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The idea to go to a haunted house, like most crazy or dangerous ideas, was Remus'.
All of them had been looking for something fun to do when drinking and watching horror movies at Virgil's house was no longer good enough for their already intoxicated minds, so, the moment they saw the characters in the movie get inside the haunted building, the idea to go to an actual haunted house sounded perfect, even more so when they realized that their voice of reason, also know as their friend Logan, wasn't there to stop them.
It took them just a quick Google search to find the perfect spot, an old abandoned house on the outskirts of the city, and a short twenty minutes walk from Virgil's house. They filled their backpacks with some lamps, a few water bottles and some snacks, and left the house laughing and teasing each other with who was getting possessed by a demon, who might die or who would probably hurt themselves really badly.
The closer they got to the house, the creepier it looked. It was a two story building, tall enough for the top to be seen from the edge of the woods, a few minutes before getting to the actual spot. It was at this point they started to slowly sober up, and so the first hesitation began. Of course, the first one to object, once their heads were clear enough, was Virgil himself, saying that maybe It was too late to be going out into the forest without telling anyone in case of an emergency.
This was stopped by Janus, who just told him to send a message to their friend Patton, telling him where they were going in case something happened. This calmed him down enough, his anxiety being fought by his drunk-ness level. For good measure, both Remus and Janus sent messages to Roman, Remus' twin brother, and Remy, Janus' cousin who sometimes hanged out with them, so they too knew where they were in case something happened. As soon as they reached the house, they spotted the perfect way in, a whole in one of the windows big enough for them to fit, probably made by some kid who, like them, was looking for a little adventure. Once inside each of them took a lamp and started walking on a different direction.
Janus went to the main salon where a few paintings were hanging, showing the family that used to live there. There was old furniture left behind, so old that It looked moldy and maybe even rotten on the wooden parts. The paint was falling from the walls, and there were scratch marks all over the place, as if the animals outside sometimes used everything as a scratch toy.
He looked everywhere he could, but soon got bored and kept going, walking all over the hall, analyzing every painting on the wall, counting every family member and giving them names on his mind. The last picture on the wall though? that one took the cake.
There was Carter, a strong Man who looked all professional and important, probably the family's father, sitting in a chair at the Center; he was holding hands with Samantha, a delicate beautiful woman, probably his wife, by his side. Behind them there were Zacharias, the older brother who looked no older than twenty with heavy eye bags on his eyes, almost as marked as the ones Virgil usually painted on himself; Selina, a girl in a blue dress holding a doll to her chest with a big smile on her face; and another male, whose face was scratched into oblivion while behind him you could see a giant Shadow almost covering him completely.
Janus stood there for a while, looking at the picture trying to figure out what could have happened to it, when suddenly he started to feel cold. He continued, trying to stop the cold, but It wouldn't work, so he kept moving faster. Soon, he was at a ballroom, where the cold got worse, but when he decided to turn around and get the others to leave, he realized something that petrified him....
The door had dissipated.
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Remus liked adventures as much as his brother did. Since they were young they would always create stories where they would find fantastical creatures and fight them to their deaths. As they grew up they started liking different things, Roman staying a fantastical romantic, while Remus grew to like the creepy and Macabre. This old place falling to pieces? this was his element.
He took to the west wing, opposite to Janus and Virgil, towards what was clearly the basement. He walked down the stairs carefully, watching his step in case the wood was too damaged to take his weight, and slowly got to the end. He pointed his lamp to the front, but It started twitching it's light, not letting Remus see clearly in the dark, so he started lightly hitting It with his free hand and turning it on and off repeatedly to try and stop It.
Once he managed to do It he kept walking forward, passing a few locked doors in what was the biggest basement he had ever seen. As he reached the Seventh door he finally got one he could actually open, and as soon as the door was opened His lamp failed him again. Every Time the light twitched a strange black Mass started forming inside the room, getting bigger and bigger every second. Once Remus realized the Mass started looking humanoid he ran back all the way to the stairs, hearing that...thing... getting closer and closer.
He reached the stairs and climbed as fast as he could, but as he was about to reach the door, the step broke and he fell down the stairs, knocking himself out once he reached the floor, giving the creature the perfect opportunity to get to him..
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Virgil took to the stairs and started exploring the second floor. He walked as slowly as he could, watching his step in case the structure was too old or too damaged to take his weight. He noticed there were six doors all around the second floor, and so he moved to the closest, opening the door and looking inside with his lamp.
