The House That Screamed
I remember a story I read once out a horror storybook as a kit. I remember the premise and even most of the story, but I am unable to remember the storybook it was in. I have as such written a short story with a similar premise, but it isn't as appropriate for children, and it has furries. This is a radical departure for me, writing horror, but it was kinda fun. Even though I never tell her species in the story, Sarah and her family are all Siberian tigers.
I snarled as my race car spun and crashed. The sound of shattering glass and crunching metal resounded through the living room as another car, unable to stop, smashed into mine. I put my controller down and sighed in frustration as half the field piled up behind my little accident. The race had been kicking my ass for the last half hour in Forza 4, but I kept pushing on for some reason. I had the living room LCD with the stereo sound system, though, so that might have been one reason. It was gonna be the only night I had the awesome 50 inch television available for such a stretch as I had been on. My dad was out for the night working on something, and my little sister was in our room reading. She was 14 and I was 15, so I naturally had to watch the house. My mother had left only a month after my little sister Alice had been born, running off with a male that had more money. She hadn't spoken to us since.
I grudgingly pressed restart as my car was completely wrecked after that crash, but before I could slam the throttle down and hear my car's engine scream through the room, a beeping came from the kitchen. I paused the game and looked up. The kitchen was dark. There was a small hallway between the kitchen and the living room directly across, the hallway leading to the one bathroom in the house and the two bedrooms. I shared one with my sister. I put the black controller down and walked into the kitchen. "Alice?" I noticed then that all of the appliance clocks had gone to an eerie countdown. The microwave, coffee maker, and the stove showed 5 minutes remaining on.... something. The really mystifying thing was that none of the devices were operating. The gas stove had no flames, the microwave silent and dark, and the coffee maker dry.
"Curiouser and curiouser... " I muttered to myself. I decided to go and investigate to see if Alice had done it. I knocked on her door. "Yes?" I opened it slightly and asked through the crack, "Did you mess with the kitchen appliances?" She came back a moment later with a mystified voice. "No... why?" I paused. "Never mind." I closed the door again and went back to the kitchen. I tried to shut the devices off, but to no avail. The controls wouldn't respond on either the microwave, stove, or the coffee maker. I left the light on as I left because the three perfectly synched countdowns were really beginning to get creepy. I went to the bathroom to relieve myself but as I was washing my hands I heard the Mac Mini in the living room start up with a cheery chime.
I walked into the living room in time to see a Word document open on the old CRT screen. Immediately, 1s and 0s began to pop up in chunks.
0100010001001001010100110100000101010011010101000100010101010010001000000100000101010000010100000101001001001111010000010100001101001000010010010100111001000111
I watched as it continued this cycle until I clicked into Word. It stopped. I copied one of the chunks and closed the document, then I opened Safari and looked up a binary translator. The results were... startling, to say the least.
DISASTER APPROACHING
I closed the browser and quickly left a sticky note on the screen saying "POSSIBLY INFECTED". I knew it was unlikely with a Mac but I couldn't think of any other reason it would do that. I shut down the computer and sat on the couch. I shakily grabbed the controller but I was just way too spooked. I took a shaky breath and looked at the clock. Only 7:20 PM. I walked into the kitchen again... unplugging the microwave and the coffee maker to get rid of the eerie countdowns and draping an oven mitt over the stove clock. I picked up the landline phone and dialed my girlfriend's number. "Sarah?"
My puma girlfriend's voice rang through the line. "Um, I know it is a tad late, but can you come over?" She came back, sounding a little confused. "Why?" I didn't quite know how to answer. "Well... can I just tell you when you get here?" She giggled. "Alright, give me a minute." I smiled. "Thanks."
"No problem." She hung up, and I put the phone back in its cradle. I sighed and hugged myself, really freaked out. I heard the shower come on, and dismissed it as my sister bathing. I glanced down the hallway and noticed the bathroom was dark and the door to our room still closed. I walked into the bathroom and flicked on the light. I reached in and turned the shower off, already feeling my orange fur sticking to my body from the steam. "Damn..." I went over and turned on the exhaust vent. The steam began clearing, and that was when I saw the letters in the mirror.
