I cocked my head to the side as I stared up at the broken windows of that old house. I could hear the laughter of my friends as it was carried by the wind, imploring me to follow after them. I let out a sigh, pushing the rusted gate open. I wasn't too thrilled about entering the place, our town had mustered up thousands of rumours about it. That the family were mad-scientists that carried out cruel experiments on hitch-hikers, that they were witches that liked to resurrect their dead, babies born out of incest. All of it was absolute nonsense to me; I believed that they ended up broke and had to leave before anybody and everybody in our town had the chance to find out.

"Elsie! You're not afraid, are you?" My sister called out to me from the front of the group, I rolled my eyes, tucking my hands into the pockets of my old cardigan. "Not scared that something's going to jump out of the bushes and get you, are you?" I could hear her friends laughing at me from further ahead.

"No." I mumbled to myself, shuffling towards the group with my hands tucked into my pockets. My sister rolled her eyes with a laugh, as he meat-head of a friend wrapped his arm around her. I – we all knew that there was something going on between those two, but in true adolescent style, they refused to acknowledge any of our suspicions as fact.

We stood in the front yard for a moment, each looking up into a window. There were thick, grey-lace curtains covering the majority of them. There was a strange absence of noise, and I had noticed it as soon as I had stepped through those rusted gates. A huge sense of dread filled my stomach, threatening to make me throw up. I chewed my bottom lip, balling my hands into fists inside my pockets. I refused to say anything to them, unless I wanted to suffer the wrath of my sister and her cronies. A tallish boy, his body shrouded in a red and yellow varsity jacket, slowly crept towards the front door. His hand gingerly gripped the chipped white banister as he climbed the few steps leading to the porch. The wood squealed and bent underneath his weight, and his hand reached out to grip the dull brass doorknob. I could hear the beads of sweat dripping from his meaty forehead as they landed on the floor as he twisted it, the door creaking open. He turned around to face us, a dumb smile spreading across his goofy face. They all laughed, skipping towards the goofy-looking boy. My sister stopped in the doorway, turning on her heel to face me. I was still stood in front of the house, a blank expression on my face. I didn't want to go in there, my body was covered in goosebumps and I felt nauseous thinking about what we may have found in there. She pulled an angry face directed at me, frantically waving me over to the door. I hesitated for a moment, letting out a sigh, obediently heading towards her.

"I swear to God, if you pull any more of your dumb hesitant shit, I'll tell David that you like him." She threatened, her fingers gripping hold of my arm so tight then when she let go of me just moments later, there were thick white marks in their place.

I rubbed my arm as I walked inside, muttering curses under my breath. David, was a tall, thin, academic type that had filtered into my sister's friendship group for having a somewhat pretty face. In all honesty, I liked him a little, but I knew that I had no chances with him. So, whatever she would have said to him anyway wouldn't have phased me in the slightest.

My sister pulled me into the room, slamming the front door shut, earning startled curses from the others. She chuckled, purposefully knocking a dusty photo-frame from a table sitting near the door. I tutted, crouching down to pick it up, turning it over in my hands. I hissed at a small shard of glass that had pierced the palm of my hand. The photo was of a young man, he had curly blonde hair and a lop-sided smile. I smiled. The picture amused me, as I had never seen somebody look so uncomfortable in a photograph before. I placed it back on the table, the broken glass crunching under my feet as I ventured further into the house.

Looking up, I noticed the huge crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was covered in dust and cobwebs. I frowned, thinking of how beautiful the poor thing could have looked in its prime. My legs carried me to the staircase, I stared up at the walls, noticing more and more family portraits. There was a man with short black hair with a stiff upper lip, his eyes cold, vacant. A woman with long, almost white hair pulled into a neat bun on top of her head. Her face was blank, as if she was attempting to be somebody that she wasn't, her lips painted a magnificent shade of red. I smiled, admiring the idyllic family that sat so obediently on the walls. I couldn't help but wonder what went wrong, or why they had moved away in such a hurry. All of their belongings sat in the last places that they had last been used.

As if from nowhere, I began to heard sobs. I frowned, goosebumps consuming my skin again. There was a lump in my throat preventing me from calling out to whoever it was. I held onto the banister, my hand sliding along it as I climbed the twisting stairs. "Hello?" I called out in a shaky whisper-shout. The sobs carried on, I frowned with concern, climbing faster.

Standing at the top of those stairs, dread washed over me like an infectious disease. I grimaced, I had never felt dread as strong as that before, but I knew that there was something wrong. The dusty air was thick with a bad aura, but, I had to know who it was. I had to know if whoever it was wasn't injured. I chewed the inside of my mouth, my legs trembling as I began to walk along the claustrophobic corridor. The sobs were getting louder, the air felt thicker, as though something was trying to pre-warn me against going any further. Ignoring everything that was telling me to leave, I stopped in front of a door. The sobs were the loudest here. I grabbed the handle, pushing it open. I was about to open my mouth, when I was greeted by the back of a figure. They were wearing a ripped, knitted navy jumper, their head bowed down. "Hello." I found myself saying again. They sniffled, slowly raising their head; it twitched every few seconds, as if he was on a comedown. I stepped into the room, instantly regretting my decision.

"Excuse me? Are you okay?"  I asked, finding myself creeping towards them. They were shaking, they were definitely high on something; I couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

A strange gurgling sound came from their mouth, as I inched closer towards them, thin slivers of moonlight made their way through the tiny cracks in the lace curtains. They had blonde hair; that can't be the boy from the picture downstairs, can it, I asked myself. I raised my hand to my mouth, fingers grazing my lips, I chewed the nail, regretting my actions more and more.

"Excuse me?" I asked, my voice a lot quieter, my hand reaching out to touch their shoulder. My hand brushed it, they took a sharp breath in, and I began to feel more and more overwhelmed. I could hear my friends smashing things downstairs, laughing together.

Whoever they were, their breath rattled inside of their body, as if their lungs were slowly decaying. I frowned, they gave no response to my touch; their body continued to shake. It was as if they hadn't noticed that I was there. I pushed them back a little, into the light, which illuminated their ghostly face. There were dark, purple circles engulfing his eyes. One was a deep, dark brown. The other a pastel blue. His lips were parted, but no words escaped from behind them. A tear trickled down his cheek, his face paler than anything I had ever seen. He was staring straight ahead, his hands sitting idly by his side. I crouched down in front of him, trying to look into those vacant eyes of his. There was a reddish-purple mark around his neck, like he had attempted to hang himself. "Are you high?" I asked quietly, waving a hand in front of his face. His head slowly turned, as though he was running on a kind of clockwork mechanism. He looked at my hand, before slowly looking at me. He opened his mouth to say something, but only the sound that he made was a gurgle.

"Elsie! Come on, this place is fucking boring." My sister called to me from the bottom of stairs, the young man in front of me began to sob again, his eyes scrunching up. I stared up at him, letting out a sigh. I didn't want to leave him here, he was clearly in distress. "For fuck's sake Elsie, if you don't hurry up we'll leave without you!" She screamed, stamping her foot. I placed my hand on top of his, his fingers slowly curled up into a fist. He tried to speak again, but he couldn't. I didn't know why, and I was sure that he didn't either. He stared ahead of me, looking out of the gaps in the curtains.

I waited for a reaction from him. There was nothing, not even a gurgle.
I stood up, dusting off my knees, hurrying towards the door.

Leaving him there. Alone.
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Song Of The Chapter - Flickers by Son Lux

A.N
Alright ladies and babes, new story because I've been obsessed with it for a week but I've been too scared to post it. Ahhhhh. I love the broken boy he so cute he so fluffy.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think??