GrUeberfest 2005: House On October Hill Road (717 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Contests
Rating: 1.66 on 27 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by kaos-king (antius777) (View user info) at 2005-10-21 12:17:29 EDT
The station wagon bumped along the dirt road, it's headlights illuminating the mini van before it. Along the sides, the windows showed nothing but trees. They stood at crooked attention, like sentries before the gate that led further up the hill. The final rays of sunlight were being obliterated by the twilight and an orange glow was cast over the west. Very little of this beautiful sky could be seen from the passengers in the vehicles and even if they could, they would have not appreciated it. They had other things on their mind.
"Pass me another fucking beer, man"
"Shut up, Scotty. You've already had three. Wait until we get to the house," said Erin.
Jackie slouched in the seat beside her boyfriend Tom. She wasn't happy. This all been Brian's idea and she was rarely pleased with anything that came out of Brian's mouth. They had all traveled up from Franklin University to Twinvalle to a house party at Erin's. While they were sitting around, getting drunk and stoned, everyone had started trading Halloween stories. It was that time of the year and it seemed appropriate. Everything was going fine until Erin brought up the tales about the house on the edge of town. Immediately, the small party had decided it was a good idea to move the festivities to that location.
Jackie folded her fingers around Tom's hand, but she looked over at her twin sister beside her instead. She knew Katie's thoughts mirrored her own. The two of them had grown up in the same town as Erin, so they knew the tales just as well as their friend. October Hill and the house that sat upon it was somewhat legendary in the community. Every school kid knew the stories that swirled around the mansion that had been erected at the end of the road. Whispers of murder, satanic practices, animal sacrifices, and other such horrors were deeply associated with the house.
But no, Brian had to see the house. It was his grand plan to move the party up to the house. Anyone who opposed his idea had been greeted with taunts of "Pussy" and other such demeaning things. Finally, everyone had agreed to check it out with him. When Katie had mentioned that the gates to the house were locked to keep trespassers such as themselves out, Brian had just smiled. It would seem he had bolt cutters in his car for some bizarre reason.
The two cars coasted to a stop at the bottom of the hill, before the old gates. Jackie watched as Brian leaped out of the driver's side door and made his way to the trunk. He fished around in the back until he held up the bolt cutters triumphantly, waiving them around for everyone to see.
"Erin, let's just go back to your house," said Jackie, trying to keep the warble out of her voice.
"No way!" said Scotty. "I've been hearing about this place for the last two years I've been dating Erin. I wanna check it out."
"Jackie, everything will be fine. Stop worrying," said Erin from behind the wheel.
Jackie looked to her boyfriend for help, but he was starring at the gate eagerly. Tom would be no help. She had told him the stories, too, and he had always expressed an interest in seeing the place. She squeezed his hand, hoping to get his attention.
"Don't worry, babe," he said, not taking his eyes off the gate. "Everything will be okay."
She turned her head to look at her sister. Katie had her eyes closed.
They progressed up the hill without incident after Brian had jumped back in his mini van. The trees masked their ascent and the house remained hidden behind the autumn foliage. Evening had slid into night during the journey, and stars began to twinkle in the East. A three quarters full moon gleamed in the sky, giving off just enough light. The dirt road veered left, then right, then straight. A clearing appeared to the passengers and the house grew visible in the dwindling night light.
The house on October Hill Road. Jackie had never seen it before, but it matched all of her expectations. Standing at three stories, it rose slightly above the tree line and from what she could tell, was a dark brown. The windows had all been boarded up and the large front porch was made of crumbling cement. It hunched there like a gigantic crouching spider, raingutters broken off and hanging like legs ready to pounce.
The mini van came to a halt right in front of the porch and Erin pulled her station wagon in right behind it. Brian cut the lights in his vehicle, so Erin did the same and the house and it's surrounding were cast into the dark. For a moment, no one in either of the vehicles moved - they just stared at the house.
Then Brian sprung out of the mini van.
"This is totally badass! Come on, we've gotta get inside!"
As the occupants of the van piled out, Jackie went rigid. Inside?
"I am not going in there, Tom. Stay here with me," she pleaded.
"C'mon baby! It will just be a minute," he said climbing out of the station wagon.
She exchanged glances with her sister. Katie sighed, shrugged and got out of the car. Jackie swore to herself and followed. Brian and his girlfriend Crystal were already on the porch. He called to his friend Doug to hurry up with the flashlight while he fumbled with the door. Soon all of them were on the porch with him.
