Betrayal, gore, loss and fear is all I dream of these days. Those barbaric men are all there, smiling, laughing even, not giving a care in the world. They know how their lives will end, how..all of ours will, yet they embrace it, they even worship the damn thing. Them and the…god-awful events of that day are always on my mind. I guess I should explain why you might be seeing this post on this site. I saw, what I thought at the time to be a real post, about some man being stalked by some creature with shoes that clapped quite loudly and wore shades. At the time I was scared but, realized it was just one of those fake stories written to really get at you. He talked about how it helped to write it out and I thought, hey that idea’s not that bad actually. So here I am writing, or typing I guess, about a day from a few months ago filled with the worst that life can throw at you. I’ll give you a warning however, this story is not for the faint of heart or easily nauseous. Now with that out of the way let us begin this journey.
I was a college freshman and, oh boy, did it feel like being a freshman in high school again. Either everyone hated me and my friends or outright ignored us. I had just barely been accepted into college, merely on a recommendation from my shop teacher, a friend of one of the professors. He sent it up to the dean and my golden ticket gave me the wiggle room I needed. That was the only class I did well in but, got pretty much straight D’s in my other classes throughout my four years there. My friends however, John, Xavier, Austin and Ryan, passed with flying colors. We were all roughly the same age, except for John being a year older than us. Luckily he waited to go to college with the rest of us so he wasn’t alone, he always was like a big brother to us. We all decided on a regular college, one filled with frat parties day in and day out. We had all just become old enough to drink legally but, with John we got some free drinks before that. It was when we all became old enough on the very night of Xavier’s birthday, that led to this gruesome memory of mine. We all went out to the bar and went for as many rounds as our wallets could afford, that or until we couldn’t get our wallets back out. We would have been stuck there if it weren’t for John’s roommate Tom, who we had originally met at an arts convention about a year back and who also happened to be on his fourth year of college, had tagged along to be the designated driver. We had told him to drive us back to the college but, he suggested his apartment so that we wouldn’t get in trouble. We were too out of it to even disagree so, he took our drunken grumbling as an agreement. I don’t remember a lot from that night except what my friend told me. He told us that we had stumbled in, also explaining that Xavier smacked into the door frame, thus the red bump on his forehead. He said that we went on and on about random garbage but, finally came to the typical freshman subject of joining one of those fraternities at the college.
That morning we stupidly followed through with this drunken notion of how to up our popularity. Tom drove us back to the college and we headed up to my dorm room. I threw open the door to find my roommate, a freshman as well, in bed with the blanket thrown off. Drool cartoonishly dripped out of his mouth. I picked up his Psych book and tossed it at him as my friends shuffled in. I made a point about how late it was and that he might miss his first class. He shot awake, throwing the slice of pizza on his chest onto the floor, frantically got up and ran to the closet. Me and the others all chuckling, except for Xavier as he was rubbing his head from the night before, sat down and talked about which fraternity to pick. “Well there’s the Omegas or the Deltas, which are the best fit for y’all.”, Tom pointed out smiling. “Yeah very funny smartass” Ryan shot back. While he had a point, these houses were filled with people who were even sadder than us, or at least I hoped. I skimmed through our list and found one at the bottom, heavily underlined, called ‘Tluca’. “Hey guys, why is there a group down here called…Tluca, or something, it’s like really creepy sounding.” They raised their eyebrows at me and that’s when my roommate piped up as he stumbled out the door. “Yeah umm…you should ignore that one.”, He mumbled, “It accepts everyone, I’ve heard that it’s not..normal per-se.” He waved goodbye and bolted off down the hallway. We just sat there looking at each other for a bit. It was just such a weird thing to say, it just came out of nowhere. “I doubt he knows what he’s talking about, I mean he’s just a freshman.” Tom pointed out. Xavier nodded in agreement. “Eh, I don’t know man he seemed pretty sure of himself.” I squeaked out. “I’m with Xavier on this fellers, cause I heard they’re quite the accepting type” Tom chuckled. How would he know that, I thought. The others didn’t give it a single thought and decided we’d go check it out tomorrow, as for now we had classes that we were already missing.
