"Come on!" Ryan slammed his truck door, leaping towards the rusty fence. It was evening, the overgrown vegetation glowed golden in the sunlight. We had driven past this structure multiple times, and today, we would visit it. Ryan and I were really into urbex, but we only explored old schools and small cabins, we never really got to be this far out in the open.
I threw myself over the fence after him. "Hey, slow down! There could be rattlesnakes out here, remember." He rolled his eyes back at me. We had reached the farmhouse when I caught up with him. Boards and broken glass littered the ground, the roof looked like it could cave in at any second. He trotted to a window and peered in. "What's in there?"
"Looks pretty bare. There's not much in there." He turned away to head to the silos. They were wooden and fragile, Ryan knocked on the wood. "Ouch, splinter."
"That's what you get for touching it," I laughed. "Hey, look," nudging him, I beckoned to the barn.
"Well, come on." As we approached it, it seemed bigger. Its paint chipped walls stretched far above our heads. Ryan pushed at the door, "It won't budge."
"You're not planning to go in there, are you?" A feeling of unease crept up on me, there was something about that barn that-- that just felt off.
"Joel, stop being a scaredy-cat and help me." I reluctantly agreed. We rammed ourselves, full strength, into the broken down door and it burst open. I stepped back. "What? You don't wanna go in?"
"Nah, I'm good," I tried to play it cool, despite my worries. "I'll uh-- just explore out here." He shrugged and stepped inside. I just had to get away from that building. I strolled around where I thought a pasture would have begun. It was getting darker, thankfully. We won't be here much longer. I poked around a clump of chicken wire, lifting boards, hoping to find something interesting. Something in the distance caught my eye, I wandered over to it, squatting down to get a closer look, and finally realized what it was. Bones. The farther out I went, the more there were. Animal ribs, teeth, vertebrae, there were fragments everywhere.
"Hey Ryan." I turned around and jogged closer to the barn, "Ryan!" I ran around the side, almost tripping. "Ryan," I called louder. I peeked into the barn doorway, "Come here, I want to show you something. Also, it's getting dark." Looking around, I saw nobody. "Ryan?" I turned a full circle, the truck was still there, the house hadn't been touched. Where is he? A crack behind me sent me into a panic, this place was really giving me the creeps. I ran towards the field, "Ryan, stop playing around." A wave flooded me, I felt the urge to run.
I gave in. Sprinting, I headed towards the woods. My vision was blurry, but I could still see white bits of remains littering the taller grass. My lungs burned from the bitter air. I couldn't shake the feeling of something following me. It's getting closer, my conscience told me. I felt my body fall to the ground, hands landing in a creek. The forest line wasn't far away, maybe I could lose whatever was chasing me down. My head shakily turned to look behind me.
I still can't understand what happened, a pack of dark haired figures inched towards me, eventually surrounding me. "You're not real!" Nothing I said shook them. They came closer and closer, reaching out their thin arms. I was trapped. As they grabbed me, a searing pain filled my body. My vision washed away.
