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The open side of the basement had two garage doors but the basement itself had been converted into three areas a long time ago. The first area was the actual garage area itself, that was the left garage door and walk in door. The second area was the long back half of the basement where the wood burning heater and some old washing machines stood. Finally, there was the other half of what used to the garage that had been converted into a bedroom with a decent sized closet some time ago. Upstairs there were two more bedrooms, a living room, a spacious kitchen with a built in dinning area and a enclosed back porch. While the living room, kitchen and porch had large windows, the other rooms only had mediocre sized windows. All of which were either cracked or busted due to one reason or another. The inside of the house was in complete disrepair and the majority of the rotting furniture looks like it belongs in the 60s. Amongst all the decaying possessions, tools are scattered on the floor. As if someone came into the house in an attempt to fix things, but something stopped them in the end. The house was surrounded by a generous amount of lawn that covered in long wild grass that hadn t been tended to in years. Even the gravel driveway next to the house needed repair as most the stones were missing and vegetation was trying to reclaim that area. About a dozen or so feet away from the house, was a fence. It started at the top of a soft slope that gently curved around the back of the house but stopped right at the property line, did a sharp turn as it went down, followed the edge of the lawn and went all the way CHNKWKS –øÿÿÿÿTEXTTEXTrFDPPFDPPvFDPCFDPCxSTSHSTSHzSTSHSTSHz2SYIDSYIDPzSGP SGP dzINK INK hzBTEPPLC lzBTECPLC „zFONTFONTœz<TOKNPLC Øz4STRSPLC {:PRNTWNPRZ{PFRAMFRAMª”ˆTITLTITL2•DOP DOP P•4sement itself had been converted intIntroduction In the dead of night, darkness enveloped the countryside like a soft cloak. While the majority of the day dwellers were snug in their beds, all sort of nocturnal creatures were roaming the night as they sought out their next meal. Amongst them, was a lone barn owl. Sitting on the branches of a leafy tree, she scanned the landscape for suitable prey to fill her stomach. It wasn t long before she found a plump field mouse, helplessly out in the open as it sniffed around for something to fill its own stomach. With a single silent flap of her wings, the barn owl left the tree and swooped down on the unsuspecting mouse. But just before the razor sharp talons could ensnare their quarry, the mouse was spooked by something and quickly ran off towards it hole. The barn owl also sensed that was something amiss and while she was irked at losing her meal, she quickly flew away from the grassy field and across the road where she landed on the worn down remains of what used to be a rustic looking house. Once she felt that she was safe, the barn owl looked back towards the field and saw the reason why she had been spooked. It was that house. Old and condemned many years ago, the house sat on the outskirts of town and sat near the middle of a long winding road with only three other neighboring houses that surrounded it in a semi circle. Over time, they too had been abandoned and while a couple had for sale signs on the lawns, none of the locals in their right mind would move next to that house. After a slight shiver, the barn owl took in the general appearance and current state of the house and it s property. Two stories tall with a living area floor and partially buried basement, the house has once been painted in a brilliant shade of yellow paint. But over around the neighboring field before it connecting again at the top of the small hill. It was a simple chain link fence that was eight feet tall and covered in signs in just about every language of the world that said the same thing; Keep Out, Danger& One doesn t need to get very close to the fence to see the reason behind all the signs, they can smell it in the air and if they re attuned enough, sense what all the animals sense. Death. The entire area inside the fence, is in a constant state of decay and rot. The ground itself appears to be gorged in blood while humans remains in various states of decay poke out of the ground, almost as if they re trying to dig away from some sort of unholy demon. Various tests have been conducted on the field in the past, but all tests have come up negative as to why the field is like this and most people who have taken sample from the field have either gone missing or mysteriously committed suicide The owl glanced at the horrid field but for a moment before visibly shivering in revulsion and fear. All the animals in the area have learned to stay away from this field, horrible things happen to those who get too close to it...but the owl is soon distracted by a noise alien to this area and turned her head toward the