Eye See You [prompt]

Ara wasn’t entirely sure how he had found himself standing here on such a disgusting set of decrepit steps. The house in front of him was unfamiliar. He’d lived in this area for a long while, and never before had he seen such a mansion settled here on this plot of land. Perhaps that was the real reason he’d found himself wandering out this way. The rumors had been flying around town, after all, and there wasn’t anything Ara liked more than getting in on the townsfolk gab.

As it turned out, yes- there was in fact a dilapidated house out on old Hemlock square.

So the townsfolk hadn’t been bullshitting him. Alright. He had to admit that there was something off about the manor. It leaned a little to one side, ramshackle and ugly. He could tell, even from the road, that the place was one good gust of wind away from coming down entirely. It was clearly a biohazard, a nasty one at that, and yet Ara couldn’t bring himself to walk away. It was October, after all. Halloween. Weren’t spooky little adventures practically a necessity?

“Ah, to hell with it.”

He picked his away across the lawn. His paws made indents in the dead grass, the crunchy foliage breaking beneath his steps. Gross. Even the yard of this place was an eyesore. The porch of the house wasn’t any better, a sagging deck of musty wood that was riddled with mildew. Ara peeked through the glass of the door; as expected, the house looked long since abandoned. “Self-imposed welfare check.” He muttered to himself, popping the door open with a horrific creak that made his ears ache. A little WD-40 could fix that right up, not that the owner of this place would care. An obnoxious door was the last thing on this place’s ‘essential repairs’ list.

“Hello?” Ara called out low and gruff as he stepped inside the house. There was no answer, of course, and he immediately felt like a moron for even attempting to make communication. Even if there had been someone dwelling here, it was an awful stupid thing to alert someone that you were essentially breaking into their house. The silence continued around him, however, and Ara sighed in relief. Okay. He had already come this far. It wouldn’t hurt to have a look around; the townsfolk would be delighted to get more juicy details for their gossip. Ara moved slowly through the first level of the house. The entire building was covered in dust and draped in cobwebs. It was apparently obvious that nobody had been in here in a long, long, time. “Damn it.” His frustration sounded like a gunshot in the quiet. The staircase had caved in; it looked like he wasn’t going to find out what lay on the second floor. That was fine. He took it as a sign that maybe his ass shouldn’t be going where it wasn’t supposed to.

He wandered around the bottom floor for a little longer. It struck him a little odd that the house had no decor upon the walls. There were outlines in the dust where pictures had once hung, but the spaces were empty and devoid now. It was kind of creepy, not that Ara would ever admit it. Who knew that a house with no decor was worse than one filled with abandoned memories?

Dust, dust, and more dust. That seemed to be the only thing in this damned house. Ara was a bit irritated that the townsfolk had chalked this place up to be some kind of freakshow. It was clear that this place was nothing more than someone’s lost home. A place that had been left behind for whatever reason as a gift to time. “Serves me right for listening to those idiots.” He muttered, turning tail out of the once-living room to head back towards the door. There wasn’t anything of interest here. Just a time-pit that he was currently sinking himself into. He crossed the threshold with an annoyance brewing in his chest.

Then, he heard it.

It was so subtle that he had to stop breathing in order to check that the noise had actually been that- a noise. Nothing broke the silence for a few seconds until it happened again. A low, grating, sound that thrummed uncomfortably through the air. What the hell? What was that? It certainly wasn’t his doing. Another low, scratchy, drawn-out sound. So quiet that Ara had to strain to hear it.

Realization settled cold and heavy.

“What the fuck?” The sound was coming from right above him. Make no mistake. His brilliant blue eyes trailed over to the crumbled staircase. There was no getting up to the second floor, no way in hell. Ara forced himself to take a breath. He was overreacting. It was probably some stupid bird or critter that had managed to get itself stuck up there. Yeah. Yeah, that was all it was. He shook the feeling of unease away and forced himself back towards the door.

Without warning, the thumping from upstairs got louder.

The noise was moving now. Headed towards the top of the stairs. Ara’s heart ramped up in his chest, his paws moving in tandem to carry himself half in a sprint towards the front door. Oh, god. The sound was grating, overwhelming, growing louder and louder as he threw the door open and took off like a bat out of hell through the lawn. He may not have been the brightest bulb in the box, but Ara wasn’t stupid enough to believe that the noise was from a critter. He also wasn’t dumb enough to wait around and see what the fuck was causing the noise, then, if it wasn’t an animal.

No animal moved that way. He knew that. Not that rhythmically. 

He slowed down a bit as his paws hit pavement, stumbling for just a moment as he whirled around to gaze up at the house he had just fled from. The front door was shut. He hadn’t closed it behind him when he’d run out. There was a flicker of movement from the upstairs window, something so blurred through the grime on the glass that he had to squint to focus in on it.

A face stared back at him.