I have fell behind with the #story-mentor group recently due to snow and loving it so much, I kept myself away from the laptop and phone and spent the weekend with friends in the snow.
Anyway... Here is my attempt at a fictional horror story, a short horror story at that, but I hope I do it justice. The last time I wrote anything fictional was during my GCSE English literature exam in 2005. I received an A grade for that piece of writing and made my teacher cry on results day.
Lets see how rusty I am then...
The Invisible House
It was a cold wintry afternoon, the school bell rang across the halls signalling the end of the day. Sam jumped up and packed his bag running for the door ready to make the journey home across the school field into the woodland which lay between his school and his parents farm house. He made the same journey everyday, never seeing another soul between school and home.
Sam was a quiet kid and a bit of a loner. He didn't have many friends outside of school, mainly due to living and working on the farm with his father. The farm was separated from the rest of the local town and so Sam never really got chance to mingle with the other kids.
The rain was pouring down, splashing up his legs as he walked with pace towards the broken fence which he jumped over daily to enter the woodland. He caught his leg on some chicken wire which was nailed to the fence to stop the football leaving the school premises. Blood began to run down his leg and soaked into his sock. He wiped it away and continued into the forest, seemingly more bothered about getting back home for his dinner!
He was walking through the woodland, following the same faint trail he had made as his cut through route over the last 4 years of school. At 15 years old, he had began secondary school after being home schooled all his life. He hadn't developed many social skills but still had a natural instinct for the boyish adventures we all get up to in our younger years.
He noticed something out of place as he entered the deeper forestry, the school long out of sight and his home still a good distance ahead. There was a rucksack sat against a tree to the left of his self made pathway. Never in the last 4 years had Sam even passed another person on his daily commute let alone in the forest, so to find this bag was a big deal!
"Who could be here?" He muttered to himself, leaving the beaten pathway to investigate. He was a few meters away when all of sudden Sam came to sudden abrupt stop, head smashing against something solid. There was nothing there! Staggered by this unnatural force, Sam put his hands in front of him and sure enough something was stopping him from walking forwards further. Some sort of invisible force was blocking his way, like a force field or shield out some sci-fi movie.
"What the hell?" He gasped, rubbing his head trying to subside the pain. He couldn't believe what was happening! What could be hidden by this unnatural force? Curiosity overcame Sam and he began feeling his way along the invisible wall, hoping to find something that explained his bizarre situation.
He continued for a couple of meters to his left until a corner could be felt. He marked this with a stick and retraced his way back across the same invisible face to try and find another corner. Sure enough, 4 and 5 meters to his right another corner became apparent and Sam marked this with another stick.
He couldn't believe what he had discovered and excitement rushed in, all thoughts of danger left him briefly as he scurried around the boundary of the solid mass he couldn't see. This short lived excitement soon came to terrifying end, Sam took his next step forwards and the ground below him opened up and swallowed him. He had fell through a trap door, hidden underneath the overgrowth.
Sam found himself at the bottom of a pitch dark shaft, ankle twisted, the cut from earlier now seemed as significant as a small splinter in his finger. How was he going to get out this damned hole with an injured ankle and no light?
Feeling around in the dark he scouted the walls and floor in the darkness, feeling for anything which could possibly help him get out. The shaft was square, a couple of meters of wall each side and the floor solid. He began tapping the walls to hear for any weak points, something his father had taught him on the farm when they rebuilt the rotting barn a few years previous.
On the opposite wall he was tapping away when all of a sudden the tone changed from solid rock to an almost door like knock. No way! Could it possibly be? Sure enough there was a door, set off from the bottom of the shaft by a couple of steps. He frantically felt around to find the handle in a desperate attempt to get out of this cold, dark and damp shaft.
