Nothingness

Nothingness

Nothingness
<p>Vanessa sat there, shivering. Her back pressed to the door, she felt the slight tremor of a hand being placed on it on the other side.
<p>“Please Vanessa, I love you” the muffled, warm sounding reply came, causing the dark haired girls eyes to open up. However, in the darkness she now saw she wasn’t alone. A pair of yellow eyes greeted her, a swift moving motion, and then…
<p>Nothing.
<p>**********
<p>A dark haired girl was packing her things, humming to the tune of something she saw on the radio earlier that day. Her attire consisted of a pink shirt and a yellow pleated skirt, practically infecting nearby things with happy. She looked out with a cheery grin, even though the sky outside was bleak and miserable. Not like the world can reflect my mood she thought happily, and zipped up her bag.
<p>”Hello, Vanessa,” came the monotone voice of the blond boy next to her, waiting patiently even though all the other members of the class had lone disappeared for fear of being stuck in the bad weather outside. He looked positively drab in comparison to his female companion, wearing a grey suit of all things. “How has you birthday been?”
<p>Vanessa looked up cheekily, giving the blond a thumbs up. “Awesome! Being fifteen is great, like you’re a whole new person!” She laughed, seeing the never changing expression from her friend. “Artie, lighten up, will you? You look like a zombie half the time,” she laughed, holding open the door for him.
<p>The boy didn’t seem to change. “I told you not to call me that,” he once again dead panned. He purposely hit her shoulder on the way out, any one who didn’t know the boy personally would not have know that this was done in jest.
<p>”Ooooh, I’m WOUNDED, my dear Arthur,” she claimed, clutching her heart and following the boy. “Eh, but I guess you must care for me a LITTLE, ‘specially since you’ve FINALLY invited me over to your house, even though you’ve been mooching offa me and my mom at my place for the past ten years,” the dark haired girl continued, making as many exaggerations as she could.
<p>Arthur, however, continued on in silence. Vanessa took this as a cue that she had went too far and promptly dropped it, knowing how her friend felt about his ‘second home’. Vanessa’s father had walked out on her Mom when he found out she was pregnant, even though they were married. So, money had always been tight for her family. That didn’t seem to stop her Mom from giving as much as she could.
<p>The odd pair came to a stop in front of the pearly white gates of a spooky looking mansion. Vanessa paused, and looked down at her shorter companion, the blinking up in confusion. She then finally let the question that was looming be asked. “Isn’t this the house that everyone says is haunted by cannibals, and everyone eggs it each year on Halloween?”
<p>”This is my home,” Arthur deadpanned again.
<p>”WE egged this house once. Just this year!”
<p>”I was angry that my parents hadn’t allowed me to go to that concert with you.”
<p>”I’ll bet,” the dark haired girl rolled her eyes as the gates opened.
<p>**********
<p>Arthur’s family was… weird, to put it nicely. Vanessa had found out it wasn’t just her best friend that spoke in monotones, the whole family did. And it sounded more creepy then when it was just Arthur. Also, Arthur’s father, Anderson, liked to collect… skulls. Human, skulls. Vanessa passed this off as a weird dentist thing, since she had seen a skull or two in a dentist office before. And Arthur’s sister, his little sister, dressed in a grey summer dress, seemed to be eyeing her arm the whole time.
<p>”Excuse me, but I need to use the bathroom,” Vanessa got up from the living room chair, barely registering the directions to said room in her mind.
<p>”Ta ta, Miss Thorn, hurry back soon!” Arthur’s mother chirped, her voice sounded oddly sickly sweet. Vanessa shivered as she went up a staircase, she made a silent vow to not ever, ever come back. Even under threats of death.
<p>As Vanessa could finally explore the house, she realized that the second level seemed to have fallen into disrepair in stark contrast to the lavishly decorated rooms just below her feet. She made her way absentmindedly, her feet taking her where they cared.
<p>The walls were pealing and had shipped paint in any area that wasn’t covered by some painting, often with some pompous looking old goat scrawled across the canvas. The floors creaked and craked, and had old stains of who-knew-what on the floor. The first door that wasn’t broken she came across caught her attention, and she assumed it was the bathroom.
<p>The smell that hit her nose when she yanked open the door nearly burned her nostrils off. Vanessa gagged, putting both hands to her mouth as she squinted her eyes, gasping for breath. Who on EARTH would leave a bathroom this dirty?! the dark haired girl asked the air, before daring to open her eyes. The scene laid out in front of them made her wish they had been burned off.
<p>Inside the room were rows upon rows of meat carcasses hanging from the ceiling, all in various states of dismemberment. Half of the were sliced open, guts spewing out of them and piled underneath. The other half looked like deflated pillow cases, all sewn up and dangling limply from the rafters. Tables were put in random places, one with oddly color material on it, like cloth…
<p>HUMAN SKIN?!? the realization struck Vanessa as she staggered out of the room, her eyes wide in horror and disgust. She raced back down to the lower levels, bursting into the living room. Not one of the three occupants seemed disturbed by her sudden appearance.
<p>”Th-there w-was a hu-human B-BUTCHERY in y-your se-second floor!!” the dark hair girl yelled out, not registering the tense change in atmosphere, until Anderson started to speak. Harshly.
<p>”She’s found out too much,” he practically spat, standing up violently from his chair.
<p>Arthur’s mother just stood by the fire place. “Then what do we do? Roast her?”
<>”How about boil?”
<p>”Stick her in some bread? Either way, just kill her,” she finished, gliding gracefully over to hang on her husbands arm.
<p>Vanessa was in a state of shock. This can’t be happening. No. Oh no. Oh no no no no no. No no please, no…
<p>”VANESSA, RUN!!” came a cry from her left. It took a second for her to register who it was. It was Artie, and… He wore an expression of worry.
<p>Not needing anyone to tell her twice, the dark haired girl took off like a bottle rocket, realizing how close Artie’s psycho parents had come to her while she had stood there shocked. She made her way for the front door, but then she realized where the fourth member of the nut job family had went.
<p>Artie’s little sister was blocking her only escape… with a butchers knife. Vanessa swore loudly as she skidded to a stop, and dived into the first door with a lock she saw. Immediately, nothing but blackness met her vision, as she frantically scrambled to put the dead bolt on. She placed her back on the door, panting heavily as she slid down it, coming to a rest in a fetal position.
<p>There was silence, and then frantic banging on the door. The banging accompanied muffled pleas from Artie’s deranged family, trying to coax her out. Something about a beast worse then them being locked inside. Vanessa didn’t care, only silently crying, wishing for a way out, and way.
<p>And then finally, Artie’s voice was the only one. “Vanessa, please, come out! I promise they won’t do anything to you, but you need to get out of there!” his voice was monotone again, but she could barely recognize a pleading note in it.
<p>”And why should I trust you? I bet your job is to lure the people your family eat in, huh? Y-you’re a cannibal!” she exclaimed, her eyes clenched shut. Silence seemed to answer her questions for her.
<p>Vanessa sat there, shivering. Her back pressed to the door, she felt the slight tremor of a hand being placed on it on the other side.
<p>“Please Vanessa, I love you” the muffled, warm sounding reply came, causing the dark haired girls eyes to open up. However, in the darkness she now saw she wasn’t alone. A pair of yellow eyes greeted her, a swift moving motion, and then…
<p>Nothing.