Steadily we forwarded to the front door and it seemed there was no one in the house. We kept pressing the doorbell ring but everything was insanely quiet. We decided the use the backdoor and as soon as we reached the back of the house and luckily it was half-open. The door creaked as one by one we entered the house but turned our attention towards the sudden speaker, "You guys? Did you notice these footprints- or should I say clawprints?"
We switched our gaze downward and Travis was right. The footprints began from the direction of the backdoor towards the dark forest that laid in front of us.
"WE WERE RIGHT! Lucas is a serious supect. I mean an animal can't just enter the house just ike that, right? He must be _"
"Not a spirit. Like they are anyway in the human form, so it is ought to be a-"
"Shapeshifters? Horrendous creatures dressed as humans so they would not be suspected for eating the other humans?" Clay suggested but we weren't aware of the whole problem.
"Let's not assume things and just head for the house with the information it holds on to."
As I ordered, we proceeded our search but separately in groups. Clay decided who goes with whom but none were much happy with the arrangement. With a little bargain, Clay made them agree to his decision and went away for the search. I was partnered with Austin unwantedly and Joey with Travis.
"Hey Reccy, do you think there was something Joey and Travis? I have a huge feeling they were exes." Austin whispered into my ear, pestering me since the journey.
"Firstly, don't call me Reccy. Secondly, I- we don't have the right to interfere in their life. And lastly, even though we are not sure about their relationship, I am100% sure about ours. So keep some distance, as in 5 foot away." My eyes went round in frustration and with a smirk, he literally counted the distance he moved , "Here we go, literal 5 feet. Okay, mah princess?"
"Whatever." I mentally slapped my forehead but tried to focus on the tensity aura and it's cause. At first, we tried to find the switches for the light for the tenth time, but there wasn't any. Defeated, we used our phone flashes and looked around. It all looked like a normal family abode except we saw bizarre implements put in places. Wonder if those were the weapons or maybe just decoration sets.
Promptly, we saw a dark figure covered in a wimple, standing still infront and at being noticed, he simply swished away just like wind. I took a glance at Austin and we both were frightened.
"Gu-Guys! Guys, I-I think we ju-just saw someone- or something!" I informed but there was deafening silence, "Guys? He-hey? Are you all here? Where are you? " I turned to Austin only to see him disappear, "Au-Austin? Please don't leave me!" My words ended in a whisper as I searched around with my eyes. Everywhere was dark and there was no one.
Gathering the leftover courage, I proceeded to the nearest room slowly guiding myself holding the walls. I entered but the whole room seemed vacant. I mean you could have at least felt or saw shades of furnitures, even in a dark room. But there wasn't any.
I jumped in surprise when I heard a creak and watched the door close behind me. My body went cold with dread and without any more haste, I went to open to door but it was latched. I knocked on the door a few times and when it seemed impossible, I couldn't help but shriek for life, "Help! Help! CASPER, PLEASE COME TO ME!"
Nothing happened.
No one came.
And guess I was on my own.
Giving up , I decided to observe the room. It was more was dull and smelt of dust mixed with old age. Out of nowhere, paintings appeared to hang up of rich people's potraits and their eyes following my every move. A wind of must came through my nose and I noticed the window open. Excited with terror, I approached towards it ; ready to escape, I noticed a broken photo frame lying at the edge of the window glass and blood splattered in drops around the window frame made me tremble. I slightly took the photo and observed the people. There was a petite boy holding the hand of another, among which one resembled Casper completely; or it was him, as a little boy.
From the corner of my eyes, I felt as if there was something big appearing and looked to see a mirror. With my eyes drawn to my image on the mirror , I perceived another figure veiled with a smirk standing right behind. I didn't dare to move as intense fear eclipsed my thoughts . He inched closer than he was and I couldn't help but instinctively turned around with my fist ready to punch him in the cheek.
But when I did, he held my hand and snorted, "Tsk tsk. Po'r Reccy of yond harebrain'd pathetic spirit. No more brain than stone Casper, eh?"
"Don't dare to talk trash about him. A-And leave my hand, it-its hurting."
"Oh well yond is what mine own nameth sayeth. I'm Peine Lucas Douleur. Desire thee know-"
"French. Dude, I do know french." I stared in surprise , understanding what his name actually meant, "It is the french of- pain and-pain. Wha-what are you?" I muttered, backing away from him; my heart pounding, as if being beaten by imaginative spirits themselves. What more better imagination?
"The penalty f'r knowing too much. Thy demise. "
I widened my eyes in alarm and moved my hand around , trying to grab something to hit him but how could I forget?
He raised his knife and I sheltered my face with my arm but I feared to close my eyes. Hoping for none other than god to save me, I heard a loud thud and opened my eyes to see the case. That creature chasing me, fell down sideways and behind revealed a familiar figure gripping a cane on his hand.
I couldn't believe my luck could turn like that, and relieved from the tensity, I ran towards the striker and wrapped my arms around his neck. I felt a tingling aura surround my senses and it wasn't less than a heartfelt, protective hug, "Thank you, thank you so much! I -I don't know what to-to say Austin. "
He chuckled slightly and uttered a welcome. Feeling embarrassed about the whole action, I jerked back and rubbed my arm.
"Wha-What was that?" I asked.
"I don't know. But since the last discovery in this spontaneous haunted house, I figured that this- all is delusional with constant deceptions. Which is why things look scarier than they really are. And this is also helping the killer get to us easily."