He clasped hold of a cold metal handle-like object and tried his luck... With a loud 'click' the handle turned and the heavy wooden doorway creaked open. Sam found himself in a small low ceiling room, a single candle dimly lit the space to reveal some eerie features of what appeared to be crypt of some sort. A coffin stood upright against the opposite wall, red cloth drapes hung on each of the adjacent side walls.
Fear had well and truly settled into Sam's soul. The thought of being stuck below the surface in a secret dark room with a coffin stood opposite him, made his bones shake. Surely somebody knew about this place? Doubt filled his mind as he racked his memory over the last 4 years of walking alone on the same route. Nobody ever used the woodland except him, he was sure of it!
He let go of the door and it slammed behind him as if somebody had held it open for him then closed it as soon as he was completely inside the coffin chamber. The candle flickered but managed to stay alight, much to the relief of Sam. He turned around to investigate the self closing door and to add to the horror already unfolding, the door had no handle on the inside!
Panicking, he began screaming at the back of the door, praying somebody could hear him from the top of the shaft he had fell down. He cried for help for over an hour when he heard a loud thud behind him. Sam froze. Unable to turn around and face the noise that he had just heard come from behind him.
"What are you doing down here boy?" A strangle European accent groaned from behind him. A brief moment of relief came over Sam and he turned around to face the voice, thankful of being heard and with a feeling of hope to be rescued and finally going home to his parents, no doubt getting increasingly worried at his late return home from school.
As he turned around he noticed that the coffin door had opened and there was no sign of owner of the male voice. That moment of relief soon disappeared and the fear yet again kicked into action, this time worse than Sam had ever experienced in his whole life. "Am I dreaming, or dead?" he said shakily out loud, directing his question towards the open coffin.
"Not yet" the voice replied, evidently coming from the depths of the coffin. Sam etched towards the coffin to investigate. A narrow passage led to some stone stairs, flickering shadows could be seen from the candlelight as the stairs wound upwards. "Are you going to hurt me?" Sam asked the voice, "I didn't mean to intrude, there was a bag in the woods, then I walked into an invisible wall and fell through the trap door!"
The man laughed, an evil tone about him "Come upstairs and I will show you". Sam, reluctant to trust the voice, lingered for a few seconds, before slowly creeping up the steps towards the voice. He had no other choice, behind him he would be trapped alone, his only option was to face the fearful voice coming from the top of the spiral staircase.
"Hurry child!" The voice muttered, irritated at Sam's reluctance to climb the staircase, "You wake me up with your screaming and now you want to stay down there?" Scared of what to expect, Sam didn't want to annoy his savior anymore and sped up his ascent of the stairs. He neared the top and the dark silhouette of a man filled the archway at the top.
"Who are you?" Sam asked, his voice trembling with fear. "None of your business child! Why are you here in my home?" the man snapped back. "I already said, I fell through a trapdoor into the shaft... What is this place and what is the invisible force field in the woods?"
The man looked at Sam with a menacing smile. " I have lived here, unknown to the outside world for many centuries, I cannot be known to you humans, for I am not welcome in your society." "Wha.. what are you? A vampire?" Sam asked, still shaking from the incredible situation he had got himself in.
"Some call us that yes" He replied, you're lucky though, I have already fed today, a delicious school boy, like yourself. He wandered astray from the road and was most enjoyable, his blood so pure and unspoilt".
That explained the bag Sam had found in the woods. "Will you let me go then?" He begged with tears in his eyes. "I didn't mean to intrude and I wont tell anybody!" The vampire began to laugh hysterically. "You cannot leave child, you will tell everyone about my hidden secret! You will remain here, as my servant, until I need to feed again".
This was it, the end of Sam's world as he knew it, he would never see his parents or go to school again. Sam broke down crying, falling to his knees pleading with the vampire to let him go. "I promise you I will keep this secret, nobody will believe me anyway!" The vampire looked down at Sam pitifully, considering the valid point made by the lonely school child.
