Residential Obscurity

by Zelda Spectrum

The House

For years there have been many stories surrounding a small two-story house on Maple Street in Trottingham. The quiet neighborhood and the friendly ponies that live there making it seem like a very nice place to live. However, this house is said to be haunted by evil. Ask any local and you will likely hear a different story from each, but they all speak of danger to all who reside within the houses walls. Some will say that it was owned by an insane doctor whose soul still lives in the house waiting for unsuspecting victims to move in. Others say that it inhabits a monster that only comes out at night. Most have said that any pony who encounters the unholy vessel in the house never lives to see the light of day. Regardless of all the stories, you decide to buy the house and move in.

Tonight is your first night in your new house and you are happy to be starting your new life in this new neighborhood. You sit in your Work Room on the second floor with a camera in your telekinetic grip as you imagine the thrill of being in a new, quiet town. The neighbors are very friendly and have welcomed you to Trottingham with open arms. Every time they have asked you where you live, you point out this two-story house, 289 Maple Street. They have warned you time and time again that the house is haunted and that you should find another place to live. However, since you are not one to believe in ghosts or paranormal activity, you ignore the warnings and move in anyway.

‘In all my years of being a photographer, I have never seen such things as ghosts.’ You think to yourself. ‘By living in this house, not only will I be able to relax in a quiet town, but I’ll be able to prove there are no such things as ghosts.’ You hold your camera in your aura and anticipate your first day as the photographer for the Trottingham Daily News. You used to work as a photographer for the Daily Ascension Newspaper in Fillydelphia, but you decided to move here to Trottingham when you found out the Trottingham Daily News was hiring for a photographer and paid higher than your old job. You decided to leave the noise of the city and settle in a small town where every pony knows each other.

You wonder what your first big scoop will be on. ‘Maybe I will get to meet the mayor of this town, or perhaps document a historical landmark. Whatever it is, it had better be interesting.’ You put your camera down on the table in front of you and look around the room. You have a few photos strung up in front of you on a string that capture various ponies, buildings, and critters all in excellent angles. On the desk in front of you is your camera along with a typewriter to your right and small folder of pictures and extra rolls of film to the left. At the far right of the wall in front of you is a door that leads to a storage room. On the wall to your left there is the door that leads out into the main hall of the second floor.

You look out the window to your right and see that Luna’s moon is shining bright this evening. With a yawn, you get up and walk out into the hall closing the door behind you. The floor curves to the right and presents two doors on its left, a view of the bottom floor on the right, and a staircase leading down to that floor straight ahead. You pass the first door and enter the second revealing your room. All it contains are a bed in the middle of the wall to your right, a small table with a lantern and clock to its right and a wardrobe against the wall parallel to the end of the bed and a window in front of you.

‘I really need to get some more furniture for this house.’ You think. You walk over to your bed and get yourself settled in. The clock reads 10:30 p.m.; a little early to go to bed, but you want to make sure you have enough energy for your first day on the job tomorrow. You then turn and close your eyes as you drift off into dreamland, ready for the first day of work in the morning.

*CRASH!*

You are woken up by the sound of a loud shattering sound. Your heart nearly leaps out of your throat as you jump up in your bed. You look at your clock to see that it reads 1:45 a.m. ‘What the hay could that be this late at night?!’ Your mind automatically jumps to the conclusion that there is an intruder in the house. You look under your bed to see a wooden bat and you grip both the bat and lantern with your telekinesis. You slowly open the door and cautiously peek downstairs, but you do not see anything that could resemble an intruder. You slowly walk down the stairs to avoid making any creeks and alerting whoever is in the house.

At the bottom of the stairs, you turn to your left and enter into the kitchen. There is an oven, a sink, a counter with a few drawers, a pantry, and a refrigerator on your left that sit side by side. Above them are some cabinets for some of the dishes. In front of you is a window where you can see the next house. At the far end of the left wall is a door that leads into the Dining Room. ‘That’s where the noise came from, but what is in there to smash?’ With your bat at the ready, you slowly open the door and reach turn on your lantern. All that you see is the big oval table in the middle of the room surrounded by four chairs with a large shattered chandelier on top of it. There is a door on the leftmost side of the back wall that leads out into the backyard.

