This, Certainly, Was Hell

There was something wrong with that house. I mean, it always stuck out, but there was something different about it. There was a certain... feel about it. It just wasn't normal. They say that a witch lived there once, and that she summoned demons and stuff like that. Of course no one really believed those stories entirely, but looking at the house, it's hard not to believe the stories just a little bit. The house was big and looked like one of those houses in the old horror movies like Psycho or Amityville Horror. Several stories high, black timber, dead trees, the works. The rest of the houses in the neighbourhood were all small, single story houses with trees out front that weren't dead. Everyday I walked past that house on my way to school, but today was the first time that I actually stopped outside the big, rusted gates across the front lawn and looked at it. Something was wrong. There was an uneasy feeling in the air around it, like tension was building up. No one lived there now, the previous owner had gone missing for almost 2 months before police found his half decomposed body with a frayed rope around his neck. Ever since that event 3 years ago no ones even set foot in that house. I looked up at the window on the second floor and jumped when i saw the silhouette of a person standing there and watched as they moved out of view. I followed the direction they went and saw them pass in front of the next window. There was someone in there, but who?

I told my friends about it that day when I got to school. "Na, you're just imagining it. No ones lived there in years." Rosie told me.

"Yea man, you're just going crazy. Been doing any drugs lately? Why haven't you been sharing?" John said, mocking me.

"Seriously, I wasn't imagining it, there was a person there. I saw it." I said, pleading my case.

"Listen Mark, we're here because we care about you. We think you have a problem. You can't let drugs rule your life."

"Shut up Katie, seriously. I saw them. They're there. There's nothing anyone can do or say to change my mind." I announced.

"Well then, there's only one way to settle this isn't there?" Nathan said, raising his voice so everyone would listen, "c'mon, isn't it obvious?" We all just sat there, staring at him. "Oh my God you guys are stupid" he muttered, "Okay! What we do is we break into the house and stay the night there.If someone really does live there then we'll see them, explain why we're there and leave, if not then, well, we would of spent the night in a haunted house." We all just looked at each other, thinking about it. No one really wanted to do, other then Nathan. He was always kind of weird though, so that was expected. 

"Fine, I'll stay" John said.

"Me too" Katie added.

"Mmmm... Why not? I'll stay too" Rosie said, not wanting to be left out.

"I don't know ae. I don't really want to break into a house that could possibly be filled with ghosts or the spirit of an evil witch."

"Oh come on Mark. You only live once. Or are you too chicken?" Nathan teased as he crouched over and started impersonating a chicken. I grabbed the orange in front of me and threw it at him, hitting him in the jaw. We all laughed as he fell to the ground and struggled to get up.

"OK, I'll do it."

"Good man" John said, slapping me on the back.

That Saturday we meet at the back of the house late in the afternoon and climbed the fence. All five of us had sleeping bags and torches with us when we met up. We walked around the house and checked all the windows, trying to open them. "These windows won't.. open!" John grunted as he tried to open some of the windows. 

"C'mon Katie, let's go try find another way inside" Rosie said. 

"Ugh, these windows are so gay. They won't open. They aren't even windows, they're just glass in a wooden frame." He was getting frustrated now. He was about to punch it when Rosie opened the window we were standing by.

"You guys didn't even check the door, it was unlocked the whole time." We all felt kind of stupid when she said that, but we still climbed in through the window anyway. The house felt dry and cold, like the feeling of death lingered throughout the whole building and couldn't be removed. Even though the sun was still up, the house was almost completely dark. We made our way into a large room with a fireplace that we assumed was the living room. We threw our bags into a pile on the floor and decided to explore the house.

"What's taking them so long? I'm kind of worried" John said.

"Same. Maybe we should go look for them". Nathan suggested that, and if we had known, then we wouldn't have gone.

We walked around the whole house, opened every door, but there was no sign of them. We must have found 3 or 4 bathrooms, but they were all empty. We decided to go back to the living room and wait for a little more, maybe they were looking for us. We waited for almost an hour in the living room, but no one came back. I checked my phone. 9 o'clock. Wait, my phone. I could just call them! I dialled Katie's number. No answer. I tried dialling Rosie's and this time we heard it ring. The sound was coming from upstairs, right above where we were. She answered.

