by Amy Cross
"He spoke to me," I say, staring at the man's pain-wracked face.
"Nonsense," Elizabeth replies.
"He spoke to me," I say again. "He told me I'd had a heart attack. He injected me with something that helped ease the pain. He's not some kind of dumb animal. He can talk and think."
"No," Elizabeth says firmly. "I'm sure he was like that once, but years and years of causing brutal suffering to other people have robbed this man of any kind of soul. He's just a lump of meat and bone, animated by the desire to inflict pain on everyone around him."
"Have you tried talking to him?" I ask.
"Of course," she says. "Years ago."
"Try again."
"I'm not interested in anything he has to say."
"You're just scared," I reply. "You don't want him to speak, because then you'd have to consider the fact that you're torturing another human being to death. I know you think he's the one who did all this to us, but he's not. There's something else in the house. We're all just pawns in someone else's game."
"Maybe she's right," Natalie says, still curled up in the corner.
"There's no-one else here," Elizabeth says coldly. "We've searched every room."
"But Natalie feels it," I say. "Don't you, Natalie?"
"I don't know..." Natalie says feebly.
"She's scared to admit it," I continue, staring at Elizabeth, "but she knows I'm right. There's something else in this house and we're not safe until we get away from here."
"Fine," Elizabeth says. "Can you run? Can you even walk?"
"Not yet," I reply, "but look at my leg. Do you really think I'm going to get better any time soon?"
She looks down, and I can see from the look on her face that she knows I'm right. My leg is a mess, and the staples have ripped holes all along the side of the original incision. The pain, which so far seems to have been masked by my groggy state and the injection the man gave me yesterday, is slowly getting worse and worse. There's no way I could manage any kind of a journey, no matter how long I can spend trying to recover first.
"What do you think we should do?" Elizabeth asks. "Leave you here?"
I pause. The thought of being left alone here while the others go for help is terrifying, but at the same time I don't think I'm going to make it unless I'm seen by a doctor soon.
"We can't leave her," Natalie whimpers. "Not alone. Not with him."
"He's half dead," Elizabeth says, turning to the man who's chained against the wall.
"Not him," Natalie continues. "The other one." She stares at us for a moment, with tears in her eyes, before putting her head in her hands.
"I told you," I say quietly, staring at Elizabeth. "There's something else here."
Elizabeth stares back at me for a moment. "Natalie," she says eventually. "It's your turn."
Obediently, Natalie gets to her feet, wiping the tears from her face as she comes over to join us.
"Whatever you're about to do," I say, "you don't -"
"Let her get on with it," Elizabeth replies, interrupting me. "She's suffered too. She needs closure. She wants to hurt him."
Before I can say anything, Natalie reaches out and the cattle-prod, which has been resting against the wall, slowly starts moving across the room. Although I've started to get used to the idea that the three of us have certain unusual powers, it's still startling to see the cattle-prod actually floating in mid-air. As it moves past us and drifts closer to the chained man, the blue light starts to glow and buzz more powerfully than ever before.
"Natalie, this isn't you," I say, hoping I can get her to stop. "I know you're angry, but you're not a torturer. You're not this kind of person. You're not cruel."
"You don't know anything about me," she replies, still sobbing as she stares at the man. "Both of you. You think I'm some sweet, fragile little thing. You don't think I'm capable of hurting anyone. I'll show you what I can do. I've seen things in this house that both of you have only ever dreamed about. I've lived this nightmare over and over again, and it was all his fault!"
Suddenly, the cattle-prod moves toward the man. He grunts and struggles, but he can't avoid the electric tip of the prod as it sinks into the exposed meat of his bloody chest. He lets out an anguished scream, but Natalie keeps the tip firmly wedged into his flesh. After a few seconds, I realize that there's no prospect of Natalie stopping this torture any time soon. She's just staring at the man and there's a smile on her face, as if she's enjoying his agony. Eventually, unable to handle his screams any longer, I limp over to him and push the cattle-prod to the ground.
