It's actually based off a dream I had; I really didn't change much to it, only added a little more prose to give it more of a story feel. Anyways, I'd like to know what you guys think. *Rated 18+ for elements of horror, violence, and some gore
The Haunting of Elly Rose
No one felt safe in the house, but then again, no one could do anything about the feeling. So the only practical thing to do was try to rest and restore their depleted energy. One by one, they dropped off into uneasy slumber. Even Elly Rose was able to close her eyes—but there was no rest for her. Instead, she dreamt of the couple that lay asleep in the same room as she.
Two long, tentacle-like arms slithered down the walls in the corner of the room in which they slept. They were wrapped in each other’s arms, drawing support and comfort from their partner. Elly liked them; she wished they hadn’t been brought to this place, to be trapped and tormented like she had. But it was no use wishing for something that couldn’t—and wouldn’t—come true.
As the tentacles slid down, two more appeared from underneath the bed. Elly watched as they grabbed the couple. The ones from above wrapped around the old lady’s neck and dragged her body up the wall, her cries strangled and muffled, her feet kicking. She disappeared in shadows, and the tentacles from below had grabbed her husband and pulled him under bed.
Elly only stared; in her dream, she couldn’t move, could only watch the horror unfolding before her.
Soon, something large and black fell from the shadows above to the bed below, and Elly’s view somehow changed so that she was looking down onto the bed. The black thing was the woman’s charred skeleton. Oddly enough, her eyes were left intact; white, round orbs with blue pupils, providing a striking contrast with the dark skull they were imbedded in. An arm appeared again from beneath the bed and pulled the skeleton below, hiding it from Elly’s bird-eye view.
Another noise issued from the stairway, with the opening beneath the rickety steps. Elly turned and saw the man’s skeleton, as black as his wife’s, with the same staring eyes, getting shoved into a corner beneath the stairs. His body was in pieces, and the little extra bones were tossed carelessly onto the pile by the tentacle arm.
Even though Elly couldn’t see the couple anymore, their presence was overwhelming.
When morning broke, the first thing that Elly heard were the murmurs and calls for the elderly couple she had seen in her dream. Elly slowly rose and turned to the bed, where the others were gathered. She knew what she would find.
Her small, bare feet padded noiselessly across the wooden floor, making it creak. The others backed away as she approached the empty bed. She hesitated, then slowly knelt to the ground and peered under. Two staring eyes regarded her from beneath the bed, and she stood and backed away.
The others, seeing what she had done, followed her lead and looked. Screams and cries issued from both the men and the women. Two men pulled the bed away to reveal the woman’s skeleton with its blue eyes, grinning morbidly back at them.
Elly had already moved on to the stairs, where she found the man’s skeleton in the pile. One of the men followed her and, seeing what she saw, let out another cry.
“This girl is going to be the death of us all!” screamed a woman, pointing a trembling finger at Elly, tears streaming down her face.
Elly could only stare back, her expression completely blank. Everything people said about her hurt, but she couldn’t respond. In the depths of her mind, that dreaded sound returned. The slow, deliberate, heavy footsteps that told her it was approaching.
“Hush!” a man ordered, attempting to calm the sobbing woman down. “What’s that noise?”
Elly realized, without much interest, that the others could hear its footsteps. She felt her heart quailing as the sound grew louder.
The footsteps halted outside the window; the people inside the old house saw nothing on the other side of the blinds. Finally, one man who was bolder than the rest called out in a challenging tone, “How now, monster? How does sunlight affect thee?” With that, he jerked the blinds open, letting the pale sunlight streak through into the darkened room.
People were blinded for a moment, but not Elly. She stared out the window, at the panoramic countryside that spread beyond the house. It looked peaceful, but also wrong. Washed out, like a faded painting. It was there, she knew, though she couldn’t see it.
“It will not work,” growled a guttural voice from outside the window. Elly felt a thrill of terror run through her spine as she realized it was the demon speaking. She hadn’t heard its voice before, outside of her head.
The voice made the house shake, as if in fear, and then the presence vanished. Everyone murmured and looked around nervously.
Someone screamed as black liquid pooled from beneath the stairs; when they dared look, they saw the man’s skeleton was melting, like metal does at high temperatures. No one paid attention to Elly as she walked to the other side of the room, where a small window stood.
Elly felt her mind empty, as it always did when the demon entered it, and without knowing what she was doing, she slowly opened the shutters, revealing the pale sunlight. Then she closed them; then opened them.
Her behavior finally got the attention of the people; they watched in anxious silence as she slammed the shutters close, then yanked them open. Suddenly, she stopped and fell to the ground, screaming. She thrashed and clawed at her face, dragging her cheeks down. The skin on her face seemed to be melting off, and her blue eyes enlarged, rolling backwards in her head.
No one dared do anything. They could only watch in shock and horror as something emerged from beneath the stairwell and headed for the screaming girl. It was the skeleton, fully assembled and no longer melting. He looked almost like a robot with dull metal limbs. His wife rose from the corner, and the couple limped towards the girl.
Elly Rose’s white face was peeling off, revealing bloody red eye sockets; only the whites of her eyeballs could be seen. She was still screaming.
