This is my story for the writing contest Scare Your Readers (Seriously)
"All Are Welcome"
My older brother pulled his car to the side of the road. I couldn't understand why he didn't get a new one. He had bought a piece of junk from one of his friends.
Now we were broke down in the middle of nowhere on a chilly, foggy night. I had no intention of walking anywhere in this creepy place.
He opened the door, getting out of the car. Where was he going? Surely, he wasn't trying to fix this thing. He was never good at working on vehicles.
"What are you doing?" I leaned over toward his open door. "You have no idea how to fix a car."
“I'm not.” He grumbled. “I was looking for a house or a car. We need someone who can fix it.”
“What’s wrong with your cell phone?” I grabbed my jacket, getting out of the car.
“No signal.” He raked a hand through his hair. “What do you expect, Kira? This place is nowhere.”
“I told you not to take that shortcut, Blaine.” I walked around to his side of the car.
Of course, he never listened to anything I said. Blaine thought since he was the oldest, he knew everything. I wondered if all older brothers acted that.
Blaine grabbed his jacket before locking the car up. Guess that meant we were walking. I had no idea where we would go, or where we would end up. I hoped we didn’t run into a psycho killer.
I had seen way to many horror movies that started out like our day had. That was probably a really bad sign. I didn’t want to move from the spot where I stood.
What if we got lost? It would take years for someone to find us out here. We needed to get somewhere with a cell phone signal. A landline would be even better.
“Let’s get going.” Blaine started walking down the road.
“Go where exactly?” I ran to catch up with him.
“Anywhere but here.” He shook his head. “We can’t just sit here and hope someone comes along. I don’t think anyone travels this road anymore.”
“We shouldn’t have either.” I looked around, taking a deep breath. “It’s really creepy out here.”
“It’s the fog making you feel that way.” Blaine smiled at me. “Stay close. I don’t want to lose you in it.”
“Don’t worry I will.” I grabbed his arm.
I wasn’t letting go of him until we were safely back in the car. I wasn’t about to let him lose me in this place. He was stuck with me.
We kept walking down the road. There were no cars, houses, or people anywhere. How was that possible?
Had it always been a deserted road? I had a bad feeling something had happened to the people around here. Of course, that didn’t explain why there were no houses.
The fog seemed to be getting thicker the further we walked. How were we going to be able to find help in this mess? It was hopeless.
“Do you see anything?” Blaine asked me.
“Fog.” I sighed. “I think we should’ve stayed at the car.”
“Wait.” Blaine stopped walking. “Do you see what I see?”
I followed his gaze. How had that house gotten there? It seemed to come from out of nowhere. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there a few minutes ago.
It didn’t look very friendly. The white house had seen its better days. The windows were broken and some were boarded over. The steps were crooked, one completely gone.
Blaine walked over to a sign, stopping to read it. I was afraid to move. What if this place was dangerous? Someone may live here, but it would most likely fall on our heads as soon as we went in.
“What does it say?” I pulled my jacket tighter around me.
“All are welcome.” He shook his head. “It’s probably an old sign. I doubt anyone lives here anymore.”
“Why is it written like that?” I stood next to him. “It looks like blood.”
“It’s red paint.” Blaine started toward the house. “Let’s see if anyone is here. They could have a phone either way.”
Sure, they had a phone. And this was some fancy hotel on a beach instead of a creepy house. There was no way there was a phone. There probably wasn’t any electric either.
Blaine stepped up onto the porch, careful of the missing step. I wanted to stay outside until he took a look. I knew he wouldn’t let me stay here alone.
I made my way to the porch, looking in every direction. I didn’t want someone jumping out at me from that fog. My brother didn’t seem to care about the fog, or the creepy house.
“Are you coming?” He asked from the doorway.
“I guess so.” I stepped inside the house. “What other choice do I have?”
“None.” He put his arm around me. “If I leave you out there alone mom and dad will hurt me.”
“I don’t like this place.” I told him.
“Relax Kira.” Blaine laughed. “Don’t be such a baby.”
“I’m not.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “This place is dangerous.”
