Creepy Short Stories

No End House

*Just saying this is a long ass story. There's a plot twist in the middle of this so if you want you can just go ahead and slip to where it says that he finally gets home after Room 7"
It was the day before Halloween when I first heard about the "No End House" from a friend of mine. He told me that it was a legendary haunted house attraction that was said to be the largest and scariest in the country. Everybody had heard about it, but nobody seemed to know where it was. My friend told me he had found it.

The rules were pretty simple. You paid $20 to enter the attraction. The building contained 9 rooms in all. If you managed to reach the final room, you would win $500. The only catch was that nobody had ever managed to make it all the way through to the end. That's why they called it "No End House".

My friend told me he had tried to complete the house and failed miserably. He said the haunted house attraction was located roughly 4 miles outside the city and drew me a map. It piqued my interest and I told him I would check it out the next night. As I turned to leave, he grabbed me by the arm and tried to convince me not to go. He said that it was unnatural; that the things the house contained would be too much for anyone to endure.

I didn't believe him and no matter how hard he tried to convince me not to go, my mind was made up. Winning $500 for completing a haunted house sounded too good to be true.

The next night, I followed the map he had drawn and arrived at No End House just as the sun was setting. I immediately felt that there was something strange about the building. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. From the outside, it didn't look that scary, yet for some reason, it sent a chill down my spine. The feeling of uneasiness only intensified as approached the haunted house and opened the front door.

Stepping inside, I let out a sigh of relief. The entrance hall looked normal, like a hotel lobby decorated for Halloween. There was a sign posted on the wall that read: "Leave $20 in the tray below and proceed to Room 1. Eight more follow. Reach the end and you win $500!" With an uneasy chuckle, I placed my money in the tray under the sign and made my way to the door.

The first room was a complete let-down. It was almost laughable. It resembled a children's ghost train at a fun fair, complete with white-sheeted ghosts hanging from the ceiling and mechanical zombies that lurched forward and gave an unconvincing moan as you passed by. I brushed aside the fake spider webs and headed for the door at the far end of the room.

Upon entering the second room, I was greeted by thick fog. A rubber bat hung from the ceiling and flew around in a wide circle. Some haunting Halloween music played on a loop in the background. I stepped over a few toy rats that raced back and forth across the floor and opened the door to the next room.

At first glance, Room 3 appeared to be just a normal room. It was sparsely furnished, with a wooden chair in the middle of the floor and a single lamp in the corner that did a poor job of lighting the area. It took me a few minutes to realize that there was something not quite right about the room. The light casted shadows across the floors and walls, but the problem was, there were too many shadows.

I could see the shadow of the chair against the wall, but there were other shadows beside it that had no business being there. Then, I happened to look down at my feet. My own shadow wasn't there.

At that moment, a vague and foreboding feeling of impending doom gripped my heart and my courage deserted me. Reaching behind me, I tried to open the door I had just came through. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was locked. I didn't have the option of retreating. The only thing I could do was walk across the room to the other door and go on, further into the house.

The fourth room was possibly the most disturbing. There was no light. The door behind me closed automatically and I was left standing there in complete darkness. It was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing. I was scared to move. I'm not afraid of the dark and never have been, but there was something about the particular darkness that absolutely terrified me.