House Of Horrors

Prologue:

It was dark and silent, an eerily silence. The only thing I heard was the echoed sound of my worn-out sneakers hitting the aged wood floor, and the creaks of the splintered floorboards as I did. Not a single thing was lit, so I held my thin arms out shakily in front of me, feeling and listening for any indication of someone, something.

The shrill sound of a high-pitched chuckle suddenly filled my ears, and I instantly froze, once again looking for something that was lit at all. Panic was inevitable at this point, but I still tried to keep my movements calm instead of frantic, to keep from being found.

The disturbing silence settled around me again, except for the persistent thumping sound of my heart beating in my ears. A small part of me began to feel hopeful; hopeful that I would finally get out of this living hell.

A cold little hand was suddenly placed sternly on my shoulder, and its long nails dug into my pale skin through my white shirt. My shrill shriek seemed to bounce off the walls as pain abruptly shot through my body, feeling the strongest at my shoulder.

The little hand started to pull me back with an unexpected strength. There was a loud thud as my aching body suddenly fell to the wooden floor, echoing in the narrow hallway. I screamed a blood curtailing scream, as the cold hand let go of my shoulder and quickly grabbed a hold of my sneaker clad foot, to drag me.

Sharp splinters pierced my flesh at every point while I was dragged, and a pickaxe quickly came down on my head, efficiently silencing my desperate cries for help.
~

Chapter 1:

"I hate clowns!" Brianna yelled playfully, and Tristen instantly rolled his peridot-colored eyes in response.

My dark red hair swirled around my heart shaped face in the cool breeze, and I swiftly pushed it behind my ears. We were about to go inside the so called 'scariest haunted house' in Michigan, but we were taking it one step further: we're going in after it closes.

"Well, you'll have to get the hell over it, this is a haunted house. It will have clowns," Nick said, stuffing his red hands into his varsity jacket pockets. The autumn air around us was colder than usual for October, and the breeze sent involuntary chills through my body.

Brianna pouted, crossing her thin arms over her perky chest. Jacob walked up behind her, wrapping his strong muscular arms around her and Brianna smiled girlishly in response. She was always such a flirt, I almost gagged at how she rubbed her butt up against Jacob's tall figure.

"You guys be quiet!" Jeff hissed at us. He pushed his wire framed glasses up with his index finger, and I saw a shiver run through his small, seemingly fragile body.

"We are fine, nobody will catch us," Jacob stated smugly, a smirk spreading across his handsome, chiseled features.

"Maybe you're used to breaking into places, but I'm not," Jeff snapped back. My bright eyes widened incredulously, because I've never heard Jeff talk like that, especially to Jacob.

Jeff, the smartest but seemingly the weakest of the group, and Jacob, the big bad boy with multiple misdemeanors for violence related crimes.

I guess opposites really do attract, otherwise I have no idea how to explain how we all became best friends. A big group of mismatched misfits, or at least, that's how I saw us.

"How exactly are you getting us in Jacob? Lily asked quietly, her pretty, hazel eyes taking in our sketchy surroundings. Jacob smirked his world-famous smirk and ruffled his short, messy brown hair carelessly.

"I know a guy," he stated mysteriously, not showing any indication to whether he was joking or actually being serious. Hayley simply laughed and slapped her knee lightly as if it had been a hoot of a joke that Jacob said. I smiled, because I knew exactly what she was thinking; of course, that's what he would say.

Tristen's beautiful green eyes glimmered in amusement under his long, dark hair as he watched his best friends playfully interact, and I caught his heated gaze landing on me for longer than normal.

Out of our entire group of friends, Tristen was the one I related to the most, and he was the boy I spent the most time with. We both had the rock n roll vibe going on, with dark hair, consistently black clothing, and an intense love of music.

That didn't mean I didn't love and appreciate the others, but I secretly had a special spot in my heart for Tristen.

"Let's just go," Jeff eventually muttered, tilting his head down towards the ground and walking in the direction the haunted house.

I knew this was about to be interesting.

Turns out, the guy Jacob 'knew' was the owner of the haunted house, Isaac. He kind of gave me the creeps, the way there was always a slimy grin on his flushed face, and just how he dressed, in navy blue basketball shorts and a slightly yellow t-shirt under a long tan coat. Pair that with greasy, graying black hair and he just absolutely screamed sleazy. His shifty gaze was making me feel slightly anxious, and I briefly wondered what had this shady man acting so paranoid.

Jacob gave him a crisp fifty-dollar bill to let us all in if we didn't make a mess or trash anything inside. I chuckled faintly at that because this man obviously didn't know us at all.

The haunted house was far from ordinary; it was a real house, a real big house on the outskirts of our small town in Michigan. Apparently, it's one of Isaac's houses, he's a landlord for multiple properties and every year during the Halloween season he turns this particular one into a creepy haunted house.

It seemed like an odd story to me, but no one else appeared to think anything of it, even the most observant of the group, Jeff, seemed to accept the wild tale with ease.

It was an extremely creepy house too; I could tell just from the deteriorating outside. The creaky wood panels that made up the home were old and tattered, looking as though they'd give me a splinter if I dared touch them. The white paint on them was no longer white; it was a dirty yellow color that was already half peeled off, and underneath was an ugly brown color that resembled rot. The old shutters were hanging half off because the hinges were so rusty and corroded, while broken glass and crumbled papers littered the front porch area from trespassers breaking in. The vegetation was dry and dead due to the late autumn season, and it was grown so long and out of control that the house looked mostly hidden behind it.

The last thing I noticed, was the tall, black front door; I've never seen a black door before, but there it was, looming before me ominously.

Isaac noticed me eyeing the house, and chuckled in amusement, sending a greasy smile my way.

I just went back to staring at the scary house. There was half of a brick chimney, the other half was sitting in various piles on the dead, brown grass. There were a couple windows that weren't broken, but they looked boarded up from the inside, and everything just seemed to add to my growing skepticism.

"Weird much?" Hayley said under her breath and I smiled, trying hard to contain a nervous laugh. Isaac didn't leave them alone yet, he was getting things ready or something, but Hayley was right, he was weird.

"OK, have fun kids," Isaac said. He winked as he quickly ran to his beat-up Ford F-150 and took off as fast as he could. I could see him eyeing us out of his review mirror. Brianna's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and Tristen chuckled lightly, slowly shaking his head.

"That guy is a creep," Nick muttered knowingly, popping the collar of the varsity leather jacket he got from playing football. His light, sandy blond hair just barely covered his sky-blue eyes, the kind of eyes that had most of the girls at their high school swooning. Nick was your most basic cliché high school jock, the kind that had copious amounts of skill when playing football, baseball, or running track, but never got good grades. Lily has been tutoring him longer than I can even remember; she had to teach him the ABC's back in grade school, but that was just how Nick was. We never judged him because he was a slow learner, just like he never judged us for our flaws.

"Are you ready?" Jacob asked menacingly, tightly grasping the door handle and pushing it open in a dramatic fashion. Brianna hides her pretty eyes in Jacob's chest, Hayley's bright eyes suddenly went wide, and I gasped at the ghastly sight before me.

Isaac was damn good at his job.