Chapter Eleven
The Fire
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After what they had just seen at the front door, the group had run up the stairs
to get away from it. They needed to talk about this, whatever this Game was, it
was getting out of hand. They were all now gathered in Kevin and Howie’s room.
No one had spoken for a long time, all were still in shock about the whole thing.
They couldn’t believe that their harmless game of Truth or Dare had turned into
an even worse game then they thought possible.
“Ok guys, what’re we gonna do about this?” AJ asked, “I mean, it’s obvious that
we’re trapped in this place until tomorrow. So are we just gonna play this Game
and risk losing our lives and never getting out of here?”
Lance nodded. “Yeah, we can’t do that. I think we should just stick together until
tomorrow. It’s obvious that whatever is doing this catches the people when
they’re alone and then puts them through hell. If we stay together, they can’t
play this Game on us.”
It seemed like the logical answer to trying to get out of this thing alive. Teri was
shaking her head though and looked extremely worried. “No...no...they’ll find
another way to get each one of us alone. We can’t avoid this, it’s gonna happen.
No matter what, they’re gonna make us play The Game.”
“But how are they gonna get 11 more people by themselves by tomorrow? It’s
just not possible!” Chris said sounding frustrated. “There’s no way they can
continue with this Game now! We all know about it now. It was easy before,
none of us knew about it when Teri and Justin both got into trouble with it. But
we now know. How can they trick that many people into playing it still when
they all know?”
“You know, Chris has a really good point,” Brian said, “we all know, they can’t
continue.”
“But we have no idea what we’re dealing with though!!” Teri cried out, “they’re
going to find a way to still play this thing on us. I don’t want it to happen but....”
she trailed off.
“This is too much for me to handle. We should never have come here,” Emily
said, looking upset.
AJ lowered him head slowly. “I’m sorry, I should never have suggested this.”
Laura put her arm around his shoulders and tried to comfort him. “It’s ok AJ.
There was no way you could’ve known this would happen. You were just playing
a harmless dare on is. Don’t worry about it.”
The group fell silent, all thinking about the mess they were in. As they were
sitting there, they heard a noise outside the door. JC’s head shot up and his eyes
widened as he stared at the door. “Did...did you guys just hear that...”
“Shh....be quiet!” Kevin warned softly. They fell silent again and listened. It was
now silent outside.
“I sure hope we imagined that,” Justin whispered, looking very worried as he
kept staring at the door.
“Someone did lock that door, right?” Joey asked.
“Yeah, I did,” Howie said.
Before anyone else could say anything though, the room was plunged into
darkness. A few of them screamed and cried out when it happened. An eerie
silence fell and then a gust of wind blew through the room and they all heard the
knob turn and the door creak open. Teri gasped and grabbed on to the person
next to her, hiding her face. She didn’t even want to look.
There was silence again and then the sound of heavy breathing could be heard.
All of them sat there in terror, not able to move or speak. Nick had been sitting
closest to the door on the floor and he was in absolute shock and fear.
Something brushed up against him and he felt the feeling of being tugged
somewhere. He wasn’t moving but his body was like being tugged into another
dimension. He couldn’t even scream. He felt a coldness grip him and then he
blacked out.
......................
After sitting in the dark for a few minutes, the candles flickered and light filled
the room again. All were afraid to look but finally Teri looked up from the person
she’d been hiding behind, who’d been Lance. The door was swinging slightly on
it’s hinges but besides that, there was no sign that somebody or something had
just been in the room.
Laura was the first to get her voice back. “What was just....in the room?”
None of them could answer that question because they had no idea. This was
getting scarier and scarier as the night was progressing and they still had a long
time to be in the place. This was really not good.
The others had finally gotten a little over their fear and were starting to look
around the room a little. That’s when Justin noticed something. “Uhhh....guys?
Where’s Nick at?”
They all looked in horror at the spot Nick had been sitting on the floor. There
was no trace of him there.
“Oh no....whatever was in here, came and took him,” Emily said.
Teri was shaking and slowly started to say, “I told you.....I knew they’d find a
way to get each one of us by ourselves. They’re proving it right now.”
No one could disagree with her.
......................
Nick woke up on the cold ground with a pounding headache. It was very cold
where he was and he shivered. He started to push himself up off the ground, his
body ached all over for some reason.
“Ughh...where the hell am I?”
Nick stood up and started to look around. He was in the middle of some hallway.
“Does everything have to happen in the middle of hallways,” he muttered under
his breath.
What had happened to him though? He’d been sitting in a room with everyone
and now he was here. That’s when Nick remembered about the thing that had
entered the room when the lights had gone out. What had that been? He hadn’t
seen it but it had touched him and he had been put here. He shivered slightly
again, creeped out by whatever that had been.
Nick started inspecting the hall a little. It looked exactly like all of the other ones.