We all got back from our classes at around eight or so and met back at my room. I had brought a flashlight along for the trip. We tried to look up where the house is but, to no avail. So we asked around and picked up some bits and pieces from the graduate students. It seems like it was a real big thing, back seven…nine years ago maybe, it varied between students. For the most part though, they said that it used to be one of the biggest fraternities, until a health inspector came to examine the house and marched out of the house minutes later yelling about how the place would be shut down and should also be burnt to the ground. They tried to calm him down but, onlookers said he had a look of disgust and despair in his eyes. If you ask him now he either ignores the question or says that no such thing ever happened. They say you can tell though, you can tell he remembers, you can see his eyes glaze over as if his brain just locks up and refuses that memory. Many say that he was paid off, or threatened, by the heads of the house to not say a word to his superiors The heads of the fraternity soon closed down the house before any possible legal actions might try to do the same. Many went in and out of that house for months after and only came back out at night and no one knows what was ever found there to have upset the inspector so much, no one still does to this day. A few had even said something about yelling from inside but, there was never enough people to confirm this. It recently started back up though not as an official fraternity, so as not to abide by the same codes that shut them down. I’ll be honest, we were scared out of our mind, except Ryan or at least we thought, he never said much or showed too much emotion on his face. Nevertheless, Tom had volunteered to lead us in, saying we were all ‘worry warts’, as he never believed in that story though, after that night, he would have.
We waited till the teachers had left and kept close to the walls, almost running the entire time. We slinked through the halls, keeping our eyes on the cameras. We had to be absurdly careful, as this school was extremely uptight about it’s curfews. I asked Tom about it and he said, “Well it started over some kids doing about the same thing as y’all are doing, except they got lost in them woods on the way to the house instead of just following the path like all of us are. They had died from a uhh…bear attack. Not a soul ever did see the bodies, still one of those ‘open’ cases, as if they’re gonna be finding something’ new. Trust me they ain’t finding much.” Tom was always about as skeptical as Xavier, which explains all the conspiracies I find them reading. As we crept along the halls we finally found the main doors but, to our dismay they were locked. “Ah, of course,” Austin hissed “,of course it would be locked, now what?”
“I don’t know man,” I responded “maybe we could….” Ryan had slowly crept past us all and up to the doors “I know what to do, just wait.” He calmly mumbled. Ryan proceeded to pull out a knife like tool from a pocket inside of his shirt.
“How in Sweet Baby Jesus did ya slip that past security?” Tom questioned
“Used to have some ‘fun’ with the cops back in my hometown” He chuckled in his deep monotone voice. I just thought, of course it would be the quiet kid, how ironic, though his chuckle made it even stranger. Ryan picked it soon after and we all slipped outside to Tom’s car, which was just across the road from the college. When we got there he started the car and headed down the road a ways till we found the dirt path leading through the woods. We had to be careful as there was a police station not to far from here, and they were always watching for dumb college kids out late. We slowly trucked through the woods until they broke away into a clearing where our destination lay.
That house, sure it had seemed creepy but, we thought it was harmless. I mean yeah it was in some major disrepair but, that was to be expected as it had no funding. It’s just that it seemed like something straight out of a cheesy horror film, you know like one of those paranormal movies. An old plantation-esque house with peeling white paint and supports that were almost completely rotted away. It had giant willow trees that swayed lazily in the breeze, almost inviting you to come closer, out in front of the porch.
We all smiled, oh how we smiled at the thought of finally being included but, that was the last time that house ever brought a smile to any of our faces, well willingly, that is. We stopped a little bit away from the house and I got my flashlight out to help find our way, as there was no lights from the house. We had to wait for Tom since he was searching through the glove box for something. “What were you looking for Tom?” Xavier questioned. “Hm?”, Tom absent-mindedly questioned as he caught up, “OH, sorry I mean nothing too important, just a gun just in case and this red cloak for some warmth”. We agreed with his paranoia and crept towards the house observing the windows for any lights or movement in the darkness. We slowly, but surely, made our way to the front porch and climbed the steps towards the house’s old oak door. We stepped up closer to the door and uhh… Tom walked up to the door and tried to open the door but, of course, it was locked. “Heh well, should a guessed that huh? Perhaps trying a doorbell instead might work.” Tom grinned. I whipped out my flashlight and flipped it on to help look for it and it didn’t take long for me to find it but, was for some reason painted over. I rang the doorbell but, nothing, so I pushed it harder thinking maybe it was just too old. “What the heck does that mean?” Xavier whispered after hearing the bell “it’s not a song or chime but, just some weird talking noise. I mean that’s what most doorbell’s are like right?” We all switched places with him and listened as he rang it again. “sdneirf ruoy lla yeht era” called out from inside. sdneirf ruoy lla yeht era, I thought, what the hell is going on here. That’s when the sound of locks, being undone, filled the porch. Xavier and I exchanged worried looks while the others just sort of ignored it. “Well this is why we’re here fellers.” Tom chirped “Like some old dead guy once said ‘The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself’ or in other words…”
“Yeah we know what it means Tom, how about we just get this done and over with.” I interrupted, his eyes shot to me and he lost his big toothed grin. That’s really creepy, I thought, without a grin he looks like a complete stranger. Then again, no one’s a fan of being cut off I suppose.
