The House That Never Was

IV.V: Afterlife Like Paintings

After they reached the end of the hallway, Steve and Angie turned left. They found themselves in a long, narrow hallway. There were paintings hanging along the hallway on both sides. There were stands with dead and decaying plants on them below each one. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling.

"Looks like nobody's been here for a while." Steve said as he looked around.

"No wonder." Angie said, looking at the paintings. "Do you see how creepy these paintings are?"

They both looked at a painting of the old man and woman in front of the house. Suddenly, the painting seemed to come to life. The clouds started moving. The house burst into flames, and the old man and woman seemed to be smiling at that point. They both looked at each other with stunned expressions, and then, back at the painting. The painting was the same as it was when they first looked at it, except for a couple of burn marks on the house.

"We did see that, didn't we?" Steve asked as he rubbed his chin with his right hand.

Running her fingers through her hair, Angie replied. "I think so."

Backing away from the painting toward the opposite wall, Angie bumped into a painting of a decayed woman. The woman leaned forward and grabbed Angie's hair as she tried to pull her into the painting.

"Let go of me!" Angie shouted.

Steve ran over and began trying to pry the woman's grip from Angie's hair. The woman let go and receded into the painting as Angie fell to the floor.

Kneeling down beside her, Steve checked on her. "Are you okay?"

Slowly sitting up and shaking her head, Angie responded. "Yeah. What the Hell is going on here?"

"I don't know." Steve replied, helping her up. "We need to keep looking for Lisa."

As they continued down the hall, they came to a room with an open door. No lights were on in the room. The only light was coming from the hallway.

"It looks like there's something written on the walls." Angie pointed out.

Steve felt along the wall inside the room and found the light switch. Written in blood was an ominous message along with a pentagram.

"You will all die tonight." Steve said as he read the words.

"Oh my God!" Angie yelled out as she started to panic. "We need to get out of here!"

Steve grabbed hold of Angie to try to calm her down. "We will, but we can't leave without our friends." He said as he pulled her closer. "They're looking for Lisa. We need to keep looking. We'll meet them in an hour. Hopefully someone will have found her and we can get out of this not so fun house."

"You're right." Angie said, taking a deep breath to calm down as the lights began to flicker, and they heard giggling off in the distance.

"Hello?" Angie called out, getting no answer, just more giggling.

Following the sound down the hall, they came to a room where a little girl was standing on a chair, facing a mirror that was hanging on the wall.

"Mirror, mirror up so high, first a girl," The girl began, then briefly paused before finishing. "now a guy."

"Hello?" Angie called out to her.

"They've got your friend." The little girl replied. "They'll get you too."

"Who got our friend?" Angie asked her. "Who will get us?"

"They will." The little girl replied, sounding a bit frustrated.

"Who are they?" Angie asked.

"Why doesn't anyone ever believe me?" The girl asked as she wrapped a noose around her neck and jumped off the chair.

"Wait!" Angie shouted out, reaching toward the girl as the lights flickered off. When they came back on, the girl and the chair were gone.

"What the Hell just happened here? Did that just happen, or have I gone completely insane?" Angie asked Steve, getting no answer. "Babe?"

As a spine tingling chill ran up her spine, Angie turned around to find that Steve was gone.