Sam and Colby: The House

51

*shit's about to get scary, y'all*

I woke up to the feeling of cold metal pressed against my arm and a gentle clanking noise.

                "What the—WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed, falling onto the hard floor. Why was I standing up? Where was I? I looked around the room frantically until my eyes adjusted to the darkness. "Oh, FUCK no!" I yelled.

                I was in the hook room. I had walked in and bumped into one of the chains hanging from the ceiling. I turned around to see the door shut behind me.

                How the fuck did I get up here? I didn't sleepwalk. I never had. Not once. I reluctantly reached out for the door handle, terrified that it was going to be locked. Thankfully it wasn't and I was able to walk out to the main area of the attic. How the hell had I gotten out of Henry's room, unstuck the caution tape, opened the attic, walked up the ladder, opened the door to the hook room, and shut it behind me all without waking up?

                I decided not to think about that right now. I just needed to get down from the attic, back to Colby. I made my way over to the attic's hatch, but stopped dead in my tracks. It was shut. I couldn't have shut it from the inside, especially not while asleep. Someone had to have shut it behind me.

                "Is... is this a prank? Is someone up here with me? I swear to God if this is Corey or Jake... I told you guys in the hotel when we went to the asylum that you better not fuck with me like this," I said, speaking out into the room I prayed wasn't empty. Well, wasn't empty of people I knew. I'd much rather be alone than up here with some psycho stranger. "Guys, really. I'm serious right now. Please stop and let me out."

                I prayed for an answer, for Sam or Jake to jump out and laugh at me, then yell down to Colby or Corey to open up the hatch and let us down. But an answer never came. What did come, however, was the sound of footsteps. Heavy footsteps, like those of a grown man. They were coming from behind me.

                I didn't want to turn around. I really, really didn't, absolutely terrified that I was going to be face to face with the thing that could be ending my life tonight. However, I also knew that I was more vulnerable from the backside. I had to turn around.

                I took a deep breath and counted to three in my head, then quickly spun myself around to face whatever was trapped up there with me. But there was nothing to be seen. I wasn't sure if it was comforting or scary to know that there wasn't a person behind me. Someone had to have made those noises. Maybe it wasn't even a someone, but a something.

                "Augusta? Is that you? Mom? Did you come back for me?" asked a man's voice. I was so startled and scared by the noise that I fell backward onto my ass, catching myself on my elbows. I scooted back toward the hatch and started banging on it.

                "HELP ME! COLBY! REGGIE! KEVIN!" I screamed. They were most likely to hear me since they were upstairs.

                "Answer me," the voice said.

                "Who.. who are you?" I asked.

                "No, who are you? This is my fucking house. Are you my mom?" he asked.

                "N-no, my name is Vanessa," I stuttered, no longer banging on the hatch. I was paralyzed with fear.

                "You're not Augusta?" he asked.

                "No, m-my name is Vanessa, Vanessa Atkins," I said. "Who are you?" I asked again.

                "Why are you in my house if you don't know who I am?" he asked.

                "Well, where... where are you? I can't see you," I said.

                "You're the one who smashed my car's window and windshield," he said.

                "Y-your car?" I asked.

                "Did no one ever teach you that you can't just take and break other people's things? Especially a stranger? You need to be taught a lesson," he snarled.

                "I can't see you," I said again. Was anyone even up here? What was I hearing?

                "Of course you fucking can't, I'm not in a body," he said.

                "Not in a—oh no. No, no, no, this isn't happening right now. COLBY! HELP ME!" I screamed. I got up off of the floor and started stomping, then jumping on the hatch. I prayed that it would open up and I would fall out to safety, or someone would hear me. But if no one had heard me by now, I wasn't sure they ever would.

                "Shut up," the man said.

                "HELP ME!" I screamed again, jumping even harder.

                "I SAID SHUT UP!" he screamed. I suddenly got slapped across the face. Hard. My dumb ass assumed that no body meant no possibility of physical contact, but Henny hadn't been visible either and he'd touched me, too.

                "Ow!" I whimpered. I stopped jumping, stopped screaming.

                "I'll get out of your house, I'll leave and never come back. I'm not your mother, I know you don't want me here, please let me go," I said.

                "Didn't anyone warn you not to be here alone?" he growled.

                "I-I'm not alone," I said.

                "You're up here alone, aren't you?" he asked. Shit, I was.

                "I thought they meant in the house alone, I'm sorry, please, let me leave. I won't come back, I swear," I said, starting to cry. Was this how I was going to die? In this attic, the same fate as Mary and Bernice? A bullet in my chest and then gutted like a deer, hung from those fucking meat hooks?