Taken in the Haunted House
by
Ruby Winchester
Copyright 2013 Ruby Winchester
All rights reserved.
Taken in the Haunted House
Book Design by Ruby Winchester
Cover Image Copyright 2013 © igorigorevich - Fotolia.com,
used under a Standard Attribution License.
I woke up to the bite of cold metal wrapped around my wrists.
I sat up from where I was sprawled on the floor, and, dazed, looked around the room for any indication of where I was. Peeling wallpaper covered the walls in yellowing strips. Once it had been some kind of floral pattern, but now the appearance was more like old skin, mottled with decay. A dirty lightbulb hung from the ceiling, dimly bathing the room in a sickly glow.
The heavy chains were wrapped securely around my wrists and no amount of tugging would loosen them. Unsteadily, I pushed myself to my feet and walked to the window, nudging back the rotted lace curtains to see outside.
As soon as I saw the long, curving driveway and the twisted, leafless trees lining it, I knew exactly where I was - the old Hartwood house at the edge of town. Every town had one of those houses - crumbling Victorians where the lawn grew a little too high and the windows look like shuttered eyes. Ask the local children and you would find that sometimes it was a witch or a vampire or just a vague monster that lived there. Teenagers dared each other to sneak in and spend the night, and responsible adults talked about what the decaying house would do to local property values.
I had grown up seeing this house in the periphery of my darkest nightmares, and somehow I had ended up bound in chains and dressed in a white dress like some kind of mad bride from a Dickens novel. It all felt too elaborate to be a prank, and none of my friends were creative enough to come up with something like this. Ghosts were the farthest thing from my mind though. Real humans had to have been the ones that kidnapped me and left me here. Only kids believed in monsters.
I crossed the room to the large wooden door, trying to be as silent as was possible on the creaky floors. Grateful that my hands were bound in front of me, I tried the knob and was surprised to find it unlocked. Obviously my kidnappers weren’t very good at this.
Cautiously, I crept out into the darkened hallway and almost jumped out of my skin when I heard a voice whisper my name. “Sara,” it breathed, sounding more like wind blowing over dry leaves than a human voice.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Sara.”
I had always loved anything that related to horror. I was first in line at any scary movie and Halloween had become a month long event at my house. I didn’t believe in ghosts or monsters, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying them. I walked by this house every day on my way to work and never failed to pause and stare through the rusted iron fence, wondering if it would be like walking inside a movie to go inside.
The first chill of autumn had been in the air yesterday when I passed by the gate. Dried leaves blew in a miniature tornado of orange and red and brown, and my mind was already turning to thoughts of my favorite season. Looking up at the house, I whispered, “I wish I could see what’s inside.”
Something had heard me.
Ignoring every instinct and every movie I had even seen that told me to run down the stairs and out the front door, I moved toward the voice. Pale, flickering lights shone from under a partially closed door at the end of the hall. I pushed the door open with my bound hands and walked in to see dozens of candles.
Certain that the voice had come from here, I took another step forward into the room and then jumped forward when the door slammed violently behind me. I whirled around and yanked on the doorknob to no avail. I was locked in. Cold fear crept into me, and a blast of icy wind extinguished the candles, plunging me into darkness.
I stood facing the door for a long moment, trembling and feeling the oppressive pressure
Graham Marks
Sarah O'Rourke
Stacy Hoff
Jo Whittemore
Elizabeth Berg
Dionne Lister
Tony Kerins
George S. Pappas
Leelou Cervant
Kevin J. Anderson