He remained silent, still stood at the top of the spiral staircase looking down at Sam on his whimpering on his knees. Could this blood sucking vampire actually feel empathy? Was he actually about to show some remorse and let Sam go free to his parents farmhouse?
"I cannot take the risk, you must spend the rest of your days with me, either as a vampire or my next meal."
"What? I can be a vampire too?"
"You could, but I must warn you, the immortal life is not so much fun after a couple of centuries."
Sam's mind began racing, he was weighing up his life values, the lack of friends, his life outside his parents farm. The idea of becoming a vampire was appealing to the lonely boy. He had no friends to lose, just two loving parents, the farm, and school. "Turn me" Sam asked, wiping the tears from his eyes and standing up to face the vampire for the first time.
The vampire wasn't that tall against him, his adolescent body was in fact much broader than the vampire but skinnier and less filled out. The pale face of the vampire peered at Sam, clearly debating whether to accept his request or save Sam for his next feed.
Sam had now fully accepted the fact he would never see his parents again or eat real food, the vampire nodded at Sam giving him the acknowledgement he'd been waiting for. Sam was about to become a vampire. Something he knew only as folklore and horror stories, was rapidly becoming a reality.
The vampire took Sam by the hand and moved quickly into the main hallway of his home, hidden from the outside world by some sort of witchcraft cloaking spell. A vast world of supernatural beings lay ahead. They both climbed up the grand staircase and down the hall at the top of the landing.
A locked room awaited them at the end of the hallway. The vampire reached into his long black cloak and pulled a round large silver key from his inner pocket before unlocking the door and leading Sam inside. On the other side, a gloriously decorated room awaited them, a large four poster bed fit for royalty along with various tapestries which depicted large battle of vampires vs humans in the old folklore tails Sam had heard of a child. "Are those stories actually real then?" he asked "And do you have a name?"
"My name is Victor, I am 376 years old, I was turned by my father when I was 23 years old. He was dying, and found immortality too hard to cope without his son, so he turned me."
Astonished at what he was hearing, he began to think of his life without his family. He could almost smell his mothers cooking from the farm house with his vivid imagination in overdrive. "You will be my apprentice, you shall do as I say and learn what I ask. When I feel you are ready for independence and I can put my confidence in your ability to feed responsibly, then I shall free you from my service and you can continue your immortality alone if you wish." Victor stated to Sam, as he prepared the ceremonial table to bite into his neck.
This was it, what had started as a normal day and walk home from school, had turned into the end of Sams life as he knew it. Never again would he see his family, never would they find his body or know what happened to him, never will they come to find the invisible house in the woods and never will they know why he disappeared. Every parents nightmare, but Sam had made his decision. He wanted to live forever.
Victor firmly held Sams head in his palms and bent his neck to reveal the blood filled veins and arteries in his neck. "This will hurt a little" he warned before quickly sinking his large fangs into Sam neck puncturing his blood flow before sucking the human life and soul from his body.
Sams body fell lifeless to the floor as Victor took the last drop of blood required to turn his victim to a vampire. victor picked his body off the floor and lay it on the four poster bed, "rest well child" he muttered before leaving Sam alone in the room to turn.
Sam woke up the next morning, the curtains closed and the fire place embers hanging on to life. Victor came rushing into the bedroom, "Child, we must leave!" "What? Why?" Sam asked puzzled with a new sense of hunger and lifeless feeling about him. "Am I a vampire now? I feel strange, I feel cold and so damn hungry"
"No time for that now, your parents and the whole town are out looking for you! We cannot stay here!"
"But this house is invisible, they can't find us here?"
"So how did you find me then?" he replied with a look of horror on his face.
Sam was confused but could understand the vampires worry, there trapdoor was exposed at the side of the invisible house and the bag from Victor's previous meal was still above ground next to it.
"When I first became a vampire, the towns used to chase us out with fire and pitchforks. Every town we tried to settle in, they found us. I managed to find this place owned by a witch, she put an invisible spell on it to protect me and I have lived here in exile for the last century. The witch long dead, but her spell living on to keep humans from finding her home."
