My wife and I were with some friends over the weekend at an airbnb we rented out on the lake. We brought food, scary movies, and enough alcohol to kill a herd of cattle. It was a whole lot of fun and something we haven’t been able to do in the several years since we graduated from high school. The house was a small four bedroom cottage just big enough for the eight of us. The next house over was a huge old house with no curtains over the windows and a huge porch with two swings and several rocking chairs. We immediately wished we could have rented that one.
Sunday night, it was really late and we were really drunk but no one wanted to go to sleep. So, like normal people would, we decided to break into the house next door. We hadn’t seen anyone go in our out and there were no vehicles. We reasoned, drunkenly, that it was probably someone’s summer home and no one would be there over halloween weekend.
We found a few working flashlights and some extra batteries and snuck out the back door as if leaving the house at night was a crime. For some reason, this was really funny to us at the time. We kept laughing and tripping over each other. Really, it was incredible we made it to the other house without realizing that we were being way too loud to break into someone’s house.
The glass back door was locked. We all crowded around the doorknob to see if we could get it open.
“Look out!” One of the older guys, Rex, held up a flashlight in his hand.
Even as drunk as we were, seven of us realized this was a bad idea. Regardless, Rex chunked the flashlight towards the door and we dodged it. The glass shattered inward. Rex shouted something probably football-related and ran inside to pick up his light. Behind us, thunder boomed and the forecasted rain finally came.
We looked at each other and walked in through the jagged-edged door one-by-one. Too late to turn back now.
The house was empty. There was no furniture, no refrigerator, the cabinets and pantry were vacant. Even the lightbulbs had been removed from the fixtures. Besides the rainfall that was becoming increasingly heavy, there were no sounds.
Rex’s girlfriend, Lisa, called us out from the kitchen and living room to the staircase she’d found behind a locked door. The door had been locked from the outside as if to keep something inside. Rex, of course, went first.
“Come on, pussies!” Rex sprinted up the stairs and into the darkness above, waving his light around.
“Yeah, pussies!” Lisa followed suit.
We followed cautiously, making sure to leave no one behind. There were six of us at the base of the stairs. Good.
I don’t know about the others, but that doorknob thing freaked me out a bit. If everyone else hadn’t wanted to go upstairs, I would’ve been game to head back and watch a scary movie. We reached the top of the staircase and immediately noticed the walls. They were wooden, but pieces of pink wallpaper hung loosely here and there as if it had been torn off in haste. The second floor was one big room, similarly without furniture except a bookshelf in the corner. I approached it, hoping to find a selection of Dickens or Austen.
There was only one book on the shelf. I picked it up. My hair stood on end even before I could read the title. I pointed my light at the cover. Over top a pentagram with two rounded edges, the title read “Rituals for Awakening.”
Lisa came over and took the book from me. “Cool! Rex, come look at this!”
Then I noticed that there was the shape of a child sitting in the corner. I froze in fear until one of my friends noticed me and followed my gaze. They saw it too. The two of us ran and the others followed as if they had been ready to run ever since we set foot in this creepy, old house. We leapt down the stairs and locked the door behind us before leaving the house and heading back to ours in the rain.
When we reached our house, I counted to make sure everyone was with us. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8… 9.
I shone my light on the group. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Good.
We went inside and locked the door behind us and piled into the suv we’d taken. We drove until we found a lit parking lot and slept in the car that night.
For two days, I thought that this whole thing was over. Wishful thinking.
Tonight, I found a note on my doorstep. The envelope was sealed with the exact pentagram from the book cover. If anyone is a cryptographer or language person, please tell me what it says. It’s kinda freaking me out. the note
Submitted November 01, 2017 at 10:29AM by Marlennius http://ift.tt/2A4Z2dc nosleep
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