This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/PostMortem33 on 2023-07-06 17:35:14+00:00.
“I absolutely hate that song. My brother used to stand at my door in the middle of the night, humming that song. I always thought that the devil came to my door. Right until he told me he just liked messing with me. What a prick, right?” David said.
He clenched his fists, and beads of sweat rolled down his temples. For a moment, he found himself gritting his teeth like he was five years old again, hiding under the blanket from whatever was outside his room.
“Damn, that sucks. That stays with you even after you know the truth,” Vince replied.
The music stopped, and a harlequin head popped up from the box. It extended his right hand with its index finger pointing to the door.
“I’m pretty sure Verlice wants us to have a mini-heart attack as we progress this thing,” Emma said as she looked at the creepy thing. “Not kill us, but scare us whenever he gets the chance.”
“I guess so, huh? He’s been doing that since we met him,” Cassandra replied.
“Also, he messed with Henry’s mind. Now look at Dave. He’s as white as chalk dust. I think he may have something ready for everyone. We must remind ourselves that whenever something here personally targets us, it’s not personal. It’s just something Verlice is doing to feed his twisted sense of humor or maybe to feed on our fear,” Vince said.
A collective “mhm” broke out, followed by everyone nodding their heads.
The door opened as the Jack-in-the-Box caught on fire and exploded into fireworks. Colors floated in the air like fireflies. They seemed to have no direction until letters took form saying ENTER.
A large room filled with porcelain dolls, plushies, life-sized clown puppets, and harlequins greeted us. They all looked at us like we were intruders. At the other end of the room, there was another door with a neon EXIT sign above.
“What’s the rule saying, boss?” Vince said.
“Rule number five. Do not touch the harlequin dolls in the Circus Room. If you do, they will come to life and laugh into your ears until your head explodes.”
“Right. So screw the harlequins. We can touch the bears, puppies, clowns, and the creepy-ass porcelain dolls that look like they could eat my heart in under a second, right?” Vince laughed nervously. “Right?!”
“Who the hell knows anymore? Let’s head for the exit and keep our eyes open and ears sharp. Dave and I will lead, Cass and Emma, you stay in the middle and Vince with Eddie at the back. Sounds cool?” I said. “I feel like we’re being watched big time.”
Emotions were high, and fear was the same, but we all looked at each other and nodded in approval.
“Steady… Let’s roll. Slowly,” Vince said.
A slow creaking sound behind us.
“What the hell was that?” Eddie said.
Cassandra was the first to turn around and see a three-foot-tall mechanical harlequin staying right behind us.
“The hell is that?” Vince asked.
“Uhm, a harlequin?” Cassandra replied.
“Not the time, Cass,” I replied.
Like the door, that thing came out of nowhere with a huge grin plastered on its face and big eyes that rotated to and fro.
“Uh… I’m starting to feel dizzy,” David said. “That thing is staring right at me.”
“Run for the exit! Now!” Vince exclaimed. “Don’t look back. Go!”
All around us, the dolls’ gaze fixated on us. An ungodly number of harlequins popped out of nowhere. The one behind us began walking like a robot, trying to catch all or just one of us.
For half a second, I glanced back. Afraid the thing might hypnotize me, I only saw its opened mouth with two sets of long sharp teeth. It squinted its eyes in anger, seemingly hungry and unwilling to waste one more second.
All the harlequins came to life, and some even had lights in their eyes. After running tirelessly for what seemed an eternity, a creepy nursery rhyme came to life right when we reached the door. It was a twisted version of Pop Goes the Weasel tailored for us and the situation.
All around the Circus Room
The children screamed in horror
Ready to be tortured and consumed
Pop Go the Children!
The Harlequin is hungry now
It wants to eat your flesh and soul
Don’t breathe, don’t blink or else you’ll die
Pop Go the Children!
The song came from inside the harlequin. I think Verlice had placed a tape there because it sounded prerecorded. The Harlequin let out a demonic laugh, and the song played again.
This time it slowed midway. The harlequin stopped as if it had batteries that just went dead.
“Done! Let’s go!” David said. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
David had managed to open the door at last. It all ended with the same song.
We all went through, and the door closed. In the red paint, the words “ARE YOU SCARED YET?” dripped on the door.
That was a close call. I thought I’d had nightmares about that harlequin’s face for years to come.
