Act 1:
Dinner was per usual this particular night: dead silence filling the lifeless chambers of their home. The sounds of chewing and clanking forks sliced through the thick tension in the room. The two children poked at the food on their plates. Stacy seemed to be in a world of her own. The past year of this family’s lives felt as if it had always been this way: silent, still, and stagnant. After dinner both Becca and James, in an attempt to add some entertainment to this dreadful night asked their mother to watch a movie. It was a miracle Stacy, Becca’s and James’s mother, agreed for them to watch the horror film, The Fatal Cleansing. It was a classic and all the rage at school, and the Becca and James were no exception to all the hype. After the ending of the film Stacy, ushered the children off to bed down a long hall into the dark room that lied at the end.
S: I see James and Becca standing in front of me, trying to convince me on how they are brave enough to watch a horror film. At last, I turn on the television for them and leave the room to get my work done in the living room. In the middle of grading my students’ papers, I hear Becca screaming as if she is about to cry. I enter the room to see them nervous but also nonchalant, which made me worry. It was getting very late at night and was time to put James and Becca to bed. They seemed to be very exhausted after watching the film; they even fell asleep halfway through their favorite bedtime story. As I was gathering my paperwork, I had to pause when I noticed the wind blowing in through the old broken window at the end of the hallway that would not close. It was raining outside, and I was concerned that the cold wind and the rain would travel down the hallway to my children’s bedroom. Determined to fix it, I quickly went through the garage and found a box full of hardware tools. I turn on the lamp by the window and pull out all the tools I will need. I tried to make as minimal noise as possible so that my children would not wake up, but as soon as I touched the window it made a huge cracking noise.
J: There’s this movie that literally all my friends are talking about. It’s called The Fatal Cleansing, and we all planned on watching it tonight at our houses. Only problem, my mother definitely won’t let me watch a horror movie like this by myself, or at all really. It’s about this family that lives apart from town and they find a missing child. One day for no reason, everyone inside begins to go crazy and accuse other family members. Then after a full day of suspicion and fighting, one by one they all go missing during the night. It’s supposed to have an amazing twist at the end and I’ve been avoiding spoilers for weeks just to see it now. I go up to mother and ask if I can watch a movie before bed. She still seems very sad and doesn’t really react when I walk up to her. She just mumbles saying I should find something my sister and I can watch together. I quickly agree and walk away. She calls out, “ You need to be in bed by 10” as I’m going. This is great, I didn’t even need to tell her what the movie was.
B: My wooden bed frame creaks loudly as I toss and turn, sweating from fear: the fear of coming face to face with that hairy, colossal, evil being from my dream. I attempt to find refuge under my blankets, covering every inch of my vulnerable human body from the demon that is peering over me. It is all too real. I scream, “Leave me alone!” Just like that, I shot up with tears building up in my eyes and my hands trembling so forcefully they could barely lift my glasses off from the bedside table to my face. With all the courage in me, I crack my door open the slightest bit to discover my brother at the other end of the hall helplessly looking back at me with the same panic in his eyes. Frantically, I race to his room at full speed as if our lives depended on it, and finally, I feel relief. “BOOM BOOM BOOM!” The monster is not done with us yet. The noises follow us into reality. My brother grabs my hands and takes me off to find our mother. I start to see a reflection to accompany the threatening sounds, and I imagine the outline of the wild being from my dream. It is back, and I cannot bear to keep my eyes open. My big brother shielded my eyes and took the lead as we tiptoed our way towards the monster’s endless wrath.
Becca and James could slightly make out the beast that stalked the corners of their home. They stood frozen in terror of its magnificent stature and snarling grin as it gained ground toward their room from the hall in front of their bedroom door. Its steps resembled the sound of wood-chopping and its broad stance reminded the siblings of the incredibly tall trees in the woods their father, Robert, used to take them to during their annual camping trip. The steps became all too close and eventually it was rather evident to the children that the creature was standing right above them.
Act 2:
Stacy stands in the living room, drenched from the rain that blew into the house through the broken window. Stacy senses an unusual atmosphere. All of a sudden, the power in the house goes down. Even the candles on top of the fireplace are blown out by the furious wind entering from the window. The entire house is in absolute darkness and silence, and every step could be heard clearly throughout the house. The rain continues to pour into the house, and Stacy looks for an immediate solution to the disaster.
