House of the Soulless

Prologue

In 1970, there was a town called Cerberus, and on one faithless day it was put on the map. Not for the wine made from their vineyards located in the fields on the outskirts of Cerberus, but for the gruesome murders convicted there. James Sane lived their, in the House of the Soulless, as it was nicknamed later. James had a daughter, Sara Sane, and she was her dad’s first victim. He copied the Egyptians in certain ways. James slit their necks, all 12 of them. Then, he pulled out all their vital organs, in the manner of the Egyptians. He then began the mummification process, and continued to cutting them into long strands of flesh. With his only daughter, he pulled out her vital organs, as with the rest of them, and continued to cut her up forgetting the mummification and finishing with conducting a sacred ritual to insure his beloved daughter’s soul won’t be trapped between our world and the deads'. Trapped forever in a world without emotion.

85 years later, the name still matched the town’s gruesome past. Cerberus, according to Greek mythology is the monstrous three – headed guard dog of the underworld. The hero Persous, son of Poseidon, defeated him on grant passage to see Hades, the God of the underworld. Since Cerberus is right outside Death Valley, it is almost like the town guards passage to the underworld. If only it was just a coincidence.

As time went on, rumors started about spirits possessing the house. Teenage boys spent the night there. Then, nothing was seen of them ever again. The residence of the town started to fret, worrying and fearing the house. They moved far away, to be rid of the house and its demonic presence. Eventually the town’s population dropped from 1200 to 650. Shops closed up and Cerberus went from a beautiful town with a past to just a town with a past. A horrific past, indeed.

CHAPTER 1

One chilly day in October, Terry Jones, a short freshman with longish brown hair and blue eyes that shone like an endless pool of shimmering scales on a fish, was talking with a group of older boys when the conversation took a dark turn.

“Did you hear about Kary Almose? He went into The House of the Soulless last week and never returned. All they found of him was a boot track in the mud outside.” Said Joss Canna. Joss was tall and muscular with short blond hair waves in the cool autumn air. His eyes brown, with specks of white and the contacts no one knew about. Like the other boys (except for Terry), Joss was a jock: the Quarterback for the Cerberus Lions High School football team. “Ironic,” was the thought on everyone’s mind. “The ghosts got him for sure.” Another Liam call, said as he took one last puff of his smoke before he threw it out. “You’ve gotta quit Liam.” Joss grabbed Liam’s hand before he could get the pack out again. “Dude.” He pushed Joss off, but shoved the pack back into the creases of his pocket. “Yeah, right. That place ain’t haunted. Kary just chickened out and skipped so he won’t have to admit. Terry said, puffing his chest to look tougher. “Oh yeah. Is that so? Then you won’t mind staying there tonight, will ya?”

Joss grinned with delight as he spoke. “Not one bit.” “Terry kept a straight face to hide his resentment.” “7p.m. Sharp. All night, till dawn. If you don’t stay, we’ll know. Good luck.” Joss and his friends left Terry to lather in his own misery and woe. 'I will die tonight' was his thought.

CHAPTER 2

“What? No,” Elaine Williams, a freshman with black and brown hair, green eyes and Terry Jones’ girlfriend, was talking with her friends when one of them, Katherine Temp, asked Elaine about what she though of Terry spending the night at the House of the Soulless. Finally Katherine spoke up, “You don’t know? Go talk to him!” Before she could finish, Elaine was already sprinting across the school yard looking for Terry before he left and the time to talk would pass. “Terry!” Elaine yelled when she finally found him. He turned around right when Elaine ran into him. “What…” Was all he could manage before she swung him onto the ground. “Sorry. I…” She got up and reached her arm out for him. “Thanks.” He said as he filled Elaine’s palm with his. “Is it true?” was all she needed to say. He knew what she meant. “Yes.” He looked down to ignore her eyes full of disappointment.

“Are you crazy? What the hell is wrong with you?” She wasn’t usually angry, but in Cerberus, going to the House of Soulless was a one way ticket to deathville. “I’m sorry. It’s just, I have to.”
He looked up just in time to see a single drop fall from her right eye to muddy grass below. “No. You don’t. You can choose not to. Just tell them you won’t go. You won’t spend the night. Please, don’t.” Elaine tried to hide her tears behind her long darkened hair.

“I wish I could, really, but no.” Terry held back the urge to let Elaine see his eyes water up. “I love you.” Terry raised his head and Elaine saw how his eyes shone through the tears.

