The House in the Everfree Forest
August 14th, 2013
Due to the amount of inactivity in the Dovere territories, which is the closest territory to Ponyville, Night Hunter has added on the Heuyu and the Batchu territories to my nightly patrol. Now, I am patrolling the entire Everfree Forest in one night, but my pay has been bumped up, too. Its a big game changer because it actually takes me more time to patrol, rather than the single Dovere territory. I also had to make a few changes, such as spreading the pony mannequins out throughout the territories.
Fortunately, no Timberwolves and other creatures have shown themselves in a while. It's weird how nothing mythical or supernatural has shown itself in months, especially the Timberwolves. I doubt I wiped them all out of the Everfree Forest. The idea of believing I did would be considered wishful thinking. However, tonight, the Batchu territories didn't offer me anything living to concern about, but instead a structure.
It was a humid summer night as I drove along a dirt path in the Batchu territories. The further I went in, the more bumpier and uneven the terrain would get, prompting me slow my pace a little bit. I had the high-beams and roof lights on at the time, and that was pretty much the major lead to my discovery.
To my left, further inside the dense forest, was a subtle yet noticeable flash of white light. It disappeared as soon as I turned my head towards the direction, so I slowed down a bit until I came to a complete stop. I squinted my eyes as I looked onwards into the forest, but it didn't show. With curiosity getting the best of me, I put the Defender in reverse and backed up, and the light flashed once again.
Now that I was paying more attention, I found out what the source was. When I looked more closer, the roof lights were able to faintly illuminate something completely out of my expectation; a house. Turns out the flash was really the light reflecting off one of the windows. It was very puzzling and eerie to find a house all the way out here in the forest, far from civilization. The only two explanations I had at that moment was that the house was built here years ago or the portal dropped it off.
"Hmm."
I then shut off the Defender, holstered the Igneous around my back, and stepped outside. My flashlight shined through the dark forest and casted shadows of the branches and leaves. Twigs and branches snapped as I stepped and shoved them out of my way until I walked right up to the house. The house was a one floor suburban home in the shape of an L. It had simplistic colors, white siding along with grey roof shingles, but a great deal of mold was forming along where the foundation would be. It just looked bland.
The lack of the foundation is what gave the house its origin, since the portal just tear structures right off the ground. I then walked out to the front windows, which were missing some shards of glass.
"Hey, somebody in there?" I said in a raised voice.
There was no response to my call, so I decided to investigate further. The screen door and front door to get inside was unlocked, so I simply walked inside without a problem. The first little thing that I noticed was that he ceiling was exactly eight feet high because my head was so close to making contact with it, ignoring the fact I had to lower myself just to get through the door. The room I stood in must've been the living room while the adjacent room was the kitchen. I say the word must've because the interior was nearly void of any furniture, decor, or even appliances. The only pieces of furniture that remained was an old recliner in the middle and a couch in the far back of the living room. Aside from that, it was just a white wall and stained carpet.
The current state of the house made the floorboards creak with every step I took as I walked across the living room and into the kitchen. The back door was entirely removed, allowing more humidity in and aiding the nasty mold growths on the linoleum floor and in the corners of the kitchen. I opened up the pantry door, but only to a pair of cobwebs. It was as if everything in this house was ransacked and stripped away.
With nothing of interest in the kitchen, I moved down the hallway that was behind the living room. My next stop was the bathroom. Like before, everything was gone, including the toilet. The bath tub was absolutely disgusting. There was just so much mold and mildew on the wall that it created a foul stench. I think I saw some mushrooms growing on the floor, but I really wasted no time to move on to the next rooms. The next door led to room with blue paint on the walls and containing a single mattress while the other room across had white walls and empty. They looked to be the size of bedrooms at most.
At this point of my investigation, I just wanted leave and move on with my patrol, but I had one last hallway and room to check. There was a door to the garage and the basement, but the garage was empty and the basement was, as you know, not on the premises. With those doors out of the way, I went up the last one and turned it. It wouldn't budge. I then forcefully jerked the knob to turn, but that just broke it off.
