Unknown

Abby walked into the dark room alone. She doesn’t know where any of her friends went, but she could have sworn they were with her just minutes ago. Wherever they are now, she hopes they make it out alive.

Three Hours Earlier

Abby Cardoza is a high school senior. She has never been the top student in her class but she’s always passed. She has been considered one of the prettiest girls throughout school. She had long brown hair with a red tint that ran to the center of her back. She had ice blue eyes and freckles splattered across her nose and cheeks. She had a reddish tint to her nose and cheeks. She was short so she always wore platform boots to add to her height. She loved the color lime green and had a ton of shirts that color. She often wore black leggings with blue ripped jean shorts over them. A sweatshirt over top of a white tank top that exposed a little too much cleavage to be appropriate for school. But she has never been popular. In fact, she had few friends. Jacob was her best friend. Zoey, Maddie, and Leo were other people she was friends with. Jacob was tall and had shaggy blonde hair, green eyes, and straight white teeth. He has always been involved in sports and when she asked him to join the musical with her he did it gladly. She is known around her town for her vlog. She live streams almost every event she is involved in. She has never been rich but has always been relatively middle class. She lives in a pretty pricey neighborhood, Belleair Beach, Florida. The place has tons of abandoned old homes, but the most known is the old mansion.

“Mom! I can’t find my other heel!”Abby yelled from the top of the stairs.

It was Halloween and Abby was planning on going out with four of her best friends. They planned on going to a mansion that had been abandoned since the early 1950s. Abby told her mother she was going trick-or-treating and spending the night at Jacob’s house after.

“I last saw it at the bottom of the basement stairs! Sorry, I can’t be more helpful.” her mom shouted back from the laundry room.

“It’s fine. Thanks!”

Abby walked to the basement quickly. She didn’t like it down there; it gave her the willies. She ran up the stairs after retrieving her other shoe and went back up to her room to finish doing her makeup. She was being a killer barbie. Jacob was going to be a spider, Maddie: Skeleton, Zoey: a ghost and Leo was going to be a zombie.

As Abby walked out of her house, she knew that if her mom ever found out where she was really going she would be dead. She was willing to take the risk though. The gang had been planning on going to the mansion for a year now and she wasn’t going to chicken out now. She met her friends at the school park and from there, they took Abby’s car and drove to the end of town. When they arrived at the mansion, Jacob was the first to get out.

“Are you sure we should do this? We can always come back next year.”

Zoey announced.

“Don’t be such a baby, Zo.” Leo said.

Leo jumped five feet in the air when Abby shut her door behind her.

“Don’t be such a baby Leo.” Abby said laughing.

“Shut Up!” Leo Whined.

Abby got the camera ready for live streaming. They started towards the mansion. Maddie ran ahead of the group. As the rest of the group approached the door, Maddie jumped out of her hiding place.

“Boo!” She screamed.

Leo punched her in the arm.

“Ow!” Maddie exclaimed.

“Shush. We are going live in three, two, one, now.”Abby said. Abby opened the door and stepped inside, disappearing from view.

“Wait up!” Jacob called after her.

“Come on guys! It’s so cool in here!!” Abby exclaimed.

“Spiderwebs and dust. Very cool…” Zoey didn’t agree with her.

“We should go check out the basement and work our way up to the attic. Then we can go look at the backyard. Then we can go to Jacob’s place and watch horror movies!” Abby suggested.

“Couldn’t we just go to Jacob’s to begin with? We should do this some other time. During the day maybe. I’m not comfortable being here after dark.” Leo offered.

“This is our last Halloween in high school! We’re seniors this year, it won’t be the same after tonight.” Jacob explained.

“I guess that makes sense.” Leo agreed.

The gang slowly made their way to the kitchen where the basement stairs were. Abby began to get goosebumps. She hates basements of old, dark houses, but figured that since her best friends were there with her that everything would be fine. Not to mention they all had their phones on them if anything went wrong. She knew her mom would find out about where she had really been if they had to call the police for help. So that option was only to be used if absolutely necessary. But she doubted they would need help: it was just an old house. The worst that was in there was going to be spiders.

“Are you guys absolutely sure that the flashlights have 100% charge? Because it’s gonna be even darker down there than it is right here. It would really suck for them to die on us.” Zoey asked.

“Yup! I checked them while we were in the car on the way here!” Leo answered.

“Okay. Let’s go then…” Zoey said.

They trudged down the stairs into the pitch-black basement.

“Umm… Guys… Did you hear that??!!” Maddie asked jumpily.