You look up to see a broken gold chain dangling from the ceiling where the chandelier was once mounted. ‘I guess the chain didn’t have enough support to hold up that heavy chandelier.’ you assume, ‘Oh well, I’ll take care of it after work tomorrow. I just want to go upstairs and get some-’ your train of thought is interrupted as you hear hoofsteps coming from behind you. You quickly turn around ready to swing your bat and knock out the intruder, but you see nothing there. The hoofsteps have disappeared as well.

“Great, now I’m hearing things.” you mutter to no one in particular, “I really need to get some sleep.” You climb the stairs and stand in front of the door to your room. Just as you are about to walk in, you hear a creaking sound to your left. You turn to see the door to the Work Room is wide open but you could have sworn you had it closed. Curiosity gets the better of you as you walk into the Work Room. Everything is left as it was when you last used it except for the door to the Storage which is now wide open.

You peek into the Storage Room and attempt to turn on the lights. However, no matter how many times you flip the switch, the lights refuse to turn on. “Now the power is out?! What other problems does this house have that I don’t know about?!” Setting your frustration aside, you shine the lantern into the room. Inside, there are piles of tools, old cameras, and photos all over the floor with most of the cameras in pieces. “What the hay?!” You look over the mess, appalled at the sight before you. “These cameras date back to 983, and these are my old family photos! They’re irreplaceable!”

As you look over the pile in anger and confusion, there is one thing that sticks out to you. A small piece of paper that looks like a clipping from a newspaper lies in the pile closest to you. You pick it up and notice it dates back to March 24, 992. ‘Where did this come from? This article was written eighteen years ago.’

Mother and Daughter Reported Missing

This morning, Mrs. Morning Dew (Earth Pony) and her teenage daughter, Lily Blossom (Unicorn) were reported missing. The father and husband of the two, Cast Iron (Unicorn) claims they went for their weekly walk down Maple Street and never returned home. Police are currently on the investigation searching for the whereabouts of these two family members. Full story on Page 9.

Before you can question what the article is talking about, you hear a series of ticking sounds in the room behind you. ‘Is that my typewriter?’ You backtrack into your Work Room and look at the typewriter. The ticking has stopped but the typewriter has been used as there has been a small message written on the paper in the typewriter.

WE JUST WANTED TO HELP!

You stare at the words a little unnerved as you try to find a source of logic for this unnatural occurrence. You know this was not written by you as you have not used the typewriter since you moved in. You know you did not hear hoofsteps behind you, ruling out the possibility of an intruder. The more you think about it, you realize there are no signs that some pony has entered your house. There has been no sign of broken doors or windows, nor have there been any hoofprints or hoofsteps.

‘Maybe this lack of sleep is starting to get to me,’ you reason with yourself. Convinced that you are just seeing things, you exit the Work Room and trek back to your room. However, when you open the door, you see the wardrobe open and most of your shirts and jackets thrown out across the floor. Still cross from the piles in the Storage Room, you groan to yourself, set down the bat and lantern, and encase your clothes in your aura. You hang each article of clothing on the hangers while silently cursing at all the strange activity that has happened.

Just as you hang up your last shirt, the door to your room suddenly slams closed. You immediately jump from the sudden surprise and grip the lantern and bat with your telekinesis once again. If you were not fully awake minutes before, this certainly woke you up. Reluctantly, you walk over to the door and slowly turn the knob to crack open the door and see if there is anything on the other side.

“Get out before it’s too late.”

You let out a small yelp, quickly turn around and swing the bat at the source of the voice you just heard only to end up swinging at empty air. ‘W-Was that a voice I just heard?!’ You begin to start shaking as you wonder where the strange voice came from. The window has remained closed since buying the house so you know it was not the wind; there is not even a breeze this night. “M-M-Maybe this house really is haunted.” As soon as the words escape your lips, you shake your head and mentally slap yourself. “Keep it together; there are no such things as ghosts! You’re just letting those stupid ghost stories get into your head!”

Calming down a bit, you realize that your throat is parched. You open the door and trek downstairs to the kitchen. As you set your bat and lantern on the counter, you open one of the cupboards and retrieve a small glass. You hold it under the sink and turn on the cold water to fill the formerly empty glass. You then take a sip of the new glass of water letting the cool, refreshing liquid run down your throat. As you pause to take a breath of air, you start to feel a presence around the kitchen as if some pony is watching you. You cautiously look around the kitchen, but you see nothing that resembles a physical being.

