2110

Writing Prompt: You move into a new house, and everything seems perfect at first. But as the nights go by, you start hearing eerie whispers and footsteps from the attic. When you finally gather the courage to investigate, you discover a chilling message written in blood.

Genre: Psychological Thriller

~ ~ ~

Last Friday was a happy day for Adrian. It wasn't until five days later that he realised it would be his last for a long time.

The ten year old boy crept up the stairs, praying that it would not creak and give his position away. His palm occasionally muted the flashlight as he crouched behind a wall, listening intently to the sound.

Tap... tap... tap...

There was no mistaking it. The footsteps were definitely coming from the attic. Adrian used his other hand to support the back of his flashlight and slowed down his breathing. There was a burglar in this mansion; he was sure of it. And he was going to catch him tonight.

The boy burst in with a yell, his torch sweeping the empty room.

He put his flashlight down, still treading the ground carefully. Loud clunking sounds echoed around the room as Adrian dragged aside the musty boxes and swung the cupboards open violently.

Nobody was there.

Adrian squatted on the floor, dropping his torch as he buried his face in his hands. He was really hoping to find the source of his sleepless nights this time. Exhaustion hit him once more as he silently berated his parents for choosing this house.

He remembered moving into this mansion only five days ago. His parents, for reasons they saw ill to disclose to a child, had managed to get the keys to a ten-acre mansion. Despite only having five members in his family, Adrian was beside himself with joy to be moving into such a huge house.

That was, until the first night fell.

Incessant footsteps and whisperings- that only he seemed to be able to hear- haunted his sleepless nights. Perhaps it was just a nightmare, he thought to himself initially. Perhaps those were merely rats scurrying around, he tried to get himself to believe. But it never changed the fact that the sounds were still there every night.

It only took the boy three sleepless nights to begin wandering around the house in an attempt to find the source of the noise. He had tried complaining to his parents, but they merely shrugged it off for some reason. And so it was up to him to solve his own problems.

"Adrian..."

The boy turned around at the sudden whispering behind him. He jumped back at the figure staring back at him, only to realise it was just a mirror.

A mirror that had a message on it.

"Two, One, One, Zero..." Adrian breathed to himself, ignoring the huge 'MURDERER' scrawled beside the cryptic message. "Those numbers again... What does it mean?"

"Adrian, what are you doing here?" A much more embodied voice caught his attention. He turned to the boy standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Oh, it's nothing. Go back to bed, Yuri."

Adrian turned back at the attic one last time before closing the door quietly. His eyebrows knitted with determination. He was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what it took.

~ ~ ~

The next morning came quickly for a change. Laughter filled the air as Adrian darted around the garden, narrowly escaping the outstretched fingers of his brother. He bounded away in glee, not noticing the shadow creeping from behind him.

"Gotcha! You're it, you're it!" His youngest brother hopped away from him victoriously.

"I've got longer legs, Tao. I'll catch you in no time!" Adrian giggled, leaping towards the seven-year-old boy. Tao and Yuri ran in circles around him as their eldest brother flung his arms wildly in an attempt to touch them.

"Can't touch this! Can't..." Yuri's voice trailed away as a black sedan pulled up in the driveway. The brothers fell silent immediately as their parents flung the door open, stomping up to the children.

Adrian's eyes widened in horror as his father yanked Yuri by his hair violently and dragged the screaming boy up the stairs.

He scrambled back into the house just as an alarmingly loud thud echoed around the corner. The boy tumbled into the kitchen just in time to see his mother holding his brother's legs down. His father picked up a frying pan and swung it across Yuri's bloodied face.

"No! Please stop!" Adrian pleaded, falling to his knees at the man's feet. "What did he do to deserve this?"

The boy gurgled as a rough hand caught his neck and threw him to the floor. He coughed, pushing himself back to his feet.

"The question is, what will you do to save him?" His mother's voice was cold, yet blanketed by cruel sadism. Adrian stretched his hands out desperately as the woman brought a cleaver to his brother's knees.

