CHAPTER 4 : THE HOUSE AND ITS UNCANNY INHABITANTS

The atmosphere was tense. Elizabeth huffed as she dragged her childhood friend past the female before her while indiscreetly glaring.

As they walked past her, Elianna stared at their backs for a moment before continuing on her path. Isabella was holding her pinky this whole time.

Five steps forward, Isabella suddenly tensed up. Both of them stopped in their tracks as one sensed a menacing aura while the other smelt the familiar rancid odour of rotten flesh.

It was too familiar to Elianna, though. Way too familiar.

On the opposite side of the road from where she was standing, from where Elias and Elizabeth had just recently come from, a familiar guy was standing ominously.

'Crap! It's the guy from the convenience store...!'

Faster than the wind, she pulled Isabella's arm and ran in the opposite way they were going. Isabella began floating, as she knew with her tiny feet she couldn't possibly catch up with her big sister.

Elianna, panicking but also with determination, pulled Elizabeth along with her. Elias was automatically dragged along as Elizabeth kept a firm grip on his hand the whole time.

The man who saw them running away started to dash forward to catch them, mainly the hijab-wearing female. "YOU CAN'T RUN THIS TIME, LITTLE LADY!" he screeched, his voice enough to send indescribable dread to the other two. The man then cackled like the lunatic he was, pumping fear and adrenaline into all three of them.

Elianna took a glance back at the man behind them. A bad choice, really. She saw the man nearing faster as she let out an eep, alarming the blonde female and brunette male who was running in front of her by now.

Unable to think or to even navigate properly, they ran with no specific destination in mind. That was until Isabella who was zooming along with the trio sped up as if trying to guide all the teens to someplace, preferably safe from the crazy man behind them.

Elias and Elizabeth couldn't see the kid, but Elianna quickly ran after her. "This way, quick!" she claimed. The remaining two were hesitating but followed after their schoolmate nonetheless, setting their disputes aside.

Isabella continued to guide them through an extremely narrow alleyway, located between two old buildings. The blonde female and her friend started to question Elianna's course of action, 'Is she trying to kill us or something?' was what they thought.

Even though they had lost the man, they still could hear his crazed blabbers.

Desperate to escape their doom, they forced themselves to run more quickly.

Getting out of the dark and narrow space, they were greeted by the sight of a lush forest, which they didn't even know existed until now.

The greeneries weren't enough to get rid of the eerie feelings they had been getting since they arrived, though.

It was as if they weren't alone in this forest.

Elianna saw the ghost kid she had grown fond of fly further into the forest. Having no other choice, she closely tailed behind the little girl.

The other two, however, hesitated.

"Hey. Where are we? You didn't lead us to our death, right?" Elias inquired, wary of the sudden change of scenery around him. One second he was walking home with Elizabeth and the next second, they were in an unknown forest.

Elizabeth, who was sticking by Elias' side this whole time suddenly spoke up, "You're not planning our murder because of what I've said to you, right?" it was clear in her eyes that she was scared for their lives.

Elianna didn't answer. She looked like she was in an unbreakable trance that bothered the two other teenagers.

They looked at each other, eyes swirling with concern. They were mentally conversing with each other, both were thinking of the same thing, 'Is she okay?'.

They called out to their peer, but to no avail. She remained unresponsive, and it started to slowly creep them out.

Elianna, on the other hand, was dazed. The deeper she got into the forest, the more her sight unfolded.

"Come here, lady. Come here!" a bunch of tiny fairies were calling for her. She would've gone if it weren't for Isabella snapping her back into her senses. As she looked into Isabella's worried yet cautious eyes, she finally realized,

'I almost got tricked!'

Her eyes fell back onto the fairies from earlier. Instead of seeing their cute, small figures, now they were not more than hideous clumps of humanoid flying creatures. Their eyes were no longer glowing with calming yellow lights, but now a pair of empty sockets were present on their disfigured faces. Their mouths weren't smiling sweetly like before, what she saw right there and then was red-stained sharp teeth forming ugly sneers of discontent.

She also noticed something else. Those 'fairies' were looking directly at Isabella.

Finally alerted, Elianna pulled Isabella closer before sending the darkest glares she could offer. Those hideous creatures let out an equally ugly squeak as they all scattered away from their previous spot.

'Huh, stupid imps,' Elianna cursed the unsightly creatures in her head.

Keep in mind, the other two had no clue what had happened as they saw nothing but Elianna who had been acting unusual ever since they got into the forest.

Both of them were about to say something when suddenly,

"HERE YOU ARE!" a crazed scream jump scared them from behind.

Elizabeth let out a terrified scream while Elias took a few steps back. However, Elianna knew this would happen, as she took a mad dash into the forest with the other two in tow.

Their surroundings blended into a blurry mess of greens due to their sheer speed. The pure fear all of them felt overwhelmed their senses. Elizabeth began to tear up as she silently chanted in her head frantically, 'I don't want to die, please. I don't want to die, not yet. Not until I can see him once again,' over and over again.

Elias was praying profusely. He was exhausted. His feet just automatically brought him to a place he didn't know. If only he knew, he was being controlled by something without him noticing.

At this rate, they were going to get lost and die from starvation or worst case scenario, the crazy guy behind them will catch up to them and slowly torture them to death.

How did he know? Well, he was up to date on the latest crime cases. He was aware of the sudden disappearances of several young ladies who were found dead with their whole bodies mutilated.

