Stacy shrieked up ahead as a jack-o'-lantern grabbed her and sank its teeth into her leg. The pumpkin's teeth had hardened like stone, and they cut through her skin easily. She spun around onto her back and kicked at it. It held strong at first, but as she furiously rained kicks on it, the top of its head caved in and turned into a goopy mess, then its body disintegrated all at once into a man-shaped pile on the ground. Stacy got up as more pumpkin-men approached, and she fled up to the house.
Carmen came up the rear, swinging the branch wildly at them. She knocked a few of them apart, and the jack-o'-lanterns that fell to the ground but hadn't smashed waited until more earth swirled and formed new bodies underneath them, then they stood and stalked her again. She swung the branch hard down on one, and the branch snapped in half as the creature fell. She stomped on the jack-o'-lantern and smashed it to bits, then she swiveled her hips and drove a fist into the head of another one. She dented it, but she mostly just bruised her knuckles. Shaking her fist out in pain, another man came up behind her and wrapped its filthy hands around her throat, squeezing her. In desperation, Carmen turned and grabbed the jack-o'-lantern. It seemed to be fused onto the dirt-body by some kind of strange adhesion or force, but she ripped it off with all her might, and finally the head popped off the body and she hurled it at a tree, watching it smash and rain down soft innards and seeds everywhere.
She ran up the hill and saw Stacy ahead, realizing that the army of horrifying men were behind them, largely vanquished.
A cacophonous shriek filled the sky, one that was all too familiar to Carmen's ears.
"Oh no..." she muttered as she looked up. Stacy paused too and saw a strange cloud moving through the sky past the bare branches of the trees above them.
"What is that?" Stacy asked as Carmen caught up to her.
"We have to move!" Carmen shouted, pulling her along.
The cloud of bats swooped down and dove at them through the trees. Thankfully the trees were dense where they were, and most of them got caught up in the branches, even injuring themselves to try to get to them.
Carmen and Stacy crouched down, holding their arms above their heads to try to protect themselves. The bats flapped and nipped at them before swooping off to make another pass. The rodents curved through the air and dove again, and Carmen pulled the back of her coat over the top of her head to protect herself, but they still nipped at the knuckles on her exposed hands.
Stacy screamed as she fought them off, and she struggled to get up the hill. Carmen grabbed her arm and they both slowly made their way up as the bats flew off again.
The house sat up ahead, its dark husk faintly illuminated in the moonlight. They could already feel its presence now, especially strong now that it was Halloween night. It was ominous and brooding, and Carmen got a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. The answer to all the questions and fears sat in there, and her body screamed at her not to know them and turn away. But she wouldn't be stopped.
The bats dove down for one final pass, and they braced themselves. But when the flying mob neared the trees, the bats suddenly tilted upward and sailed back into the air, scattering apart and flying into the night.
Carmen and Stacy took a breath, watching them go. They took a moment to look at their injuries, which admittedly weren't too bad considering what they'd been through. Stacy's breath rattled out of her mouth, and soft tears came out of her eyes. She wiped them away, then she started forward again, looking at the house in fear. She walked a few paces, and then she stopped, staring down at her hands. She shrieked.
"What is it?" Carmen asked. She rushed up to her to see what was wrong, then she put a hand to her mouth.
Terrible boils had broken out over Stacy's skin, and Carmen could see them all over her hands and her face. Stacy scratched at them and one of them popped, oozing liquid over her chin.
"What is it?!" she cried. "What's happening to me?!"
Carmen looked down at her own skin and saw one form on the back of her hand. She felt the panic in her chest, then she took a deep breath and watched as the boil faded away. "Just stay calm," she told Stacy. "It's feeding off your fear! Don't be afraid, and it will go away."
"I... I can't!" she said, turning and stumbling for the house. "I have to get Brett!"
Carmen stopped and watched her go, unable to help her. The house was only a few dozen yards in front of them now, and Carmen could see its entire exterior, or what was left of it, clearly in the moonlight. Her heart lurched when Stacy disappeared into the house without a moment's thought, and then she was out of sight. She waited on pins and needles, not even noticing that she was holding her breath. The wind had stopped, and the hill was silent.
Then a bloodcurdling scream erupted from inside the house.
Sentinel
Carmen turned on the flashlight and clutched it in her cold hand as she stepped on the porch of the house. The horrible smell drifted out of it and filled her nostrils, and her body shook with fear. She told herself to calm down, but it was overwhelming standing here right now.
She found herself in the burned-out room that had been half-claimed by the fire. The wind swept by on the back of her injured neck, and she turned the beam of the flashlight across the blackened interior. The inside of the house was silent, and her eyes fell on the open doorway ahead, fearful of what lay beyond.
She crept forward slowly, listening to the floorboards creak under her. She rounded a pile of rubbish and stood in front of the doorway, shining the flashlight through.
Tommy stared at her.
Carmen was startled, and her breath caught in her throat. She wanted to cry out his name and rush forward to hug him, but there was something about his demeanor that was off-putting.
"Tommy?" she asked slowly.
He just stood and stared at her, and he had that same glazed-over look in his eyes as their father did.
"Welcome," he said.
