The following story has a new ending that i'm trying out so it is

Isolated Fear

The clatter of the highway seemed a good temporary relief to the torment inside myself. Everyone has their bad days, but it seems when I have my bad days they last for more than a day. My bad day led to a bad week, which extended into a bad month then finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I got into my car and drove. I didn’t pack. I didn’t tell anyone. I just left. It had to be the most spontaneous event that I had ever done. I needed a new life. Especially one without her for she was the cause of all this. Before, my life was simple. I was in love and I couldn’t be happier but even I knew in that that couldn’t last forever, no matter how hard I tried. I displayed to everyone that I was content with what life had thrown at me but inside I was a liar.

My plan had been a success so far and I was feeling majestic already. I was going to start anew. All was good until I looked at the instrument readings on the dashboard and the fuel gage needle was deeply below the “E” which now stood for doom. Just then the engine started to sputter and with a final gasp it died. I managed to drift the car over to the designated burial ground and got out as best I could with out getting hit. If I had decided to be less spontaneous I could have gotten gas before I ran off.

I looked around at the surroundings since I felt no need at looking at the vehicle for I already knew all in which was wrong. I spotted a house way off in the distance. It was all by itself and only a dirt road lead off to it. The dirt road wasn’t too far from where I was standing so following my previous set mind frame, I decided to walk up the path and up to the little house.

The dirt path was much like to be expected, old and unused. The grass seemed to grow taller as I traveled into areas of neglect. I had past the point where the commoner did not see this part of the road so it was pointless to keep up this land. Human nature was evident even in the country. As I continued my curiosity inspired mission, I looked back and notice my car getting farther and farther behind me. I was at the midpoint now and had to decide whether to continue on or to go back and make the smart decision of trying to get back to civilization. Since intelligence was not on my side today I decided to march on.

Time rolled by and I finally arrived to the front yard of the abounded domain. Dirt had now replaced the once green lawn. The sound of the electricity running through the nearby power lines gave the house an eerie soundtrack. Two tall trees ornate the house but are now leafless and black from age. Each step I take now raises my heartbeat. Am I doing the right thing? Is there going to be a crazed homeless man inside awaiting an intruder into his territory? Or is there a senile old owner who is demented by the years alone and wielding a freshly sharpened kitchen knife? As much as my inner most voices said to turn and run I knocked on the door. The knock pushed open the door for the latch failed in its rusted state. The door creaked as it slowly opened inward. I took a slow step forward and calling out to see if anyone inhabited these old walls. Just echo replied as I took another slow step. The house was as if someone had just left one day and didn’t return. All the furnishing were left untouched like from the end of a day.

The sun had now began to set and end the natural lighting to the house. The halls were dark so I flipped open my lighter for a small source of light as I took another step in. The lighter offered a short view of what lay before me in this exploration. A large floodlight would have eased my nerves but this is all I had so it would have to do. The reasoning upon being here was still unclear but I felt a drive to move onward. I also felt a sense that I’d be attacked from behind at any moment. I just accounted this to my paranoia. The flame light made for frightening shadows from the objects that the light fell upon. Each new shape my mind twisted into a human ready for attack. I had gone through two rooms so far and was interested and terrified at the same time.

The silence, that was ever present, shock my nerves. Each creek I made sure was coming from my feet and not some one else’s. Every once and a while the wind could be heard coming through the broken windows. Each time I was startled as if it was the first time I had heard it. I was now ready to move on to the other side of the house containing the living room and the kitchen. After that I would somehow muster up the courage to go to the second floor.

I now had arrived to the living room. There were two armchairs that were strategically placed in the room. Like the rest of the house, dust and cobwebs covered all of this. A half-burned candle in a candleholder occupied the small table in front of the two chairs. I walked past the chairs and into the kitchen. It was a fairly large kitchen with a large wooden black table for chopping food and preparation. A rack hung over it with pots and other items dangling downwards. Some of the pots were actually moving. I just wrote it off to be the wind coming through the window near by but I wasn’t for sure. On that note I turned and headed towards the stairs to see if I could go up them.

The dancing flame light hits the wooden stairs and handrail as I stand before it quivering. Once again my reasoning tells me not to go up there but my curiosity won’t let me leave. If I don’t go up there I will have to leave with a sense of dissatisfaction. I had made up my mind. I was to conquer the fears inside me and walk up the stairs. I took the first step. The wood bent on my weight but seemed steady enough to support me. I continued up the stairs not know what the top looked like for the light of the flame did not reach that far. I kept climbing hoping not to find a weak board. The last step was finally in view and I could see what lay ahead after the steps. It was a hall that ran perpendicular to stairs.

