Daisy’s House (Part 2)
By Steve Stred
KR: You can catch up with Part 1 of this chilling tale HERE
Brian didn’t believe the shit that people said about the house.
He knew Carter, loser that he was, OD’d on some laced pot and was face down in some ditch. Or had hitchhiked to some other town, chasing some tail.
That’s what he told himself as he parked his car up the street and slapped his buddy Howard on the leg.
“You gonna bitch out on me, boy?”
Howard glared at his friend; nice guy but a total asshole.
“Nah, man. I wanna see inside that house. This’ll put me over the top for my Youtube page.”
“Youtube page?”
“Yeah, man. I’ve got 900 subscribers already. Figure a video showing the inside of this house will get me massive numbers and maybe Youtube will start paying me some cash!”
Brian chuckled at Howard. He knew Howard would never leave town. But he liked his enthusiasm.
“K. Let’s go. And don’t chicken out.”
In actuality, Brian didn’t want to end up being left alone in that house.
They walked towards Daisy’s, breathing heavier the closer they got.
“Dude, we really want to do this?”
Brian felt a sense of calm come over him when he heard Howard ask the question. He didn’t want to do it. Not now, but after talking a big game, he had to follow through.
“Don’t be a pussy,” he replied, punching his friend’s shoulder hard.
He bounded up the steps and went to open the door. Before his hand could make contact with the doorknob, the door slowly opened inwards, squealing on its old, uncared for hinges.
Brian looked at Howard, seeing his friends face drop in shock.
“Get up here,” Brian practically shouted to Howard.
Howard took a second to open up his camera app on his phone and then hit record.
“Ok, it’s Howard here. Filming tonight with my best friend, Brian. We’re exploring Daisy’s house. That’s right! Daisy’s house! Check the link here,” he held a hand in front of the screen and pointed. He’d add the website link in after.
“Let’s see what we got,” he said as he walked up the steps and joined Brian. With the camera filming, it gave both of the boy’s confidence. Nothing would happen now with a camera filming.
They entered into a derelict living room. Howard stumbled over some shoes that were sitting neatly arranged on a mud mat by the front door.
“Doesn’t she still live here?”
“I thought so,” Brian replied. Now looking around, he couldn’t believe the house had been lived in for years.
All of the furniture had plastic covering it. On top of the plastic – a thick layer of dust.
The hypnotic tick-tock of a clock sounded from somewhere deeper in the house, one last battery holding onto life.
Howard’s phone sprayed out a thin slash of light in the darkness, but the house itself seemed to provide some bioluminescent light.
Howard went to the fireplace, finding it still holding old coals. The flames hadn’t licked the chimney walls in some time.
“Howard.”
Howard spun around, the camera still out before him, finding just Brian standing in the room behind him.
“Did you say my name?”
Brian gave him a perplexed look.
“Nah… did you hear your name?”
Howard nodded.
As he took a step towards Brian he felt a whoosh and the room erupted as the fireplace burst alive. Flames launched up into the chimney and the old coals screamed out into the room, years of air trapped and released in an instant.
“Dude!”
Howard looked at Brian and saw him pointing down the hallway towards the kitchen.
Standing beside the refrigerator was a tall, black figure. It had no defined shape or face, but it dropped both of the boy’s hearts into their stomachs.
From the other end of the room, the front door slammed shut. That was all Brian could take and he rushed down the other hallway, leading towards the bedrooms Howard presumed.
“Dude! Wait for me!”
As Howard rushed to catch up to his friend, he saw the black shape start to move towards the living room.
Leaving the flames, Howard found he didn’t know where Brian went.
He stopped at the first room, moving into the space without looking inside first.
Sitting on the bed before him was an old man. He was naked and his stomach had been sliced open and pinned back, as though a coroner had started working on him, but the corpse decided to slip out for a walk.
“What the actual…” Howard started before the man stood and reached for the boy.
He turned and ran back into the hallway, catching movement down at the far end. He made his way there, trying to catch up to his friend.
“Brian? Please, Brian?”
He arrived at the last door on the left, the door that he thought he saw Brian go into.
Again he entered, not bothering to look.
The room had been emptied of all of the furniture. In its place chains had been strung on the roof. From them, Howard saw the remains of humans hanging there. In some cases there were animals. He suspected this was where all of the people and animals ended up from all of the missing persons and pets posters all over town.
As he stood in shock, camera still filming, some of the bodies began to swing and sway. Only a few still possessed an attached head. Howard saw the eyes of those ones open and look directly at him. He felt his bladder release, prompting his feet to take over and carry him out of the room.
When he got into the hallway, he found the other end was now blocked by the massive shape. The blackness filled the space, preventing him from being able to escape back into the living room.
There was an open door between them, a door he figured was his last chance to escape.
He moved before the shape could rush him and he easily beat it. Instead of a room, he found it was a set of stairs leading to the basement.
Following them, he quickly made his way to the bottom. Turning he waited to see if the shape followed. Instead, he heard his name again.
“Howard, welcome.”
To be continued.
Steve Stred
Steve Stred writes dark, bleak horror fiction.
Steve is the author of the novels Invisible & The Stranger, the novellas The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, and the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun.
On September 1st, 2019 his second collection of dark poetry and drabbles called The Night Crawls In will arrive. This release was specifically created to help fund the 1st Annual LOHF Writers Grant.
Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.
Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
You can visit Steve’s Official website here
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