The Last House On The Left- A short story compilation.

[Henry Avery]

“Now, most folks wouldn’t think this to be of note, but it is. For you see, at the end of this road, which cuts off at the edge of the woods, there is one extra house, it’s driveway turning off the road and into the woods. For as long as anyone can remember, that lone house has stood empty- but everyone knows it. For it is the Last House On The Left. Every little country town has one, one house that serves as the subject of ghost stories, of dares, of teenage parties full of beer and perverted happenings. You yourself might know of one such house. Now, this particular house is a two story farmhouse with a wraparound porch and a red brick chimney, time and filth having turned the white paint into a sad, patchy gray. The porch creaks and the roof is sagging, and the door bangs open and shut on windy days. It stands, dark and empty, a desolate reminder of what the Dust Bowl did to the Midwest.

But enough prattling on- you likely want to know why I’m telling you all this. Well, the last family to live there did so in 1931. The Parsons, that was their name, were a very solitary family. They had no car, no radio, and no cell phone, and the town was a half mile away back then. John, the father, would walk to town once every month, dragging a big old cart, and he’d buy the necessities, then haul it all back. Mere days before he was set to make his monthly trip, one of the biggest dust storms of that catastrophe blew through in the night, and buried the entire house, and the storm would keep blowing more dust for a further 2 days. One luxury they did have was plumbing, however, and that would see them through the first three weeks- till they ran out of flour and such.

They first turned on the dog, a fat, lazy old mutt, snapping its neck and cooking it in the basement, using just barely smoldering coals in order to avoid suffocation by smoke. They rationed it, but it didn’t last long between the three of them. Another week or so in that dark, now sweltering cave, and they began to feel the effects of dehydration when the water company shut off the water for not paying the bill. Couldn’t have been two weeks more when John did something dreadful. Driven mad by the heat and dehydration, and half starved, he throttled his wife and suffocated his daughter.

They wouldn’t dig the family out of the house and find the gruesome scene for about another 2 weeks. You see, old John Parson, he didn’t die of starvation, or dehydration. The dumb sod choked to death on smoke. After killing his wife and daughter, he butchered them, and then broke up the furniture and made a fire right there in the living room. Choked to death trying to ax his way out of the front door, and he got real close. The door came open and buried him and the fire in dust just a wee bit too late, as he took his last gasps of air.”

The old man, dressed in dated overalls and a white shirt, paused, taking a puff on his tobacco pipe.

“What’s that? You want to know how I remember it all so clearly, seeing how nobody here remembers they even existed? Well that’s simple- I watched it all happen.”

The old man winks, and slowly vanishes into oblivion, leaving you on the street corner, staring down the road towards the woods.


Ladies and gents, I invite you to expand on this little tale, with a few boundaries- one, the setting must stay the same, as must the house's backstory. Say you make ghosts specifically in the house, they must be the ghosts of the Parsons. You get the idea. two, it can be no longer than this original post, so that others might have a chance to respond. 3, there will be no unreasonable jumps in time. Other than that, have fun. Responses I like may even receive monetary compensation.

[Argo]

Looking towards the woods and adjusting the collar high up around my neck a chill bites through me..The moon is full and lays a blanket of light across the ground. I shudder involuntarily .. it is something beyond the plummeting temperature and the flurries of snow ... In the distance.. an ear-piercing howl breaks the silence.. something ancient,.. unrecognizable .. unnerving ..