To start of their sleepover, all the four girls huddled around a cinema sized television, with popcorn in one of their hands and soft drinks in the other, they turned on a horror movie, for without horror movies a sleepover was not a sleepover to the girls. Cassie sunk into the comfortable leather couch beside Polina, who mushed the popcorn in her mouth excitedly, awaiting the movie to begin. Cassandra, on the other hand, was not at all looking forward to seen the movie, for she was not a fan of horror movies at all. She wanted to protest, yet after attempting to at the previous sleepovers, she found her protests useless and ignored and the only one thing to do was go along with it.
The movie had dragged on for hours and hours, in which most of the time Cassandra’s face had been dug into her a couch cushion, for she couldn’t stand the scenes with too much blood. Too bad for her, this movie was mainly only about blood and murders. She lost complete track of time, only knowing that the sun had already set and the full moon rose steadily up, higher and higher.
When will this end? She asked herself every now and then yet, couldn’t answer for whenever the movie looked as if it was going to end, something new came up, disappointing Cassandra. She never understood what was so interesting about those movies. She never minded humour, for you could laugh and relax, though in horror, all you do is sit there, all tensed and shaken, awaiting for a good ending, which, in most cases is not at all good.
“Oh come on, Cass. Its not even that sca---“Polina began, while waving her bushy brown hair around, but broke of almost instantly for Jennifer’s screams extinguished her voice.
“Yeah right!” Cassie snapped, while shotting a dark look at Polina but while doing so, she had glimpsed the murderer in the screen, making her put her head back to its position, on the cushion.
“You know I hate horror movies!” she growled but was ignored, for Polina let out a scream at the same time.
Rolling her eyes, Cassie, decided that it was best to escape those shaken girls by using the excuse to go to the bathroom. Swiftly she jolted upright, her eyes still off the screen and moved away. The excuse was useless for all three girls’ attention was fully on the screen, that they had barely noticed Cassie leave.
“Bathroom,” she called pointlessly, for all she got in reply was a
“SHHHH”
Ignoring them, Cassie went out of the room, her mind still on the movie. She walked slowly across the long dark corridor, and to the bathrooms, yet something had made her stop to a complete halt. She found herself standing beside the isolated room, which was half closed, with the three beautiful pictures, one of them that she admired very much. Something caught her eyes that looked very different. Slowly she pulled the door towards her, creaking it as it opened and found herself very surprised. The beautiful yet sad painting of the old house burning down looked completely different, as if someone had replaced the painting with another one.
Instead of an old burning house, Cassie stared at a handsome recently build looking house, yet with the same type as the one she had seen previously in the same frame, except of it burning. The moon ray reflected though the window and right upon the painting, making it shine slightly. Shocked, Cassie backed off and headed back to the room were her friends were still glaring, hypnotized by the screen.
“Err… Lucy what is with that picture?” Cassie asked confusedly.
“What do you mean?” Lucy asked her eyes still on the screen.
“You picture, you know. The picture that I liked, with the burning house. Why did it change?” Cassie asked stupidly. Lucy turned to face her, her eyebrows raised high.
“I am sorry?” Lucy seemed to have no idea what Cassandra was on about.
Now all attention was on Cassie only, all of the girls’ eyebrows raised, with a confused expression.
“Come and have a look.” This was the only way to make her friends stop thinking that she had gone mental. She led out of the room, closely followed by Lucy and the rest.
“What do you mean changed?” Lucy asked, sounding more confused then ever.
“Well there is like a different picture there now,” Cassie replied yet this did not help Lucy to get everything straight but instead confused her even more.
“Wha---“she began but broke into a silence. Her eyes widened with more confusion, as she glared in the room, at the painting of the new beautiful house. She stopped so suddenly that Jennifer and Polina ran right into her.
“What the-“ but they too had noticed the change and gazed from the painting to Lucy, waiting for some sort of explanation, though Lucy looked just as confused as they all did. After a long unpleasant pause, Lucy had seemed to find her voice back and quickly spat out something to do with the “New expansive house, new facilities and new designed things.”
“That’s cool,” Polina said, came through the door and in the room. Cassie followed her. In the room, something felt oddly wrong. It was icy cold and unpleasant, making Cassie shiver slightly. Polina must’ve felt the same for she backed away from the painting, her arms crossed and shivering.
Lucy entered, followed by Jennifer, both looking rather uncomfortable.
“It’s rather chilly, don’t you think?” Jennifer asked, her voice echoing across the empty room, as she stepped towards the painting and reached out to touch it. There was an unpleasant moment in which Jennifer’s hand got closer to the drawing, then, unexpectedly, her finger barely on the frame, she leaped back, as if been struck by an electric shock, knocking over the painting on the left. The painting smashed to the floor, fragments of the glass in the frame flew in every direction.
“Sorry,” Jennifer, who had managed to keep her balance, apologized.
“What was that all about?” Lucy asked, shocked.
“I dunno, the painting felt so cold and unpleasant. It was… It felt horrible!” she exclaimed, while taking a big step away from the painting.
“What’s that?” Cassie interrupted, her eyes upon a small peace of old scrap of news paper, on the floor. It seemed to have come from the inside of the frame, form the painting which had been knocked over by Jennifer.
Leaning down, Cassie grabbed it carefully, so not to cut herself with the sharp fragments of the glass. Polina lent beside her.
“It looks like an old newspaper article,” she suggested and she was right. It was an old page out of the news paper. Cassie wiped the thick layer of dust of it and began to read out loud.
