Leaving the blue Corolla on the roadside with blinkers on, both the hooded guys ran towards the fields. They could still hear the sirens in the distance. Stopped to catch his breath, Rob’s eyes met the old mansion, all he could mutter “Holy shit!! I am not going in there.” The Boltmoor Residence was the only building in sight for as far they could see. “This is the only way, come on now!!” said Brad in a huffing and commanding voice. The mansion was dark grey with no lighting in and around. When they reached closer Brad said, “I have already got it figured out, there has been no one residing here since ages. The property management guys come once a month, we have the whole building to us for the whole week.”
The Boltmoor Residence was standing tall on a big parcel of land. The nearest village was a few kilometers from the place. The building was dilapidated and was merely kept standing by the realtors in hope of getting big money out of the sale one day. Old Bobbins from the nearby village already nearing 90 is the only survivor from the Boltmoor working staff. When asked about the mansion all he manages to say, “God saved me from the monsta...” with air skipping through his leftover teeth. As per the old folk, there are no monsters living in the mansion, the mansion is the monster. There were no claimants to the property for none of the residents survived. The original heirs, the Boltmoor brothers killed each other, while the later generations died of diseases, and some committed suicide. What puzzled people the most was back to back suicides of the two children. As Bobbins says “Rose and Mary the twin sisters, they were so fond of each other that when one jumped from the fifth floor, the other followed the same act, exactly at the same time, the very next week.” The house was evil everyone knew so nobody dared pass by it.
With a sharp shattering sound Brad broke the windowpane, unlocked the latch, and entered the building, Rob followed him hesitatingly hissing “why do we have to enter this ghastly place, I am already feeling unwell.”
The place was extremely quiet as if the building was soundproof. It was dark inside only the moonlight entered through the panes giving dim visibility to the inside. Brad pointed to Rob, “I am staying here, go and make a quick survey around so we can be sure of it.”
Rob was hesitant, but Brad was the boss, so he followed the instructions. Bob took out a torch from his pocket and went up the stairs cautiously. The mansion had been there for centuries, the furniture was mostly antique. A wooden staircase went up in a curve and split into two sides from the middle, a look towards the top floor gave Rob a slight feeling of vertigo. Rob had been in a number of thefts with Brad, but it was the first time he wasn’t feeling right. He checked his watch, it was 10 minutes past 9, and here in this place, it felt like it’s midnight. He will not stay for more than a day in this house. Screw Brad, he will run out on his own with his share. He walked up the stairs with sounds from the old wood, he looked back at Brad who was busy with his bag, holding a gold flake in his left.
Rob climbed up the staircase and reached the middle section of the staircase, there was a painting of a family with two couples and five children all dressed in royal suits and dresses. He looked to the right, and his vision became blurred for everything else. It was as if he was being dragged to the room on the far side of the corridor. He started towards the room unmindfully, on the inside, he was feeling an urge to stop and run. He heard footsteps behind him. Rob turned back with the torch lights but there was no one. He rubbed his eyes and again continued to the room. Few more steps into the dark corridor he heard a giggle, which made him turn again, he did hear someone laugh, or is he getting mad. He kept moving now with slow steps. A hissing sound passed by his ears “Roooooooooob…”. Reaching the last door in the corridor Rob opened the door. It was completely dark. Rob focused the torch lights around and was shocked to see a young girl look at him right in the face. Her face was white, not pale just white. There was no expression on her face. She turned towards the big window, pulled the glasses up, and just toppled down without moving a leg. Rob shouted “No!!”, but he was hardly heard. Rob ran and looked down from the window, it was dark, there was nothing he could see. Rob tried with his torch lights, but the torch went off and won’t go on. Rob hit the torch again with his right hand to no result. A cupboard door opened behind him in a creeping sound. Rob turned back with fear, all light there in the room was moonlight, he could see the open cupboard but inside was pitch black. A sound came from his right “Run….Now.” He looked to the right another girl of the same size and looks were staring with fear and worry, she again said, “Run…Now”. Rob started running towards the door he came from, the door closed on its own with a jolt. Rob’s heart throbbed hard. He tried to hit the door hard but to no result. The sound of liquid being poured from the outside started to come from the outside. Rob looked towards his feet, his shoes were soaked in red-black liquid, it was blood. Rob moved back now the trying to get away from the stream of blood trying to get to him. He moved back and hit his head against the cupboard and fell to the floor.