NOISOLPXE
"What..." I stared at the words for a moment, then I heard a voice behind me. "Sarah?" I whirled around startled. Alyssa smiled. "Sorry for scaring you..." I shook my head, "It's fine... can you tell what this says?" She squinted at the words for a moment. "Looks like a backwards word..." She reached up with her paw and began drawing letters with her finger. "E... X... P... L... O... S... I... O... N... explosion, that is what it says." She looked at me with a spooked look on her face. "Okay, what the hell is going on here?" I shrugged. "I don't know, but it started happening a few minutes ago. Come with me." I showed her the countdown in the kitchen, and I told her about the Mac's little outburst. The phone rang. I went over and picked it up, putting the yellowed plastic receiver to my ear. A robotic monotone came through. "LEAVE... LEAVE... LEAVE... LEAVE..." I slammed the receiver back in its cradle. I stared at it for a moment. "What the hell?" I muttered under my breath. Alyssa was watching me. "Who was that?" I looked at her, and the look on my face must have been one of terror. "I... I dunno, it was... it sounded like a robot, telling me to leave." The Mac's bootup chime sounded again. I looked at her, my eyes wide. She came up to me and gently hugged me, kissing me on my cheek. "It's fine, babe, let's figure this out together." I buried my face in her shoulder. "Alright." After a moment I raised my head. "Well, let's see what it has to say." She nodded. We released each other and we went over and looked at the screen. Instead of the binary code, it now showed a picture of a house fire. Then it flashed to a burn victim... I turned away, gagging. It... it used to be a fox... but it was burned horribly, all of it's fur burned away, it's flesh blackened and charred, the remnants of it's face twisted into a petrified look of agony. Alyssa had also looked away, horrified. Then the speakers came on with a pop, and a medley of different voices from different videos and sound clips pieced together a message. "This... will... be you... in... about... a... minute.... if you... don't leave." The computer then crashed, and shut off. Me and Alyssa looked at each other.
I started panicking. "We need to freaking leave... I don't know what the hell is going on but I can't stand in this house anymore!" I stormed into the hallway and opened the door. I yelled at my sister. "Come on, we are leaving!" She looked at me oddly, but she calmly put her book down and jumped off the bed, following me. Alyssa followed me out of the house as I stormed though the yard. "Sarah, you need to calm down. It was probably just some pranksters... " I turned around and yelled. "How do you explain the shower? The countdowns? HOW?" She looked away, defeated. Alice was thoroughly baffled. "What's going on?" I let out a rattly sigh as I hugged myself and Alyssa held me close. "The house... I don't know how, but I think it was sending me messages about an incoming disaster... one that would kill us all." As a serious atheist with no belief in the supernatural, I was surprised at my own words, but I couldn't think of anything else. "Maybe I am just losing my fucking mind, but this... " I broke down and began crying. Alyssa held me tighter and I laid my head on her shoulder. "it's fine, Sarah, just calm down..." After a few moments I stopped bawling and sniffed, looking back at the house. "Maybe we should go back in, it was probably nothing." As soon as the last letter left my mouth, the whole house was rocked by a massive explosion. We all jumped, Alice began shrieking, and flames blossomed out of the left side of the house.
Most of the windows had blown out, and soon half the house was bathed in flame. Alyssa released me and dialed 911 on her phone, frantically telling the operator what had transpired. She hung up, and we watched as the flames soon enveloped the house. We were still in shock at what had happened. "I... I need to call my dad." Alyssa handed me her TracPhone and I quickly dialed my father's number. "Alyssa?" I shakily began speaking. "It's me, Sarah. Dad, everyone is safe, but... the house is burning down. There was... an explosion, I don't know what caused it, but the place is going up like a torch. Alyssa called the FD, and we are all in the front yard." He took what seemed like an eternity to respond. He sounded thoroughly shocked when he did, "I... I will be home right away." With that, he hung up. I couldn't blame him. The firetruck arrived barely a minute after Alyssa's call, but the house was already enveloped. The firefighters didn't even try to save anything, it wasn't even possible at that point. The chief pulled up seconds later in his red SUV, and he looked surprised at how much the house was burning. "How long did you wait to call?" I shook my head. "She called only seconds after the explosion.
The wolf's muzzle hung open slightly. "How'd you guys get out in time?" I sighed and began explaining. When I was done, he looked away. "That's about the only thing that could've saved you guys." My dad's white Intrepid pulled up. My girlfriend explained it to my dad, saving me from repetition. "Well, I would have loved for you guys to meet her under better circumstances, but..." A lioness stepped out of the Intrepid and joined our little group. "This is what I was actually working on... I feel bad I was out with her when this happened." I smiled. "It's fine, dad." I shook paws with the lioness named Cassandra as my dad introduced me, my girlfriend, and my sister. We then stood in silence and watched as the house burned. The fire chief came over and talked to my dad. "It's a good thing the supernatural stepped in, if anyone had been in the house when that detonation occurred, survival would have been... unlikely."
An investigation into the cause of the blast revealed that the fire had started when a badly sealed gas line to the water heater began leaking, filling the basement with flammable propane. The gas found an ignition source and detonated, breaching the heating oil tank that provided the fuel to the furnace, adding fuel to the fire. If anybody had been inside, they would've been dead, either by the fireball or the rampant inferno that ensued. I still to this day do not fully understand what happened, but all I know is that only one minute separated me and a meeting with the grim reaper.