Page 5 of Strangled
It doesn’t take long for us to set up for the party. A table filled with booze, a couple more set up for beer bong. Cade was right, this house is creepy enough that it didn’t need much, so we have more than enough time to get ourselves ready before people start showing up.
I help Cade move their shit into the upstairs bathroom. Just as I drag a brush filled with black paint over my cheekbone, I hear a loud bang on what must be the front door, and not one of the usual sounds this old place makes on its own. The glass rattles in the old frame, sending echoes through the empty house as I step down the stairs.
I grip the old metal doorknob and yank as hard as I can, unwedging the warped wood from its lopsided frame. “Iris. Took ya long enough.” I hold the door open and let her through. She wheels her equipment in behind her while her eyes dart around the house.
Her brow arches as she looks around before finally meeting my gaze. “Nice half-painted face.” She laughs. “Still can’t believe this is your place now.”
“Yep.” I shove my hands in my black leather pants as I lead her toward the living room to get set up.
“You couldn’t have, like, I don’t know, cleaned before you moved in?”
“Nah, I don’t really care.”I like it the way it is.“Besides, I cleaned the basic shit.”
“You don’t care,” she retorts, her dark, sharp eyebrow still perfectly arched.
“I literally just fucking moved in two days ago.”
“Yeah, but you bought this place a month ago. That’s plenty of time.”
“Get off my ass, Iris. Are you gonna get ready or what?”
“Yeah, but I need to know you’re taking care of yourself.” She unzips her case and starts pulling out her DJ equipment on one of the tables I have set up around the perimeter of the large, open room. “And buying a fucking haunted house proves the exact opposite.”
“Not you, too,” I groan, rubbing my hand down my face in exasperation.
“Oh, yeah, baby. Me. And Cadence, too. Speaking of the best person I know, where are they?”
“Gee, thanks,” I rumble just as Cade makes themself known.
“Up here!” Cade yells down the stairs. Iris and I both turn toward the walkway just in time to see Cade practically dangle themself from the banister. It creaks and wobbles under their weight, even though, with their five-foot-four frame, they probably only weigh a buck twenty soaking wet.
“Don’t fucking do that; you’ll fall to your death!” Iris yells up at them.
“What’s another murder in the murder house?” Cade snickers, but I watch their wide eyes dart back and forth like they said something that will smite them to Hell before they clamber off and scurry back into the bathroom.
“They take that shit too seriously,” Iris snickers as she pours herself a drink. When she catches me eyeing her lazily, she smirks, the rim of the plastic cup pressed against her plump, black-colored lips. “Gotta pregame, but it looks like you’re already there.” She laughs at my lame smirk. “Word of this party isallaround town—this place is going to be packed.”
“Murder-house Halloween party does have a ring to it,” I say.
She laughs. “Yeah, to say the least.” Her eyes roam around the open expanse of the room, taking in the dust-covered walls, cracks, and decay. “Why did you even buy this place, Lyke?”
I open my mouth to answer her, but I pause, goosebumps prickling at the back of my neck. The air fills with charged static, sending gooseflesh skating down my spine. My head turns of its own volition, following the feeling just as Iris’s brows pinch, her lips pursing as she narrows her eyes just to the left of my head.
I follow her gaze to the stairwell. A low, consistent creaking fills the pregnant silence. The harder I strain my hearing, the louder my heart beats in my chest. Each thump feels heavy, the blood pumping through me chugging along despite my desire for that not to be true.
Not now.
“LYKEN!” a sharp, piercing scream tears through the house, Cade’s voice echoing off the walls and splitting my eardrums. My heart lurches at their panic-induced tone, and I charge up the rickety stairs, taking them two at a time. I make a sharp left and run up the rest of the way. Cadence is still screaming hysterically. I follow the ringing of their voice until I reach the end of the hall where they’re standing in a doorway to one of the many bedrooms I haven’t been in. I actually haven’t even made it past the bathroom located just off of the stairs.
I come up behind Cade, our sides pressing together as I peer into the room. The sight before me has my stomach lurching unexpectedly. Cade shakes beside me, practically hyperventilating in their panic. I wrap my arms around them mindlessly and pull them to my side, trying to add some semblance of comfort despite what’s in front of us.
I must admit, I don’t even blame Cade for freaking the fuck out. Seeing… a murder scene is fucking gruesome, no matter how old it is.
From the details of what Cade told me earlier, coupled with my somewhat vague previous knowledge of this house through the news, a couple was murdered here a few years ago. No one is sure quite how long they sat rotting because it took a while for their bodies to even be discovered. It was happenstance they ever were, to be honest. This place isn’t exactly near any main roads.
I can only imagine how deep the stench of their deaths seeped into the walls.
But after their corpses were disposed of, the house was left abandoned after unironically being classified as a murder house by Sanseph’s local news station.