"That wasn't supposed to happen."
Of course, I know how to improvise. I then put my back against the wall and quickly brought legs up before exerting all the force into a drop-kick. This sent the top-half of the wooden door flying into the room and revealed a pair of heavy-duty metal chains strung across the other side. Surprised, I shined my flashlight into the room and that's when I saw a symbol on the north wall. It was drawn in black, bolded, and had a simplistic yet interesting design. For a description, there were two small horizontal arrows intersecting between a longer vertical arrow near the top with a sideways eight at the bottom of the said arrow. With another forceful push, I detached the chains from the doors frame and barged in.
The room was now more illuminated. As I looked around, I furrowed my brow to the realization that the same symbol was coordinately drawn on each side of the room so that they would face one another. In the middle of the room was a bed with a white mattress, but something dark was stained onto it. I walked over to the bed and discovered a circle with an upside-down star that was created with something that had a brownish color, permanently stained on as it was dry to the touch.
"Well, this is inviting."
Deep in the back of my mind, I know I had seen this star before, but I know that it was back on Earth. What was it? I'm not religious, but it reminds me a lot of rituals that I used to see in tv shows, just because of the symbolic placement alone. Could someone have been practicing religion in this room and never erased it or something? If so, why would they chain the room up.
"Somebody's got a lot of time on their hands. Well, might as well get back."
Slowly turning around to the door, my eyes caught a tiny glimpse of something that contrasted the bright, neutral colored wall. At the bottom of the wall, in the corner, was a tiny illustration that was colored in dark red. Kneeling down to get a better look, it appeared to be a humanoid. It was bipedal, but the shape of it didn't look human at all. My right hand brushed across the carpet and that's when I felt a grainy sensation. At first, I legitimately thought it was sand, but the filaments were clear, like a crystal. I then did a quick taste with my index finger.
"Salt?"
I then brushed the line of salt off the carpet until it was scattered. This whole discovery made me feel confused and unsettled, but it only got worse when I stood up.
When I did stand up, the unsettling vibe I previously felt turned into something on the lines of horrifying. The inside of my ears began to pulse, which sounded like a soft rumble. The fact that happened right when I stood up made me feel uneasy, but it slowly faded away until the room was dead silent. As I stood motionless, the feeling of someone standing behind me or watching me grew. Biting my lower lip, I turned around to what I saw before. And then, my flashlight flickered before dying.
"Oh, come on. Not now." I said, fiddling with the flashlight.
The room was now pitch black. Through the sound of my flashlight shaking, there was a abrupt knock on the other side of the room. I froze as I stared into the darkness. It was so quiet, but there was slight shuffling, just like someone trying to stealthily advance towards me. That was scary.
"Oh shit, there's someone in here with me!"
Out of fear of the unknown source, I unholstered the Igneous and switched on, giving off a small radius of light from the golden, magical energy inside.
"Who is that?!" I said as I aimed the weapon and backed out of the room.
I continued aiming as I backed down the hallway. Suddenly, a drawn out, high-pitched beep came right above my head that made me scream from being startled. I jumped back and into the living room, still aiming down the dark hallway as my eyes darted in all directions. Three beeps came from right, which was in the kitchen. It turned out to be the phone charger for a land-line, but that's impossible for it to work if there's no electricity running through the house.
I was pretty terrified at this point because there was someone in the house that I couldn't see, yet I could hear. I didn't want to take my sight off the kitchen, and the minimal amount of lighting wasn't a big help. When I felt a pair of lanky fingers pinch my left arm, I lost it. I just turned, ran out of the house and didn't look back.
Shortly after I sped away from the location, I noticed a burning sensation on my left forearm. Running down my forearm were three, bright pink burn marks in the shape of claw slashes. I don't know what happened or who was in that house, but I'm steering clear from this part of the forest during my future patrols. That's all I have to say about that.