Betrayal at the House on the Hill Shorts

The Abyss Gazes Back

     Some wonder if there is something waiting after death: if Heaven and Hell truly exist.  Whether there is or isn't is of no true importance...just so long as the fire stays down where it belongs.

     "I'm telling you Mary," Joseph said, flicking the beam of his flashlight into a corner of the foyer, "there's nothing in here...."

     "Oh, come now, Joseph," David said, peeking around the door into the next room.  "Let's let her have her fun...besides, who knows what we'll find in this old house...."  Joseph rolled his eyes and looked ahead.  "Hey, Damien, take a look at this...."  The other guy walked beside his old friend and looked at what he was holding.  

     The mask looked to be made of wood and had splintered shards that looked suspiciously like teeth in the grinning mouth.  The faded paint traced paths down the cheeks and created distorted circles around the eyes, giving a rushed, tribal look to the wood.  David moved the mask away from Damien's strangely hungry eyes.  "Anyway...people usually keep stuff in the kitchen right?"  There was a murmur of agreement and the four of them began moving through doors where the kitchen may have been.  

     The door to the right creaked open with a horrible amount of noise and the group looked into the darkness of the room.  The light of their flashlights glinted off of the dusty pots and pans that hung low from the ceiling.  Some of the cupboards had doors that hung off their hinges and others had no doors on them.  David, Joseph and Mary started to look around in the drawers and cabinets for anything but Damien just stood back.  The look on his face was bordering on triumph and satisfaction as he left the room, heading for the door to the basement.

     No one noticed his disappearance, or his journey into the lower levels of the house, but the first thing he did was enter an empty room and began kicking at the floor.  Each hit echoed off the walls and through the house.  Damien kicked with his full force, finally knocking a hole in the floor, and looking down.  Instead of the supports he thought he might find, he saw what he had wanted all this time.  

     The Abyss.  Flames.  A portal to Hell....

     He raced out of the room, cackling madly and rubbing his hands together like a fly.  There was a sound of groaning supports as the pit widened and, just in case his friends hadn't heard, he cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted "Hang on, everyone!  We're all goin' to HELL!"  

     Mary looked at the small sliver cross as the words of her friend and a cackle rang through the house as well as groaning.  A flickering glow burst into life on the walls and a gray mist rolled to sit around their ankles.  They barely kept their footing as part of the house gave way, the sound of wood tearing and concrete collapsing thundering into the night.  They scrambled to safety as they watched what had fallen fall into a burning lake of fire.  

      "Run!"  Joseph roared, grabbing a hold of Mary and pulling her after David who had wasted no time in moving away.  They reached the front door again, David pulling with all his might at the handle but it would not budge.  His eyes had the panicked look of a rabbit as he pressed his back to the wall, his breathing heavy.

      "We're all going to die here," he breathed.  "Hell itself has come for us at the behest of our friend, and its going to take us all...."  A sharp slap broke the still air as Mary hit him across the face.

      "I have no intention of dying tonight," she muttered, her voice sharp and curt.  "We need to see if there are any notes about how to stop this.  Maybe if we could find something to exorcise the portal and shut it, we'll have a chance to save ourselves...."

      "Shut it?  Why would you ever want to do that?"  They all turned to see Damien, his arms folded across his chest and an absolutely mad grin on his face.  Mary held up the cross towards him, but he didn't flinch.  "You really think that's going to work...?"

      "I was hoping whatever demon possessed you would flee," she answered, sounding hurt and sad.  "But it seems that this is you...all of this is you."  Damien chuckled, still not moving from his spot.

     "You might have some time if you hurry," he told them.  "I'll even give you a ten minute head start...."  Mary, Joseph and David moved, not knowing why he was giving them a head start, but not really caring.  They burst into a room that was blackened with soot emanating from a fireplace that stood at one end of the room.  

      "Did that seem suspicious to anyone else?"  Joseph asked.  No one answered him but they all agreed.  It was like he wanted to watch them get so close only to watch them mess up.  "We can't think about that now, search fast.  Try to find anything...."

      "What about this?"  Mary tossed him a ruined-looking book and he began to rifle through the pages.

     "This is exactly what I was hoping for!"  he exclaimed.  "Apparently someone else has been here and drawn up a diagram of how to shut that Gate!  Look!"  He lowered the book to show them a sketch of the house with certain points marked as 'potential' and 'definite.'  "It also gives us a list of items we could use as well as these rooms.  That cross is one of them...."  He held out his hand for it and Mary placed it in.  Joseph raised the relic to shoulder height and began to chant.  "O Lord God of our salvation, Son of the Living God, Who is borne by the Cherubim, being above all dominions, principalities, authorities and powers: You are great and fearsome to all around You. You are the One Who set the heavens like a vault and made the earth in Your might; Who directs the universe in Your wisdom. When earthquakes occur under heaven from the foundations, its pillars are unshaken. You speak and the sun does not shine. You sealed the stars. You forbad the seas and dried them up. Authorities and dominions hide from Your wrath, and the rock trembles before You."

     The glow on the wall became slightly dimmer as he intoned the last word, the cross glowing faintly.

     "Now what?"  David asked.  There was another sound of something crashing into the lake of fire, signaling the house's further collapse.  

     "We'll have to hurry," Joseph said, shutting the book.  "There's a chapel just to the right of the foyer...."  They ran downstairs, skipping a few stairs at a time and feeling the heat rising as the house fell deeper into the pit.  The open door of the chapel gave them a ray of hope and almost made them ignore the creaking sounds as the floor gave way.  

     Mary and Joseph jumped towards the chapel as the floor collapsed, David having to jump the right.

     "I'll catch up!"  He yelled, trying to pull himself up into the doorway.  "Just get in there!"  They did as he asked and missed the death of their friend.  Damien stood in the doorway, something David hadn't noticed until he stamped down on his fingers.  The cry of pain was soon cut off as he fell into flames licking up the side of the room.  Damien wondered if it would be prudent to jump in now and let the infernal masters take control...no...he must help them.  They would be pleased with him.

     The final words of the second chant fell through the air, the flicker growing dimmer once more and making Mary feel better.

      "We just need to get to one more room and then use the book for the last one," Joseph said, looking over his shoulder as he ran for the door.  "There's no time to...."  He was cut off as an arm wrapped around his neck and pulled him back.  The room behind him and Damien collapsed into the flames and the book fell out of his hand and onto the floor.  Damien said nothing as he knocked Joseph's legs out from under him and fell back into the flames, barely seeing as the chapel collapsed as well.  

     Hell welcomed him.  As the flesh seared and smoked away from his friend's bones, he couldn't help but try to smile.  His skin also sloughed away in the all-consuming fire.  He supposed this is what impulsiveness got him...oh, well.