"I have no strength to run, I feel so hungry" Sam moaned to Victor. "I'm struggling to focus on anything but settling my hunger, the urge is so strong!"
"Do not worry little one, new vampires have to learn to control the evil inside them, we vampires have a bad reputation thanks to a few rebel vampires who hated humans. They are the start of the fairy tales about us." He explained,
"we lack a soul but we are not evil by nature, yes we need human blood but not much and not often, we pick our meals carefully or by opportunity, like the child I ate previously, he was a risk to me so he became my meal".
The brutal mentality of Victor was what surely had kept him hidden from humans for so long. He ate anything that threatened his location, Sam began to consider himself very luck to be turned and not devoured. "I'll eat my parents!" Sam plead to Victor, they will find us and it will be my fault! Let me outside and I will take my first blood from them!"
Victor was astonished at the boys eagerness to kill his parents and feast on human blood. The vampire inside of him was craving blood so much he didn't care whose it was. "You will be a good apprentice, boy. We shall make your first feast special."
Sam went downstairs to the main hallways and unlocked the heavy hardwood front door before peering outside, "Quickly!" Victor warned, "The house is visible when the doors are open!" Sam quickly exited the house and closed the door behind him, the house disappearing into thin again yet again. First he moved the schoolbag and threw it down the shaft he had fallen into the day before. Then he pulled some old branches and leaves to cover the hole, before heading towards the edge of the forest and onto his fathers farmland.
The farm house was visible as Sam emerged from the tree line. The lights were on and smoke could be seen billowing from the chimney. "Looks like they are back home" he uttered to himself. He began to discreetly edge closer towards to the house careful not to set the dogs off. Once at the house he peered through the windows to see his mother and father sat holding each other in front of the fire, his mother crying as his father cradled her with a lifeless expression on his face.
Sam sat and thought for a while, he had to feast soon, there was no return on his actions so far, could he live with himself knowing he had ended his own parents life? Soon an hour had passed, the lights went off and his parents headed upstairs to bed. He let them fall into a deep sleep before attempting to enter the house. He had gained some new vampire abilities since being turned, his finger nails super strong and sharp, capable of cutting glass like a diamond.
He crept upstairs and sat on the landing outside his parents bedroom, having one last battle with his conscience before quietly entering the room. He stood over his father first. He could smell the fresh blood pumping through his body, every breath he took smelling like a Sunday roast dinner. He was sure now that his first meal would be a significant turning point in his life.
Wasting no time, he sank his teeth into his fathers neck, pillow over his mouth, held with his newly gained super strength, fighting off his fathers restraints with ease. He was gone, his mother didn't even stir in the madness. It was her turn next. He leaned over his mother, enticed by the same smell of fresh family blood. Just as he went in to bite she opened her eyes... "Sam! You're OK!" she cried, not noticing the blooded mess of her husband lay beside her.
"Sorry mum" he said strongly, "This is how is how it has to be!" and he grabbed his mothers head and held it firm, she screamed as loud as she saw her dead husband covered in blood. Sam sank his fangs in and drank his mother blood to the last drop.
He sat at the end of their bed. He felt overwhelmed at the fullness he felt after drinking 16 pints of blood. He looked one last time at his parents before toppling over the candles, setting fire to the farm house to cover his tracks; before disappearing into the woodlands where he would remain hidden with Victor for eternity.
THE END
Although this is my first fictional story, I have written a number of non-fictional exploration blogs. Please feel free to visit my other blogs linked below.
Exploring what lies beneath our feet
A trip into North Wales, Snowdonia National Park
A Horseshoe Bat in Hibernation
1 year anniversary of our first ever Welsh Slate mine explore
Exploring The Dale, Stoney Middleton
Rock Climbing and Abseiling at Masson Leas Quarry