Stories to Tell in the Dark

Stay Away from the Darkness

It was a new house, my wife and I had recently bought it at an auction at a pretty low price for a newly built house. About two months after we bought it, we had almost finished decorating all the rooms, except for the guest bedroom. My wife was out of town at the time this happened.

I was just sitting in my living room, in the dark, the gloom of my TV lighting the room ever so slightly. I never pay attention to the TV much; I usually sit there texting my friends or playing the crappy games on my phone. One night I was doing this, when I heard creaking noises coming from upstairs. I thought nothing of it.

"It's a new house," I said to myself. "It's just the foundations settling," I said. The creaking kept getting slightly louder every minute or so. Until it wasn't just freaking me out a little, but until I was getting bangs from the neighbors, thinking it was me making all the noise. I decided to go investigate. I stood at the bottom of the stairs, and stared into the darkness for a few seconds.

"Hello?"

The creaking stopped suddenly. I went back into the living room, wondering what it was. I shook it off and got back to what I was doing. About half an hour later, it started again, I was annoyed now, but still a little scared. I stood at the bottom of the stairs again, and again I said,

"Hello?"

A voice whispered from the top of the stairs,

"Stay away from the darkness..."

"What darkness?" I said, my voice shaking and my eyes widening.

"You'll see..."

At this point, I was shaking violently. I was never the tough guy or the hero, but something about this just made me curious to see what was up there. I slowly started walking up the stairs and when my foot touched the first step, a door slammed shut, loud enough to make me jump and cover my ears. After a few seconds the curiosity got to me again and I started walking up the stairs. When the voice whispered it was as if it was right next to my ear.

"Stay away from the darkness..."

I kept going.

I got to the top of the stairs when I saw light coming from under the guest room door, I wandered over slowly trying not to make any noise and reached for the door handle. It resisted as if someone was holding it closed. Someone who was really strong. I kept trying to open the door until eventually it opened. I walked in slowly and saw nothing, nothing at all. The wallpaper rolls in the corner and the flat pack shelves in the other. I laughed to myself and giggled at how stupid I was to believe this. I turned around and the door slammed shut. I ran over to the door and tried to open it in a blind panic. When all of a sudden the light bulb exploded, sparks and glass flew across the room until the room was completely black. Then the voice returned like it was next to me.

"I told you to stay away..."