"Hello?" I asked. The other end sounded fuzzy, almost like static. "Hello?" I asked again. There was laughing on the other end. I recognised it as Rosie, but why was she laughing.

"Come find us, if you dare". She hung up. I put the phone down and looked at John and Nathan and told them what she said. We decided to go and look for them. We went upstairs, to the place where the ringing came from. We entered a large, empty room with nothing in it. In the middle of the room was Rosie's phone, just lying there. I walked over and picked it up. It was still warm. We heard someone run through the hallway behind us and we turned, walking out into the hall. No one was there. It was a long hall, no one could of run past without us seeing them at one end or the other, but still, there was nothing. We went back into the room, fear starting to grip us. A drop of rain hit my hand and I wiped the warm water onto my pants. I stopped. Rain isn't warm. I froze. Another drop fell, I looked down at it. I was red, still warm. I looked up slowly and regretted it instantly. I saw Rosie. Her body stuck to the roof. Her eyes were missing and her eye sockets look like they had been burnt around the outside. Her hair was standing on end in every direction. Her mouth was open and her tongue was missing. Her top was ripped open to reveal a hollow skeleton still covered with little bits of flesh and muscle. Her legs were gone from the knee down. But the most amazing thing about this was that there was no blood anywhere except a small trickle that was falling right down onto me. I collapsed to my knees and threw up all over my pants and the floor. Nathan and John hadn't seen her yet, but when they looked up they vomited as well. We raced out of the room and headed for the door, but it was gone. We tried to open the windows but they were all bolted shut, so we ran back to the lounge and grabbed whatever we could to try and smash the windows, but they wouldn't break. That's when I realised something. Where was Katie? Rosie had gone with her to the bathroom but we only found Rosie. So where was she? I turned away from the window and ran straight into Katie who was just standing there.

"Katie! W-what happened to you? You're covered in blood." She looked down and back up again but didn't say a word. "Katie, what's happening? What happened to Rosie?" She lifted a finger and put it to her lips. "Katie. Seriously, this is no time for stupid games. What the fuck is going on here." She began to giggle, then it turned into a tiny chuckle, then it exploded into a blood curdling laugh. She stepped back, spread her arms and spun around in circles. Her laughter slowed as it turned into agonising screams of pain or torment. Her hands grabbed onto her head and she started pulling her hair out. I rushed over to her to try comfort her but she pushed me away and I went flying over to the wall. She stopped screaming and stood up as if nothing had ever happened. Then blood began to trickle down her eyes and ears, then from her mouth and she smiled. She was smiling! The blood was forming a pool on the floor as it kept flowing and flowing. The blood was coming from all over her body now. Small holes were opening all over her skin just to let the blood flow out, and it wasn't just a few drops, it was a constant torrent of blood. More blood then there should of been. She was laughing again, laughing at her own death. She was crazy. Then she collapsed, dead. I focused and realised I was on the floor. I crawled over to her and rolled her onto her back.Her eyes were closed and her skin was cold, like she had been dead for hours. Her eyes suddenly opened and they were black. She grabbed my throat and lifted me off the ground. She slammed me against a wall and held me there. Then she spoke to me in a voice that sounded like a million voices speaking together.

"You should not have come here. This place is forbidden. Now you must pay for what you have done." She collapsed and I fell to the ground, landing in the big puddle of blood. I backed away from her, but she didn't move. she was dead. For real this time. I got up and looked around but John and Nathan were gone. I had no idea where they were. I panicked and ran through the house. I found myself in the kitchen and saw a giant knife on the counter. I grabbed it and kept going, not wanting to stop. I went upstairs and was walking through the hallway. Just as I turned a corner I saw John running towards me. He looked like he was being chased by something, but there was nothing there. I grabbed him and held him still, trying to get him to focus and realise it was me. When he calmed down and realised that I was his friend, relief filled him. We walked around a corner and bumped into John. There were two of them. 

"What the hell?" They both said at the same time. "What is this?" I just stood there, staring at them both. One of them had to be the demon or ghost or spirit or whatever the hell it is that's doing all this, but which one? I backed up against the wall.

"OK, one of you is the real John. Who is it?"

