Hell Hole

Chapter Two. Mr. Jones

Parker held her breath as she contemplated walking forward into the open house, hands shaking uncontrollably feeling her pulse stuck in her throat. Something wasn't right. She wasn't supposed to be here. Looking back at her car still running through the outdated and dusty window shades, she swallowed her fear and moved passed the living room that the home opened up to.

The air was too still, too silent, but something smelled of death in this house and she couldn't ignore the suspicious circumstances. She looked around the living room for James's cat calling out for it softly trying to coax it to her. Parker always enjoyed the fluffy cat's presence, having cats of her own and much preferring them to dogs.

She walked forward holding her sleeve over her face to hide the rancid smells, but it barely helped. It was absolutely putrid. Slowly creeping deeper into his living room before mustering the courage to lightly holler her friends name, she sighed and hollered "James?!".

She walked further but her steps were incredibly slow. She could feel her heart in her throat with anxiety. The way prey would feel naturally before inevitably being slaughtered. The thought loomed over her as she tried to move, the stench getting worse the further she trailed. At this point her pulse was deafening. Her instincts now telling her to turn around and leave, and as if on cue she saw it.

Parker's eyes lit up in horror as something she'd feared caught her attention from the middle of the living room floor. All the furniture had been pushed back to display a wide open area with burnt black carpet leaving a circular hole on the floor surrounded by red candles. She looked closer, kneeling down to further inspect what looked like a previous ritual and found none other than her friends cat, flesh still attached but melted off of the animal. It hadn't been dead long.

This cat hadn't had time to decay, the collar still wrapped around its neck with James's contact information and "Mr.Jones" in bold letters attached. She began to sob.

"What the fuck..." Parker whispered, her voice shaking in absolute confusion and terror. She quickly made the choice to run back to her car and get out of the house as fast and as far away as possible. Whatever this was, she didn't want any part of it.

She stumbled finding her footing to turn around only to be met by her old friend James, standing tall and blocking the door way, his bloodshot eyes locked on her and her lanyard with keys dangling from his crossed arms. He clicked the key fob and she heard he card honk from outside.

"James." She whispered, shuffling to her feet as she backed away slowly, knocking a candle over behind her. She looked for anywhere she could escape as he stood there absolutely still, starring directly at her not blinking, nor losing his gaze for a moment.

Parker knew that the house was open all the way through. Every door was connected to the next room over. It was an older home that was probably designed for a family or children. It's an aspect she'd commented on when James first gave her a tour a few years prior when he began renting it. The home connected all the way through, through some door or another. If this was about to be a chase, this was her only advantage she could think of.

She looked to the right where the connecting  hallway was located and noticed that James flinched as if he were ready to lunge at her if she ran that direction. She noticed the kitchen to the left had a door towards the back. It had to be the back yard exit. She only needed one. Finding her footing she turned to James's bedroom, located to the far right of the living room behind her. It was behind a couch that had been shoved in the corner but the door was open. Realizing this was the only way to run, the chase began.

She ditched her house shoes to be able to run without sliding , fumbling to climb over his couch that blocked the doors pathway. Before she knew it she felt the tug of her robe in James's hand but pushed forward and shut the door on his hand as he tried to stop her. He tried to halt the door from closing but Parker smashed his fingers as hard as she could until he let out an angry cry from the other side and scraped his fingers back out. The door shut behind her and she pushed the lock in, backing away slowly, shaking and breathing uncontrollably.

She ran for the door to the right that connected to the hallway, hoping to make it to the kitchen before he did. She passed the bathroom and could see him in her peripheral of the living room, gripping his injured hand, slowly turning to see her running for the back exit.

She made it to the kitchen and dashed for the door, quickly finding herself at the back exit. She found it hard to stop shaking long enough to turn the knob. Parker couldn't steady her breathing in the midst of this panic attack but tried with everything in her to open the door. It was jammed!

She could hear James walking towards her and she continued to jiggle to knob but to no avail. The door wouldn't open. She began to whimper punching to door out of frustration then turned around to find James standing there in the kitchen just staring at her waiting, knowing she was trapped in a corner. He made his way towards her and she frantically shuffled in every direction. He laughed.

"Did you really think I didn't have this planned through? I even let you fuck up my hand just to make it believable. Maybe if you came over more often you'd have known that doors been stuck since I moved in. I gotta give it to you Parker. You made it way easier than I thought it would be, but it didn't have to come to this if you would've just come with me." He taunted, walking slowly towards the cornered woman.

She shrunk to the floor and began crawling away as he reached for her. He grabbed her robe as she scrambled to find some footing and began to cry. "Why the hell are you doing this?! What the fuck James?!" She screamed, as she flailed and kicked at him.

She squirmed to get out of her robe, leaving it behind her in his hands. He laughed. The next thing she knew, she felt the silk of her robe being pulled tightly against her throat, rendering her from from breathing. She gasped for air and tried to put her hands between the cloth but it was too tight.

She could hear him shushing her as her vision became blurry and the world around her faded to black. She thought surely this was the end. Her dull life spent alone in her apartment, the heart break of lovers that never lasted, her family- flashed before her eyes and slowly she stopped struggling.

He dropped her body to the floor, her head hitting the tile. She was unconscious now, wheezing slow breaths in. He began to drag her body away by her ankles towards the back door she'd just been trapped at, gave it a little jiggle and push, then proceeded to kick the door open with an almost god like ease. His eyes were fixed out toward the freshly tilled farming field that belonged to the landlord and covered hundreds of acres behind the home.