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“ARE YOU SCAAAARED OF the big bad ghosts, Derek?” Brad taunted in a childish voice.
“No, Braaaad,” I retorted, in an equally childish tone. “Don’t you think we’re a little too old for ghost crap?”
“We’re only sixteen, and no I don’t.” He smirked at me, and for the hundredth time I found myself wondering why I was friends with him. He really was a giant jackass. “I think you’re just scared.”
He stared at me, waiting for me to admit that I was scared. Of course I was! But was I going to tell him that? Nope. Not even on pain of death. So, I’d just have to do this ridiculous dare, try not scream like a girl and get out of here. I let out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine, I’ll do your stupid dare. What are the terms?”
Brad grinned at me like an ape. “Right, one hour in there all by yourself.”
“Do I get a torch?” I asked inspecting the house more closely. “It’s ready to fall down. I need a light source.”
Grumbling, Brad handed me his torch. “Now the other thing is you have to record the whole thing and then we get to watch you squeal like a little girl later on, and if it’s really funny, it’s going on my YouTube channel.” He dragged a handheld camera out of his bag and passed it to me.
I gave him my death glare. He just grinned wider. “Ape,” I mumbled under my breath. “Right, one hour and recording the whole thing.” I viewed the dilapidated double story once more and repressed a shiver. “I hope you’ve got some back up content, Braddles, because I doubt you’ll get anything from me.” Imitating his grin, just to annoy him, I grabbed the torch and camera, and went up to the front door. “See you in an hour,” I called over my shoulder before I forced myself inside.
It was darker inside, almost pitch black; my eyes couldn’t seem to adjust no matter how hard they tried. I turned on the torch. A chorus of flapping burst through the silence and I ducked, but thankfully managed to hold in the girlish scream. It was bats, I repeated to myself, just bats; perfectly normal. What wasn’t normal, was the feeling that I was being watched by more than one pair of eyes—and none of them belonging to the bats.
Breathing like I’d run a marathon and my heart beating erratically in my chest, I put my hand through the safety grip on the camera, opened the screen and hit record. “Hey Braddles,” I said, moving the camera around the room. “Here we have what I assume was once a lounge room. I think I see a couch under all the dust and cobwebs. Real renovators delight.”
I didn’t dare touch anything; god only knew what type of furry creatures were hiding in the furniture. So far there was no sign of any ghosts, just the uncomfortable feeling of being watched, but even that was becoming less freaky. Maybe this really was just an old house that had gone to ruin. Feeling a little braver, I walked through the arch on my right into the next room. “A kitchen, or again, what’s left of the kitchen.”
With a quick glance at my watch, I saw that I was ten minutes in already. “Sweet.”
Moving back into the lounge and out into the hallway, I found the stairs. “Hello?” I called up them.
Thump, thump, thump.
I froze. Maybe the house was settling?
Thump, thump, thump.
Would I ever live it down if I ran screaming out the house? Probably not, but it was bloody tempting. “Is someone up there?”
Drag, thump. Drag, thump.
Walking backwards, never taking my eyes from the stairway, I kept going till my back hit the door. I turned the knob, but the door wouldn’t open. Shaking now, bordering on terror, I turned and pulled on the door with all my strength; it didn’t budge. “Shit.” I whispered in defeat. “Another way out. There must be another way out.”
I ran to the nearest window and tried to push it up. No luck. This was not good. I stopped and listened for the thumping. I couldn’t hear it. I still wanted to get out of here, but the silence was a relief. I could focus and try to find another way out.
Moving through to the other side of the house, in the opposite direction of the kitchen, I found another ramshackle room. I couldn’t tell for sure but it seemed to have been a storage room at one point. Pieces of furniture and boxes lined the walls, almost reaching the ceiling.
But there was no door. Or at least not one I could see.
The stairs seemed to be my only option. There was no other way out downstairs. But I really didn’t want to go up there; silence or not.
What was up there? Human or ghost? Either option wasn’t exactly what I’d call appealing.
