by Amy Cross
“Dad!” Jenna screamed, looking toward the door again. Getting to her feet, she made her way across the room but stopped before she got too close to the frame. She looked for a moment at the three holes, and she saw a few trickles of blood running down the wood. “Dad!” she shouted, trying to stay calm even though her entire body was trembling. “Dad, say something! Dad, for God's sake, where the hell are you?”
She waited, but all she heard was the house's constant ticking sound, which was clicking almost as fast as her heart was pounding.
Suddenly there was a bump behind the wall right next to her. Stepping back, Jenna listened as some kind of metal object slid through the gap, then another and then another. She couldn't see anything moving, but the sound was unmistakeable. Whatever was going on behind the walls, the house was busy rearranging its weapons.
“Oh God,” she continued, turning and heading back toward her mother. “Mum, we -”
Stopping suddenly, she was shocked to see that one end of the bed-sheet was now soaked in blood, which had flowed from her mother's body and was now starting to drip down onto the wooden floorboards.
“Mum!” she shouted, hurrying over and climbing onto the bed, before lifting Helen's head and cradling it in her hands. “Mum, wake up! Mum, we have to get out of here!”
Slowly, Helen's eyes began to open, staring up at her daughter. Her pupils were a little larger than before.
“Mum, please,” Jenna continued, as the ticking sound continued, “we have to move! We have to stick together!”
“I'm too weak,” Helen whispered. “You have to get out. Call help.”
“I can't leave you,” Jenna sobbed. “Mum, you have to try to walk!”
“Where's... Where's your father?”
“I called out to him but he didn't reply. I think he's hurt too. I think something must have got him downstairs.” She flinched as she heard another bump, this time from the closest wall, and she listened to some kind of chain rattling just out of sight. A moment later, she heard more rumblings from elsewhere in the house. “What the hell is this place? What are we inside?”
Reaching over to the table next to her bed, she grabbed her phone and checked the screen.
“No signal,” she muttered, tossing the phone aside. “Why the hell is there still no signal in this goddamn place?”
“Jenna,” Helen whispered, “please -”
“Dad!” Jenna screamed, as loud as she could manage. “Help us!” Reaching down, she banged a fist against the floor. “Dad, we need you! Mum's hurt really bad!”
She waited, but still the only sound came from the ticking mechanisms hidden between the walls. Nearby, something large and metallic seemed to be moving through the space behind the far wall.
“You have to get up,” Jenna continued, looking down at her mother. “We're gonna get out of here. We can do it. We were walking around all day in the house, and it's not like we triggered any of these traps before. Maybe they only just became live, but either way, we have to get to the front door and then outside. It has to be possible, and if it's possible, we're gonna do it!”
“Go,” Helen whispered. “Leave me here...”
“No! Get up!”
“Jenna -”
“Get the hell up, Mum! I'm not leaving you!”
Taking a deep breath, Helen adjusted her position slightly and then started leaning on her left elbow as she tried to sit up. After just a couple of seconds, however, she let out an agonized cry of pain as she felt broken ribs digging into her flesh. She tried to slump back down, but Jenna grabbed her and began to pull her up.
“Stop!” Helen screamed. “Let go!”
“You have to push through it!” Jenna shouted, trying to force her mother up from the bed. “We need to get outside and call for help! Everything'll be okay if we just get out of the house and find some signal for my phone.” She grabbed her phone and shoved it into her pocket, before putting an arm around her mother and starting to lift her up.
“Stop!” Helen yelled again, before letting out a series of pained gasps. Tears were streaming down her face now, and fresh blood was leaking from her wounds and soaking through her night-shirt. Still, she just about managed to stand, even though her whole body was shaking. “Stop,” she gasped. “Jenna, please... I think you're making it worse.”
“Come on!” Jenna shouted, forcing her to take a step forward. “There's no way I'm leaving you up here!”