“It was just rats.” Abby responded.

“Are you sure?” Maddie asked skeptically.

“Yes, I’m sure. It’s an old house, there are going to be rats.” Abby responded annoyed.

The group continued on, but Maddie was scared.

“Abby, I’m gonna go wait in the car. I’m not feeling comfortable down here.” Maddie exclaimed.

“Okay. See you in about an hour, Mads. I’ll call and check in with you every twenty minutes. How does that sound?” Abby asked.

“That’s fine. See ya.” Maddie said feeling relieved.

Maddie made her way back up the stairs and was just about to walk out the front door when something grabbed her ankle. She turned to look and an ax was swung clean into her neck right before she could scream.

Abby pulled her phone away from her ear as the call went to voicemail for the third time.

“That’s weird. Mads usually picks up. Especially when she is expecting a call.” Abby said.

“She probably fell asleep.” Jacob offered.

“You’re probably right. I’ll leave her alone then.” Abby decided.

They continued on, and as they came closer to the end of the house Jacob started to notice things that weren’t normal.

“Hey, Abby? Was it normal for rich families to have a noose and cage in their basement in the early 1950s?” He asked.

“I don’t think so. But according to the internet, nothing ever happened here that got the public’s attention. Though, I have heard rumors that no one knew what happened to the children that lived here. Some people think that the parents were cannibals. Others say that the dad chopped them up into tiny pieces and fed them to the animals as food. Or that the mom put them through the meat grinder and used them as fertilizer for her garden. There are lots of rumors, but I highly doubt it’s true. The last people who lived here were back when they didn’t have vaccines and medicine wasn’t as advanced as it is now.” Abby tried explaining.

“That makes sense I guess. People just have overactive imaginations.” Jacob tried to calm his nerves.

They finished exploring the basement and headed back upstairs to discover the main floor. Abby led the way.

“Hey Zoey?” Abby asked.

“Yea?” Zoey responded immediately.

“You have some experience with classifying types of spiders. What kind of spider is this? Do you know?” Abby asked before getting any closer to it.

“Umm… I think that’s just a wolf spider. Pretty common to find them in abandoned houses like this. It’s venomous but the bite won’t kill you.” Zoey said.

“Okay. Well, then how are we supposed to get through this doorway? It’s decided to make its web right in the middle of it.” Abby complained.

“Here use this!” Leo handed Abby a pole that was laying on the ground a few feet away.

Abby used the pole to break the web. She jumped out of the way as the spider came running in her direction.

“There we go! Now we can get through!” Abby exclaimed.

They continued on, reaching the living room next.

“Woah!! That’s so cool!” Zoey almost shouted.

They walked into the living room to find a gigantic family portrait on a painting above the fireplace.

“Wait a minute… Everyone says that there were only two children in the family. But in this portrait, there are four children… Why did no one ever know about them? That’s so weird!” Leo noted.

“Maybe the other children were adopted. Or maybe they were cousins.” Jacob thought out loud.

“They wouldn’t be in the photo if that was the case. Maybe they got disowned... We may be able to find out for sure the more we explore.” Abby said, smiling.

Abby walked around and took a few old books off the shelf and read their titles. Jacob lit all the candles around the room. Leo started getting an eerie feeling as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

“Hey, Abby. I’m gonna go find the bathroom. Jacob, will you come with me? I don’t want to go alone.” Leo asked

“Yeah sure. Let’s hurry though. We’ll be right back Abby and Zoey!” Jacob informed them.

Leo and Jacob started off on their journey to find the bathroom. They had to walk through the kitchen and still couldn’t find it so they walked into the dining room. It wasn’t there so they checked out the office. Again, it wasn’t there. So Jacob got his phone out and called Abby to check if she saw it or had any idea where it might be.

“Hey, Abby?” Jacob asked.

“Yea?” Abby responded.

“Did you see a bathroom anywhere?” Jacob said.

“No. There might be one upstairs though.” Abby thought about it.

Jacob spoke to Leo about checking out the upstairs for a bathroom. Leo said yes.

“Okay. We’re going to go check it out.” Jacob stated.

“Okay. See you soon. Bye.” Abby hung up.

Leo and Jacob made their way upstairs. As Abby had suggested the bathroom was at the end of the hallway on the second floor. Leo closed the door behind him. Jacob waited outside.

*Click*

Leo reached for the doorknob and realized that it wouldn’t twist.

“Jacob… Stop joking around… Open the door now!!!” Leo shouted.

