The House on the Hill

Written for Journey Through Genres contest
Prompt: Paranormal
Words: 1,913

The House on the Hill
By Lisa Noe


On the hill above town stood an old home that had been empty for the passed three years.
Three years earlier there had been a family murdered by a madman one evening as they sat watching television and playing video games. The crazed killer broke in through the basement, using a knife and some rope he had found in the basement, he tied the hands of all four members of the house and then cut there throats. It be three days before anyone would find the bodies of the family. By the time they did the only clue the police had to go on was bloody shoe-prints found at the scene leading from the bodies to the front door, several different times as if the perpetrator of the crime was back and forth many times. The police discovered there were items missing from the scene. They deduced the game system was missing because there was a game left behind and the family television because there was a TV Guide. The murders remain still to this day unsolved and robbery is suspected.

The morning of October 26, 2015, a new family purchased the home on the hill.
They would move in this morning, it was a family of four, The Jackson’s, had two kids and a dog. Pete Jackson, the father was an engineer while his wife Becca was a part-time nurse at Willow Ridge nursing facility. The children were Stacy thirteen and Danny ten, they were not keen on living in the old house on the hill, they had just moved to Virginia from Florida and they were missing their friends and their old life.

Moving day was very hectic but everyone pitched in and helped even Stacy who’d rather have been listening to CD’s somewhere, anywhere but with her family. Danny was excited about getting his new room all fixed up just the way he wanted it. He loved “Star Wars” and had the movie posters all over his new room. He also had all of the “Star Wars” collectible memorabilia sitting on his dresser, which had just been set up in his room along with his other furniture by the movers. Stacy’s furniture was also delivered and set up to her specifications, all she had really been interested in was her CD player and television.

“Hey where’s the box with my CD’s, I’ve got to drown out all this mess somehow.” Said Stacy as she grimaced and rummaged through the Boxes marked Stacy’s shit. She had the usual thrirteen year-old attitude so the family just kind of stayed clear until she gets over the faze they just tune her out because her mouth is so smart. Danny and Stacy would fight a lot like brother and sisters tend to do. And as usual the two of them got into it upstairs because the box of her CDs were delivered by mistake to Danny’s room and he opened them thinking they were his games so all hell broke loose between them.

“Leave my stuff alone you little shit!”

“I didn’t take you old CD’s, they delivered them here to me by mistake, and I just thought…”

“You just thought you’d take my stuff…”

CRASH!

“Oh my God, my CDs, what have you done?”

“Well genius, I’m here with you what makes you think I was over near the bed, I didn’t push them off the bed I’m a good nine feet away from the CDs.”

Stacy ran over to the bed, “You broke them, most of them are no good now!”

“But Stacy, I didn’t do it, you saw I was right there fighting with you.”

“You must have set them on the edge of the bed.”

“But I didn’t I promise they were on the middle of the bed, I don’t know what could have happened to them.”

At that time Becca came to the room at the top of the stairs to see what was going on with her children.

“What are you two going on about up here?”

“Look!”

“what happened to your CDs?”

“Danny did it!”

“But I didn’t mom, I swear I didn’t, they just fell.” Danny began crying and explaining what had happened to his mother, Becca.

I don’t know who to believe, but I’m sure what ever happened it was an accident; come on down stairs, have some pizza, we ordered and we’ll discuss trying to replace some of those.”

Later that evening the dog began scratching at the basement door, wanting to go down there.
Pete saw the dog and decided he would accompany the dog down in the basement, because he had never seen it before, it had not been shown to them during the interview to see the house before he purchased it.
It was dusty and cobwebs hung everywhere, an old faucet was dripping in the sink that was attached to the wall. The dog, Bistro, was running around with his nose to the ground and he went to the back wall where there was a window. The window had been broken and the glass was scattered around the floor. It was dark barely enough light to see from Pete’s flashlight. The dog began barking and scratching at the wall where the window existed. “Come on Bistro, there’s nothing down here boy.” Bistro would not follow him back up the stairs, “well I’ll leave the door ajar and when you’re ready you come on back up stairs fella.”

