Chapter 12: The Thing in the Basement
The house was quiet again. Too quiet.
Lerato leaned against the blood-slick wall, her chest heaving. The walls had stopped bleeding, but the crimson streaks remained, seeping into the wooden panels like permanent scars. Simo was sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees, while Thabo stood near the door with a crowbar he'd found, as if expecting the shadows to come alive again.
How long were we out? Lerato asked, her voice hoarse.Minutes, Thabo said, though he didn't sound sure.It felt like hours, Simo mumbled. This place... it plays with time.
They had lost all sense of direction. The hallway outside the room had changed again twisting and folding like it was alive. Windows appeared where walls once were, staircases led to nowhere, and doors they'd opened vanished behind them. It wasn't a house it was a maze made of nightmares.
And it wasn't done with them yet.Thabo placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm scared too, man. But Lerato's right. Every horror story has a place where it all began. That's the basement.
Reluctantly, Simo nodded. If we die down there, I'm haunting you.I'd expect nothing less, Lerato muttered, stepping onto the stairs.The basement was a world of its own.
The steps creaked beneath their feet, each groan echoing as if the stairs were warning them to turn back. The deeper they went, the colder it became. The flashlight flickered, casting warped shadows on the stone walls.
When they reached the bottom, they were met with a single heavy wooden door, bound in thick iron chains.This is it,Thabo whispered.Lerato reached for the lock, and as she touched it, a memory flooded her.A girl in a white dress.A ritual.A scream.Blood on her hands.She stumbled back.
What did you see? Thabo asked, catching her.I... I think I've been here before,she said. Not me, but... someone like me.The house is playing tricks again.No, Lerato said. This was real. This was a memory. Someone was sacrificed here.
Simo looked sick. Why would anyone do that?To feed it, Lerato whispered.They broke the chains with the crowbar. The door groaned open.Inside was darkness.
Thabo stepped forward. So the kids that went missing?I called them,it said. They came. I fed.
Lerato clenched her fists. Then why us? We didn't do anything.You came too close. You heard the whispers. You followed the screams.And now?Thabo asked.Now, you must choose, the thing said.
Choose what? Simo asked, his voice trembling.One of you stays. The other two go free.They stared at it in horror.That's not a choice, Lerato said.It is the only choice,the thing whispered.
They sat in silence outside the room.None of them spoke.The weight of the decision crushed them. Sacrifice one... or let all three be lost.Simo shook his head. It should be me.
No, Thabo said immediately. Don't say that.I'm the one who was against coming here. I've been scared since the beginning. I've slowed you down.
That's not true, Lerato said.It is, Simo said. I'm tired of being afraid. Maybe if I stay... you two can survive.
Thabo punched the wall. We are not leaving anyone behind.Lerato looked back into the room, where the shadow waited patiently.No, she said. There's another way.
And something breathing.The room was circular, lined with old, crumbling bookshelves and strange symbols etched into the stone. In the center, chained to the floor, was a mass of shadows.
It wasn't a person.It wasn't an animal.It was... something else.It looked like a figure, but constantly shifting legs that became arms, a face that melted into nothing, eyes that opened in places where no eyes should be.And it was watching them.
You shouldn't be here, it said.Its voice was like a chorus of whispers, a thousand voices echoing in unison.Simo screamed. Thabo held the crowbar tighter. Lerato stepped forward.What are you? she asked.
The thing didn't move. I am the memory. The hunger. The scream. I was born of fear... and I will never die.Is this your house?It is mine, but not by choice. I was placed here. Bound. Fed.Lerato stepped closer, ignoring the way the air seemed to thicken.By who?
The thing hissed. By them. The ones who built this town. They made a pact. To keep their riches. Their peace. Their silence.You mean this place this whole town is built on a deal with you?
They gave me lives, it said, its eyes flashing red. "And in return, I gave them peace. But they forgot. They stopped feeding me. So I took what I was owed.
They decided to move. Staying in one place was dangerous. The house seemed to feed on fear, on stillness. Every time they stopped, something happened a voice, a shadow, a memory that wasn't theirs. Movement seemed to confuse it, delay it.
They walked in silence, Thabo leading the way, his phone light flickering in the darkness. Lerato held the map though it was useless now. The layout had shifted too much. What used to be the kitchen was now a hallway with portraits of crying children. A room they thought was the lounge was filled with broken mirrors reflecting versions of themselves they didn't recognize taller, thinner, older, dead.
Eventually, they found a stairwell. But it didn't lead up.It led down.To the basement.No, Simo said, stepping back. No way. We're not going down there.
We don't have a choice, Lerato said, peering into the dark hole. The air that rose from below smelled like rot and ash. Everything in this house is designed to trap us. If it wants us to stay away from the basement, then maybe that's where the truth is.
Or maybe that's where it eats us,Simo snapped. You saw what it did. It bled. The walls bled!
The ritual was in the books. Ancient texts, dusty and torn, hidden behind loose bricks in the wall. Lerato found them while the others argued.A banishment. Dangerous. Risky. But possible.
They didn't need to feed the shadow.
They could destroy it.
Together.
They stood in a triangle, each holding one of the candles from the ritual room.They spoke the words from the book. The shadow screamed. The ground shook. The walls wept.The house fought back.But they held on.
Their voices rose in unity.
The chains on the creature began to glow.
The shadow writhed.
And with one final scream it shattered.
The room exploded in light.
Then darkness.
Then silence.
They awoke outside the house.The forest was quiet.The house was gone.Nothing remained but ashes.Simo sat up, coughing. Thabo groaned. Lerato looked around in disbelief.
We're alive,she said.We did it,Thabo whispered.No, Simo said, pointing.There, in the distance, was a new house.Freshly built.Waiting.And from deep within it.A scream.