It was just the day before the man's face was shown on television after someone reported him to the police.

And that someone was Elianna. She now pondered if her action came to bite her back in the ass. Should she stay silent, things like this wouldn't even happen.

The dude was very clever yet an absolute dumbass. Back then when they encountered each other at the convenience store, he didn't even bother to hide the blood-stain on his gloves. Heck, he didn't even take it off!

The dude probably thought no one would see it when it rained super heavily that night.

But he somehow managed to get away with 17 murders. That was what came out from recent investigations on him. Sometimes, she was glad she was bestowed with her eyes. If not she would've been the 18th victim that night.

Apparently, he used the same methods over and over again to lure his victims in. He only ever targeted young women for his own sick and twisted pleasure.

First, he charmed his prey with his sweet smile and good-looking face. Then he will convince the poor women to walk them home. No woman wouldn't melt under his sweet stare and words so he took advantage of it. The moment they agreed, that's when everything will be over for them.

In the dead of night when even the stars were dozing off, he would sneak inside their homes and then take off his mask, revealing the demonic being hiding underneath.

At that moment, it was too late for the victims to finally realize they had let a ruthless monster through their doors, which will walk out of the said door with hands soaked in their own blood. Killed in cold blood after being used and tortured slowly by the man they wrongly decided to trust for only half an hour of their long years of living.

Left alone in the cold, beyond recognizing. What a lonely and painful way to die.

Back to the fleeing teenagers, after what seemed like hours of running, they were met by the sight of a tall, dull mansion standing in the middle of the forest. It appeared out of nowhere, or was it because they were blinded by their fear of death?

However, they all knew the man was closing in. With not a single clue of what to do, they rushed into the mansion, no matter how eerie of a vibe it was giving off. Also, mainly because of Elianna who rushed in without a second thought. She was led in by the invisible child only visible to her eyes.

They knew the bloodthirsty man ran after them into the mansion. All they could do was find a place within the enormous area, hide and wish for the best outcome which was all of them making it out in one piece. Not multiple pieces scattered around the forest.

Before they could even think of getting separated to each find a hiding spot, they were stopped by Elizabeth bumping into a broad chest of a man who was seemingly holding a basket. She was about to fall flat to the ground but the unknown man managed to catch her by holding onto her waist with one arm. The other was holding the basket from earlier.

As she was trying to gather her bearing, she failed to notice the pale face of her friend whose eyes were as wide as a basketball as he looked at the man holding her waist. Elianna lingered a bit away from them, she looked so done with all the stuff that had happened today.

Noticing the silence of her friend and schoolmate, she finally looked at Elias who was standing near her and her unknown saviour.

"Elias...? Are you alright?" she warily asked.

Seeing Elias frozen rigid with his eyes set on the man who had released her not a while ago, she followed his gaze only to freeze alongside her best friend.

Two screams echoed through the whole mansion, unknowingly startling their inhabitants as they crept out slowly to check what was going on in their main hall.

Elianna cringed. So did the two entities with the two teenagers. They just watched their hosts get scared to death and didn't even do anything about it. They figured those two would freak out even more if they ever showed themselves.

The main duo weren't to be blamed either. What they saw would've made anyone scream as well, and maybe pissed their pants too as a bonus.

Standing before them was a tall man who loomed over them like a giant. However, that wasn't what traumatized them to the point of screaming at top of their lungs. It was the fact that when they looked at his face, instead of meeting a pair of normal eyes, what greeted them were empty sockets with bits of blood trailing out of them.

Elianna remained unfazed but her guard was up. From her knowledge, spirits that were visible to other humans' eyes were the most hostile ones. Isabella was floating in front of her as if trying to shield her human from the eyeless man.

She was left stunned though when the entity started muttering in an absolute panic.

"Crap! I forgot my sunglasses!" cue the deadpan from Elianna. And she was convinced that this guy was actually a dork when he scrambled around trying to find, as she assumed, his precious glasses.

While she was witnessing the tomfoolery that was unfolding before her eyes, the other two were still cowering in fear. They were sitting closely together, seeking comfort from each other's presence.

And it didn't help that the man who was hunting them earlier spotted all three of them in the same room together. His focus was mainly on the hijabi, but now he knew she got friends with her, surely he won't let them off now.

"There you are, dearie!~" he cackled. His crazed eyes were fixed on Elianna, murder in his mind. "You never sit still, I've been looking for you but you always managed to escape from me. I wonder how you did that?~" he continued his mad rambling.

"You've been a bad, bad girl, now don't you? You even get your friends in deep shit. Now they're going to die with you, because of you~," he then laughed as if he was enjoying the whole ordeal.

His voice was so loud, it attracted more of the house residents. They remained hidden, however. To stay away from trouble.

Elianna saw them circling around in the spacious area. It was a bit overwhelming, but she couldn't afford to be scared now. Elizabeth and Elias were in danger, even more so now that they were surrounded by two kinds of monsters.

Only one scared her to death though. It was the serial killer. She sensed no hostility from the others, but the dark red mist became thicker as the smell of rotten flesh became even more intense she felt like throwing all of her organs up around who was supposed to be a human.

Unbeknownst to them, the chaos had awakened the slumbering maiden in the deepest heart of the mansion. Oh well, shit's about to hit the fan and a certain entity was certain he was going to enjoy it.