I was really scared at this point and so was the rest of the group, except for Ryan and Tom obviously. Tom pushed open the door and strolled right in like he owned the place. We all just stared at him until he shouted for us to come on in. We slowly shuffled in and didn’t move far from the door, that’s when…SLAM! The door closed up tight and John and Austin, being the stronger ones of the group, tried hard to pull the door back open. I looked to Ryan and he was just looking around for whatever reason. Xavier tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the door “Get out your flashlight! NOW!” he hurriedly whispered in my ear. I nearly dropped it getting it out my pocket and fumbled for the button. The light hit the door and there were…scratches. I know what you might be thinking, scratches? Well it was scratches and places that seemed to be punched in. That’s not right, it’s just…why would those be there? “Well boy howdy, pretty sorry attempt at trying to scare people off huh?” Tom scoffed. Yeah, I thought, scare attempt, that’s it. I could tell the others, except for the unfrightenable duo of course, were a little unsettled by the scratches and punches in the door.
We gave up trying to open the door back up and headed towards the foyer. It was absolutely big, it was a bit like something out of a western movie house. There were banners everywhere, most of them however were in Latin. Some looked really strange like a banner that read ‘Veni Vidi Vici’ with a picture of a head on a spike dripping blood. Another of a man on his knees, weeping, while he held a skull in his hands saying “Memento Mori”. “Well shoot some pretty nifty banners, huh?” Tom laughed out from behind us as he shifted his cloak on. I turned to give him a strange look when I heard a loud creak from inside the house. I shot my glance towards the double doors in front of us and oh…that’s when I saw them. They came in wearing deep crimson red cloaks with black lines curving in all sorts of ways; on the inside the design was inverted. Many gripped knives in their hands and others had them still tied to their rope belts. Then as they slowly approached they drew out candles from beneath the deathly robes. The candles showed writing on their cloaks saying “proditio, cruor, calamitas, metus”. More of this Latin of theirs, I thought to myself. They soon surrounded us and came near a full circle except for right behind us. I yelled for Tom to pull his gun on them, as I went to back up and well sufficient to say he pulled his gun, right into the small of my back. “Oh Boy Howdy”, a traitorous voice spoke out, “You fellas aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed are ya?” It was Tom, the friendliest one of us all, how ironic this turn of events was. “I can’t believe ya’ll didn’t question the cloak, REALLY!?” He continued to laugh, as he took my flashlight and slowly backed up into the empty position. “Why Tom, I mean why would you do this?” I asked as new members emerged to tie our hands together.
“Well see that’s the funny part ain’t it? Why would sweet old Tom go and get his dear old buddies caught up in this mess? Well you see I was once where you were. Through my amazing charm I convinced them to let me live and keep my face, dodging the very likely death via mutilation and shock. Now I do this whole scheme. It’s a good thing too most don’t survive the mutilation process like all these worthless….”
“Silence!” screamed a deep malicious voice of a hooded man slowly approaching the group. He gently pushed his way inside the circle and raised his head to us. He was unlike the rest, in that, he wore a pure red cloak with a black eye completely opened with beams of sun shooting out from it. That’s when he drew down his hood and ugh…his face is hard to describe even now. His face was pure white, which looked as though if he went outside, he’d be set on fire by the sun. His eyes were huge due to his eyelids being ripped off leaving his entire eye exposed with nothing more than his pupil. His nose looked as if it were ripped off and extra skin sewed over the holes left. His mouth, which resembled that of Joker’s devilish smile, only his cheeks were poorly stitched back together. “I…am Mirg!” The leader exclaimed. All around, the circle of members shouted with joy, “All know his true form!” At this they pulled back their cowls and reveal their own horribly disfigured faces. Some had part of the skull collapsed in while others entire sections of skin missing. All faces looked disturbed and tortured except for one…Tom.
After revealing this horrific scene, they began to hum quietly, soon filling the room with the dreadfully chilling noise. He suddenly began to cough and wheeze after trying to approach me. “Blasted cologne…you idiots love to…douse yourself in the stuff.” he barked at us as he backed off and recovered his breath. “Brother drehpehs or ‘Tom’, as he calls himself”, bellowed the leader, “has agreed to feed our group with more members for the past few years.” I turned to see Tom now smiling at me. “This was our compromise, so he needn’t have his face changed into a thing of…beauty, for our god.” He grinned at this disgusting statement. How are those faces considered a thing of beauty, I thought, this man is truly disturbed. “We will now take you to our place of worship and transform you into believers of the one true god…Htaed!” The leader shouted loud enough for the world to hear. “Htaed our one true god, let him give us our end, and let it be quick and merciful!” The followers rejoiced. This is bad, man. I thought, this is real f*****g bad. There’s no way out for us. I began to cry thinking this to be my end. Wait!, I screamed out in my mind, My phone, these morons didn’t search us when they took us! I had to wait until it was safe to use it though otherwise I’d lose my last chance.