“I’m not holding it closed. I’m not even standing by the door!” Jacob responded. “Hold on Leo. I’m gonna go get Abby and Zoey. Maybe they can help. Hang tight!” Jacob yelled running in the other direction.

“Not like I can go anywhere, Jacob.” Leo muttered sarcastically.

Leo started getting that eerie feeling again. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he felt something breathing on him. Then he heard a low chuckle as something wrapped its fingers around his bottom jaw and pulled down slowly. Leo cried as he felt bone snap, pop, crack, felt tissue rip, and felt the blood bubbling and gurgling as it leaked out in spurts. He felt the entire process of his bottom jaw getting slowly torn off while he watched it happen in the mirror. When Jacob, Abby, and Zoey got to the bathroom the door was cracked open. They looked in and didn’t see Leo.

“Leo, are you still up here? If you are pulling some sort of sick joke: knock it off!” Zoey Cried.

No response…

“I’m going to look for him outside, if you find him in the house give me a call.” Zoey said, hugging them both.

Zoey got outside and started searching the front yard and side yards for Leo. She looked in every bush, tree, and dark corner. She then looked under the porch and saw the bodies of both Leo and Maddie… She ran to the car and got her phone out to call Abby to tell them that they needed to get out of the house immediately. But before she could hit the call button she felt a hot, sharp pain in her kidney area. She was in too much pain to even scream. But she looked at the thing that was going to kill her straight in the face and spit a thick glob of slimy saliva into its eyes. It grabbed her head and snapped her neck, killing her instantly. It threw her under the porch too.

Abby started to get worried.

“Maybe we should go back to the car. Zoey should have called us by now.” Abby stated.

“I’m sure everything’s fine. I betcha Leo and Zoey are making out in the backseat of your car. You know how many times that has happened. Zoey probably forgot. You know how she is. Let’s just continue checking out the house.” Jacob suggested.

“Okay.” Abby responded after giving it a bit of thought.

They moved on to checking out the attic. Jacob started to climb the ladder that he had to pull down from the ceiling. He started wheezing.

“You okay up there?” Abby asked, giggling.

“I’m fine. There’s just a ton of dust up here.” He responded laughing as well.

“Hurry up! I wanna go up there sometime this decade too.” Abby jokes, putting her hands on his butt and pushing.

“Hey! Cut it out! Will ya?” He said, pretending to fall.

“Well Hurry up then!” Abby told him, smiling.

Once they were both up the ladder Jacob picked Abby up and spun her around with only one thing in mind; getting even.

“I’m gonna hit you when I’m not dizzy anymore you jerk!” Abby threatened.

“Love you too!” Jacob said, smiling.

“Shut up!” Abby shouted.

Abby knew Jacob saying ‘love you' shouldn’t bug her. They’ve been friends since kindergarten. But she suddenly started realizing that she might love him more than just the brother she has always thought of him as. That’s when she realized that she was in love with the boy next door. She decided to act on it.

“Jacob. Come here…” Abby demanded.

“What?” Jacob asked worriedly.

...Oh My Gosh!! He’s so close!! I can feel the heat radiating off of him!...

Abby kisses him then.

“I love you, Jacob.” Abby cooed.

“Woah… W-Where did that come from??” Jacob asked, blushing and embarrassed.

“I don’t know, but it’s true.”Abby blushes. “I don’t want to lose you. Let’s go back to the car.”

“Okay.” Jacob agreed.

When they got to the car they noticed that the car was all dented up as if someone had taken a baseball bat to it.

“Yo! My car! I spent my own money on this thing. I know it’s a piece of junk but that doesn’t mean people need to take out their anger on my vehicle! It’s not a punching bag!” Abby ranted.

“Abby! Stop worrying about the car. I can help you pay for a new one the next time I get money. We need to worry about where Lily, Olivia, and Leo went! They aren’t here!” Jacob spoke, panicked.

“We gotta find them!!” Abby rushed.

They took off running in the direction of the mansion. They just came from inside, so they knew they weren’t in there. So they decided to start in the backyard. As they turned around the corner of the house they noticed that there were gravestones lining the sidewalk that led straight to a mausoleum.

“What the hell!” Jacob exclaimed

“That’s weird. I’m out of explanations for the strange things here.” Abby whispered.

“Abby… What was that?? I could have sworn I just saw movement over by the mausoleum!”

“Let’s go that direction! You probably saw one of our friends hiding!” Abby started in that direction.

Jacob grabbed Abby’s wrist.

“What if it wasn’t one of them?”

