Not Alone

Five paranormal investigators are trapped in a dilapidated house after the ceiling collapses. However, one of them may not be themselves....

     Well, we’re doomed, Zach thought. We never should have come here.

Five friends sat in an old, sparsely furnished, Victorian-esque room, everything they had brought stripped of them. They had come to this house because of a few stories circulating around the town. Stories of shadowy figures, and orbs, and floating objects. Aaron was the one who had come up with the idea of investigating. Aaron. He had once been the most comical out of all of them, with his permanent smile and mischievous glint in his eye. Not any more. After they were separated, everyone’s hope was lost, purloined by traumatic events. Now, they just sat, not sure what to do. Ryder was in the corner, nervous and jumpy as ever. Jael sat on an old, ornate fainting couch, leaning forward, lost in thought. Aaron and Zach both sat on the bed, backs to each other. Josh leaned on the wall, scowl still plastered on his face. He had been forced into this. They had dared him to come with them, even though he didn’t believe in any stupid ghosts. And now look at them. They had already searched for exits. The front door was blocked by the collapse that had separated them. They found no back door. All the windows were locked and boarded up, inside and out. Upstairs was out of the question. Judging by how easily part of the ceiling had collapsed into the foyer, someone could fall through the floor. So they just sat, terrified, listening to the noises that radiated throughout the house. Suddenly, things took an extreme turn. The temperature in the room dropped by about ten degrees. Everyone looked around, shivering, nervous.

“Do you guys feel that?” Ryder asked, not really needing an answer. Jael hugged her arms. After a minute or two, the temperature rose again, but only slightly. Something wasn’t right.

“Okay,” Aaron said. “That was weird.” No one answered. No one seemed to notice that Ryder now sat more straight, no longer fidgeting nervously.

      They all sat in silence for a moment. Zach spoke up. “Jael, remember how when we walked in, you said you could sense something?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you still sense it?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. But……”

“But what?”

“Now it’s…...closer.”

“How close?”

“......in this room.”

Every eye in the room darted around, terrified. Josh’s scowl turned to a look of terror, eyes wide. Aaron’s gaze suddenly fixated on a large vase on a shelf next to Ryder. Then, without warning, the vase suddenly shattered, glass shards flying in every direction. Everyone dove down, arms over their heads, shrieking. Jael was the first to look up, but regretted it when she saw the sliver of glass buried in the wall above her, right where her face had been.

“Okay, clearly something is messing with us,” Josh yelled, infuriated.

“Josh, just calm dow-”

“CALM DOWN?!” Josh lost it. “How am I supposed to calm down?! We are trapped in an old, falling down house, there are no exits, vases are exploding, and there’s some ghost in here with us!”

Aaron nodded. “He’s got a poin--.....wait a minute.” He looked at Josh skeptically. “Since when do you believe in that stuff?”

“What?”

“Last time I checked, you were an avid skeptic in all things paranormal.”

“We--I---I…..” Josh thought for a moment. “I guess all this that’s happened has…..uh….opened my mind a little.”

“Hmm.” Suddenly, something dawned on Aaron. His face fell, as though he had made a terrifying breakthrough.

“What?” Josh asked.

“Aw, jeez…..okay, remember how the temperature dropped?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s say, just for the moment, that it was an entity coming into the room, alright?”

“Okay…..”

“So, the temperature dropped, but then went back up slightly, not like it left the room, but……”

“But…..what?”

Then, Zach had the same thought. “Like it went into someone.” The realization came to everyone else. For that moment, someone could’ve dropped a pin, and it would be heard throughout the house. Jael broke the silence.

“So, if that’s true…..”

Zach beat her to it. “Someone here may not be who they say they are.”

      For a long while, nothing happened. They all just sat, shooting distrustful looks at one another. Jael kept fiddling with her glasses, something she never did. Zach suddenly perked up.

“Alright, I have an idea. There’s one exit we didn’t try looking for.” All eyes turned on him. “A basement. Usually, in these old houses, there’s some kind of cellar with an exit that leads outside. If we can find one, we’ll be out of here.” Aaron stood up and looked at him suspiciously.

“How do we know this isn’t some kind of plan to split us all up?”

