The Unwelcomed Guests- Short Story

Ashlinbun

Member
I wrote this for my fiction class at school. I would love any feedback you could give. I got some in worksop in this class itself but, more suggestions on how to make this better is always welcome

Everyone had heard the rumors, or at least one of the many that had floated around the small town of Sedona, Arizona. A woman with long, black locks of hair had been murdered as she slept in the dead of night. A man with a curvy, evil mustache had gotten angry at his two, young children and had killed them in a rage before burying the bodies on the property underneath the fifty-foot pine tree that still stands in the front yard to this day. A two-hundred-year-old vampire had killed many of his victims in the home. The building was on the property of what was once a Navajo tribe’s burial site. Whichever story one chose to believe, everyone new that the large mansion that stood on the hill, alone and abandoned was haunted.

Some of the seniors in my English class had claimed that they had ventured into the home and had found the vampire that was told to live in the place, only just barley escaping with their lives. There was a strange fortune teller that lived only a few blocks away from my own family whom claimed she felt evil energy surrounding the home. I myself had passed the four-story red rock home out of curiosity, but I had never planned to venture inside, not until David Gregory posed the deal of a lifetime.

“Hey Joe! Joe Sumner!” I had heard the cry coming down the crowded school hallway on the way to my US history class. Then, turning around, I was met with the sight of my best friend, David, pushing his way through the crowd wearing his iconic neon green hoodie, apologizing every time he accidently stepped on an unsuspecting student’s foot.

“What is it Davey? I’ve got class in two minutes and you know how strict Mrs. Hemsworth is with being late. I would rather not take the trip to the principal’s office again. Principal Weatherton already hates me.”

“Are you doing anything tonight?” David practically yelled over the babble of our chattering classmates. “There’s going to be a full moon and I have been dying to check out that haunted mansion. Want to come with?”

“You just want to impress that new girl of yours. What’s her name again? Blake?” I huffed. “No. You know how I hate anything paranormal. There’s no way I’m going. Especially tonight of all nights.”

“Oh, come on Joey. Please!? Blake was going on and on today about how it would be so cool and brave if we went tonight. She wants to come along too and you know how my parents are. You know they won’t let me go out with a girl alone. It’s why I’m always asking you to go on double dates with me.”

“David. My answer is no and it won’t change. Find someone else to go with you guys.”

“Oh, come on Joseph. You have to come with me. You can bring someone with you too and can you imagine how cool everyone will think we are when they find out we went into the house on a full moon? Besides, aren’t you a little curious about what is there? I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you come with us tonight.”

Now, at the time I was a seventeen year old senior in high school and a hundred dollars seemed like a lot of money to me. I worked at a Subway downtown and was making a mere eight dollars an hour. One hundred dollars was a whole half of my biweekly paycheck and I had been trying to save up to buy my own car. There wasn’t any way in hell that I was going to turn down one hundred dollars and so, I found myself giving my friend the answer he wanted and the answer I would always regret giving.

“Fine. I’ll come, but if anything crazy happens in there, I’m getting the fuck out of there and leaving your stupid ass to get yourself out.”

And so, that was how I found myself in my mother’s gray doge caravan, waiting just a block away form the haunted mansion , waiting for David and his new girlfriend to show up. We had both told our parents that we were going on a double date out to dinner and then to the new Avengers movie. We had made sure both of our stories matched up in the case that our parents corresponded with one another and now I was waiting at the spot we had agreed to meet up at. I personally had insisted on waiting a block away from the mansion, seeing as there was no way I wanted to mess with any spirits that may be in the home while I was alone and venerable.

Next to me on the passenger seat sat my black backpack which I had packed for the occasion. Inside were three flashlights and a handful of snacks in case I or the lovey dovey couple got hungry. Knowing David never prepared for anything, being much more forgetful than I, I had made sure to bring enough supplies for the three of us. I didn’t exactly want to get stuck wandering around in that mansion with no light whatsoever after all.

