Cookie

I was waiting for my brother at the drug store in my ridiculously small sedan. Two children approached and asked me if I wanted a cookie. I assumed it was for a fundraiser and tried to give them money. They politely declined and instead asked for a way home. I agreed but was curious as to why their parents left them. 

My brother finally exited the store before I had the chance to ask. The children were polite on the car ride, but they didn't say much. We arrived at their creepy house and I walked them to the door. The house was a worn blue with weeds and twigs surrounding. The sun was beginning to set so it gave the home an eerie glow to it.

Their parents opened the door and seemed to have no emotion. They weren't upset that their children went home with a stranger and they didn't seem concerned that they were even gone. Their mother had bags under her eyes and her hair was almost ratty. She didn't say a word as the children entered the house and offered me another cookie.

I woke up on the floor in an empty bedroom, my brother nowhere in site. It was pitch black aside from the glow of a woman in the corner. She wore a long white gown that reminded me of the 20's. She had knotty brown hair that covered her face. I felt that she could be beautiful in any other light. The darkness almost made her look dead. She smiled, showing off her red lipstick and rotten teeth. She gracefully swept across the room and exited. 

I sat in darkness, as I tried to make sense of anything. 

The father screamed. I ran downstairs to find the mysterious woman cornering the family. I didn't know she was dangerous until I saw the mother, panicked. 

I tried to distract the woman so the family could leave. She instead grabbed my neck and dragged me around the house. I gasped for air any chance I had. She noticed the family trying to leave and averted her attention to them. 

She doused the husband with water as the kids scrambled out of the house. The woman pulled out defibrillators from god knows where. She shocked the husband until the house smelled of burnt flesh and feces. She disappeared into thin air once there was no chance of getting him back. 

I instinctively called the paramedics who arrived within minutes. It seemed like dozens of people rushed in at once. Some tending to the deceased father while the rest tended to the children and their dazed mother. Everything seemed quiet. 

Water gushed through the house, dousing everyone as if they had been in a storm. Electricity sparked as people started falling over one by one. I knew the woman was back, only this time she was an invisible force. I heard the children's screams cut off with one spark as they dropped to the floor. The mother went quietly, as if she still had no emotion. Paramedics and police officers were no match for her as they lost their lives one by one. 

Everyone was gone, lying fried to the floor. She finally appeared in front of me. I was on my knees, accepting my fate. She had the defibrillators in her hands as she flashed me a crooked smile with her rotten teeth. 

I glanced over at the lifeless children and recalled what brought me here in the first place.