“You have to go,” Helen stammered, before gasping as she felt a fresh wave of pain. “Leave me here. You can come back later once you've got help, but right now you have to -”
She screamed again, and this time her knees buckled.
Jenna just about managed to catch her, holding her up and forcing her to take a couple more stumbled steps toward the door.
“Nearly there,” she hissed. “Come on, Mum. Not too...”
Stopping suddenly, she looked down at the floorboards in the open doorway.
“Which one was it?”
“I don't know,” Helen whispered, once again starting to lose consciousness. “I don't... I don't remember...” She muttered something else, but her voice was becoming quieter and quieter as she slipped away.
Grabbing one of her slippers, Jenna pushed it forward until it was in the doorway. She glanced at the bloodied holes on the frame, and then she cautiously reached a foot out and slid the slipper forward. Realizing that it wouldn't be heavy enough, however, she jabbed it down against the floor and then pulled back, waiting to see if the spikes returned.
Nothing.
After a couple of seconds, she pushed the slipper a little further forward and jabbed it again. Her heart was pounding, racing twice as fast now as the clicking sound that filled the house. She jabbed the slipper again.
She waited.
Nothing.
“Stay with me, Mum,” she hissed, as she pushed the slipper a little further and then forced it down. “I'm just trying to figure out which of the -”
Suddenly she felt a clicking sensation as the floorboard moved. She stepped back, and a moment later the three spikes shot back out across the doorway. There was blood smeared along their metal sides, and Jenna stared in horror as the spikes held in place for a couple of seconds before retracting.
“The whole house must be full of them,” she stammered. Reaching out, she pushed the floorboard again, but this time there was no click. Turning, she looked around for a moment before spotting her baseball bat, which she quickly grabbed and then held through the open doorway, pressing it against each of the boards in turn. When none of them moved, she pulled her mother out into the corridor and then held her up as she looked along toward the top of the stairs.
“I can't do this,” Helen stammered. “Jenna, I'll only slow you down...”
She tried to pull away, but Jenna held her firmly.
“Dad!” she yelled. “Dad, can you hear me?”
She waited, with tears running down her cheeks, before adjusting her grip around her mother's waist and then taking a step forward. Holding the baseball bat out, she prodded the floorboard in the doorway, and this time she felt the click again. Sure enough, the bloodied metal spikes shot out for a third time.
“It has to reset,” she said as the spikes retracted. “It's like, for a short time after each trap has gone off, it can't be triggered again. I don't know how long for, maybe only ten seconds or something like that.”
Turning, she began to use the bat to press each of the floorboards ahead, as she supported her mother and led her toward the top of the stairs. They had to move slowly, and she checked each board twice, just so she could be absolutely sure that it was safe. As they were about to reach the stairs, however, the baseball bat's tip activated another rigged board, which immediately clicked down.
“I don't see them,” Jenna said, trying not to panic as she looked around for more of the tell-tale holes. “Mum, I don't -”
Suddenly part of the skirting board shot out and rattled across the f
loor, trailing several stretches of thin, razor-sharp wire that ran vertically to another board on the ceiling. Before she had time to react, Jenna saw the wire hit the wall on the other side of the corridor and fall still, although the death-trap frame rattled slightly on impact.
“Jesus,” she whispered. “Another step and that would've...”
The wire suddenly sprang back the other way and slammed into the wall at the spot where it had started.
“If we'd been standing there,” Jenna stammered, “it would've sliced us apart.”
Reaching down, she pressed the baseball bat's tip against the floor, and this time the board failed to click. She tried a couple more times, with the same result.
“Quick,” she told Helen, leading her over the danger point and finally getting her to the top of the stairs. Her mother slumped down, and this time Jenna wasn't quick enough to catch her.
“Dad!” she yelled, looking down the stairs toward the dark hallway below. “Dad, where are you? Can you hear me?”
She waited, before looking back down at her mother.