"Tommy... where are the others? What happened to Stacy?"
"They're home now," he said. "They've all come home. You'll come home too."
Carmen's eyes flicked down to something held in Tommy's hand that was glinting in the light. "What are you holding?"
He moved his hand behind his leg so she couldn't see.
"What are you holding?" she repeated.
He walked toward her, and Carmen stumbled away from the doorway.
She watched him move, unnerved by the blank look on his face as he closed in, moving ever so slowly. Her heel caught on something and she crashed onto a blackened pile of garbage. Something hard struck her back and she cried out in pain. She looked up and saw Tommy's arm raised above his head, his face expressionless, as he plunged the shard of metal at her.
Carmen rolled out of the way and picked herself up on the other side of him. He approached again, backing her into the doorway. She kept the flashlight on him, but she kept glancing over her shoulder at the blackness behind her, fearful of what lurked within it.
"Tommy, don't do this," she said as she passed through the doorway. "Don't do this!"
"Come home, sister," he said, slipping through the doorway and following her through the darkness. He raised his arm again and held the twisted metal up for another slash.
Carmen waved the flashlight over her shoulder to see behind her, then she quickly returned it to her brother, fearful that he would lunge at her at any moment and plunge the metal into her flesh. She fumbled with her free hand to pull out the witch mirror hanging around her neck, holding up the stone at him. He didn't seem to be deterred, but he kept his eyes on it as he moved.
They played a delicate game as Carmen backed into the darkness. She held her witch mirror, and Tommy held his weapon. They were locked into a stalemate, neither one of them wanting to make the first move.
Carmen's shoulder bumped into a wall, and she spun the flashlight around to see where she was going. There was an open door next to her, leading into the kitchen, and she shifted over and backed into it.
Whe
n she turned the flashlight back on her brother, he was charging forward in a brisk walk and had already closed the distance. Carmen screamed as the metal came down, slashing her arm open. She stumbled backward and hit the old oven in the blackened kitchen. Her arm holding the flashlight was shaking, and her brother's moving figure glided through it at her again. In her panic, Carmen stumbled backward, forgetting that there was an open set of stairs behind her.
The ground was pulled out from under her and she tumbled down, hitting the stairs hard. A few of them snapped, while others held together, and she was thrust off the side of them, coming to rest on the basement floor.
She whimpered and weakly turned over as she watched her brother march down the stairs. He skipped over the ones that had broken like he was playing a game of hopscotch, then he rounded the bottom of them and faced her, holding his makeshift dagger up.
Carmen plucked up the witch mirror again from around her neck and held it up to him like a crucifix against the devil. He came for her and sank onto his knees, driving the metal at her face. She rolled out of the way and wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling him to her chest. He swung his arm around, trying to drive the metal into her, and she frantically rolled out of the way to avoid it. She drove his back against the ground and pinned his wrist to the floor, then she took the glowing rose-colored stone of the witch mirror and pressed it to his neck as she hugged him.
Tommy screamed as his flesh seared.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Carmen cried as her brother twisted in agony beneath her. She held it to his skin for a long time, and he let out every foul and wretched sound imaginable in his anguish. Finally, she took it off of him and stood up, backing away to the wall.
She held the flashlight on him as Tommy turned over onto his hands and knees, panting. He pressed a hand to his neck. Then he started crying. "Ow," he moaned as tears streamed down his face.
"Tommy?" Carmen asked.
He turned his head and looked up at her, and she saw humanity in his eyes.
"Tommy, are you okay?"
"What happened?" he asked. "Where am I?" He looked down at the piece of metal in his hand and then he tossed it away, confused why he was holding it.
"Oh Tommy," Carmen said, rushing up to him and embracing him. "I'm so sorry. It'll all be okay." She stroked his filthy hair.
Carmen held the flashlight limply in her hand, and it was pointed at the doorway to the last room in the basement. Her eyes widened as she saw a low, creeping fog come out of the room. It was black, like someone poured smoke across the ground. A hat rose up out of it, staying low, and it glided across the floor to them.
"Tommy, watch out!" Carmen shouted as she tried to stand both of them up.
But the witch grabbed hold of his ankle and dragged him into the other room. Tommy's little hands balled up and dragged across the floor as he cried out for his sister, his face a horror show.
Through the doorway to the other room, the floating wraith of the witch rose up into the air and stayed suspended for only a moment before she slammed down through the floor with incredible force and speed, splintering the wood into a thousand pieces, causing a shockwave to rush through the basement. Tommy's body flipped upside down into the air from his ankle and then it whipped around and he was pulled into the hole along with the witch in the blink of an eye. His screams faded.
"Tommy!" Carmen screamed. She rushed up to the edge of the hole, which encapsulated most of the other room, and she shone the flashlight down into the blackness. A long, long tunnel stretched down deep into the earth, and a coldness born from its very depths rose up and touched her. She shivered, her teeth chattering in absolute terror.
Ladder rungs were bolted into the concrete wall of the shaft, and they went as far down as the light could illuminate.
If she wanted to save her brother, she would have to go down.
