Page 22 of House of Horrors

The delicate chime of metal against porcelain has me peering at the skeletons again in the dim candlelight, as their crawling shadows stretch across the room.

The room seems to pause. The walls expand like they’re taking a deep breath, and a low-pitched rustle sounds somewhere below. All at once, the skeletons turn their empty sockets to me, their heads bent at unnatural angles as though aware that I’m watching.

Jason quietly approaches from behind, placing his hand on my shoulder and drawing me nearer. My body trembles as tension between us sharpens. In the distance, I hear the roar of flames, desire catching like tinder in my chest. More than anything, I want to collapse into him. To surrender to Jason like the dark God he is. I’d be his best devotee, praying to him every night and serving as he demands. Nothing would be too much of an ask.

“Do you see them?” Jason whispers, his voice deep and smoky. His fingers touch my blonde hair as I continue to study the table. The skeletons have turned away, but now I examine the seventh guest in more detail, finally seeing it for what it truly is.

Its figure transforms from uncanny to monstrous, bloating with a sickening wet hiss as if a cluster of fluid-filled cysts are fighting for space beneath its flesh. Its stomach spills over the seat and onto the floor like toxic sludge.

A blight.

Jason leans down, his lips brushing my ear. My eyes struggle to stay open as I wish he would suck or bite my earlobe. “Look over the table, into the kitchen. There’s more.” A shiver runs down my spine, pleasure chasing it.

I force myself to focus, and soon a puzzled crease forms between my eyebrows. All I remember seeing before is the weathered, wooden walls surrounding the room, but now the house is…shifting. Is it trying to deceive me, hiding secrets it doesn’t want discovered?

Stark white lights illuminate the kitchen, showcasing the blood splattered across plastic sheets that are strung up like curtains along the walls. Meat hooks swing from the ceiling. A display case has appeared in the border between the kitchen and dining room, filled with chunks of meat that I’m pretty sure are severed body parts.

That definitely wasn’t there before. Nothing in this house can be trusted.

Shadows slither from small pockets of darkness, their silhouettes rounding into beasts as they fill the room with gloom. The lights flicker. It’s only once they stabilize that I can see what Jason saw.

Blights. More are here. They hide in plain sight, unaware that we see their true forms.

The voice stirs in my mind. Since first appearing in Grimwood centuries ago, they evolved and fought to survive, cleverly blending in as human among the unsuspecting. They’ve been slowly infecting the townspeople to avoid detection. How close had we come to sharing the fate that Jason and I had seen in our visions?

My hand clenches into a fist. Now that we know, we can change the future.

Obliterate them, our God whispers.

The order roots itself within me, and I nod to myself, agreeing with the voice inside. We must eliminate them all. None of these blights will leave this house alive, and once we finish here, we will destroy the rest that haunt Grimwood. Only then can Jason and I be together. Forever.

“We can steal their weapons," Jason suggests, pointing to the mutilated, bubbling creatures, one of which appears to be a butcher wielding a cleaver. “Slice and dice them up.”

My gaze returns to the skeletons, and then to the knives on the table. I can take one of those.

The wavering candles fade into the background, overtaken by the sickly neon-green glow of the monsters swarming the room. My muscles tense, ready to strike out or run, but before I can move, loud footsteps approach from behind us, the creak of a floorboard signaling someone’s arrival. Danger. My alarm is overwhelming. I catch movement in my peripheral vision while my heartbeat intensifies.

More blights. A creature laughs, deep and guttural. Its noise seeps into my skin like crawling ants, making my body involuntarily jerk. My throat tightens and the air thickens, choking me with their disease.

Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them all. The voice is loud, and the repetition is disorienting. My legs jerk forward as if our God is controlling me.

I need to kill the monsters.

Fourteen

Daisy

“Daisy,” Jason’s voice hisses, and my gaze snaps to my stepbrother. “Are you attempting to win a world record for ‘Most Useless’?”

My mouth drops open. That’s so rude. I’m adding it to my list of things Jason needs to atone for. He approaches the dining table with purpose and grabs a knife, his eyes fixed on the deadly edge. The blight seated there watches him, head tilted, measuring. Possessiveness stirs inside me. I don’t like the way it’s looking at Jason.

With unprecedented speed, I rush forward, propelled by the God within, to snatch a carving knife from the table. It’s weightless in my palm, and I feel no hesitation. The only thing on my mind is protecting what’s mine, and Jason belongs to me.

The room pulses with red, humming energy. Kill it. With my teeth bared, I stab the knife straight into the blight’s neck. The blade sinks through its flesh, a hissing gash that pulls apart into a crater of steam and blood.

The monster screeches a loud demonic warble, its gnarled green hands fumbling to stop the spray of blood. My smile broadens. “And that’s one point for me!”

I look around, find my stepbrother, and make an L-shape with my hand while mouthing, loser. Jason rolls his eyes and strides off into the kitchen, no doubt ready to try to catch up to me. My attention turns back to the blight.