9 Days Before

○- Dark clouds shrouded the moon, casting an ominous shadow over the desolate landscape.

In the abandoned building, three boys-Kel, Opel, and Lin Gathered - their unease palpable as the impending storm grew nearer. They weren't alone.

Lin gathered them here remembering a dream he had of the house that shadowed him during the rest of the day, connecting towards the strange events from yesterday; from the projector, and his anomaly heath state of being struck by lightning.

After he went home, a sudden pull of curiosity left him to do rough research of Morse code and any information leading towards the possibilities of going unscathed from a lightning strike.

Discovering nothing about going undamaged from a lightning strike, revealing it to be even more bizarre.

While his research on morse-code was a success, finding a series of translations regarding them, he strains his mind, thinking of what the projector had spoken of.

Which strangely made the bridge from dream to occurrence.

He was lucky that his friends complied from the sudden adventure to one of the most disturbing abandoned houses in town, amongst the erratic reasoning to search the house.

Lin was focused on gathering any clues he might find from the projector's instructions.

as they traveled through the front portion of the house, Lin and the gang pooled near a flight of stairs.

"Let's check the stairs. We could split up. " Before Opel could finish that sentence, Lin chimed in.

"Let's not. In every horror film, when the group splits up, something bad always happens," he claimed, gesturing emphatically.

"So we all go upstairs...?" Kel added to the conversation. They all nodded and anxiously made their way upstairs, the thoughts from yesterday's events were on a tight leash, keeping a good handle on them.

The stairs leading up had some broken steps, which required the group to leap to explore the upper floor.

This was also where Lin had a hunch he might find answers to the mysteries from when the dissociation occurred and the dreams started.

"Here we go," Kel grunted as he leaped across the two platforms. Opel followed, and Lin was last, struggling to get across due to a snagged shoe.

"Shit, my shoe... of course, this would happen to me."

"Should have tied it tighter," Opel chimed, prompting a 'shut up before you lose yours' look from Kel.

Opel raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and continued up the stairs. The hallway they reached had two doors on the right, illuminated by the moonlight casting a window sill shadow on the walls.

Kel paused momentarily to grab his sandals from his bag, which he had left there after a pool party the previous weekend.

"Here, Lin. I kept forgetting to take these out of my bag from that pool party."

Lin tossed the flip-flops to him, and he caught one while the other dropped to the floor. He raised his hand in gratitude as he put them on.

"I mean... It's not shoes, but it's something," Opel added with optimism.

"Right..." Lin responded slowly.

Continuing down the hallway, they discussed which room to search first. Lin had a feeling that what he was looking for might be there.

Lin walked forward, the sound of their flip-flops echoing humorously through the building, lessening the tension slightly.

A sudden sharp noise rattled the group, causing Kel to jump behind Opel.

The amusing sound of flip-flops flopping added an odd element. Another sound followed, the mournful cry of a cat emerging from the shadows.

"Aw..." Opel muttered softly.

The cat hissed, then froze mid-posture, the sound still possessing the air. The boys moved further back, accidentally pushing Lin closer to the edge of the broken stairs.

"Whoa!" Lin exclaimed, gripping onto anything to regain his balance. The cat's hiss ceased instantly, but the feline remained frozen in place.

"What the hell...?" Kel voiced aloud, breaking the eerie silence. the thoughts that played with his mind from yesterday surged back, the gibberish language recoiling, fueling him to kneel down in a trance like state, touching the cat.

Suddenly, Kel's head jerked back, his eyes rolling back, dark veins glimpsing at the far corners of his Sclera, his chords wheezing, begging to gasp for air.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Opel and Lin were shocked, rushing to Kel's side, his face contorted, his jaw unhinged, his eyes abyssal, emitting a louder whistle.

"What the fuck, Kel!" Lin exclaimed, shooting backward, landing on his rear, glimpsing the flickering lights that hadn't been on in years.

