Tyler wheeled around the living room, carving a wide arc around the edge of it so he could see as much of the dining room as possible.
The orange light flickered in the darkened house, creating eerie shapes dancing on the periphery of the shadows.
He crept forward, his feet weighing down on the old floorboards and making them sing a ghastly melody. Jess and Ashley clung to the back of him, continually glancing over their shoulders, fearful that something would attack them from behind.
They moved into the dining room and paused. There was nothing out of place around them, but their heads, almost in unison, turned to the open doorway leading to the kitchen.
Old silverware was spilled across the floor, and the edge of a smashed kitchen drawer could be seen past the doorframe, like it had been ripped out of the cabinet.
When they saw this, their hearts collectively skipped a beat and Ashley began to whimper. Jess's eyes were wide as plates, and she unconsciously gripped Tyler's shoulder, her fingernails digging into his skin enough to cut him.
The dancing orange light washed over the kitchen, making it look like the scene of a roadside accident at night.
Tyler raised the rifle, staring down the sights and ready to shoot. He took a meek step forward and forced his other foot to drag him ahead, moving extremely slowly toward the beckoning kitchen door. He was mindful of the corners he couldn't see, half-expecting something to be waiting just on the other side of the wall, ready to rip the gun out of his hands and kill him.
When he reached the doorway, he shuffled through quickly and looked around with wild eyes. But there was no one in the kitchen. He glanced at the other doorway which led out into the hallway stretching past the office and library, but there was no one around.
"We're not alone," he said nonetheless, his eyes bouncing around the room.
Jess looked down and surveyed the damage, glancing from the mess on the floor to the cabinet where the drawer had been, and it indeed appeared as if someone had ripped it out with great force. The front door to the house was in the back of her mind, and her subconscious mind was quietly doing calculations, keeping track of exactly which direction the door was from her and how long it would take for her to get there. She had been cavalier in her attitude to come back into the house so she could find out what was going on, but now she realized that had been a mistake.
A voice howled upstairs. It was a loud, throaty cry, and it sounded female and full of pain. Then the sound of chains rattling and dragging across the floor drifted through the ceiling.
The three of them froze, sheer terror shredding their sanity.
It immediately evoked familiarity in Jess, and then she remembered that she just read how Vernon Dover had kept his wife chained up to starve. And suddenly, all the air escaped her lungs.
Footsteps walked across the second floor, heading for the stairs.
Tyler spun around and aimed the rifle at the edge of the dining room as the footsteps slowly thumped down the staircase in the foyer, just out of view. Jess and Ashley both began crying, and Tyler was so scared that he could barely keep the gun level.
The footsteps punctuated the silence, and in accompaniment with the eerie orange light, they created a nightmarish scene. When they reached the bottom of the staircase, they stopped.
Tyler waited with shaky arms, but nothing appeared. He seemed to be waiting for an eternity as it felt like he tried to swallow a cotton ball.
A door creaked open behind them.
They slowly turned around.
A high-up kitchen cabinet that was closed just a moment ago now sat open. And they couldn't use the excuse that someone had snuck behind them and opened it when they watched a tall glass from inside slide to the edge of the shelf on its own.
They stared in mesmerized horror as the glass slipped off the edge and hung suspended in the air. There was nothing around it; no visible hand to hold it up. It remained in the air for a moment longer, then without any warning it sailed toward them.
Jess screamed and ducked, and the glass missed her and shattered on the wall behind her. Another glass slid out of the cabinet into the air and flung itself at Ashley. The three of them ducked and it shattered on the wall. Jess tried to run for the front door of the house, but another glass flew just in front of her, narrowly missing the bridge of her nose and smashing against the floor. She skidded to a stop and backed up as a whole line of glasses shifted off the shelf and came for them.
Ashley began screaming and Tyler was shouting in terror as the three of them crouched down into a ball and held their arms up in front of their faces to shield themselves from the shower of broken glass raining everywhere.
One glass struck Jess in her side and knocked the wind out of her as it broke apart and sliced her shirt. Another one came down on the back of Tyler's hand, shattering and cutting it, as another shard slipped through his guard and sliced his cheek.
The barrage kept coming, and they all protected themselves as best as they could as they got pelted with the remaining glassware in the cabinet. A final glass glanced off of Ashley's shoulder and skittered into the wall before shattering into tiny pieces.
Then there was silence.
The three of them started to come up, still wary of another attack, when suddenly they heard another noise. It was a wrenching sound, like something being pulled apart.
Jess looked up at the bloody mural of the three of them painted on the wall, and she watched as the three knives stabbed into them were pried out of the plaster by invisible hands. They suspended in the air just like the glasses, and they slowly twisted around until the sharp tips of the blades were pointed down at the three of them.
"No, no..." Jess muttered. She turned and ran, blocking everything in her peripheral out of the tunnel vision she held on the front door ahead of her—that symbol of salvation and escape. Tyler and Ashley were quick on her heels as a cacophony of frightening noises grew in the house behind them.
The sound of rattling chains started up again and haunted moans filled the air, but they didn't dare look behind them.
Jess reached for the handle to yank the front door open.