"It's me. No, don't listen to him. I'm the real John. Shut up! It's me, don't trust him." They were speaking at the same time, word for word, but I couldn't tell who it was. They both looked terrified. "Mark, come on, it's me, isn't it obvious?"

"Yes, it is. It's obvious that I'm the real John. Not you."

"What? Mark dont' listen to it, it's trying to trick you. It's going to kill us all."

"How do you know that it's going to do that?" I asked, suspicion rising.

"Yea, how do you?"

"What? Oh c'mon guys, it's obvious isn't it? First Rosie, then Katie, then Nathan, now it's only us left."

"We don't know that Nathan's dead yet. He might be in here somewhere, I know he is." I responded, getting more and more suspicious by the minute. The other John was quiet, just staring at the other John.

"Well everyone else is dead, why not us next?"

"It's you..." I crept closer, "you're the one doing this. You're the one killing all our friends. You're the demon that's going to kill us all." I was right in front of him now, knife raised.

"C-c'mon man, you know that it isn't me. I-it's that guy." I plunged the knife into his chest and blood sprayed me. I took it out and stabbed again, and again and again, each time more and more blood covered me. It was the demon, it had to be. He collapsed and I fell on top of him, still stabbing. I felt John, the real John, put his hand on my shoulder and I stopped stabbing. I stood up and turned around, eyes closed. I opened them and saw Rosie there, her torso still blood covered bones with bits of meat still clinging to them relentlessly. I looked at her face and into her empty, burnt eye sockets and, as I was staring, hypnotised, the biggest smile crept across her face. It stretched from ear to ear. Literally. I turned and ran. I ran and ran. Blood began to drip from the ceiling, it fell all around me, covering the floor. I slipped and fell, landing hard. I felt bile rise into my throat as I threw up. My head was spinning and I couldn't think straight. I tried to get up but I couldn't. I supported myself against the wall and pushed myself up. I dropped down a little bit then stopped. I dropped a little more but stopped again. Then I dropped completely and was surrounded by blood. It was creeping in my ears and my mouth, filling my lungs. I was drowning. My vision swirled and I saw someone approach. It was an old woman. She was wrinkled skin, grey hair, a hooked, red nose, and a smile that showed, rotten teeth that looked as sharp as knives. I saw the witch, and then everything went black.

When I woke up I was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. Our bags were still on the floor. I was in the lounge. Everything was normal. Rosie, Katie, John and Nathan were lying in their sleeping bags asleep. It was all just a dream. I rested my head in my hands and started crying.

