Page 57 of Haunted Spurs

The slow, metallic, sinister notes float through the cold air of the house. We all look at each other, stunned and freaked out.

"What the fuck?" Sam exclaims, his eyes going wide.

"Okay, guys, calm down. It's Für Elise... a textbook horror cliché," Emerson declares, huffing and crossing his arms. "Someone from production is just fucking with us."

"And how exactly is a piano supposed to play by itself?" Carolina shoots back, her wide eyes betraying a feverish excitement that looks a lot more like enthusiasm than fear.

"There's gotta be some fucking internal mechanism hooked up to a remo—"

Emerson's logical explanation is wiped out.

A scream tears through the air. Coming from upstairs.

Selene.

Fuck.

I drop the leash. I don't even need to pull Ollie, because he bolts right alongside me.

We start taking the stairs three at a time. I hear the others' footsteps thundering behind me. My heart is beating with painful force against my sternum. My mind is wiped clean of all logic. I NEED her to be okay.

"SELENE!" I yell, my voice cracking with panic.

The second I round the corner on the second floor, skidding on the smooth hardwood with the rest of the group right behind me, I see her.

She's standing in the middle of the long hallway, wrapped in her black cardigan. Her face is pale as wax, her hands pressed over her mouth. She's okay. She's unharmed. But her eyes are wide open, fixed to her left.

I follow her gaze, and the blood freezes in my veins.

The door to Dustin and Sierra's room is wide open. And from under the threshold of their bathroom, a thick, massive pool of water and dark red liquid is slowly spreading across the antique hardwood floor.

"What the fuck is that?!" Josh yells, coming up behind me and stopping dead in his tracks.

I don't answer. I close the distance in two strides, grab Selene, and pull her tight against my chest, wrapping my arms around her shoulders to turn her away. I press her face into my shoulder, blocking her view, shielding her with my entire body, feeling her tremble.

Levi tries to bolt forward to enter the room, but Emma, in a full-blown panic, grabs his arm. "No, please! Don't go in there!"

Holding Selene tightly against my chest, I look up. Finally, Sam and Josh muster the courage. The two hockey players cross the threshold with clenched fists, tiptoeing to avoid the dark liquid.

The silence in the hallway is dead and heavy.

"It's coming from the shower," Josh yells from inside, his voice tight as a violin string.

Sam reappears in the bathroom doorway, his face pulled into an unreadable mask. He looks down the hall, then drops his eyes to his feet.

"No sign of Dustin and Sierra," he declares. He crouches down slowly, staring at the ever-expanding puddle.

His voice drops to a chilling whisper. "Guys... is this blood?"

The silence that follows is so heavy it crushes our eardrums. I feel Selene stiffen against my chest, her fingers clutching the fabric of my t-shirt.

"Don't be absurd, Sam." Emerson's voice cuts the tension, cracking just a bit. With a trembling index finger, he pushes his glasses up his nose, shaking his head. "This is a reality show. It's clearly a sick joke. It's corn syrup. Fake hemoglobin, food coloring. A basic chemical reaction mixed with water for dramatic effect..."

"...is it Dustin and Sierra's blood?" Emma murmurs, her voice barely a thread.

"Nah," Cole scoffs, running a hand through his hair, desperately trying to lighten the mood. "Those two couldn't keep their hands off each other. They're probably fucking somewhere else in the house and forgot to turn the water off."

"Yeah, and..." Carolina echoes him, though her bubbly tone falters, "why would the water be red?"