One day in October when I was 9, my childhood-friend Lotta and I discovered an abandoned cottage while we were on vacation with her parents. We promised each other to come back in the evening, although I must admit I was a bit afraid, but Lotta was really persuasive and I didn't want to look like a coward, and I was curious as well. We waited until her parents were asleep, then put some warm clothes on and left the house we were staying. It was dark and cold and I would have been glad if Lotta's parents woke up and stop us - but Fortuna was with Lotta this evening. I put my scarf on tighter and followed my friend the path along some fields, where herds of sheep were scattered. In the darkness of the night, with the moon shining bright, the animals looked like swirling ghosts. Finally we reached the old cottage and it was absolutely terrifying to look at with the moonlight enhancing its loneliness. There was a stable next to the house which looked like it could collapse every moment. I was wondering why nobody had taken this building down by now. While I was still thinking that this was a really bad idea - sneaking out of your bed to wander through fields and explore and abandoned house - a feeling of excitement was building up. Maybe there were some treasures in it. The door was moving with difficulty and we had to push it together to open. We weren't prepared for this moment and stumbled and fell to the ground. The next moment I shrieked as something was running over my arm which must have been a mouse or a very small rat, so I quickly got up on my feet only to bump at the wall and now sand and dust was streaming down from the first floor. Lotta laughed amused about my reaction and stood up as well, brushing off the dust from her trousers, going further through the corridor. I was eager to follow her to keep close, but then I got scared by my own feet stepping on a creaking plank. I heard Lotta laugh from the next room and quickly got their.

This must have been the living room and it was absolutely amazing how untouched the scene here was. Everything was still there, as the owners were just gone for a vacation. While Lotta was investigating most of the room, I was drawn to the books and the newspapers on the table. The date read that it was 90 years old. I was absolutely amazed how old the interior of the house was and skimmed through the pages. I didn't pay attention to time. "Lotta?", I whispered. But there was no answer. Nervous, I looked up. She wasn't in this room anymore and it felt much creepier now. "Lotta?", I asked again, this time with a louder voice. Still silence. "Lotta?!" I could hear something rustle. My breathing was flat and I was absolutely scared. Had something taken her away? I left the room and heard quiet squeaking, which was obviously by some mice again. Now I was in the small hallway. I started looking in every room, but my fear was building up with each new one. Atleast, this house was rather small. Now, only the first floor was left and I was standing in front of the staircase. I absolutely didn't want to go up. Now I was thinking, what if this house had a basement or an attic as well? Or both. I took a step back. I always knew that I wasn't a brave person, but I tried to keep in mind that Lotta would be looking for me as well if I got lost. As I was on the middle of the staircase, I heard another rustle and my body froze. I relaxed when I noticed it was a grass snake. We looked each other in the eye and I was wondering if it would work well - I haven't been speaking with snakes often. "Have you seen a girl?", I asked, and the voice was not familiar. I was glad that it worked and the snake shook its head in an elegant way. "Just you", it hissed back. I was really worried about Lotta then. "I smell fear", the snake whispered then and suddenly, there was a loud knocking sound on wood. "You should leave if you're afraid", it continued. "I can't!", I replied urgently, "I'm looking for my friend. I've lost her in this house!" "As I said, there's no girl here. " At this point I was wondering if the snake had eaten Lotta, but it was too small. "Anyway...thank you", I said, not convinced. Maybe I should go back and wake up Lotta's parents? I almost run to the door and was surprised finding it locked again, but my body was so full of adrenaline that I was able to push it open easily. I took a deep breath of fresh night air and turned around to look at the house. "Lizzie?", someone said and I jumped. It was Lotta. "Lotta? Where have you been?", I asked, totally confused. "I could ask you the same. I've been trying to find a way to get inside, but it's locked down. ", she replied and smiled, "look, the door is open now. Let's go!" She was about to enter but I pulled her back. "Lotta, we shouldn't do that. There's something..off with this house." "Of course it is! It's abandoned and-" "And it looks like it could collapse every moment. I don't want to get in trouble." Lotta seemed to think over it for a while and she must have heard my scared voice, because she finally nodded. "I guess if you're so afraid, you won't enjoy it.", she said and I nodded with relief. I knew she was a bit disappointed, but I was really happy that we were able to leave this place.

