The Extreme Horror Collection Page 6

  ‘Yeah,’ Craig said, ‘no problem.’ The strain in his voice indicated that it was a problem, but he pressed on regardless, hopping and hobbling as quickly as he could.

  They moved on for another ten minutes before Craig spoke again.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘What?’ Tim asked.

  ‘There, up ahead,’ Craig said. ‘Just past those trees. Is that a house?’

  ‘There aren’t any houses out here,’ Tim said and pointed the flashlight in the direction Craig was pointing. ‘I’d know if... holy shit.’

  Ashley could see it faintly illuminated by the light of the torch, up a small incline in the distance. The beam only showed a small area, giving sight to the corner of the wooden structure.

  There was indeed a house, standing alone out here, dark and ominous.

  ‘Tim?’ Ashley asked.

  ‘This isn’t right,’ Tim said, looking perplexed.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean there are no house here. I’ve walked this route dozens of times and this has never been here.’

  ‘It looks pretty old,’ Kim said. ‘And the trail leads right up to it.’

  Ashley and Kim walked up beside Tim and Craig. Ashley could see that Tim’s expression was one of pure confusion.

  ‘Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?’ Craig asked.

  Tim shook his head. ‘I… I don’t know. I don’t think so. I guess we must have.’

  ‘And you’re sure you’ve never seen this before?’ Kim asked.

  ‘Never,’ Tim answered. ‘I think I’d remember it.’

  He let his beam swoop over the house so they could take in all the details.

  It was two stories high, with a wide canopy over an entrance door and dirty windows to the front elevation. It was built almost entirely of old timber that had warped and aged. The only change in construction material lay on the sagging roof; mismatched slate tiles. There was a porch area that ran the full length of the front of the house, enclosed by wooden railings that had eroded over time, leaving gaps in their perimeter. Whilst not quite in a state of disrepair, it certainly felt aged and forgotten.

  ‘Do you think anyone lives in here?’ Kim asked.

  ‘Doesn’t look like it,’ Craig said. ‘Looks abandoned.’

  ‘Looks creepy,’ Ashley said.

  ‘So, do we go around it?’ Craig asked.

  ‘Of course,’ Kim said.

  Tim took a step forward. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I think we should go in.’

  Chapter 11

  ‘Are you fucking nuts?’ Kim asked, unsure if she had heard Tim properly. ‘What possible reason could we have to go in there?’

  ‘Craig is in bad shape,’ he said. ‘And we need to take a break anyway. Why not get out of the cold?’

  ‘What happened to the plan of pushing on and only stopping in clearings?’

  ‘This looks clear enough to me.’

  ‘But we don’t need to go inside,’ she said. ‘If we need to take a break, we can just do it out here.’

  ‘What if there’s someone in there?’ Ashley asked.

  ‘It doesn’t look like it’s been lived in for a while,’ Craig said. ‘Seems empty.’

  ‘We don’t know that,’ Kim said. ‘Hell, it could even belong to that guy who was missing his face.’

  Kim was just throwing out excuses as to why they shouldn’t go in. Not that she should have needed them, surely common sense dictated they stay away?

  ‘Or maybe whoever hurt him lives here,’ Ashley added, which was another good point. ‘It might belong to the man I saw.’

  Just hearing that made Kim’s skin crawl. The thought of someone out there, keeping tabs on them, watching their moments, gave her the creeps. She hugged herself tightly and looked around the area, seeing nothing but darkness between the trees.

  ‘If you even saw someone,’ Tim said.

  Kim saw the hurt in her friend’s eyes. This fucking trip has been a catastrophe, she thought to herself.

  ‘I did see someone,’ Ashley said.

  ‘Regardless, we keep going,’ Kim said. ‘That was the plan before, so are we agreed now?’

  ‘No,’ Tim argued. ‘I’m going in, and I’m going to see if there are supplies or anything else we can use. There might even be something we can use to bandage up and support Craig’s ankle. Hell, they may even have means to contact town.’

