Inside the House

ANDREW POV:

I unlock the front door and the first thing I could tell was that this place was empty. I couldn't really see anything because of how dark it was, but it was something I could just feel. I turn the flashlight on and try to get a good look at my surroundings.

From a quick glance, I saw that the entire house wasn't as big as I thought. The entire house was naturally made out of wood, so there were some wooden planks sticking out, clearly showing how rundown this entire house was. In front of me, there was an open area having a dining table right in the middle; I am guessing this was the dining room. To my right, the open area led to the kitchen. To my left, there were furniture like sofas, tables, and chairs. I am guessing this was the living room.

There weren’t any doors for any of these rooms, you could see everything seamlessly connect.

I could see a little hallway at the end of this living room, I am guessing that is where the bedrooms are.

I flick the light switch, which was on my right, only to see that nothing happened.

'Seems like we made the right choice to bring our flashlights.'

Before I could proceed further, I could hear my brother grunting behind me.

"What are you doing?"

"I can't close this door, it's stuck."

"Ugh, you're so useless, you can't even close a single door?"

"No really, I can't, it's like something is blocking it."

"I can't believe this; the door is about to close, and it is apparently 'blocked' at the door frame. Here, grab my stuff and move out of the way.”

Mike does whatever he was told and gave me space. I grab the door handle and try to close the door, and admittedly, it didn’t want to close.

‘I guess Mike was right. However…’

I push my body up against the door to forcefully close it, and eventually, it worked.

‘It’s not impossible.’

“I’ll admit it just this once Mike that I was in the wrong to have that much faith in you. The door was indeed a bit troublesome, but it wasn’t that big of a problem for me. Anyways, now that that’s done, you can give me my stuff back and let’s continue exploring.”

“Mhm.”

“Alright, let’s start with this dining room. Then, I will go to the living room, and you can take the kitchen. Deal?”

“Yeah.”

Coming to the dining room, we saw a small rectangular dining table with four seats, one seat each being aligned to the side of the table. Surprisingly, the table still had cutlery, and we even saw food on the plates.

Rotten food, of course.

Also, the dust in the air was terrible. Forget the camera, even I could barely see anything. I had to move my hand around in the air to get rid of all the dust.

Looking around, I could see family photos hanging around the walls. One photo showed a close up of a woman with brown hair and blue eyes wearing a simple white dress sitting down on a bench and gazing gently at the camera like she was in peace.

Another one had a photo where that same woman was getting hugged by a man from behind and both were laughing, as if they were having the greatest time of their lives.

‘Is that supposed to be Elizabeth and her husband? What happened to them?’

A photo to the right of that was showing that same man holding a child and the woman next to her, which I am guessing is Elizabeth, was showing a bit of a fatigue, but was still showing a gentle gaze with a slight smile.

And for some reason, this next photo sent a chill down my spine.

The next photo showed that same woman sitting down a bench and giving a gentle gaze. Although her eyes were the same, her lips weren’t. While keeping that gentle gaze, she was showing a very wide grin. It gave off a strange feeling, it felt like…

“Madness.”

“AHH!”

This fuc…he really had to come up behind me and scared the hell out of me.

“Please, don’t scare me like that again.”

“Oh, right, sorry. Didn’t mean to.”

“I know, I know, just be careful next time.”

However, what Mike said was right. Madness. It wasn’t the photo, but Elizabeth who gave off that sense of madness.