“It's okay, Mum,” she continued, seeing fresh blood soaking through her mother's night-shirt. “I think I've got it figured out. I just have to set off each trap before we reach it, and then...” She took a deep breath, trying to make sense of what was happening. “And then we can make it to the front door, and we can get the hell out of here.” Reaching down, she checked to make sure her phone was still in her pocket. “Once we're outside, I can try to find some signal and call for help.”
“Please go,” Helen whispered, clearly struggling to stay awake. “Jenna, please... Get out of here...”
“Not without you,” she replied, looking down the stairs again. She paused for a moment, staring at the front door, which seemed so near and yet so far. She had no idea how many traps lay in wait, but she felt certain that there must be more. “Not without you,” she said again, “and not without Dad.”
“Jenna, no...”
“We're getting away from this place,” she continued, counting the steps and finding that there were thirteen leading down to the hallway. “All three of us! I'm gonna find Dad and all three of us are gonna walk out of here. Whatever goddamn psychopath built this place...”
Her voice trailed off as she saw the framed photograph of Cesar Marchionne in the darkness below, next to the front door. As the ticking sound continued all around her, she couldn't help staring at the man's dark eyes, and for a moment she felt almost as if he was somehow staring back at her. A shiver passed through her chest, before she reminded herself that she had to find a way out. There'd be time for questions and explanations later.
“Okay,” she said after a moment, reaching down with the baseball bat and using the tip to press against the top step. She tried a couple of times, before satisfying herself that it wasn't part of the trap.
Leaning further, she tried the next step, bumping the bat against the surface and pushing as hard as possible. When nothing happened, she moved the bat further along and tried again, still with no result.
“We can do this,” she continued, turning to her mother and seeing that her eyes were closed. “Hey!” She gently tapped the side of Helen's face, just hard enough to make her eyes open again. “It's not that hard. I think I've got it figured out. Whatever's going on in this house, it's pretty old-fashioned. We can just set off any traps before we get to them, and get the hell out. The stairs are the hardest part.”
Helen's lips moved, but she was clearly too weak to say anything. A patch of blood had begun to seep out from beneath her slumped body.
“Just hold on,” Jenna said firmly, before turning and using the bat to check the next step down, then the next. Once she felt that it was safe to move, she grabbed her mother's arm and hauled her down onto the top step.
Letting out a cry of pain, Helen tried to pull back.
“Just trust me!” Jenna hissed. “I've got you, okay?” She took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves as she looked down the stairs again. “Four checked so far. Only nine to go. We're, like, a third of the way already. I know one of the steps triggers spikes at the bottom.”
She paused, before using her bat to check the fifth step down, and then the sixth.
“Careful not to touch the walls,” she continued, “or the bannister. It might not just be the floor that sets these things off. At least we know the house is old, so nothing's motion sensitive. It's just...”
She paused again, seeing that her mother's eyes had closed.
“Hey!” she hissed, nudging her shoulder. “Mum, no! Stay with me!”
Helen's eyes opened again, but now her gaze was glassy and vacant, as if she was no longer aware of her surroundings. Her lips trembled, but no words came out and she looked paler than ever.
“Come on!” Jenna shouted, grabbing her mother and starting to ease her down the next couple of steps. “I'm not gonna let you give up. The front door's just down there, see? We can figure everything else out later, we can find out what the hell's going on with this place, but right now I'm getting you out of here! The car's right outside.”
Helen let out a slow, agonized groan as she was forced down onto another step.
“I don't see too many holes or gaps anywhere,” Jenna explained, looking around. “Just those ones at the bottom, the first ones I saw, the ones you and Dad...”
Her voice trailed off as she listened to the ticking sound from behind the walls.
“Dad!” she shouted, still hoping against hope that her father would be around somewhere. “Dad, please! Dad, you have to help! Please, you can't be hurt, please just...”
She waited, her bottom lip trembling, before finally she burst into tears. For a moment, she sat weeping uncontrollably, before suddenly pulling herself together.