But it didn't budge.
She violently fiddled with it, but it was locked. She twisted the deadbolt in and out of place, wrenching on the door each time, but it was sealed shut as if by some invisible force.
"No!" she cried, then her fear and emotions overwhelmed her and she sank down onto the floor, curling up and shrinking away from the hostile outer world. She shouldn't have come here. She had made a big mistake, and now the fragile state of her mind had shattered just like so many glasses in the kitchen.
Ashley fell to her knees and sobbed uncontrollably, pressing her hands to her eyes so that she couldn't see their impending deaths coming for them.
Tyler tried yanking on the door himself, but he couldn't get it to open. He freaked out as he stared down at Jess and Ashley. He was supposed to protect them; he was supposed to make sure that they made it through the night safe and sound. And he had failed, uselessly clutching the gun in his hands that would do no good. And for the first time, he was scared for his very life.
Buried
Tyler's heart beat like mad. He heard the swelling wave of noises behind him, like an approaching army. The entire surface of his skin prickled, and it felt like a thousand tiny knives were digging into him. He looked down at the girls in dismay.
Jess and Ashley were still curled up on the ground, waiting for their deaths. Tyler tried to think, but he couldn't. He looked at the door again and yanked on it. He couldn't understand why it didn't open, and the confusion immobilized him more than anything.
Chains rattled and dragged across the floor from behind, growing louder. More clattering noises came from the kitchen, and then Tyler heard the very chairs in the dining room start to drag across the floor.
His breath caught in his throat, and he didn't want to look behind him, knowing that it would be like one of those movies where the v
ery act of seeing the demented spirit chasing him would be his demise.
Tyler's eyes frantically swept across the front of the house. His knuckles wrapped around the rifle were white, wanting to shoot something, wanting to use the gun as a club, wanting to do something. And then his eyes fell on a window in the dining room.
Faint moonlight was filtering in through its grimy surface, being diffused into a hazy scattering of particles.
Tyler ran to it and battered the glass with the butt of the rifle. It shattered into shards large and small, and it rained down on either side of the window.
He ran back to the girls and pulled them up to their feet. It was like carrying dead weight at first. They didn't want to move, couldn't even understand what was happening to them, and were incapable of cooperating. But Tyler threw the rifle on his shoulder and grabbed each girl under the armpit, dragging them with all his might. They slowly became more agreeable, stumbling across the tarnished hardwood to the window. When they saw their escape, their eyes brightened and a second wind of adrenaline hit them.
"Come on!" Tyler cried, and he helped Jess through the window first. When she was through, he helped Ashley. Just as she toppled outside, the swelling sounds of the approaching spirits—the spirits Tyler had refused to believe in—closed in on him now. He felt something cold on his arm, and the fear of it nearly immobilized him.
He panicked and dove out the window. He landed on the hard gravel and scraped his hands and knees. Rolling onto his back, he tried to open his eyes to take inventory of the girls and their well-being, but the rain poured down into them and blinded him. Tyler wiped the wetness out of his vision and got to his knees.
Jess and Ashley had already scrambled up to their feet and moved away from the house. Tyler joined them, and as soon as Ashley got her bearings and spotted his pickup truck next to them, she ran for it.
She cried hysterically and uttered unintelligible phrases. Jess was similarly distraught, but now that the rain started to wash away the oppressive atmosphere the house held over them, her mind began to clear.
"Let's get out of here!" Tyler said. He followed Ashley to his truck, but Jess stayed where she was.
"Wait!" she cried.
Tyler spun around, completely bewildered at what she could possibly think was more important than escaping from this madhouse.
"I'm not leaving Buddy behind!" she shouted.
Ashley stood at the side of the truck, holding the door open and already halfway inside. She had a look of utter shock and betrayal on her face, like she couldn't believe her friend would risk their lives for—what was to her in that moment—some stupid dog. "We have to get out of here!" Ashley pleaded.
"Jess—" Tyler started.
A dog barked somewhere in the distance.
Jess's head snapped to the side. "Buddy!" she cried in elation. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere in the woods at the back of the house, and she didn't hesitate to take off running for him.
"Jess!" Tyler yelled after her, but he knew she wouldn't stop. He grunted in frustration and chased her. Ashley's look of shock and betrayal grew, but then she considered her options of waiting alone in Tyler's truck, fleeing back to town on foot, or running after the two of them. She uttered a pained moan, then she chose the third option, cursing every second of it.
Jess pulled the flashlight out of her pocket and flicked it on. The white beam of light stretched through the woods as a moderate rain fell down from the sky, slicking her exposed skin. She saw the house climbing up into the sky next to her as she ran toward the back of the property, and though it seemed dark and sinister from the outside, it did not do justice to the unbelievable insanity that they had just escaped inside.
She heard Tyler yelling after her from somewhere behind, but she tuned him out; she was listening for her dog's bark to pinpoint his location. The woods ahead of her were silent for a while, save for the pattering of the rain, but then she heard another bark in the distance. It was disorienting being in this open space; the woods seemed to have a confusing echoing effect, like the auditory equivalent of a house of mirrors. She paused only for a moment for Buddy to bark again, then she took off, honing her direction.
