Hiding in the Shadows

On a dark and stormy night, a lonely man walks along a muddy road; he is heading toward an empty looking mansion to shied himself from the elements. But what he doesn't know is that the mansion if very far from empty and the elements will be the least of is troubles if he sets foot over its door. As he gets close to the mansion he notices that the door is open and that there is a girl watching him, waiting for him. He final made it to the door and was about to ask if he could come in but the girl spook first cutting him off before he had even begun. "Come on in," said the girl "there is an old chair by the fire. Wait there and we will come for you." The man, being too cold and tired, found nothing strange about what the girl had said and walked through the door with hesitation. He was now doomed.

He sat silently in the tall antique chair as he was instructed to by the girl at the door. There was something strange about her, he thought, like he was seeing her and seeing right though her at the same time, it was unsettling. And something about what she had said but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. As he waited the old mansion creaked and groaned as if it was in pain and about to collapse. Just when he though to roof might cave in the girl returned with two men. Both of the men had the same strange quality about them. It was then clear to the man. He was in a house of ghosts.

"Please!" Cried the man fearing for his life, "don't hurt me! I'll give you anything you want. Just, don't hurt me!" The ghosts backed the frightened man into a corner by the fire. "We have no need for anything," said the girl, "accept your life." The man seeing an opportunity grabbed the fire stoker and waved it in front of the ghosts. They laughed at him. "I wouldn't laugh if I was you." The man said trying to sound brave. "Do you really think that you could hurt us with that?" One of the male ghosts questioned looking down at the man's 'weapon'. "It would go state though us," continued the other male ghost, "without causing us even an ounce of pain." Finished the girl with a smirk on her face. The man running out of chances ran for the door.

He ran past the ghosts, out the door and stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed that the front door had vanished. Looking around he saw a stair case and a door thought to another room. Slowly and careful he made his way to the door and hesitated slightly before opening the door. It took all his strength and self-control not to scream; inside the room were more ghosts and the bodies of their past victims. The ghosts had their backs turned and seem to be asleep so the man slowly and careful backed away. Once out of the room the man ran.

He ran faster than he ever had up the stairs with looking back until he came to a dead end. There were three doors in front of him and he had no idea which on to go through. Any of them could be his down fall or his saviour. Taking a chance, he opened the second door. This door was neither his saviour nor his down fall, but to some people would be called an escape. Hanging from the celling was a rope with a head sized hole at the end. The man closed the door silently and moved along to the next one trying not to think of what must have been so bad in this mansion for someone to kill themselves. But he didn't have to wait long to find out.

He opened the next door with the image of the last room still clear in his mind that he didn't notice what was in this room until a crack of thunder made him look up. There was blood all over the walls. And in this blood there was a massage 'RUN, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE AND DO NOT LOOK BACK. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE OR BECOME A GHOST.' It was written on the walls in blood and made true by all he had seen in this house of horrors. In his mind it was no longer a mansion but a hell on Earth.

So he ran like wall had told him. Thought the third door and up the stairs behind it, all the way to the roof. Not looking back, never slowing down. But the warning had come too late because on the roof he met his doom. He ran to the ledge of the roof and started climbing. But it wasn't long before the ghosts appeared and not just the ghosts he had meet before but the sleeping ghosts he had seen in the room. They cornered him. "Get back!" The man screamed terror rising in his voice. "Get back or I'll jump. I guess you need to kill me... so I become like you. It all clicked when I saw the rope, why kill yourself? I thought, the ghosts will just do it for you, unless they need to kill you. Am I right?!" he yelled looking out at the crowd of ghosts. The girl from the door stepped forward "That is right." She said slowly, "But we are going to kill you." She stepped back into the crowd and the ghosts swarmed the man.

They came at the man so fast he couldn't react, couldn't jump. The man could only scream, terrible blood curdling screams at the intense pain the ghosts were putting him though. The rain poured around them washing the man's blood down the drain. And the screams ceased just as the last crack of thunder echoed through the night.

                                                                                      The End