Suddenly, all the cupboards slam open at once causing you to jump and lose your grip on the glass of water allowing it to crash to the ground. Backing into the hall while trying to process what just happened, you hear a sounds coming from the vent behind you. You turn around and perk your ears up as you listen to the sounds. The sounds of muffled screams and of something big being dragged across a stone floor echo from the vent into your ears.

You turn to your right and stare at the big area that consists of the railing and a staircase leading to the basement right next to the stairs that lead to the second floor. ‘This vent is supposed to lead to the basement.’ you realize, ‘What in Celestia’s name is going on down there?’ You ponder the thought of investigating the cause for the noises in the basement, but decide against it out of fear of what could be down there. For all you know, it could be a muscular stranger that could snap you in half with very little effort, or maybe there really is a monster down there that would consider you an appetizer before its main course.

‘I-I need to get to the police! Surely they will know what to do.’ You turn to the left and walk to the entrance of the house in an attempt to leave the house and only return with a swarm of cops. You unlock the door and turn the handle to leave to building only to find that the door will not open. You start pulling the door with all your might, but the door does not budge. You do not know why, but some invisible force refuses to let you leave the house. It is obviously not sealed by magic; you would be able to sense the aura otherwise.

The feeling of being watched returns to you as you once again hear hoofsteps coming from the kitchen. You back into a corner and cover your face expecting something to come and attack you. The hoofsteps draw closer and closer to your location and you brace yourself for what is about to happen next.

Nothing happens.

You look up to see nothing is there and the hoofsteps have vanished. Reluctantly, you get up and peek into the kitchen only to find everything is still as it was.

"You are in danger!"

You whip your head around as you hear yet another voice from behind you. You return to the kitchen with your eyes fixed on the location of the voice. You bump the sink and turn to retrieve your bat and lantern from the counter. As you turn to collect the items, you see two words written on the wall in a crimson color.

‘W-What does this blasted house want from me?!’ you wonder as you start to shake, ‘The police are never going to believe me if I try and tell them what is going on...assuming I ever get out of this house.’ You grab your lantern and make your way upstairs into the Work Room. You find your camera next to the typewriter, just where you left it when you went to bed. 'This ought to convince them I'm telling the truth. If they won't believe what I say, they'll HAVE to believe the pictures!' As you pick it up, you notice another newspaper article dating to a few weeks after the previous article you found.

Local Disappearances Enforce Town Curfew

Troubling news has stirred in the friendly town of Trottingham. Over the past few weeks, many different ponies have gone missing during the night. These ponies include Moon Beam (Unicorn), Snowfall (Pegasus), Comet Chaser (Pegasus), Lucky Shoes (Earth Pony), Nightingale (Unicorn), and Sugar Cube (Earth Pony). The recent disappearances have started to cause panic amongst the once peaceful citizens of Trottingham as they now seem scared to go out alone.

The mayor of the town, Mrs. Inkwell (Earth Pony), has decided to issue a town-wide curfew for the safety of all her citizens. “Until the missing ponies show up and the mystery behind the disappearances is solved,” the mayor said, “all citizens should be back inside their homes by seven o’clock when Princess Luna brings the moon into the night sky.”

The police have their hooves full trying to uncover the mystery of the disappearing ponies. They hope that with the new curfew issued by the mayor, that they will be able to solve the mystery of these missing ponies and bring them home to their families.

You stare at the article and absorb the information you just received. ‘What is it with these disappearances and this house?’ you wonder, ‘Is it possible that these two are somehow connected?’ You try to find a way to connect the stories from the articles to the strange occurrences in this house, but nothing seems to click. You move the thought to the back of your mind as you take your camera and walk out of the Work Room.

As you walk into the hall, you hear the sound of running water coming from the door next to your room. ‘Why is the water on in the bathroom?’ You walk over to the door and open it only to get a face full of steam. You flinch a bit from the sudden steam in your face before turning back to look in the bathroom. The floor and walls are decorated with dark green tiles and the ceiling is a plain white. The bath tub is to the left against the wall and a sink right in front of you and a mirror overhead. Both faucets to the tub and the sink are pouring out hot water and filling the room with steam.