“He's not coming,” she whispered under her breath. “He never helps.”
Helen let out a faint, pained groan as her eyes close again.
“Wake up!” Jenna told her, nudging her shoulder again. Getting no reply, she tried again, before checking her mother's neck and finding a weak pulse. “I'm getting you out of here,” she added, using the baseball bat to hit the next few steps down. Her hands were trembling with fear, but she knew what she had to do. Once she was sure the next steps were safe, she began to drag her mother a little further, while using the bat to keep probing ahead.
As they reached the halfway point, Jenna turned and tried again to wake her mother.
“Please, Mum,” she whimpered, “just stay with me. Everything's gonna be okay, but you have to stay with me.”
She watched as, slowly, her mother's eyes began to open.
“That's it,” she continued, forcing a smile as she felt a flash of hope. Her body was aching from the effort of hauling her mother along, but her heart was pounding and she told herself she just had to stick to the plan. “Not much further. See the door? I'm not gonna let anything else happen to us. We're getting out of here, Mum.”
Turning, she reached out to check another step. This time, however, she stumbled slightly, almost falling forward before steadying herself against the wall. As she did so, she felt part of the wall start to move slightly, accompanied by a clicking sound and an accelerated ticking from nearby.
“No,” she stammered, frantically looking around but seeing no sign of any holes. “Mum, we have to move, we have to -”
Suddenly her mother let out a cry and grabbed Jenna's shoulder, twisting her around and pushing her back up the stairs. Jenna tried to fight back, but a moment later two more spikes sliced out from gaps in the corner of the next step down, cutting straight through Helen's chest and emerging below her collarbone with their tips bloodied.
“No!” Jenna shouted, staring in horror at the sight of her mother skewered on the steps.
Helen froze, with her mouth and eyes open wide, and let out a faint, rasping gurgle. All the color had drained from her face. Her body shuddered for a moment, and then slowly a trickle of blood began to run from
her lips.
As quickly as they'd appeared, the spikes retracted, leaving Helen to slump back and tumble down the stairs until she crashed into a crumpled heap at the bottom. She set off the next trap step along the way, but this time three spikes simply slid out into thin air and then slid back, having missed their prey.
“Mum!” Jenna yelled, ignoring the danger and stumbling down the stairs until she reached the bottom and knelt next to her mother's crumpled form. She'd dropped the baseball bat along the way, and now it rolled down after her, banging on each step until it hit the floor.
Looking down at her mother's face, Jenna saw that her eyes were still just about open.
“What did you do that for?” she asked. “Mum, please...”
“They were...” Helen paused, as if she couldn't get the words out. “They were going to get... you...”
“Mum...” Her eyes filled with tears, Jenna looked down and saw fresh torrents of blood running from her mother's new wounds. “Mum, you have to be okay...”
“Get out of here,” Helen whispered, reaching out with a bloodied hand and trying to push Jenna away. “Run! Don't wait for me, and don't... Jenna, don't risk your life to save me or your father. Just get out of here and call help... Don't...”
“Mum -”
“Go!” Helen gasped, pushing harder than ever, as if she was trying to shove Jenna toward the door.
“I'm getting us both out,” Jenna said firmly. “You'll see. I swear to God, even if it's the last thing I ever do, I am getting us both out of this house. Do you hear me?”
She waited, but her mother's eyes had slid shut again.
“Mum!” She shook her mother's shoulders, before forcing her eyes open. This time, however, she saw nothing staring back at her except a dead, glassy gaze.
She checked the side of Helen's neck, but no matter how much she pushed her fingers against the cold flesh, she found no hint of a pulse.
“Mum!” she yelled, shaking her again. “Mum, wake up!”
Chapter Twelve
The house was still ticking. Behind every wall, under every floorboard, even hidden behind the ceiling, scores of different mechanisms ran independently of one another. Every so often, there was a faint grinding sound, as if some fresh blade was sliding into a new position, ready to be triggered.
