Prize

Allison looked uncertainly at the house in front of her. In an attempt at bravery and to avoid boredom, she had suggested that her and her friend Megan visit the Morris House. She knew it would take some convincing. Megan was not one to step out of bounds. Allison had always been the creative one, the daring one. Megan was the exact opposite. Allison had sometimes looked down on her for it. She had sometimes appreciated it. Regardless, she took some joy out of bullying Megan into doing something different. She couldn’t help it, Megan was an easy target.

The Morris House was allegedly the most haunted place in town. Allison figured it wasn’t hard to be; there were no other haunted buildings that she knew of. The real fear stemmed from getting caught. Technically, anyone who went on the grounds was trespassing, and those who actually went into the house were breaking and entering. Still, many a high school student had gotten in.

There were constantly crazy rumors circulating about the house, but Allison didn’t really believe any of them. There had even been a report about a kid two decades back that had gone into the house and come out completely insane. He was still deranged to this day, according to legend. From the people of her generation, Allison had heard tales of ghosts and whispers in the dark. People had claimed to see things, shadows, coming at them, chasing them out of the house. Others had sworn they had heard voices screaming horrible things until they had run out screaming themselves.

“I don’t know about this,” Megan whispered as she and Allison climbed over the picket fence.

“Dude, we already came this far. Let’s just finish this.”

Allison glanced up at the house. From up close, it didn’t look nearly as creepy as from afar. It just seemed like a normal house now. A little decrepit, sure, but still normal. She really didn’t see what the big deal was. But as she was thinking of this, she had a picture in her mind of a teenage boy sitting in a mental institution, muttering things about ghosts and goblins, driven crazy by what he had experienced when adventuring on a harmless trip into a supposedly haunted house.

The two of them crept to the front door, crouching down as if that would stop someone from seeing them. Allison took the first tentative step onto the porch.

“Maybe I should just stay here,” Megan said, backing away a few steps. “You know, keep an eye out.”

“You’re such a coward,” Allison said, but she smiled to show her friend she wasn’t really serious. “Well, I’m going in. With or without you.”

Allison attempted to take confident steps forward, but her hand shook as she reached out for the doorknob. The lock, she had been told, had been broken long ago, and no one cared enough to replace it. Allison twisted the knob and pushed the door forward. It creaked inward.

Allison took a quick look back at Megan. “Piece of cake.”

“Good luck.”

Allison stepped over the threshold. There was no going back now.

I watched greedily from the drawing room as the young girl took slow steps into the parlor. How I wished I could go to her. But we had never been able to free ourselves from the room. We had to wait for the prey to come to us. Someone had locked us in, although we didn’t know who. So far, there had been no one in the room since the old lady who owned the house had died.

People had come and gone without stepping foot into our particular room. They had come close, only to somehow see us for what we really were. The guidance of angels, I was sure, was the cause of this. People couldn’t see us how we saw each other. I looked around me and saw the masses of black flesh and bleeding eyes. We had once all been different shapes and sizes, but we had all almost dwindled done to nothing now. I was hungry for a feast. We all were.

I heard the voices seething around me, and I joined in. “Allison...” we called in hissing whispers. She couldn’t actually hear us, of course. We didn’t call to her ears, we called to her soul. I could only pray that her soul would heed us.

I watched in eager anticipation as the girl stepped further into the house. She stopped at a side table, glancing at the pictures that had been perched there for decades. After a few moments, she turned towards our door and took a step towards us. There was a chorus of hisses as a blinding light came into view behind her. I felt my eyes burn, my skin was on fire, and I backed away from the door in haste.

Allison stared down at the pictures of a family long gone from that house. It felt eerie to actually see the people. It made the house seem more alive. She turned away from the photographs and looked at the rest of the entrance. There was a set of wooden stairs leading up and away to the second story. There was a door on her right, and one on her left, and a hallway that led further into the house.

The door on the left stood ajar. Allison decided to investigate that room first. But with each step she took, she felt as if something were pulling her back. Inexplicably, a shiver ran through her body. She felt alert, as if she was waiting for something, but she didn’t know what it was. She felt nervous, but she shrugged it off. There was nothing to be afraid of, the logical side of her brain told her. It was just an old house. So she walked into the room.

Her first feeling was one of being stifled. She felt as if she had climbed a mountain and the atmosphere was suddenly heavier. Besides that, there was no change. She could see nothing to be afraid of in the room. It was just a bunch of old furniture, really.

I felt the heat subside and opened my eyes. The girl did indeed have an angel on her side. He had flamed in protest at the girl attempting to come into our space, but she hadn’t listened. She did not take notice of his warning, and had plowed forward recklessly despite the warnings. He was now standing at bay. He could not get any nearer to her. She wouldn’t allow it. She was unknowingly fighting him off, the one protection she had against us.

We all swarmed upon the girl so abruptly that I was run over in the fray. The others crushed me under foot, talon, and paw, not allowing me to get free and take part. So I crawled underneath them, dug my claws into the floor and dragged myself under the masses. They rolled and riled above me as I fought my way forward, unwilling to give up. This was all that I had waited for for so long. It didn’t matter that they had waited just as long. I was the one who deserved her.

