The Haunting of Briar Hollow - Halloween Story #1

They never should have gone. Briar Hollow wasn’t on any map, but the stories were. Stories of people disappearing, of a mansion deep in the woods where no one ever came back from. But Dylan, Jake, Liz, and Sean weren’t the kind of people who believed in ghost stories. Halloween was supposed to be fun, and exploring a haunted town was just the thrill they were looking for.

The road to Briar Hollow was barely a road at all, more like a jagged scar through the forest, twisting deeper into darkness. As their car bounced along the uneven path, Liz sat in the back seat, her unease growing with every passing mile. The trees loomed on either side, skeletal fingers stretching toward the car as if trying to pull them into the abyss. The sky was a deep purple bruise, and the moon barely cast enough light to guide them.

“Guys, maybe we should turn back,” Liz said, her voice shaky. “This place feels… wrong.”

Dylan smirked from the driver’s seat. “Come on, it’s just a story. We’ll check out the mansion, snap some pics, and head back. Nothing’s gonna happen.”

But the second they passed the old, broken-down sign that read Welcome to Briar Hollow, the air shifted. It felt heavy, suffocating. The car's engine began to sputter, the headlights flickering.

“Uh, Dylan?” Sean said from the passenger seat. “What’s up with the car?”

Dylan cursed under his breath as the engine died. They coasted to a stop in front of a decrepit church, its bell tower leaning like it was about to collapse. The silence that followed was absolute, pressing in on them from all sides.

They got out of the car, and that’s when they noticed it—the quiet. Not just the absence of noise, but the complete, unnatural stillness. No wind, no animals, not even the rustling of leaves. It was as if the entire world had gone dead.

“This is weird,” Jake muttered, glancing around. “Where is everyone?”

“Maybe they’re hiding,” Liz whispered, her eyes wide as she clutched her jacket tighter. “Maybe they know something we don’t.”

Ignoring the growing sense of dread, they walked down the crumbling path toward the mansion. The woods around them seemed to close in, and the fog grew thicker with every step, wrapping around their legs like icy tendrils. Every now and then, Liz swore she heard something—a faint whisper carried on the wind, too quiet to make out. But when she turned, no one else seemed to notice.

The mansion was worse than they’d imagined. It was a rotting corpse of a house, the windows shattered, the front door hanging off its hinges. The air around it was thick with decay, and the shadows seemed to shift and move of their own accord. Still, Dylan pushed forward.

They stepped inside, their footsteps echoing in the vast, empty space. The floorboards groaned under their weight, and the walls were covered in what looked like old, smeared handprints—dark, almost black. The temperature dropped suddenly, and Liz shivered.

“Let’s make this quick,” Jake said, his voice unnaturally loud in the stillness. “I don’t like this place.”

They moved through the house, the atmosphere growing heavier with each step. Then, they heard it. The sound of footsteps—slow, deliberate, coming from upstairs.

“Who’s up there?” Sean called out, his voice cracking.

There was no answer, only the continued sound of someone—or something—moving above them. Dylan’s bravado wavered, but he forced a laugh. “It’s just an animal or something. Let’s check it out.”

But when they reached the top of the stairs, they were greeted by the unmistakable sight of wet footprints—bare, human feet—leading down the hallway. The prints were fresh, still glistening in the dim light.

“What the hell…?” Jake whispered, backing away.

The whispering started again, louder this time. It was coming from the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Soft, insidious voices, overlapping, filling their heads with words they couldn’t quite understand.

“We need to get out of here,” Liz said, her voice trembling.

But when they turned to leave, the hallway wasn’t the same. The stairs they’d just climbed were gone, replaced by a long, dark corridor that seemed to stretch on forever.

“No, no, no…” Sean muttered, panic rising in his throat. “This isn’t real. This can’t be real!”

But it was.

The whispers grew louder, turning into wails. The walls began to pulse as if they were alive, breathing. The house groaned, and from the shadows, a figure emerged—Evelyn Briar, her face twisted in a grotesque smile. Her eyes were nothing but hollow, black pits, her skin a sickly gray. She moved toward them, her limbs jerking unnaturally as if she were a puppet on broken strings.

“Stay with me,” she whispered, her voice a rasping croak. “I’ve been so lonely.”

Dylan tried to run, but the floor beneath him shifted, warping like quicksand, pulling him down. Jake screamed, backing into a corner, only for the walls to close in on him, pressing tighter and tighter. Liz clawed at the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

Evelyn reached out, her bony fingers brushing against Sean’s cheek. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed, convulsing as she whispered something too horrible to hear in his ear.

One by one, they disappeared—swallowed by the house, claimed by Evelyn’s cold, dead grasp.

By morning, Briar Hollow was silent again. The car sat abandoned in front of the old church, its doors wide open, but no sign of the group. The fog had lifted, and the town looked as lifeless as ever.

And the mansion? It stood tall, waiting for its next visitors, its hunger never sated.

Some say if you stand at the edge of the woods on Halloween night, you can hear their screams echoing through the trees, forever trapped, forever running from the thing that will never let them go.

But no one dares to check.

Not anymore.