Flash Fiction: The House Hunter

You woke up to the sound of silence. You rubbed your sleepy eyes with your ball fisted hands and peered into the dark. What was that noise? The silence that followed moved through your room like a thick cloud. You could hear the thunder rumbling like a freight train in the distance. 

Did it rained? Was that why they took the light?

Your room was dark and brutally cold. You clutched your blanket close to you, ready to get another bout of sleep before it is morning. Another sound followed — a quick, sudden movement across the corridor outside your room and then silence. You knew it was not a rat because the footsteps were heavy. You didn’t want to break the silence, but an eerie curiosity gripped you and you couldn’t help but ask,” who’s there?” Your voice which came out croacky like a frog’s, didn’t only break the silence but harshly spoiled it.

Slowly, as if on cue your door began to open.” Kelvin? Mom? Who’s there?” Speculations flew across your mind in storms. Could that be your mother who want to remind you of something or Kelvin, your younger brother trying to play pranks on you?

The door opened completely. You ask the same question. No answer. You groped in the dark for your torchlight on the stool beside your bed. Switching on the torch, you stood up and walked slowly to the door. There was no one there. You swept the torchlight all over the room and the corridor. A lightning zigzagged across the black clouds, illuminating your room and you caught a glimpse of a face on your mirror. Your torchlight fell off your hand. With trembling hands, you squatted and groped again for the torch on the ground. You flashed through the room, the beam of the light piercing through the darkness. There was no one in the room. Just you alone. Now you could hear  your breathing in the silence wuu — wee — wuu — wee.

You heard the sound again, this time close behind you. You turned sharply only to come face to face with Kelvin, your brother.

Your left hand flew to your chest immediately. ” Jesus Christ!  Kelvin!  Are you cr…..

But he placed a finger on your lips.” Shhhh!!!” He looked behind him.” I think there’s trouble. I think the House Hunter is here.”

You sigh & move away from him.” Kelvin, not tonight. I’m feeling sleepy and I ….

” I heard screaming in Mom’s room, but when I try to open the door, it was locked from inside.”

You swallowed lumps of saliva. ” Are you sure?”

He nodded. ” I’m scared. What if the House Hunter kills us? What if truly this our house is being haunted by the ghost?”

God, if this is true. 

” Shhh. If we don’t find Mommy, we would run away and call for help. Okay? ” Slowly, you led the way while he followed closely behind. There was no sound coming from Mom’s room. No screaming. Nothing.

You knocked mildly on her door. ” Mom?”

Benjamin. Kelvin.

You turned quickly. You just heard your names in whispers buoyed like ripples made on a lake. You flashed your torchlight across the corridor, it’s beam piercing through the dark. There was no one there.

You don’t want to believe it, that new house you had recently moved into was being haunted by a mysterious ghost that kept killing and chasing it’s previous owners. Now, it was your turn to partake in the gruesome festival. 

Just then, you saw a face — the same face you had seen on your mirror — behind Kelvin. Before you could give out a cry, a whitish, long nailed hands appeared and held Kelvin’s face and twisted it 90° to the left. 

You screamed and without thinking, you ran across the corridor, past the parlour until you were running down the street. In your mind, you knew that you would never return to this house again — this house haunted by the House Hunter.

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