By: The Banner Staff

As Alice stepped into the new house her parents had bought, it didn’t feel quite ‘new’ as she thought it would be. The smell of old oak wood and chipped wallpaper kind of spooked her. 

But, what frightened her the most were the closets. Somehow, every closet had a mini door that led to nowhere once it opened.

The sound of the creaking door was frightening. It made Alice want to keep her eyes shut as she passed by each of the closets. 

However, something odd happened when she passed the one by her bedroom. She heard a faint whisper, as if the air was speaking to her. 

But it wasn’t the air that wanted to strike up a conversation. Behind one peculiar door she had opened, the darkness welcomed her. 

An uneven porcelain jar placed precariously on a shelf was calling for someone, anyone…her.  

Alice was drawn to the voice and somehow she found herself stepping into the darkness. She reached for the jar that provided the only light in the room, with her hands shaking. 

Suddenly the air became cold and the whispers became louder, beckoning Alice to open the jar. 

Alice shivered. “Open it Alice,” the ghostly voices whispered over and over again. Alice could not contain herself. 

When she twisted the jar open, she was blinded by an ungodly light, and then, Alice heard the most blood curdling scream she ever heard in her life.  

Heart pounding fast, Alice dropped the jar. Glass shattered everywhere as she rushed out of the house panicking and gasping for air. 

In the few seconds that followed, she proceeded to hear the most horrifying sound coming from the house.

Alice stared, gapingly, at the house, trying to piece together what could have possibly made such a vile noise. It sounded like someone was being torn apart, limbs being ripped apart one at a time… Foolishly, she made her way back to her front door, opened it cautiously, and crept back inside. 

The state of her first floor seemed absolutely normal, the noise had seemingly completely disappeared. Finding herself rather parched, she walked into her kitchen for a glass of water and suddenly became so startled from the sight that greeted her eyes that she fell backwards, knocked her head against a wall and fainted.

After a few minutes of being unconscious on the floor, Alice woke up rather confused and lost as to why she was on the floor with a massive migraine. 

Alice sat up straight on the floor trying to gather herself before getting back up. As she was rubbing her head to alleviate the pain, she started to look around for anything that would lead her to any conclusion as to what happened to her. 

As she screamed in the kitchen from right to left, she noticed something rather peculiar and most frightening, the stairs leading up to her bedroom upstairs had huge nail scratches on the wall leading upstairs.

 Suddenly her whole life flashed before her eyes and all negative thoughts were now rushing through her entire shaking, cold body. 

“Come and see me, Alice,” an eerie voice called softly and she knew, inexplicably, that this voice was responsible for the scratches on the wall. 

Her rational thoughts, the ones screeching at her to run and never look back at the cursed home, were locked in a little box, like the maroon one her dear mother had bought her for her jewelry. Just as disembodied voices compelled her to open the porcelain jar, the echoed whisper from the unknown creature upstairs had assumed command over her body and innermost thoughts. 

Her feet moved forward, one in front of the other like she was sleepwalking until she stepped onto the creaky, carpeted stairs.  

She made her way up the stairs, her heart beating faster with each step. Her mind felt hazy and the staircase was blurry as she made her way up. 

Once she reached the top of the stairs, she regained control over herself, her vision came back, clear as day. 

There was a moment of silence before the whispering came back.

“In here, Alice, we’re waiting for you,” the voice lightly whispered as the door to her room creaked open. The room was completely dark except for a sliver of neon pink light leading up to the closet. 

She stood, frozen in place, she couldn’t believe this was real, that any of it was real. Alice shut her eyes tightly, she stood at the top of the stairs, shaking her head back and forth with her fingers plugging her ears. 

“This isn’t real!” she yelled out. She stopped and peeked out of one eye, her bedroom door was shut. 

Slowly she opened both eyes and walked towards the door.  

With a trembling hand, Alice finally opened the door. The first thing she saw were several scratch marks on the wall.

They were so large and so deep that there was hardly any wallpaper left. 

Her eyes widened in horror once she saw that parts of her walls were splattered with blood. Upon seeing the sight in front of her, she took a few steps backwards. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that someone was laying on her bed. Their entire body was covered in her purple blanket. 

Somehow, she mustered enough courage to walk over to her bed. With her heart beating in her chest, she grabbed the corner of the blanket, closed her eyes, and pulled it off the body. 

She opened her eyes and noticed that her bed was soaked in blood. The body that was laying there was a splitting image of her. 

She was even wearing the same yellow sundress that she was wearing. Her throat was slashed from ear to ear, almost to the point of being decapitated. She recoiled away from the body, her mind trying to process what was happening…

Then she hears the voice, echoing inside her head. “We’re coming for you Alice!” Then, she let out a piercing scream.