and kept herself calm for her girls. She did not want them to hear fear in her voice. She felt the blood filling her palm, slowly seeping between her fingers and trickling down her arm as she touched the wound. The cut was deep above her breast. She prayed that she would make it. She was all that her girls had.
"Leave us alone!" She yelled out in terror at the top of her voice. "Please!" She pleaded. She was already hurt from the attack upstairs earlier when she sprinted to the girl's bedroom, hearing their terrified screams, and felt the first slash into her flesh. A stream of blood ran down her back where the knife had dug in, and she winced every time that the skin stretched. Gretchen pulled away from the wall and urgently pulled Mia's little hand.
Moira cried out as she stubbed her small toe on the bottom of the dining room chair and cried out. Gretchen grabbed her gently and put her fingers to her small rosebud lips. Her fingers were shaking.
"Shhh, Little Bug," she whispered to her child. Her eyes were wide with fright.
Holding her breath, Gretchen continued across the room, and the girls followed her pace. The lights flickered suddenly from the large chandelier over the dining room table. The space lit up brightly. She did not see anything chasing them, but she felt it. It was stalking her and her girls like a predator after its prey. The lights blinked and went out again, plunging them back into darkness. Her daughters screamed. She had to get them out of the house unharmed. Gretchen steered them into the kitchen and patted along the wall for the keys to the car. She felt the metal and plastic of the Fob and clutched it tightly in her hand. When she pressed the Fob, Gretchen knew it would know where she was. She did not know who she was running from because it was invisible to the eye, but her cuts were severe. She had to go to a hospital as quickly as possible. She was growing weak from the loss of blood. Gretchen had to get her babies out of the house, and now. She lifted the Fob, pressed the button to unlock the car, and heard the loud beep in the distance. She rushed over to the kitchen door and opened it. Then, out of nowhere, there was an explosion of pain across the back of her calf. She fell and screamed in agony, and Moira and Mia cried out in fear.
"Run girls! Run," she shouted, pushing them out the door.
The girls took off out the door into the starless night with no moon to light their way. They were screaming and crying for their mother.
Gretchen grabbed the doorknob to pull herself up and felt another slash across her knuckles.
"Juliette," the sinister voice whispered behind her.
Gretchen lay on the floor by the door and watched in horror as her long dark hair lifted into the air as if being held by an unseen hand; she felt the ghostly fingers caress it, and then she felt the tug of her hair and the fingers wrapped around the strands and jerked her head back painfully, angrily.
"Juliette." The voice moaned.
She fought against the firm, invisible grip and, ignoring the excruciating pain, shot to her feet, slipped out of its evil grasp, and flew out the door into the darkness and away from the entity.