#day14 thriller
For@mysme-fictober2020prompt list
Day 14: Thriller
“I don’t like this.” Saeran held his brother’s hand as they walked through the deserted house.
“I know Saeran, but we have to be quiet OK?” Saeyoung tried to stay calm for his brother, but his own heart was pounding straight through his chest. Their bare feet made no noise as they plodded along the hallway, the cold wooden floor beneath them.
Saeran began to sob silently and Saeyoung pulled him closer. “It’s going to be OK. You don’t have to be scared.”
“What if she finds us? She’s going to hurt us.” His body began to tremble.
“She won’t find us.”
“She always finds us.”
Saeyoung couldn’t deny that statement, they’d tried to run away at least ten times in their short lives, and somehow, she had always managed to know where they were hiding. This time Saeyoung felt sure she wouldn’t be able to track them, unless she had them chipped, which he wouldn’t put past her. This had to work. Saeran wouldn’t survive another year at the rate their mother had been beating him. Their biggest threat was Saeran himself. He was still weak and hurt. He was pretty sure Saeran’s wrist was fractured.
The night before their mother had been in a drunken rage. Saeyoung had been out, getting more alcohol for her. When he had returned, he’d found Saeran on the floor of their bedroom, bloody and bruised. He hadn’t even been crying, used to this treatment as he was.
“Come on Saeran, let’s find a room and get some sleep.”
“I’m not tired. I’m too scared to sleep. This place is creepy, I don’t like it here.” Saeran held his hand to his chest but let Saeyoung guide him further.
“I know, but I don’t think she would come looking for us here. Nobody comes in here.”
“Because it’s haunted.”
“That’s what they say, but it’s nonsense, silly superstition.”
“Feels haunted.” Saeran said, his voice barely audible even in the silence of the deep night.
Saeyoung opened a door into what he assumed used to be a bedroom. There was a dresser with missing drawers and a single nightstand.
“Here. We’ll stay in here for tonight.” Saeyoung settled Saeran into a corner and took off his backpack pulling out a small blanket. He shoved himself as close to Saeran as he could and settled the threadbare blanket over them both. Tomorrow he would try and find help for Saeran. He put his arm around his little brother and pulled him close. It wasn’t going to be comfortable, but it was all they had. Regardless of his earlier assertion, Saeran was soon fast asleep, head on Saeyoung’s shoulder.
Although he meant to stay awake and alert throughout the night, in order to protect his little brother, Saeyoung was soon deep in slumber as well.
“Children.” The woman whispered. Her flowing white gown flittered around her as if caught in a windstorm of which there was no sign. She was indistinct and transparent.
“Kill them and be done with it.” The man at her side smirked and turned away, he loathed children.
“Nonsense, they simply need to rest. Look, that one is hurt.” There was concern in her voice.
“Who cares.”
“They’ve suffered so much.”
“All the more reason to kill them and put them out of their misery.”
“Perhaps you’re right, and if they did die here, they could stay forever. I could take care of them.” The woman was suddenly rather excited. The man however, suddenly not so enthusiastic about murdering the children.
Saeyoung sprang to his feet, amber eyes wide, red hair in disarray. He pulled a knife from his pocket and held it before him.
“Stand back!” he screamed. Saeran jerked awake at the sudden movement of his brother and shrank against the wall as he saw what stood before him.
“Do not worry my child. Release is at hand. You need not suffer any longer.” The woman’s jaw unhinged, blood dripping from her mouth, rotting teeth visible along with a blackened and thick tongue. Saeran began to weep in terror. Saeyoung’s bladder let loose but he was beyond feeling. He reached behind him and caught Saeran’s shirt. He did his best to pull him up and stand in front of him.
“Oh bloody hell woman move!” the man shoved his face an inch from Saeyoung’s, the skin on half his face sliding off, one eye dangling and looking downwards. He grinned grotesquely and said, “Boo!”
The twins screamed and Saeyoung pulled Saeran behind him, running straight through both apparitions and out into the night.
