Paranormal Short Story – The house of shattered dreams
Photo credit: imelenchon from morguefile.com
I don’t know where to begin for the mind is not well versed with the art of writing. It is a delusional state where random thoughts keep making their way to shelter themselves in the nooks and corners only to evaporate like the shadows when the first ray of light touches them. I guess I should begin with the main character or rather the key structure involved, the house. For it is the house that is the center where everything began and ended. Shall I call it a sad ending or a dramatic one? Well time will tell when you read this tale.
Looking at the house, it could be said that it was a colossal Victorian house with its arched roof and grand pillars standing tall and proud, a reflection of its once former glory now clouded with the shabby outlook because of lack of upkeep and care. The main gate led to a grand drive way to the fountain in the middle, full of now muck and a broken statue of cupid in the middle. The house itself overlooked the river to one side and the lush green lawns, now full of weeds and tall grass, to the other.
The beauty of the house was noted only by day for at night it presented a reflection of the true evil that resided within it. With the arrival of dusk and the light fading to welcome the darkness of the night, the house would look unwelcoming almost to the point of inculcating fear just by the sight of the tall foreboding structure that would be present. To its credit the house had been vacant for over a century with tenants known to buy the house but leave within a fortnight of purchasing it. Some rumoured to have gone mad while others meeting their untimely deaths. Yet unaware of the rumors surrounding it, the house had been bought again. This time a family of four were to move in, Sanders and Brenda Kale with their two children, Chris, aged 17, and Laura aged 10.
The family had gained a good discount on the house, and with little finance and savings they had, they welcomed the house with its “unrealized potential” that the family laughingly joked of, feeling positive that slowly yet surely they could restore the house to its former glory.
The house itself was a grand structure. The main stairs led up to the wooden porch with a swing on one side and rocking chair to the other overlooking the lawns, or rather what was left of them. The house door, a now eroded and unkempt affair, led to the grand foyer with two rooms opposite each other that had the wallpaper hanging of from the corners and dark brownish stains on the ceiling that could be accounted to the water leakage from the pipes. The kitchen located towards the back end of the house was connected with the basement and a small room of sorts that could be converted to a storage room. The grand staircase located in the middle of the foyer led to hallways to the first floor with three main rooms. The master bedroom seemed well kept compared to the others on account of an assumption that someone not long ago may have rented it or had it renovated. The other two rooms that each of the children took for their own, were noted to have a major need of repairs. It was decided by the family that the main central bathroom would be used by the family till the time the ones attached to the rooms were repaired and made usable.
Slowly the family got into the routine of settling down with the family sleeping in the master bedroom till the house would be repaired and renovated. It was decided that the first floor rooms would be fixed first so that the children could settle down and have their own personal space, followed suite by the kitchen and the rest of the house.
It began with the youngest, Laura, who felt the presence of something unknown. It started with the shadow, seen through the corner of her eye that she would dismiss as a fragment of her imagination. She always kept to herself, playing with her rag doll that her parents had bought for her on her eighth birthday. She soon made friends with an imaginary ‘friend’, who was always with her. The ‘friend’ seemed to be her source of entertainment, playing hide and seek or tea time parties.
One day while Brenda was cleaning her room she heard voices. Laura was speaking to someone in hushed tones followed by giggles. Brenda, peeked into her the hallway from where the voices were coming only to find Laura sitting alone on the stairs. When asked whom she was talking to, she received the same response. The friend from the closet. For a moment Brenda stood still and then smiled and went back about her work assuming her daughter was referring to the imaginary friend whom she had created a few nights after moving into this house.
Then began the lies. Or so it seemed to both Brenda and Sandars. Laura seemed to break things around the house and blame it on Stacy, her imaginary friend. Not only that one day while Chris was near the stairs he felt a strong pair of arms giving a push and he tumbled down the stairs. A sharp pain shot in this arm and as he righted himself, he was sure he saw Laura at the top of the stairs smiling in the most evil way possible. That night, Laura was sent to her room for breaking her brother’s arm even though she was insistent she was in her room playing with her doll.
Then the knocking began. Loud and clear raps and thuds on both the front and the backdoors. Sandars ran to the front door to make sure it was locked while Chris double checked the backdoor hunched down so that no one could see him through the window over the sink. The house turned cold as though the heating has been turned off and it were a cold winter night. The family hurdled in the middle of the foyer not moving listening to the rapping and praying it would stop. It was then that Laura saw the blood, splatters across the wall dripping deep black red before she could point out towards it, the rapping stopped and all went silent. Both husband and wife exchanged worried glances and listened with ears perked for any sound of movement around the house.
The silence was shattered by a blood curdling scream upstairs followed by hysteric laughter that made their hair stand on end. It was then that Sandars saw a man coming down the stairs with a dagger in this hand and a crazy smile on this face. Terror for his family’s safety gripped his heart as he stood frozen staring at the figure coming down the stairs. Sheer will made him leave his trance and run. He yelled to his wife and kids and ran to the front door pulling it open. Luckily the car was right in front where he had parked it coming home from work.
Getting into the car they ran off into the night leaving the house with the evil that lurked there in a state of terror that gripped their hearts for a life time to come. They would never forget this night or rather the finale of the night that led them to their hasty departure, leaving all their belongings without care only to get away from what could have happened if they stayed longer to confront the fears that the house imprinted in their minds.
Hope rose within their hearts as the first rays of sunlight touched the horizon reflecting the arrival of dawn and with it the brightness that would diminish the horror of the night that they had faced and survived to tell.
–END–
