I screamed and swung my free foot round to dislodge it with a kick. It took quite a lot of effort and the awkward position made me stumble. As I found my balance there was a very loud, very deep rumble from all around. Bony hands shot out from the ground all around me, but this time it didn't stop with just the hands. Bony hands were followed by bony arms which pulled whole skeletal bodies from the shards of bone on the ground. Fires burned in their eye sockets but somehow all of them were looking directly at me. They appeared so quickly that I barely had time to draw my sword before the first one was upon me. I turned and swung the blade in a panic. It caught it between the ribs and smacked against its backbone, knocking it off balance a bit. Sensing an opportunity I swung again, harder this time and slashed it between two sections of its backbone. It snapped completely, fell to the ground but was still moving. I had no time to celebrate because as I turned to see another one almost on top of me. This time I went to take its skull clean off. As I did so a bony hand gripped my arm like a vice and another scratched my back, I felt it draw blood. I screamed out and twisted away from the one gripping me. I ducked under a blur of arms that swiped through the ait to grab me. I reached the door in the hedge, sensing that there was no way I could possibly beat them all and it wouldn't be long until they'd overpowered me. I grabbed the handle and winced immediately. The handle was razor sharp it made me bleed. The door was locked. I cried out and rattled the door. I tired kicking it but then had to kick off another skeleton.

"Come on!" I screamed at the door. "Open! Bloody open!" With the hand that was bloodied and cut by the handle I clawed at the lock on the door. My blood touched the lock and it clicked open. "Yes!" I pushed the door open and ran in, slamming it shut just in time.

"Welcome, Isabel," the dog creature appeared in front of me.

"Not you again."

"Oh, you don't like me. Shame. I thought we were really getting on," he smiled. I glared at him; I was so tired of these games. I looked around. It took me a while to realise where we were. "Where are you, Isabel?" he asked me.

"This is Elizabeth's old house…" I stuttered. "The one she grew up in… this… this is where my parents died."

"Interesting," he mused as I trembled.

"What are we doing here?" I asked. He shrugged.

"You tell me. That was, after all, your door. To me or to anyone else… this room is just empty."

"You can't see any of this?" I looked at the house, exactly as I remembered it with no noticeable details missing. It looked exactly as it did before the fire. The dog shook his head and smiled.

"Not a thing. But have fun."

He slowly vanished into the air around me. I stood on my own in the entrance hall wondering what I was supposed to do and why I was here. The house was completely silent. Perhaps I was the only one in here. I suppose that would make sense seeing as this was apparently a place specific to me. Surely, if it was my door I'd gone through it should have been my childhood home I was standing in, not Elizabeth's. Why was I here? I took a tentative step forward. My footstep barely made a sound. I didn't like how quiet this was. Elizabeth's had never stood as quietly as this. "Hello?" I called into the still air. I waited, not sure if I wanted company or if another voice in this atmosphere would scare me.

Nothing.

Not that I had been expecting anything.

I didn't like being here. It was creepy. I turned to leave but the door was locked. This brought me a sense of relief that I didn't understand until I remembered what I had just escaped from on the other side of that door. Surely whatever was waiting for me in here could not be as bad as that. Could it?

I heard a door creak open. My heart fluttered as I turned to look. One of the doors on my left had opened up. It was the door to the room where the Swanns had entertained close, personal friends. The room that Elizabeth and I had always been itching to get away from as it was full of mundane adults and their conversations. The room with the cushion we'd accidently spilt something on and just turned it over so that we never had to tell a soul that it was us. The room with the window that looked out onto the front lawn. The room where you could see the side of the Anderson's house and could sometimes spot Grumpy Mr Anderson looking grumpy at his desk. The room where, when the light shone in a specific direction at a specific time of day it caught on a crystal Elizabeth's mother had hung by the window and cast rainbows on the wall that would dance in a breeze.

The room where my parents died.

I didn't want to go in. I couldn't. I wouldn't. But then I heard a laugh. A laugh I hadn't heard in I heard in over fourteen years. Her laugh. My mother's.

Suddenly I felt ten again. A ten year old girl who wanted nothing more than a hug from her mother and a kiss from her father. "Mother!" I shouted running towards the door. I could scarcely believe she was here. "Mother!" Was my father here too? "Father! Mother, father!"

I stopped at the door.

The room felt far too still. A bad feeling in the pit of my stomach stopped me from going any further. I could just see the tops of their heads and their hair over the back of their chairs. Then I heard my father speak, "Isabel," he was calling for me. He sounded happy to see me. Still, I hesitated.

"Isabel, darling," my mother almost sang. "How have you been, my child?"

I stumbled towards them, my heart felt lighter than it had in a while but there were tears in my eyes and a heavy lump in my throat. "I've missed you… James is… we… I don't…" I wanted nothing more than for them to hug me. It was only when I was standing directly behind them that I realised something was wrong. Their clothes looked too loose on them. I caught a glimpse of my mother's hand. I could see the bone. Strips of burnt flesh hung around it. I became aware of a strong stench in the air. The stench of burnt flesh. I choked on some vomit that rose in the back of my throat.

"What's wrong darling?" my father's voice sounded oddly hollow. "Isabel…"

"No," I moaned as tears rolled down my face. Their heads snapped round to look at me simultaneously. The skin on their face was blackened and unrecognisable. Their hair fell lankly around their skulls. The only things that were recognisable were their eyes which fixed on me. Their jaws swung open and their screams filled the air as flames which came from inside them engulfed their bodies. They burnt to ash within a matter of seconds. I threw up. Stumbling away from them I fell backwards. I landed as the last of my parent's screams faded away. Everything around me burst into flames.

From upstairs, I heard Jack scream.

Reviews appreciated :)

And Happy New Year my lovelies. Love you.

LV xx