Little Cup of Horror

The Monster in My House

It was a warm summer day, and my children and I had just finished moving in to our new home. The house was a interesting green and the windows were dirty. The yard looked as if it hadn't been taken care of for good long while. It was clear that no one had lived here for a few years. The real estate agent told me that the last person to know it was an elderly woman who past away nearly six years ago. I didn't know why no one had bought it between those years, but in some way I didn't really want to know.

"Dad," began Lily walking up to me from the car, "our house looks like crap."

I smiled and looked to her, "I know. I bit with teamwork we can make it look like a home."

Lily rolled her eyes and walked into the house. She was only ten; however, she gave me more drama than her brother did, who was fifteen. "Whatever, dad." sighed Lily.

As I watched Lily head into the house, my son, Aaron came walking up to me from the porch. "Dad," he seemed amused by the house, "can I have the room at the end of the hall?"

"Yeah, you can." I was happy to see Aaron showing some form of interest in the house. I knew the separation between his mother and I had hit him the hardest. After all, it was him who had caught her with another man and told me. I knew he thought it was his fault, but he knew better than that.

As I entered the house, I saw Lily sitting on the couch playing on her phone as Aaron emptied he boxes. "Lily, help your brother." I said. She just ignored me and stayed on her phone. Lily blamed me for the divorce. She believed I didn't love her mother anymore, and that I was a horrible parent. Only shows how much she took after her mother. She had her mother's attitude, and she would face her problems just her as well. She would blame everyone else for her problems and not take responsibility for what she had done. She was a drama queen.

Even though, my ex-wife, Lisa was a stubborn woman, I loved her. She may have given me the divorce papers once she was caught, but she was still the woman who I fell in love with in high school. I would have pretended that she was still loyal to me in every way and never told the kids if it wasn't for the fact that it was them who caught her. It was heartbreaking to learn of it all from my son. He had yelled at his mother calling her a monster and so much more.

I remember once she handed me the papers, she told me that she didn't want the kids. I never told the kids about why their mother didn't fight for them. I don't have the heart to tell them. However, I knew I would have to tell them soon.

"Lily, help your brother!" I raised my voice to her to get her attention.

"God, why do you have to be such an ass!" she snapped back.

"Lily!"

"I wish mom would call soon, and when she does I'm going to tell her that I want to be with her and not you!"

"Fine, go and empty your boxes in your room."

Lily stomped off to her new room and mumbled underneath her breath. I let her walk away as she headed to her room. Once she was in her room, Aaron looked to me with a look in his eyes. "Mom wants nothing to do with us." he said.

"Aaron,"

"Be honest, dad. Mom didn't want anything to do with us."

I didn't answer.

"Dad,"

"I don't want to talk about this,"

Aaron didn't fight me. He stopped and changed the topic to school, "So when do I start school?"

"August 13," I answered.

A few hours past and we finally finished going through the boxes in the living room, kitchen, his bedroom, and bathroom. We just had my room left. However, I told Aaron I didn't need help and that he could go to bed. He didn't like what I said, but he knew I wanted some time to myself. As I sat in my room slowly emptying my boxes, I heard something crawling around in the hallway. It was 12:45 at night.

"You should be in bed, Lily." I said as I stepped into the hall, "What the..." I saw no one out there. The hallway empty. I couldn't help but let a grin form on my face. "Alright, where are you, Lily?"

I walked out the hall slowly ready for her to jump out and try to spook me like she use to do when she was little; however, once I got to her room, I opened her door and she was sleeping. I thought she was pretending until I heard something run past me back out in the hallway. As I turned around to see who it was, I felt the air become colder and stale. I looked down the hall where I heard them run down to the end, Aaron's room.

As I walked towards Aaron's room, I watched as the door opened slowly. Once I walked through the doorway, it slammed shut behind me. Whatever it was had tricked me. It somehow made me think I had walked into my son's room, but actually I had walked outside. I turned and began to try to open the door, but there was a problem. The door wouldn't open.

"Aaron!" I cried, "Aaron, open the door!"

All of a sudden, the house burst into flames. I began to panic and I ran over and broke through the window. Once I got inside, I ran to the kids' rooms and looked for them. "I have to get them out of here!" I thought, but at the moment I entered Lily's room I didn't see. I looked from top to bottom and she wasn't in her room. I quickly turned and ran into Aaron's room. "May be their in here." I thought. However, to my surprise I found no one in there either.

I felt the pain digging deeper into my veins. "Where are my children!?" I thought as fear gripped onto my soul. In a blink the thought popped into my head that maybe Aaron had already woken up and gotten Lily out of the house. I believed for some reason they had gone out the back door. However, all of a sudden, I heard someone calling my name. I turned and walked toward the front of the house. When I looked through the window I had broken through I saw something that confused me. I saw my children outside the house standing out in the lawn with wide eyes. At that moment, a ceiling beam caming crashing down on my. I was killed almost instantly. With my last breath I whispered the word, "No," for I had seen something towering over my kids. It had sharp claws as long as a foot and arms as skinny as a broom; however, its eyes were what scared me along with its teeth. Its eyes were bloodshot red and its mouth was covered with needle sharp teeth.

As I laid there dying, the last thing to cross my mind was the echoing words of my ex-wife telling me, "You're a boring man that doesn't do anything good. You don't deserve anything good that comes to you."