We continued through the house heading into the living room and stopping in front of the fireplace. The leader reached up to the mantle for a statue of some Egyptian god with the name Khapni or Khepri, it was heavily worn, etched on its base. He picked it up and moved it across the mantle to a newer looking, more polished area. The statue sank down a bit. The fireplace shifted in place and began to turn open leading to a dark passage behind that slowly descended into further darkness. We shuffled through, one man at a time, and had to keep this way as the hallway was quite narrow. Many of the robed men took out candles and lit them on one of the torches hanging over the entrance. We were shoved down this claustrophobic hallway rubbing up against members who smelled worse than a dead body. Tom, still being right behind me, chuckled and flashed his big stupid grin once more when I turned around to give him a death stare. “Ooh boy, I still can’t believe I tricked you guys into coming here.”, the former friend gloated, “Especially you, you were really starting to get suspicious, but you still didn’t get it! You even fell for the name I wrote down, unreal!”
“What do you mean I fell for it, is that not the real name?” I inquired
“Ha no, you really think our name would be that, you’re just dumb” He shot back. What did he mean?, I thought to myself, What was wrong with the name. “Ya’ll might just find many things we say ain’t quite what they seem to be at first.”, the backstabber pointed out.
We continued on for a while until the leader threw open a door blinding us all with light. It revealed, what I soon became aware of, the worship hall and ugh…it was rancid in there. It was strange seeing as the hall was quite clean my only guess was that it was coming from behind two metal doors on the left side. The hall resembled that of an old church, with stone floors and such. It was also adorned with old artifacts, probably fakes however, crimson carpets and banners lined with a gold yellow. At the front there was a wood podium with metal trinkets hanging all around it. Behind it though, was a giant statue, made out of a dark rock, maybe basalt though I don’t know, not really a geologist. The statue very closely resembled what seemed to be an angel. This angel held two enormous scythes across it’s chest. The blades of those horrific weapons seemed to be made out of obsidian, again just a guess, not a geologist. The leader approached the podium and turned to us with the wide grin on his face. “We have come to the place of worship and…” That’s when John and Austin shot up trying to knock down the guards. They managed to grab the knives and stabbed the guards in the chest. Sadly it was in vain, as Tom saw this and quickly pulled out his gun and shot them both in the kneecaps. Our mouths fell open; the gunshot echoed in the new-found silence of the temple. “Oh my, it seems two have just offered themselves as sacrifices for tonight’s events!”, Spouted the leader gleefully, “Take them to the next room and prepare them for being shown to our savior, Htaed.” They were carried off by Tom and three other members. As the three of us were left screaming after them. They threw open the giant metal doors and slammed them shut as soon as they were through, leaving us to hear the yells and cries slowly growing fainter.
“As I was saying, we have come to the place of worship and gather for the next step.”, The leader preached, “I pray to you, Htaed, to allow these sheep to become wolves!” That’s when the cultists began humming again and a slight rumble had begun. It gradually became very unstable and the room felt as if it would collapse. The leader began, whilst chanting “eno fo su” as loud as he could, to convulse horridly as his eyes rolled back and his head was ripped backwards. The members began to follow suit, gut-wrenching screams came from the still unknown room, I sat there in terror. Ryan nudged me and motioned his head to the guards holding us. I turned to see that their heads were also shot back chanting, their knives were now barely touching our throats, this time they were more than off-guard. Ryan motioned to the rest the same and mouthed out to us, to throw ourselves back to knock them down and that he’d do the rest. He mouthed, one…two….And then as loud as he could, “THREE!” With that we shoved back as hard as we could, slamming our heads into their guts. Snatching the knives from their hands, The guards were torn from their trances like the knives we soon tore from their chests; falling and dropping to their knees whilst still muttering. Ryan cut himself free of the bonds, running over and doing the same for Xavier and I. We got up and started running after Ryan, who was sprinting for the metal doors. Contemplating to yell at Ryan to go for the hallway we come in from, one quick look back showed it being far too narrow for running. Of course the nearby acolytes snapping out of their trances at the sound of their gasping brothers, was the far bigger issue. At this point the leader’s head snapped back at us and he began screeching like a banshee. “None escape our wrath!” he screamed in a far deeper voice, masked by the continuing screech, rattling the entire place further. Members began realizing the trouble and ran for us. “Go and save the other two, I’ll hold them off!” Ryan shouted, spinning around and holding up the knife he’d snatched just a moment ago. “No we can’t leave you!” I shouted back. A cultist came screaming at him, in both voice and speed, Ryan turned around and cut in a wide arc for his neck. He connected, ripping it wide open covering his face in a wash of warm crimson. That’s when he turned back to our stunned faces and shoved the two of us through the two metal doors we came in and slammed them shut. Screams and fighting was all that could be heard. We were stunned, our friend was doomed and we could do nothing for him..and..and..and I need a break. I’ll write the other part later. I just..I need a break.