Nobody noticed us when we got back into our beds and I was glad. To this day, I'm not sure what happened in this house then, but I still shiver when I think of it.

Last year it was Halloween night and I went to a haunted house with my only friend from my villa, it was in the middle of a forest, the entrance was large with bloody skeletons welcoming you to enter at your own risk. Once you cross the entrance a creepy laugh is heard so loud that your ears hurt, it feels like an evil spirit is screaming into your head and blowing up your senses. Right after that I looked at my friend, Tom, and he was pale with the fright and looked like he was having second thoughts. "Let's keep going." It was my way to assure him everything will be fine so he followed me further inside; the darkness was so deep I could hardly see my own nose.

We took each step slowly, very slowly without knowing where to head, there was an ominous smell that gave us a really bad feeling of what was coming at us, it smelled of decay, blood and something I couldn't identify, kind of like rotten food. I started feeling things touching me on my feet, my legs and my arms but I couldn't see anyone yet I could hear Tom screams that let me know he was also being touched but I had no idea exactly where he was. "You ok?" My voice echoed loudly and I wondered if I actually yelled in panic, but he didn't answer and I only heard a loud cry in a distance. "Tom?" Once I called on him my feet got pulled so hard I fell down and found myself wrestling with an unknown thing or person, the skin was greasy to the touch and smelled pretty bad, it had some sort of tentacles on its head since I felt something that kept sticking to my face that felt like thick hair or a mop. I don't know how long it took, but I got rid of it and started running in the darkness afraid to hit against a wall or something worse, luckily I didn't but I reached a place with a dim green light that illuminated what looked like a lake covered in mist.

If the light didn't existed I would have run straight at it and since I could see a bit better I searched for my friend once again. "Tom! Tom, where are you?" I was beginning to worry about him and even when I repeated in my head this was just a game, it didn't felt like it. I was alone without knowing the path to the exit and even when I had to keep going I didn't wanted to leave the light. To make sure I would move on, the lake started bubbling like water boiling when I felt a hand grab on to my foot. I screamed, the hand was bloody and the skin seem like it have been melted like plastic but it wouldn't let go of me. I tried to move and run but the hand kept grabbing be tight, when my eyes move up several corpses were getting closer and closer to me, none had eyes or clothes and their bodies were nothing human looking, some didn't had one arm, others didn't had a foot or leg. One thing all had in common was how horrible they were and how disgusting the black substance coming out of their mouth looked and smelled. My fright was so intense that I managed to free my foot by leaving my shoe behind. I run as fast as I could away from those monsters or zombies, like humans like to call them, and hoped to find Tom on the way.

My breathing was erratic and I ran through the darkness that embraced me once away from the lake, after a few moments I started feeling like my feet were heavy and I couldn't move them as before, the more I tried to move fast I simply couldn't because they were sticking to the ground! "What the hell is this?" I thought this was it, that I would probably die here alone and stuck on the ground since I could hardly move my legs from place, what was happening? As an answer I felt something that touched my shoulder and I tried to turn and look but was unable to do so, so I only twisted my head as far as I could but found nothing, but when my head returned to its position large red eyes were staring at me and a wide creepy mouth with fangs was trying to bit me. "Get away!" I screamed in panic while throwing my hands at it to hit it and I hit it again, and again, and again while in panic; my hands were getting stickier by the minute and the spider wouldn't go anywhere neither my legs were able to move but it didn't stopped me from trying to defend myself with all my strength. After several minutes that seem like hours to me, the spider left; I thought I was safe so I kept moving forward very slowly because of the sticky floor yet the path seem endless to me and I was getting tired. Somehow I managed to see skeletons hanging from the ceiling and something that looked like a spider's victim since it was all cocooned in spider web. I assumed it was decoration but when I saw something moving from the inside I wondered if someone was actually trapped in there. "Someone in there?" There was no answer so I decided to leave and right there I saw more than a dozen spiders coming my way with their creepy red eyes glowing in the darkness. I thought that was it, that I was spider's food but I remembered this was a haunted house, it can't be real right? So I waited to see what would they do, as I waited I glanced back at the cocoon hanging over me and recognized my friend's Tom's shoes that were bright green and were seen through the web. "Oh no!" I managed to jump and pull it down while trying to free him from the web, but the spiders were on to me and I was very scared and I wished, wished they will just go away and leave me. A power came from within me so strong I didn't know it existed and it scared them away- it was my magic protecting me. This gave me the time to release my friend and he was a bit sleepy but alright. "Let's get out of here now!" I helped him walk through the sticky path that for our luck ended just a few steps ahead then grabbed on to his hand so we wouldn't get separated again. We could see lights ahead, small and glowing dimly in red, so without another choice we went their way where about a hundred ghosts awaited floating in the air. I could see their bodies but I could also see through them and I wondered how they managed to make that effect so realistic, was it magic?