“Well, then I guess that someone else is out here after all.”

Jacob kissed Abby before he let her go. They continue down the sidewalk.

“Leo! Zo! Mads!” Abby shouted. “If you hear me please come out!! This isn’t funny!!” Abby started crying.

“I’m gonna go check out the front yard. I’ll be right back. And if you would like I can be on the phone with you the entire time.” Jacob offered.

“Okay. I’ll call you right now so that I don’t have to worry about you. Love you.” Abby said as she pulled out her phone and hit the call button on Jacobs’ contact.

He answered immediately and turned the video function on.

“Love you too. And I’ll be on your screen the entire time.” Jacob hugged Abby before walking in the other direction.

Jacob got to the front yard within five minutes. He started walking around and started paying more attention to Abby when he heard her screaming at him to run without turning around. He noticed Abby was crying and running in that direction. Of course, he turned to see what she was talking about. He didn’t understand what she was trying to warn him about. But then he heard the voice.

“Your next loverboy.” It said in a deep gravelly voice.

It grabbed him, shattered his phone beyond the point of working, and carried him into the basement.

When Abby finally got to the front yard, she had dropped her phone and camera while running and noticed Jacob wasn’t anywhere to be seen. That’s when she heard it… Screaming… Coming from the house. She followed it to the back room in the basement. She remembered the room well. It was the one with the noose and cage in it.

Abby crept into the dark room alone, hoping that she would find Jacob. She didn’t know where any of her friends went but she hoped they would make it out in one piece. That’s when she saw him. The thing was slowly peeling the skin from his body. While a trickle of lemon juice slowly ran down the exposed muscle. The thing also had a long line of other things that Abby assumed were going to be used to torture Jacob. She had to stop whatever it was that was hurting him. But the only way to do so would probably get herself killed in the process. Was she willing to do it? Even if she tried… Could she stop it before it killed her or would it kill her then continue torturing Jacob? She wasn’t sure. But she didn’t want to take any chances. So she took five giant steps back so that she could think about it for a moment before she went into action.

She decided the best way to get its attention would be to go in there and start yelling and jumping around like an idiot.

“HEY!! MONSTER MAN!! YOU CAN’T GET ME!!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.

She started jumping around and shouting that over and over again. Eventually, the thing turned and looked at her dead in the eyes. She stuck her tongue out at it and took off up the stairs to the main floor, around the first floor, to the stairs that led to the second floor, and ran up those ones too. The thing chased after her forgetting about Jacob. She ran and ran until she came to a dead end at the end of the hall. She hadn’t thought about what she was going to do after that. The thing had her cornered.

She noticed that the bathroom had a window in it. She ran to it and tried to throw it open; it was stuck. She assumed whoever lived here last had accidentally painted it closed. She grabbed one of the old bottles of perfume and chucked it at it with all of her strength. It shattered. Thank the lord that people made bottles out of glass in the early 1950s. She kicked the rest of the glass out of the frame and climbed out as quickly as possible. As she was climbing out of the window a jagged shard of glass that she must have missed dug into her side; a stream of thick, red blood oozed out of the deep gash. She cringed when she heard the thing getting closer. She took off on the roof, being careful to avoid the worst thing possible at the moment; slipping. She knocked some of the loose tiles off the roof as she ran on them. Causing rather large holes that you could see the attic through. She hoped that it would make it harder for the creature to catch up to her if the foothold wasn’t good. It didn’t seem to have any issues with moving around on the roof though. She just ran faster. Pushing herself even though her lungs were strained. She couldn’t die. She had to succeed. She noticed a spot that divited down on the roof. She ran faster and jumped a few feet away from the low point. As she landed on the roof again the tiles gave away and she fell through to the attic; gaining more deep wounds in her arms and legs. Again she was off. She ran to where the ladder was, thankful that Jacob had left it down when they left. She took off down the hallway and down the stairs taking them four at a time and out the front door.

She noticed that the creature hadn’t caught up to her yet. She could see it through the window of the hallway upstairs; it was struggling to get down the ladder. She took the opportunity to hide and plan again.

*Boom… Boom… Boom…*

It stomped out of the front door. As her heart rate slowed, she felt a sharp pain in her side. She had forgotten about her wounds. She cried out. Then she realized what she had done. The creature followed the sound she had made and slowly started walking towards her. She started to convulse due to blood loss. She knew if she didn’t do something soon they were all going to die. She took off again, running in the direction of the meadow behind the house as it followed. She noticed that it was slowing down. And as she kept running, she couldn’t see it anymore.

