Rumor has it that in this quiet neighborhood, an abandoned house could be located. They say that some kid's family got murdered there. People were still debating on whether the kid had survived. From what they heard from the police, everyone in the household died there. But the neighbors weren't so sure for they would constantly see the girl sneaking around. What's true is that the authorities have already buried the bodies. In a few weeks, they'll be cleaning the whole house up. All that they knew was that the girl would be the last to die among her family...
"Hurry up, Johan! We'll be caught because of you!" Mary whispered as Mira turned to look for passersby.
"We're all clear. Just keep quiet and don't make a ruckus," Mira reassured them.
They sneaked along the fences to prevent being seen by the people in the neighborhood. Natalie and Nathaniel stalked further behind. Johan sensed their mood and knew that they had a really bad feeling about what they were gonna do.
The "Nat Twins" were always jumpy, in a sort of good way. They could easily sense things wrong with the atmosphere. They also claim to be able to see ghosts. Johan is considered as the closest to being a mind reader. He can easily sense if someone is lying. He can also tell what they are thinking about. It wouldn't be wise to keep secrets from him because he already knows. Mira and Mary are masters at stealth. They could easily steal something without being caught, even if the person is holding it. Their younger sister Mae is known for listening to rumors, she seems to be sensitive to sounds. She was the reason they knew about the house. Jacob, Justin and Joshua are like professional detectives. Their observation skills could rival Natalie and Nathaniel's senses.
They stood in front of the house. It looked small compared to the others but was really dirty. The rusty doorknob looked straight-up wrong. It was flipped to lock the people inside. They went inside and instantly gagged at the smell. The place smelled like a huge pile of rotten rat corpses. They decided to have a quick look around.
Dried blood was splattered all over the place. The only decoration not covered in blood was this huge family portrait in the living room. The parents proudly held four children near them. There were three girls and one boy. They saw a smaller version on the ground. Everyone in the picture was crossed out with blood, except the youngest girl.
They soon found a doll dressed like the youngest girl. Beside it was a player and some tapes. As the records played, the atmosphere slowly became darker. The voice of a little girl describing her first few days as a seven-year-old was downright creepy. She talked about a game of hide-and-seek that she and her family played with some stranger who just came in. She said that there was somehow tomato paste spilled all over the place because of the trouble they had all been making. The "happy" messages went for about six tapes. If they hadn't seen what has happened in this place, they would have regarded the girl's recordings as very cute and innocent. The last one proved that wrong.
They heard the girl in a somewhat nervous laughing fit, sobbing at the same time. She told them how she sugar-coated what had truly happened. All this time, she was trying to describe how she managed to get through the massacre. She even admitted that she thinks that she may have gone insane. Who wouldn't?
They heard a faint gasp behind them. There stood the older children from the portrait. They looked very much alive except for they were practically see-through.
"What are you doing here?" They asked. Their voices bounced off the walls as they stared forward with blank eyes. The group of teenagers just stood there quietly.
"We asked you a question! Answer it!!!" They demanded. Light flashed around them as they changed form. They had their respective bruises, cuts, wounds, and splotches of blood. The teenagers made a run for their lives.
As soon as they thought they were far enough, they tried to catch their breath. Mae and the Nat twins suddenly tensed up, looking for something, something that made a sound. They turned around to see the youngest girl running up to them and then bump into Joshua. She squeaked in fear as she ran behind them. They heard crying and saw the girl hugging the parents in the picture. The ghosts from earlier came up beside them, glaring icy daggers into the teenagers' souls.
"You! You hurt her! She has gone through enough already! Why won't you just leave us alone?!" Their forms began to become darker. Natalie and Nathaniel saw an aura of death surround the family.
"The girl," Jacob started. We turned to look at him in confusion.
"She's different," Justin continued.
"What do you mean by that?" Mae asked them.
"She is mostly covered in dried blood. The fresh blood came out of her wounds. It applies to the others as well. Does that mean that she witnessed them all die?" As soon as Joshua pointed that out, the girl started shrieking, clutching her head in pain as tears ran down her pale face.
That crossed the line. The ghosts immediately sped towards the triplets, and they were dead in an instant. As they tried to comfort the girl, the remaining teenagers ran as fast as they could. Johan ran the fastest and was the first to take off. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he heard his friends' screams from behind. He ran until he collapsed. Everything that happened after was a blur. What he could remember clearly was the last thing he saw. A girl who looked like the young girl, only she aged and wasn't dead.
—
I looked at the boy as his eyes slowly closed. There was clearly no saving him, nor his friends. They have doomed themselves the moment they stepped foot on our front yard. My family has gone back to sleep. It was high time I slept as well. But I had a job to do. I hauled the body over my shoulder and carried him to our backyard. I threw it on the pile with his friends.
'Teenagers. I don't get them. Sneaking into abandoned places known to be haunted. If something is said to be haunted, stay away from it. The ghosts that haunt those places won't ever be happy because of you. Ghosts such as my family.' I thought as I watched the small flame dance on the lighter. I whispered my apologies to the corpses and threw the lighter, which landed on the eldest boy's head.
'These guys would be the perfect examples of what happens to kids that sneak into haunted places...'