Kel's face stretched further, his jaw popping and cracking, bits of blood emerging from the corners of his mouth where his flesh was being torn apart.

The environs discharging a sense of dismay amongst the group.

"Kel!" Opel yelled as Lin remained in shock.

The lights flickered more rapidly, mirroring Kel's stretched face.

Tapping sounds echoed from all directions, expanding to the stairs behind them, then passing them. The sounds stopped at Kel, and the lights above shattered across the hallway, with some shards embedding in Lin's shoulder.

"ah!" Lin grunted in pain, feeling the affliction shoot through him as a sizable glass shard pierced his shoulder.

"Ah... ahh," he managed to utter, grimacing in pain. Opel tried to divert Lin's attention back to Kel.

"Buddy!?" Opel yelled, noticing Lin's injured shoulder.

"Shit!" Opel exclaimed, returning his focus to Lin.

Kel's pose resembled that of a shell, his cheeks creating a vibrant red line, his dry skin peeling away. The hallway's floor appeared aged and marked, as if time had accelerated around Kel's body.

Opel yanked out the glass shard, using his shirt to wrap Lin's injured shoulder.

"Kel... but Kel!" Lin tried to rise, but Opel's strength forced him back down, both to ensure Lin's safety and to prevent him from seeing the gruesome sight.

"Just don't look... just don't look," Opel implored, his terror, sadness, and anxiety held at bay. Though typically the calmest in dire situations, this was unlike anything he had ever encountered.

He was just a teenager who had happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and had befriended the wrong person at the worst moment.

He spiraled into an abyss of helplessness.

"Kel~!?" Lin's voice choked, searching for an explanation for this nightmare.

"Please, Lin..." Opel said, clutching Lin's wounded shoulder, his own emotions a tangled ambivalence, his friend compelling a distress as he squeezed his shoulder blade.

Amid the agonizing tension, a break emerged.

A lightning bolt surged through the abandoned building like a message from an unknown force, its echoes reverberating throughout. Kel's body convulsed, collapsing to the floor like a discarded puppet, the impact creating a sonorous thud.

The two boys' emotions swung wildly back to terror, inching them closer to the precipice of despair.

"K-Kel...?" Opel and Lin tried to break the silence, clinging to the faint hope that this might somehow be a twisted prank, even if that outcome was just a smudge of hope.

Kel's body jolted again, his arm crackling as another thunderbolt illuminated the hallway, echoing a colossal crackle.

Strangely, a dark fog seemed to seep from his body, resembling the wisps of heat on a sweltering day.

Lightning struck once more, shattering the window behind Kel's now lifeless form.

"Whatever's happening, we need to run, just run-now!" Opel burst out, both of their stomachs twisting into their lungs.

The two seized their belongings in a frantic rush, descending through the hole of the broken stairs. Opel's bag tore, releasing cigarettes along with a pin from his bag pocket.

There was no time to retrieve them; they fled the building, feeling as though their lives were on the brink of mirroring Kel's fate.

Opel and Lin left imprints on the grass, Kel's flip-flop flung off Lin as they spirited away,

Lin's shirt hung loosely, blood splatters dotting the cold summer asphalt as they raced towards their homes, haunted by Kel and the haunting events that continued to torment their minds.

Car lights illuminated the road ahead, Vem studying the note he got suddenly, it had appeared from under the door like the other one did, but with this one, no one was on the other side.

He places his vision onto his map, the note stuffed between his hand and the steering wheel, the map guiding him to an old two-story abandoned house with three broken windows.

The unappealing yellow house had white trimming matching its picket-fenced yard.

Vem sighed, placing the note on his car's dashboard. The car lights flickered, drawing his attention to a turn left.

"Gotta fix this thing," he mumbled, stepping out of the car. He folded the map and slid it into his back pocket, adjusting his hat for a snug fit.

He closed the car door with a resounding thud and left the keys on the dashboard next to the note. His footsteps were faint as he ventured into the abandoned building, unaware of what might lie in wait for him inside.