direction it was coming from only to find two yellow white lights heading towards the house. It was a car, a Jeep to be precise. One of those devices the humans used to get around in. Inside of the Jeep were two guys and a girl, all three were teenagers and were roughly around the same age. The driver was a husky looking guy wearing a pair of carpenter shorts, sneakers, a black shirt and red ball cap with black spider webs on it. The front passenger was a lanky looking guy wearing loose fitting shorts, sandals, shirt and zipped up hoodie with the hood pulled down so as we can only see the lower half of his face. The girl sat in the back seat with this look on her face, she wore black shoes, slacks and a uncomfortable looking red shirt and black ball cap. She was shorter than both guys with long coppery brown hair pulled into a braid and brown eyes. "You know Diana, we could have waited till we got back to your place for a change of cloths," the driver said as he glanced back at the girl and turned into the old drive way. Diana just nodded her head in disagreement, "No Jay, I want to see this for myself," Diana said. Jay frowned as he parked the Jeep and the other guy just grinned as he got out first. As Jay and Diana got out, the guy motioned for them to follow and he lead the way across the field of wild grass that once was a beautiful front lawn and towards the crest of the slope where the dark china link fence waited for them. The trio made their way across the landscape in silence but Jay and Diana couldn't help but let out small gasps as the stench of the field reached their noses. Even with what little light the thin crescent moon provided, the trio were able to see the chain link fence littered with various warning signs. Soon the trio was able to see the field itself, it was a horrid site to match the odor in the air. Not only was there the decay of vegetation and god only knows what, but there was also the bodies of various animals and people littered both on and in the ground. Diana scanned the whole field until her eyes fell down to close to the top of the slope. There she was greeted by the sight of three corpses that were laying down on their stomachs but looked more like they were trying to crawl away from unspeakable horror hidden in the ghastly field. Diana processed this for a moment before she noticed an important clue about the corpses. While all three corpses wore different versions of the uniforms that Diana was wearing, the one on the far right wore one that looked very similar to hers. It was the old uniform that had been replaced by the new Diana was wearing last month. Which was about the same time her best friend disappeared. Diana stared at this corpse for a moment before she silently approached the fence and kneeled down. "Diana!" Jay hissed in a slight panic but was quickly hushed by the other boy. Diana slowly but carefully reached out to touch the decaying body to see the name of the deceased. But in a brief moment of imbalance, Diana diverted the direction of her hand to grab onto the chain link fence for support and rattled it just ever so slightly. This was just enough noise though to make the unthinkable happen. The three corpses started to thrash violently around as if they were having seizures and emitted strangled screams as they were pulled back underneath the ground. Diana screamed only once as she forced herself away from the fence only to land on her butt and scrambled a couple feet away from the fence as Jay hurried over to her side. "Stop! the other boy shouted. As if on command, everything grew still and silent in the field as Jay and Diana did their best to keep still but couldn't help but pant from the rush of adrenaline that was still coursing through their veins. One moment passed and then another as Jay and Diana found themselves slowly calming back down. But, just when they started to think that they were safe, the trio heard a noise from the other side of the fence. In amongst the remnants of a thicket of Sycamore trees, were a pack of hounds with glowing red eyes that appeared to be surrounded by a cloud of ash. "Run!" the boy shouted. Jay was the first to react as he grabbed Diana by her shirt, picked her up off the ground and dragged her for a moment before she started to run on her own. The moment Jay moved, the hounds rushed forward and the fence fell down in their wake as the canines chased after the terrorized teenagers. Diana and Jay ran as fast as they could to the other side of the house to the safety of the Jeep. But once they got there, Jay and Diana skidded to a stop as they found that one of the hounds was inside the Jeep! The passenger side door had been left open by the other guy, which left the vehicle wide open for the hounds. "Jay!" Diana shouted and Jay turned to see her running through the now open basement door. Jay rushed after her and slammed the door shut just in time for a couple of the hounds to