When she was into the thick of the woods, the lush canopy over her head of tall aspen trees caught the rain and diffused it down into an uneven shower. The air was freezing cold, and her soaked clothes compounded that effect. But the only thing she cared about was Buddy. When she got a hold of him, she would drag him all the way back to the truck if she had to. And then they would all get out of there and never come back.
Tyler closed in on Jess. It was difficult to run with the rifle hanging around his neck and constantly glancing down at the uneven terrain. He raised his hand to appraise the wound that one of the glasses from the kitchen had issued, but thankfully it didn't look deep. It was bleeding lightly and the rain washed it away into a pale solution. Tyler glanced over his shoulder and saw Ashley struggling to keep up. He knew she was never one for physical activity, always preferring to be prim and proper and make sure her makeup didn't run. A part of him felt bad and wanted to slow down for her, but if he had to choose between Ashley and Jess, he chose Jess. She was his number one priority, so he lowered his chin and pumped his legs even harder.
Jess sailed through the trees, her tunnel vision locked in on the direction of Buddy's barking. But she hadn't heard him in a while, and she was starting to worry that he was hiding or had run off in another direction, or maybe something even worse...
Her mind was distracted, and her foot caught on something. Before she knew it, she hit the ground face-first. She let out a loud grunt as the wind was knocked out of her lungs. Jess rolled over onto her back and lifted her head, swiveling it around to try to find out what had tripped her.
Tyler caught up to her. "Jess, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she groaned. He helped her up to her feet and she took a brief moment to wipe the dirt off her front with her free hand before she planned to take off running again.
But Ashley said, "What is that?"
Jess shone the flashlight on what she was pointing at and saw what tripped her. It was something long and white sticking out from under a rock at a strange angle, just high enough for the toe of her shoe to catch on it. Tyler bent down and pried it out from under the rock, then he held it up to the light.
It was a long bone, cut or snapped at one end. But none of them knew what kind of bone it was or where it came from.
"Is it... human?" Ashley asked.
"No," Tyler said, "it's probably from a pig or a cow or something." But he had an awful feeling. He tossed it away.
Jess listened for her dog's barks, but he was silent now. "Buddy?" she called out. He didn't answer. "Buddy!"
Nothing.
As the rain showered down through the canopy above them and soaked them to the bone, Jess shivered and her breath came out as a white puff in the flashlight. She tilted the light to the ground and searched the area. Then her eyes lit up as she saw something pressed into the soft dirt. She moved over to it and crouched down, holding the light close.
They were paw prints.
"Buddy!" she said to herself joyfully. They were unmistakably dog prints, and they looked recent. But with the rain washing down, she knew that they would soon be eroded until they were indistinguishable from the rest of the forest floor. "We have to hurry, before they're washed away," she said.
She tried to follow the trail, but it was erratic. She found clusters of prints that pointed in all directions, and other parts where they seemed to follow a straight path, but they were spaced far apart, like Buddy had been running. She saw them near the bone that was wedged under the rock, and she figured that he must have dug it up somewhere. Perhaps animal carcasses somewhere in the woods were what had gotten Buddy's attention and agitated him so.
Jess took off quickly, trying to make sense out of the paw prints. She found a line that came toward her from deeper in the woods, but then it looped
around and turned back. The prints stretched into some underbrush, and following his trail quickly became confusing. But Jess tried the best she could, wiping fresh rain out of her eyes. As the three of them followed the trail, they stopped when they spotted another object, long and pale, strewn on the ground.
Jess bent and picked it up. It was another bone, similar to the last one, but similarly indistinguishable from where exactly it came.
"Why are all these out here?" Ashley asked, scared.
Jess tossed the bone away. "I don't know," she said. These new mysteries were distracting her, and she tried to push them out of her mind and focus on finding her dog. His barking was still ceased, and she called out his name a few more times to no avail.
They weaved their way through the trees, staring closely at the ground, and they didn't even notice at first when the trees in front of them broke off into a clearing.
Jess stopped at the edge of it, seeing paw prints leading to a patch of earth that looked loose and dug up. Another bone was sticking out of it, and Jess bent over and pulled it out. She shook the dirt loose off of it and held it up in the flashlight's beam.
It was different than the previous two they'd found, and this one seemed more familiar.
"That looks like a... hand," Tyler gulped.
Jess stared hard at it. "It can't be." She swept the flashlight across the ground and saw another patch of loose dirt with just the tip of something small and round sticking out of it. Dread filled Jess's lungs, swirling inside with each breath. Her heart pounded as she crawled over to the strange object in the ground and pried it up with her fingers. It wouldn't come loose, and her fingers scratched away at the dirt as her friends eagerly watched over her shoulder, feeling a similar sense of dread and anticipation building.
As more dirt was pulled away from the strange object, it grew in size. It seemed like a bone at first, but the more earth that Jess pulled away, the more it looked like a ball or an orb of some sort. She dug deeper, and then her fingers got a hold of the object. She yanked on it, and suddenly the loose dirt gave way and the object was plucked out of the ground.
The Haunting of Bloodmoon House Page 15