"The numbers, Adrian!" his father barked, holding up his phone which had the numbers 'two one one zero' on it. "What are these numbers for?!"

"I don't know, I don't know!" Adrian shook his head frantically. "Why do you keep asking me that?"

"Perhaps some blood will jog your memory, boy." His mother raised the blade as Yuri whimpered in fear.

"Wait, stop! Please..." Adrian held his mother's hand to stop her from bringing it down. "Give me some time to think. Please, I just-"

"Too late."

The boy crashed hard against the wall as his father kicked him aside effortlessly.

"No..." he groaned, fighting the dizziness that racked his head and the sharp pain in his gut. He struggled to lift his head. "Yuri-"

There was a sickening crunch accompanied by a splatter of blood on his face. A bloodcurdling scream of agony came a second later as his brother rolled around, clutching the stump that ended at his knee. Metal flooded his olfactory senses as blood spurted out uncontrollably, pooling the kitchen floor. Bile rose in Adrian's throat, but he was still too shocked to even physically react.

"Useless." His parents left the kitchen, leaving the boy in his daze.

Adrian crawled to his younger brother. Yuri was now whimpering like a frightened puppy, his body trembling as though he had been left in the winter cold with no clothes on. Tears rolled down Adrian's face as he held the boy's rapidly paling face.

"I'm so sorry..." he choked. "I couldn't..."

"Remember, Adrian..." Yuri breathed raggedly. "You must... remember..."

And his lifeless body toppled to the ground.

~ ~ ~

Adrian found himself back in the attic again. Sure enough, the footsteps and whisperings started up again when night fell. He sat on the floor, hugging his knees close to himself while he waited for the numbers to appear on the mirror.

Ever since his family moved into the house, his parents had been unusually obsessed over that particular string of numbers. Adrian was almost sure now that this mansion was haunted by some kind of ghost that had turned his two loving parents into violent monsters overnight.

The first stroke wrote itself on the mirror. The boy scrunched up his face in focus. He will get to the bottom of this, not just to save himself from sleepless nights but also to save his parents from this mansion's horrors.

Adrian got up again, walking closer to the mirror. The string of numbers was still there, but the message that accompanied it was different.

'YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT ME' was written on the mirror this time, although it still gave him no clue as to what the numbers meant. Adrian pounded his fists on the floor in frustration as he racked his mind. The numbers were familiar, that was for sure. But he just could not seem to recall their significance, almost as if something was clogging up his memories.

He looked up at the mirror again and almost fell back in shock.

His reflection was contorted into an inhumanly wide grin now. Fear gripped him as his senses screamed for him to get out, but his feet brought him closer to the mirror. Adrian's eyes glazed over, almost as though he was in a trance, and he raised his hand. His palm touched the cold metal.

A sharp pain shot through his head.

Images flashed in his mind. The sound of a woman screaming in anguish, the sharp snapping of firecrackers, the sizzle of flesh burning, a faceless man groaning in agony. A briefcase with the number '2110'.

His mind cleared, and Adrian found himself back in the attic, panting with both knees on the floor. Confusion swirled in his mind, though it was the least of his worries compared to the intense dizziness spinning the entire room around him.

His eyes rolled back, and he flopped onto the ground.

~ ~ ~

An intense wailing woke him up the next morning. Adrian's eyes shot open, and he jumped to his feet. He scrambled out of the attic as he brushed the cobwebs from his hair, almost tripping over the long flight of stairs in his haste. The pained cries were getting louder.

Oh no... No... no... no...

The boy rushed forward, pushing the man aside right before his feet could stomp on his brother's face. He tried to reach for Tao, but his mother dragged the small boy away from him. A jolt of pain lanced through his back as he felt a sharp kick to his kidneys. Adrian heard a sharp screaming noise. It took him a moment to realise it was coming from himself.

"The numbers, Adrian! What do they mean?!"

"Again with these numbers," Adrian growled. "I already told you, I don't know! Stop hurting Tao!"

"Liar!" his mother yelled. "You know, you little thief! You stole our blessing!"

