Bloody Handprints

A mother is supposed to protect her child, right? She is supposed to make sure that her child lives a good and happy life. But what if your child suddenly becomes a monster? Is looking after your chil

Elizabeth opened the door and smiled at her sister Emily.

"Hey" Elizabeth greeted. She took a few steps back. "Come on in."

Emily walked in though the passageway and took off her black winter coat, hanging it up on the coat stand next to the door.

"It's certainly not summer anymore" Emily spoke. A playful smile making its way onto her face.

"That's for sure" Elizabeth agreed.

"Aunt Emily!" Dylan shouted enthusiastically while tackling her waist in a bear hug.

Emily ruffled Dylans blonde curly hair and crouched to his level.

"How's my little man doing?" Emily asked.

"Fine" He responded his voice radiating with excitement.

"That's good" Emily replied while rising from her crouching position.

"You got a long shift at the restaurant today?" Emily questioned.

"Yeah" Elizabeth said with a sigh. "It's actually surprising sometimes how much people eat."

"Yeah it is" Emily replied with a giggle.

Dylan raced to the living room, his little feet pounding the cream carpet floor. He grabbed the skeleton costume from the sofa and ran back to Emily, a smile plastered on his face.

"Look what mummy bought for me. It's a skeleton."

"Pretty cheap considering I bought it at Asda." Elizabeth mused while smiling at her son.

"Really? I don't shop there often" Emily responded.

There was a distinct resemblance between the sisters.

Emily, the eldest, had long straight brown hair which framed her heart-shaped face and was framed with expressive eyes that shone with so much life. This canvas was completed by olive skin which seemed to fit perfectly.

Elizabeth's face was rounder than Emily's and she shared the same skin tone as Emily's. However, the only differences lied in the long feminine nose, her sky blue eyes, of whom she inherited from her father and passed onto her son, Dylan. Her wavy blonde hair that stretched down to her shoulders.

Elizabeth looked at her silver watch and looked at Emily. "I got to go. Do me a favor? Once he's done trick or treating can you tuck him in?"

"Sure" Emily said hugging her little sister.

"Dylan, you be good boy for Emily. Okay?" Elizabeth spoke as she embraced Dylan in a hug.

"Okay mummy" Dylan said with a nod.

Elizabeth grasped her coat from the coatrack and put it on.

Her hand went inside her right hand pocket, fishing for her car keys. She pulled out a Skylanders plastic toy from her pocket, of which Dylan asked her to keep safe when they went to the park yesterday, and placed it on the cabinet besides the door.

She searched her left coat pocket and pulled out her keys and went through the front door.

"Bye mummy!" Dylan spoke waving at her from the porch

"Bye" Emily said waving as Elizabeth got inside her red KA and drove off.

Once Elizabeth was gone, Emily turned to Dylan.

"Come on little man, let's get you changed and then we can go trick or treating."

Outisde the moon stood incandescently in the company of the twinkling stars; which shone so bright that it looked like they were holes in the floor of heaven.

"Are you ready young man?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes" Dylan responded enthusiastically while wrapping his small hand in hers.

The house at the bottom of the street, had been dilapidated for two generations. God only knew why it hadn't been either demolished or refurbished.

The shattered windows were laced with thick cobwebs which danced unwillingly in the night's chilly breath.

The door which had been rumoured to be pure white pine was torn from its hinges, it now lay forgotten on the unkempt garden which was guarded by overgrown wild grass; to continue its rotting existence uninterrupted.

Without a door or glass in the windows the house was exposed to the cruel elements. Mold slowly stretched its slender fingers at the peeling walls and the rotting wooden flooring.

Emily recalled the time where she entered the 'haunted' house when she was a student herself. It almost seemed like it was another lifetime ago, when she was that young and the only things that mattered to her was boys and what other people thought of her.

She had been dared to go inside for the night as part of an initiation to be accepted into a group that was deemed popular at the time.

She remembered walking up the dusty staircase trying not to get pricked by any of the syringes, of which seemed an impossible feat at the time considering how many there were left on the stairs. Staying in the master bedroom until midnight, waiting for the ghosts of the previous owners to make her disappear.

It was and still is, according to what she heard from youths, cool to prove your bravery by going into the house. Some things never change.

She could only imagine her sisters reaction, if she took Elizabeth's little boy in the building. Especially, if Dylan took a 'present' from the staircase and showed it to Elizabeth, she knew that she would not hear the end of it.

"Emily!" A feminine voice shouted from behind her.

Emily turned around. A smile quickly formed across her face.

"Hey Harriett" Emily greeted with a wave.

She turned to Dylan. "Stay here." She pointed to a nearby tree "I won't be a moment."

"Okay Aunty Emily."

Dylan sat down on the grass, enveloped in the shadow of the large oak tree. Pulling out his sweets from his orange Halloween bag, he began counting.

"Good boy." Emily praised before going to see Harriett who was waiting for her next-door.

"How are you? I feel like I haven't seen you in ages," Emily spoke excited to see her childhood friend.

As the boy was counting, the wind blew one of the lighter sweets down the pavement. Quickly, Dylan quickly jumped to his feet and ran after the sweet. He trapped it under his shoes and picked it up.

Dylan turned his head and saw a flickering light coming from one of the rooms in the abandoned building. Proving that the building still had some small flicker of life.

Curiosity ensnared the boy, he found himself entering through the mouth of the house, eager to find the source of the light and to earn more Halloween sweets.

A few moments of silence passed. Then a few more.

A scream emanated from the house, first loud and short. Then quickly followed by a succession of screams each ear-blistering and blood-curdling.

The scream tore through Emily like a bullet. Her brown eyes darted to the tree, where she left the boy only to find that she wasn't there.

Oh dear god, no. She thought panic stricken.

She felt physically sick as her mind darted through each horrific possibility.

She felt her eyes widen and pulse quicken, her heart thumbing so loud that she could hear it.

The child's scream originated from the house. Her complexion paled. Before she was even aware of making a conscious decision her feet pounded the chipped pathway of the derelict house.

Once inside, the hallway was pitch black. Unable to see clearly her ears strained for more sounds. Anything to identify where the poor boy was.

"Dylan!" She shouted panicked.

Emily wandered around aimlessly in the dark until she saw candle light flickered from what once used to be the dining room, creating long shapeless figures on the ceiling of the hallway.

Entering the dining room was just as dilapidated as the rest of the building, it seemed as though no room had been spared the test of time. If you could turn back time, you could see that the dining-room had once been impressive. However, years of neglect had taken its toll.

The oval table in the middle of the room was layered with a thick coat of dust. Two of its wooden legs were missing, causing that table to kneel in an odd angel. The crystal chandelier above the table was blanketed in grim and dust.

The sound of soft breathing caused Emily to look in the corner of the room.

Relief washed over Emily when she saw Dylan sat still in the corner.

She walked closer.

A gasp unwillingly escaped her lips when she saw Dylan.

His eyes were wide with horror, the mouth was rigid and open, and his face was gaunt and immobile.

Oh god, what happened? Emily thought in horrified anguish.

"Dylan" She shook him softly, afraid to scare the boy further.

No response. The boy was still a picture of terror. His small childlike fists clenched so hard that the nails were digging deeply into the palms of his hand.

"Dylan. You are scaring me. Please, say something."

Again, no response.

"Dylan, you can't just run off. You have to tell me where you are going."

Small tears flowed from his blue eyes and fell on his blood soaked collar.

Emily picked up the fragile frightened boy, who was shaking like a leaf in her grasp.

Dylan buried his head into his worried aunt's shoulder.

"Come on, we are going home."