"You're interfering," Elizabeth says firmly.
"And you're turning into monsters," I reply. "This man didn't torture us because he's evil. He did it because the house made him. Some kind of force took control of him, encouraging him to do all these things. We need to get out of here, and we need to take him with us."
"Nonsense," Elizabeth says. "You're just being foolish. He spent ten years torturing me, Holly. Ten long, agonizing years. And now you claim, after being here for just a few days, that he wasn't in control of what he was doing?" She waits for me to answer. "Are you seriously trying to lecture me about what's been going on here?"
"I'm just trying to show you the truth," I say. "I know it's easy to focus on this guy as the cause of everything. I know he put us into the ice bath and he cut us open, but he had no choice. He spoke to me last night, and I could just feel it in his voice. There's humanity in him, under all the violence. You can hurt him and torture him until he dies, but you won't achieve anything. The evil in this house is all around. It's..." I pause for a moment, as I remember being in the dark room and feeling something touch my shoulder. "It's not him," I continue. "It's the house. You have to worry about the house. There's something in one of the other rooms."
"She's right," Natalie says, her voice sounding meek and quiet over in the corner. "He's not evil. He's just like us."
"You're being too sympathetic," Elizabeth replies, but I can tell that there's less certainty in her tone. Maybe she doesn't trust me, but she trusts Natalie. "This man is a beast," she continues. "He hurt us all, and now we've got a chance to turn around and hit back at him, you want to show him sympathy?"
"The house made him like this," I say. "If you don't believe me, fine, but just look at yourself, Elizabeth. In less than twenty-four hours, you've gone from being kind and compassionate to being someone who tortures other people. You're using your power to rip him apart. The house turned him into a monster, and it's doing the same thing to you. No matter how angry you are, and no matter how much pain you've felt, torturing this man isn't the answer!"
"For God's sake," she replies, "what is..." Her voice trails off, and finally she turns to look at the man as he hangs from his chains. "Oh God," she says eventually, her voice sounding drained and shocked. "What have I done?"
Ben Lawler
Today
Standing in the middle of the basement, I stare at the ceiling and listen as Holly's footsteps move from one side of the kitchen to the other. She seems to be pacing about up there, almost as if she's not sure what to do next.
"We can reason with her," I say, determined to stay calm. "I've talked to her before. She's not evil. Maybe she's misguided, but she won't -"
"She's not herself," Elizabeth says, interrupting me. "She's been taken over by the creature. It's guiding her every move, and informing her every thought. It must have been inside her for years, just letting her be herself when it suited its purposes. She's just like the man who held us captive all those years ago. The house has won. We had our chance to get out of here, and we blew it. It's over."
"You can't just give up," I say, watching as she walks over to the sink and turns the faucet. The pipes splutter and bang for a moment, and finally a thin stream of brown water runs down to the plughole. "You got out of here before," I continue. "You can do it again. You've got powers. You can do this!"
"Everything's going to need to be washed," Elizabeth sa
ys, running her hand under the water. "It's so dirty. Don't worry, Mr. Lawler. We can make it quite comfortable down here, if we just get used to the routine. I know you must be desperately keen to get back to your friends and family, but those feelings will fade. There's no point wasting energy on futile escape attempts, so we might as well..."
I wait for her to continue.
"Might as well what?" I ask.
She doesn't reply.
"I never thought I'd be back here," she says quietly, turning her hand under the flowing tap. "I thought about this place many times, and I had nightmares about it, but I was certain I'd never be back here like this." She turns the handle on the tap, and after a moment I see steam coming from the bowl. Finally, wincing, she pulls her hand out from the stream of boiling water. "I suppose that means it's not a dream. If it was a dream, I'd have woken up by now."
"I can't take this," Natalie whimpers, wandering back over to the bottom of the steps and staring up at the door. "I don't want to live down here again."
