Short horror stories

Story 7. This is why the basement is locked

My mother was having dinner at a friends house. It was a small old cottage that's been around for 100 years. She tries to find the bathroom and pulls on a door that is locked. The friend sees and says "Sorry that goes to the basement, the bathroom is over there." Thinking it is odd, my mother asks why the basement door is locked. "Its always locked, in fact I don't even have a key for it, the real estate agent advised me not to go down there as its not been upgraded like the rest of the cottage. Its little more than a root cellar."

Fast forward a few weeks, when my mother (who works for the police department's community division) is working on a project about the history of the police department in the town. An old man comes in with news clippings about various community events, as well as a news clipping from the 50's about a gruesome murder. My mom was a bit taken aback. "Sorry, I forgot those clippings were in here too." "No...I know this address, its my friends house! What happened there?" "Oh..." said the old man. "Well, that use to be my mother's house. She had been dating this man who was cruel to her. Beat her horribly. She tried again and again to break it off with him, but he'd always come back. Finally my aunt moved in with us, and my mother finally broke up with him." He starts getting emotional "Then one night he broke in, and tied my mother, aunt, sister, and brother up in the basement. He shot them all in front of my mother. Then he shot her, and killed himself, leaving a note that she would never leave him again. I was away at college...." He started to sob.

And that is how my mother's friend learned she has a haunted quadruple murder-suicide scene in her basement. She moved out a year later.