Don't Go In Alone

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 15

I stare hard at the shadows on my ceiling. I got in bed feeling so tired, ready to drop dead on my feet, but now that I'm here, I'm not tired at all. I don't even know how long I've been lying here staring at these shadows. There's one in particular that I can't figure out what's casting it. It's a weird shape, kind of like a person but not.

Nothing in my room could be making it, so where's it coming from?

I kick my blankets off me and sit up. There's no point in lying around if I can't sleep. I get up, move over to my window and push the curtain aside. I look down at the front lawn, at the street where leaves have piled up in the gutter.

The sky is overcast, spattered with clouds of varying shades of grey. Light from the moon broke through cracks in the cloud cover, dotting the ground below. My eyes trace over the path they seem to create. Follow it until the clouds break and the moon shines directly on the Victorian.

The hair on my arms stands as my skin breaks out in goosebumps. Something in the back of my head urges to me to go, tells me that I want to. But it's wrong. I don't want to go over there ever again. I have no reason to go over there. To that creepy old house.

I don't want to go, yet I blink and I'm standing at the bottom of the steps of the porch. My chest heaves as I try to catch my breath. I ran over here?

It feels like something is pressing against the spot on my back between my shoulder blades. Urging me forward. Up the porch steps. I eye the door with its faded brown paint, the boards under my feet creaking with every step I take. I wrap my trembling fingers around the doorknob and turn it slowly.

The door groans, swings open.

I take a step back instead of going inside. There isn't a square of light from the open door this time. Just a wall of black on the other side of the doorway. I hesitate. Wonder what the hell it is that I'm doing over here again. Before I can even think about it, I'm stepping through the doorway.

The door clicks shut behind me.

My heartbeat picks up as I stare into the darkness ahead of me. It's not as dark as I remember it being. I can see at least an arm's length ahead of me this time. The floor still makes a fuss when I walk on it though. I have half a mind to turn around and get out of here before one of the boards snaps and I fall into the abyss underneath the house. But it's only half a mind.

The other half keeps me going. Keeps me moving further into the house. One foot after the other. Slow, careful steps until I find myself at the start of a hallway that goes off in two directions. To the left is nothing but darkness. I can't even tell if there's an actual hallway down that way or if it just drops off into nothingness.

I opt for taking a right. It's still dark, but I can see a couple of doors on opposite walls down here. One of them is shut, the other standing open a few inches. I pause in front of the open one, reach out and push on the wood of the door. It creaks, swings open enough for me to see that I can't actually see inside the room very well.

I take a step forward, even while my mind is screaming at me not to. Not to go in that room. The darkness seems to lessen when I step through the doorway. There's a spot in the center of the room that's more visible than anything so far and I have to cover my mouth to stifle the noise that comes out of it.

There's a bed in the middle of the room. One that looks familiar to me for some reason. I've seen it before. The body lying on it looks familiar too. She lies there, unmoving and covered in blood. It drips from her arms and legs and drenches the sheets beneath her. The blood is too red, too bright and too much like the color of her hair.