This is an old writing project from my last year of University, and has been sitting around for a while. It was a challenge to write a complete story in one Word page. I opted for a horror story, and this was the result.

The Old Bancroft House

I already know what you are going to ask. It is a painfully irrelevant question, and no one is going to have an answer for you. You are no doubt asking yourself “why me?”. Why has everything for the past several nights come to you? The truth is that it doesn’t matter. What has happened, has happened, and nothing you do will change what is coming next.

I may be a bit curious, however. How many nights did you sleep in the old Bancroft House before you saw them? Don’t pretend you don’t know what I am talking about. No one who has ever owned the old Bancroft House will not have seen them. The eyes. How many nights was it before you saw the eyes? Ten? Fifteen? It doesn’t matter.

Were you ever curious why the house was so cheap in the first place? Such a big house for so little money. Were you ever curious at all why no one wanted the house? Well, I suppose now you know. The eyes. The eyes always find you after you stay in the house. Maybe it takes a few days. Maybe a few weeks. But in the end, they always find you.

How many pairs of eyes was it? I imagine it was quite a few. Hard to tell exactly how many, but there were quite a few former owners.

It started out as just the eyes, didn’t it? Many pairs of glowing red eyes, all staring at you from the darkness of your room. The didn’t move, did they? At least for the first night. Many red eyes, all staring at you, unblinking. Must have been terrifying. And yet, you stayed, didn’t you? Surely it was just a bad dream. But it wasn’t, was it?

How long before you could smell them? That’s always the next thing to appear. That rank, animal odor that starts to permeate the room. That’s a sign, you see. They are getting closer. They have seen you, and they are coming for you.

I bet you tried to leave at that point, right? And I bet that no matter where you stayed, the eyes followed you. They have your scent now, and will follow you no matter where you flee to.

I bet it wasn’t long before you started to see shapes. Large, four-legged shapes, with huge teeth and claws, and black, glabrous skin. They are very close now, and you can almost hear the excitement in their sounds. They are so close, and you both know it.

It won’t be long now. Soon, they will fully be in the room with you. One night, they will finally reach you. And then…who can say. The Bancroft House will wait for another owner. As it has for a long time.

Still, it might be good to take heart. No one really knows what happens when they finally catch you. But the stories say that when the next owner sleeps in the Bancroft House, there will be one more set of red eyes that greets them in the night. Always one more pair than before.