Out of the Darkness

6

"There's someone, or someTHING, here with us," Corey replied, looking around with wide eyes. Sam started to say something but it caught in his throat. After clearing it, he tried again. "I feel something but I'm not sure what. It could just be because this is quite possibly the creepiest place we've ever been." "You can say that again," I muttered, my eyes catching a glass curio cabinet. "Oh fuck that,' I said, my voice a little louder than it should've been. "What the fuck!" Jake exclaimed. He sounded excited though, instead of incredibly creeped out. The curio cabinet had glass surrounding it, the side having a little latch so that you could put things in and take them out. The cabinet was full of the creepiest dolls I had ever seen. They were beautiful in a way, but terrifying in others. At first glance, they were just creepy porcelain dolls, but when you looked closer, you noticed how real they actually were. Some of the mouths were open in silent screams, some eyes were squeezed shut in terror. Others were smiling, but had a crazy trapped look in their eyes. I can't explain how I saw these things in a doll's eyes but they were there. "These are scary. There's something wrong with them. I don't like them. I'm ready to go. I want to go," Corey said, backing up away from the cabinet. I saw Sam unlatch the cabinet and reach his hand in. "Sam, don't-" I tried to say but it was too late. His hand closed around the doll closest to the glass pane and pulled her out. Her dark hair was silky and down to her waist. Her clothes weren't the usual frilly dresses you would find on a porcelain doll thought. In fact, as I looked over the rest of them, their clothes were all different. Some were wearing shorts, jeans, skirts, sundresses, etc. They were all outdated though. These dolls were old. "I don't think you should be touching that," I said, taking the doll from him. When I went to place it back inside the cabinet, the sad, terrified eyes caught my own. They seemed so real... "Colby, did you hear me?" Sam asked, shaking me back to reality. "Huh? What?" I asked, setting the doll back where she was before.  "I said, we should hurry up. I don't know why we didn't think to get here a little earlier so that we could set up the tent." "Excuse me, WHAT FUCKING TENT?" Corey yelled, almost making the walls shake, it seemed. "Oh shit," Jake laughed. "Oh yeah," Sam replied, sheepishly. "I, um, forgot to tell you...we're gonna be camping out tonight. In the front yard of this house." I saw Corey's eyes somehow go even wider, as the fear and terror crept into them. "No the fuck we're not. No we aren't. Sam, tell me you're joking. Why the fuck?" He grabbed his head with both hand and looked back and forth between Sam and I. "Why the fuck would you want to do this? You can feel how wrong it is in this place!" "We won't be inside here Corey. Just think. We're going to be right next to the car, outside. If anything starts to happen, we can just leave. Okay?" Sam said, looking at me for help. "Y-yeah," I agreed, not really sure that I wanted to at this point. The look in the doll's eyes had really shaken me. Corey didn't reply. He just shook head, crossed his arms, and looked around the room that we were in. "Come on, let's see the rest of the house, then we'll go outside. Make a fire. It'll make us feel better," I said, patting Corey on the back. "Fine," he huffed out. "But when we're all sacrificed to some Satanic cult of ghost witches, don't say I didn't warn you. If I die, I'm haunting you all." I laughed along with the Sam and Jake, but it felt forced. I glanced over to the dolls again and felt chills go down my spine when I met the eyes of the dark haired one again. Her green eyes seemed to pierce through the darkness, straight into my soul. "We've only been in the living room and I'm already creeped out," I muttered, kicking a old can across the room. It clattered against the wall with a loud clang. "Colby, don't do that. You're gonna piss them off," Corey said, looking around. I didn't reply or laugh, because I felt like he might be right. "Piss who off though?" Jake wondered, walking past me into the next room. We followed him, and ended up in the kitchen. Most of the cabinets were hanging on their last hinge, showing us the contents inside of them. "What is that?" he said, walking up to one of them. Sam took the camera from me, and walked up behind Jake so he could see what he was looking at. "Oh wow," he said, glancing back at me. "Come see this brother." I walked slowly up beside Jake, and looked inside the cabinet. "What the hell is all of that?" I breathed out. There were little glass jars, filled with different things. Some looked like leaves, others liquids, a few empty ones, and some with different colored powders. There were labels on some of them. Jake reached in and picked one up, using his flashlight to try and read it. They weren't labeled with stickers like most of today's things were. Instead, it looked like someone had either drawn them on with a marker, or painted them. Some of the words were smeared off, and some were peelings. "Can you guys read this?" Jake asked, passing it to me. "This is not a good idea," Corey said quietly, making me jump. "When the fuck did you get there?" I asked, not knowing that he had come up beside me. He ignored the question and stared at the small glass flask in my hand. "L- something...I can't make it out. Wood? L something wood. It looks like pepper. I bet it's something bad though," he said.