“I need my inhaler. This is too much,” Emma said.
“It’s okay, Em. Take your time. I’ll be damned if I’ll let anything happen to you. I swear on my mother’s life. I’ll die before something bad happens to you,” Vince said.
“Thanks, Vince. You’re my bro,” Emma replied and proceeded to high-five Vince.
“Damn right I am,” he assured her.
Another close call.
“Wait, where the hell are we now? This is like the opposite of the luxurious yet creepy main entrance,” Cassandra said.
We all turned and looked around. The wallpapers on the walls had peeled off from the passing of time, and cockroaches roamed free in all directions. Broken chairs, a dusty table, and a moldy sofa lay scattered as if an angry person had violently thrown them around. Cobwebs spread out through the room like a virus, and an occasional fly got stuck in the sticky threads.
The air smelled like dead animals on the side of the road on a hot summer day. A rat gave its last breath in the far corner of the room. One last twitch of the leg, and it was gone. Dead as disco.
But, there lurked something in the shadows. A wheezing sound came from the dark. A thin, sickly arm extended to grab the rat under the moonlight from a broken window on the far right end of the room.
It had dark green skin with adorned with gangrenous black spots. The black nails on the long thin fingers almost fell off from the rotten flesh. Swiftly, it pulled the rat back into the darkness.
I could hear how the dead animal’s bones broke, and the flesh tore apart. Whatever body that hand was attached to, it was ravenous. We all gagged at the sound of slurping and chewing. The chomping came to a halt.
“Don’t move an inch…” I whispered.
“I think I know what this is,” Emma whispered.
Two small red lights blinked in the darkness. And they moved forward. Slowly. Steady.
Tiny spiders came forward.
“Shit. The woman made of spiders. God damn. It’s like we don’t have time to catch our breath,” said Vince. “Alright, don’t be scared. If I remember correctly, it says to walk past her, right?” He turned back to look at me, and I nodded.
A woman covered in a dark green goo stepped out in the moonlight. Spiders crawled on her, getting into her mouth, nose, and ears. She wanted to speak, but only a soft wheezing came out. I couldn’t understand any of the words.
“Wom, wom, ma…” she said, her cracked lips barely touching each other. Behind two small spiderwebs, her red eyes glistened, illuminating the whole room. Spiders burst her lip open and came out in big numbers. The few strands of hair on her head resembled strings of decaying cotton.
“What is she trying to say?” Cassandra asked. “Is she going to move?”
“Wait, look behind her. There’s a door,” Eddie said.
The number thirty-three was written on a small black patch with gold-foil stamping.
“My children…” the woman said out of nowhere. “You are my children…”
Spider came out of her mouth in rivers, splashing on the rotten floor like a waterfall from hell. The green, red, purple, blue, and black spiders came toward us with flashing speed.
“What the fuck? Stay put, don’t get scared, please!” Vince screamed. “Walk through them and past the old hag! Let’s get to safety!”
“We’re all tired and could use a minute’s rest!” David said.
The spiders marched forward as if going to war with humankind. We all began ambling, crunching them under our sneakers. The woman slowly turned her head as we walked past her.
“Smack them if they crawl on you!” Vince cried. “Fucking crawlers!”
Emma opened and twisted the knob, and we entered Room 33.
“I don’t think I’ll sleep for the next five years,” Emma said, panting. “It’s good we kept our composure and didn’t get scared. Or maybe we were scared but didn’t show it.”
“Are you kidding me? I was scared shitless, but I knew I’d be dead meat if that old hag sensed it,” Vince said, panting. He lay down for a bit.
The light in the room flicked open. A small theatre-like stage with red velvet curtains now appeared in front of us. Six red velvet chairs with our names sewn with white thread stood before the stage.
“Please, have a seat on the designated chairs. The private concert of our Romanian violin prodigy Ilinca Aron will commence shortly. Please turn off your mobile devices and enjoy this rare show,” a woman’s voice said from the two speakers above the stage.
We all sat down and turned off our phones as instructed. A gong sound made the room tremble. A few moments of silence followed. A thin man appeared and pulled the curtains to reveal the stage.
An angelic, tall, blonde-haired woman dressed in a red dres…
Content cut off. Read original on https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/14sg47q/how_to_escape_a_haunted_house_using_a_list_of/