It seemed to be the main bedroom. There were two closets, one filled with women's clothes and the other with men's clothes. There was also a really big bed that might have fitted all three of them and maybe even a fourth person. All the furniture in the room was broken, so Virgil closed the door and went to the next one.
The second room looked less lived in, kind of like a guest room and so he didn't gave It much importance and went to the next room, which looked exactly the same.
The next two rooms seemed to be kids' rooms, both belonging to boys by the looks of It. Both of them had clothes that might have fitted him and his friends, as if they were for young adults such as themselves. He looked around for a bit in the first one, finding a bunch of pictures with a face scratched into oblivion, not letting a single feature come through. He tought it strange, but let it pass as he went to the next room. this one had the same things as the other one, but instead of the pictures he found a weird black goo covering the bed and closet in several arts. Disgusted, he went into the last room.
It was a girls bedroom, filled with dolls, dresses and a really big bed with white and pink coverings. A few toys looked old and moldy just like the rest of the house, but some of them looked almost new. This seemed strange to Virgil, so he got closer in order to inspect them. The toy, a brown teddy bear, had a few ribbons and little clothes fitted to its shape. He turned it this around for a bit, looking at the details of its clothing when he felt a pinch on his finger, dropping the bear on the floor. As he sat on the floor to try and get it from under the bed the door slammed shut startling Virgil, who turned around just in time to see a little girl smiling from the door as his world turned to black.
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Roman couldn't believe they were stupid enough to go to a supposed haunted house in the middle of the night, but clearly his brother and his friends weren't the smartest of people.
They found out about their little "adventure" in the morning, when Patton called them each to ask about their friends whereabouts, finding out instead that three of them had a similar message of each of them saying they were going to the freaking haunted mansion at the edge of town.
Clearly, they were nearly as stupid as those three, because just a few hours after the first call, all of them stood outside the house.
Logan, as the voice of reason, had suggested calling the police so they could find their friends, but as usual, the police told them they couldn't do anything until at least forty eight hours after the disappearance to file a missing person report, so they all agreed to entertain themselves while their parents argued with them. Still, they had taken the matter into their own hands when their parents told them there was nothing to do, or in Virgil's case, that they were happy that the little shit wasn't there to annoy them anymore. Both Roman and Remy had to restrain a furious Patton before he threw hands with a guy double his side in order to defend his friend.
The plan was really simple: stay together at all moments, keep all phones at hand, and be ready for the worst.
They entered the house through a side window, one they hoped their friends hadn't broke themselves to enter, and looked around to better grasp the situation. The daylight helped them a little through the windows, but It was still a bit dark, so Logan turned on his lamp and guided the rest of them towards the east side of the house, where their friends most likely were.
They walked slowly, checking their surroundings in case there was something out of place, but everything seemed normal, until they got closer to the ballroom and an extreme coldness attacked them out of nowhere. Logan opened the door, and there he was, Janus, sitting at the opposite wall facing the corner, shaking from the cold. Remy was the first to move towards him, turning him around quickly, gasping once he saw his state.
His eyes were cloudy, almost white and staring at nothing. He was mumbling insanely fast, making It hard to understand him while he kept going. He was hugging himself at the stomach with such strength that It looked painful, but the worst part was his face, which was covered in scratches, some of them still bleeding furiously. Remy tried talking, shaking and even slapping him for a bit, but It was as if Janus wasn't there at all.
All of a sudden, Janus stopped talking altogether and look at the door, still shaking. The others looked at the door too, gasping with what they found.
There, standing tall, was a Shadow, which only characteristic form was claws at the end of its hands. It moved quickly towards them, pushing them out of the way as It attacked Janus directly, making him scream in agony as the claws tore him apart with rage. They all tried to stop It, but It was impossible to fight It off. It killed Janus in less than three minutes only to simply disappear. They cried as Emile tried to make Janus react, but It was pointless. Emile held Remy as he cried for his cousin, just as Logan was doing with Patton, when all of a sudden a painful gasp was heard and Janus' body sat up and started mumbling once again, making them all scream in horror at the body, as Janus went back to facing the corner.
Once again they tried to make him react, checking his pulse every few seconds to see if they weren't hallucinating, when It happened again. The Shadow once again appeared, threw them all away and attacked Janus with rage as he screamed until he died. Over and over, they went through It, trying and trying to stop It without success. They were getting tired and frustrated, and so they couldn't do anything but cry and scream along with Janus as that thing tore him apart once again.