There were two closed doors off to the right and a partially closed door to the left. I decided to go to the left. The door was about ten steps away from the stairs and my heartbeat once again raised with every other step. I approached the door and pushed it open. The all to familiar creek sounded as the flame light poured in the room. I took a step in. A bed and a small table by a window were now seen. I stepped closer to the bed to study it better and I couldn’t quite make something out. I took another step and I realized that I had now found the owner of the house. The dead face, deteriorated by time, stared out from the bed and back at me. I took a step backwards which drew the flame close to my finger, burning it and making me drop the lighter. I scrambled for the lighter, not wanting to be in the dark room with the known occupant. As my fingers ran along the wood floor I felt something against my arm. It felt like a griping hand, trying to keep me from the lighter. I gave up the search for the lighter and headed in the direction of the door.

* I cleared the room and went for the stairs. Missing a step, I rolled down the flight. When I hit the bottom I raised as fast I possible could and ran out the front door. As I ran down the dirt road I noticed that it was starting to rain. The drops became faster and I was now in a downpour. As I got closer to the road, I realized that my car was not at its last position. Either officials took it away or the thieves these days carry tanks of gasoline. I was already drenched and could not stay out here. *I had to get away from here. A few cars passed by and my desperation grew. The motorists could hardly see in front of them enough to drive so they didn’t even notice me. I couldn’t stay outside or I’d die of a cold. With no trees in sight that would suffice shelter me, I had only the choice of going back into the dreaded house.

Once again I made my way up the beaten path and into the house. I was now dripping wet and shivering. I closed the door and sat right next to it, I hadn’t the courage to go past that point. I looked around. There wasn’t much that could be seen in this darkness. Outlines of the chairs in the living room and the swaying pots in the kitchen were visible.

A noise! I heard a noise! But what was it? I listened intensely with part of me not wanting it to sound again and the other part wanting to figure it out. There it was again! It sounded like a creek, not too much unlike what it sounded like when I stepped on one of the steps on the stairs. No, that was impossible. It couldn’t be something coming down the stairs; my logic would not allow it. There it was again! Could it be that my coldness was getting to me or was there really something coming down those stairs? Fear consumed my body as I sat here in the darkness, unknowing of my fate.

The thing must have been going up the stairs instead of down because suddenly, a white and orange light appeared. It danced in its parameters as if confined to that place. My heart trembled as I realized what it was. It was the light of a candle coming from underneath a door. The light just happened to be emulating from where I found the body. What was it that lit this light? Was I about to see this very door open? My eyes now lay fixed upon the line of light, which represented terror in an all too simple form. This had now broken whatever was left that was holding me together. If I was able to I would have ran out into the cold rain, but I couldn’t because I was frozen in the spot in which I sat. Somehow I felt safeness in the sphere I inhabited. I felt if I moved from this place I would certainly suffer some terrible fate worse than death.

I sat there entranced by the flickering slat. All other surroundings seemed to fade off as my focus became intensive upon the thin line. What happened next was unforeseen. The white line started to change shape. In my current soaked and terrified state it was not evident right away that the line was morphing because the door was silently swinging open. I crawled deeper into my protective circle. It seemed like eternity but the door finally came to a rest as the passage was fully open now. White and orange light steamed out of the fearful room. As I stared into the glowing void, the aura in which it gave was growing. My mind raced as I tried to make sense of what was happening. It occurred to me then that the light had started out to resemble the flare of a single candle. The room was on fire! At the present rate, the house would be engulfed eminently.

The sound of wood giving into the will of the flame snapped me from my mesmerized state. I flew from the door like it wasn’t there. I ran until the heat from the blaze wasn’t felt on my back. Like a ceremonial bonfire, the house was nothing but crimson flames licking the sky above it. The rain had since lessened and was mere mist now.

Only a short ways now, I ran unto the road which I had started from. I stood there panting as a car came screeching towards me. White headlights consumed my view as the vehicle came to a stop not far from in front of me. A man in a police uniform jumped out.

“What is wrong with you boy,” he screamed as he made his way around his door.

“I was nearly burnt alive in that house over there,” I said extending my finger in the direction I had escaped from. I stopped panting and followed the line my arm made. There was no pyre or even smoke.

“I’m not sure what you are referring to. There hasn’t been a house over there for thirty years now. Not since the place burned down taking the old lady with it.”

The End

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