"That's a pretty cool effect." Murmurs Tom, who apparently agreed with me.

To our surprise one of the ghost replied. "No effect my child, we are really dead and if you want to pass you must gave us something precious of yours."

What can possible want a ghost? I only hand a pretty rock that I found on the ground before so I try to give it to the ghost. It laughed and went right through me so fast and strong it almost threw me to the ground. "Whoa!"

"What we want is nothing physical but an emotion, something that describes you both." The ghost said in a thunderous voice.

"We are friends." Said Tom, and then all the ghosts flied through us one by one and made us fall next to each other, once they were gone we stare at each other feeling confused.

"Tom, you ok?" He looked so pale and drained I regret bringing him here since it was my idea to come.

"Let's just get out please." His voice was shaky and it made me feel so sad for making him come, so we reach the exit and I don't think we have ever been this happy before so we hugged tight and breathed normally at last. "I'm so glad we made it, Merlin. I thought I had lost you forever, that I was dying."

I smiled at him and pat his head, we walked in silence all the way back to the villa still holding hands but careful not to find anything strange as we go. Tom and I said goodbye to each other and hugged tight before going our ways. "Goodnight Tom."

"Night Merlin, thank you for saving me and being my friend. I won't ever forget you." In the morning I went to find Tom so we could play but his house was completely empty, and it seemed like no one had lived in there for years, it was so strange but still today I have never seen my friend again; he vanished on Halloween night and I wondered where is Tom today?

Please place in the general category, thank you :)

This was done in traditional mediums of marker and colored pencil

Medium: Digital

Category: General

It was a cold October night, leaves rustled as I walked with Garrett to our destination. I was often not scared by much having a love for the horror genre but this year we had decided to visit some Haunted Houses.

I did my research online. They had lots of sites available with "scare ratings" and I wanted something high. I was led to an off-shoot site that, of course, had a high rating. It kept flickering in and out, almost like someone was playing with the connection and guaranteed to inspire reactions. I got a good gut feeling about it so I wrote down the location. Garret and I went on a night shortly after.

Crunch, crunch, the leaves sounded under our feet. We had parked in a lot that was through a small patch of trees and were following a path lit by twistedly carved pumpkins. Garrett seemed excited. I didn't blame him I was too. We approached a eerily lit, awkwardly designed house. A line lay behind a booth where a man in a moth-eaten, vintage style suit and top hat was selling tickets. 

As we walked up to the booth the man gave us a crooked smile baring many gold teeth. "Good Evening. Two?" Garrett, being the proper gent, nodded and paid. "Enjoy." The man said sliding two carnival tickets to us and cackling. We took each others hands and made our way to the line. I admired the unique carvings more now that it seemed we weren't rushing to the booth, because lets face it...we were. I pointed out some to Garrett, who also seemed intrigued. We laughed about how we would butcher ours, should we try, in comparison. Eventually it was our turn.

We walked up to a man standing next to closed cellar doors. It looked as though they were sending people in in small groups or pairs, so it would be just Garrett and me. He too was wearing moth-eaten, vintage clothing and had an oddly creepy smile. He yanked open the doors. There was a tunnel slide beyond them. Garrett put me in front as we sat on the lip, like you would when you were children, so we could go down together. As we began to slide the doors slammed shut behind us, plunging us into darkness. I held onto Garrett's hand, unsure of what we would see.

