The sun was setting as I trekked down the path, shadowed by my older brother. The trees grew denser, blocking out the remaining weak autumn sunlight. Piles of bright red, orange and yellow leaves were scattered and chased by a cool breeze that warned of an early frost. I shivered and pulled my blue sweater tighter around me, trying to ignore the cold.
“Are we almost there?” I asked for the hundredth time, while brushing my brown hair out of my face in annoyance.
“We’ll be there when we get there!” He groaned, rolling his blue grey eyes. That’s when I saw it. The gray stone, now cracked and covered with intruding vines of ivy. The door was ripped off its hinges, revealing an ominous gaping black hole. The only visible thing being a dark hall with two sets of stairs leading up and down to god knows what. As we walked closer to the abandoned, dilapidated building, my steps grew heavier, my stomach twisting and turning with a growing, gnawing feeling of dread. I reluctantly followed my older brother into the house, and drew a sharp breath at the sudden ten degree cooler air. A drafty wind seemed to sigh and silently scream throughout the halls, desperately trying to get us to leave. My brother seemed to be doing an iny-miny-mo game and finally chose the set of stairs leading to the top floor. I raced closely behind him, terrified of what might happen if left alone in the dark. At the top of the stairs, there was a square landing with three open doors branching off each of the walls. He stepped into one and I went ridged at the scene it beheld. A ceiling light flickered, showing a porcelain doll with golden ringlets atop her head, sitting on a rocking chair, its eyes poked in by two protruding sticks, and a noose around her neck. Bright ruby lipstick desecrated her face to form a tormented smile. The once cream colored carpeted floor had a massive crimson stain sitting as simple as a rain puddle in the center of the room. A few splatters here and there crudely painted the dirty white walls. I tried to move, but I was petrified and rooted to the spot.
“I- I want to...” Leave. The horror of the scene formed a lump in my throat, choking and preventing me from letting any other words escape. Finally, my brother grabbed me and pulled me out of the room and down the steps. I could tell he was as equally shaken. We didn’t want to see any more possible horrors in the other upstairs rooms, but I couldn’t understand for the life of me, why we went downstairs as well. The chances that anything downstairs were better than what we had witnessed earlier, were practically zero. Nada. Zilch. But, we did it anyways.
The worn and wooden steps creaked and groaned in protest, whilst the dark and gloom of the basement swelled. My brother finally flicked on the flashlight, casting a yellow incandescent beam on whatever lay at the bottom of the steps. It smelled of mildew and dust, the stench of decay almost overwhelming. The noise of several faint drips echoed in the seemingly vacant concrete  penitentiary like room. Yet somehow, it was impossible for me to calm down. My stomach still churned and screamed, insisting that I run, run away from this place as fast as possible, and never look back. The flashlight finally fell on the one thing in this room that seemed out of place. It was a large, yellow, plastic bucket with stains of brown, mahogany, and currant on its rim. My brother approached it, and I hesitantly followed to see what was inside. As we came closer, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the stench of rotting that came in a such a strong wave, that it choked me. Flies irritatedly buzzed up from a pile of black fur and decaying flesh; the barely apparent remains of a house cat. I backed away, feeling appalled, nearly tripping over myself. And then, almost as if on cue, a scraping noise sounded from a far off corner. I stood up straight, feeling the hair along the back of my neck rise. My green eyes frantically shifted from side to side, desperately trying to pinpoint the source. When I finally found it, the sight made my blood run cold. A creature made of a black swirling smoke-like substance began to crawl across the floor, lengthening its grotesque barely human shaped body. It straightened up on its abnormally long arms and legs, flexing its claw like fingers. It’s head seemed to glitch as it turned, assessing the situation, then it bared long razor sharp and malformed fangs, and smiled. Worse than the doll we had witnessed upstairs. My brother took off running. A mistake. The creature spotted him and lunged forwards, grabbing him by his throat and flinging him across the room. He hit the wall and slid down, immobilized. I hid in the corner, helpless and horrified. I wanted to scream, to help him, to run, but once again, I was frozen with terror. The animalistic monster crept towards him, and in a swift movement, it raised a set of claws and brought them down, slashing through his skin, and finally opened its jaws and ripped open his throat. My brother let out a quiet gurgling noise as the life left his eyes, his throat fillited and oozing. I let out a scream of horror and despair. Another horrible mistake on my part. The beast rotated its glitching smoke formation of a head 180 degrees, before allowing its spidery limbs to follow.  Its glowing ghostly white eyes met mine, and it gave me a look that could only mean one thing.
Youŕe Next.