Dust and Deception

The heavy click of door latches echoed through the pitch-black house. The terrifying events of the night forced the frightened group to retreat to their assigned spaces. Upstairs on the second floor, Tessa, Maya, and Haley squeezed together into the bedroom farthest from the wooden stairs. They clung to the illusion of safety in numbers. Edgar took the middle room opposite the patient's lair. Chloe claimed the room closest to the stairs, right beside Edgar.

Chloe lingered alone in the dim, eerie hallway. A freezing gust of unnatural wind hit her bare skin from nowhere. She sneezed and rubbed her chilled arms, shooting a nervous glance at the hallway window. The fierce storm raged on. Flailing tree branches cast erratic shadows across the glass. The jagged, shifting shapes mirrored giant spiders lunging at her with barbed front legs. She fled into her designated room in sheer terror. She slammed the heavy oak door shut against the creeping shadows and twisted the metal lock.

Down on the first floor, the burly Duncan tossed on his mattress. He found himself unable to sleep. He swung his legs out of bed and sought out Gideon in their shared, partitioned suite.

Duncan pushed open the connecting door and caught Gideon half-naked in the dim light. Duncan's eyes locked onto a deep, vicious, foot-long scar carving down Gideon's back. The jagged mark stretched from the right shoulder blade straight down to his waist.

Duncan leaned against the wooden doorframe, pointing at the marked skin. "That scar on your back is not from an ordinary wound."

Gideon frowned deep lines into his forehead. He pulled on a dark shirt to hide his past.

"Is it any of your business? We are not close enough to share personal secrets, are we?" Gideon replied with cold hostility.

The tension in the small room thickened. Gideon let out a breath, his demeanor softening just a fraction.

"Duncan, what do you want?" Gideon asked in a low tone.

Duncan shrugged his broad shoulders and stepped further into the suite.

"I could not sleep, so I came to chat. This house has been unoccupied for at least three years." Duncan crossed his arms over his chest.

Gideon paused. He paced the small room, piecing the sinister puzzle together. If there was no scripted reality show here, only pure danger, why did this fabricated, monstrous family claim to live in a lifeless, abandoned place?

Duncan listed his professional observations to back up his claim. "As an experienced forest ranger, I know my craft. The lady lied to us. Despite the running fountain and her claims of recent neighbors, the thick layers of dust and massive cobwebs inside the neighboring homes prove this place has been a ghost town. Furthermore, the specific type of insect eggs in the garden soil confirm the timeline."

Gideon stopped pacing and narrowed his sharp eyes. He noticed a writhing, dark mass stuffed in the narrow gap of the windowpane.

Gideon gestured toward the glass. "Duncan, come here and look at this."

Duncan stepped closer and leaned in to inspect the squirming bundle.

"Damn, that is a massive swarm of spiders! A normal inhabited house would never have pests like this." Duncan cursed loud enough to rival the thunder. He grabbed a heavy linen curtain and began swatting at the unnatural pests, crushing them against the sill.

As the two men stared in disgust at the swarming bugs, a foul stench drifted down from the ceiling. The putrid odor originated straight from the second floor.

Gideon covered his nose with his sleeve. "Do you smell that?"

Duncan nodded and tilted his head backward. A dark brown, foul-smelling liquid began seeping through the wooden ceiling boards. The murky droplets fell one by one, landing onto Gideon's bedsheets.

"What the hell is that?" Duncan grabbed the heavy wooden bed frame and dragged it away from the creeping stain in pure disgust.

Gideon stood frozen in place. His mind flashed to the mysterious green note he kept hidden in his pocket. Recognizing the deadly trigger mentioned in his secret clue, a chilling realization washed over him.

Gideon issued the grave, intense order without blinking. "Listen to me very carefully. Tonight, you must not sleep, and under no circumstances are you to turn on the lights. No matter what horrific sounds happen outside the door, you must stay still in bed."

Recognizing Gideon's terrifying seriousness, Duncan swallowed his multitude of questions.

Duncan nodded once. "Understood."

Duncan retreated to his own room. He left the connecting door wide open for safety, killed the overhead lights, and climbed into his bed. The house plunged into utter darkness again as the fierce wind howled outside the glass.

Duncan's mind raced with fear. He pinched his own arm, digging his nails into his flesh to fight off a heavy, unnatural drowsiness that began washing over his entire body. Despite his most desperate, painful efforts to stay awake, his heavy eyes betrayed him. Finally, unable to hold on to consciousness any longer, he succumbed to the dark.