Mansion of Horror

Chapter 11

As soon as Anna stepped out of the barier of ash, a blue light jolted through her body and she grunted as she fell on the grass. Josh looked forward and stepped out too. This time, a green light jolted though his body as he fell. The grass was dry, and orange leaves surrounded them.

     “Josh” it was the invisible girl who spoke this time. “You’re free now. You can live once more. Go, take Anna and run home and don’t stop until you get there.” Her voice was still very small and flowed like water in a slow moving stream. But Josh was weak and he could barely get up, let alone run home.

     He blinked and said, “I’m sorry but I can’t move. I can’t go home just yet.” The invisible girl took his hand and apperently Anna’s too because Josh saw her hand raise. The girl filled them both with life and energy.

     “Now go.” She said, “You better leave now or it won’t be happy.” Josh looked confused.

     “What do you mean?” he said. “What’s ‘it’?”

     “Go!” the invisible girl said. “Don’t come back ever again or it will take you. Run! Now!” she wouldn’t stop saying to leave. She kept yelling, but it wasn’t very loud since her voice was very calm and quiet.

     “Wait!” said Josh, “who are you? You helped me get my energy back, I have to know who you are! Show yourself” Josh reached out his hand to try and touch the invisible girl but he couldn’t find her.

     “I’m sorry,” said the girl, “but you must leave now or it will come. It is already very angry, I am sure.” The girl was now frantic at trying to get Josh and Anna to leave. Anna opened her eyes.

     “What happened?” groaned Anna as she looked up Josh, still lying on the floor. Josh took her hand. “Just go home. I’ll catch up with you later. I’m sorry.” He said. But Anna shook her head.

     “I’m not just gonna leave without you.” She said firmly. Her voice was back and she didn’t seem crazy anymore. The energy the invisible girl gave her must have helped Anna a lot. “Just tell me what’s going on.” Anna continued. Josh shook his head in stress and frustration.

     “I’ll tell you the whole story later, now just go home.” He said as he noticed he was still holding Anna’s hand. He helped her off of the ground and pointed in the direction of her house. “Go home” he said. Anna shook her head and stomped both her feet one at a time into the ground to show that she wasn’t leaving.

     “Fine…” said Josh. “Please go!” said the invisible girl, “Both of you! Please just leave!” her voice was still light and soft like a little girl but now, tears seemed to be getting caught in her throught. Josh shrugged and took Anna’s hand and dragged her off to the path that led to his house.

     “Josh,” said Anna, “Why are we leaving?” Josh thought it was a stupid question. The invisible girl was begging them to leave, almost to the point of tears. She said that ‘it’ would get them if they didn’t go. Josh simply rolled his eyes which gave him a mild head ache and kept walking on the path. They walked for a long time, Josh holding Anna’s hand and no one said a word for a while until Anna noticed something strange.

     “Josh,” she said, “Where are we going?” Josh stopped walking. He turned around and said, “Home. We’re just going home and we’ll be fine, we’ll try to forget about what happened today and we’ll be just fine. I promise.”

     “I knew you were dragging me ‘home’, but this doesn’t look the same as where we came to get there. And it’s probably been almost an hour now.” Anna noticed. Josh let go of Anna’s hand and looked around. She was right. The place they were didn’t look familiar at all. They were in the middle of a forest but it was fall so there were barely any leaves on the trees. Though they had only gone on the path once, to get here, it seemed so different and unfamiliar. He squinted, shook his head, took Anna’s hand and kept walking once more.

     “It’s the same path we went before.” He said, “It has to be. I was paying attention on the way over there.” Josh was pretty much content with the way they were going so they both kept walking through the forest of fallen leaves, crunching dried up leaves every step. It was silent for a while until Anna spoke again.

     “I wonder how long it’s really been.” She said. Josh glanced back at her. “What do you mean?” he said, sounding confused. “It’s still the same say as it was when we got here.”

     “Nevermind…” said Anna as they kept walking.

    In a few moments, they finally made it to Josh’s home. Josh let go of Anna’s hand and walked up to his door. Then he just stood there for a few seconds. Sitting on the porch step, stairing at Anna’s face, mostly her eyes. He saw how her eyes looked in the light and realised for the first time how different they looked. Her eyes used to be so beautiful, such a unique color that no one could explain, but now… Grey. Her eyes were grey and something swirled in her pupils. It was white and almost tear-drop shaped and it went back and forth between the both of Anna’s eyes. Josh blinked once and it was gone.

     He looked at the ground, then back again. “Goodbye.” He said to Anna, who seemed to be staring off in the distance. She jolted back when Josh spoke and looked at him with a blank look in her face. “Goodbye…” she murmered back. It only took a few minutes to get back home, Anna knew, so she gathered herself and slowly started walking away. As soon as she was out of sight, Josh went inside.

     Anna walked through the forest for about ten minutes, the longest ten minutes of her life she thought, when she then saw her home. The old rotting log abover her creaky door, the smallness of the mouse was something she almost wasn’t used to from being in the mansion for so long. Anna trembled as she walked up to the door her hand reached out for the rusty door knob but suddenly, she froze for a few moments, then fell over. Blood flowed out from her back. Her eyes were open when she died and they turned a boring shade of green before they disintagrated and her eye sockets became cracked. Her hair turned black and dry and the blood surrounding her formed the shape of the thing that killed her.

     Naomi. She had followed Anna all the way home just to kill her so that her mother could see what had happened. Naomi wanted to get revenge on Anna for reminding her so much of Mary, the daughter Naomi never truly loved, and Josh for reminding her of the husband Naomi had that never truly existed. Then, Naomi walked out of the forest and dissapeared as she walked in the distance. Not just because of perspective, she vanished as her hands were in her pockets. She never felt guilt, only pleasure of getting revenge on Anna.

     Anna’s death scene baffled everyone. A hole stabbed through her back, yet there was no blood. And the fact that her eyes had simply gone left everyone all shaken. In the news the next morning, was a story of a boy, Josh, wandering through the woods looking for a death wish. They found him dead with a knife in his hand, through his heart. The truth was that Naomi had posessed him, taking over his body and killed it and his soul was tortured, sitting in the dead body for the rest of existance.

I will be putting out an alternate ending soon. Thank you for reading.