You notice that the water in both the tub and sink are starting to overflow, telling you that the drains have been plugged up. Before setting your lantern down, you take your camera and snap a picture of both the sink and the tub. With that done, you turn of both faucets and stop the water from flooding the bathroom. As you begin to exit, you hear another sound coming from the mirror. You turn around to see letters being written on the fogged up mirror.

Y-O-U-’-R-E
N-E-X-T-!

Shaken at the scene before you, you snap another picture, pick up your lantern and bolt downstairs to the front door. Once again, you try to pull the door open with all the strength you can muster, but it is no use. Just as you start to give up, you hear the door to the left of the vent creek open. You take a peek inside to see an empty room that opens up to the left. The room has cream-colored wallpaper with lime-green lines that intersect to form diamonds with a wooden trim around the bottom. The room has no windows, so your only source of light is from your lantern.

‘I was originally going to turn this into guest room or something,’ you remember, ‘but after all the crazy stuff that has been going on, I’m not sure I will even stay here to do anything to it after tonight.’ You trot into the room and look around, but you do not see anything out of the ordinary.

“Behind you.”

You scream as you hear another voice in the air. You whip around expecting to see some horrifying monstrosity ready to attack, but once again, nothing is there. ‘Why does this house keep toying with me?!’ you ask yourself rhetorically. You walk to the door intending to head back into the hall until something catches your eye. You look at the wallpaper to the right of the door and see that a corner is not sticking. Upon closer inspection, you see something hidden behind the wallpaper.

Without hesitation, you start peeling off the wallpaper to see what is underneath. Once you tear off a good amount, you step back to look at the wall with your mouth agape. Pictures of various ponies litter the wall varying in gender, age, and race. Some pictures are marked out with an “X” while others are torn through the middle. Above the pictures are the words "no witnesses" scribbled in big letters. You then notice another article plastered just above the wooden trimming dated five days after the article in the work room. You snap a picture of the display before walking to the article and reading it.

Police Find a Crack in the Case of Missing Ponies

Despite the recent curfew issued by Mayor Inkwell, the ponies of Trottingham continue to disappear. A few ponies have left the town seeking safety elsewhere in Equestria until the case is solved. Police continue to search around the clock for the missing ponies, but have found no suspicious activity during night patrols.

However, recent evidence has shined some new light on the case. A fellow citizen has reported that they had witnessed a strange unicorn wandering the street with a duffel-bag on his back. The suspect was described as a brown unicorn with long black hair and sounded like he was silently talking to himself. Police have taken this new information and are now using it to assist their investigation for the missing ponies.

As you finish reading the article, the feeling of being watched returns to you as you feel something looking over your shoulder. You turn around, but you do not see any sign of a physical being. “This is really getting weird.” you say to yourself, “Who was the owner of this house? What do these disappearances have to do with the house?” As you ponder these questions, you realize there is one room in the house that you have yet to explore.

The basement.

You take a gulp at the thought of going down there, but you know that the answers must be down there. As you exit the empty room, you hear the muffled screams and the sound of something heavy being dragged on stone through the vent. You begin to shake and your heart starts to run a mile an hour. You walk along the railing until you reach the stairs that lead to the basement. You take a deep breath before trotting down the stairs.

The stairs spiral around to the left and into a blue tile floor with a metal door. You attempt to open the door only to realize the door is locked. “Oh great; the one place that might have answers, and it’s locked.” You look into your memory of exploring the house to try and remember if you saw a key anywhere, but you realize you have not come across one anywhere in the house. You sit down and wonder how you are going to get inside.

Suddenly, an idea sparks in your head and you trot upstairs into the kitchen. You open one of the drawers under the counter to retrieve a small kitchen knife. You make your way back down to the basement door with the knife in your magical grip and insert it into the lock. “Let’s hope this works.” You fiddle around with the knife in an attempt to pick the lock. A few minutes pass and you start to become irritated as the lock does not budge.

Just as you are about to give up, you hear a click from the door. You turn the handle to find that the door has indeed been unlocked. You drop the knife and carry in your lantern and camera as you enter the basement.

You close the door behind you and turn to get a good look at the place. The room is completely made of stone and there are iron bars along the left side that resemble prison cells. There are three cells along the left side, each cut off by a stone wall. Each one is empty and contains nothing but cobwebs and dust. As you reach the end of the basement, you look around to find nothing else down here. “Are you kidding me?!” you stomp in anger, “You mean to tell me I came down here for nothing?!”

