[✔] sciamachy // m. fairchild

xii

❦

The only sound in the hallway was the pittering of Y/n's bare feet against the hardwood floor. Y/n had expected more decorations and whatnot in the quarter of the house, however she was surprised to see it completely empty except for the red, lengthy carpet that was rolled down the never-ending hallway. The hallway also seemed to be a few degrees colder than the rest of the house–enough to make Y/n shiver, lifting her arms up to hug herself as she ventured deeper into the forsaken east-wing. 

Pattering echoed down the hall as a figure quickly sprinted in front of Y/n, causing her to abruptly stop mid-step. 

"Flora?" Y/n whispered again. "Hey, this isn't funny." She said, rolling her eyes as she slowly continued her way down the hall. In the periphery of Y/n's vision, she could see a tiny table with a vase on it, shoved against the wall. Something about it was off, seeing as it was the only piece of furniture so far in this entire wing.

Shrugging off the  eerie feeling, Y/n continued down the hall, the temperature only seeming to drop the further she trudged down the hall. Shivering, Y/n reached the end of the hall only to be met with a winding staircase. The stairs led downward in a spiral. Leaning over the edge of the railing, Y/n noticed a feminine figure standing at the bottom of the stairs. Unless Y/n's eyes were playing tricks on her, she could've sworn that the person was Kate, not Flora.

"You know, I've never been a fan of hide and–" Y/n was cut off by an ear-splitting scream that came from the bottom of the stairs, however it wasn't Kate. Quickly, Y/n scrambled down the stairs, but when she got to the end of them, her older sister wasn't there.

"Kate?" She whispered, turning around in a circle. The only thing there was a podium with a statue of a head sat on top of it. Y/n slowly stepped towards it, squinting her eyes in the dark to concentrate on the simplistic gray of the stone statue. The closer she got to the statue and the more she squinted her eyes to focus on it, the statue started to look familiar.

"Miles?" She muttered. The statue was a head of Miles. However, when Y/n reached out to touch it, the statue wasn't a statue anymore. It was real.

"Y/n!" It giggled, grinning in a way that Miles never would have. Y/n jumped back, retracting her hand. The giggling turned into gargling, and the gargling turned into growling. Soon, blood started dribbling out of the statue Miles' mouth and eyes, sliding down the podium. Black little insects crawled out of the ears, crawling down the podium to the floor. Y/n's skin crawled with goosebumps at the spiders, except it wasn't goosebumps or shivers. The spiders had started climbing up Y/n's body, adorning themselves on the girl's figure.

"Get off, get off!" She whisper-shouted as she patted at her clothes trying to swat the spiders off, but there were too many compared to her. Soon they were up to her face, climbing into her ears, up her nose, in her eyes. Y/n screamed as she clawed at her face trying to get the off of her body, but she just couldn't. Her body tingled at the feeling of the insects crawling up and down her body. She scratched her arms, kicked her legs, clawed at her face. She did anything to attempt to kill them.

Just then, she blinked and everything was back to normal. There were no spiders, no Miles statue–just a normal stone one of an anonymous man. 

Sucking in a breath, Y/n turned towards the hallway that continued from the bottom of the steps. However, this hallway was different–it wasn't nearly as inviting. The ceiling of it was all broken and worn-down boards, statues lining up and down the walkway. When Y/n had turned to face the hallway, all of the statues seemed to turn their heads, curiously watching the insane person who had dare enter the east-wing. 

Suddenly, a flash of light blinked at the end of the hallway, revealing that it wasn't that long. Y/n could do it; she could make it down that dark, dark hallway.

Gulping, Y/n willed her feet to move, getting closer to the end of the hall with every step she took. She had been feeling pretty confident in herself until the statues started making grinding sounds as their heads moved, following her every step. Besides the grinding noise, there was a quieter sound coming from the end of the hallway. One that intrigued Y/n.

The sound was a soft sobbing. Y/n could imagine the person's shoulders shaking as they sat curled in a ball, their head buried in their knees. She could hear the sniffling of a runny nose due to the amount of crying they had done.

Now more curious, Y/n picked up the pace, nearing the end of the horrid hall. 

"Kate?" She whispered again, desperately hoping it was her sister. However, when she reached the end of the corridor, there was no one. She looked in both of the crevices at the end of the hallway, but nothing. There was no one. Slowly, she turned around to go back upstairs, but the corridor had changed. Instead of being a direct path right back to the stairs, it was a maze of statues now. The room had extended a good few feet on each side, giving the statues space to disperse themselves in a mind boggling pattern. 

Cautiously, Y/n moved forward, gently dragging her hand along the statues as she went. She was nearly halfway there when a blue, misty figure popped out of the floor, startling Y/n. Y/n was frozen in fear, standing and watching the ghostly lady start speaking.

"You're lost, you're lost, you're lost!" The lady chuckled, spinning around in a circle, flourishing her old, dainty dress. "You're going to die here. Alone, alone, alone!" She sang once more, grinning at Y/n. Y/n immediately snapped out of her shock, scream as she turned around and started running. However, she was stopped short when she ran into a statue, her nose flaring in pain as she collided with it.

Y/n raised her hands, gripping her nose. She turned back around, happily seeing that the ghostly lady was gone, and dodged the statues as she ran towards the exit.

Soon enough, Y/n was at the exit, shoving the door open as quickly as possible. She was breathing heavily as she frantically ran up the stairs, blood dripping from her nose onto the floor, leaving a trail as she ran.

"Kate! Kate!" She screamed breathlessly, nearing the end of the east-wing entrance hallway. However, when she turned to leave the hallway, everything was changed, just like it had in the east-wing basement. The stairs that led to the sitting room and kitchen were no longer there. Neither was the hallway to the right that led to the bedrooms. Just a straightforward hallway that led to pitch black.

Shaking, Y/n's eyes welled with tears. She'd wished she'd never come down here in the first place. She'd wished she'd listened to Flora when Flora told her not to go down the hallway. She'd wished a lot of things, but she supposed none of them would do her any help. So with shaking hands and a heavy heart, she started her way down the hallway, the shadows celebrating joyously as they'd realized that they had another visitor.

[words : 1282]