Gingerly, I crept back towards the stairs. It was still quiet. Forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other, I reached the first step; it creaked under my weight. Frozen, I waited for the thumping and dragging to begin again, as though any sound or noise would wake whatever sleeping giant lie in wait upstairs.
Hesitantly, I put one foot in front of another and slowly made my way towards the landing before it curved upwards, out of my line of sight.
The darkness didn’t help my cause. The torch barely gave off any light, not that it could help me see around corners, anyway. The camera was still attached to my hand. I paused in my ascent and checked that the video was still recording. It was. At this point I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not; but at least if I didn’t make it out this shit-hole then my parents might have some idea what had happened to me. Of course, Braddles would somehow turn this to his advantage and no doubt get a million hits on his channel. I could just picture it now—Last footage of the boy that went missing. He’d probably even organise guided tours of this place. Once more, I wondered why in the hell I was friends with the guy. I rolled my eyes and brought myself back to the present moment. I wanted to get out of this alive; if for no other reason than to deny Braddles his YouTube stardom.
I was about to take another step when something grabbed me on the arm. This time I did scream like a little girl. “Be quiet!” a female voice whispered behind me. I shook off her hand and spun around. Expecting the thing from upstairs, my heart started to return to its regular rhythm when I realised the person that had grabbed me was a girl; about my age by the looks. Her dirty blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and her clothes that were just slightly worn did make me wonder about her though. I was about to open my mouth to speak when she held up her hand. “Don’t make a sound.”
I nodded mutely and watched in horror as she pointed up and the sound that turned my blood cold began again. Only this time, there was a slight variation. Drag, Drag, Drag.
My gaze was glued to the ceiling above me. I couldn’t see anything but I could pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. Drag, Drag, Drag.
The girl tapped on my arm and motioned me to follow her back down the stairs. I took the steps slowly; one at a time. But I forgot about the creaking step.
Creak.
Ugh, I groaned internally and waited.
A growl reverberated through the house. I held still. The house seemed to be waking up more and more.
One more step down. This one didn’t creak, but that was the least of my problems.
Drag, thump. Drag, thump. Drag, thump.
What was causing that noise? And more importantly, did I really want to find out?
Camera raised, I swiftly went back up the staircase ignoring the whispered protests from my unexpected companion. Avoiding the creaky step, I made it to the landing. I manoeuvred the camera so that it could look around the corner for me and I could see what was happening on the screen.
Bracing myself so that I didn’t scream or drop the thing, I gained the courage to look.
A large man with his back to me was dragging something down the stairs. I had a sinking feeling that I knew what he was hauling; but I had to know for sure. Angling the camera just right, I could see a white sheet had been wrapped around something. Something that look suspiciously like a body.
I felt sick to my stomach and my head began to spin. I had to get out of here.
Speeding down the stairs, barely remembering to avoid the creaking stairs, I grabbed the girls arm and made for the front door. She pulled on my arm violently. “Not that way,” she whispered. “The only way out is through the basement.”
“The basement?” I mouthed back to her.
“Yes. Come on.” She dragged me back into the kitchen and pulled open a door that I hadn’t noticed when I first came in here.
“Is this the basement?”
“Yes.” She pushed me and pulled the door closed behind me. It was pitch black down here. I fumbled for my torch and switched it on. We stood at the top of the stairs. She ran down them and disappeared into the shadows, leaving me with no choice but to follow.
“Where did you go?” I called into the darkness.
“Here,” she called back. I walked in the direction of her voice and used my torch the light the way. Who knows what was down here. Besides the last thing I wanted to do was to alert the man upstairs to our presence below.
“How do we get out of here?” I asked once I’d located her.
“Through here,” she said and pointed to a dark tunnel. I put my head in and locked up. She was right I could see light.
“Okay, you first,” I instructed.
She smiled. “I’m Alice by the way.”
I gave a nod. “I’m Derek. Now Alice, ladies first.”
She cocked her head to one side. “And they say chivalry is dead.”
I gave a soft chuckle. “Well it might be if we don’t get out of here.”
She shrugged and shimmed up the tunnel with me closely behind her.
