You Can't Cheat Death

I hid behind one of the overgrown bushes surrounding the old, run-down house, staring up at the lonely brick building. A single, faint light shone through a broken window on the third floor, and I shivered, glaring at Lina, who was crouching beside me. She caught my stare and sighed.

“I said you don’t have to do it. The dare was a joke, Rene,” Lina muttered to me.

“Yeah, but unlike some people, I’m brave enough to do what I promised,” I shot back at her.

“Ugh, you’re so stupid, Rene!” Lina let out an exasperated breath. “Who knows what’s inside that house? Your pride isn’t worth you dying.”

I rolled my eyes at Lina. “Well, if you’re that worried about me, maybe you shouldn’t have given me that dare!”

“I told you, you don’t really have to go in there!” Lina was now close to crying.

“Whatever,” I said, before standing up abruptly and walking to the house. I took a few seconds to look around, once again finding absolutely nothing around the house. Just the looming, scary house with its overgrown garden. I gathered up my courage and stalked towards the door, making sure to glare at Lina one more time before wrenching the door open and stepping through. Taking a step into the dark, I shivered, letting go of the door to trace the edge of an ancient chair with my finger, and realizing too late that the door slammed shut behind me.

I whirled around at the sound, reaching for the doorknob, pushing, pulling, twisting, but it didn’t budge. The door must’ve somehow locked itself. A chill ran down my spine as I stepped away from the door, only to charge into it, body-checking it. The door held firm. I tried again. No luck. I was trapped inside. Amazing, I thought. I saw a window on the far side of the room and walked up to it, hoping that I could escape from it, only for it to disappear as I got closer. Not only am I stuck, I thought, but I’m also hallucinating now. I’m screwed. I chuckled to myself, suddenly remembering what my mother had told me about this house before.

“Never enter it,” she’d say, “it brings out your worst fears.”

Right. I laughed weakly. A house can’t do anything, much less bring out my worst fears. I walked out of what I thought was the living room, entering the kitchen. Its white, marble floor was covered in stains, most of them red, and a bloody handprint marked the wall. Another window, hopefully not a disappearing one this time, was right in front of me, and I sighed in relief, walking around a table, not even realizing that my foot landed in something until I heard a disgusting squish. I looked down, immediately wishing that I hadn’t.

A rotten corpse was now underneath my foot, the flesh a sickly, yellow-gray color, bones visible underneath the skin. Where the eyes were supposed to be were hollow spots coated in blood, and a giant gash ran down the side of its face, producing more of the dark red substance. I screamed in horror, not because the corpse was that disgusting, but because I recognized it. It was my little brother. My sweet, little brother who left vegetables outside for the rabbits and could never hurt a fly. My sweet little brother was now dead.

Hot, burning tears started pouring from my eyes, and I collapsed next to his body, hands covering my face as ugly sobs rang out. I sat for several minutes, crying until I had no more tears. When my sobs died down, I stood up slowly, shakily, and walked to the window, praying that I could escape this nightmare. My fist pounded against the glass of the window once I realized that it was locked with a strange lock that I couldn’t open. The glass held firm, and an animal-like sound escaped me when I saw Lina’s dead body glaring up.

Her face, drenched in blood, had a mask of terror, and she seemed to be staring upwards, to the window that had a light shining. Her arms were twisted into an unnatural position, and her legs were mangaled, her once-beautiful raven-black hair a mess of bloody tangles. Her sunken eyes were focused on a certain spot, her mouth open in a silent scream. I looked away from her, shutting my eyes. My amazing friend, my Lina, was now dead. A desperate wail left my mouth as I hugged myself tightly, nails digging into my shoulders, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside.

I slowly released myself before trying to stand tall, despite the fact that two of the most important people in my life were now dead. I need to avenge them, I thought, despite the fact that I was still shaking. Taking a deep breath, I gave myself a few seconds to calm down before thinking rationally. My best choice was to go to the room that Lina was staring at before she died; I could bet that whoever killed her and my brother was up there. With one last deep breath, I left the kitchen and went into the hall, glad to see a staircase at the end.

I stepped towards it cautiously, looking around to make sure that I wasn’t walking into a trap. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another dead body in what I thought was the dining room. I looked at it only long enough to identify that it was my mother. I didn’t need to look at it any longer, or else I would break down again, and no matter how much I wanted to, I had to stay strong. I kept walking towards the stairs, noticing another corpse, this one my father’s. I forced myself not to look, and started climbing the stairs. Another dead body, my crush from ninth grade, was sprawled out on the right side of the stairs, and, swallowing back vomit, I looked away from him and rose to the second floor, now shaking like a leaf on a windy autumn day.

I let out a sigh of relief when I got to the top of the stairs; the next staircase was only a few meters away. I ran to it, past my bleeding childhood friend, past my grandpa, whose usual smile was replaced by a terrifying scream, past my kind-hearted neighbor and up the stairs, desperate to run away from the pain that each dead body brought to my heart, desperate to avenge my loved ones.

I stopped at the top of the stairs, taking a moment to breathe before the remains of my friends would start appearing again. I walked slowly down the hall until the room with the light on was right in front of me. This is it, I thought, taking a deep breath before gathering my courage and forcing myself into the room. An old, sickly-green armchair stood in the corner, covered in cobwebs, and an even older table stood next to it. It’s just a room, I thought, surprised and slightly relieved. There’s nothing wrong, I’m just hallucinating. I let out a tiny chuckle of relief, leaning into the wall. I turned around, ready to leave the room, leave the cursed house, when an oddly warm, soft, and somewhat slippery hand grabbed my shoulder, turning me around, so that I was once again facing the middle of the room, and I screamed as I realized that I was face to face with Lina. Dead Lina. Dead, rotting Lina. The same one that was outside, by the window, lying in a pool of her own blood.

She pushed me into the middle of the room, and the rest of the bodies seemed to appear out of thin air. My little brother, my mother, father, grandpa, crush, childhood friend, and my kind hearted neighbor, all dead and rotting, surrounded me, their decaying hands reaching for me.

“Rene…” they all growled. “You failed us… You couldn’t protect us…”

I screamed as the words penetrated my head.

“You failed us! You couldn’t save us!” they hissed and spat, clawing at me, pulling me down, their hisses drowning out my screams as they slowly tore me apart. The pain was unbearable, and the last thing I saw before losing my consciousness was their terrifying, bleeding faces, staring down at me, accusing me of something I haven’t done.

“Rene?”

A quiet voice called out to me, slowly bringing me out of the darkness as I opened my eyes and saw Lina, her petite face framed by her beautiful, raven-black hair.

“Are you okay? You were in the house for so long, I started getting worried…” she trailed off, reaching out to help me up, and I gladly accepted her hand.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” I stammered, slowly pulling myself up. I smiled at Lina, and she smiled back. A feeling of happiness settled over me, until I noticed something strange about her. Her eyes seemed to be redder than usual. I pulled my hand out of hers, screaming, as blood started to pour out of Lina’s eyes, nose, and mouth, slowly painting her face red. My vision started to fade, and the last thing I saw were Lina’s hollow black eyes overflowing with blood.