"It won't be so bad," Elizabeth replies. "We managed before. We'll manage again."
"I can't do it," Natalie says. "I'd rather die."
"Don't be so melodramatic," Elizabeth says. "Please, Natalie. We've just got to accept the situation. Don't you remember how things used to be? We managed perfectly well -"
"No!" Natalie screams. "I'm not doing it! Why won't you listen to me? I'd rather die! I swear to God, I'd rather drop down dead right now than spend another second in this place!"
"Please," Elizabeth says, trying to stay calm, "if you just -"
"No!" Natalie screams at the top of her voice. Above us, the ceiling creaks and a small amount of plaster dust sprinkles down. "Do you really think we can go back to how things used to be?" she continues, hurrying over to Elizabeth. "It hurt so much. Every day, it hurt more than I ever thought I can handle. I know we found ways to survive, but that was when we thought we could escape. Now we know there's no chance. We can't trick Holly. She knows our secrets. She knows how we think and she knows the limits of our powers, especially now there are just two of us. I can't do this all again!"
"Getting angry won't help," Elizabeth says after a moment. "You need to settle down."
"Stop telling me what to do," Natalie replies bitterly.
With no warning, Elizabeth reaches out and slaps the side of Natalie's face. Recoiling in horror, Natalie seems shocked by the force of the impact.
"Life has to go on," Elizabeth says after a moment, sounding calmer than ever. "We have to be strong. There's no point making a fuss. This is how things are, and we just have to be patient. I'm sure another opportunity will arise, but until then we have to make the best of it. The alternative is pain, Natalie, and I don't want that. I can't handle the pain again."
Natalie glances over at me for a moment. "If we can't get out of here," she says quietly, "then we only have one option... only one way to deny the house what it wants. We have to die."
"Don't say such stupid things," Elizabeth snaps at her.
"I'm serious," Natalie continues. "I can't handle the thought of a whole lifetime down here, and I can't go back to how things used to be. All those visits upstairs to the ice bath. All the misery. Waking up every day, hoping that somehow this would all turn out to have been a nightmare. We'll die down here anyway, so why not take control?"
"It wasn't so bad before," Elizabeth suggests. "Before Holly came, we had a way of living."
"It was hell," Natalie says firmly. "You know it was hell." She pauses for a moment. "Don't take this personally. I just can't handle being down here. The long, dull waits while the house decides whether to call us up again. The ice baths. The cutting. The staples. The fear. It's too much. We don't have much power left, but there's one thing we can do. All of us."
"Joe Kukil's going to work out where we are," I say. "He knows I'm involved in this. When he doesn't hear from me, he'll realize something's happened."
"I wouldn't count on any help from the outside world," Elizabeth says. "The house has ways of keeping itself hidden. Now that it no longer wants to draw us here, I imagine it'll become very quiet."
Looking down at my phone, I see that I still have no signal. I swear, the other day I had plenty of signal out here. It's almost as if something is deliberately blocking all our attempts to get a message out to the world.
"I refuse to believe," I say after a moment, "that in the modern age, four people can go missing in a high-profile location and no-one ever comes looking for them."
"You believe in modern technology?" Elizabeth asks.
"I believe in basic human curiosity," I reply. "They're going to start looking for us, and at some point it's going to occur to them to come out here. Even if it doesn't, there are other people. The Mayor's got plans for this place. There are movie people crawling all over the town. Things have changed. This isn't some overlooked, rundown old place anymore. It's a magnet. I swear, there'll be people out here within days, maybe even hours."
"Perhaps," Elizabeth says, although her tone of voice makes it clear that she doesn't believe me. "Natalie, do you see anyone?"
Standing on a chair and looking out through the small window, Natalie seems transfixed by the view. "No," she says after a moment. "All I see are sunflowers in the field across the road."
