This was supposed to be for Halloween last year, but due to me needing to relocate across country and with streaming and fighting for wifi things took longer to finalize...
This is another installment to the Halloween horror collection I'm working on.
Hope you enjoy!
Humming.
A deafening sound when it's all around you and not much else. The occasional drip sound and the sound of wind that just gently moves some rusted thing to make that awful scraping noise, they ring in your ears.
There was nothing but darkness and dusty concrete no matter where you turn. You feel lethargic, your head spins and it's like you were either hit by a train, or spun in a washing machine on your way to a different reality. Sore, drenched in sweat and confused.
A dim light flickers just a little out of rhythm and it's maddening. Old boards and newspaper plastered windows blocking you from the outside world. What little could be found in the room means nothing to you. Everything seemed outdated and others were damaged pieces of wood and pipe.
Some kind of store room?
Unknown.
You manage to stand. You can feel your muscles cramp and pull, either from dehydration or laying in the same position for god knows how long.
The air is both warm and cold around you. Your skin sweats but you feel the need to hold yourself as you shiver.
Your brain refuses to work, like a lighter that keeps sparking but doesn't catch aflame.
"Think Elsa, think," you say to yourself. "Where were you last?"
The memories are muddy at best, but something just says you were at home, enjoying a good book. Or was it a movie? Unsure, but you were at home. So it wasn't like you were at a party and things got out of hand.
"Have to…find a way out," you say, trying to give your poor ears something else to listen to besides that blasted humming.
Your feet shuffle as you try to move your stubborn legs to the door. The red paint on it nearly chipped off or covered in a thick layer of dust. The wooden door was a little splintered and ajar.
Your hand presses against the door and the awful groaning sound it makes when you push it open makes you want to cover your ears.
The hallway was long and dark, one singular fluorescent tube flickering as it tries to stay alive, hangs in the middle. Another further down just lets out tiny sparks as it tries to connect to the broken tube.
Swallowing your pride and straightening your back, you move on. You have to rest a hand on the wall as you walk because you feel so light headed. Once you reach the other side of the hall, at the doorless frame, you freeze.
A scurrying sound makes your heart leap into your throat. You want to look for it but what's in front of you makes you freeze. The room before you is big and the dim lights showcase a grisly scene. You feel your breath start to hasten and your lungs keep wanting air that it just doesn't understand it is taking in. You're panicking.
Blood, so much blood. Too much blood for one person. In this dim light it all looks so dark and thick. You feel the need to faint as you manage to drag your eyes away from the blood soaked floor. Body parts litter not only the floor but the tables too. Some were a whole piece like an arm and others were smaller pieces of a leg. It all looked like a butcher's room. Like they were being processed.
You turn to throw up but nothing escapes you but dry heaves. You feel tears stream down your face as you start to cry. You take this moment to curl up and calm yourself from your panic attack.
"It's not real," you say to yourself in vain. "It's not real, it's not real..." you continue until you convince yourself to calm down and stand back up. You know it's real. The smell gave it away.
You take a step into the room so you can move past the metal tables and chairs. The feel of the sticky coagulated blood on your feet tells you you're bare footed and you nearly vomit again. Suppressing the tears this time and taking a deep breath you move to the next door you see.
Getting closer you see the wall holding the door has splatters of blood and bloody hand prints, like someone was trying in vain to keep hold of what must lead to an exit. Both old and new blood, or was that dried and fresh blood?
There's more scurrying behind you. A shiver runs up your spine.
"It's just a rat," you whisper to yourself and reach for the door handle. You hesitate, it's covered in smeared blood, but you grip it firmly to open the door.
It doesn't.
It's locked.
"Fuck," you whimper before turning to the room again. There's another door, it's off one hinge and beyond it is nothing but a looming darkness. In front of it lay a body, ripped in two by the waist, reaching for it.
There's this primal worry inside you. You look around and realize this room had only three doors. The exit was locked, the other had half a body reaching for it, and the one you just came from. If the thing that did this isn't here... where is it?