collide with the door. Keeping his weight against the door, Jay quickly locked and bolted it. "Jay, light!" Diana shouted in the darkness of the room. Jay did as he was told and flipped the nearest light switch, thankful to the fact that power was still running as the only light bulb in the room came to life. But his relief was quickly replaced with shock when he looked up and saw that there was a door on the other side of the room and it was open. "Di..." Jay started as he lifted a hand and pointed at the door. "Got it!" Diana shouted as she slammed the door shut and locked it with the only lock on the door, a push tab built into the handle. Knowing that wouldn t be enough, Diana looked wildly around the room and quickly barricaded the door with anything that she could find that was not only heavy but not bolted down. Jay raced around the room as he grabbed stuff to barricade the other exit and before long the room looked very bare while the doors were blocked by long pieces of wood, chairs and what few pieces of furniture were in the room. They were just about done grabbing stuff when they heard the hounds trying to get into the room by roughly scratching at Jay's door. Jay gulped as he walked backwards with his eyes glued on the metal door. Diana screamed and Jay whirled around to see that the hounds had somehow gotten into the house and were clawing at the Diana's wood door. Jay gulped as Diana walked backwards towards him as Jay turned back towards the other door. It didn t take Diana long to bump into Jay s back and the two stood there back to back right underneath the hanging light bulb as they starred at the doors in horrified silence. Suddenly, with out warning, the hounds stopping trying to claw through both doors and everything became eerily silent. "Think they gave up?" Jay asked after roughly swallowing and his voice cracked just a bit when he tried to talk. "Maybe...I don't know..." Diana said as her mind tried to formulate a better plan of defense. Jay was about to ask her another question when the lights went out and both teens jumped. As the two tried to look around in the darkness, a male figure walked across the room like a phantom. He watched them with an evil grin on his face as a held a decorative dagger in his right hand. Moving as quietly and as quickly as fog, he rushed right up to Diana and plunged the blade of the dagger right into her throat. Diana's eyes grew wide from shock and pain as she felt her blood pouring out of her body. She opened her mouth to warn Jay but nothing came out, the blade had destroyed her voice box and a quick turn on the blade cut off her airway. As Diana slowly and painfully died in the arms of the attacker, Jay stood right in front of them, still blinded by the sudden darkness and on edge from the creepy silence. The only hint the got that some was wrong, was a faint breeze from the attacker rushing Diana that brushed across Jay s face. It made him jump with a light gasp and he looked wildly around in the dark for it s source. "Di...Diana..."Jay after a moment, but when he got no reply he started to get worried. Jay gulped once before he carefully reached out in the darkness to where he knew Diana was but only found empty air instead. Jay frowned and slowly worked his way across the room back towards the light switch. Maybe if he toggled it he could get the lights back on. But the figure watched him in the darkness and grin as he let out a low laughter. "Who's there?" Jay asked with a light gasp but the only answer he got was the same low laugh. Jay gulped as he slowly backed his way towards the middle of the room and nearly had a heart attack when something course rubbed against his skin. Jay acted as if he had walked into a spider web only to find that he was fighting with the cord to the light in the ceiling. Frowning slightly, Jay pulled the cord just one time and was surprised when the light came back on. Adjusting his eyes only for a moment, he looked around the room to find Diana kneeling in one corner of the room. "Diana?" Jay called out but still got no response from his friend. Worried, Jay took one step towards her only to stop in his tracks when something warm and wet hit his face. Curiously he touches it with his right fingers and brings down his hand to find a red sticky substance. It didn't take Jay long to realize what it was and he quickly looked up to see that the light bulb had been splashed by blood and it was had started to drip back down to the floor. As Jay looked up at the light bulb in horror, the figure snuck up behind him with the blood stained blade of his dagger raised up high before he plunged it skill fully down into Jay's back and directly into his heart... Ashes to Ashes # with a light gasp and he looked wildly around in the dark for it s source. "Di...Diana..."Jay after a moment, but when he got no reply he started to get worried. 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