That Fateful Night

By The Sole Survivor

Chapter 1 – Haunted House
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"Are you honestly gonna go through with this?" A voice protested softly behind her. The one in front rolled her eyes upward as if asking for heavenly guidance and blew the hair out of her face before turning around to face her friend.

"Yes! If I don't do this, then I'll be named the laughing stock of the entire 12th grade and maybe even the entire school!" Renee Maxell shouted as her arms rose above her head for emphasis before she realized her mistake and hurriedly slapped her palm over her mouth with wide eyes. Her friend in crime, Alexandra Emberwood, gazed at her through half-lidded eyes and crossed her arms.

"Why do you even care about what they think?" She asked skeptically, watching amusedly as Ren flushed slightly in the dark and folded her hands together sheepishly.

"Well..." She mumbled and winced when Alex groaned and turned to leave. "Wait, Alex! You have to help me with this! You're my only witness!"

"You know what, I'm suddenly hungry. How about we don't and say we did and go eat?" Alexandra asked hopefully. Ren raised an eyebrow and her head tilted to the side.

"Are you seriously thinking about lying?" She asked then sighed and hung her head when Alex merely nodded as if it were the most practical thing to do.

"Come on, Ren, you can't really want to do this. This isn't your thing." Alex muttered under her breath as she eyed the strange house before them. Renee saw her gaze and turned her head to glance at the dark house too before she rolled her eyes.

"Sure you're not just scared?" She grinned when Alex turned to her with a very sardonic glare on her face.

"Oh yes, I'm absolutely terrified. Oh please, somebody please help me." She waved her hands in mock-terror before rolling her eyes with a grin. "I was just saying this isn't something you normally wanna do on a daily basis, but go ahead in if you want to. I'll wait here." Alex snickered as she watched Renee's stunned expression.

"You'd really let me go in there alone?" Renee asked weakly. A sly smirk crossed Alex's face.

"Sure you're not the one who's nervous?"

Alexandra's grin turned devious while Renee blinked slowly and gulped silently, her voice squeaking pathetically. "No?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "You fail horribly at being brave."

"Well I don't see you waltzing up there, hot shot!" Ren whispered harshly at Alex.

"Well, for one, I'm not an idiot like some people and two, I don't like dark abandoned houses."

"Right, you're just here for the free ride home."

"Shut up and get going. The sooner you're done, the sooner we get outta here."

"You're terrible." Renee grumbled as she stood and began creeping up the walkway to the door.

Ren slowly approached the house. She eyed it warily and shivered slightly as a cold wind blew through the folds of her clothes. She pulled her jacket around her tighter before stretching out her leg to tap it on the first stair on the porch in caution. When nothing happened, she extended her other leg to cover the rest of the stairs to the flat expanse of the dark porch.

She gulped as she gazed at the old wooden door of the house. Her instructions were to just go inside and look around. Her classmates didn't say for how long. Renee took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, puffing out her cheeks as she marched over to the door. She hesitantly reached out and grasped the rusted door knob gently, shaking it to test its durability just in case she should need to leave in a hurry.

"Come on, you can do this." She muttered to herself in encouragement and breathed in quickly, twisting her wrist in one fluid motion and pushing open the door. It creaked horribly as it traveled across the floor into the shadows of the house, sounding as if it hasn't been moved for decades. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She wanted nothing more than to flee to her nice, safe room in her brightly lit home.

Taking a few more deep breaths to calm her racing heart, she stepped quietly into the room, wincing when the old wooden floors squeaked from the pressure. Tiptoeing carefully into what she assumed was the living room; she paused to get a good look at her dark surroundings. Dust coated everything in sight, making her wince and cover her nose. "Okay, my allergies tell me that should be enough surveying." She told the empty room in a somewhat scratchy voice. Smiling at her bravery, she turned around and prepared to leave when she felt a sudden chill. She gasped and huddled up inside her coat. "Okay, fun times over." She mumbled quickly and scurried to the door, but was abruptly cut off when the door suddenly slammed shut in her face.

Startled, Renee leaped backwards, tripping over her heels and landing hard on her back. She sat frozen on the floor for a moment before darting her eyes around her nervously. "Um…I'm guessing I'm not exactly supposed to be in here, am I?" Her voice echoed in the dark room.

Outside the house, Alexandra puffed her cheeks out in impatience. "What is taking that woman so long?"

Suddenly, a loud slam echoed throughout the quiet neighborhood. Alex paused for a second, her eyes wide and then she turned slowly to face it. Her head tilted slightly and she stood, half-crawling to the door to get a better look. "Renee? Are you still in there?" She asked as she glanced inside the windows of the house cautiously. The dark house was starting to send shivers down her spine. Any moment she suspected the house to come alive and chase her down the road with the intent on eating her. Shaking that thought away, she gradually made her way up the porch stairs making sure not to make any sudden moves. When she approached the door, she pressed her ear against it to listen. Even through the wood she could hear Renee talking nervously to herself. Alex rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"That bonehead…" She mumbled and knocked on the door. "Renee?" She jiggled the handle and frowned when it wouldn't even budge.

