“James?”
Anna West shivered and pulled her dark woollen cardigan closer to her small frame. Where was James? He had asked her to say where she was, told her he’d be back in a few minutes, promised everything would be alright. Anna looked at her wristwatch. James had been gone for about ten minutes.
Anna looked around her. The deserted establishment she found herself in was dusty, dark and terribly withered. The wooden planks under her feet creaked and groaned under her weight, as she shifted uncomfortably and waited for her brother. There were shadows everywhere. Shadows and darkness. Spiderwebs hung loosely over ancient-looking entryways. There was a broken, dust covered chandelier on the floor a few feet away from her, which made Anna believe she was standing in what was once a ballroom perhaps.
Whoosh. An icy blast of hollow night wind struck her squarely in the front, as she was facing a broken window pane with jagged edges. She shivered once again, wondering where on earth James was. Something about this place made her feel cold down to her bones. Was he in trouble? Hurt? Lost? Surely he should have been back by now. He had been gone for more than fifteen minutes.
Slowly, cautiously, Anna made her way towards the hallway through which James had gone. She could no longer handle being in here alone, just waiting for him to come back. Her fear was ebbing now, and waiting patiently was certainly not something she could manage without losing her senses altogether.
“James?” She asked, raising her voice this time.
A flash of lightning outside illuminated the hallway before her, momentarily, so she could get a glimpse of the place she was standing in.
Blood.
It was a funny thing, how real blood looked up close. It looked dark and slick, almost black. It covered the walls in front of her, in splashes and sprays. She knew it was blood because she could taste the metallic tang of it in the air. It was fresh, newly spilt blood.
Darkness followed, and Anna felt hot wet tears on her face. She was crying now. Frightened, shaking, and crying.
“JAMES!”
A second flash of lightning followed, seconds later, and Anna could finally get a full glimpse of the hallway.
A body.
It was hanging from the ceiling. Anna could tell it was where all the blood was from; that was an obvious fact.
She could also tell it was her brother James.
She screamed, before a violent slam knocked her back against something hard, and there were gnarled hands at her throat, and she was screaming and crying and kicking-
And then there was darkness.
–END–