Descent
The cold depths of the shaft seemed to stretch on forever, burying farther and farther into the earth. Her hands were freezing on the frigid metal rungs. She held the flashlight in her teeth and carefully climbed down. One false move and she would slip off to her death. She tried looking up to see how far she had gone, but vertigo set in, and she clung tightly to the rungs, terrified that she was going to fall.
As she slowly descended, her arm ached where Tommy had slashed her, but she didn't have time to look at the damage. She felt blood trickling down her arm and start to dry as a dull throb coursed through her.
Something appeared in the flashlight below, and as she strained her eyes to see it, she saw that it was solid ground. Her heart leapt in joy, and when she finally reached it, her feet clapped against the cement and echoed all the way up through the shaft. There was a dark tunnel in front of her, but first she pointed the flashlight up to look at where she had come from, and it was so high up that she couldn't see the floor of the basement above her. She turned the light back to the tunnel and crept forward, hearing a distant drip of water in the strange catacombs.
The tunnel gave way to a large, open room, dotted with pillars stretching up to the high ceiling. All the missing children from town were sitting bound with their backs tied to the pillars. Cloth was stuffed in each of their mouths and their wrists were tied behind them with tight ropes.
There had to be at least a hundred children. The ones that could see her, turned their faces with wide eyes and started struggling against their restraints, desperate for her to save them.
Carmen was shocked. They were all alive, but seeing them here like this broke her heart in half. Some of them were dressed down to their underwear and shivering, and all of them were filthy, with dirt caked on their faces and streaked through their hair. Some of them must have been down here for days, and Carmen prayed that none had been killed. She rushed up to the nearest pillar and tried untying the ropes as the children struggled and pleaded under their gags for her help.
"No! Don't!" someone yelled in the distance.
Carmen's head snapped up. "Tommy!" she whispered. She looked at the children woefully, but she stood up. If her brother was in imminent danger, she had to help him first. There was another tunnel that stretched off on the other end of the large room, and she trotted quickly through it, trying to stay silent and not make her presence known to the witch.
She heard bubbling liquid in the distance, and she saw a soft orange glow painted on the wall ahead of her as the tunnel went around a corner. She rounded it and the path came into another room, smaller this time. Extended ahead of her was a long row of tables filled with tools, trinkets, and items. There was a set of stairs to her right that led up to a raised area overlooking the rest of the room. A steel railing closed it in, and three large pillars dotted between the railing, stretching up to the ceiling.
Carmen glanced up and saw the edge of the witch's robes from her low angle. It looked like she was bent over something.
"Please, don't!" Tommy said.
Carmen could hear him struggling against his restraints, but she couldn't see him. She moved quickly up the stairs, staying low and peeking over the top of them.
A large black cauldron sat near the far wall in the elevated area, and the witch stewarded over it, plucking a centipede off of a small table next to her and dropping it into the bubbling liquid. A small splash came out of it and an effervescent glow emitted from the brew as it changed to a vibrant magenta color.
Tommy and Brett were both tied up next to the cauldron on the floor. The witch cast glances at the two boys periodically as she dropped ingredients into the brew. Horror was painted on their faces as they watched her, knowing their time would soon come.
The witch grabbed a handful of weeds and scattered them in the liquid, changing it green, and causing an appropriately-colored glow to fill the area.
Carmen saw that the pillars were wide enough for her to hide behind, and when the witch wasn't looking, she rushed up the edge of the stairs to the first one and concealed herself behind it.
Small tables and
items sat between the pillars, and Carmen looked down at a table near her, spotting a strange doll sitting on it. It was like a little ragdoll, and it was dressed in a police officer's uniform. A pin was stuck in the back of its neck.
Carmen silently gasped. She picked it up and looked it over in her hands, knowing that the witch had been using this to control her father. She gingerly clutched the knob of the pin with her fingers, and she slowly pulled it out, placing the pin quietly on the table. She rubbed the back of the doll's neck, then she quietly stuffed it in her coat, hoping that her dad felt better now. She leaned forward and peeked around the column.
The witch scooped up a loose pile of children's clothing with her pale hand and sowed it into the bubbling cauldron. The liquid splashed and jumped, turning to a bright red. She cackled in delight, a strange, terrifying sound, and it reverberated along all the walls in these catacombs. She dipped her hand into the liquid, and Carmen cringed, wondering how hot it must have been. It wouldn't scald the witch, but it certainly would a little boy or girl. The witch pulled up a handful of the red potion to her mouth and drank it. She scooped her hand in again and drank more, soon greedily lapping it up and making horrifying noises.
Carmen watched in disgust, leaning around the pillar just enough to see, as she put a hand to her mouth. She glanced over at Tommy and saw that he was staring at the witch in amazement and horror, then her eyes fell on Brett. Brett was staring back at her. Carmen tried to put a finger to her lips to tell him to be quiet, but it was too late.
"Help!" Brett screamed at her. "Help us!"
The witch's head snapped up and turned in her direction immediately.
Carmen's blood ran cold as she backed away from the pillar, reaching her hand into her coat for the iron knife.
The witch shrieked, and the earsplitting sound bounced around the walls ceaselessly.
The Box Set of Hauntings and Horrors Page 16