“I *gasp* think I *pant* lost it!” She said, trying to catch her breath.

She decided to double back taking a different way and get Jacob. They needed to get away from the mansion. And they can never return. She jogged back and eventually reached the mansion. She snuck in the back door and heard Jacob screaming again. Only this time he wasn’t screaming in pain. He was screaming in pure terror and heartache. She crept down the basement stairs and took a few deep breaths before she entered the torture chamber. She entered and understood immediately why he was screaming this time. Jacob has always had necrophobia: the fear of dead things. And sitting in front of him were three mangled corpses. Three of his best friends were laying on the ground in front of him: dead. She didn’t see the thing in the room so she took one more deep breath and slowly walked into the room. She hurried over to Jacob. Blocking their dead friends from view. She kicked them out of the way one by one behind her back. She took hold of Jacobs face and forced him to focus on her.

“Jacob! Calm down… It’s alright… You’re fine… I’m here now…” Abby spoke, soothingly.

“Abby? He said you were dead. He said you were never coming back.” He cried.

“It lied. I’m alive. But neither of us will be much longer if we stay here. We gotta go!” Abby said, untying him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” A low, deep, gravely voice said from behind them. “The party is only just beginning.”

“Can you run?” Abby asked Jacob in a whisper.

“I think so.” Jacob whispered back.

“On three… One, Two, Three…” They took off towards the stairway. They made it back to Abby’s car. Abby searched her pockets and realized that Leo had her key.

“COME BACK!!!” The creature yelled.

“Shiznit! Leo has my keys!” Abby started to panic.

“It’s fine. We don’t need it. Let’s just go!” Jacob said stressed, grabbing Abby’s arm and pulling her back towards town.

“Abby!! Jacob!!” They both heard their name coming from the mansion. It sounded like their friends…

“GO! NOW!” Jacob yelled and they took off down the road.

As they were running Jacob slipped and fell. He cut his left knee open on an exposed root.

“Jacob! Are you alright? Come on! We don’t have time for this!” Abby said, pulling him up off the ground.

“Leave me! I’ll catch up with you in a minute. I promise!” Jacob said panicked.

“You better. Or I’m gonna kill you!” Abby exclaimed.

“If I don’t catch up I’m gonna be dead before you can kill me.” Jacob cringed.

“I’ll bring you back from the dead just to kill you again then.” Abby explained through gritted teeth.

Abby turned and started running again. She hadn’t even gotten a quarter mile when she heard screaming coming from the direction she came from. She kept running while tears blurred her vision. She ran until she made it to the edge of town. She figured she was safe there. But as soon as she stopped to catch her breath something wrapped around her waist and pinned her against a tree. She felt the sharp blade of a jackknife pierce her right shoulder. She could feel the steel blade grind against her scapula. She cried out. She felt a hand cover her mouth and nose. Everything went black after that.

She woke up in the torture room. She heard a low snipping sound coming from right behind her. Then there was a red hot arch of pain across her scalp. She felt a thick, warm liquid run down her face and neck. She realized that she was bleeding. Her scalp was being severed off with a pair of rusty old sheep shears. She decided if she was going to die she would find out what was killing her.

“Excuse me?” Abby asked spitefully.

The cutting stopped. She figured the creature was surprised that she was talking.

“What are you exactly?” She asked.

“I’m a human. Just like you.” The creature responded.

“You are?!” Abby nearly shouted.

“Yes.” It responded annoyed.

The cutting started up again. A little harder this time.

“Why are you doing this?” Abby asked quietly.

“I already told you. You guys came to my party. No one ever shows up to it. The only issue is; you have to be dead to attend. I’m doing you all a favor really. The world sucks.” He responded.

“That’s your outlook on life. I actually enjoy breathing.” Abby exclaimed.

“I’ve been here 1000 years. I’ve seen all walks of life. I’ve seen time change. I can say the world sucks because I’ve seen it.” He told her.

“Oh.” Abby was out of things to say.

She saw the man holding a syringe that contained bright blue liquid inside. She began to squirm. The man stabbed the long needle into her neck.

“What was in that syringe? She asked, gasping.

“Drano. It causes severe pain, muscle spasms, and eventually… heart attack and failure.” He said with a smile in his voice; almost jovial.

Within the hour Abby was dead.

The next morning the search for the missing teenagers started. Someone that watched the live stream had called Abby’s mom and told her where she was. When the police arrived at the mansion, all they found was Abby’s camera where she had dropped it in the backyard, by the mausoleum….