Writing Challenge prompt. Using all three items a Black light, a trap and an arrow write a horror story.
“How did it begin?” I sighed “Well it really started a few months before,…well you know, when I was using the bathroom at the bar.”
“You’re talking about The Lantern right?”
“Yeah there, anyways I was washing my hands at the sink when the lights went out and the emergency lighting didn’t come on. I have a little light on my keys so I pulled that out and turned it on. It’s one of those lights you know that makes white glow….kinda purply I can’t remember what they’re called…’I trailed off
“A black light?” She prompted
“Yeah that’s it…..a black light. So anyways I turned on the light and was heading to the door when I noticed there were arrows on the ground”
“You hadn’t seen these before?”
“huh? Well no it was my light, the black light that made them glow. I think they had a bunch of those lights once when The Lantern was more of a club less of a bar kind a thing. It’s too bad I didn’t just have a normal flashlight huh?”
She smiled at me and nodded.I sighed once again “You know I already told the cops it was him….the one they killed it doesn’t matter exactly what happened does it?”
“It might help in their investigation, to get more information. It also might help you now that it’s all over to share, it might help everyone to start healing”
I snorted “There’s a lot of people it won’t heal”
“Well no some people it can’t help but it also can’t hurt them. They’re gone and you’re here. Talking about these things out loud can help you to see them more clearly and start to get past them.”
“I don’t really think I want to see it more clearly.”The room fell silent I knew what it meant either I would keep talking or we would sit here in silence for the rest of the hour.
I knew she was right I needed to talk about it to face it but it was the last thing I wanted to do all I wanted to do was pretend it didn’t happen that all of us, me and Mike and Gracey and Dave were all sitting here instead of just me.
”I didn’t know what to think of the arrows and told everyone else about them, we talked about it for awhile and when we were leaving and I showed them what I ‘d seen and we found out that they kept going that the arrows made a trail that went out the door and down the street. It was cold and late so we all just brushed it off and went home.
I guess we all kept thinking about them though because every time we would get together it would come up again and we would talk about following them to wherever they led. We couldn’t seem to help it, it made us all…. Well curious I guess, I mean anyone would be wouldn’t they?”
“Yes they would”
“It ended up being a running joke for awhile we would talk about following the arrows from time to time but I don’t think any of us were really serious. I think we all figured the arrows were probably just some ones idea of a joke and that they would just lead us in circles or not go anywhere. It was winter too so no one wanted to go out in the cold to follow some stupid arrows on the ground”
I didn’t want to keep talking. Already I could feel the ball of anxiety in my chest growing making it hard to breathe. I didn’t want to talk about what happened when we finally decided to follow them.
“You did decide to follow them eventually”
“Yeah” I was chewing the inside of my lip ”It kept coming back up, Mike was really bugged by it I think, not that it was his fault though, I mean we all thought about it once in awhile from when I found them to when” I swallowed past the lump in my throat ”When we followed them.”
“It’s ok, none of this was your fault either”
I nodded I could feel the ball in my chest growing the urge to bury my head under a blanket growing stronger. I really didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“You know they made me nervous, I know you probably think I’m just imaging that, that I couldn’t have known what would happen so there was no reason a bunch of stupid arrows should have made me nervous but they did. Something told me following them was a bad idea.
We did though I don’t know why we’d had a few drinks and Mike had brought along this big black light and I mean we really couldn’t help thinking that following some stupid arrows wouldn’t hurt us.” I laughed but it wasn’t really a laugh it sounded closer to a sob than anything else.
“It was stupid we followed them and they kept going so we kept following, they went south down Washburn. There was an arrow every 3 feet or so just glowing in the middle of the sidewalk bright as day. We thought we’d lost them once or twice usually when we came to an intersection and they turned off down another street.
We were on River Rd about midnight when we really thought we’d lost the trail but then Gracey saw one.
It was on the fence leading into that big industrial area. We almost stopped cause we all knew there were a bunch of old wells and stuff we could get hung up on in there. Well that and we did know that it was private property so we really shouldn’t but we could see more arrows on the far side of the fence. We’d been following them for like an hour by then and it had become sort of fun. It sort of felt like when we were all little again, on one of our stupid little adventures and we didn’t really want that to end. I mean Dave was moving away the next week so it had become like our last hurrah or something.
We decided to keep going and hopped over the fence. Once we got over the arrows were easy to see I guess because there weren’t any street lights. The spacing got a little different on the other side of the fence though so really it didn’t actually get any easier to follow the path.
I guess because the arrows couldn’t be drawn on the grass all that open space made where he could put them a little harder.
We got to the building by the river and we almost didn’t go in I mean being outside running around was one thing but we weren’t kids anymore if we got caught tresspassing we’d have been in trouble especially if we went inside of a building. I don’t think any of us really wanted to just walk away from it though we’d followed them for such a long time and it
sure didn’t look like the building was being used for anything so we went inside.
