Chapter 15: The Screams Beneath the Floor
They should have burned the house when they had the chance.
Now, it was too late.
The house groaned like something alive, its walls pulsing with a breathless energy. Smoke from the fireplace curled unnaturally, drifting toward them despite no draft. The fire hadn't been lit by anyone. It lit itself.
Lerato stood closest to the hearth, swallowing hard, the smell of burning flesh curling in her nostrils. She turned to Thabo and Simo.
We destroy it tonight,she said.
Simo's hands trembled, but he nodded. Thabo checked the rifle they'd taken from the shed. His face was pale, jaw clenched.
I don't care if it curses us,he muttered. We burn it to the ground.A loud THUMP echoed from below.
Lerato froze. Did you hear that?
Another thump. Then silence. Then… moaning.Simo turned to the others. It's awake.Thabo stepped back, voice low. We're not alone.
The three of them followed the sound, deeper into the rotting house. Floorboards groaned beneath their feet. The walls were warm to the touch as if the house was breathing.
At the end of the hallway was a door. Rusty. Locked.The creature growled, a sound of despair, hunger, and rage. It was made from the house's victims. Fed by fear. Stitched by hatred.
Thabo aimed the rifle and fired again.
The bullet struck an eye. The creature roared.Burn it all! Lerato yelled.
They lit every sheet, every curtain. The fire danced with screams of children, of the old, of the forgotten.The creature lunged.Lerato grabbed the lantern and hurled it at the beast.
BOOM!
Flames exploded across its body.
The fire caught the floor. The walls. The ceiling.The house shrieked, the sound not from the structure, but from its soul.Thabo grabbed Lerato's arm. We have to go now!
They ran up the stairs.The fire followed, licking at their heels. Walls curled and split, revealing pulsing veins and bone.
The house bled.Simo turned. Where's Nia?Lerato stopped.But Nia stood at the bottom of the stairs, untouched by flame.I belong here, she said softly. But you don't.And she smiled her real smile, the one from before everything went wrong.Then the floor collapsed beneath her.
Gone.
Lerato screamed.Simo pulled her up the last step.The front door burst open, and they tumbled into the night.
Lerato raised a crowbar and jammed it into the frame. With a loud CRACK, the lock gave in. The door swung open, revealing a dark stairwell leading down into the basement.
A wave of heat blasted from below, carrying the scent of death and iron.Simo gagged. Something's down there.Thabo adjusted his grip on the rifle. Let's finish what we started.
They descended the stairs.
Each step creaked louder than the last. Shadows twisted along the walls. The basement was cavernous, much larger than expected. The air grew thicker, hotter.As they reached the bottom, a single light bulb flickered above.Lerato gasped.
The room was filled with bed sheets hanging from the ceiling, stained with blood, stitched with strange symbols. The symbols pulsed faintly, as if alive. Some sheets were moving.
Behind one curtain, something shifted. A slow, wet sound. Like meat sliding across stone.
Simo whispered, What is this place?A voice hissed behind the curtains.Leraaatooo…She spun around. Nia?!The voice laughed. It was her sister's voice but wrong. Twisted.
Lerato rushed forward, ripping down curtain after curtain.Behind one of them was Nia, or what used to be her.Her body was suspended in the air by strings of sinew, mouth sewn open, eyes glowing red.
Nia! Lerato screamed.
Nia opened her mouth but the sound that came out was not human. A roar, guttural and furious, shook the walls.
The house reacted. The floor trembled.
Suddenly, the basement door slammed shut behind them.
They were trapped.
Thabo raised the rifle and fired.
The shot hit Nia's body but it passed right through, like smoke. Nia dissolved into shadow and reformed beside them.
She reached for Lerato.
Lerato stumbled back, nearly falling.
The house laughed.
It laughed.
Simo grabbed a sheet and set it on fire.
The flames roared unnaturally fast, racing along the fabric, burning symbols as they went. The room shrieked.
Nia screeched, clawing at her own face.
The symbols! Simo yelled. They're keeping it alive!Thabo set fire to another. Then another.The basement burned.
But something stirred beneath the floor deeper. Bigger.A cracking sound echoed as the ground split open.
A pit, black and endless, opened in the center of the basement. From it, something crawled.Tall. Crawling on too many limbs.
Its skin was stitched together from human flesh. Eyes blinked all over its body some familiar.Lerato screamed. That's my mother's eye!
The house behind them roared, fire consuming it. The roof caved in. Windows shattered. Smoke curled into the sky like souls escaping.
They lay on the grass, coughing, gasping.
It was done.
Wasn't it?
Then a whisper.
From the forest.
You burned the house... but not the forest.
They froze.
Lerato turned slowly.
The trees were glowing faintly red.