Though the door was barred, it took you very little time to pull away the boards and slip inside. You still remembered how rundown this place had looked when you first came here all those years ago, and time certainly hadn’t done it any favours since then.
You’d only been a child when you first came here, far too young to have been messing around in abandoned buildings. Unfortunately your parents had once again left you with another incompetent babysitter, and the teen who was supposed to be looking after you, had forced you to come along with his friends, so that he wouldn’t get in trouble for leaving you alone.
It wasn’t like your parents would have believed you if you’d told them where he took you anyway.
The building the teen and his friends had chosen, was one that was well known for its bloody history and the horrible accidents that happened there whenever someone was foolish enough to enter. Most believed it was haunted, and as such it had become a popular subject for dares amongst most young adults.
Few ever got far onto the property, but those who actually managed to get into the building itself, rarely left it unscathed. The luckier ones left only with vivid ongoing nightmares of demons and monsters, whilst others weren’t so fortunate.
Your babysitter quickly grew frustrated with your slow pace and fearful pleading to return home, firmly ordering you to stay put whilst they went to explore, and leaving you sitting anxiously in the centre of the main entrance. Of course, being so young, it didn’t take you long to get frightened at being all alone, and with an anxiously beating heart, you wandered deeper into the building, trying to find your babysitter and his friends again.
You still remembered how upset you had been as you wandered the empty and damaged halls, small hands clutching tightly at your clothes, in lieu of the stuffed dog your babysitter had forced you to leave at home. You’d been near tears when someone had finally found you, though it certainly hadn’t been who you were searching for.
The hellish glowing eyes should have frightened you back then, but in that moment, you’d simply been too upset about being left alone, to truly feel scared of them.
The towering strangers eyes had softened as they saw your budding tears, their footsteps slow and cautious as they approached you, voice low and soothing. You’d interrupted them before they could continue, their eyes widening fractionally in alarm as you’d all but thrown yourself into their arms, sobbing into their chest.
Ever so gently they had gathered you close, sighing and muttering something under their breath as the stood with you carefully, one large hand gently petting your head. It had taken a while for you to calm enough to tell them what had happened, and even now you remembered the anger that had simmered in the depths of their gaze, though they had been quick to assure you that their anger wasn’t towards you.
For a while you’d babbled away in their arms, answering their inane questions as they stalked through the halls, distracting you expertly and even allowing you to steal their hat at some point. You hadn’t understood what they’d been doing back then, oblivious to the fact that they had been carefully keeping you away from the others, distracting you so that you couldn’t hear their frightened screams as they were taught a lesson.
By the time they had brought you back to the front entrance, you eyes were already starting to grow heavy, comforted by their long calm strides and deep voice. It hadn’t taken much for them to gently coax you into sitting down in the same place you’d been waiting before, their words gentle as they convinced you that the others would be returning soon.
You could still remember the fond amusement in their eyes as you childishly insisted on finding a way to thank them for their help, their hand gentle as they ruffled your hair.
“Come back and visit me when you’re older, on a night like this. Let us both talk again, and I will consider it thanks enough.”
It hadn’t been long after they’d disappeared back into the shadows, that your terrified and slightly battered babysitter and his friends had come scrambling back into the room, scooping you up frantically as they rushed to escape. In all the excitement, you hadn’t noticed until you’d been unceremoniously dumped on your bed back at home, that you still clutched the strangers hat in your small hands.
Standing in the place they had set you down on that fateful night, you fiddled with the hat you held in your hands, wondering how they would react to the fact that you had kept it safe all these years, or if they would even remember you. Though you knew their request had been more to appease you than anything else, you still found yourself excited to fulfil it, heart pounding slightly as you eyed the blood red moon that shined through the broken window.
There was only one way to find out.