Murder in Bakily,
On the 16th January 1981, a body of a 16 year old boy, Justin had been found in his---- err… I can’t see that properly, it looks smudged.” Cassie pointed out. A lot of parts have been blacked out by old peaces of ash. Skipping though, Cassie read on.
“The investigators suggest that the weapon use against the teenager had been a knife. Justin has been stubbed harshly no less the five times, before he had been covered with patrol and lit up with the house,” Cassie paused and looked up at her shocked friends. None of them spoke, so she read on.
“Police have not yet caught the killer but are on the look out.”
The rest was brunt out. Cassie looked up again, horrified
“And what was that all about?” she asked, her voice unusually high.
No one answered. Then something stroke her. Horrified, Cassie gazed up at the painting, this time not watching the house but inside it. There was a dark shadow reflecting in the window. A shadow of a man, who’s’ arm was stretched out, a long sword like knife shape in it. Then, something else attracted her attention, the long river smooth river bed beside the house looked exactly like the one that was beside this house. Screaming out, Cassandra, leaped backwards out of the room, pointing at what she had just saw.
The other three girls had also just form the unexpecting scream. Following the point where Cassie was pointing at, all the three got what the scream was about most instantly. Quickly all four girls scurried back to the T.V. room were they had been watching a horror movie.
“Lets go home!” Cassie yelled out over the screaming panicked girls.
“I’ll call my mum! And lets get out of here” she added panic rising.
There was no protest for anyone of them, just like Cassie hoped. That was the best thing to do in their situation, for Cassie had lived the closest to this house and would be the quickest to get there. Immediately she grabbed her self phone and pressed in her mother’s mobile number.
“Hello?” Mrs Wilson’s soft voice answer the phone and the next thing Cassie yelled for her mother to pick her up immediately. Mrs Wilson agreed, quicker then ever, sounding just as panicked and worried.
The girls attempted to calm themselves, yet only succeeded a tiny bit and to help them they turn on a cartoon. Going outside was also very frightening to them for the river did not make them any calmer especially when it was completely dark and nothing was visible. The four best friends sat silently, breathing fast, yet trying hard not to show how much they were horrified. A lot of questions poured upon Cassandra.
Was this the house that Justin had died in? And the picture, why did it change? Has the mystery was solved, the murder case?
But her thought were interrupted by another sound, which was coming from the corridor beside their room.
“Who is that?” Lucy asked horrified.
“Can it be your mother already?” Polina asked her voice high and horrified.
It was impossible for her mother to come so quickly, for she has called only a few minutes before.
“I…I dunno” Cassie replied. She knew she had to check weather it was. Slowly she moved towards the door and peered through the shell. The corridor looked dark and empty, though on the other side, at the other door, the light was lit, shining its rays though the shells bellow and on the side of it. A shadow was seen from bellow the other side doors. A shadow of a teenage boy and in his hand, a knife…
Screaming Cassie backed off and broke into a run. Lucy, Polina and Jennifer followed. Once out of the room, they ran faster then ever, though none except Cassie knew what was behind the corridor. They didn’t know where they were running; the only thing they knew was that they had to run away from that other corridor were someone with a knife had been standing. Quickly, Cassandra ran into a room that she had wished to never see, the room with three paintings. More scared then ever, Cassie turned to the main picture, of the beautiful house and had nearly passed out at the sight of what she saw. Red bloody writing upon the picture read,
“MY blood was fleshed upon this painting, and so will yours. And in the edge of the corner, a small number fifteen carved into the frame.”
Screaming, the girls ran for it. Footsteps echoed behind them, they ran faster then they ever have. Just to run away from the house was all they wanted. Far, far away… The footsteps got louder and louder meaning the one they were running from got closer and closer. The exit door was now visible in a short distance. Just as about to grab the handle a swing it open, Cassie tripped over and landed flat on her stomach. Lucy and Jennifer haven’t notice but Polina who had been the closest stoped and help her up. They opened the door to the outside and shot out of it. Just as they were out they heard the door form behind the room blast open. Screaming the girl kept on running and unexpectedly heard a loud ear splitting noise coming form their right.
Cassie span on her heels and at what she saw, she couldn’t be more relieved. A small white car stopped right behind Jennifer, nearly crushing right into her and in the front seat sat Mrs Wilson, who looked very shocked, but no where near as shocked as the girls.
They scrabbled into the car and shut the door while yelling “DRIVE,” to Mrs Wilson whom knew that to obey would be the right thing to do, so she sped off on the road of Comirwod Street.
Two weeks later…
“Are you ok?” asked Mrs Wilson, anxiously, while eyeing her daughter.
“Yeah,” Cassie beamed and sat up slightly, to be able to make eye contact with her mother.
She was more then alright… She was safe now, in a hospital, with her mother, and her friends, who were lying near by. The house had been burnt down, giving her more reasons to feel safe, yet she never found out who had been the teenage boy. Was it just a killer or the boy who got murdered, for she had clearly memorized him before leaving the house. The same face of the newspaper article and him. Its sounded impossible, and could’ve been her eyes tricking her, yet were they and was it really impossible?
She didn’t find out, for the police hadn’t either. The day the police had arrived, they found nothing broken glass and blood, though the picture that turned back to the burning old house. That seemed pretty impossible too didn’t it? So what is possible that could’ve happen? Nobody ever knew…
By Kamila Nelson
Contributed by: Sofia, Joey and Shetaal☺