I only had waited for five minutes within the van before a very old, red Ford Explorer pulled up behind me. David’s car. Adjusting my review mirror, I looked through the front windshield of the car behind me to find my best friend making out with a stunning, red headed girl. Gagging at the sight of my friend’s tongue down this girl’s throat, I flipped my headlights off, swung the backpack onto my shoulders, and then strolled up to the car behind me, knocking hard on the passenger side window. Blake screamed and David gave me the finger before he got out of the car.

“Why did you have to do that man? We were having a moment?” David angrily asked as he walked around the front of his car and opened the door for his girlfriend.

“Because that was nasty dude. I don’t wanna have to be watching that crap all night. Remember, I’m doing you a favor and can always-“

I began to reply, but the words died in my throat as Blake got out of the car. Damn the girl was gorgeous. David really had hit the jackpot with her. She had the longest eyelashes I had ever seen and was wearing a bright red lipstick to match her hair. She looked like an angel sent from heaven and when she spoke, the air around us rung like bells If her personality matched the perfection of her figure, she had to be as close to perfect as anyone could get.

“Stop bickering like two little girls, boys. Let’s go catch some ghosts, shall we?”

Her words immediately stopped the argument and I can recall hastily slicking my dark hair back with my fingers, feeling the need to impress this girl. It was like I was a young schoolboy once again, meeting his first crush. I knew that she already had a boyfriend, that being my best friend, and I had no intention of coming n between them, but I couldn’t help himself. There is just something about stunning a stunning woman that could drive a man nuts.

“Er, right. We should get going before it gets too late. My curfew is at midnight,” I said, blushing slightly as I realized I had just mentioned my curfew. It probably made me look like a goody two-shoes and a mama’s boy. I absolutely adored my mother and always followed the rules of my home, but I wanted to impress Blake.

“We’ve got three hours then,” Blake commented with a smile which had made my heart flutter.

“Three hours and then me and you can have some alone time,” David added with a wink. The jealousy I had felt in that moment had nearly consumed me. Why did my best friend have to have everything? They money, the car, the girl. It wasn’t fair.

I quickly swallowed the jealousy I had gotten used to feeling around David and placed my backpack on the hood of David’s car before unzipping it. I then retrieved the three flashlights, handing the first two to the couple and then placing the third on the hood for myself. I then took the time to zip the backpack back up before swinging it onto my shoulders and grabbing my own flashlight.

“Figured we might want these. The place has been abandoned for years. Doubt there will be much light in there if any. Now come on and let’s get going.”

I then found myself leading the way to the abandoned home, the couple following behind me with their fingers interwoven with each other. I cannot recall where I found my courage to lead the way or how I had finally decided with certainty that I was going to do this, but I suppose it had to do with the need I felt to impress Blake. Not that the reason mattered. The only thing that mattered was that I was the one who first opened the white, rusty gate with a creek and then found myself strolling past the large pine tree and across the wild, overgrown lawn, stopping at the base of the front porch.

I can still remember clearly the awe I felt as I looked up at the large home. I couldn’t imagine living in such a large place, thinking it would be so easy to get lost down it’s many tiled hallways. From where I was standing I could see three balconies above me, each having been rusted over the years, though the white chipped paint made it clear it had once been rather majestic. The walls of the home matched the red rock of the mountain it leaned against and there had to be at least a dozen windows on the front of the house alone, each now being cacked with dirt and dust. The home clearly once would have looked nothing but beautiful, but the decaying house simply looked eerie on that dark night.

“Wow,” I heard David breathe behind me. “It looks a lot bigger up close.”

“Come on guys. Stop staring at it. It’s like you guys think the place will grow wings and a tail and then fly away into the night. It’s just a house. Let’s see what’s inside.”

Obviously wanting to seem brave, David ascended the concrete steps and up onto the front porch before he pulled the front, marble door open. It opened slowly, so slowly that I swore I was in the middle of a dramatic horror movie. As soon as the door was open, the smell of must and decay hit us fully in the face, causing me to gag. I took a deep breathe and then entered the home.