Remy couldn't take It anymore, and so, as the creature got closer to Janus once again, he threw himself in front of his cousin, hugging him to his chest as their friends tried to fight It off in vain. Just as the claws were about to reach Remy, a gasp was heard, and Janus threw his arms around Remy and yelled one single world
"Stop!". He screamed, making the shadow Freeze in its spot, having a staring match with him until It disappeared.
The others threw themselves at their friends, hugging Janus while they all cried relieved that their nightmare was over. That Is, until they remembered the others were missing too.
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Janus' guided them towards the basement, the last place he saw Remus enter before going to the east wing. They ran all the way to the bottom, almost falling because of the broken step, but managing to get there safely.
They held hands, scared of what might happen in such dark place as their lamps began to fail. Each of them took out their own lamp, but It was futile, for all of them were as bad as the others, and so they had no other choice but to continue their path towards the hallway.
Every door they passed was closed, none of them seemed to have been opened recently, that Is, until they reached the last one, which had a few smidges of red on its frame.
Roman was the one to open the door, and so he was the one to see it first. There was a black mass all over the place, covering every nook and crany in the room. It looked disgusting. He was about to close the door disappointed of not finding his brother, when out of nowhere a hand came out of the wall, covered in the Mass. They all screamed, getting away from the hand at the other side of the room, just as a face appeared beside the hand.
Remus' face gurgled the mass, spitting It out as fast as he could just to scream a single word.
"Help!"
The mass started pulling him back again, but this time Roman, Janus and Remy ran inside, holding onto Remus and pulling as hard as they could as Logan, Patton and Emile tried to hold the door on place so It wouldn't lock them inside.
Soon enough both of Remus' arms were outside the mass, and so they pulled harder. An agonizing scream was heard all over the room, but that didn't stop them as they finally managed to pull Remus all the way out. He looked exhausted as he tried to breath, but he didn't got much of a chance as the mass started moving all over the wall and a hand shoot itself towards Remus trying to pull him back inside.
They pulled him along themselves as they ran as fast as they could towards the exit, the Mass following them with roars and screeches. Every door started banging all over the hall, making some of them scream as They ran. They were as careful as they could to avoid the moving doors, almost falling at the stairs, but they managed to get to the top just as the mass got closer, only for It to screech as soon as the daylight touched it, and so It went back to the darkness of the basement as Logan locked the door.
As soon as they realized they were safe, Roman held His brother as he hadn't in a long Time, both of them crying with relief. The others let them have their moment as they recovered themselves.
There was still one missing.
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They went up the stairs quietly and carefully, trying not to alert whatever might be there of their presence. One by one they checked every single room carefully in search of their missing friend, reaching the last one in just a matter of a few minutes.
They opened the door slowly, looking around the room. It looked like any other girl's room, which was weird considering the whole house was rotten to the core. They got inside carefully, Emile standing at the door just in case. They searched for a bit, and as they couldn't find anything, they got tired and accepted that, maybe, they weren't going to find their last friend.
As they were about to leave the house with their hearts heavier than when they got there, they heard voices talking in the distance. They got closer, passing the basement door and onto a dining room. At the table there were several dolls sitting, each with a plate in front of them, and just at the end of the table, slumped over himself, was Virgil.
Patton tried to run towards him, but a little voice stopped him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" said a little girl sitting at the head of the table, her smile Sharp as a knife as she held a doll in her hand.
"We haven't finish playing" she said once again moving the doll at her hand, making It look up, just as Virgil did the same. They all gasped as he looked at them. He was paler than normal, his eyes shining a toxic pink color, and a painfully looking smile on his face as his eyes got wet.
"Yeah guys, don't you see? We are having so much fun" he said, just as the little girl made the doll move as if It was saying it instead.
"I suggest you leave now" she said once again "father won't like that you are here without his permission"
"Naughty, naughty children" continued Virgil "just as daddy likes them. Perfect for punishment" he started laughing along with the girl, an unnatural laugh that sounded rough in His throat.
"Let him go!" Yelled both twins, just as Patton went towards him and hugged him to his chest. Still, Virgil kept laughing as the little girl got angry.
"Get away from my doll!" She yelled, wind coming out of nowhere hitting them roughly. All of them Ran towards Patton and Virgil.
"I said stay away!" She yelled with a demonic voice as Virgil passed out in Patton's arms. The rest of the dolls at the table started moving, jumping over them, pulling at their hair and scratching at their faces. There were so many dolls that they started to overwhelm them, giving the little girl the opportunity to use her doll once again to make Virgil walk towards her and take him out of the room as the others tried to keep the dolls at bay.
