Stories for the moon

[Horror] The ruined house

The ruined house

Two girls. They were running in the woods holding each other hands. They were running like you run away from a monster, but there was nothing, just loneliness. They weren't running away. They were trying to find the path back home as fast as possible, but couldn't find any trace of it.

- Harley, stop! I can't keep up anymore, said the youngest girl. Her breath was jerky and she had to put her hands on her lap to calm herself down and get some air back.
- Come on! We can't stay here Alma. We need to go, now.
The oldest one insisted on these last words before taking her sister's hand and starting to run again while looking at every tree with a strange feeling of fear as if some monster was hiding behind them. She couldn't recognize anything around her but she couldn't tell her sister or she would freak out and might start to cry.
For now, they were both still able to run and it's was enough to get back before dark. Or at least she thought so.

They ran again for about twenty minutes before making a stop at the edge of a stream crossing a clearing.
- Are we ever gonna get home?
Harley couldn't answer to her little sister. Even she wasn't sure they could reach home while the sun was still out. In the best case, they might find a shelter for the night to stay warm and hide from the wolves or those beasts that live in the dark waiting for two delicious little girls to come by.
- Alma, listen to me. We need to find a place for the night and some dry branches to build a fire.
- Aren't we going home?
- Of course we are. But maybe not... tonight. We should wait here until the sun comes out again.
- But the sun is still there, said Alma looking at the sky getting darker.
- Yes, for now, but not for long.
The oldest bent to help her sister getting up, and together they started looking for a safe place to spend the night in.

An hour later, just when twilight faded away, they saw an old house that seemed uninhabited. Almost all the shutters were destroyed and the front door was already half opened. The windows were all dirty and some were even broken. But the house was still looking like a big and massive place that could still stand there for a thousand years.

- Wow, it's perfect! Just what we were looking for.
Harley entered with a big smile and clapped her hands to manifest her joy, unlike Alma, who was pretty scared of going into some stranger's house.
- Harley, maybe we shouldn't be here. If the owner comes back, what are we gonna do?
Harley turned around, still smiling.

- Well, I guess we shall simply say that we were lost, and, trust me, this house is in such bad condition that I truly doubt that its owner is still from this world.
- Does that mean there is a ghost in this house?
Alma grabbed her sister's arm and looked around with some panicked squeaks, like a little mouse. The oldest patted her head.
- Don't be such a chicken. There is no ghost or monster that would hurt a nine years old kid, especially someone as cute as yourself.

After a brief silence, Harley left her sister in what seemed to be the living-room and started to grope for matches and candles in an old kitchen. She came back to Alma with some light.
- Well, at least we aren't in the dark anymore. Here, she said tending a candle to her sister, you can sleep if you're tired, I'm going to look around a bit.

First, she went upstairs. Some of the stairs were creaking. She was afraid to fall at almost every steps. There, she saw a door on the right and a long hallway on the left. Fearing of being left in the dark if her candle was to light off, she chose to go back downstairs and almost twisted her ankles twice.
- Well, I guess this house feels my unknown-presence and is trying to kill me, she said to herself.
Then, she went through the living room and saw her sister already deeply asleep.

As she wasn't tired yet, she decided to continue her little exploration around the house. She took a spare candle from the kitchen to be sure she would always have some light with her. She went through all the corridors on the first floor. She opened doors here and there, discovering bathrooms, bedrooms and offices uncleaned for years.
As she thought she had seen everything, she stopped in front of a closed door she hadn't seen before.
- I guess this is the last one.

She tried to turn the door handle, but it was locked. She tried again and pushed the door, but it only opened a little, as if something was blocking the door from inside. She hit it with all her strength and eventually, the door opened just enough to let her go through.

The candle couldn't light the whole room. In a corner, Harley recognized the shape of a car. She immediately thought it was the garage, but she saw a bed on her left and wondered why someone -in such a big house with two bedrooms on the first floor and certainly even more upstairs- would sleep in the garage.
Before she could think about it, she heard a grunt coming from the bed.

- Is someone there?
As she was asking, a shape raised up and stood up right in front of her.
- A-Are you alright? she asked with fear in her voice.

The human figure didn't answer. In a hurried gesture, it grabbed Harley by the neck and started to squeeze. She wanted to scream but only could move her legs and as she was starting to suffocate she hit the figure as hard as she could.
The first time, she missed her target, but the second time, she hit the person in the belly and her aggressor released her in a hoarse scream.

Harley ran away out of breath. She reached outside of the house and tried to get her breath back. She needed to escape. Right now. As she was trying to find somewhere to hide, she heard a shrill cry.

Hearing her little sister screaming gave her the strength to run back into the house. She went for the kitchen. Took a knife from the cutlery drawer. She hid behind the sofa and groped around for her sister's hand, but she couldn't touch Alma, only the cushion she was sleeping on.

She tried to move behind the armchair but something pulled her up and started to hit her in the face. In a fit of panic, Harley stabbed the unknown-figure in the throat. The human- figure threw her on the floor and she bumped into something soft. The girl put her hand on it and screamed when she realized it was still hot but not moving anymore.
She tried to lift her sister by grabbing her by the shoulders. Then she felt a handle right in the middle of Alma's back.
She screamed with pain, fear and fury :
- No!

She took out the knife from her sister's back and stood up.
- Hey! Where are you, you monster?
A breath close to her right ear made her turn around. She stabbed all around her with rage. She was screaming, crying and screaming again. When her target tried to grab her, she held on tight to its arm, got on the back of the creature and stabbed it again and again, just like it had stabbed her sister.

When it stopped moving, she stood still for a couple of minutes, to be sure it wouldn't come back from the dead.
After some time, she stood up, breathing quickly, went back to the kitchen, stumbling, took the matches and candles, stumbled back to the living-room and fell on the floor. She crawled towards her sister and lit a match.

Harley looked at her sister, she put her fingers on her eyelid and closed them.
- There. It's looks like you're sleeping now.
On those last words, Harley felt asleep, tears running on her cheeks.

Outside, the sun was finally showing up, shining some beautiful light on the ruined house.

THE END