Lisa stood on her porch drinking coffee, as she talked with her friend Billy Jean. The day had progressed into night with the moans getting increasingly louder. She stared at the house. Startled out of her thought, she realized that Billy Jean was speaking to her.
“Lisa, are you paying attention to me?”
Lisa looked over her shoulder at her friend and raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Huh, yeah, I’m listening; something about a Halloween party here,” Lisa said. “I think.” She quickly went back to her coffee.
“Yeah right, that’s not even half of what I said,” Billy Jean replied. “What’s got your attention anyway?”
Lisa heard the swing creak. She gave her friend a sideways glance.
“That old house on the corner there; it’s making that weird moaning noise again.” Lisa pointed to an old Victorian style house just down the street from hers. “I thought I saw lights flickering on and off.”
“What that old house? It’s probably just the wind blowing through those broken windows.” Billy Jean pointed to the two windows facing them.
“Nonsense; how can the wind get through the boards the town put on them?” Lisa asked. “Didn’t you see the light that just went on and off? How do you explain that? This noise doesn’t sound like wind blowing, rather like someone inside moaning.” She sipped her coffee, “Don’t try to give me some strange explanation about the flickering lights either, because it won’t work.”
“Well then let’s go check it out,” Billy Jean said. Lisa watched her walk off the porch and head towards the sidewalk.
“You mean go right now?” Lisa asked. She followed her off the porch than stopped.
“Yeah, let’s go right now. It’s the perfect time. No cops around, all the neighbors are asleep. Why not? We don’t have much else to do, and neither of us has to be at work tomorrow.” Billy Jean walked over to Lisa. “Come on it might be fun.” Billy Jean grabbed Lisa’s hand, and pulled her along behind her. Lisa laughed, as she was pulled along, suddenly stopping. Billy Jean almost fell over.
“What’s wrong now?” Billy Jean asked. “Scared?”
Lisa stared at her friend.
“No, but shouldn’t we grab flashlights first?”
Billy Jean considered it for a moment.
“Yeah, you’re right.” She ran back into the house. A couple of minutes later, she returned with them in hand.
“Did you check to make sure they still had working batteries?”
Billy Jean rolled her eyes.
“Yes, worry wart. I checked them.” Billy Jean handed her the blue flashlight, keeping the red one for herself.
“Let’s go. I’m anxious to see it.” Billy Jean grabbed Lisa’s hand, again, pulling her down to the house. Lisa giggled like a school girl, running along side Billy Jean. They reached the house, and stood there staring at it, awestruck.
***
The house stood tall against the black of night. As the clouds slowly moved across the sky, they covered the moon, like little wisps of mist coming up from a warm stream. The air was cool, but not too cold. It was the end of October just before Halloween, which helped to make the moment even spookier. The moans came again, sounding like spirits crying out for help. From a distance, one wouldn’t know where the moaning sounds were coming from, but, as they stood there staring at the house, it wasn’t hard to mistake their origins.
The house was of a beautiful Victorian style. Dulled hints of red and white paint, once lively and bright, were all that remained of the color. At least two of the living room picture windows had been broken. The shutters were hanging off the windows now, and the lawn was brown and dry. The few trees that grew there were snarled and twisted.
***
Outside the house, Lisa got an eerie feeling in the pit of her stomach. She shivered, hugging herself tight. Something didn’t feel right. It was almost as if the house, itself, were warning her not to enter. She stopped for a moment, staring at it in disbelief. She couldn’t, or wouldn’t, let herself believe that a house would warn her against entering it, but this was no ordinary house. She let her attention fall to a tree in the yard. It looked so twisted and snarled, not helping to ease the feeling of dread she was having at that moment. She was so lost in her thoughts, that she didn’t hear Billy Jean calling out to her, at first.
“Lisa, are you coming or not?” Billy Jean stood on the porch, her hands on her hips. “Don’t tell me you’re scared now?”
Lisa stared at her friend a moment. Obviously the house wasn’t giving her the same warning.
“Huh?” Lisa asked, finally coming back to reality. “No, I’m not scared.” She rushed up the stairs, and stood beside her best friend.
“It looks even older from up close,” Billy Jean said. “Look at how burnt the wood is. There must have been a fire in this old house once.”
“Yeah, there was. My grandmother told me this house had caught on fire twice,” Lisa said. “Whoever owns it now doesn’t seem to want to rebuild it.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t think it was worth tearing down either.” Billy Jean pointed out.
“True,” Lisa said. “Well then that explains why the house was never put up for sale…too much fixing up to do.”
“They should just tear it down and do something else with the property,” Billy Jean replied.
Lisa shrugged and made her way to the front door, but the eerie feeling, she had a moment ago, was back again; only this time stronger. She thought she could hear a voice telling her to leave.