They managed to break most of the dolls, having to damage the others enough so they couldn't follow them, and then they ran towards the stairs, where the girl was sitting with Virgil by her side at the top, along with a beautiful woman, who Janus recognized as the mother from the painting at the wall, by their side.
"Oh Honey, what a beautiful doll have you gotten!" She said as she examined Virgil's face, turning It that way and another.
"Yes Mommy, i knew you would like It! It's really pretty and really fun to play with! Look, look!" She said as she made Virgil stand up on the stairs and turn around for a bit while smiling that painfully awful smile.
"Virgil!" Logan said out loud, and all three of them turned to look at them.
The little girl grew a smirk on her face "Mommy, those mean people are trying to take away my doll!" She said, pretending to cry and making Virgil surround her with his arms. The mother's face changed from a happy expression into a one filled with complete rage.
She started changing, her face turning sharper, her eyes turning red and her nails growing larger by the second. The girl's smile got bigger, just as she grabbed Virgil's hand and pulled him with her towards her room, leaving the others with her mother.
The woman moved fast, going for the one closest to her, which was Remus. He tried to move out of the way, but one of her hands managed to scratch him, making him cry in agony as his blood fell from his arm. Janus tried to run to his aid, but the woman ran towards him next, almost getting to his face if It weren't for Remy pulling him down at the last second. She went towards Emile next, Patton by his side. Both of them tried to run, but the woman go to them, scratching their backs painfully drawing blood, and so Roman jumped to their aid, trying to hit her with a broken sofa leg, which didn't do much, but distracted her enough for Emile and Patton to get to the others.
Once they were all together Logan looked towards the woman and realized something
"The light!" He yelled, making the other notice that her arm that was being touched by a simmer of light was turning into dust. Now, they had a plan.
With the four lamps they had left they attacked her as if they were holding swords, while the rest used broken furniture to defend themselves. She tried to fight them off fiercely, leaving Remy unconscious as she pushed him away onto a table, and Janus with a scratched eye he couldn't open at the moment, but finally, they managed to weaken her until she disappeared.
Their victory was short lived as they realized It was almost night time. As fast as they could, and leaving Emile and Janus in charge of taking care of Remy, the rest Ran Up the stairs into the girl's room, where Virgil was sitting at the bed, looking at the wall with that awful smile on his face. Patton got in front of him and tried talking to him, but he wasn't responding, not even as Patton started crying. Roman and Remus decided to just take him by his arms and pull him along, and so they went downstairs with a limp Virgil by their sides, still smiling as they got to the front door.
Just as The other three got there, Remy once again walking by himself, they froze as they heard the girl's voice once again.
"Daddy, they're trying to take my doll!"
They turned around, and there he was. A tall Man, standing at the top of the stairs holding his daughter's hand as she smiled sharply. He looked livid as they descended the stairs.
"You. Won't. Leave." His distorted voice said. They frantically tried to open the door, the twins even dropping Virgil to the floor to try and break the doors along with Remy and Janus. Virgil's body stood up, and started walking towards the girl once again, but Patton managed to stop him. Virgil's eyes turned black and started leaking, the trail falling from his eyes looking like goo, as he tried desperately to go towards the little girl as Emile joined Patton in stopping him.
"You. Won't. Leave!" The voice screamed once again, being heard all over the house, breaking furniture and Windows, and stopping them from breaking the door for a moment to try and cover their ears.
Virgil ran to the girl, who jumped to his arms as he reached her and he held her close to him, still smiling. Her father saw him for a moment, wanting to break him for holding his precious daughter in such a disrespectful way, but a look from the girl was enough to stop him.
"You." He said turning towards the others, pointing with his fingers "You. Won't. Leave!" He said once again, but this something changed. Janus and Remus both gasped, making the others turn towards them. Janus' eyes were white once again as the Shadow overwhelmed him, trying to suffocate him. Remus was being dragged towards the basement by the Mass once again, Roman trying to hold him in order to stop It, but the Mass got smarter, and It engulfed Remus where he was, pushing Roman away with a roar.
"YOU. BELONG. HERE. NOW." he said once again. The Mass stopped abruptly, and out came Remus. His fingernails had grown into claws, his eyes were manic, shining a vibrant red. His front teeth looked like fangs, leaking black saliva out of Remus' mouth
"No!" Yelled Roman, drawing Remus' attention, who retaliated by throwing himself at Roman, who was struggling to keep him away from his throat. Logan and Patton both ran to his aid, while Remy and Emile tried to help Janus get away from the Shadow.