"Get that light over here. I think..."
The door swung open with the slightest push.
"Excellent! I thought we were gonna have to break in," he said.
"Tom..." Jackie started, but he had moved away from her up to the door with Brian.
"Gimme a flashlight," said Tom.
One by one, they filed into the house, beams of light swooping through the foyer. The light caught doors to the right and the left standing open, a large staircase before them, and a number of small pieces of household furniture in various states of disrepair. A chandelier sat on the ground right in the middle of all of it.
"Okay, enough. We've seen the inside of the house, so let's go," said Katie.
"Fuck that," said Doug aiming his light towards the doorway on the right. "Who's coming with me?"
Eric and his girlfriend Courtney went with Doug through the doorway and disappeared into the house. Brian kept his flashlight trained on the steps. Tom had his light spreading over the remains of their entrance.
"Okay, we've only got three flashlight. Tom, you and the twins go left. The rest of you, we're hitting upstairs."
"Brian, we shouldn't be doing this! What if the floor is rotting out or something? You guys could get really hurt, or..."
"Jackie, stop whining. Everything will be fine, Jesus," swore Brian.
Brian, Crystal, Erin and Scotty climbed the steps, their light disappearing as the rounded the bend to the upper floor.
"Tom, I want to go outside now!" said Jackie.
"Listen, if you and Katie want to go back to the cars, fine. I'm going in here," he said gruffly.
"I'd rather be with Tom inside than alone outside," said Katie wearily.
"Fine," said Jackie scowling.
They moved through the doorway slowly, Jackie tightly gripping her sister's hand. Tom was shinning the light around the room. It appeared to be a dinning room. A long wooden table was in the middle of the room and chairs were placed all around it. Two china cupboards were against the far wall, sitting empty. Another door was between them. They maneuvered around the table and headed into a kitchen. It was relatively bare, most of the appliances gone. A refrigerator door lay on the dusty floor, it's bulk up against the farther wall. The light showed years of mold had turned gray and flaky. Yet another door sat partially closed before them.
"Haven't we gone far enough?" asked Katie.
Tom ignored her and opened the door. Jackie gave another squeeze to her sister's hand and followed her boyfriend. They were in some kind of bedroom. A broken mattress sat in the corner on an old frame and dresser was in the middle of the far wall. It's drawers had all been pulled out and scattered about the room. A mirror above was broken, it's pieces reflecting the light back onto them.
"This must be the butler, or maid's room," said Tom.
"Look, there's a book on top of the dresser," said Katie.
Tom moved forward and retrieved it. He started flipping through it, his eyes wide.
"It's a diary. It says... what the hell?" Tom jumped back and put his hand to his head.
"What's wrong?" asked Jackie fearfully.
Tom brought his hand into the beam of the flashlight. His fingers and palm glistened red. A quiet noise from the floor drew his light. A small puddle of blood was forming on the floor. Another drip came from the ceiling. Now the light was shone upwards. The ceiling was saturated with a wet crimson.
Jackie and Katie screamed in unison and just as their voices died another scream followed it from somewhere in the house.
"Let's go!" shrieked Jackie.
Just as they turned into the kitchen, the door to the dinning room slammed shut. All three screamed and raced to the door. Tom began banging on it with his fists, then with the flashlight.
"Don't! You might break the flashlight!" screamed Katie.
Another scream came out of the darkness from somewhere in the house.
"Here, help me pick up this fridge door!" yelled Tom.
The girls scrambled to the fallen door and helped him heave it up.
"We're gonna use it as a battering ram, okay! Ready, one, two, THREE!"
The refrigerator door burst through the thin wood, and the three fell into the dinning room.
"Come on!" screamed Jackie.
They raced around the table and burst out into the foyer. The front door, the one they had left open, was now closed.
The girls huddled together by the doorway as Tom frantically bang on the door.
"Get it open!" screeched Jackie.
"I... I can't! It's locked or something!"
"Tom?" came a voice from the steps.
Tom spun around and shined his light on the stair case. Brian came stumbling down them, holding his back. He was covered in blood.
"What the fuck happened, dude! What's going on?" screamed Tom.
"Upstairs... it's... I saw it. What I saw..." mumbled Brian as he moved closer to Tom.
Jackie saw it at the last minute, but she had no time to scream.
"... was magnificent.," finished Brian, pulling out the knife that was concealed behind his back. He plunged the blade into Tom's stomach and twisted. Tom's eyes went wide for a moment and a small gasp came from his lips. The twins screamed, frozen in fear, as Tom fell to the ground.