“Did you hear that?” Lisa asked.
“Hear what?
“That voice…it sounded as though someone said to leave from inside the house.” Lisa looked at Billy Jean wide eyed.
Billy Jean looked somewhat bewildered.
“I don’t hear anything,” Billy Jean paused, waiting for a few more minutes to be sure, then continued, “Are you sure you’re not scared? You know we could always turn around and head back to your house.”
“No! I want to do this, ever since we were kids,” Lisa said, turning back towards Billy Jean. “Now that I have my chance, I am not backing down.” She turned back towards the front door, putting her hand on the knob. She slowly turned it, expecting the door to be locked. To her amazement it wasn’t. She looked back at Billy Jean.
“Alright here it goes.” The door creaked, in protest, as she slowly opened it. Cautiously, they made their way inside.
***
The house smelled like old burnt wood. There were no signs of any furniture around, probably removed after the last fire. Lisa walked further in, with Billy Jean not too far behind. The voice and the moaning were stronger than ever now, but Lisa couldn’t let them scare her. She was living her childhood dream. She was walking through this house for the very first time. She walked into the kitchen, and looked around. It looked like it was a beautiful kitchen once, but it was hard to tell. It was impossible to tell what the colors used to be. It was that badly burnt. Lisa knew this was dangerous. She had butterflies fluttering around in her stomach, but was excited about it at the same time. She looked over the remaining cabinets, but they, too, were too badly burnt to make much out of. One couldn’t tell if they were oak or pine; dark cherry or brown. She saw Billy Jean walking up beside her from the corner of her eyes, catching the astounded look on Billy Jean’s face, as she looked around the enormous kitchen. A small amount of light, from the moon outside, penetrated itself through the cracks in the boards. Lisa and Billy Jean finally turned on their flashlights.
“I bet this was a great kitchen to cook in,” Billy Jean said, swinging the flashlight around.
“Yeah, I bet it was,” Lisa said, clutching her flashlight to her chest. “Wonder how the place caught on fire?”
“Don’t know, but I want to look up stairs first.”
“Why don’t you stay down here and look around with me?”
“Aww, come on now,” Billy Jean teased. “Don’t tell me this is scaring you?”
Lisa pulled the flashlight away from her chest, shining it on Billy Jean.
“Me, scared?” Lisa said, with a small giggle, but wasn’t too convincing. Taking a deep breath, she shined the flashlight around the kitchen, trying to get a better view than what she had with just the light of the moon to guide her.
“Alright, I want to look down here first,” Lisa said, feeling her hands begin to shake. Something inside of her told her that being alone would be a mistake, but she didn’t want to seem like a coward. “So why don’t we meet back at the front door in twenty minutes?”
“Okay, twenty minutes it is,” Billy Jean said, setting the timer on her watch. “See you then.”
Lisa watched as her friend walked away from the kitchen, then turned around shaking her head.
***
Billy Jean slowly walked upstairs, shining the flashlight in front of her. The corridor seemed longer than it should have, but guessed it was because of the dark. She shined the light on the walls nearest to her, and thought that one time they had been a light greenish color. The doors to the rooms where slightly opened, but badly charred. They most likely wouldn’t close. Billy Jean headed for the door in front of her, figuring she could start her search there first. Butterflies began to flutter in her stomach, and she could feel cold chill after cold chill run up and down her spine. Something, she knew, was going to happen, and it wouldn’t be pretty. She thought about running back down stairs, convincing Lisa to leave, but she had called Lisa a coward not too long ago…she would be contradicting herself otherwise. Sucking in her breath, she entered the room. She shined the light all around, but saw nothing of interest. Disappointed, she turned to leave, when she thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Her body froze a moment.
Something definitely didn’t feel right. She shined the light back through the room again, but still found nothing.
“It’s just your imagination playing tricks on you,” she told herself, and proceeded to walk out of the room. She was about to enter the next one, when something grabbed her from behind. She screamed. Whoever had their grip on her, had the sharpest claws she had ever felt. She screamed, as they dug into her throat. She could feel herself bleed. She screamed once more than the world went black.
***
Lisa was just about to enter the dinning room, when she heard Billy Jean scream. Forgetting what it was that she wanted to look at, she rushed up to the top floor. Shinning her flashlight every which way, she walked down the long corridor slowly, her breath catching. As she walked towards the rooms at the end of the hall, she found Billy Jean’s flashlight, lying on the floor. Bending down, she picked it up. Blood covered the handle of the flashlight. She became worried.