You let out an angry grunt and look down towards the ground when you realize that a few stone blocks seem out of place. You take a closer look to see that some of the stones that reach up to your chest are lose from the wall. You set your lantern and camera on the ground and ignite your horn, enveloping the stones in your aura. You pull with all your might as you pull the stones loose from the wall. After pulling out the stones, you set them against the right wall to reveal a small hole. You take your lantern and look inside to find an old wooden trunk. You pull out the old chest and open it to find a disturbing sight before you.

Bones.

Bones of dead ponies fill the trunk. The skeletons emit a putrid smell that causes you to empty your stomach on the floor. Hesitating to look back into the trunk, you notice yet another article as well as a piece of paper that looks like a letter on top of a unicorn skull.

Trottingham Killer Caught and Slain

Police have recently discovered the identity of the kidnapper to be thirty-four year-old unicorn stallion, Iron Brace. Police arrived at his house on 289 Maple Street with a warrant and knocked on his door asking to let them in. When he refused, he threatened the police with death. The police barged in and surrounded him in the kitchen where another one of his victims lay with crossbows at the ready.

The suspect was in tears and had a knife against his neck. The police tell us the the suspect was most likely not in the right state of mind as his eyes were bloodshot, his pupils were the size of seeds, and he seemed to be talking to himself as if the police were not there at all. They tried to talk him out of suicide, but the suspect muttered "No witnesses" five times before turning the knife on himself. An investigator later identified the victim as twenty year-old Storm Chaser (Pegasus) who had his right wing broken and was stabbed in the chest. The police searched his house for any remains of the victims, but did not find any traces other than blood in the cells of his basement where he undoubtedly kept his victims.

A town-wide funeral and memorial will take place on April 24, 992 to remember the ponies who were victims of this heartbreaking tragedy.

You then put the article down and start reading the letter. The letter is hastily written and hard to decipher.

It's not my fault! she had it coming for a long time now That blaste mayers that comes to my house every week! She was so kind to me when if frist came here. My wife divorced me and kicked me out cuz we were so financially bankrupt.im lucky i could aford this house an fid a job. The mare and her faminly were nice to me but it was just her masking her true nature.Every week she comes to check up on me and see how im doin but she really just wants to chamge ne. She comstantly nags me over every bad hapit i have an expects everything to b done perfectly!She woulndt stop taking! I had to shut her up so last time she was over i killed her out of rage. but i fourgot she brot her dawter with her so i had to kill her too.i hav nevr seen somuch red in my life. I had to clean it up and hid the bodies so i stufd them in a trunk and hid it.

The police came to question me about thoze mares. i lied of course but i now they still dont believe me. I can see the look in the townz poniz eyes, they know i killd them. Theyll break itno myhose and get teh bodies and hav me put away!i cant allowthat to happen! I need to killth em bfor they find out. No pony must now the truth there can be no witnesses!

As you finish reading the letter, all the pieces come together. ‘So the owner of this house went insane after killing two mares and he slaughtered innocent ponies here in this cellar to try and cover it up.’ The thought of this makes your stomach queasy again as you try your best not to vomit again. ‘I need to get out of here and get this news to the police! I’ll see to it that this place is torn down for good!’ You take your camera and lantern and snap a picture of the trunk of bones.

Suddenly, you hear the door open behind you and you feel a presence enter. You turn around to see nothing but the kitchen knife slowly floating towards you. Horrified by this unnatural occurrence you drop both the lantern and the camera. The lantern shatters and the camera flashes as it hits the ground revealing the outline of a unicorn stallion with long hair and cold, dead eyes staring directly into your soul.

“No witnesses!” it says as it comes closer to you.

Fearing for your life, you take the camera in your telekinetic grip and sprint past the ghost with the knife before it has the chance to attack. You run up the stairs and into the dining room to get out the back door as you know the front door will not budge at all. You run around the table with the broken chandelier and make it to the door. You turn the knob to get out, but the door refuses to open.

“No, not now! Anytime but now!” You begin to ram into the door and try to buck it open, but the door stands firm as you ram into it praying to Celestia that the door will give way.

“No witnesses!” the voice of the ghost says again. You turn around out of fear and the last thing you see is the kitchen knife flying at you with incredible speed.