I reached a blessed foot, and grabbed on for life. All I needed was one hold, one chink in the girl’s armor to latch onto. I searched and found one, right above the ankle. The others were still struggling to find a hole in the shielding that the Enemy provided to all his “people.” I was ahead of the game.

I could hear their angry taunts when they had realized that I had managed to grab on. Blood poured from the glaring eyes, adding more to the sticky paste that completely covered their entire bodies. It was hard to avoid bleeding when your body was constantly covered in boils and burns. I believed that we had all been pure and white once, but the black flakes of our skin had been caused by all the blood caking on. Nothing we could do about it now. This was our true appearance.

Allison wondered why everyone talked of the place being so haunted. She saw or heard nothing suspicious. The only thing she could notice was that the place just felt wrong. She wasn’t quite sure how to describe it, but something was definitely off.

There was a bookcase along one of the walls, and Allison walked over to glance over the old volumes. None of the books seemed to have titles. They were all old and black, of different sizes. She reached forward and pulled one of the books out. The cover was blank, so she flipped it open. Inside the title read, Book of Spells Volume 3. After looking at some of the other books, it was clear to Allison that whoever had lived there had been quite interested in witchcraft. She gave a nervous laugh. It was all so ridiculous really. Who would buy into this stuff? But yet, she couldn’t explain why a feeling of anxiety had suddenly settled in her stomach and would not leave. And that image of the young boy, locked away in a crazy house, stuck in her mind stronger than before, warning her against underestimating anything in that house.

Keeping a firm grip on the girl, I let the rest of my body slither up her leg and back, to rest at the base of her neck. It had been a while, and I was out of practice. Her thoughts, her vices, her history, was much harder to sort through than usual. I needed something to latch onto. I looked for vanity, conceit, pride…these were my specialties. And then I found it. A hint of arrogance. It was too little for any human to notice, but it was just enough for me to harness.

The girl opened up one of the books from the shelves, unknowingly flinging several demons off it, which had been clutching onto it. They were demons specializing in witchcraft, and this was their only hope of getting to her. I watched them, with eager eyes, waiting to see her reaction to the book.

The angel entered the room at this moment. It had gotten some strength through her somehow. He was warning her now, instilling the fear in her. She quickly closed the book and put it away. The witchcraft demons slinked away, disappointed.

But I was still holding on to what I had found. I grabbed onto that vice as if it were my lifeline. But now the angel had a hold too, he fought his way closer, and the girl did not stop him. I wrapped my claws so tight around her arrogance that they pierced through my own skin and went around again.

The angel reached me. It was a burning light, shapeless yet beautiful. I had to look away. Beauty was never something that I was meant to enjoy. I cringed, awaiting some horrific death.

Allison grew more and more afraid until she slammed the book shut and shoved it back into its place on the shelf. Her body shook uncontrollably. She tried to calm herself, talk herself down. She took a deep breath. Why was she so afraid? There was no cause to be. It was just an old, empty house. How could she underestimate a house? It was just a bunch of stupid, make-believe books that some old lady had, for some crazy reason, found solace in. She didn’t know how someone could be so silly.

It was just like people believing that the house was haunted. These types of things, ghosts and witchcraft, angels and demons, leprechauns and unicorns, they didn’t exist. How could anyone actually believe otherwise? These thoughts calmed Allison down a great deal and she felt much more at ease.

Time passed, and I did not feel the fatal sting of the angel’s fire. I carefully opened my eyes, and found that the angel had gone, banished back to the hall, unable to reach the girl. How many thoughts he must have put into her head, trying to get her out before I could truly latch on. She had denied him. I had won, and I had barely even had to try. I loosened my grip on my vice. I was only stifling it by holding on so hard. Instead, I sucked onto it, helped it grow, fed off it. The deed was done. I could let go of her ankle now. I let my body seep across her back, sewing my skin through hers, creating a weave of her white flesh and my black charred scales. We were one now, a symbiotic pairing. I would not easily part with her from this day forth.

The girl turned away from the bookcase and began to leave the room. I hailed goodbye to my mates. Some wished me luck. The bitterer ones scowled and glared at me as I left. I was the only one who had been able to get a hold. I would have liked a companion, but I knew I would be all the more rewarded for accomplishing the feat myself. My future, before very grim, was now looking bright.

Allison left the room and the house, unsatisfied with what she had found. It was all just a big hoax. She hadn’t really expected anything else, but still, it would have been much more interesting if she had found something worthwhile.

“Well? What happened?” Megan asked anxiously as Allison joined her on the lawn.

Allison stared at Megan for a moment. She had never realized it before, how much prettier she was than her friend. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed. It was so obvious now.

“Well?” Megan asked again.

“Nothing,” Allison said with a sigh of disappointment. “It’s a total crock. That house isn’t haunted. There’s nothing in there but cobwebs and dust.”