"Those sunflowers are so beautiful," Elizabeth replies. "Every year, I'd wait for them to reach their peak. I know it must sound strange, Ben, but the sunflowers were a wonderful comfort. They were a constant reminder that the world was still turning. I'd look out the window and see that despite everything that was happening here, all the cruelty and violence, the natural world was still going about its business."
"There's got to be another way," I say, heading up the steps to examine the metal door. "We don't have to die down here. We can break the window, or we can smash through the door, or we can make a hole in the ceiling. We can do something! You've still got powers. You just need to come up with a plan!"
Before I can finish, there's the sound of movement on the other side of the door. I watch as the metal swings aside to reveal Holly standing in the doorway; I open my mouth to say something, but there's a sudden flash of bright blue light and I feel an intense pain spark into the side of my neck, radiating throughout my body and sending me tumbling down the steps until I land in a heap on the concrete floor. Instinctively, I try to get to my feet, but the pain is still strong and all I can do is watch as a small block of wood is tossed down and lands next to me.
"No!" Natalie shouts.
"Be quiet," Elizabeth hisses at her.
"We're not doing this again!" Natalie screams, rushing past me and heading up the steps. I hear a loud buzzing, cracking sound, and Natalie falls back down, landing on my legs.
I watch as Elizabeth hurries to the block of wood and picks it up. "Three," she says, before looking at me. "I was always one, Natalie was always two. Holly was three, but now it must be you, Ben. You're being called upstairs."
Holly
15 years ago
"It's a kind of presence," Natalie says as we sit at the kitchen table. "I didn't want to say anything earlier, because I wasn't sure. I assumed you'd both be able to feel it as well, but I guess I'm just more tuned into these things. It's like there's another person in the house, and his presence is all around us, mixed in with the power. I don't know any other way to describe it, but I can feel it. I can hear it. He's got a voice. I'm not strong enough to understand what he's saying, not yet, but he's trying to tell us something. Sometimes, I think he's laughing at us."
"I can feel it too," I say after a moment. My head is still pounding, but I'm just about managing to think clearly. "It's in the walls and in the floor and in the air. It's everywhere. It's like an entire mind, moving from room to room. It's here now. It can probably hear us. I'm convinced it can get inside us and change us." I turn to Elizabeth. "You must be able to feel it too. Admit it. You know we're right. There's something here."
"We have to
get out of here," Elizabeth says. "We can't risk staying in this place a moment longer. It's obvious that there's something here that we can't see, and it's able to get into our minds. It was pushing me to torture that man, and it'll keep trying to manipulate us until one of us breaks."
"Except, I can't walk," I point out. "Going up and down the stairs was hard enough. I don't mean that I find it hard to walk, or painful to walk... I can't walk, at least not more than a few steps at a time. If I try to walk out of here, I'll just end up collapsing. My leg's probably already infected, but you... You two, you're fine. Maybe you should go and get help. I'll take my chances here."
"After everything you've just said about this house?" Elizabeth replies. "Absolutely not. We're not leaving you."
"I'll be fine," I say. The truth is, I'm not scared of being left here alone. In some strange way, I actually like the idea. The pain in my head seems to ease for a moment as I imagine what it would be like to wander through these rooms without anyone to disturb me.
"You won't be fine," Natalie adds. "You know what'll happen if you stay here alone."
"It can't do anything to me," I reply.
"It's not safe," Natalie continues. "We're not leaving you behind!"
We sit in silence for a moment. I don't know what the others are thinking, but I'm focusing on the fact that just when we're finally free to get out of here, it seems as if things are conspiring to keep us in the house. If we'd managed to get out a day earlier, we'd already be miles away, maybe even in a local town. As things stand, my leg is holding us all back. I can't shake the feeling, though, that while Elizabeth and Natalie are willing to stay here in order to look after me, I wouldn't have done the same for them. I want to be a good person, and the kind of person who'd do anything for her friends, but there's a voice in the back of my mind that's telling me to only think of myself.