Brian bent over and pulled out the knife with one hand, the other retrieving the flashlight. He turned to the girls, using the light to illuminate himself and the blade.
"Look what I found!" he exclaimed holding out the knife before tossing the flashlight at them.
It fell to the ground inches away from Katie's foot, it's light still shinning.
"Pick it up," said Brian calmly.
The girls stood there, shaking.
"Pick it up!" roared Brian.
Jackie grabbed for it, and turned it onto Brian's grinning face.
"Run," he said with a smile.
Jackie and Katie took off screaming through the door way on the right.
It was a hallway. Multiple doors lay on both sides, and the twins frantically tried all the knobs. They were all locked. Sobbing, they made their way from door to door down the hall.
"I'm counting to ten and then I'm coming!" called out Brian in a sing-song voice.
The girls fled down the hall and burst into a library. Jackie cast the light around, looking for somewhere to hide. It's beam found Courtney bent over her boyfriend Eric.
"Courtney, we have to run! Brian's gone crazy and..." and her voice died in her throat.
Their friend was indeed bent over the body of her boyfriend. Eric had been torn open from the throat down to his groin. His open abdomen lay there spread out around Courtney. They watched as she dipped her hand into his carcass and withdrew a handful of blood. She was painting smiley faces on the wall with it.
"Courtney!"
Courtney turned around at the sound of her name and smiled at them, but did not see them. Her eyes had been gouged out.
Before the twins could scream once again, the number "six" was called out by Brian in the foyer.
Jackie was almost fainting from terror, but still she swung around the flashlight, looking for anything to hide them. On the far side of the room, another stair case led to the upper floor.
Jackie pulled her sister along to that side of the room, but Katie bulked at the foot of the steps.
"We can't go up there! What if..."
"We have to hide! He's coming!" screamed Jackie at her sister, tugging on her hand.
The number "ten" rang out from the foyer.
The twins ran as fast as the could up the steps, Katie loosing her footing once and almost falling back down. Jackie gripped onto her sister and led her up.
There on the hallway floor sat Erin and Scotty. They were giggling.
Katie let out a low moan as Jackie pointed the flashlight at them. The couple were tearing pieces of flesh off of each over and eating it. They watched as Erin leaned in and bit a huge chunk out of Scotty's arm, blood spitting out all over his shirt. Scotty reached over and tore Erin's ear away from her head. Erin looked up at the twins. Half of her face had been pulled off, revealing her her jaw bone. Erin laughed at them as red liquid spilled out of her mouth and down the front of her.
"Up!" screamed Jackie pulling Katie onto the steps and towards the third floor.
The stairs creaked under their combined weight, and they topped the flight at a stumble. Two doors sat on opposing sides, both open and inviting. Jackie shone the light into the left one, saw no one, and ran in, dragging Katie behind her. The tattered remains of the room gave it away as a child's bedroom. A dresser sat right beside the door.
"Hurry!" cried Jackie as she slammed the door.
Katie had already started pushing the dresser over, and once the door was secure, Jackie joined her. They had just slid the dresser squarely in front of the door when a bang erupted on the outside of it. The twins screamed and leaped back.
As laughter came drifting through the wooden door, Jackie collapsed on the ruined bed and began weeping. Tom was dead, her friends had all gone insane, and she was trapped in the third floor of this house with her sister. What the hell was going on? How were they going to get out of here? Oh god, Tom! What were they going to do? No one even knew they were up here and...
Giggling.
Jackie looked up just in time to see Katie swinging the table leg. It connected with her head, sending her sprawling back on the bed. Through the haze of pain and the blood pouring down her face, she looked up to twin sister holding the piece of broken furniture, smiling.
"I can hear it now, Jackie. It's the house. The house is so hungry, Jackie! The house needs to be fed."
"Katie, please!"
"Oh god, it's so hungry," said Katie between giggles, raising the table leg again.
Jackie kicked her leg out, catching Katie right in the stomach. Her sister fell backwards, the weapon still in hand. Jackie jumped forward, grappling with Katie, screaming her name, trying to reason with her. They fell to the floor, rolling about the ground, one twin screaming, the other laughing. Jackie rolled Katie over and felt something sharp pierce into her side. She let out a cry as her sister stopped laughing.
