Game Over

I've always heard the rumors about the Maxwell House. About the little girl, Lily Olivia Maxwell. How the people who go in never come out alive. Yeah, I’ve HEARD about that. Now, I just wish I would have LISTENED.

          It all started with a dare… Yeah, I know. Cliché, right? “Truth…” my friend Lisa giggled then lowered her voice dramatically, “Or dare?” I tapped my chin pretending to think, not that it mattered, all of my friends knew I always chose dare. “Dare!” I shouted grabbing her. “I dare you… to go spend the night in the Maxwell House!” One of my friends, Maria, raised her eyebrows questioningly at me. Realizing since she had just moved here last year she wouldn’t know the stories I explained, “The Maxwell family was happy before that one fateful Halloween night. Mrs. and Mr. Maxwell had gone out for the evening leaving Lily, their 7 year old, at home with a new babysitter. After a while the babysitter put Lily to bed then thinking she was asleep, drove down to the local 7/11 to get a soft drink. When she got back she went up to check on Lily only to find her dead. A killer had slipped in and cut her throat. Mrs. and Mr. Maxwell immediately moved and put the house up for sale but nobody ever bought it and rumor has it that every Halloween the little girl comes out to  play.” Maria shuddered and muttered “NO way, are you going to do that…”

          Which is how Maria, Carey, Lisa, Amanda, and I ended up standing at the rusted gate at the front of the Maxwell’s property. I looked hesitantly at the ominous house and Amanda jokingly said, “Come on, Ivy don’t chicken out on us now!” Steeling my resolve I yanked open the gate. We explored the entire property and discovered that the feel about the place is the same as the look. Chilling. I’d have to say around 12 is when it started happening. We heard the chime of a clock and a sudden chill came across our skin. Then Lisa whispered, “I have to go to the bathroom…” I volunteered to go with her and we slowly walked down the hallway.

          Lisa and I crept down the hallway towards the bathroom, wincing every time one of the floorboards creaked. It felt like everyone could hear every time we took a step. I glanced over my shoulder nervously and thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye but when I turned my attention to that corner there was nothing here. Shrugging it off, I went to turn around and heard a scream. I whirled around but Lisa was gone. I took off down the hallway and rounded a corner to find a dead end with a giant mirror at the end of the hall. I approached it cautiously and as I got a closer look I saw something strange. It looked like… it was Lisa in the mirror! She was pounding on the glass and an intricate spider web of cracks was slowly appearing in its surface. Tears were running down her face and blood smeared up her arms from the shards of glass. Then finally with one last hit the glass shattered completely and there was no more Lisa.

          I took off sobbing down the hallway and as I ran I heard a little girl laughing. When I reached the dining room where everyone was I explained what had happened but they didn’t believe me. Intent on proving myself right I insisted we go look for her then. We started in the attic and then worked our way down to the second, first, and then basement. There was a storage room at the end of the basement and when we opened the door there she was. Lisa lay with her eyes closed and if there wasn’t blood on her arms I would have thought she was sleeping. I broke down in tears again and the girls stood there in shock. Suddenly Maria got yanked backwards and began screaming. She grabbed hold of the doorframe but I could slowly see her fingers slipping. “Help me Ivy,” she pleaded before letting go with a terrified scream that I knew was going to give me nightmares in the nights to come. If I lived that long of course. I went to dive after her and just missed; hitting the ground but up and running before Amanda and Carey could even register what happened. But I was too slow; she was dragged up the stairs screaming her head off with all three of us in close pursuit. When we reached the top all was silent and Maria lay there with her head cocked at an odd angle; her neck snapped. And floating over her was a little girl singing the “Are you sleeping?” song. Just as she reached the ding, ding, dong part, the clock went off again and I counted the chimes. Just 1. We had quite a while to go until daylight.

          Amanda, Carey, and I sprinted down the main hallway stopping just short of running into the doors which had just shut with a loud BOOM!! Clutching my hair with both my hands I bent over frustrated and out of breath from running. Amanda tugged on the doors and moaned in panic, “They’re locked!” I glared at her muttering, “No way! Like I totally couldn’t tell that!” Carey slid down to the floor her back pressed against the wall sobbing. “Stop being a baby and get up!” I snapped at her grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up.

          We walked up to the dining room again and started a fire in the fire place they had set up in the front of the room. I blame myself for what happened next. If I wasn’t so busy pacing and wallowing in my own misery maybe I would have noticed them fighting. I don’t even know why they were fighting. All I know is that all of the sudden Amanda pushed Carey and something or somebody tripped her and she fell into the fireplace. I didn’t even know what to say I was so shocked. By the time I even reacted it was too late. And that’s why Amanda lost it.

          She started raving about she had to get out of this house. And then she figured out the perfect solution. We could climb out a window. We headed up to the second floor because all of the windows were boarded up on the first floor. As we were heading up I heard the clock chime again. 5 times. We finally found a room where the window was not boarded up. Amanda put her bottom half out first and started to lower her self. All of the sudden the window slammed down and Amanda lost her grip falling down right upon a metal stake in the ground. And then right in my ear I heard, “I’m coming for you next Ivy.”

          I decided to hole myself up in the kitchen. I saw the light getting lighter through a crack in the boards covering up the window. I heard her coming down the stairs again. Tormenting me. She knew I was the last one alive. I opened the knife drawer slowly, another sob wracking my body. I wrapped my hands around the butcher knife. She floated in, an amused expression on her face. “Tsk, tsk. You know you can’t kill me. Why bother?” she murmured drawing closer a malevolent grin contorting her angelic face into something hideous. “Why not…” she leaned in closer, “Give up?” she whispered the last part stroking my cheek. I shuddered, tears streaming down my face. Lifting the knife up in my trembling hands, I positioned it over my heart. Her eyes widened in shock and she went to dive for the knife but I drove it in gasping at the sudden cold. As I sank to my knees my shoulders began to shake from hysterical laughter. I glanced up and whispered “Game over, Lily.”