Downstairs, Brad after counting the spoils wrapped his bag and lit another Gold Flake. It had been quite some time since Rob had left, he should have been back by now. Brad lit another gold flake and looked around. The gargoyles on the top of the building were looking outwards. It's such a waste that nobody wants to live in such a wonderful place. He turned to the inside the wall clock on his head was working but showing wrong time. The big chandelier seemed pricey. He could even sell this stuff to the Ralph store the only pawn shop in the city. The owner was his friend, he had sold so much old crap to him that he took from the thefts.
Then a thud..sound came from upstairs. Brad looked, up the way Rob went, he thought in his head "this guy is such a sissy, should have brought someone else along like that boy Miguel, a wiggly fellow from the neighborhood." But out of all his earlier accomplices, Rob had proved to be the most trustworthy. This business needs a lot of trusts, it's always a possibility that one of the partners gets caught and the other has run with the spoils. The spoils need to be divided when the time comes.
Thinking of this he tried to move towards the way Rob went, but something held him from moving. He looked behind to find his jacket pulled by a string coming from some distance, Brad tried to pull and break the string, but it was sharp like a glass-coated string. His finger got a sharp cut “Ohh! Shit,” Brad snapped his hand. Blood started to drip from the cut. Brad sucked his finger to stop the flow of blood. To Brad’s surprise, the string was pulled towards the door on his left. Brad moved towards the door pulling himself towards the string. It was from the basement, following the string Brad went straight to the basement door. Down the basement stairs, Brad took out a torch from his back pocket and held it in his mouth. Brad tried to focus on the source of the string, but it was too dark for a torchlight. Brad kept moving downstairs. Reaching the basement Brad seemed to have found the source, it was dark Brad went ahead and focused the torchlight in the far corner it was a bare cut-off hand lying on the floor and pulling the string. He rocked back “Holy hell” and fell on his back. Trying to get back up he felt hundreds of threads sliding and gripping all over his body. He couldn’t get up. Brad shouted the name of the only other person who was there with him in the mansion “Rob! Help Me, Help me, Rob! Roooob..”
Awakened to someone calling his name, Rob woke up from asleep. It felt like a bad dream but his head was still in pain and he was still there lying in the last room of the top floor of the Boltmoor Residence. He heard the sound coming from a distance calling for help. Rob got up heard a voice in his head “you can’t help him, save yourself.” There was no one around. Rob started running in a flash and hit his whole body against the door in full force. Like a glitter, in the darkness, the door opened hitting against the railings on the sides. Rob shouted “I am here”, but there was no one in there. Brad’s cries appeared to come from the basement more like the horrorstruck shrieking now. Rob going downstairs ran towards the basement door left ajar by his friend. Rob saw Brad’s lighter on the floor and picked it up while continued to move. On the way in the glass, he could see the reflection of children two girls and three boys giggling. He looked to the other side there was no one there. Rob warned in a loud sound “This place is full of crap, we got to get out of here.” When Rob reached the basement he lit up the lighter to find the whole royal family from the photograph, standing silently looking at something on the roof. To his amazement, there was a big axe tied to the roof, like the ones they used to slaughter bulls or buffaloes. All of a sudden the axe fell down on something, and it cut and rolled near his leg. Rob lit the lighter again to see what was the object and was taken aback to see Brad’s head lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Brad in his last words said, “save yourself.”
Rob in no time sprinted back up the stairs to the hall where all the doors and clocks were waving and making loud horrendous sounds. He tried to remember the window they came in from. It was there in the corner, the only still piece in the building at the moment. Rob ran to the window hitting and toppling over a thousand things on the way, but he ran. Jumping out of the window the broken glass even scratched through his thighs. His jeans soaked in the red color from the wound, but it was a run for his life. After running for few miles away from the house, he clung to a tree with his lungs gasping for air. Brad’s cutoff head was still haunting him. He fell on his knees and cried out loud. A few steps behind him was a broken fence with a signboard on it ‘Boltmoor Residence, Private Property, Trespassers will be prosecuted’