Jackie scrambled away from Katie, her eyes attached to the broken half of table leg that been still connected to the table itself. Jackie had rolled her sister over onto it, impaling her through the lower stomach. Katie clawed at it like an animal, but her own weight on the face of the table kept it immobilized. Jackie leaned back against the bed, sobbing as her sister's actions slowed then finally stopped.
She lay there holding onto her side, the blood from her head streaming down and mixing with tears. She had to hang on, she had to keep her eyes open. Things started to go fuzzy and then she heard the voices. The voices from the house. They were calling to her, telling her about hunger, telling her about blood. The whispers caressed her, soothed her, ran their words across her trembling body. The house knew of grief, of pain, of terror. It slipped up through her blood that was slowly staining the floor and into her. Yes, it knew of these things and hungered for them. Jackie fed the house with her blood, with her fear, with her herself.
Her last thoughts before she closed her eyes was of her own laughter...
User Reviews
Submitted by Istaros (user info) at 2006-04-09 12:18:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
OH NO
piss off, you're a sad excuse for life and your genetic code is a waste of resources
Submitted by Vengance (user info) at 2006-04-09 12:04:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Don't fucking touch it or it will get worse.
Just leave it be.
Submitted by Istaros (user info) at 2006-04-09 11:39:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-04-07 22:59:02 (#)
Ranking: -2
Really should have just stayed out of it."
maybe you could stay out of other people's dickholes, you pathetic worm
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-04-07 23:26:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-04-07 22:59:02 (#)
Ranking: -2
Really should have just stayed out of it.
___________________________________________________
ETS, normally I like you,dude, but this time you can kiss my ass. This was excellent stuff,
and your ignorant review should be poked up your ass. Buttboy.. ;-(
Submitted by The_Cyst_Master (user info) at 2006-04-07 23:06:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Adults are talking.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-04-07 22:59:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Really should have just stayed out of it.
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-10-23 23:04:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool story.
Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-22 22:00:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
this really came together at the end
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-10-22 12:05:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I thought for sure I had rated this already.
Does using 'Brian' as a character make it easier or harder for you?
Submitted by madddonkey255 (user info) at 2005-10-22 00:21:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-10-21 19:35:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You thrive on this horror stuff, dude. This could be made into a very very short movie. Obviously I knew something was going to go terribly wrong at the house, so I figured it would be kind of 'meh', but your over-the-top horror descriptions were sharp and unsettling, and made me not care that it was somewhat predictable.
Not that it's your fault that it's predictable. It's just the nature of the story you were working with. Anyway, blah blah blah, fuckin' great entry.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2005-10-21 17:43:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It...was magnificent.
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2005-10-21 17:00:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
fuckin a man
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-10-21 16:48:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow. All I needed was popcorn to make this slasher-movie heaven.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2005-10-21 15:40:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
really good
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-10-21 14:15:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-10-21 13:58:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool
Submitted by pen_name (user info) at 2005-10-21 13:54:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
hey, i called a vial a vile. i can't say shit.
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2005-10-21 13:53:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-10-21 13:48:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The story freaked me out a bit. But what really made me cry was this:
"It's drawers had all been pulled out and scattered about the room. A mirror above was broken, it's pieces reflecting the light back onto them."
WHAT I'S WRONG WI'TH THOSE TWO SENTENCE'S?
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2005-10-21 13:27:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I expected a lame "Scary Movie" type plot. Fortunately this delivered much more.
Submitted by Average_Dan (user info) at 2005-10-21 13:07:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn,
Thanks for the nightmares that will surely ensue.
Submitted by Mike00295 (user info) at 2005-10-21 12:57:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good story, I'm glad it didn't enf up being a joke. I thought that's where you were going with it.
Then again, I'm not usually disapointed with your work, so I should have known it was going to turn out ok.
Good shit.
Submitted by pen_name (user info) at 2005-10-21 12:55:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
outstanding story. First one to actually give me the willies
I think you need to work on the dialogue a bit. I'd like to know who was saying what before i get to the end of a group of sentances. It might be because i'm used to "he saids" rather than "said hes."
In any event, it wasn't enough to take away from this story. Well done.
Submitted by MyTeeOne (user info) at 2005-10-21 12:50:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You did a great job of giving a fresh telling of an over done topic.
Submitted by yeahthatme (user info) at 2005-10-21 12:24:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Seeing your name under a post is like walking into one's favorite, hole in the wall bar...you just KNOW you're going to have a good time.
Well done.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2005-10-21 12:19:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I found this very hard to write. Haunted House stories are difficult to work with...