After what felt like forever, we both emerged from the tunnel. I grabbed her hand and made a run for it. I wanted to get as far away from this place as I could.
“Wait, please we have to stop.”
I stopped. “Why? I don’t know about you but I don’t want to get mixed up with that ghost or whatever he was again.”
“Neither do I, but I need your help.”
“What do you need?”
“You have to watch and see where he goes.”
I stared incredulously. “With the body? Or what I assume was a body.”
“Yes!” She all but yelled. “Sorry, but I just have to know.”
I debated, but how could I say no to her when she got me out of there.
“Alright, but we have to hide. I don’t want him to see us or even have a suspicion that we might still be here.”
“Deal.”
We cramped ourselves down to hide behind some bushes and waited. I didn’t know how she knew that he would be coming this way, but after my recent ordeal and my gratitude towards her, I wasn’t really in a state to be questioning anything.
Ten minutes later, we heard to front door open and the man from the stairs came out. The only difference was this time he had the suspected body over his shoulder.
I looked at Alice, and a strange expression that I couldn’t quite understand had washed over her. I shrugged internally and went back to watching. He was approaching our location.
I wanted to run. I knew that I couldn’t. Instead, I focussed on being still and perfectly silent. He walked past without so much as even looking in our direction.
Alice jumped up, and I grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?”
“We have to follow him.”
“Because...”
“Because I need to know where he dumps the body.”
Creeped out now, I hesitated. “Why? What has this got to do with you?”
“I promise I will explain everything, just please let’s go.”
Probably against my better judgement I followed along. We didn’t have to go far. A few minutes later, we were watching him dig a hole. The body lay beside it. I shuddered.
Another endless amount of time stretched by before he unceremoniously dumped the body into its final resting place, filled it and walked back to the house.
Alice could barely contain herself until he left.
“Finally,” she cried.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Now let’s get out of here.”
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
“Well you know how I said I’d explain everything to you.”
“Yes...”
“Well I can’t go with you because I... I’m dead.”
Mouth hanging open, I stared at her and sputtered.
“And that is my body in that grave.”
“Not possible.”
She just smiled. “Really Derek? How is this so hard for you to believe after what you’ve witnessed and experienced in the last hour? How do you think I just happened to be in that house?”
“Luck?”
“No not luck. I’ve been trapped in that house with my murderer for twenty years! I couldn’t move on because I didn’t know where he had hidden my body, so my murder was never solved. In fact, it was never considered murder because there was no body. I was just another missing person amongst the bunch.
“You have no idea what you’ve done for me. The pain and torture that I’ve endured all these years...”
“Who was he? The guy that murdered you?”
“A family friend. They never suspected him. All the times I had to witness my parents come around here and see him comfort them and pretend to help, when the whole time he was responsible.”
“That is pretty rough.”
“Understatement of the year, Derek.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“It’s fine. I don’t care about that. You’ve freed me! Or rather, you will have as soon as the cops dig me up, I’ll be able to move on.”
“Right, yeah of course.”
“What you need to tell them is that the body of Alice Delamont is buried here and they will work out the rest. The murderers name was Frank Sanderson.”
“Okay got it, but there is one small problem. How am I supposed to explain all this to them and expect them to believe me?”
She pointed to my camera. “Still recording, right?”
I gave her a grin. “Yes, it is.”
“Thank you, Derek.” And with those final words she disappeared.
I wandered back in the direction of the house. In a daze, I pulled out my phone and dialled the number for the police. I wondered if they would even believe me. I had documented proof, but it was still hard to believe.
“Oh, well,” I mumbled. “Here goes nothing.”
An operator answered the phone. “Yeah, hi,” I said. “I need to report a grave that’s been found in the forest. It’s the body of Alice Delmont who went missing twenty years ago. I’ll explain when the police arrive.”
I gave her the address of the house before I hung up.
I could see Brad in the distance now. “Braddles,” I called out to him. “Have I got a story to tell you.”
The End.
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading my collection of spooky short stories. If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review where you purchased it.
Stay tuned for more spooky stories in the future.
Samantha.