Scary Stuff

Just Your Typical Haunted House.... Part 2

        Okay, so I was feeling a little creeped out when I walked in the gate and started up the walk. It wasn't because of the story, though. It was because all the guys looked so terrified, like they really believed it. They looked afraid for me. Still, I thought, They've had years of practice at this. They're just good at acting. So I walked up to the door and put their faces out of my mind.
        I put my hand on the door handle, but drew back quickly. My hand was covered in grime. I shook it off and opened the door.
        Inside was in no better shape than the outside. If anything, it was worse. The floor was covered in a thick blanket of dust, and you could just barely see where the guys before me had walked. The wallpaper was peeling and so faded you couldn't tell what color or pattern it had been before. I tiptoed down the hallway- something about the place seemed to demand quiet- and turned into the first doorway I came to.
        At one point it had been a living room. Now all the wooden furniture (a coffee table, lampstand, and a couple of chairs) were falling apart in various stages of decay. The couches (there were two, one against each side wall) were riddled with holes- probably from mice or rats or something. A gas lamp lay broken on the floor, and I figured it must have been on the lampstand before it fell apart.
        The next room I explored was the kitchen. It took me a while to find it, but I wanted to see the supposed scene of the crime. I wondered if the guys before me had checked it out. But there were no tracks in the dust, so I doubted it. When I finally found the kitchen, I almost lost my nerve just by opening the door.
        An awful smell came from the room. I gagged and slammed the door shut, which I immediately regretted as it kicked up a huge cloud of dust and I now could not even breathe. I ran into the next room to catch my breath. Then I decided that a little smell was NOT going to scare me away, and I went to get my flashlight. It was getting darker, and even if you're not scared of anything, you don't want to end up alone in the dark in house that's falling apart. Anything could fall on me and no one would ever know. So I jogged back through the house to the living room where I'd left my stuff.
        I returned to the kitchen door, took a deep breath, covered my mouth and nose with my t-shirt, flicked on the flashlight, and opened the door. Even though I was ready for it this time, the smell still took me by surprise. NOTHING should stink this bad, not even food that's been rotting for two hundred years. I ventured in, glad of the flashlight as the kitchen had no windows. The beam showed me a room with a counter running around the walls, except for where the stove was.
        I turned my light on the floor and saw that, rather than being covered in dust, the wooden flooring was stained dark brown in a large almost-circle. On the stained part of the floor lay three knives and-
        I admit, I freaked out a little. The smell was making me light-headed, and next to the knives were two skeleton arms. I stared at them in horror, then caught myself. Come on, Zeke, I thought. Think about it. How come the dust isn't in here? Those arms probably aren't even real... the guys probably planted them here before hand, just to scare me.
        Yeah, I decided, That's what happened. This is all fake. I mean, come on, it's Halloween. Fake scariness is the whole point.
        But somehow I couldn't quite make myself believe it. That smell was definitely not fake. And what about the absence of tracks at the door? I looked hopefully around the room, but I didn't see any other way out or in. Great.
        I decided to take a look upstairs. It was definitely time to get away from that smell, before I passed out.
        When I got to the big staircase, I stood debating for a minute. What if the stairs wouldn't hold me? I put my foot on the bottom stair and leaned on it. It creaked and held, but I still wasn't sure. Maybe the bottom stairs were sturdy enough, but what about the top ones? I really did not want to fall to my death in this place.
        After a little debate, I decided to take my chances.