The Neighborhood

"3..2....1!" the child pushed his brother sending him sledding down the stairs on the family's old ouiji board. The brother glided down with practiced technique and crashed into the wall at the bottom with a boom that shook the house.

"What was that!" the mother of the two boys ran out from her bedroom to inspect the noise and saw her youngest son rubbing his head at the bottom of the stairs. "Will you stop playing with that stupid ouiji board! That's gotta be why this house is so haunted! Go and finished packing, and clean up your toys before we leave! Go!" She shooed the boys off from their ouiji sledding and watched as they ran off giggling.

"We're leaving in 10 minutes!" She made one final announcement as the boys ran to their rooms before she went back in her room and zipped up her suit case.

"So Brooke really isn't coming?" the father asked.

"No, she's not. She's getting older now and we shouldn't make her go if she doesn't want to. We'll only be gone for two days, she'll be fine. Besides if she does want to go we'll have to wait for her to get off work at 11 tonight." The mother responded.

"Hmm well alright. Her loss, one less kid to worry about." The father said as he packed his last Hawaiian shirt and zipped up his suitcase.

The parents lugged their luggage down the stairs and called the boys to the car. The small family left the house empty and went on their vacation.

That night Brooke arrived home after a long day of work. When she opened the door she saw all of the lights were out, which she hated. It meant she had to cross the living room in the dark to reach the light switch in the kitchen. She made her way bumped into something knee high, almost tripping her.

"UGH." The boys really didn't clean up their toys before the left? She thought to herself. She made her way to the kitchen, flipped on the lights, and looked back expecting to see a mess of toys. There was nothing there.

"Oh my god." She said to herself. It felt like she bumped into some kind of toy but she realized that the ghost was already messing with her. The family had lived in the house for years and recongnized it as haunted. But they were not alone, everyone of theirs neighbors thought their own house was haunted as well. The entire neighborhood seemed to be afflicted with an otherworldly occupation.

"Honey, is that you?" The dad's voice came from upstairs.

"Dad?"

"Come up here honey, I want to show you something."

Brooke made her way and looked up the stairs into the darkness.

"Ddad? Are you still home? Will you turn on the light up there? I'm kind of freaked out. Something just touched me."

"Come here honey." The voice came from the darkness. "Honey? Honey!? Honeeey!?"

The dad's voice became histerical and he began to scream. Suddenly another sound started. A vicious grumble and laugh. It sounded like a demon attacking her father.

Brooke stood paralyzed with fear at the bottom of the stairs looking into the darkness at the top. Suddenly the attack stopped and all was quiet...

"Dad?"

"Honey! Come on up." The father said once again.

"Honey?"

Brooke watched confused and scared. Suddenly, at the top of the stairs two glowing eyes slowly peaked out, looking at her sideways, followed by a smiling mouth that stood out in the darkness like lights that pierced into her soul.

"Honey!"

Brooke screamed. She ran to the front door and opened it to escape. To her astonishment, the door opened to the same house. She looked at the entrance and saw her living room and kitchen and dark stairs. She looked back to see the same rooms on the other side of the door that she just tried to flee. The door led to a copy of the house. She was trapped.

Her mind was broken. She started to cry and slid down the doorframe to her knees in between the two living rooms.

"I'm coming Honey!"

Brooke panicked as she heard what sounded like a dog shuffling down the stairs. The lights of the first house turned off. The original house was now dark and something was coming for her so she fled into the copy. But as she was crossing the living room toward the back door, a black demon with a distorted body inverted and crabwalking on all four limbs shuffled out of the light and stopped, smiling at her. Brooke screamed, turned around, and bolted back into the darkness of first house. She couldn't see but ran as fast as she could. In the dark living room she hit something knee high and fell into the kitchen.

"Honeyyy" The voice was now distorted and mangled. "Huuuuuunnneeeeey." It was right next to her in the dark.

Brooke shuffled to the back door and opened it to see nothing but darkness. She fled into it. It was infinite. There was nothing but the dark house behind her. After some time she looked back to see the window banging and the blinds shaking wildly. The creature was standing in the back door watching Brooke escape into the dark void. Suddenly demonic wings grew from it's back and the creature disappeared into the blackness. Brooke could hear flapping wings approaching and a demonic groan getting louder and louder. She ran but fell, her spirit broken. The voice was now inescapable.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuneeeeyy....."