She decides to take care of the power outage first, seeing as it would be difficult to repair the window without light. Stacy slowly walks down the old wooden stairs that lead to the basement, every step she takes creates its own echoing sound. The basement is terribly cold and humid from the rain storm. Stacy carefully enters the basement in fear.
S: As I work through the rain forcefully pouring through the broken window and seeping into my clothes, there is a sudden gust of wind followed by the power going out all at once. There I was surrounded by a growing puddle of water with my hair entangling my face, but I could not dwell any longer: I had a duty to fix the window. I stumble down the stairs and find my way to the basement where I drag my hands across the buttons lining the walls in attempts to locate the power source. I guess I may have hit something because I begin to feel a weird sensation, almost like an electrical current, flow through my body. I hear a loud ringing sound in my ears, and I feel a presence in the basement although the room is pitch black, and the kids are sound asleep upstairs. My eyes widen, and my limbs go weak, yet I see my body moving in ways I cannot control. “Maybe I just need some rest,” I think to myself. I start feeling for the doorknob and crawling slowly to check up on the children before I go to sleep.
As I make my way down the hallway, I notice a shuffling noise coming from the closet. I have the sudden urge to look inside. My shaky hands latch onto the closet handle and steadily open the door inch by inch.
James and Becca stand frozen in fear surrounded by the absolute darkness in the hall. They’re waiting to enter the living room because they are in desperate need of finding their mother. They can see a familiar silhouette; a silhouette of their mother. The silhouette slowly continues its way out of the room, taking careful steps down the stairs. A few minutes later, James and Becca witness a sudden flashing of blue light from outside along with a freezing chill filling the room.
J: I hold tightly to Becca’s hand and try my hardest to contain my own fear for the sake of keeping her calm. The creature that once stalked our dreams and now our house has somehow disappeared, but I see a figure caused by the moonlight shining through the window and I’m it’s my mom.
“Okay, let’s go,” I quietly order Becca, who is unusually calm considering the circumstances. In one swift motion I drag Becca and run towards the living room at the end of the L-shaped hall. But just as Becca and I round the corner a flash of bluish-white light blinds us and causes me to fall back onto her. We stumble around on the frigid wood floors in hope of orienting ourselves in the pitch black. Becca then leaps to her feet and reaches for my hand, but I have a hard time choosing which one to grab. Finally I’m standing and we retreat back to the corner of the hall. After catching our breath, I hear the sound of the TV begin to blare out of the room but static prevents me from making out what it was actually saying. I once again muster up the courage to go into the room and lead us both past the threshold where the strange light blinded us. Upon entry into the room it was evident that no one stood at the window and a scene from The Fatal Cleansing plays on a loop. All of sudden the movie is interrupted with a horrific scream and we sprint back down the hall towards our bedroom.
B: As James is dragging me down the hallway to get away from the room, we try to make it to our bedrooms, but it seems like this long, dark hallway goes on forever. The pictures on the wall creep me out. They’re watching us run, but don’t help. Suddenly, I remember where we’re going. That’s the first place the monster will look for us. I shake thinking about it. I don’t want to be caught by this thing. The possibilities of what could be done to us are endless. Thinking quickly, I pull my big lug of a brother to the closest room available, the closet.
“Get in here!” I whisper to my brother. He’s been holding my hand since we came out of our rooms. It makes my palms sticky and smelly but I know he’s here with me. Plus, it makes it really easy to pull him around.
We get into the closet and it’s so dark I can’t see James or my hand as I wave it in front of my face. We’re smushed together with coats and jackets and towels. The only sounds I could hear were our heavy breathing, the voices from the movie, and the jackets moving with us. The rustling of the coats adds to the spooky feeling in the air. I look to where James’s head is supposed to be and squeeze onto him as I try to keep us as still as can be. I don’t make a sound.
The whole house is freezing cold; however, their hands become sweaty as their heart rate increases and their surroundings get more intense. Heavy footsteps slowly approach the closet in which James and Becca hide, otherwise the house is still in complete silence. The cracking sound of the old wooden floor under the approaching steps creates a very intense aura. The two children hold their breath as the sound of the footsteps gets louder and closer until they finally stop in front of the closet. James and Becca see the faint shadow of one sole pair of feet under the door. Then, the closet door slowly squeaks open.
ACT 3:
Rocking back and forth in the overwhelming darkness, Becca and James hold each other and stare widely at the slowly opening closet door. The shadow of a giant creature floods their perception, but as the figure moves closer, the children start to realize that this monster is not a monster at all.