I nodded and explained what I found in there, when suddenly we heard Joey's voice, "Guys! This house is super insane! Just come for a proper damn informative reunion! And yes, I do mean informative."
We both headed for the door just when I turned my head to look at the fallen photo frame of Casper,and the oother boy.
As we were through the door , I just bumped with Austin and abashed again, I increased my walking rate but heard him chuckle from back. That reminded me of the intimate moment we had back there.
"Guys, nothing bad happened to any of you right? Like I was calling everyone a while back but the whole was silent and empty. Like- Like a delusion." Travis stated.
"Indeed. You won't believe, but Lucas just attacked us before. But we got saved. "
"Did he say anything or any clue?"
"Yeah. Like he wanted to slay us because we ...know too much?" I frowned when a howl echoed throughout the house .
"That- That same shriek was heard before. Didn't any of you listen?"
"No. Not before. I'm sure this abode is full of illusions so we must be careful."
Everybody stood there there for a while when I saw someone was missing. Clay.
But there he was. He was sitting on knees under the staircase and I decided to get him. I tapped on his shoulder and he jerked up, causing his head to hit the upper inside of the staircase and started shouting, "No! Mr. Sweet Sweet toilet ghost. I swear I'll give you all my food. Just don't murder me! I'm a precious tooty wombat of my nana. Don't -" He squinted his eyes open and in a flash, changed his demeanour into a joyful casual face," Oh hey Rebecca, what's up?"
Without saying anything, we all erupted into a laughter and the tensity vanished- until we heard crayon markings scramble itself upon the wall and the similar voice snarled, "Lost the opportunity to live but decided for knowlegde, well surprise- you just entered a death trap."
We all surrounded each other's back in a circle and finally witnessed the dark figure with his cloth. The creature dropped its cloak, revealing it's scaly horrendous body. It stood to a slightly taller height than a grown man. His prussian blue skin contrasted with a deeper red made him look totally abnormal. But what was more noticeable and perilous was his long claws instead of hands and his elongated head accompanied with numerous sharp teeth protruding from his saliva-filled mouth.
"What in tarnation is that? Like even a warthog's body is prettier." Joey commented, which only seemed to increase the creature's wrath. His tone rate enhanced deeper, "And this ugly worse-than-warthog's-body is going to bite your head off and feed it to your own pet dog- just like I did with the principal after you went to take my student file. You think I don't know anything? And yeah I know everything about you maggots!"
As far as I can say, fear crept up all our spines. It was Lucas after all.
"We are gonna be dead tonight. God, say I love you to my nana no matter how much she doesn't wash her socks and her bear-fur armpits." Clay muttered and for a moment, I was actually disgusted. We all erupted in a fit of laughter and the fear seemed to dissipate for the moment, until he appeared.
Lucas then pulled out his arm and we could see a bright light glowing from his palm, and surely meant to strike us. Instinctively, I shoved away from where he intended to strike the blow and Austin got pushed away by me. We both fell but me on top of him. Why did these embarrassing things happen only between me and him?
However, I got up to face the villain but there wasn't any time to even take a glance. Before he could shoot us anymore with his out-of-nowhere supernatural powers, I gesticulated by y hand to run up the stairs- cause it certainly didn't seem like he would let all of us go from the front door directly.
His shooting rays continued to strike to our direction but we kept the pace fast enough to escape our doom. For the turning, when I held the banister, a part of the upper wood just came off and I used it as a weapon. I threw it back at Lucas whose speed wasn't much of a snail.
"OMG, it's an infinite staircase! Never-ending illusions are more annoying than a bunch of racoons , eventually causing my never-ending death. Aaaah!" Clay yelled swinging his hands in the air as we kept climbing the boundless circular stairs.
"We need to hit him with something hard, long enough for his mind to stop the tricks so we would finally just get up!" I whisper-yelled.
"The only thing we have around is these damn handrails and its pillars." Joey complained.
"Maybe they could help. It does seem like an old house, so with a little force we may be able to break the sides."
The rest nodded to my idea and one by one, we were almost able to break away the upper wood but then again one chunk of it stayed, making it impossible to break with bare hands. While we stood trying to break parts of the banister and the minute pillars, Lucas had already reached to our point of position. He snarled and smirked gladly before swinging his rhetorical yet deadly weapon towards probably what we call as neck. I shielded myself with whatever arms I had just when Clay called out, "Beca. Catch!" He yelled before throwing a wooden lump of the staircase but Austin grabbed hold of it.
He swung the sharper side towards Lucas's neck but it hit an edge of his shoulder. He put his weapon down to hold the part where he got hit and I took the same chunk of wood from Austin, swaying it right into Lucas's stomach.
" Thee bethink these pieces of junk art gonna holdeth me backeth?"
"No we don't." I replied before ordering everyone to reach the higher floor as his tricking intellect was weakened and distracted.
Relieved for the unpromising survival, we tried to chose a door; just when I saw a familiar door adjacent to the room that I first went to.
"It's so similar to..." I paused, pointing my hand to the medievel twin door.
"To what?" Travis asked.
"Casper's library's door."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tacitus did not write a most dangerous book. His readers made it so.
And I really crave people to comment and vote on my one , at least for me to know if I lack anything.
Dw, I don't like to be formal or any shot like that. NOT AT ALL.
So puhleez feel free round here yeah..aaah I'm excited for like haha I'm weird.