  ‘Oh come on,’ Kim said, throwing up her hands in exacerbation. ‘Can you see any phone lines around? We’re in the middle of the fucking woods. There’s no phone in there.’

  ‘I’m still going in,’ Tim said. ‘You can all wait out here if you want.’

  Kim couldn’t believe what he was saying. It made absolutely no sense. Worse yet; he actually started walking up the incline towards the house.

  ‘Are you fucking nuts?’ she said. He had been as eager as she was to get out of here, now he wanted to stop and take a look around?

  ‘Tim,’ Ashley pleaded, ‘please come back.’

  ‘Come with me,’ he said, without looking back. ‘It’ll be okay. I promise.’

  Kim heard rustling and saw Craig fishing his own flashlight from his backpack, juggling with the heavy branch he had being using as a makeshift walking aid.

  ‘Tell me you aren’t going as well?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m not leaving you,’ he said, ‘but if he’s going in there, then we’re going to need a light.’ He clicked on his beam and shone it up to Tim, who kept moving forward.

  ‘What do we do?’ Ashley asked.

  Kim wanted to tell her that they would just carry on, that Tim could go to hell, but the truth was that he was the only one that really knew the way out of here. They could follow the trail, sure, but if it deviated or branched off and they picked the wrong direction, then they had no hope of getting out of here tonight. If at all.

  ‘We either go in after him or wait out here until he’s done,’ Craig said.

  The three looked at each other, considering their options.

  Tim was at the front entrance now, shining the beam through the glass section of the door.

  ‘What do you see?’ Craig called up to him.

  ‘Looks empty,’ he called back. Kim saw his hand reach up and take hold of the handle. She held her breath as he twisted it.

  The door slowly swung open.

  He turned to face them, waiting. ‘Coming?’

  ‘Fuck it,’ Craig said. ‘We’re better off together. Let’s be honest, if someone does want to hurt us, we have a better chance with him.’

  That didn’t sit well with Kim, but she knew Craig might be right. It was Tim who had saved them from the faceless man, as much as Ashley might not like the way he had done it, and there was a chance they would need to see that side of him again. Separating from Tim wasn’t going to help their chances.

  ‘Yeah, fine,’ Kim said, letting out a sigh, ‘Let’s go. I still don’t like it, though.’

  She dug out her own flashlight and clicked it on. Ashley followed and did the same.

  Craig turned to Tim. ‘We’re coming up,’ he yelled. Tim gave them a thumbs-up and rested his body against the jamb of the door.

  ‘You know, Ashley,’ Kim said, ‘I can’t really weigh up your boyfriend. He can swing from being a hero to an absolute prick in an instant.’

  Ashley didn’t respond.

  They made their way up to meet Tim and, as they approached, Kim saw the house in closer detail. The guttering was loose, and in some cases hanging off completely, and the timber slats that horizontally lined the walls were faded, some sections completely overgrown with a dark mould.

  She also noticed a horrible, sour smell.

  The whole place was like something time had forgotten, left behind to fester and ruin.

  Kim shone her beam through one of the large windows, the one farthest to the left-hand side of the house, and saw what appeared to be a dining room inside. It was cluttered with old furniture; a sloping bookshelf line
d one of the walls, half-filled with books, and a large dining table sat in the middle of the room with a filthy tablecloth over it. It looked to be ornate lace, maybe once of good quality, but now ragged and stained. Plates were set around the table, some with food left on them.

  Raw animal meat of some kind.

  And it looked relatively fresh.

  ‘Hold on,’ she said, piecing it together. ‘Someone does live here. Look.’

  Ashley peered in beside her.

  ‘They’ve been eating,’ Kim said.

  Craig looked in next, hobbling up next to them, using the thick branch as support. ‘Doesn’t seem like it has been sitting out too long. Someone was eating something here fairly recently.’

  ‘I don’t like it,’ Kim said.

  ‘We’ll be quick,’ Tim replied, sounding impatient, and entered the house.

  Kim sighed, trying to restrain her anger. ‘Prick,’ she muttered.