A loud noise from somewhere in the house made us both jump. Maybe someone was here after all. I hadn’t seen anyone outside, but they could be someplace in the house.
Blaine was already searching for whatever had made that noise. That was a horrible idea. We should be leaving right now without looking back.
I followed my brother down a hallway to the kitchen. There was no phone of any kind in here. I doubted we would find anything other than dust and cobwebs. Of course, my brother was a lot more optimistic than I was.
How could I convince him we should leave before something bad happened? He wasn’t listening to me at all.
He went over to a door that was most likely a basement. What was he doing now? No way should we go in a basement like that.
“Blaine, let’s leave.” I begged him. “Please.”
“In a minute okay?” He opened the basement door. “I want to see what’s in there.”
“I want to go home.” I felt the tears stinging my eyes. “You shouldn’t have come here at all. I told you it was a bad idea.”
“Stay there.” He disappeared into the basement.
What was he expecting to find in a place like this? Nothing good would come from being nosey. My brother had always loved exploring creepy places like old houses and graveyards.
I thought he was just insane. I would much rather be at home, sitting in my room. Not him though. Why couldn’t he have more common sense?
I stood at the top of the stairs, waiting for him to come back. What was taking him so long? We had to get out of this place.
“Blaine, come on.” I called to him.
There was nothing but silence. Why wasn’t he answering me? If he was playing games I would throat punch him.
I started down the stairs, stopping on the third one. I could see the entire basement from here. There was no sign of my brother anywhere.
This wasn’t possible. He had to be in that basement. I had to take a look for myself. Maybe he was hiding under the stairs or something.
I took a deep breath, looking around. There was no place to hide under the stairs. Where had Blaine gone?
“Blaine, where are you?” I wiped my tears away. “This isn’t funny. Come out now.”
This had to be the creepiest part of the entire house. Everything was covered in cobwebs. There were jars on all the shelves, a few looked like they were broken.
I walked over to one of the jars, gasping. It couldn’t be. There were human body parts in the jars. They couldn’t be real, could they?
I jumped back when the eyes opened. What was going here? There was no way it was real. It had to be battery operated or something.
I felt someone grab my arm. I slowly looked up to see my brother standing there. His eyes were missing. It looked as if they had been ripped out of his head.
How could he be standing here with no eyes? He was covered in blood. What had happened to him?
“Blaine, what happened?” I jumped up. “Who did that to you?”
“Kira, it’s all right.” He smiled at me. “Remember what the sign said? We are welcome here.”
“No.” I screamed, running up the stairs. “Leave me alone.”
I ran to the front door, trying to open it. This wasn’t happening. I wasn’t trapped in this place with whatever had done that to Blaine. I had to get help.
“Kira.”
“Who are you?” I spun around, looking everywhere. “What do you want? Let us go.”
“Kira.” The voice seemed to come from thin air. “All are welcome .”
I swallowed hard, backing against the door. There were eyes everywhere around me. Red, glowing eyes. Strange people started appearing out of nowhere.
One of them tried to grab my arm. I ran up the stairs. I had to get away from them. I wanted my brother back.
I ran to the end of the hall, trying every door. They were all locked from the inside. There was no way out of this house.
The fog seemed to be coming into the house. No, I realized it had originated from inside the house. There people seemed to be a part of it. There were the most horrifying things I had ever seen.
They all had cuts and missing body parts. That’s what. Was in those jars in the basement. The eyes that had stared at me were my older brother’s eyes.
“All are welcome.” The people starting chanting over and over. “All are welcome.”
“Please, let me go.” I cried.
Two of them grabbed my arms, holding me against the wall. I started to squirm. I had to break free somehow.
I stopped when I saw Blaine walking toward me. There were dark holes were his eyes used to be. The blood was running down his face.
“Blaine, help me.” I pleaded with him.
“All are welcome.” He laughed. “You are welcome, Kira.”
“Stay away from me.” I screamed.
“Time to join us.” He slammed e into the wall.
I cried out in pain as something sharp cut into my chest. Looking down, I gasped. Blaine’s hand was cutting into my chest.
“I always knew you had a good heart. All are welcome here.” He laughed as he ripped my heart from my chest.
