Not this House

It was a joke! It was just supposed to be a joke! Get in, scare the freak, get out! What's happening? Why is this happening?!

The chorus of pounding feet thundered through the halls, nearly splintering the groaning wood as their screams of terror echoed all around. The walls shook with the force of invisible pounding, disembodied voices howling in agony. The group of four adolescents charged down the stairs from the 2nd floor, the lights flickering madly and an unforgiving chill freezing their spines.

They hit the landing and booked it for the front door. Salvation was only feet away... until the door slammed shut. The burly man in front, the leader that organized this breaking-and-entering expedition as a "joke," gripped the handle with a fierce desperation, yanking and tugging to no avail. His friends begged him to hurry up, pounding on his back and even pushing him out of the way to try the the door themselves. The unnatural screeching grew in intensity, closing in on them, suffocating them with a fear they never knew could exist.

With a frightening suddenness, the noise stopped—the howling, the wood groaning, the electric buzzing of lights, it all stopped. A disturbing silence swallowed them and they turned, collectively, to the hallway leading to the kitchen. A black shadow stared back, tall... imposing... its breathing synchronizing with that of the house itself. As if it were the house itself. With slow, heavy steps far too solid for a shadow to have, it moved towards them. Thunk... Thunk... Thunk. Screams built high in the backs of their throats, clawing for release the closer the shadow drew.

It stopped. Ten feet away. A box of moonlight striking a bloodied leg, a trembling arm with sharp claws for nails. The shadow—the very real shadow—leaned into the light: a ghostly pale face, skin torn, blood pouring from a gaping mouth, tongue hanging past where the jaw had been ripped away. White noise filled the pause in time, terror strangling the four intruders.

No one moved. No one breathed. Until the bloody tongue snapped and a demonic roar pushed them back, a splatter of blood raining on them. They screamed in true fear that would forever haunt them from this moment forward, the door flying open and allowing them a mad dash for freedom into the chilly night.

Marlene was two houses down when she saw the four intruders racing out of her house. It took her a moment, but after a few seconds, a smug grin crept across her face once she recognized them. They were assholes from her college that liked to mess with her because of her aversion to the paranormal. They went out of their way every day that she had class to make comments, snide remarks, about her belief in the supernatural. Once they disappeared from sight, she continued to her house, the lights flickering back on just as she walked through the door.

"I'm home!" she announced, shedding her coat and hanging it up near the door. She smiled and crossed her arms as the walls breathed and groaned, ghostly voices whispering a gentle greeting in return, a far different reception than what the other four had gotten. "I see we had visitors. Did you give them the scare of their life?"

The lights flickered momentarily and that same shadow appeared in the hallway to the kitchen, cast in darkness. Marlene smiled at it, "I guess that'll teach them to break into someone's house, won't it?"

It stood there motionless for a time and when the lights flickered again, it vanished, a manic laugh rippling through the air. She giggled in reply, shaking her head, "Perks of living in a haunted house. You get a built in security system."

Whistling a happy tune, she trekked further into the house towards the kitchen, preparing to make herself dinner while the house itself, taking one last deep breath, groaned audibly and settled back into its foundation.