“Billy Jean,” she yelled, shinning the light around, and down on the floor again. She spotted the blood going to the next room. Slowly, she walked inside, following the blood to a little closet-like area. Approaching the door, she slowly opened it. There, lying unconscious, was Billy Jean. Not thinking about her own safety, she ran to her, bending down, feeling for a pulse. Luckily, she was still alive. Lisa set the flash light on the floor; pointing it up enough so she could see. She found cuts all over Billy Jean’s neck, but no bruises on her head.
“Don’t worry Billy Jean,” she said. “I’ll get you out of here.” She picked up Billy Jean, almost forgetting about the flashlight as she did. She looked down at it, still holding Billy Jean in her arms, trying to find a way to grab it and not drop her friend on the floor. She had half a mind to just leave the flash light there, but the house was dark, and she needed to see. She heard movements in the outer room, as she bent over to pick up the object. She froze where she stood, straining to see behind her. Suddenly, Billy Jean began to moan.
“Shh, someone is out there,” Lisa said, but that didn’t stop Billy Jean from moaning again. She lifted up her head, bobbing it up and down a few times.
“What…” she began. Lisa put a finger to her lips in an attempt to keep her quite. Whatever was out there, was just hovering by the door. Lisa’s heart pounded every second she stood there waiting to confront whatever had done this to Billy Jean. A few more seconds passed. No more sounds. Lisa slowly laid Billy Jean back on the floor.
“Can you walk?” Lisa whispered.
Billy Jean looked at her a moment, unsure of where she was.
“Yeah, I think so.” She put a hand to her head. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I was down stairs when I heard you scream. I came running up here, as fast as I could, and found your flashlight down by this room,” Lisa said. “I found a trail of blood leading into here, and I followed it right to you. Now you want to tell me what happened?”
Billy Jean was silent for a moment.
“Not sure. I had just checked out this room, and thought I was being watched. As I turned to leave, I could see movement out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned back around, there was nothing there,” She said, moaning at the pain in her head. “I turned and left, was about to go into the next room, when I felt something put its claws into my neck, at least they felt like claws. Anyhow, I blacked out. I’m not sure who did this to me.”
Lisa stared down at her.
“We better get out of here,” she said, and opened the door, but she didn’t remember closing it. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she got Billy Jean out of there. As they entered the outer room, she looked around. The room was empty
“Alright, let’s go.” They ran for the stairs. Just as they reached them, a thing with glowing eyes came from nowhere to the bottom. It said nothing, just stood there, as though it had been waiting for them to leave the room. Lisa tried to think of a way around it, but could think of none. The only options she had were to either face the thing, or hide in one of the rooms. She could sense that’s what the thing, the creature, wanted, but she refused to let it get the best of her. Looking around, she tried to find something with which to defend them. She couldn’t find a single thing to use out in the hall.
“Stay here,” she told Billy Jean, and ran off into one of the rooms.
Billy Jean stared down at the creature, who was slowly advancing its way to her.
“Hurry up Lisa,” she yelled, not taking her eyes off the creature. As it neared her, she could see its doglike teeth, the drool dripping from its mouth. It claw-like hands were enormous, and its nails looked sharp. Billy Jean could feel her heart going into her throat.
“Alright, found something,” Lisa said, coming up quickly behind her. The creature was halfway up the stairs now.
“What did you find?” Billy Jean asked. The hallway was so dark; she could barely make out the object’s outline.
“I grabbed one of the loose wooden legs off a bed in one of the rooms.” Lisa got ready to battle the creature.
“That’s all we have to defend against this thing with is wooden leg?” Billy Jean cried. “How are we supposed to beat it then?”
“Just trust me okay,” Lisa said, not taking her eyes off the monster. “When I say go, run down the stairs, and out the door. I’ll follow you.” The creature was almost to their level now.
“Go!” she yelled, and gave the creature a good whack! The hit threw it off balance, sending it flying down the stairs, and into the wall. Billy Jean quickly ran down, jumping over the creature. It didn’t move an inch. Lisa followed behind, and both girls ran out of the house. They kept running till they reached Lisa’s front porch, falling over each other as they did. Both girls were out of breath, but glad to be alive. They sat up and looked down at the house. A couple minutes passed, but there were no signs that the creature had followed them. Relief flooded them, and they slowly got up off the porch floor.
“Next time either of us decides to do this, I think the other should smack her for even thinking it,” Billy Jean said.
“I agree,” Lisa replied, and both girls laughed. Slowly they walked inside Lisa’s house, and shut the door.
***
It stood by the window, watching the two girls run down the street. It began to change from a horrifying creature, into a beautiful young woman. She smiled. She knew that would be the last of them she saw. Turning she walked into the darkness, laughter following her.
Tasked by his Goddess to find, relocate, and then quicken, the last three Heart Tree gem-seeds, Vanx the bard, and his motley crew of adventurers, set out to do just that.