  They followed Tim inside and entered into an open hallway area. Running up to the first floor was a set of stairs that at one time could have looked quite grand. Now they looked as creaky and aged as the rest of the house. The internal doors were all bare timber that was also withered and worn.

  ‘Now what?’ Craig asked.

  ‘We look around,’ Tim said, seeming impatient.

  ‘So where do we start?’

  Tim shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

  Kim shook her head. ‘You don’t know? You were eager enough to get in here.’ Wanting to get it over with, she chose the door on the right-hand side of the hallway and pointed. ‘That one,’ she said. ‘We start in there.’

  Craig led the way, hopping forward. Each time he landed, a dull echo from the hollow floor reverberated through the house. If they wanted to keep things quiet, then they were out of luck. Craig pushed open the door, slowly, and it creaked as it opened. They huddled together and entered what appeared to be a library or study of sorts.

  A large, heavy-looking bookshelf stood against the wall opposite the window, and the remaining walls were lined with shelving. Old looking books, some leather-bound, some little more than clumped together scraps of paper, filled the case and shelves. Clearly, the residents were voracious readers, or liked to pretend they were.

  There was also an old writing desk and single chair set next to the window. The desk top was littered with piles of paper that seemed filled with sketches and notes, as well as an open book or journal of some kind.

  ‘No one in here,’ Kim said. ‘And nothing we can use.’

  She turned to leave, but Craig slowly made his way inside.

  ‘Hold on,’ he said, scanning the room.

  ‘What?’ Kim said. ‘It’s just junk.’

  ‘These books aren’t like anything I’ve ever seen before,’ he said, sweeping the beam of his torch along their spines.

  ‘So? They read rubbish, big deal.’ Kim just wanted to move onto the next room already, then get the hell out of here.

  ‘Some are foreign. Not even a language I know.’

  ‘Again, big deal. There are loads of languages you don’t know. Hell, sometimes even English escapes you.’

  ‘Funny,’ he said, still looking over the bookshelves.

  ‘All right, Craig,’ Kim insisted, ‘let’s go.’

  Thankfully, he seemed to listen to reason and, rather reluctantly, followed them out of the room.

  ‘Now where?’ he asked.

  Kim thought it pointless to look in the dining room; they had viewed that from outside and had seen nothing of use or value, other than plates of raw meat. As hungry as she was, Kim didn’t see herself eating that. ‘Let’s go to the back,’ she said. ‘The kitchen is probably through there. If they do have any first aid or anything, that might be where they keep it.’

  She looked to Tim to lead the way, but he simply stood aside and gestured, rather grandly, for her to go first.

  ‘Not really a gentlemanly move, considering the circumstances,’ she told him. He didn’t budge, though, so she shook her head and continued on, past the stairs and to a set of double doors that led to the back of the property. She carefully pushed the doors open to reveal a mess of a kitchen. Units that were perhaps once white were dingy and yellow, drawers and cupboard doors missing. Crusty, dirty plates and dishes were piled up on the countertop, and beside them sat a chopping board and large knife, both stained with blood.

  Stepping farther inside brought them into a big, open area that lined the back of the house. The kitchen connected to a second dining area with another table; this one filled with junk.

  The horrible stench Kim had detected upon entering the house increased tenfold, and Kim brought her hands up to cover her mouth.

  ‘What’s that smell?’ Ashley asked.

  ‘Something’s rotten,’ Craig said.

  ‘I think I’m gonna throw up,’ Kim added, meaning it. Her stomach was churning.

  ‘Let’s just be quick,’ Ashley said, prompting them to look around.

  Rifling through the kitchen units, Kim could find nothing of interest, only cutlery and kitchenware—most of it aged and almost antique. All of it horribly, horribly filthy. How anyone lived in such a way was beyond her. A window overlooking the back of the house sat above a large steel sink, and she crept towards it with a horrible feeing someone was out there. She cast her torchlight out, worried she would see someone standing there, but saw only the dark, ominous woods.

  ‘This is pointless,’ she said.

