House of Lincoln

9

We staggered to our feet. Clyde quickly paged in. "What is it? What noise?" She held down the button on her walkie-talkie so we could hear. The noise that was blaring in that room was extremely loud—even over the speaker. It sounded like the creaking of a ship, or something heavy scraping against a hard surface. It was hard to tell because everywhere Stella looked, there was nothing to see in that empty room. One of the oddest things I thought about was how we were unable to hear the sound, even though it was of that great a volume, and the only thing separating us from that room was the thin wooden door. How did we not hear that sound? We were right outside. "What do you think it is, Stella?" Clyde asked. "I don't know, but whatever it is—it's big." I looked up at Clyde, and he nervously looked back at me. "Has this ever happened before? A noise?" I shook my head 'no'. "Do you think it's time to get her out of there?"

Rusty volunteered, either because he was getting bored or because he wanted to continue his role of "reliable soldier." He walked up to the door, and we heard a scream over the speakers. "Stella?! STELLA?!" Clyde screamed into the device. I yelled at Rusty, "GET HER OUT, RUSTY!" This situation seemed to be shaking him up, because he broke his solemn expression, and slowly realized that this was real, and the responsibilities he was given MEANT something. He threw open the door. That's when Rusty paused—no—he froze. I could've sworn he turned a shade paler. Maybe it's just my eyes, but he looked a bit white. He stared in that room, and he was shaking now. He spoke and he stuttered. "Guys... I thought you were joking." He turned around and looked at both of us with his wide terrified eyes, and asked: "Where is Stella?"

I sprinted to the door as fast as a sudden fear could throw me. She wasn't inside the room. All three of us walked inside to search closer, though we knew it was hopeless. She really was gone. Then, a second horror struck us. When our shock started to settle, we decided to give up our trivial search for Stella. A certain sadness filled us all, and we turned shamefully to the door to leave the room, but we noticed something was there that wasn't there before. On the hard cold wall around the door, there were giant ink-black painted letters that read: "Where am I?"

...

We all were scared. Clyde gripped his stomach like he was about to be sick. Rusty sat in the corner of the hall alone. I looked back at the laptop, which I'd foolishly taken my eyes off after we heard her scream. It was not displaying her camera footage anymore. Just one word. "Disconnected." Clyde's stomach eventually did overwhelm him, and he walked into the bathroom to loudly gag a few times. However, to my ears, it seemed he never spit anything up. I was frazzled by the whole thing too, but I was more so sad. Was she going to come back? If we opened that door again, maybe a hundred times, would she show up again? I won't say it to Clyde, and especially not to Rusty, but...

Maybe I did like her.

What now? A disheartened team now split up in anguish and expected to move on? This house always tormented me. Just me. Not even my siblings seemed bothered. Now this retched "estate of delirium" is beginning to target others. It's as if this house went from being my own personal parasite to being a life-sucking predator. Stella... where are you now? Were you swallowed by these walls? Are you dead, or are you waiting for us to save you? And another important question—who's next? What if I burned it all down?

.ᴎwob llɒ ƚi ᴎɿuᙠ

.ɿoɿɿim ɘʜƚ ᴎi ʞoo⅃

ɹǝʇsuoɯ ɐ ǝǝs I.

llɐ ʇɐ uoıʇɔǝlɟǝɹ ʎɯ ʇou s,ʇɐɥ⊥.

        𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂. 𝒞𝓁𝓎𝒹𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑅𝓊𝓈𝓉𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒾𝓉. 𝒲𝑒 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝑜𝑔𝑒𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇.𝐼𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒶 𝒿𝒶𝒾𝓁 𝒸𝑒𝓁𝓁. 𝓐 𝓿𝓸𝓲𝓬𝓮 𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓾𝓽: "𝓞𝓷𝓮 𝓶𝓪𝔂 𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓮, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓭𝓲𝓮." 𝓒𝓵𝔂𝓭𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓡𝓾𝓼𝓽𝔂 𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓭𝓸𝓸𝓻 𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝓾𝓹. 𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓵𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓾𝓽, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝓼𝓪𝔀 𝓒𝓵𝔂𝓭𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓡𝓾𝓼𝓽𝔂, 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓷𝓮𝓭, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓱𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓮𝓲𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓫𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻 𝓯𝓮𝓮𝓽.

       𝖂𝖍𝖎𝖑𝖊 𝕴, 𝖒𝖞𝖘𝖊𝖑𝖋, 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖕𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖔𝖓, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖍 𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖇𝖊𝖆𝖚𝖙𝖎𝖋𝖚𝖑 𝖋𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖉𝖔𝖒 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖜𝖆𝖎𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖒𝖊 𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖆𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖌.