The House That Never Was

VIII: No Escape!

Wandering around, looking for Steve, Angie felt sheer terror. What had happened to him? Where did he go? Was she next? All those questions were running through her mind. She was afraid that she'd never see Steve again. Breaking down, she began to cry. She backed herself up against the wall and lowered herself to the floor.

Holding her face in her hands, she began to scream. "Why?! Why him?!" She pulled her hands away from her face. "Steve!!!"

At that moment, she heard a voice. It was faint. She couldn't make out what was said, but she could hear the voice. She got up and followed the sound. As she walked, the voice got clearer.

"Run away." The voice said. "Get out of the house while you can."

Right then, Angie stopped walking. "Hello?" She called out.

Again the voice spoke. "Leave the house while you still can."

She began following the voice again. As she got closer, the voice became even clearer. It led her down a narrow, dark hallway. There were tapestries hanging on the walls on each side of the hall. They were of all sorts of colors and designs. Red carpeting trimmed in gold covered the floor. The lights were flickering. There was a little girl standing at the end of the hall.

"Go back." The girl said. "Come no further."

Stopping where she was, Angie responded. "Why?"

The little girl hesitated, then replied to her. "They got him. They'll get you too."

"Who got him?" Angie asked, starting to cry again.

"They did." The girl told her. "They hurt him. They hurt us all." Pausing for a second, the little girl continued. "They'll hurt you and your friends too."

The lights flickered off. When they came back on, the little girl was gone.

Continuing, Angie made it to the end of the hall. She noticed movement out the corner of her right eye. She turned and noticed that in the room ahead of her, Steve was standing there. She walked up to the room. He held up his hand as if saying stop. She stopped where she was and just looked at him. Something was different about him. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something definitely wasn't right.

"Run away." Steve told her. "Get out while you can."

"I can't leave without you." Angie said to him.

At that moment, the lights flickered and Steve was suddenly standing closer to her. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. He felt cold to her. It felt like he had been outside in the night air.

"There is no escape for me." He told her. "Leave now, or there will be no escape for you."

Angie pushed back a bit. Steve now looked like a corpse. His face was sunk in and rotting. She was horrified by what she saw.

"No!" Angie cried in disbelief.

"Run!" Steve shouted, his voice very deep and very high pitched at the same time. It was as if he was speaking with two voices at the same time.

Scared, Angie ran away. She didn't want to think that could have really been Steve. She had to get herself away from that room. For now she just wanted to find her friends. That is if any of them were left.

"There is no escape." The voice said as she kept running down the hall.