  ‘Just be patient,’ Tim responded, sounding annoyed.

  ‘This is interesting,’ Craig said, drawing their attention. He was standing over the far side of the room, resting on the upturned branch, looking into an open door.

  ‘What is it?’ Kim asked. They all made their way over and looked through the open door.

  Kim gasped.

  The room was a shrine of death; animal bodies hung from the ceiling, cut from throat to genitals, their empty stomachs pulled wide open, revealing where their insides once were. They were deer mostly, but the bones of some smaller animals littered the floor.

  ‘That’s horrible,’ Ashley said. ‘Those poor animals.’

  ‘Well,’ Craig said, ‘people have to eat. But I’m more interested in that.’

  He pointed beyond the animals to the back of the room, to something that Kim had also noticed. There was another door, in effect making the room little more than a squat corridor, but the door was not like any other they had seen in the house. It was made of strong-looking oak, and the fact that it was chained shut was very troubling.

  ‘Yeah,’ Kim said. ‘Very weird. It doesn’t matter, though. We’ve looked and can’t find anything, so let’s leave.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ashley said. ‘I definitely agree with that.’

  Kim pulled at Craig’s sleeve, trying to pull him back, but he stared rapt at the door. He cocked his head a little.

  ‘Come on,’ she insisted.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘It’s just…’

  ‘Just what?’

  Then Kim heard it, too, and her body froze.

  It can’t have been.

  ‘What is it?’ Ashley asked.

  Kim listened intently, hoping and praying she wouldn’t hear it again, but somehow knowing she would.

  And she did.

  This time, they all did.

  ‘Oh my God,’ Ashley said with a soft, shaky voice. ‘Jesus Christ.’

  Kim had no words.

  She just wanted to get the hell out of there and run, but she knew instantly that they were going to have to find a way to get that door open, as much as she really didn’t want to.

  The sound came through again, muffled by the door, but still clear enough to hear.

  It was the sound of a child.

  Crying for help.

  ‘Hello?’ Craig yelled.

  The cries and sniffles ramped up, triggered by Craig’s voice. They then turned to eligible words.

  ‘Please,’ the child’s voice said, ‘I need
help. I’m trapped down here. They have me trapped. Please let me out. Please. I’ll be good, I promise.’

  ‘Fuck,’ Craig said, still trying to grasp what was happening.

  ‘What do we do?’ Ashley asked.

  Kim already knew the answer. Whereas before, when they had seen the faceless man, her instinct had been to run and leave him, but this was different. They had to get in there, somehow, and help. This was a child, so there was no way they could leave him here. Her mind raced, thinking of what kind of monster would keep a child prisoner. Perhaps the same kind who would rip off a man’s face and leave him for dead. Hell, maybe it was that man himself, maybe Tim had been right to bash his head in. Still, she felt panicked. The events of earlier scared her, made her feel like she was in danger, but now it felt like the danger was here, that it was imminent.

  The chains on the door looked thick and strong, even if they had rusted a little. They all wrapped together around a single, large padlock. Without a key, getting access would be tricky, if not impossible.

  ‘Please help,’ the boy pleaded again, and then said something that made Kim’s heart rate spike. Words that confirmed to her they were all in terrible, immediate danger.

  ‘They’re going to eat me.’

  Chapter 12

  Ashley was terrified.

  She couldn’t really make sense of what they’d all heard. On the one hand, it was simple, a child was trapped in there and he needed help. But what he’d said, that was what didn’t make sense. Not in the real world. Hearing that, coupled with what they’d already experienced today, made her want to give up, drop down, and assume the foetal position.

  ‘We need to get in there,’ Craig said. He dropped the branch and began pulling uselessly at the chains.

  Ashley knew he was right, but she couldn’t get past what the boy had said.

  They’re going to eat me.

  What was a sane person supposed to do with that? Her thoughts jumped back to the faceless man they had found earlier. Considering the state he was in, Ashley had little doubt the residents of this place were the ones responsible. And it was more than one person, Ashley was sure of that now, because the boy had said so. He had used the plural.