I stopped crying and looked up. Everyone was still asleep. I checked my phone. I was shocked to see that, not only was there no service, but the clock said 06:66. How though? It was impossible. I scrambled over to Nathan and shook his sleeping bag. He rolled over and I threw myself backwards when I saw that it was a skeleton. I looked at the others and saw the same. They were all skeletons. I stood up and ran through the hall. I burst through a door into another empty room, shut the door behind me, and collapsed in the middle of the room and let the tears, and vomit, flow. My phone rang. I picked it up and looked at the screen. The call was coming from Nathan. "H-hello?" I said, wiping away tears. "Hello?" There was no reply. Just as I was about to hang up I heard something. I listened again, putting the phone to my ear. I heard music on the other end. I was haunting, but beautiful. It sounded almost how you would imagine death to sound, all stringed instruments like violins, playing a sad, depressing tune. It was unforgettable. Then it changed. I suddenly became violent, sharp and loud. It was still the sound of death, but this time it was like revolvers, screams and the squelch of blood. I couldn't take it anymore. I hung up, but when I did I suddenly became victim to a splitting headache. I closed my eyes and grabbed my head, some strange instinct telling me that squeezing it will make the pain go away. Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone. I looked up and saw that the walls were red and wet with blood, but it wasn't just blood. There were bones in the walls too, and flesh, and metal spikes and bars. I stood up and ran out, screaming. This was crazy. None of it should be happening. Why did we have to come here? This, certainly, was hell. I ran into a room and froze. In front of me was Nathan. He was on the wall on the opposite side of the room, a few metres off the ground. He had duct tape over his mouth and his arms and legs were bound. He looked scared. On either side of him were Katie, Rosie and John. Rosie was still half-skeleton and without half her legs, but she had giant spiders legs coming from her back which she used to stand up. Katie was continuously dripping blood from all over her body, and John had hundreds of stab wounds in his body. That's when I realised that I had killed him. I killed the real John. His blood was on my hands, and my clothes, and even my face. He was dead because of me. I watched as Rosie used one of her sharp, hairy spiders legs to cut open Nathan's shirt, revealing his chest. She then slowly ran her leg down his chest and I saw tears form in his eyes. Rosie, or whatever it was now, stopped when she got to his belly button. She moved her leg to one side his body and made a massive, deep cut all the way along to the other side of his body. He tried to scream through the tape but he couldn't.  Tears were streaming down his face in much the same way that his hot, sticky entrails were falling out of his body. Steam was rising from them as they came in contact with the cold air. They hit the floor with a moist splashing sound that could make anyone cringe, but he wasn't dead. Rosie raised her leg again, this time aiming for his head. She cut off his scalp to reveal his brain. She skewered it and lifted it out of his head. She held it close to her face, as if she was examining it. Then Katie grabbed it and did the same, but when she was done looking at it, she stuck her bloody tongue out and licked it. She licked Nathan's brain again and again, then she took a massive bit out of it and blood oozed out of it and mixed with his bloody guts on the floor. Through out the whole thing, Nathan was still alive, watching it happen. This was all too much. I bent over and threw up all over the floor, my hand on the blood covered, fleshy wall. All eyes fell on me and they stopped what they were doing. Katie dropped the brain, half of it eaten. Then John stepped forward and ran at me. I turned and ran out the door, colliding with the wall on the opposite side of the hall. I ran as fast as I could, John chasing after me. I didn't know where I was going, all I knew was that the front door was somewhere around here. I turned a corner and saw it. I was so focused on the door that I didn't notice everything turning back to normal. I reached the door and burst through. Light burned my eyes but I kept running. I ran right into Katie and we went tumbling over each other and into the middle of the street where people were staring. I focused and reeled away from her. Then I stopped. It was her, it was Katie, she was normal.

"Katie!" I grabbed her and gave her the biggest kiss I could, but then I stopped. She was here, she was normal. She put her hands on my shoulders, maybe a little too close to my neck, and gave me the most evil smile I'd ever seen. I heard music play in my ears, the same music I heard on my phone. The music of death. It was her. "It's you," I said. "You're trying to kill us all."

"What are you talking about?" But it was too late, I had already made my mind up that it was her. I grabbed her head with one hand, squeezed tight and slammed it hard against the road. She screamed out in pain. I slammed her head down again, and again, blind fury leading taking hold of me. I kept on going long after the screaming stopped. Blood, brain and bits of her skull were flying everywhere. I heard the squelch of her brain and the crunch of her skull as they hit the blood stained concrete again and again until she had nothing more then a sliver of skin left. I stood up, breathing hard, covered in her blood, happy to be rid of the demon. I looked around. A crowd had gathered, they were all staring at me. I tried to explain. I tried to tell them that she was a demon, that she had murdered my best friends. Then someone came and took me away.

That's how I ended up here, in this place full of tears and screaming. The police went to the house and found all of the bodies. They said that my finger prints were all over them, that I was a murderer. I knew that I wasn't. I knew it was the witch's evil ghost. She tricked hem, made them think it was me, hell, for all I know, she could be one of them. They all say I'm crazy, but I know it's not true. They're just being tricked by her, tricked by evil. Hm, evil. That music played again in my head. Evil. It brings in it's wake the sound of death. The sound of revolvers and screams and the squelch of blood. It's the sound of 1,000 simultaneous suicides played on instruments made of human bone and strung with the moist guts of decayed corpses by creatures undecidable even by the most vile of words. It will trap you in your head, trap you in a tempest of horror and gore as you cry and cry and cry until blood pours from your eyes. It splashes darkness over your life like an ink blot, destroying your precious pictures and words until only the saturated echoes remain. It is ever constant. It is in you. It is in your children. It is in us all, and no matter what you do, it will always be there. She's still out there, trying to find a way to get to me. So they left me here and locked the door. So I'll just sit and wait, wait in this room in this funny white jacket. They can't stop her, no one can. She'll kill them all, and I'll be here, safe, laughing.