Doors were on either side of the hall and candles hung on the wall giving the hall
an eerie glow. Nick looked down the hall and saw a window there. He could tell
by the light coming from the window that the sun was setting. “And we still have
a night to stay in this place,” he thought miserably.
Nick decided to go look out the window. He slowly started walking towards it, his
eyes everywhere in case something decided to jump out at him. He reached the
window and looked outside. He could tell that he was on the third floor of the
mansion now. He looked in the backyard and saw a forest laying out behind the
house. It was very dense and scary looking.
While Nick was looking out at the forest, something moved among the trees. His
eyes widened and he took a step back. He continued to stare at the forest as a
figure slowly stepped out of the trees. That’s when Nick noticed what the figure
was that was coming through the trees.
The person was a young woman and she seemed to be looking all around while
she started darting towards the house. Nick watched as she grabbed something
from the ground. She then backed up a little ways and stared up at the window
he was in. He ducked in the shadows, hoping she couldn’t see him. The next
thing he knew a stone went flying through the window, making the glass shatter
and fall to the floor. He stared at the window and looked back over his shoulder,
hoping that nothing was there. It was a blank hallway. He then turned to look
back at the young woman. How come his part here wasn’t seeming as scary as
Teri and Justin’s? Were these people who started The Game running out of
ideas?
Nick watched as the woman pulled something out of her pocket. She fumbled
around for a minute before hitting something. That’s when he realized she had
just lit a match. He stared at the woman in horror as an evil smile came across
her face before her heard her mutter the words, “May you burn in hell.” Nick
jumped backwards just as she tossed the match up through the open window. It
landed on the carpet and it immediately burst into flames. Nick fell backwards
and landed on his back. He scrambled to his feet as the flames rose higher and
started to creep down the hall more towards him. The fire was starting to spread
extremely fast. Nick shot down the hall as fast as he could. It wasn’t as long as
the other ones and before he knew it he saw a open door at the other end of a
hallway. “Oh thank God! Maybe I can escape up here and save everyone else.”
he thought.
Just as he started running down the hallway to get out the door, a gust of wind
blew through the hallway and the door slammed shut. “No!!!” he screamed out.
Nick grabbed onto the handle and tried turning it but it was no use, the door
was locked tight. he turned back around and saw the flames still coming down
the hallway. He starting coughing from the smoke and began to realize he was
going to die.
That’s when Nick heard something. Further down the hall, where the flames
already were, he heard someone screaming. The person was crying for help. He
wanted to help them but there was nothing he could do. The next sound he
heard was a loud, booming laughter echoed through the whole hallway. Nick felt
the same cold feeling sweep over him as before when that creature had come
into the room. Why was he feeling cold though? Shouldn’t it be hot right now?
The flames were almost on top of him now. Nick closed his eyes, waiting to die
in the flames. He waited and that’s when he realized that nothing had happened.
Nick slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring at the remains of what
had once been a hallway that had obviously been burned in a fire. “What the
hell?” he thought to himself. “Wasn’t I just in a burning hallway?”
That’s when Nick realized what had just happened. He had been in a burning
hallway but a burning hallway from years ago. His eyes widened. He had been
taken back to the past to live through the burning of the hall that had happened
years ago. This is what the hallway looked like now. The carpet was scorched
and in areas there was actually no floor. Most of the walls had been burned
through and he could see right into the rooms and the remains of what had been
in them.
Who had screamed though? Had someone died in the fire? Nick didn’t want to
stay around to find out if that person was still hanging around here. He was still
leaning against the door so he stood up and tried to open it again. No such luck.
Nick started pounding on the door, screaming for help.
That’s when Nick noticed a sudden drop in temperature. He shivered and pulled
his arms around himself to try and get warm. He heard a movement behind him
and he froze in place. Not wanting to look he stayed where he was but out of
curiosity he slowly turned around. Standing in the middle of the hallway, not far
from him was a young girl, who looked to be about 25 years old. Nick gasped
when he saw her. She wasn’t a regular looking person. She was severely burned.
Burn marks were all across her body and her clothes hung around her in rags.
Her face looked severely deformed from the burns. She took a step towards Nick
and held her hand out. “Please help me.” she cried out.
Nick backed up as far against the wall as he could, not liking this one bit. He was
staring at the ghost of the person who had died in the fire. She continued to
walk towards him, crying out for help. She stopped in front of him and he almost
couldn’t take staring at her deformed face anymore. She gave a final plea for
help then her facial expression changed and she stared at him with an evil smile.
“Time to die!” she whispered. Nick’s jaw dropped open right before he
plummeted through the floor that had just collapsed beneath him. He screamed
and the eerie laughter echoed through the house again.
Chapter Twelve - Darkness Falls
Go back to 'The Game'