Darcy Smith

Darcy was a normal ten year old girl. She went to school, hated homework, and loved nothing else than to spend time playing outside in the sun. Nothing was special about Darcy Smith, what with her blonde locks tied up in a simple pony tail, her plain brown eyes, small stature, and her normal everyday dress. No, nothing was special about Darcy…well, except that she lived in a haunted house.

Now, by no means was this house haunted. It was just the kind of place your mother would warn you not to play around. There was just…something off about this house, something not quite right.

Of course, there was the fact that there was no electricity, no running water, no sign of life what-so-ever. Only cobwebs, roaches, and other insects seemed to crawl around this place. There were rumors as well, about screams coming from the house at night. Most people though, laughed it off as a way to scare children. This was her home though, the one she shared with her parents, and so she loved it.

Darcy didn’t have many friends, in fact, she really had none at all. That was fine by Darcy though, she had to look after her parents and the house. She spent most of her days cleaning the house of all the blood stains her parents left behind. Now, what happened to them happened so long ago, she could barely remember.

She was very small and in pain, she remembers because still to this day, when she thinks about it, her heart starts to ache and pound terribly. Her parents were holding her, and this bright but menacing light was shinning in her eyes, blinding her. She could hear her parents pleading with someone to save me. I must have been horribly hurt, because they were saying “We’ll do anything! Just bring her back!” From where? She’d always wondered, but never found out the answer.

Later, she had woken up to see her parents crying and holding her tight. They kept repeating that they loved her and would never hurt her. She, of course, knew that already and told them so. But as the weeks went by, she noticed changes. Their appearance seemed to change. Their warm, sun kissed skin turned pasty and gray. Their once loving eyes, turned ice cold, soulless, large and black. Their teeth and nails grew longer and sharper. They talked less and less and soon, didn’t even look human. Once momma had stopped singing her to sleep, she knew, things were not going to get better.

They only came out at night and even then, they stayed out for hours. Darcy had waited for them and when they came back, they would be covered in blood and other things that she really didn’t want to think about. They didn’t say anything and just walked back into the basement, a place where she wasn’t allowed to go. Noticing the stains they left, she immediately began to work in cleaning. She did this every night now.

That was years ago. They never talked anymore. They hid in the dark and never made a sound till the sun went down. They were her parents though, and she loved them, even if they did smell like a sewer rat. They continued their nightly routines though, and so did she.

Darcy continued her life as normal as she could. She went to school, brought home good grades, made her own breakfast, lunch and dinner. To make money, she worked at a paper route and did little odd jobs around the neighborhood. After the groceries, if there was money left, she would treat herself to a small ice cream. Then, every night, she cleaned after her parents. She had quit trying to talk to her parents a while ago, finally understanding that she wouldn’t get a response anymore.

It was hard sometimes. On a sad day, she would have no one to talk to her or comfort her. She had to do everything herself. This day, was one of those days. She stared the floors and walls and sighed. She was so tired the other night, that she had fallen asleep while cleaning up all the blood. She would have to do extra work now it would seem. It wasn’t yet dark out, and so, she continued her work from last night.

She wiped down the bloody walls with a dirty, worn and torn rag. After she had gotten most of the blood out, she went to work on the floors. First, she started picking up the random limbs from the floor and put them in a bag. A torn arm, part of a leg, fingers, and a few organs. This didn’t bother Darcy anymore. After putting the bag outside she went back inside to wipe down the blood from the floor.

Some boys from the next town heard about this haunted old house and decided to go and burn the place down, after they explored it a bit. They had to show their girlfriends that they were brave, tough and scared of nothing. After they got themselves drunk and wild, they rode down to the old place on their motorcycles.

Darcy, having heard them pull up, ran down to the basement, where she usually wasn’t allowed, and hid in a corner. She didn’t know what else to do or where else to go. She hoped momma and daddy wouldn’t be mad at her.

Upstairs, the guys and they’re girlfriends were messing up the place and making loud complaints.

“This place isn’t haunted! It’s the filled with junk!” Jimmy said.

“What about the basement Jimmy? We haven’t looked in there yet.” One of his buddy’s replied.

Darcy’s heart was pounding in fear, not for herself, but for her parents. What if they hurt her momma and daddy. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let that happen. She looked around for anything she could use as a weapon and spotted a shovel. She grabbed hold of it and held it tightly in her hands as she waited.

The door had opened and the boys and their girlfriends came down stairs flashing a flashlight around until they spotted her.

“Well…What do we have here?” Jimmy asked in a sarcastic and snobby way.
“Get out of my house!” Darcy yelled at the boy, gripping the shovel tighter and tighter.

“Or what?” Jimmy chuckled as he came closer.

Darcy swung that shovel with all her might, but even then, the shovel was too heavy for her. She did manage though, to hit Jimmy slightly across the face, leaving a trail of blood on his face.

Jimmy, fueled with anger, came at her fast. Before she could even think to protect herself, he had picked her up over his head and threw her hard against the wall. Darcy only felt pain and had to close her eyes. Jimmy had yet to finish with her though.

“No Jimmy! Leave her alone!” One of the girls yelled.

“Yeah Jimmy, she’s just a kid.”

Jimmy stopped and glared down at her. Before turning around to walk away, he spat bloody saliva down near her, while cursing under his breath.

“Lets get out of here before someone catches us.”

Before they could make it out the door, the floor began to shake and rip open in front of Darcy’s body. Flames started coming out of the floor and the door behind the four teenagers was closed firmly shut. The four teens could only stare in horror as two figures crawled their way out of the hole with hells flames.

The creatures crawled out and swiftly attacked the group of teens. The female creature ripped the first girls head clean off her shoulders and dangled the head with the spine still attached in front of Jimmy. Jimmy cowered in fear and backed away from the horrible creature.

The father had snuck up behind the second male and tore his hand through the boys chest taking out one of his lungs. The boy stared down in pure fear and pain at the hand sticking out of his chest holding his precious lung. Then, death fell upon him.

The second female screamed as she saw her boyfriend die and tried to run for the door. The male creature had quickly placed himself in front of her and slowly began creeping closer. The girl backed away hurriedly, keeping her eyes on the creature at all times. In the blink of an eye though, he was in front of her and crushing her neck with one of his clawed hands. Blood pooled out of her mouth as she gurgled her last breath before her neck broke.

Jimmy having witnessed all this, began to sob, weep and plead. This fell on death ears of course. The creatures slowly ripped him apart, piece by painful piece.

Darcy hadn’t seen any of this happen though. All she saw were her parents, coming to protect her. Her vision was getting fuzzy, but the pain was slowly going away, even though she couldn’t feel her fingers anymore. She forced herself to open her eyes and clear her vision. Seeing the blood, the arms, legs, organs and what not all she could think was, “How am I going to clean this all up before school tomorrow?”

She refocused her vision on the only two standing figures. They made no move to eat the bodies on the floor. Darcy guessed they just weren’t hungry tonight. They stood there, just staring at her, making absolutely no move.

Darcy‘s vision was going fuzzy and black again and she couldn’t feel her legs now anymore. So, she let her eyes close. She could have sworn she saw her parents crying, but that couldn’t be, they felt nothing anymore. She heard though, she knew, her mother humming that lullaby from so long ago and then a raspy whisper of “Goodnight.” She closed her eyes, and let darkness take her.

The next time Darcy woke up, she didn’t see her parents anywhere. She blinked her eyes in surprise as her stomach growled. She was so very hungry but she had a strange craving for something. She stared at the bloody mess still on the floor and licked her lips. Darcy Smith headed toward her meal for the night, grinning and showing off her new sharp teeth.