The House

Chapter Two:

Charlie's POV:

The next day is a blur. Sister Nancy gives me fifty dollars, a bag with some clothes, water, a few apples, an extra pair of socks, a bible, and my picture in it. I thank her and walk out of the church that has been my home for the last eight years. I walk down the road for a few miles until I come across the town.

"Hey," I hear a low deep voice.

I turn to see an old odd looking man. He has an old torn and tattered flannel wrapped around his skinny arms. His pants have holes in places that could only be there from lots of use. His one shoe that he has has a hole in where the big toe should be, however there is no big toe.

"Hello sir," I say looking at this odd fellow.

"You lookin for a job?" He licks his lips as he looks me up and down.

"Well it depends, what do you have to offer?" I'm sceptical for obvious reasons that this old man could be of any interest, but curiosity killed the cat.

"Well I own a haunted house."

"A haunted house?" I turn around to leave but his bony fingers wrap around my shoulder as he spins me around.

"Yes and you can have the house free of charge, on two conditions."

"Which are," I'm actually quite intrigued at his offer now.

"You have to run a haunted house. I don't care how shitty it is. Or if it's amazing. You just have to run the haunted house."

"Ok, well what's the other condition?"

"I get half of the money."

I start to laugh because I didn't think a haunted house could earn much money anyway. But I don't have a job, this will give me a place to stay, and now I can adopt Will sooner than I thought.

"Alright, you have a deal."

I reach out my hand , only slightly wary of touching his bony fingers again.

He just looks at me, then my hand, then back at me.

"This way," he turns around and walks down the narrow road, until he comes to an alley. He turns to see if I'm following, and after he sees that I am he starts running.

I trot after him, not quite sure why I'm trusting this old strange man.

As I burst out of the alley I see the old man walking down a path leading to an obviously abandoned building. He turns to find me, then continues to walk until he reaches the house. He sits down on a little bench on the porch. I take my time walking on the path.

To my left is wheat, to my right is wheat, behind me is a weird alley, and to my front is an old abandoned building. I see a sign as I walk closer that shows me this old building used to be an asylum. Great.

"Took you long enough," the old man is sitting on the porch drinking some unidentifiable drink.

"So what is this place?" I take a good look at the outside. The wood is cracked, and obviously old. It's a dark grayish color, the porch is old and the steps are creaky.

"Didn't you read the sign? This used to be an asylum where they kept all the crazies. But one day one of the crazies got out, killed all the nurses and let the rest of the crazies go. This place was never re-opened, never got torn down, and now it's yours."

"Ok well where do I stay?"

"There's two rooms upstairs, room in the basement, and anywhere else really. I would stay away from the kitchen, they never cleaned the blood."

"The blood?"

"Well you see one of the crazies was a cannibal, he ended up eating half of the nurses, leaving the mess."

Great.

"Ok, I'll be back in a couple of months, and I will take half of the money. And don't try to trick me out of it either, unless you're ready to die."

With that the old man walks down the porch steps, and sprints down the long wheat path, into the dark alley.

What. The. Hell.