More scurrying to the side makes your fight or flight instincts kick in and you sprint to the open door. You nearly slip in the blood but manage to grip onto the door frame once you reach it.
Something makes you stop and look back. Indeed the scurrying revealed a rat as it ran, squeaking to the room you came from. You feel yourself sigh but the adrenalin still lingers, making your skin itch and crawl.
Taking some breaths to find yourself again you give the torn body another look. It seemed…familiar.
"Kristoff?" you whisper and feel panic rise again. Your eyes dart to the other body parts and you feel the need to see who else was here.
You leave the door and slowly walk to the other heads you find.
"Hans," you say as you recognize his sideburns.
"Honeymaren, Ryder?" You recognize the twins as they are piled on one another.
Others are too badly damaged to see or missing. You feel heartbroken. These were all your friends. You try desperately but an odd sense of relief washes over you when nothing suggests the bubbly redhead that was dating Hans was there.
Maybe not all was lost.
You take a deep breath and head to the hinged door. You need to find a way out and call the authorities. It's now that you take stock of yourself.
You're wearing a shirt and shorts. Nothing more, not even a cell phone or a piece of gum to chew for the nerves. You also now realize you, yourself, are covered in blood. Dried blood. Splatters and smear marks.
You feel sick again.
Why do you look like this? Your arms and hands are clean, your legs and feet were too but from walking and running in the blood made them dirty. The only blood on your hands is on the one you gripped the door knob with.
"What happened…why can't I remember?" You whimper and hug yourself as you move into the dark hallway.
Your eyes have started getting accustomed to the dim light and your head isn't as foggy anymore, so it was easier moving in the darkness. After feeling like you've walked longer than was normal, you see a faint glow creeping out from under a door in the middle of the hall.
You push the door open with your shoulder and find yourself in a bathroom. One light was left burning out of all the broken or fused ones. It was covered in dirt so it wasn't as bright as it would have been.
The dripping sound increases tenfold and you move to close the leaking tap. The sound stops, mostly.
You take another deep breath before looking up. You startle. The wall covered mirror was not only dirty with years of neglected water damage and dust, but there was writing on it. You whimper. More dried blood.
The words you see scream at you. They loom over you and they are loud and angry. You start to hyperventilate again and fresh tears stream down your face.
Your face.
It was dirty. Dust and dried tears and even blood. You look insane.
You feel it too now. The words claw at your mind and you lash out. You try to wipe the words away, but you just end up scratching at them. Your hands hurt from the initial impact, but you just can't bring yourself to care anymore.
A sob escapes you as you hang your head and grip the sink. Your head starts hurting now and after taking a sniff and wiping your eyes you stare back into the mirror. A yelp escapes you as you turn around after seeing a dark shape behind you, but nothing's there. The light sputters before dying and you feel like you're being watched. The sudden darkness makes you blindly turn back to the mirror as you grip the sink, but luckily the light zips back on.
You scream as a face stares back at you over your shoulder.
"Anna!" You yell and turn to the poor frazzled looking woman. Her hair was tousled and mostly out of their usual braids, her freckles lost under dust and...and blood.
"I'm glad you came back," she says in a raspy voice.
"C...came back?" you ask, confused.
She's hugging herself and her eyes have this glassy vacancy about them, unblinking, unnerving.
She didn't seem to hear you and something on her jaw caught your eye. You swallow and gently touch her chin as you move her head to look at the nip of a cut on her jaw. A long gash ran from it down the side of her neck and stopped at her collarbone, where her shirt was torn.
"...are you okay?" you ask and she just gives a throaty chuckle.
"Just...peachy, Elsa," she says, her voice still raspy like she has been screaming for hours.
"Who did this?" You ask and Anna just gives you a faint smile. Her head turns to the door and to the way to the butcher's room.