"What are you talking about, Mom?" Adrian shouted back. "I didn't steal anything! I-"

Tao's scream cut him off. Adrian turned to him in horror, watching the boy grasp at his rapidly blistering face. His mother swung the now emptied boiling kettle against his head, knocking the child to the ground. Tao crawled painfully between weak sobs, leaking tears from eyes he no longer had.

"No... Why did you do that?!" Adrian roared at his parents.

A cold rush flushed through his spine, flooding his entire body with white, cold fury. He panted, feeling his body tremble under the unimaginable strain of holding his rage in. He wanted nothing more than to kill his parents, to torture them for murdering his brothers. The boy took a step forward-

And he screamed in agony.

Adrian fell to his knees as more memories flashed before his eyes.

~ ~ ~

"Comms check. Copy that, ready to move out."

Adrian was almost shocked at how deep his voice was. He tried craning his neck to look for a mirror, but his gaze remained still. There was a woman wearing a hijab in front of him, looking around nervously. She was clutching a briefcase tightly, and he felt his eyes lock onto it for an unusually long moment.

"Agent Davis, ya feeling alright there? You look a little green around the gills." Adrian turned to face an Asian looking soldier and felt his face form a wry smile.

"Just a little nervous, Sergeant Ito," he replied. "This mission has been going suspiciously smoothly."

"That's because you've got the nation's top two divisions backing you up! Ain't that right, Yuri?" A cheery sounding man gave him a thumbs up. He was dressed in a tactical-looking SWAT gear with a name tag that read 'Tao Zi'.

The engine roared, and Adrian felt the gentle rumble of the vehicle take them through the desert highway. Adrian listened intently to himself making small talk with his fellow vehicle occupants to find out more about his supposed 'mission'.

Apparently, he belonged to an Intelligence organisation as a field agent. And his mission? To safely escort Sultan Malik's last surviving descendant to her new refugee home. Sultana Farah's home country had been torn apart by insurgency, and she was in possession of 'a great weapon' that could turn the tide of the war in the right hands.

"So, Adrian, any plans after this mission? Vacation in the Bahamas, perhaps?" Yuri nudged him.

"Vacation, huh? I don't think I'll be needing that." His voice sounded disturbingly ominous. Adrian's eyes flitted over to the briefcase once more-

A deafening blast stopped the vehicle in its tracks. Movement erupted around him as the soldiers scrambled to pull their weapons out.

"Contact!" Yuri yelled. "The rebels have found us!"

He rushed out of the vehicle, only to be blown back by a grenade. Adrenaline flooded Adrian as he leapt out of the military truck as well, struggling to pull Yuri to safety. The sergeant was screaming in pain, grasping his bloodied knee where the lower half of his leg had been blown off.

Adrian flinched as a rattle of bullets narrowly missed him. Yuri was not so lucky. Cursing under his breath, the agent let go of his bullet-riddled comrade and rushed over to Officer Tao Zi. He swallowed a scream as the police officer staggered around, his entire face melted off from a makeshift acid bomb. Adrian staggered backwards as Tao collapsed in front of him. Movement caught his eye, and he sprinted off.

The Sultana screamed as Adrian tackled her to the ground. He stretched for the briefcase, struggling to yank it away from the hysterical woman. This mission was a disaster, but he had had his eyes on the weapon in that briefcase for a long time. And he'll be damned if he wasn't going to seize this opportunity to take it for himself.

Sultana Farah was screaming something in her home language now, and the stubborn woman was refusing to let go. Adrian clenched his jaw in frustration, whispering a resentful prayer of forgiveness.

He pulled out his pistol and fired a few rounds into the woman's forehead. She let go immediately. The agent scrambled back to his feet, crouching under the hail of gunfire as he made a mad dash for the nearby cave.

"Two, One, One, Zero... Two, One, One, Zero..." he repeated to himself, his fingers struggling to input the combination amidst the chaos erupting around him.

"Got it!" His eyes lit up with excitement as the briefcase opened with a click. The cave loomed ahead. He was so close-

And the last thing he heard was an ear-splitting explosion before all went dark.