The entrance of the home clearly had once been magnificent. A chandelier hung in the center of the room, far above my head. Spider webs were stung along the delicate glass, giving the room an eerie look. The floors were marble and strangely was clean as if it had just been moped a couple of days ago. A large grand staircase seemed to go up several floors. I intended to count the floors, but before I could the other two entered the room, closing the door behind them and immediately a thick, black darkness enveloped the three of us. It was so dark that I could hardly even see the back of my hand when I lifted it up to my face.

“Do you guys still have your flashlights?” I asked, my words echoing back to me within the empty room. I shivered slightly at the sound, my voice sounding loud and booming within the emptiness. If a monster was lurking nearby, it most certainly would have heard me.

“Shh. Not so loud,” Blake whispered as I clicked my flashlight on, David and Blake soon doing the same.

The room was lite up with the white light of our flashlights. Only a few feet in front of us was illuminated and shadows seemed to lurk around every corner. I had to admit that I was afraid, terrified even. What if a vampire did reside in the mansion? What if the ghost of a murderer chose that location to haunt for as long as the earth still spun? I felt the urge to run out of the house screaming like a little girl, but I resisted the urge, determined to stay as long as Blake did. I would never hear the end of it if a girl lasted longer than I did.

“What now?” David questioned, filling the silence which had descended upon the room.

“Um, wander around I suppose?” I myself answered.

“We should-“ Blake began but then cut off. “Did you hear that? I swear I could hear some little kids laughing,”

I strained my ears, wondering if Blake was just making things up to scare us or if perhaps she was imagining things, but, after a few moments, I heard it too. The unmistakable sound of a little girl giggling. It was as if there was a girl, directly up the stairs on the landing, laughing at us.

Not wanting to know what was up there, but feeling the need to know, I shone my flashlight up the stairs. The beam of light rested on a little girl. Her brown hair was stringy as if it hadn’t been washed for days and she her T-shirt and jeans were faded as if she had been wearing the same clothes for years. Which, of course she had seeing as she had probably died hundreds of years ago.

“Holy shit!” David cried out. And then, that was the end of it, the three of us ran out of that house like three terrified little girls. I can still recall hearing that laughing behind us grow as a couple more children unmistakably joined into the laughing. The laughing still haunts me to this day, though the sound had been cut off as soon as I had slammed the front door shut behind us.

Breathing the fresh air in heavily, we all went our separate ways, silently making a beeline to our own separate cars. It was as if we mute with fear. Not one of us said a word. What could we say after all? All three of us were certain that we had just barley escaped a gruesome death by ghost.

Days passed and then years. The three of us attendeed Arizona State University and remained friends. Something like what we had experienced can only bring people closer together after all. Blake and David eventually married and I, of course, was the best man. Needless to say, time went on and neither one of the three of us ever spoke of that night away as if we were afraid that merely speaking about it would summon the ghost girl we had seen that night. Despite not being willing to talk about that night however, I had always wondered what we had seen that night. What the story behind that girl had been. Had she been murdered by her own father like in the stories or was it something more sinister? Well, four years after the incident I found out.

I remember that day as if it were yesterday. I had come downstairs for breakfast before heading off to my first class of the day. I had began law school by then and had married the love of my life. It was funny to think that I had found Blake so stunning back then. She was nothing compared to the woman I know would do absolutely anything for.

As I had popped a couple pieces of toast into the toaster, my wife had turned on the tv and I was shocked to see a reporter standing in front of the very same mansion I had myself visited so long ago.

“Caroline, turn that up. I need to hear what they are saying,” I requested, abandoning my toast for a moment to plop down on the sofa in front of the TV.

“Police are saying that the family had been living there for at least ten years. The mother had no where else to go and so, her three children were raised within the abandoned home that had been dubbed to be haunted. Upon getting calls about flickering lights within the mansion windows, police arrived on the scene and discovered the family. They have now safely been escorted to the local shelter and will be able to live comfortably there.”

I gawked at the tv in shock before turning to my wife. “Caroline, remember when I told you about the time David, Blake, and I went to that house and saw a ghost of a child? Turns out the place wasn’t haunted at all.”
 
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