"Don't worry, he's long gone," she chuckles again before looking up to you. "Thanks to you," she adds and you feel your blood run cold.
"M...me?" You barely manage to breath out as you turn back to the mirror on shaky legs. You have to grip the sink as the words screaming at you make even more sense.
"I dId It! It wAs mE! I kIllEd thEm! I kIllEd hIM! Me! mE! ME!"
You dry heave once more, still unable to throw up.
"You stopped throwing up after the first hour," Anna says and you assume she tries to stroke your back but her hand feels limp and heavy on your back, barely moving.
You turn your head as you fight off the nausea that's when you see it. Her shirt was nearly ripped off in the middle. Her stomach exposed and barring an ugly bloody scar badly stitched together with blood and gore soaked thread.
"You tried your best...you really did and I am so grateful," she says and slightly bends over to have her head a little closer to you, blood oozes out of the wound as it squeezes.
Anna gives a little cough and some blood spurts out, but she just chuckles with her blood soaked teeth showing.
"Ended up losing a ring in me as you stuffed my guts back, but hey, it's a good way not to lose it, but here, you probably want it back," she said and all you can do is look at your hand that used to house the ring. Indeed it was gone. You didn't comprehend what she said. You gasp as her hand disappears into her stomach, ripping a couple of stitches and making more blood gush out before pulling her hand back out, dripping in blood and gore. She places the ring on your finger again and you just can't register what just happened.
"I am so...grateful...Elsa," Anna almost purrs and you feel yourself shiver. You feel uneasy.
"H...how is that possible...this must be a prank," you say and this sense of calm washes over you as you stand up and start to laugh.
"That's it isn't it? It's all a joke! It's halloween for god's sake," you laugh as you think you finally figure it out, but Anna isn't laughing.
Anna always laughs. Even before a prank could start she would laugh. She could never keep a straight face. Anna wasn't laughing.
Your happy laughter turns nervous. What if you were wrong? You chuckle again, thinking it can't be, but it starts to die again as the situation doesn't change. You stare in growing horror before you make a dash for the door. You rip it open and nearly run into the wall on the other side before running to the room you were heading to. The door was missing so once inside your eyes caught the sign of flickering candles to the side.
You turn your attention there and jog closer. Five flickering black candles, in the corners of a pentagram, in a circle, made from blood and inside...a book.
You stare at the scene in front of you, next to it was a pool of blood... roughly the size of Anna.
"I was so...happy I had that book with me...so happy...you used it," Anna says and you scream as she's suddenly at your side.
"It is Halloween...we were supposed to go to a party...you stayed home...he brought us here instead...he...killed us," Anna said as she stared blankly at the blood pool. Her arms hung limp at her side.
"I was trying to call the police...but you were on speed dial...my hands were bloody and I could barely see...I ended up calling you...screamed and begged for someone to help…" she continued and you feel your skin crawl. You can't remember.
"You came...you came and you saw what he did...he tried to convince you...tried to lure you into a false security by pretending he was a victim too...told you to find me here...I guess he was too busy making sure you couldn't escape. He didn't know you would use my book...didn't know my book was real…" she says and you find yourself stunned with the story.
"You didn't heed the warnings though...it told you there would be repercussions...but you just wanted to save me," Anna now turns to you and smiles as more blood drips from her lips.
"You were crying over me...begging me not to leave," Anna steps closer to you.
"If I knew you felt like that over me...I'd have left Hans for you long ago," Anna purrs and presses into your chest, "oh Elsa, now we can be together," she says and you feel confused. You don't know what to make of anything.
"Maybe we'd all still be here if I did...but it's fine now...he's dead now…" Anna whispers before going limp on you. You catch her out of instinct but need to lay her down as the stitches start to fail and her insides start escaping.
"Anna!" You scream and try to press her guts back in. Anna coughs and makes gurgling sounds as she weakly grasps at your arms. The act of having your hands deep in her body brings back a slew of memories. The events of what lead to this shocking you so hard you drop backwards onto your ass and start to pant.
