photo prompt at Flashy Fiction
It was a Skooby-Doo episode, come to life. (So to speak.) I knew that I should just walk past. Heck – I knew that I shouldn’t have gone down that road to begin with! Yet something just drew me there.
For years I had heard stories about people who had gone missing, and the theories tied to this house. Like Fred, I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Someone needed to dispel the myths and clear the air—and land—of the creepy vibes given off by this house.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a “gang” to back me up…I was on my own.
I made my way slowly to the front door, stopping every so often to listen. Occasionally I would hear a faint whispery sound. Or did I? Was it my mind playing tricks?
Stepping gingerly over the threshold of the front door, I was met immediately with a waft of air so filled with the pungent odor of death I stopped mid-stride; glued to the spot. My eyes, adjusting to the darkened interior, darted around the room looking for the source of the smell.
I saw nothing but the remnants of a living room, long past its useful days. Everything was covered in dirt and debris—yet looking surprisingly undisturbed. (But that odor!)
After what seemed a full ten minutes (and was probably only 30 seconds) of standing in that same spot, half-way through the house’s front door, I completed my entrance — the full weight of which sent me immediately through the paneled floor, to my impalement, below.
(I should have told someone where I was going.)
# # #
I will often look up a key word from a prompt to see if there are deeper or alternate meanings than what initially comes to mind. Such was the case with “feral.” I immediately thought of all the undomesticated cats that roam this city, and that was the first definition I found: not domesticated; wild.
When I read further, I came upon a definition for feral that I had not known: causing death; fatal; funereal; gloomy.
It is this second definition that spawned this story as my response to Flashy Fiction’s prompt: Monday Mystery – Feral House. At the time of posting, there wasn’t a picture to accompany the prompt. It has since been added — and fits quite nicely!
echoes from the silence 