Back inside the house, Renee winced and tenderly touched the bottom of her back, not hearing Alex in the least. "Must've sprained something back there..." She took a deep breath. "Okay, calm down. It was just the wind. Maybe this is a warning to not go near any creepy old houses at night." She told herself, standing up carefully and brushing off the back of her jeans to rid them of any dust. Ren sighed and turned around to face the hallway that led into the rest of the house. "Alright, seeing as I can't get out I might as well explore some more." She murmured half-heartedly and curled her arms around herself, taking small steps.

"Renee!" Alex shouted again from the other side of the door. "I know she can hear me!" Slamming her fists on the door a final time, she whirled away and crossed her arms while glaring heatedly out in the street. "She can get lost in there for all I care! She's flipping ignoring me!" Stomping down the stairs, her steam ran out as she began to leave, her glare loosening. Alex paused for a few minutes before flinging herself back up the stairs and repeatedly banging on the door frantically. "RENEE! You better not die in there! You're my ride home!"

Back inside, the house echoed strange noises Renee didn't like one bit. From what she could tell, the house was an old Victorian type with old stylish carvings into the paneling. The floors looked real expensive through the fine layer of dust covering it. Pulling her jacket's sleeves over her hands, she covered her mouth and nose with them as her blue eyes trailed over the walls and the ceiling where she could see a couple of antique chandeliers and paintings. Then in the distance, her wandering eyes caught something out of the ordinary.

"What's this?" She asked no one in particular and crossed the room to stand in front of the strange object. It looked like a crystal ball on a velvet covered table, like a fortune teller would have. Ren looked around once before kneeling before the bizarre stone, her hands falling away from her face. "I wonder what they used this for..." She murmured and reached out to run a finger down the side of the sphere, her finger collecting the dust and making a clear streak on the stone. As if on cue, the crystal ball abruptly radiated a bright silver-ish blue and levitated in the air before her. She gasped and backed up quickly in sudden fright. Her eyes widened when it floated toward her slowly and just when she was about to turn and flee like the devil was at her heels, the crystal ball spoke.

"Welcome, young human. Since you have awakened me from my sleep, you may have one wish. What is your deepest desire?" It asked in an unfathomable echo-y voice, sounding suspiciously like James Earl Jones. Renee paled considerably as she gazed reluctantly at the odd, deep-voiced levitating stone. What was this thing? She glanced around herself and took another step back, her eyes guarded.

"Look, buddy, I- I don't know what you're t- talking about! What do you mean by a wish?" She stuttered. The crystal ball swirled with colors inside of it, finally seeming to choose a deep forest green color. It hovered closer to her and almost instantly she felt a pull in her mind, like someone was trying to look inside of her, look at every thought she'd ever come across in her head.

It was a very uncomfortable yet a somewhat soothing feeling, but nonetheless she was disturbed by the power of this thing. Renee tried to break the hold but she was trapped. The crystal ball drew close enough that she could feel the warmth of it on her forehead. She gulped in panic. Was this thing trying to eat her brain? "H-hey, what are you trying to do?" She was cut off when the stone suddenly glided backwards and emitted a bright blue once again. It dropped instantly to its original position on the fortune teller's table, a large crack splitting up the side of it, the glow of colors fading slowly.

"Deepest desire found. Renee Maxell, prepare yourself for your… odd gift." It uttered in a low voice before going silent. Renee gaped at the rock in shock.

"Wait, what do you mean by that? Hello, deep-voiced stone that sounds an awful lot like Darth Vader? Are you alive?" She shouted at it, but trailed off when a huge black hole appeared in the ceiling in a gust of wind. Renee stared at it wide-eyed before glancing at the cracked crystal ball then back at the rotating hole of doom. She was frozen in panic for a few seconds before she turned and bolted for the nearest door she could find. Whatever that thing was bringing her, she really didn't want to stick around to find out, even if it was something that was supposedly her deepest desire. Finding a hallway closet, she slammed into it and jerked hastily on the handle, growing more frustrated when it wouldn't budge. After a beat, she paused.

The James stone said it was a gift. That was a good thing, right? She tried to think of anything that she would want more than anything else. The only thing she could think of was a game system or possibly some character coming to life out of a show she watched.

Suddenly a dull sounding thump was heard in the area she once was and soft groans of pain were heard thereafter. Darth Vader must've dropped off her 'gift'. She slowly loosened her death grip on the handle and walked carefully back into the room, her eyes roaming around the room in a frenzy. "Hey! Is anybody… or thing in here?" She called as she tried to clear the air of the dust. Coughing, she waved the air around her head before freezing on the spot, her eyes widening beyond normal circumstances.

What she saw terrified her, but at the same time, she felt warm inside. What was lying on the carpet in the middle of the room was a two-headed animal, golden in color with orange-brown spots. "Well, it's certainly not anything game-like." She murmured. As she crept closer she saw one end of it appeared to be a cat and the other was a dog. "H-hey…are you guys okay?" She whined out, almost afraid to find out if it was. "You—you're not dead, are you?" Sneaking a little bit more; she paused as the familiar form began to jog her memory. Quickly clapping her hands over her mouth to muffle her squeak of surprise, Renee began to hyperventilate as she slowly backed away from them, accidentally breathing in the dust in the air and coughing out her lungs in the process.

There in the middle of the room was none other than the world famous bi-cranial quadruped themselves, CatDog.