It wasn’t locked or anything but it was dark and we couldn’t really see except when we’d shut the door behind us a little light came on. It was in the back of the building that had been sectioned off almost like a hallway.
I don’t know why but we all realized that the light was tied into the door somehow. Well no it was because Gracey had opened the door again when the light came on and it had gone out right away and so she closed it again and the light came back on. I don’t know I guess we realized it was like some sort of reverse fridge light.
I think we were all pretty nervous by then I mean this old half falling down building shouldn’t have had power and we were all wondering why that light was there like that. At least I think we were all a little nervous by then I mean we’d pretty much stopped talking so I can’t be sure but it really didn’t feel right.
It was the light that made us go in further, I mean why would a little building that looked about ready to fall over have power? So we all walked over towards it and that’s when everything went wrong.
We had all went into that little part where the light was and there was a switch beside it and Dave, at least I think it was Dave might have been Mike flipped the switch and the ground disappeared. There was literally no warning one second it seemed we were standing on something solid and the next second we were falling.
I’m not sure how far we fell the police told me that it was about 16ft deep. The bottom was all squishy I guess because it was so close to the river and it smelt terrible it had that wet earth smell but it also smelt like mold and like something rotten.
I don’t think any of us were really hurt in the fall but then Dave screamed like a real scream. He had put his hand out to push himself up and had hit something that cracked and cut his hand open. Mike turned on his cell to see what it was and that’s when we first realized how much trouble we were in.
Dave had put his hand into a skull that was on the ground. I guess it was pretty old skull cause it had cracked just from the weight he’d put against it. He started freaking out and I do mean totally freaking out he started clawing at the walls trying to climb them. To be honest we were all freaking out a bit by then but he was the first to panic. I don’t know how but Mike managed to get him to calm down I think he might have actually slapped him like you see in the movies.
He said something about how we were going to get out of this that we needed to calm down that we all had cell phones. I don’t think any of us would have gotten out if he hadn’t calmed us down.
The phones didn’t matter though none of them were working, none of them could find any type of signal. So we tried to climb up on each other’s shoulders to reach the top and get at least one of us out. We figured if we could do that we could get help and everything would be fine.
It had to be either me or Gracey who got out the guys were too heavy for us to hold up so Gracey tried first. She had made it to the top but when she grabbed the edge her fingers cut right into the edge of the hole. The lip was like a razor blade and when she grabbed it she couldn’t help but let go right away and fell back down.
She broke her ankle or her leg or something when she fell so I had to try. I don’t know how long it took for us to get her calmed so I could give it a shot but when she was calmed down I tried climbing up. I knew not to grab the edge and was able to grab a big weed growing beside the hole and pulled myself about halfway up before having to lean onto the edge. I didn’t really feel it though when it cut into my stomach it just felt warm but I was out of the hole so I didn’t care.
Gracey started screaming when I got out to pull her up and so instead of going for help right away the guys and I tried to get her out. She got cut on the edge again when we’d gotten her up but I was able to pull her past it. It must have taken us 15, 20 minutes to get her out too.
I think that’s what haunts me the most if I had just run for it as soon as I got out and called 911 a few minutes earlier maybe it would have been enough time to save us all. If I’d just ignored her screams and worried about calling for help first what would have been different?
I mean we should have realized that someone had made it on purpose I mean the trail, the hole, the light everything it was all one big trap. We should have realized that the person who had set this whole thing up wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble without having some way of knowing when his trap caught someone.
“Can you believe 20 years no one else ever got out of it? Gracey and I are the only people to ever make it out and well Gracey isn’t really Gracey anymore.
My cell still didn’t have a signal when we got out so I went out the door, Gracie was screaming at me to take her with her but something had finally told me I needed to get help sooner rather than later.
I had gone about 200 feet when I finally got a signal and just as I went to dial I saw a
flashlight and a man heading towards the building we had all been stuck in. I ducked behind another building and let him get past me before flipping my phone back open so he wouldn’t see the light it made and dialed 911.
I could hear Dave and Mike and Gracie yelling but the 911 operator told me not to go back. I had to though if you had heard the sounds they were making you would have too. I had to these were my friends…..”
I stopped I couldn’t keep going I couldn’t say out loud what had happened next the sounds I heard and the things I saw “I want to go back to my room now”
“Ok, you did real good today and you gave me a lot of information that can help” The doctor walked across the room and patted my shoulder “you really did good, I’m proud of you” she said before helping me to turn and head back to my room.
I stopped this story here as I really didn’t know where this story was carrying me and to be frank I don’t want to know what my mind can come up with if I keep going.
