CHAPTER 24
Jimmy and Eddie continued to explore the eccentric, almost antique, dwelling. The kitchen was lined with antique cabinetry and dining room furniture, a candle holding chandelier, and several portraits of British aristocrats. However, the kitchen also included modern features like gas burning stovetops, microwaves and ovens, running water, a fridge, and accent lights. The genuinely antique aesthetics blended with the functions of a modern house made the home all the scarier; it glowed with a unique ominousness. The boys grew exceedingly more suspicious of the house and it’s hidden intentions by the passing second.
There were two rooms upstairs that were conjoined with a small bathroom that had a small shower that was covered with a white plastic curtain. Once the curtain was pulled back, stains and splatters of blood littered the back of the curtain and, the surface and walls of the tub. A meat cleaver hung from a strand of string tat was looped around the spout.
The third floor of the house was by far the most peculiar part of the house. There was a long hallway that ended with a door leading to a bathroom. The rest of the floor was a master bedroom that included the only entrance to the third floor balcony.
The layout of the room was simplistic, one could say suspiciously so. On the far left was a king size bed that was hidden behind a red, slightly translucent curtain that hung around the entire bed by its golden frame. The two couldn’t see anything beyond the drapes but white sheets that were tinged red by the privacy curtain, and they weren’t sure if they had the gut to handle what may be behind the curtain. So they didn’t check.
The room was dark and had an overbearingly sweet scent, not unlike the smell of overripe cherries. The paneled blinds were completely closed; the only light in the room was the warm, yellow glow of a table lamp set on a table at the bed’s side.
There were a lot of things that set the bedroom out from the rest of the house. Whilst the house gave off an elegantly creepy vibe, this room felt creepy too, but in a more… sinister way. The walls were colored a dark maroon color that played with your head, making it seem like it was bleeding off the wall and made the boys feel nauseous looking at it. While the room felt in order and had a sweet scent, the walls didn’t.
As Jimmy ran his fingers along the walls, he noted it’s sloppy paint job. The walls were not smooth, but riddled with paint bumps and runs. The wall’s scent was staggeringly different form the disgustingly sweet smell that, after further investigation seemed to originate from beneath the floorboards. The walls smelled metallic and rusty, the scent of pennies dipped in vinegar, but far worse. It was the kind of smell that made Jimmy choke down bile as it rose in his throat like a salty ocean tide.
In the middle of the room, both smells seemed to meet, creating an unbearable and inescapable smell that forced both boys out of the room and onto the third floor balcony. The cold and scentless gust of air that met them as they stumbled out onto the balcony was a breath of fresh air, one that was very much needed and extremely satisfying.
The balcony was dark, only lit by the light produced by two lights that were bolted to the wall next to the door that lead to the bedroom. The balcony was completely empty except for the metal rods that hung over the banister and glimmered in the silver shine of the moon’s faint glow. They approached the roads cautiously. The rods were covered largely in red splotches; they appeared to be the exact same shade of red as… the bedroom’s walls. The pair exchanged a look of disgust and fear. Jimmy rolled down the sleeves of his turtleneck sweater and used it as a glove; he picked up one of the metal rods.
The rod had coarse grooves wrapped around it like the grooves on a screw. The rod was surprisingly malleable, like a whip. Strangest of all, Jimmy could’ve sworn he heard a quiet droning coming from its rusty splotches. But Eddie claimed that he hadn’t heard anything, yet, Jimmy was convinced he wasn’t just hearing things either. The uneven and bumpy texture of the blood red splotches sent jitters through Jimmy’s entire body, so he calmly put it back where he had found it. Wishing to not only disassociate himself from the upsetting object, but to also forget the creepy, lurching feeling that it gave him.
They thought that the third floor bedroom and it’s balcony were the oddities of the house, the worst it was going to get. Little did they know, in the horrific circus that was this house, they had only experienced the timid sideshow. The treacherous main act waited for them, it waited with fire.
* * * * *
With goose bumps plaguing their skin like termites on deadwood, they realized the hidden cupboard underneath the stairs wasn’t a cupboard at all.
The pair of survivors found the cupboard as they eagerly ushered themselves out of the house. As they were about to shut the door behind them, they noticed an irritable buzzing coming from behind them, it sounded like an orchestra of crickets chirping simultaneously in one never ending tone. The two turned around, tracing the buzzing noise to an abnormally small door that was hidden under the stairwell and behind a fanned out potted plant.
The tiny door was only about five feet tall, and was carved with the same All Seeing Eye symbol and colored the same as the front doors. They opened it with a long, whiney creak as they reluctantly ducked into the secret room.
Immediately, they were met with a short fall onto a shag carpet floor. Jimmy fell in first, Eddie crashed on top of Jimmy. Eddie rolled off, lying face up, looking up at the tiled ceiling. Jimmy groaned as he his head up to see a small wooden workbench in front of him. He pushed himself up and approached the makeshift table made of a slab of plywood and held up by two DIY sawhorses. A map of the mountain’s communities was held down to the table by pushpins. On the wall above the workbench was another piece of plywood with iron stakes sticking out form the plywood, hanging from the rods were dozens of rusty, threaded metal rods. The same ductile rods with the same red colored rust infecting its surface that they had previously discovered on the balcony. The buzzing sound returned, it was maddening, it sounded like a forest of singing cicadas.
Eddie got up, cracking his neck. He noticed an average looking house door, except, instead of having a typical doorknob; it boasted a metal push bar. Beside the door, the red light of a card scanner blinked in the very dim light of a single light bulb that hung over the workbench.
Jimmy’s shadowed back, faced Eddie as he investigated the map. The map, through a thorough and desperate search to find anything incriminating in the least, was completely untarnished. It was just a map. No marks, scuffs, or burns of the suspicious nature.
Eddie scanned the table from over Jimmy’s shoulder, unbeknownst to Jimmy. He saw an ID card, strapped to a lanyard that hung off the edge of the table, hidden underneath the edge of the map.
“Hey. Watch out.” Said Eddie, moving past Jimmy and snatching the ID card by its red lanyard and holding it up in front of his face, inspecting its surface. The rectangular piece of hard plastic had a printed image of a generic looking white dude smiling in a blue and white striped dress shirt. He had a blonde comb over, his face was cleanly shaven, and he sported a profusely enthusiastic smile. The expression looked painful and… disturbingly forced.
With unease, the two walked slowly into the dark side of the room where the secured door tempted them. Eddie hesitated out of fear, before swiping the card in front of the scanner and was met with a beep and the blinking red light turning into a solid green light. They heard the lock come undone; Jimmy pushed open the door, revealing another void that was only lit slightly by a bulb’s orange coil. The burning coil ignited their curiosity, alluring them into the dark room.
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