The Last House On The Road

The road was supposed to be closed for only a few days.

At least, that’s what the sign has been saying for the past week.

“Are you kidding me?” Jake said, slamming his head against the steering wheel. “Now we have to go all the way around?”

“Dude, it’s like a five-minute difference. It’s not the end of the world,” Mason said from the passenger seat.

“Five minutes turns into twenty with my luck,” Jake replied.

In the back seat, Tyler barely looked up from his phone. “Can you two shut up for one second please? I’m trying to read something.”

“Read what?” Mason asked.

“Nothing…”

Jake peaked at his phone through the rearview mirror. “You’re looking at that stupid missing-person case again, aren’t you?”

Tyler locked his phone and shoved it into his pocket as fast as a mouse. “How many times do I have to tell you it’s not stupid. The girl disappeared three years ago, and nobody ever figured out what happened to her. What if that was you?”

“Dude, if you spent this much time studying for school, you might actually graduate,” Jake said.

Mason turned around in his seat. “Actually, there’s a new theory about that. Some people think she was last seen near—”

“Please don’t say it,” Jake interrupted.

Mason smiled. “What’s the matter? Still scared of the last house on the road?”

For the first time all night, nobody spoke.

The headlights stretched across the narrow road ahead, revealing trees on both sides and almost nothing else. Jake slowed down as the pavement gave way to cracked asphalt. He knew this road, or at least he thought he did. Ever since he was just a kid his parents had always told him to stay away from it. Most people in town took the longer route instead of driving past the old house at the end.

Then the house appeared.

It stood behind a broken metal fence, its dark windows barely visible through the trees. The roof sagged in the middle, and the paint had almost completely peeled from the wooden siding. Even from the road, it looked like a place that hadn’t been touched in decades.

Mason leaned forward between the front seats.

“That’s it,” he whispered.

Jake kept his eyes on the road. “That’s what?”

“The house.”

Tyler finally looked up from his phone. When he saw it, his expression changed.

“Keep driving,” he said.

Jake glanced at him. “What happened to you? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“I’m serious, Jake. Just keep driving.”

Mason laughed. “Oh, come on. You’re not actually scared of a house, are you?”

“You don’t know what happened there.”

“Then tell us.”

Tyler looked back at the house. For a moment, he seemed to be deciding whether he should say anything at all.

“My older brother told me that a family lived there a long time ago. One night, all three of their kids disappeared. The parents told the police they had run away, but nobody ever found them. A few years later, the parents disappeared too.”

Jake frowned. “How does an entire family just disappear?”

“That’s the point,” Tyler said. “Nobody knows. Some people say the family never left. They say if you go inside after dark, you can still hear someone walking around upstairs.”

Mason laughed. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’m not finished.” Tyler’s voice grew quieter. “My brother said someone went inside about ten years ago. The next morning, his car was still parked outside. They never found him.”

The car rolled to a stop.

Jake turned toward Mason. “Don’t even think about it.”

Mason was already unbuckling his seat belt.

“You cannot be serious,” Tyler said.

“What? You believe all that stuff?” Mason opened the door and stepped onto the road. “It’s an abandoned house. That’s it. You two are acting like there’s a murderer waiting behind the front door.”

Jake shook his head. “Get back in the car.”

Mason grinned and started walking toward the gate.

“Come on, guys. Unless you’re both too scared to find out what’s really in there.”

Tyler stayed frozen in his seat.

Jake watched Mason reach the gate, push it open, and disappear into the darkness beyond it.

Then the headlights flickered.

For one brief second, the house was completely dark.

When the lights came back, Mason was no longer standing by the gate.

And someone was standing in the upstairs window.

Someone who looked exactly like Mason.