Late that night Becca thought she heard a woman scream, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Early the next morning Becca was fixing breakfast before her shift at willow ridge and a knife from the butcher block suddenly fell to the ground and landed near her feet no one else was in the room. Becca screamed and jumped back she removed the butcher knife from the floor and lay it in the sink. At that time Pete came in the room.

“The oddest thing just happened this knife somehow got from out of this butcher block and on to the floor, where it stuck deep into the wooden floor”

“Oh you must have dropped it or something…”

“No my hands were no where close to the knife, and hadn’t been earlier either.”

“Well I wouldn’t worry too much about it, I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation.”

“Yeah, well it was awful close to my foot.”

“Hey have you seen Bistro any place, he hasn’t touched the food I put down for him last night?”

“No, he’s probably exploring the place.”

“Yeah your right, he wanted down in the basement yesterday, maybe he’s still there.”

The kids came in and got their packed lunches grunted at their parents and then they were out the door to school. The entire family was gone for the day. In the basement the water dripping caused red stains on the sink, Bistro was still in the basement scratching at the wall. The house was quiet except for the faucet and Bistro’s digging. Then it happened the dog screamed and fell over dead. The faucet was now the only noise in the house.

Later that afternoon the kids got home first and began playing video games and watching television. In a couple hours later Becca arrived home to fix supper… then about an hour later in came Pete got home and kissed Becca and went in to see the children. The family ate supper and when they were finished Pete told Danny to feed Bistro.

“He already has food dad.”

“What, Becca did you feed Bistro when you got home?”

“No!”

“Stacy, what about you?”

“No! I’ve not even seen him since we moved in.”

“me either,” said Danny.

“The last time I saw him was in the basement with me last night, if he still has food that means he’s not eaten anything today. That doesn’t seem right. I’m going to go down and see if he’s still in the basement.

Pete went down stairs he found the door was still ajar as he had left it the night before, he shined a flashlight ahead of him because the basement light didn’t work. He could hear the leaking faucet dripping and he called out, “Bistro, Here boy, where is that damn dog?” Pete saw something lying in the distance and thought it could be Bistro, so he called again. “Here Bistro , Bistro is that you? are you OK? Bistro lay motionless, he put his hand down on the rough coat of the dog and immediately knew it was too late, the dog was dead. “What happened to you boy, Oh God I’ve got to break the news to the family. At that moment a noise captured his attention and when he looked around, he was smashed against the head with something, falling to his death…he lay dead on the cold basement floor.

“Where did your father go?”

“I don’t know I think he went down in the basement.”

“Why don’t you go down and look for him Danny, tell him the school called and Stacy’s in trouble again. And you, young lady go up to your room until your father and I come up and talk to you.”


Danny went to the Basement door, he started down the stairs when he saw his father through the dim light of his flashlight laying on the basement floor.

“Dad!”

He started to run down the stairs to see his father when from nowhere came a black shadow and it pushed him down the stairs. He lay bleeding and he screamed and when he looked at his father lying on the floor he could see he was in a pool of blood and that his throat had been slashed.

The figure was a darkened ghost not the white ghost you hear about on Halloween but a sinister black shadow of a spirit.

“The same will happen to you and the other’s, no one will inhabit my home,” said the spirit. He slashed Danny across the throat with one swoop. The spirit worked it’s way up the basement stairs and into the kitchen where Becca was doing dishes. It came up from behind her and down she went in the same manner as her husband and son.

Meanwhile Stacy had sneaked out of the bedroom window for fear she was fixing to get into trouble about acting up in school. She headed over to the library to hang for a bit. When back at home her family lay dead their throats cut as the other family before them had been. She found out while at the library that the house had been empty for the past three years due to the unsolved murders, she could not wait to get back home and tell her kid brother about it to try and freak him out and scare him. However when she arrived home she was shocked to find her mother laying in a pool of her own blood on the kitchen floor. She screamed and ran towards the neighbor’s house, telling them her mother was dead and she needed the police. But Stacy would come to find out the this was the same MO as the last set of murders and these would also end up in the cold case files as unsolved. Could a house Kill? Was this an evil house?