"I want them to leave, daddy!" she said, everyone staring in shock at her words "i want them to leave and never come back so me and my new doll can keep playing for ever and ever without them stopping the game! Please, daddy?"
The father looked at her, debating
"NO" he said. She frowned, her eyes turning black along with virgil's, whose smile dropped along with hers
"Then you're of no use to me anymore" she said. With those words, the man went up in flames, his agonizing screams resonating all over the house as his figure turned to ashes. All the boys covered their ears as well as they could, some of the screaming from the pain as well. Janus' Shadow screeched as It began disappearing in smoke along with the man, finally releasing him of his pain. Remus, on the other hand, only got worse, trying to kill Roman More fiercely, Patton and Emile trying to hold him back.
Once the screaming stopped, Logan and Janus looked at the girl, still being held by Virgil who had gone back to that horrible smile.
"You must leave, now" she said "we have a lot of games to play"
"Not without Virgil!" Yelled Logan holding Remy's unconscious body with Janus' help. The girl frowned
"Then I guess you have to die"
The wind picked up once again, slamming doors and breaking stuff as It went. The girl got out of Virgil's arms and floated towards the ceiling, a dark Shadow covering her as she called for all her dolls to attack once again, this Time Virgil included.
Roman managed to get away from Remus, allowing himself to run and Tackle Virgil away from Janus. They fought the dolls as good as they could, trying not to hurt Virgil while keeping Remus away as much as they could, until Logan couldn't take It anymore, grabbing a chair's broken leg and hitting Remus' head a few times until he fell unconscious to the floor. Roman grabbed his brother's body and held him close, just as Patton and Janus managed to stop Virgil from choking Patton.
The girl went towards them this Time, and just as she was about to reach them, Logan opened the door, letting the daylight hit her full force, which harmed her even worse than the lamp lights had hurt her mother, and just as her father, she went up in flames as her body turned to ashes and dissapeared. Just as that happened Virgil opened his eyes and they turned their natural brown color, only to roll back to his skull and pass out once again. Remus' body too began smoking, the claws and monster features fading away with the girl's ashes, only to suddenly wake up with a gasp at the same Time as Remy woke with a groan.
The moment went still. They all held their breaths. As the minutes ticked by they couldn't believe It. They'd won.
As fast as they could they left the house, Virgil limp being carried by the twins as Emile helped Remy and Logan helped Janus walk.
They got to Remy's house an hour later, still not believing they had won, breathing heavily as they called their parents to Let them know where they were and what had happened, how they had found the others but had been hurt by the people who had them. It took less than half an hour for their parents to be there, and less than a few minutes for them to be taken to a hospital for checkups.
A few days later, the last of the boys was finally getting out. Having been possessed was hard on Virgil's body, even more as they realized that the girl had actually used something to hurt him so she could control him, and that had caused an infection that had started to get bad.
Everyone had their own problems. Remy spent nights not being able to sleep, only seeing Janus' body lying on the floor, his face scratched into Oblivion. Patton couldn't speak for a few days, having being choked by Virgil with such force. Logan was always on edge, expecting to be attacked at any second from any corner, not being able to leave his room for a few days in a row. Emile had to take distance from his friends for a little bit, not being able to look at them out of fear. Roman was attached to Remus, not leaving his side for anything unless completely necessary, and even then he would be close by just so he wouldn't lose sight of him.
Janus couldn't look at himself in the mirror, and sometimes he lost himself in the memories, hugging and murmuring to himself until someone could take him out of his mind. Remus sometimes got feral, growling, bitting, scratching at anyone who came too close to him, his eyes shining a little green sometimes. Virgil wouldn't talk, wouldn't move, he was like a lifeless doll who you could move as you pleased. Sometimes he started smiling while tears fell down his face, not being able to stop himself no matter how hard he tried.
Still, time kept moving. They kept close, refusing to loose each other after everything. They visited each other as often as they could. Virgil moved out of his parents house, his uncle Thomas taking him instead; Patton helped Logan and Emile, patiently waiting for them until they were comfortable enough to be with the others. Roman and Remus got closer, becoming as close as they used to be. Remy and Janus became as close as the twins, always supporting each other, always helping the others however they could.
They got therapy, they got to be with their friends, and slowly, they started getting better.
And that was enough of an adventure for now.