Black Cross

The Black Cross is a creepy story about a group of friends who ditch school and go to check out a mysterious abandoned house nearby.

A few weeks ago, some friends of mine from school died suddenly. Some others went insane. The doctors tried to pass it all off as mental illness, but I know the truth. They were possessed by something.

When I was in school, I used to hang around with a group of boys in my class. There were five of us altogether – (Danny, Mitch, Eric, Hugh, and myself). We never payed much attention to our schoolwork and spent our time ditching class and getting up to mischief. The teachers hardly even noticed our absence and our parents never suspected a thing.

One day, Danny and Mitch told the rest of us about a creepy urban legend they heard regarding a house that was near our school. The father of the family had gone insane and hung himself. When his wife and kids discovered the body, they were so traumatized that they couldn’t stay in the home again. They abandoned the house and it had lain vacant ever since.

We were so curious that we immediately decided to check it out. The next day, we all snuck out of school after lunch and went to the house. When we got there, we were surprised to find that it was just a normal-looking home. You would never have suspected that someone had committed suicide in the place.

Danny and Mitch went in first and the rest of us followed close behind. We went into the kitchen first and rummaged through the drawers and cupboards to see what was inside. There was nothing much of interest. Going upstairs, we explored the bedrooms, but most of the furniture had been removed.

Just then, Eric noticed something in the hallway. There were two small windows at the very end. They were high up, almost touching the ceiling. It seemed strange because there was another room behind the windows, but no door to access it.

Standing on each other’s shoulders, we opened one of the windows and all of us managed to climb through. There was a musty smell in the air. It stank of damp and dry rot. The moldy wallpaper was peeling off the walls. It was empty except for a desk in the corner with a black box sitting on top of it. On the wall above it, hung a large wooden cross.

The strange thing was that the desk, the box and the cross had all been painted completely black.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” said Danny, as he walked over to the desk and examined the box.

Mitch was picking at the wallpaper. “This place gives me the creeps,” he said with a grimace.

Danny flicked the latch on the black box, opened the lid and looked inside. “I wonder what this is!” he exclaimed.

Just then, I happened to glance down at the floor. There was something carved into the wooden floorboards. It was some sort of symbol that covered the entire floor. A five-pointed star with a circle around it. I recognized that symbol.

It was a pentagram.

Mitch pulled a long, sticky sheet of wallpaper off the wall. As he did so, it crumpled to the ground, revealing what was behind it. Underneath the paper, the wall was covered with inverted black crosses.

Danny lifted something shiny out of the box. It was a small, golden chalice.

“There’s something in it,” he croaked. “Some red liquid… I think it’s blood…”

At that exact moment, the black cross above the desk burst into flames. Everybody froze. We all started to freak out.

Danny turned as white as a ghost. He was still holding the chalice in his trembling hands. His eyes rolled back in his heard and his tongue hung out of his mouth as if he was choking. Mitch started screaming in terror. He began climbing up the wall and crawled out of the window. I was right behind him, hoisting myself up and throwing myself through the narrow opening. I fell into the hallway on the other side, almost landing on top of Mitch.

Hugh managed to clamber out through the window as well, his eyes wide with fear. I could hear Danny’s voice screeching on the other side of the wall. Eric appeared at the window. He was clutching onto the ledge with one hand, while his other arm flailed wildly.

“My leg!” he cried. “He’s got my leg!”

I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him through. We could hear Danny in the room, moaning and howling like a dog. Eric was in a blind panic, struggling and screaming for help.

“My leg! My leg!” he kept screeching.

We all pulled as hard as we could. Eric came tumbing out through the window, and we all fell in a heap on the floor. He was shaking, crying and whimpering. I looked down at his leg and was horrified to find that there was a huge chunk missing from his calf. The flesh had been torn away from the bone.

“He bit me,” Eric wailed pitifully.

“Call an ambulance!” I shouted.

Hugh scrambled to his feet ran to get help. Danny continued yelling and screaming in the other room. We were too scared to peer in the window and check on him. We all exchanged frightened looks.

“I think he’s possessed,” said Mitch.

We sat there on the dusty floor and waited, listening to the tortured screams of Danny. He was like a wild animal, charging around like a crazed beast. He was uncontrollable, screaming, crying and bouncing around the room.

Eventually, an ambulance arrived and the paramedics attended to Eric’s wounds. The police came too and when they saw the crazed state that Danny was in, they called for backup. The ambulance took Eric to the hospital. Our names and addresses were taken and we were driven home by two officers.

We never saw Danny again. There was a rumor at school that his parents had to put him in a mental hospital. The police came and talked to our parents many times after that, but they never told us what they were discussing.

Of course, we were all grounded for the rest of the year. In school, we were on our best behavior, not wanting to get into any more trouble.

One day, I was called to the principal’s office. When I opened the door, I was shocked to see Mitch and Hugh sitting in front of the principal’s desk. Their faces were ashen. As soon as I closed the door behind me, the principal began speaking.

“Eric is dead,” he announced.

I couldn’t believe it. Then, I realized I hadn’t seen Eric for days. I thought he was just absent from school. It turned out that he had collapsed and died of a heart attack. He was only 14 years old. The doctors couldn’t explain it. Nobody could.

Mitch, Hugh and myself left the office that day with a heavy feeling in our hearts. We were the last surviving members of our group. We didn’t speak to each other. There was nothing to say. The haunted expressions on our faces spoke volumes. After that, we all sort of drifted apart.

During the summer holidays, I happened to run into Mitch’s sister at the mall. As soon as she set eyes on me, she broke down in tears. She told me that Mitch was dead and Hugh had gone insane.

Mitch hung himself in his bedroom. He told his parents he was going to bed and locked the door. He was found with his head shaved. His hair had been glued, piece by piece, to the ceiling. His eyes and mouth had been sewn shut with a needle and thread.

Hugh was found crawling down the street naked. He was laughing hysterically and grinning like a maniac. He couldn’t close his eyes. When paramedics sedated him and brought him to hospital, they discovered he had cut off his own eyelids.

At that moment, I knew that we were all cursed and now, I was the only one left.

A few days later, I was struck down by a mysterious illness. I had a fever and was confined to bed. All I could do was lie there. I couldn’t eat or drink anything. It felt as if something was squeezing my chest and crushing me, trying to turn me inside-out. I was sure I was at death’s door. The whites of my eyes turned black. I was in so much pain that I didn’t care if I lived or died. I just wanted it to be over.

One night, Danny came to me in a dream. He had withered away to nothing. All that was left was skin and bones. His skin was charred and blackened and his eyes were completely white.

“You’re the last one,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“The only one who remembers what happened on that day,” he said.

“I know,” I replied.

“You should come here,” he said. “You belong with us.”

“Where are you?” I asked nervously.

“You know where we are,” he chuckled. “We’re in hell.”