Rumors
It was a peaceful day in Columbus, Wyoming. The birds are chirping, the creeks are filled to the brim of water. The sun was high above on Ace High School and a cluster of kids in uniforms storm out of school. One group of kids consisted of 7 kids. Tezz walks alongside Erika, as they were best friends. Eddy and Justin horseplay and mess arounds as the group walks, and Sam, Endy and Didny walk in the back, talking about what their plans are for the week. Eddy comments on a rumor he heard going around school, about a strange abandoned house out in the woods that was home to the legend The Columbus murder. Everyone else had gotten wind of the rumor too and decided checking it out. Didny and Endy were slightly hesitant on agreeing, but the pressure of everyone else made them cave. They worked their way toward the opening of the woods and began to head in.
The top of the trees let in light making it easy to navigate, the many Lodgepole pine trees stand tall above the group. After a quick 15 minute walk through the gorgeous forest, they arrive at the fabled abandoned house. The house was littered with debris from the house falling apart, cobwebs showed themselves on the rickety porch as they carefully walk on it. They all stood at the old, wooden door that fell slightly off its hinges once Justin assertively opened the door. Erika, Eddy and Justin all push forward into the sketchy house with no fear, glancing around the house, they saw spray painted marks on the walls, old and dusty furniture, and stained carpet. Soon everyone splits up and investigates the house, lifting up decor items and kicking up dust everywhere. With the group unattentive, the door shuts with a loud slam, making the curious kids jump. Sam suggests that it was just the wind or something. He walks over to check the door and to his surprise, it is locked. The group starts to get nervous when the door stayed shut. Didny went to check the back door, locked. Sam checked the side door, locked. Everything was locked. Calming everyone down, Tezz tells everyone to search for a key or anything to unlock the doors. Everyone goes into different rooms, finding no keys. After an hour, Justin and Eddy point out that Sam is missing and never returned with his report. Creeping into the room he walked into, displayed a grizzly sight. Sam laid dead on the wooden floor, with one bullet wound through the head. The sight of blood made everyone scream and freak out. Staring in shock at the body, Tezz sees a white slip of paper the size of a business card, laying a few feet away from Sams corpse. 15 minutes pass, and Tezz finally takes a cautious step into the room, scurrying around the body and grabs the paper and runs out. Once out of the room, she reads the note. 'Welcome to my house of horrors. I have a few rules. Number 1, no running in the house. Number 2, I will kill someone after 1 hour. Finally number 3, if you make it out, you win! Let the games begin'. This sent shivers down spines. With everyone still in shock, Tezz points out that the window of time closes in faster and faster. They were going to do this… for Sam.
Dusty decorations fall and break from the ferocity of Endy searching. Endy being this petite, blonde haired made her a magnet for guys, but she was never interested. Erika shouts from upstairs for everyone to get their butts up there. Loud stomping of shoes echo throughout the house as the close knit group of friends storm up the stairs. Erika stands proudly at what she discovered. A combination safe. Didny and Eddy gaze at the safe like a lion gazes at a potential meal. Sitting down, Endy tries to put in random combinations to no avail. Figuring out that pieces of the puzzle do not add up, Tezz tells everyone to scour the house for anything with a 4 digit code. 55 minutes pass when Justin glances around into the master bedroom from the adjoining bathroom. He decides to look around but feels a weird presence behind him the whole time. Suddenly a figure, holding a knife, creeps out from behind the door. It locks eyes with Justin before lunging at him. Justin, at a loss of words, softly mutters something as the thing is coming at him. "Mr. Juan-". Downstairs, Erika and Endy decide to take a short break from all the searching. Tezz, Didny and Eddy continue searching when Eddy points out that the 2 hour mark has passed. Hearing a thud from upstairs, everyone immediately knew what they were facing. Eddy sprinting up the stairs made everyone else follow in his footsteps. The master bedroom door was shut but the sight of blood running under the door made everything clear. They failed again. With tears in everyone's eyes, they slowly open the door to find the same sight as before. A corpse, blood, and a note. Eddy throws up at the sight of the obvious stab through his head. No sign of the murder but the crime scene in front of them. Didny takes the initiative and quickly grabs the note and bolts out of there. He reads the note aloud, 'The poor boy was so close to the way out. Sadly, the hour mark hit and someone had to die'. This note confused everyone. Close to the way out? They found nothing down stairs. Tezz spots what Justin found. A wooden cross was clutched in his hand, his fingers obscuring something blatantly etched onto the wood. Tezz taking her leap into the nasty looking room to take the cross from his cooling corpse. The numbers 4-5-1-4 were scratched into it. Running to the safe, Tezz puts in the code with shaky hands. They heard an audible 'click!' Opening the safe incredibly fast, she spots a familiar key. Tezz holds it up with tears in her eyes, knowing that this concluded it. The final thing they needed. Hurried footsteps of the children echo through the house as another pair of footsteps slowly stomp down the stairs behind them. With Endy and Erika screaming at Tezz while she puts the key in the deadbolt, she finally gets it open. The rest of the group shoves each other to try and get out of the house. Their shoes hit the grass and they break out into a sprint. From behind Tezz, she hears Endy scream 'Erika'. Stopping to look behind her shoulder, she sees Erika being dragged back into the house by her arm. Standing behind her with a pocket knife wielded in his right hand. Eddy immediately recognizes the tattoo on right shoulder. A tattoo with the word DEAD and the number beneath it. He exclaims that the person doing all of this was his uncle, Juan. Juan looks at Eddy and the rest of the gang and takes a swift flick of the wrist and blood comes gushing out of Erika's throat. He unwrapped his arm and she falls face first, onto the porch. Juan slips back into the house as the 4 kids run in the night back to their houses.
The once 15 minute, gorgeous walk through the forest turned into a torturous sprint through the night. Finally reaching the closest house, Didny's, they barge in and start crying hysterically. His parents come running over in confusion. The parents and children had an hour long conversation about what had happened, but showed to the friends that the parents didn't believe them. After rounding up all the parents, they head to the abandon house, only to find what would normally be in an abandoned house. No blood, no bodies, no nothing. Only cobwebs and dust. For years the kids never said a word about what happened, and live a life like none of had ever occurred. The legend of the Columbus murder lives on.