~ ~ ~

"Did we bring him back? Did we- Oh, thank god, he's still alive."

The footsteps and murmurings slowly grew louder until they were audible enough to be deciphered. Adrian opened his eyes slowly and immediately squinted from the glaring fluorescent lights directly above him.

A masked face came into view without warning. It startled him, but he realised he could barely move with all the bandages wrapping his body.

"What's... going on?" he managed to croak out. "I was at that mansion... and then... my parents..."

"Never did all of that to you." A soothing female voice came from the masked person. "The mental trauma of a soldier is akin to that suffered by an abused child. Our computer simulation provided that scenario to break through the barriers created by your post-traumatic stress disorder."

"What...? Why?" Adrian's eyes shot to the doctor's name tag. "My mission... What happened to my mission, Doctor Irina?"

"That's... also what we are trying to find out." The other male doctor nodded at him grimly. "Two, One, One, Zero. That was the combination to unlock the Sultana's briefcase. You're the only survivor of that bombing. What was inside that briefcase?"

"I..." Adrian's head throbbed painfully. "I can't..."

"This concerns the safety of our country, Agent Davies!" the male doctor raised his voice. "We have twenty four hours to turn over the contents of the briefcase to the rebels!"

"Spencer, calm down!" Doctor Irina shouted at her fellow doctor. "He almost went into cardiac arrest before we had to pull him out! Do you want to stress him further?"

"The rebels...?" Adrian chuckled dryly. "So we lost, huh? Well, no point for me to hide it any further then. Check the inside of my coat."

Doctor Spencer scrambled to his clothes, using a scalpel to slice the inside of the agent's jacket open.

"What?" he sputtered. "It's a book? All that for a bloody book?!"

"I should've seen it coming." Adrian rested his head, laughing in defeat. "The Sultan was always a superstitious man. To think their 'greatest weapon' would be a mere blessing inscribed in a tattered book... It's almost funny."

The lights flickered as a dull humming reverberated throughout the entire medical room. A paralysing shock surged through Adrian's body before he even realised what was happening. The man's body went limp as he fell into a deep sleep. Sparks flew around the surrounding computers as they began running again.

"What's happening?" Doctor Irina yelled over the intensifying noise. "Equipment malfunction?"

"Not possible! We cut the power to everything!" Doctor Spencer pointed at the largest computer screen. "Oh no... it's running the simulation again by itself..."

Doctor Irina seized the book from him desperately. "Agent Davies is a lost cause, but we can still save our country. We have to get this to our president immediately-"

"Irina! There are glowing words on the cover of the book!" Doctor Spencer shouted, rushing over to read the words out loud. "The greatest blessing from us-"

"-Is a curse for your enemies." Doctor Irina finished his sentence as she covered her mouth in realisation. The book crumbled into dust in front of their eyes.

And the lights went out.

~ ~ ~

The boy bounded excitedly as the metal gates swung open for them. He spun in a slow circle, taking in the luxurious sight around him.

The garden was well trimmed. The building was well decorated. And most importantly, the mansion was unbelievably huge. He turned back, waiting impatiently for his parents to finish talking to the landowner so that they could explore their new house together.

"Thank you so much for this offer, Sister Farah. We shall never forget your kindness." His mother's voice drifted to his ears.

The hijab wearing woman nodded courteously and turned to him, giving the boy a wry smile before turning to leave. Something about her gaze unnerved him slightly, but he was too excited to dwell upon it.

"Today is a happy day," Adrian thought to himself as he hopped over the door mat into his new home. A door mat which had a series of four numbers in place of the usual 'Welcome' greeting.

And it read '2110'.

END

Author's Note

This story was inspired by 'Ghosts Of War, a 2020 British Supernatural Horror Film directed by Eric Bress.

A classic tale of mystery and psychological exploration, I aimed to build the suspense gradually without giving away the twist prematurely. By opting to reveal the plot via a dreamy haze of memories as well as purposeful sloppy storytelling at the beginning, I hoped to hint that the supernatural happenings may not have been reality at all.