S: There is a fog-like heavy weight surrounding my body. The metal closet handle is cold against my hand, and the irritating screech of the old door tears into my mind. Beneath the cluster of coats, umbrellas, and darkness, the two children stand. They are closely huddled together and shaking. They seemed terribly frightened when the door opened, and the moment their wide anxious eyes met mine, they both released long, loud yells. They’re my babies. I wanted to comfort them and say something to ease the stress evident on their faces, but I could do nothing. For a while, I couldn’t find it in myself to speak, or move. Then, they ran to me and I bent to embrace them, my body stiff, moving mechanically.
“Oh, my darling children. I’m sorry you’re frightened, but something happened and the lights are out. Follow me to family room, please.”
I shift to my feet and lead them down the hall. It feels as if I’m gliding. I barely notice my footfalls or the way the old wooden flooring sinks slightly with each step I take. Walking down the hall, my vision is hazy. It’s possible I just need rest, I’ve been up too long working and it has finally caught up to me. However, even while questioning my current state of mind, I continue. We reach the open room and my attention is immediately drawn to the blaring noise of the television. I’m not sure how I didn’t hear it before. What I don’t understand is how it’s even on at the moment seeing as everything else in the house is without power. Whatever is playing continuously pulls my attention. It’s as if I’m haunted by it.
B: My heart was beating a thousand times a minute, and I’m pretty sure James could hear it because he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and rocked back and forth like mom used to do when we were little. We sat petrified snuggled together as the closet door creaked open. I screamed in fear of the creature that had been stalking us all night only to realize—it was mom! She took both James and I into an embrace as we lunged into her chest. As we stood there in her arms, something felt a little off—she’s…different. Whatever it was, I didn’t care; she was here and that’s all that mattered. It took me a second to gather my thoughts and calm down before Mom began to lead us back down the hall towards the living room, where the TV had miraculously turned on, despite the power outage. The Fatal Cleansing continued to blare out the TV speakers with sporadic episodes of static that sent chills through my body, almost as much as the frigid air in the dark hall. As mom led us down the hall back to the sitting room, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that she didn’t seem the same as when she’d put us to bed just a few hours ago. She walked in the center of the hall with James and I on either side, but she stood in perfect posture and comforted the two of us in an almost mechanic-like way.
J: Becca and I slowly walk to the living room guided by our mom in the darkness. With no electricity in our house, we notice the television playing The Fatal Cleansing. At this point, we are definite that our mom is acting unusual, not putting us to bed even way after bedtime. Instead, we are forcefully asked to have a seat on the couch and watch
the rest of the movie. Though terribly horrified by our mom, we decide to do as she asks. We silently sit, and I try to fix my eyes on the television as I see Becca staring at me crying for help. I hold on to her hand to let her know that everything will be fine.
After a while, I realize our mom has been saying lines from the movie; she’s acting as if she is one of the characters from the movie. As we are pretending as if we are completely into the movie, mom continuously talks to us saying, “I see your dad sitting next to you.” By the end of the movie, we are both completely creeped out.
Soon after, I realize I can distract our mom from watching us by asking her to fix the window before the living room gets unbearably cold. I thought this would be the perfect chance to turn off the TV and destroy the videotape. Hopefully that would end this whole chaotic mess. I cautiously ask my mom if the window could be fixed, and she stiffly walked towards the window without saying a single word, just staring down. As soon as she faced the window, I darted towards the television, yanked out the tape, and crushed it with my foot before she could stop us. The broken tape, now little pieces of plastic, is scattered within a small area of the living room. Our mom jolts and looks down at us with a blank face, and then, she smiles.
Pitch darkness and silence prevails in the house—all but the crackling scenes of The Fatal Cleansing. The kids were quick to shatter the tape, jumping on it with full force until it could not be broken down any further. This plunges the room into more darkness when the television blinks off. Stacy turns to face her children as quickly as one lifts their hand off of a hot stove. She clenches her fists and looks at James and Becca as if they were her prey for the night. The children are relieved. They believed they had it all figured out, but they cannot see their mother’s reaction through all the darkness. Becca and James sprint into their mother’s embrace now overcome with a feeling of safety. Stacy wraps her arms around her children, slightly tighter than usual. She looks off into the distance. Her eyes meet the clouded moonlight. A strange red glimmer flickers in her eyes, and a wicked grin overcomes her face. In a matter of minutes, the siblings’ childhood home filled with loving memories becomes a haunted house with no escape.