“Don’t go. I, I love you too.” At that moment they had a feeling in which they would both remember for the remainder of their short lives: Pure helplessness.

CHAPTER 3

On the way to The House of the Soulless, Terry noticed an odd presence following him. When
He looked behind him, no one was there. He dismissed the feeling and carried on his way towards the house.

It was Elaine who followed him. She stalked him to the house to talk with him once more: To convince him to come back to her house and forget all of this. She got lost through. Elaine had never been there. She didn’t know where it was. When she finally got there, the door was open and a malicious laugh was heard through the doorway.

The house was old and musty. Blood and coffee stained the air, strong enough so that you could taste the metallic qualities of it. Dark wood line the walls and floors. Webs full of every kind of spider known in the area and beyond covered everything. There was an eerie presence in the house as if someone was watching your every move. When Elaine walked through the door and into the house she stopped and turned just in time to lock with Terry one last time as a spiteful Thomas Sane slit his neck and let all the warm blood ooze from Terry’s neck onto the floor. Thomas Sane killed Terry just as him and his grandfather killed so many more. And Elaine witnessed the entire horrific event.
CHAPTER 4

She ran. It was all she could think to do. Her heart raced as if it was the one who just witnessed the most horrific event and not her. When Elaine came to a stop at last, she replayed what had just happened in her head: Walking into the house; Seeing Terry; his neck slit open; blood pouring out from every open crevice; and finally, Terry’s lifeless body falling on the floor behind him. Every single gruesome detail still haunting her mind. “Terry is dead.” It hit Elaine like a brick to the head. “Terry is dead. Terry is dead.” The words keep banging the inside of her hand. She broke down on the sidewalk and started weeping. She loved him and he was dead. And it was all because of some murderous fiend. She was going to get her revenge. She was going to kill her love’s murderer if it was the last thing she would do.
CHAPTER 5

As soon as Thomas Sane had killed his latest victim he followed the steps his grandfather made-up when he went on his own killing spree. “Just as the Egyptians,” was his saying. At least, that was what he had heard somewhere. After he had disposed of the body, he resumed what he had been working on before. Cooking. Not an ordinary meal, but one for someone with a more acquired taste. Someone with a taste for human flesh: A cannibalistic meal.

CHAPTER 6
As Elaine walked into the house, 9 P.M. rolled around the corner. She found the fiend in the kitchen eating some sort of meat. On the way to the house, Elaine came up with her plan to rid the world of the fiend that killed her love. She would stalk him all night, till the time was right. Then kill him the way a vicious monster should be killed: With love in her heart and rage in her eyes.

Throughout the night, she found patterns and connections leading her to the realization of how sick and twisted the fiend truly was. At about 5 A.M., she concluded within herself that it was time. She went into the kitchen to grab the sharpest knife of the bunch and returned to where the fiend had slept for the latter end of the night. Elaine snuck into the fiend’s apparent bedroom and started off with cutting off his hands in such a quick fashion that the fiend did not realize what had happened until after the bodiless hands had fallen to the floor and blood piled on top them. He awoke and felt the excruciating pain. “YAAAAAA!” Screamed a clearly confused along with ticked off fiend, “You…” He grimaced through the pain. With what strength he had, the fiend lunged towards Elaine, but she was quicker than he was. She slid out of the way of his reach and sliced off his feet. He deserved to suffer as Terry did, as Elaine did, and as everyone did. As the pain speed through the stumps where his hands and feet used to be, blood did the same. Not enough time had passed and he was losing blood too quickly. She needed to do something that would show him how much pain he had caused others. In one swift motion, Elaine sliced the fiend’s body in two for just the right amount of time to pass to show the fiend the pain for others that was done onto him.

CHAPTER 7

In under 15 seconds, Thomas Sane had died. His body was later found for the police to burn. When Elaine left the house, it was dawn and the light of the new day shone around the house and to the front, where Elaine stood. Knife still in hand. After thinking for one last time, she yelled, “I love you, Terry.” Into the morning wind and fell to her knees where she promptly stabbed herself. Not in the heart, for it would kill her love for Terry. Terry her beloved, Terry her reason.

EPOLOGE

Some say she killed herself for the reason that she loved Terry too much to live without him. Others say she could not bear the guilt of murder. Yet, there are still more that say how she went crazy and wasn’t in the right mind when she killed herself. Whatever the case, one thing is for sure: The House of the Soulless will never be just a house and everyone in the town of Cerberus knows that all too well.