Life and Times of a Keyboard Warrior

House of Horrors

19
25th of February
Markus

"Alright all, the bus has now arrived. Get out!" The Professor grins at us as he herds us off his bus. I hop off slowly, but before I can get my stuff, I'm jumped on from behind. I look around, and Yuki beams back at me.

"Come on, Mr Pwesident. Let's go to the house already." She orders me, and I suddenly feel annoyed.

"Why can't your ma carry you instead? I'm not your personal packhorse." I demand.

"You're tall, mr Pwesident. I wanna be tall like you when I get big." Yuki says, and begins whacking me on the back, ordering me to move. I huff, and begin to walk up the hill to Elizabeth's beach house. Heath offers to carry my bags for me. He isn't too bad a guy sometimes...

"Oh Yuki, you've really become attached to poor Markus, haven't you?" Alicia sighs at her daughter, who giggles back in reply.

"Don't worry Markus, Shes not too much of a handful." The Professor assures me, then dashes faster up the hill, laughing his head off. I groan, hike Yuki up on my back, and continue walking.

"I hope you haven't stolen my spot off me, Yuki." Mia smiles at the girl, who grins back.

"Mr Pwesident is a cheata, sitting with Dawia and giving Mia piggy-backs. Bad Pwesident." Yuki squeals in childish delight, and I burn with embarrassment. What does the Professor teach this girl? Mia tries valiantly to hide a smile from me. I persevere, and eventually our Insurgency Club is standing on the beach house porch. I look back down the hill, I must've climbed nearly a kilometer of steep track to get here. The bus looks tiny from this altitude.

Elizabeth does a quick headcount, and estimates the person to room ratio required to house us all. It doesn't take too long, because soon after she's trying keys to figure out which one is the door key. Damn, she's got a lot of keys on that chain...

I put Yuki down, but she grabs my hand with both of hers, and drags me forward to the door. Elizabeth finally finds the key, and as soon as the door opens, I'm being pulled into the house at full throttle. I manage to stop in the main room by grabbing onto one of the house's support pillars.

"Alright guys, we got 5 bedrooms in this house, 3 singles and 2 doubles." Elizabeth walks in to the room, explaining her room arraignments. "My room is already defined, it's the first at the top of the staircase. I have a few spare mattresses, so people can sleep on the floor if need be. You guys can just figure out the arrangements yourselves."

"SHOTGUN SLEEPING ON YOUR FLOOR!" Heath bellows, his hand shooting into the air. Elizabeth rolls her eyes, but she goes red anyways.

"Ok then. Anyone else wanna make arrangements now?" Elizabeth asks. Yuki lets my hand go, and I have to rub it to stop the stinging. That girl is strong.

"Me and Alicia will take one of the double rooms, and Yuki can go with us on a mattress." The Professor says, and begins to take his family's belongings up the stairs. Yuki and Alicia follow him closely.

"Me and Markus will take the other double room." Daria announces, grabbing my hand. Heath wolf-whistles, but I shut him up with a retort about how he's doing the same thing. He goes red, but doesn't appear to be fazed by it.

"I guess Mia and I will take the remaining two single rooms." Pippi says, and Mia nods in agreement.

"Alright then, you guys go and get ready and I'll see you all later at dinner, which shouldn't be too far away. Just don't get any funny ideas you two, these walls aren't entirely soundproof you know." Elizabeth smirks at me, and I stick my tongue out at her.

I haul Daria's stuff along with my own up the stairs, and manage to find the double bedroom. I kick the door open, and am surprised to find a rather large room, much larger than I had anticipated. This house must be freaking massive...

"Come on Markus, stop gawking and shut that door already." Daria says as she passes, and I kick the door closed again. I dump our stuff on the bed and take a quick look around the room. Got an ensuite bathroom, also quite large, and even a balcony with a stunning view of the ocean. How much did this house cost, I didn't know Eli's family was rich...

"This room is nice, I could certainly get used to it." Daria says, laying down on the large double bed. I dash across and join her, literally lunging onto the bed. "This place must've cost a freaking fortune, it's amazing." I state. The setting sun's red light shines through the open balcony doors. Yeah, I could get used to this...

Suddenly, there's a loud banging on the door. I jolt upright, looking around quickly. The balcony doors are closed, and there's no bright light from the sunset. Daria is missing, but all our stuff is packed away into the wardrobe. I musta fallen asleep, that bed was too comfy.

"Eli say dinner is nearly ova, you should join us mr Pwesident." Yuki calls through the door, and then I hear her muffled footsteps receding. It's dinner already...? I hop up and pad out the door, my bare footsteps loud on the wooden plank floor. I thunder down the stairs, launching into the air after swinging off the balustrade. I land with a flourish, then deadpan because there's no one around to watch my amazing performance.

As I wander through the house, it begins to feel stranger and stranger. Forget no one being around to see my performance on the stairs, there's no one around period. The house is desolate, deserted. I can't even find Yuki, who must be still here because she woke me up. There's no one at the dinner table, but all the dishes are in the dishwasher, so I must've missed teatime all together.

"Alright everyone, really spooky. Come on out, it's getting beyond a joke now!" I roar, my voice echoing in the empty house. I shudder involuntarily. Seriously, not cool...
"Heath, get out here! I know this is all your idea, don't make me come find you."

No reply.

"Goddamnit..." I mumble, and begin to explore the house again. It's really eerie, because none of the light switches are working. all I have to go on is the light from my phone, and the weak moonlight filtering through the windows. The only sounds in the house are my footsteps and breathing, and the steady tick-tock of the grandfather clock in the main room.

Suddenly, I hear the sound. Footsteps quickly getting closer and closer, muffled ever so slightly. Someones behind me, closing fast. I pivot quickly, lashing out with my elbow reflexively. My attacker ducks under my swing, and crashes i to meet, taking me down. The thud of us hitting the ground echoes throughout the house like a bomb-blast.

"Mr Pwesident..." I hear a small voice mumble. I sit up, looking down at my attacker. Yuki Repeatro's golden eyes stare back at me, and I watch her sniff loudly. Tears slowly cascade down her cheeks onto my shirt. I feel really bad, watching her cry like this. I was getting freaked out myself in this empty building, but I can't begin to imagine what she would've felt, all alone and defenseless.

"Hey, Yuki, come on, don't cry or you'll make me cry too..." I say, stroking her slate-grey hair protectively. I feel her clamp her arms around me harder.

"I'm scared, I want my mummy..." She wails, and buries her face in my chest. Damn, I'm not equipped to deal with this, I'm no good with little kids. Loud sobs rack her tiny body, the sounds bouncing from the walls.

"Come on, let's go and find your mummy..." I whisper, and she looks up at me again. She sniffs loudly, and nods at me. I slowly extract myself from beneath her, but she has a firm grip on my midsection and I can't shake her. Eventually, I manage to stand up, and she lets go of my waist. Lightning quick, she grips my hand tightly, coiling her arms around it.

We slowly make our way through the house again, checking in every small nook and cranny we can find. Eventually, we just crash down on the floor, too exhausted to move. The time on my phone tells me that I've been searching the same damn house for everyone for the last two hours. It's now midnight.