Arisu [ #JustWriteIt - Horror - Complete ]

Chapter Twelve - Fright Of A Lifetime

"In the hall,
A brute with an axe he did see,
Bellowing with obscenity."

Under the powerful sound of those seven chimes, unaware of anything to do with his brother or his friend, Trick decided to turn back and retrace his steps.

Alice was a clever girl. She could've easily gotten scared, hidden, and then gone looking for him too. If that was the case, they'd bump into each other sooner or later.

And besides; he was sick and tired of mustering up the nerve to peek into spooky places, only to find them empty.

He'd gladly leave behind that terrible jumble of cobweb and spiralling dust.

The manor's interior seemed to be changing at every twist and turn. It took him ages to find the hallway again but when he did, he gratefully sank down in the armchair, if only for a moment.

He found something of interest.

"Oh?"

Trick reached down and picked up a supple stem from the carpeted floor. It was undoubtably Alice's flower - pure white with specks of blue.

"Something did frighten her away! She'd never let go of-"

The walls burst into life with a frantic scrabbling, claws swiping against a soild surface. A surreal sound that seemed to be coming closer.

"Waaah!" Trick tumbled off the armchair, picked himself off the floor and scarpered. He was scared out of his wits by the sudden noise.

The scrabbling became louder as he dashed around the sharp turn.

He didn't even know where he was going.

He just wanted to get away from that noise.

The little boy barrelled into the study. His luminous orb flew out of his hand as he tripped over a stack of thread spools.

The scrabbling died down. Presumably, the cause had gone out of hearing reach.

Trick pressed his palm against a throbbing bump on the side of his head. He narrowed his eyes with a grimace. "That doesn't feel good..."

The orb rolled onto a book that was lying open on the floor and its glow became intensive. Trick was awestruck for a moment, then recognised the book's cover. A grimoire!

"Are you kidding me?!"

Trick scrambled to reach it, dragging his lower body across the floor. He grabbed at the book and examined it closely, finding Coryn's signature written on the back.

He sat on his knees and sighed, hugging the book close to his chest. Oh thank you, my brother must be close by...

Trick's gratitude was short-lived.

When he saw the study's horrifying interior, he couldn't look away.

Was he living a nightmare?

It was as if a wheel had spun around and around while freely spitting out streams of blood.

The wallpaper itself had absorbed the sticky substance - and the resulting stains faded around the edges.

A gruesome display. Shocking indeed. You can imagine what an impact it had on such a young boy's mind.

And if that hadn't hammered into his subconscious forever - then the display of a gutted cadaver that was strung around the ceiling like Christmas tinsel certainly did.

I would go into nitty-gritty details about it, but if I did, this story would lose its PG-13 rating. The cadaver was grotesquely stretched - and oozing yellowed sheets of thick mucus. That's all you need to know.

Trick choked back a gasp as his stomach did a painful twist.

He didn't question how it was stuck there, or why it wasn't giving off the suffocating stench of rot - if he had, he would've realized it was merely an illusion.

A detailed Halloween prop, if you will.

Looking away from the grisly decoration, only to see bloodied sewing equipment strewn across a desk, was the final nail in his coffin.

His head swam with psychedelic black spots.

Trick fainted.

His head fell against the grimore, knocking away the orb.

It rolled underneath the desk.

The light was dying. Everything was becoming unclear, shadowy.

Feeble flashes from the failing source revealed a silhouette creeping towards the little boy's sprawled-out figure.

Slowly.

But surely.

Scrabble, scrabble, scrabble...

[E-Expect a lot more chapters from me now that I have a deadline... Please, give me your encouragement, dearest reader! With love, from Phantom.]