Curiosity Kills

Chapter 8

At first, the door handle wouldn't budge.  I gave up on trying to turn it with only one hand and threw all my weight against it.  It gave way unexpectedly and I tumbled into an empty room.  This wasn't right.  It couldn't be.  There had to be a way out of here but we had checked the entire house and found nothing!  Light from a window filled the room which was odd because the rest of the house was bathed in darkness and all access to the outside world had been blocked in one way or another.  I scanned the entirety of the room and the only thing I could see was a small picture hanging in the back of the room.  

It was impossible to tell what it was of from my position.  I got up and started heading towards it but I did so cautiously because, let's face it, I don't trust this house or whatever spirits that have made it their home.  I wasn't taking any chances especially now that I knew how serious the situation was.  As I was walking, a small glint of light caught my eye and I turned to find the source.  In the corner of the room, there was a small hole in the wall.  The light was reflecting off of something inside of it.  I chose to go investigate it first and, in the corner of my eye, I could see Hayden continue to head for the picture.  

"David?" 

Hayden's voice was a bit shaky.  Something was wrong.  

"You need to come look at this."

I sighed and abandoned my mission to find out what was hiding in the hole in the wall and went over to where he was standing.  He eyes were fixated on the framed picture.  I looked at it and, after a few seconds, I realized there was much more going on here than we thought.  The picture was of Juliana's family.  It was an old photo.  It was in black and white as if it had been taken a long time ago.  This was unsettling because color photos had been around for a long time now and nobody took family photos in black and white anymore.  I mean they do, but not like this.   In the picture was: Juliana, Heath, Tara, and Vix.  They looked the same age as they had when we first met them.  The way they were positioned reminded me of old Victorian Age photos where nobody would smile because they had to sit very still in order for the photo to come out clear.  They were dressed in Victorian Age attire as well.  This wasn't making any sense.

I turned the picture around to look for a date.  The back was marked with only a year.  1892.  Now I'm more confused than ever.  There was no possible was that these were the same people.  I had no explanation for this.  I couldn't just say that this was a different family because they clearly were the same people that we had met just a few days ago.  My head hurt.  I turned the picture back around and fixed it so it looked like we hadn't moved it.  Hayden had a very quizzical look on his face.  I just shook my head when he looked at me.  I had no idea and he knew it.  

I started to think again.  Juliana was the woman we found in the kitchen.  Heath was the man we found in the dining room.  Vix was the dog that had ruthlessly killed Luke.  Tara.....Oh no.....the thought entered my brain and I couldn't get it out.  I clenched my fists and held them up to my head.  No, no, no, that can't be!  Hayden looked at me very concerned.

"What's wrong?!"

I calmed down and explained to him everything I just thought.  His eyes got wide as the same thought of what happened to Tara that I had crept into his young mind.  His next words came out as an astonished whisper.

"Tara is the shadow..."

His voice trailed off as the realization hit.  Tara was the one behind our misfortune the minute we set foot inside the house.  Everything made a bit more sense.  The screaming, the flying books, the shapeless shadow, it was all her.  But...why?  I noticed that I had started shaking uncontrollably at the thought that such a sweet girl could cause so much pain and suffering.  No doubt that Vix was under her command.  She had allowed the murder of the one person who had wanted nothing but to be her friend.  I heard Hayen start to whimper and then I saw tears form in his eyes.

"Hayden, be strong.  We still need to get out of here."

He held back from crying and followed me back over to the hole that I was checking out earlier.  The light flooding the window was at just the right angle for me to still be able to see it reflecting off of whatever was inside.  I reached my hand inside and immediately felt something furry brushing up against all sides of my hand.  I pulled back on instinct, but nothing happened.  I shrugged it off and reached inside again but this time I was met with a  sudden sharp pain in the palm of my hand.   I shouted in pain and pulled my hand out to find a strange looking spider  attached to it.  I started flailing my arm until the spider released its hold and flew across the room.  I scanned the area where I had been bitten but there was no mark anywhere.  How was that even possible!?  I looked at Hayden.  He was staring wide-eyed at the hole.  I looked back at the hole and saw a flood of black oozing out of it.  At closer inspection, I saw that it was just a ton of spiders running out of the hold and straight at us.  

I tried desperately to get away but they were everywhere.  Hayden ran as far as he could without leaving the room.  Trying to squash them, I found, was futile as my foot simply went right through them!  I had stopped trying to make sense of all this a long time ago.  I looked back at the hole that they were still oozing out of and saw that the object I had been after was shining even more brightly, beckoning me to come get it.  Whatever it was, it was probably our last chance at finding a way out, so I went for it. 

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Hey All,

I'm very sorry that I haven't been posting new chapters on a regular basis.  I started up a new semester at college and that has taken away a lot of my time.  I'll be finishing this story up in the next chapter which I hope to put up either today or tomorrow.

Well wishes to all of you!

-MasterAkaler19