“Hey, yeah….” Jael continued. “What if we all break up, and whoever’s not actually--”

Josh joined in. “Yeah, Zach how do we--”

Ryder was still sitting in the corner, covering her ears from all the noise.

“Okay, NO ONE IS SPLITTING UP!” Zach yelled, exasperated. They all fell silent. “We’ll stay together. CLOSE together.” He suddenly sighed and put his head in his hands. “Look at us. One minute, we’re all friends, we all trust each other, the next none of us trust anyone. This is ridiculous.”

Jael stood up. She walked over and put her hand on Zach’s shoulder. “That was a good plan, Zach. We’re sorry.” Aaron was about to retaliate, but she shot him a scathing look. “Let’s go. It might be our only chance of getting out of here.” All of them got up. As they trudged out of the room, though, no one seemed to notice the fact that Jael’s skin was significantly more pale…

      Things went downhill, as far as trust goes. They started in one direction, Ryder in back, Zach in the lead, as always. However, they somehow, some way, always found themselves back at the collapse. Josh started to get suspicious.

“Zach, how do we know that you’re not leading us right back he---”

Zach exploded. “Okay, you know what, Josh?! You don’t. You don’t know if I’m some kind of entity using this body as a shell. I can deny it all I want, but you won’t trust me. That’s just the way it is. Let’s just all accept that. Sure, we have to be careful, but we don’t have to second-guess everything!” Josh fell silent. “Okay,” Zach said more calmly. “Let’s try a different way. Let’s try…” He pointed to their right. “That way.” They all followed him. Eventually, they came to the kitchen. They poked their heads in and looked around. It was a small, simple room with a counter on the left wall, a stove on the far wall, and a large rug on the floor.“Alright,” Zach said. “Let’s look in here.” After a few minutes, Jael lifted up the rug to find a large trapdoor with an iron handle. She called everyone over. Once they were gathered, Jael grabbed the handle and slowly pulled open the door, struggling to hold it’s weight. Once it was opened, it revealed a set of old stairs covered in cobwebs leading down into darkness. A small draft blew out of it, carrying up dust clouds. Jael coughed a swept her hand forward grandly.

“After you.”

They all trudged down the stairs, Zach in the lead, Josh in the back. Jael came in last and shut the door behind them. Immediately, they were plunged into pure darkness.

“If there is an exit down here,” Ryder said glumly, “how are we supposed to find it?”

“Easy,” Zach said. “Look for light.”

They all fumbled around in the dark, feeling their ways around. In the darkness, no one noticed Zach’s glazed over expression….

      Immediately, everything went wrong. The sound of someone being struck was heard, followed by a cry from Jael. Zach wheeled around. He was about to call for Jael when a rush of air flew past his face, as though someone had tried to strike him, too. He ran in the other direction, calling for the group.

“GUYS! THERE’S SOMETHING IN HERE!”

Sounds of scuffling were heard. Suddenly, Zach looked to his left and saw a faint glimmer of light.

A window.

“I FOUND A WINDOW! I FOUND A WINDOW!”

Everyone ran in the direction of Zach’s voice. Aaron tripped over something. He knelt and felt the object. He could feel a face, and something plastic, like glasses.

It’s Jael.

Scooping her up, he bolted for the window everyone was now climbing out of. It was a tight squeeze, but everyone made it out. In no time, they were all standing on the waist-deep lawn in broad daylight. Everyone celebrated. Some ran and whooped and jumped. Ryder broke down and cried from sheer relief. Zach took one look at Jael and gasped.

“Guys!”

Everyone rushed over. Jael looked as though she had taken a beating. A large bruise was forming on the side of her face, and a trickle of blood came from within her hair, most likely from her fall.

“We’re going to have to get her to the hospital,” Aaron said. All of them rushed to the van. As they were about to climb in, Zach noticed something. Someone was missing. He turned back towards the house. Josh was standing in the middle of the yard, arms at his sides, with a grim smile on his face.

“Josh?”

But Josh only laughed, and dissolved into mist.

Author's Note

This is one of the stories I'm less proud of, but I'd still like to post it just to get feedback. I wrote this a bit of a while ago. I'm rather new to writing a a hobby, so please don't judge me too harshly.