DON'T TURN YOUR BACK!

Curiosity kills the Cat

Rapid footsteps were heard across the dusty hallway.

With a satisfying click of a door, Josh rested his back on the rotting wooden door, his rapid breathing slowing down every second.

Tears began to flow across his beaten up face, "... My friends... Ian.. They're all dead."
With a sniff, his hands clenched into a fist, "Josh.. Pull yourself together, Damnit!", he said in an inaudible whisper.

With newfound determination, he turned on his flashlight...
Only for it to die out followed by another click in the door, soon the door was unlocked.

His determination was easily replaced with fear, he turned his back.

Too bad his screams weren't heard from within the closed walls of the abandoned mansion

~~~

(Michael's POV)

Dark clouds expressed grief through rain the day Josh, Ian and the others went missing, my friends who were foolish enough to enter the abandoned mansion. The police found zero trace of them ever being in there, but I felt like something went wrong during the investigation, So I gathered enough foolishness, bravery and a couple of friends.

We stood in front of the mansion, which gave off an eerie feeling.

"Blegh it's dusty.." Mijuki stuck his tongue out in disgust as he traced his fingers along the wall.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised as it is 'abandoned'" Javier sneered, his voice had sarcasm written all over it.

"Ugh, Javier, you don't have to be like that every time we hang out together." Mark frowned.

"Can we focus on breaking in please?" I rubbed the space between my eyes in frustration, I swear these guys can be a real pain sometimes..

"Well it wouldn't be breaking in since its 'abandoned'" Javier spoke with the same tone this time with his fingers making air apostrophes

Mark and I sighed, but I spoke "This is exactly why I don't like to hang out with you guys that much anymore."

Javier grinned but Mark was clearly offended, "HEY."

Mijuki managed to dislodge the boards that were nailed on the window, "Well, I got the boards down, but there's something blocking our way"

"Yeah it's called a window, Google it", This time nobody responded, we all chose to ignore him. "Wait, that was really funny!" Finally, he spoke in a tone that's not sarcasm.

"I guess it's time we do it the old fashioned way." Mark picked up a decent sized rock and rubbed it with his wrist for good luck

Javier's face lit up at an opportunity to be annoying again, "It's not really old fashioned since almost all burglars use this method anyways, it's more of a cliché."

"Will you please shut up? I'm trying to concentrate!" Mark sighed then he raised his arm and threw the rock at the window. Fortunately but not surprisingly, the window shattered into numerous glass shards.

"Voilà" Mark smirked.
"That, is pretty cliché too." Javier grinned his signature grin while Mark's face just dropped, that meant he's about to blow.

"And 3.. 2.. 1" I counted down, it's always like this.
"OH MY GOD JAVIER, I HATE YOU SO MUCH, WHY DO YOU EVEN EXIST, ANYWAY?" Mark fumed, I mean literally, you could see smoke coming out of his ears.

"How do you always get that right." Mijuki placed his hand on my shoulder, he seemed to be smiling.

"Well, would you be surprised if I said I hang out with them a lot?" I told him with a poker face, it's nothing amusing if you get it right all the time.

"How do you even stand them?" He asked but I answered with a shrug, I cleared the broken glass and looked back at my friends, "So.. Ladies first?"

They all stared at me blankly, "Fine.."
After we all got in, we took a glance around the room.

"It looks like a living room" I heard whispers behind me.
"Oh really? I didn't know that"
"JAVIER!"

The wallpaper is peeling off and there were signs of vandalism all around the place, there were doodles, words and many other stuff and I begin to wonder if we had ever tried the front door.

"Okay, I think we've been in here for a long time already.. I-I.. I mean we should be going home now, it's pretty late" Javier voice cracked.

"Well that's a nice change of scenery" Mark grinned.

I ignored Javier's pleading and continued to move forward into the dark abyss, I felt tugging on the back of my shirt, it was Mijuki, he shone a flashlight on a note.

"It's from Josh, it's his handwriting.." Mijuki said in a panicked whisper.

I read it out loud. "DON'T TURN YOUR BACK, OR HE'LL COME TO GET YOU, ESCAPE WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"

"Okay, this isn't funny can we go now?" Javier sounded like a different person.

"Yeah, now's a good time." I answered.

Javier sighed in relief, but that fell short easily, because our flashlight began to die out, it's getting dimmer by the second.

"Michael, I thought you said your flashlight was brand new!" I couldn't see who spoke in complete darkness.

By this time, the flashlight completely died followed by a cool breeze that sent shiver down my spine.

Suddenly we heard an irritating noise, it sounded like scratching on the wall.
We were too blind, we couldn't see where we came from.

Our breaths were rapid, we couldn't see each other anymore, I wanted to tell everyone to calm down but what I heard next made me freeze in my tracks.

"Oh look~ Four little cats walked into my trap!" The voice belonged to neither one of us.

"G-Guys.. This isn't funny.."

"Which head will my blade savor? Which heads will my blade save?" The voice spoke in a sinister tone.

"Ha ha whoever it is.. you got me." There was no reply.

I heard someone grit their teeth and breathing heavier than before, I also heard them shift their body to face the voice.

"STOP YOUR PRAN-" whoever that was, it was interrupted by a cling of a metal and a loud scream.

As if on cue, my flashlight miraculously turned on again, we all looked at eachother, each one of us had a panicked face, except Mijuki, he was missing his entire head.

Javier's expression was the worst, his face was covered with tears and snot, he let out a scream when his eyes fell on Mijuki's headless corpse.

Mark doesn't seem to be doing well either, he didn't scream, but his expression told me he wanted to.

Vision of Mijuki clouded my mind, he was smiling a few minutes ago... He lost his life.. within.... seconds..

Tears slowly slid across my face, I've never felt so much emotions before.
Shock..Sadness..Anger..Confusion, but the one I felt the most was regret.. This is all my fault..

My thoughts were interrupted by that bastard's voice again.

"Little wee pottle do." It sang in a psychotic tune.

"Looks like they'll 'behead'ing for a big surprise! HAHAHAHAH"

DON'T TURN YOUR BACK! - Chapter One (END)

Written by @FatByakuya. Edited by KTWanG.