We saw the flickering light before we slid into the middle of a room. It was on a long cord with a uncovered bulb. It swayed a bit illuminating the walls. As our eyes adjusted, we saw that they were covered with crucifixes. One twitched. "Garrett..." I said and motioned to it as it twitched again. One by one, slowly at first then more quickly they began to invert. Our eyes followed, we slowly turned to see an Ouija board on the ground and a stringy dark haired girl in a tattered white dress. Her head was down and her hands were covered in some sort of liquid. Not liquid...blood. She was creepily singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, while playing with the planchette. She jerked her head up and through her hair, set in pale skin were hollowed out, black features. She distorted her mouth into a wail and snapped her body up. She moved distorted and jerkedly but surprisingly fast. A door swung open behind us. Garrett and I didn't hesitate running through. Though I wish we had.

The next room was dark when we entered. We turned to see the girl still rushing towards us but the door slammed shut. A light flicked on behind us. I was tightly holding Garrett's hand. "Well that wasn't so bad, was it?" I gave a shaky smile. Garrett was looking over my shoulder, his face pale. I turned and there in the light sat a small chair. A old male porcelain doll was upon it with its eyes closed. It looked as though it was sleeping. "Its just a doll," I said. "It's ok." At that, the dolls eyes flickered open. We jumped in unison. You could hear the cracking of the porcelain as it forced its face into a smile. I muttered, "Better then a ventriloquist dummy..." As the doll stood up and began to make its way towards us. We were in the process of moving away from it when we noticed in the corners people. There were 4, 3 male, 1 female, dressed in black suits. The woman in a skirt. All were wearing matching doll masks, the porcelain broken or cracked in bits. Though we couldn't see it we could hear the sounds of lighter flicks and knives being sharpened. All the while the actual doll was moving towards us. Another door swung open. Stairs behind it. As we began to run all the doll people swung into action, trying to grab at us. We dodged them and dove through the door. 

We both looked at each other and chuckled then slowly got to our feet. The stairs we were meant to climb were uneven and there was watery light reflections coming from shelves built into either sides of the walls. As we climbed we looked. Upon the shelves were large jars filled with preserving liquids and mutations. Lobster hands, and two-headed babies, a Fiji Mermaid and a Chupacabra. Things you would see at old carnivals hidden behind the safety of tent flaps. We stared in both fascination and curiosity. The next door opened at the top of the stairs.

We walked in hearing faint screams, the whirring of saws and more loudly the clanking of chains hitting upon chains. We looked up in the faint light and saw them swinging from the ceiling. This room seemed quite empty. Garrett and I looked at each other unaware of what to do or where to go next. We then heard the blare of a semi truck horn and head lights flash on. We were right in front of it. It was moving towards us and we screamed as we ran to get away. We pressed against the closest wall, no exit available. Garrett held me close as the wall behind us gave way.

We were transported into a room so bright it was blinding. I was being put onto a metal table by tall, thin doctors? I looked for Garrett and in my blurriness could see he was experiencing the same thing as well. I tried to reach for him but found my hands had been bound. The screams and the saw sounds were louder though I couldn't make out any blood. I was being wheeled to an area. My eyes were still blurry but I could make out the needles and saw like tools that hung above me. I muttered, "I'm so sorry Garrett.." as they whirred to life above me. One of the doctors leaned over me and came close to my face...it wasn't a doctor...it was a alien, a gray alien. I freaked. Grays were the one thing I felt I couldn't handle. I screamed, I thrashed against my bonds and tried to bite at it...anything to get away from it and it away from me. It made the table angle up and slowly brought a tool to my face. What happened next was a blur. My bonds gave way and I was falling down the table through a hold into another tunnel slide. Plunged once again into darkness. My eyes were filled with tears and I came out an exit hole on the other side of house. Garrett was not to far behind me. I ran to him and hugged him, crying into his chest. He comforted me. As our fears settled we began to feel a range of emotions. Excitement, surprise, relief. 

At the end there were friendly vendors, again vintage style, selling snacks and memorabilia. We happily held onto each other sharing our experiences and perusing the carts before making our way back to the car. It was definitely a house that didn't disappoint. 

Category: General

I painted this for my cat (Totoro).

This was done digitally.