You remember a call that made you panic, you rushed over here and threw up after seeing the blood and gore. You remember stumbling down the hall and throwing up again after seeing Anna mangled and gasping for breath, trying to reach a book.
The book drew you to it, like a faint whisper on the back of your neck, you got a paper cut looking for something in the book, remember drawing in blood and using candles that lay close by. You didn't even need to light them, they did that themselves. You remember begging and pleading and then...not much else. Just a mesh of blood and anger and screams.
You pant and look at Anna.
Anna's eyes are milky white as she's gurgling and growling, reaching out to you. She reminded you of a zombie in one of those apocalyptic movies. You don't know what to do and your eye catched the book still open in the middle of the circle. You drop in front of it, an almost familiar pain shoots through your knees as you frantically search for help.
There! A ring from the caster to stabilize the reanimated person. You grip her hand and place it on her finger.
The effect is nearly instant. Her eyes were no longer blind but they were a shade duller from their usual teal. The rip in her stomach closed with the guts all back inside. It was disturbing to watch the cuts close up like watching a paper cut split open but in reverse. A thin line with stitches remained like they were tattoos. The gash on her neck did much the same along with a few smaller cuts you weren't aware of.
"Elsa," Anna pants and sits up. She sounded a little more clear but not as chipper as usual.
"Anna," you feel yourself breathe. She hugs you tightly.
"You saved me...you really saved me," she pants and clings to you. You lift a still blood drenched hand to pat her back.
You feel...strangely calm, like all of this was now normal and okay. Your eyes flicker up past Anna and you startyle as a dark figure stood and watched. It had a misshapen face with long ears, like some twisted version of a rabbit. You didn't feel scared, just startled.
It turned its black soulless eyes to the book as it flipped closed and noticeably became thicker, like more pages were added. It walked over to the book and picked it up before handing it to you.
All you could do was take the indeed thicker book from it as it stared into the depths of your soul.
You understood.
You had to pass it on. You were now bound to it's wishes and demands. A soul for a soul.
"Anna we have to go," you say and stand, helping her up. She nodded and you knew she understood.
The rabbit-like demon watched as you and your companion walked out of the room, down the hall, through the blood and gore and out the door that was once locked.
Luckily it was halloween so two blood drenched women walking down a street with one looking like a stitched up zombie and the other like a slasher film final girl, didn't raise any suspicions.
Neither of you talked, just walked in silence. You clutched the book tightly as Anna clung to your arm. You were nearly home as the location of the grisly murders wasn't too far, you had run there when Anna called.
The street before yours was vacant, all trick or treaters already moved on to another street, except for one lone teenager that sat on the curb in front of their home.
Your eyes cast to the lit up windows and you could see, and hear, two people arguing. The boy sitting on the curb dressed as a werewolf looked up to you with clearly tired eyes.
You stop and the three of you just stare. The book in your arm draws his attention and you can see the rabbit demon stand at the door to the house as your eyes flick back to it.
"This book will help, I promise," you find yourself saying with hollowness in your voice. Anna just nods beside you.
"It helped us," she says as you hand the teen the book. He takes it with a soft thank you and you walk away as he opens the book.
Just as you and Anna turn the corner onto your street you see the rabbit demon hunch down behind the teen and whisper in his ear.
"Where did you get that book Anna?" You ask as your home gets closer.
"A patient at the asylum I work at," she says and nuzzles into your arm.
You take one last look behind you before the kid disappears from your line of sight. He's walking to the door, the book in hand and the bunny demon watching with a slightly tilted head, holding the door open like some sick and twisted version of 'come in'.
So this is part of the bunny demon collection and its going to be from different eras and such so the characters might be the same but doesnt follow a linier time line? In some cases it'll be different parallel universes.
My hope with this is to someday make a collection with original characters in a series of these murders in the same universe.
I love horror ok?!
Till next time!
X3