A/N: Sorry this story took so long posting. RoF, I'd hardly say unscathed. And Alethia…sorry 'bout the nightmares. And this idiot on my bus was saying it wasn't morbid enough…I think it's fine. Sorry if I overreacted, Beldavid; I was an idiot—you're only trying to help, and I thank you. The Rhyming… Well, this collection is more for morbid stuff. It doesn't really fit the "horror" genre. Now, on to this story. I originally wrote this in December for a school contest… Then I reread the date on the entry paper and saw that I was a couple of days too late X( . I wanted to revise this, maybe add some more detail before putting it up, but I've decided I'm putting it up in its current form, then editing it sooner or later and giving its own, extended story topic. I hope you all enjoy; I really like this one.

It's Cold In This House

Erica was moving.

Her family was in need of a new house. Her parents made the proper arrangements, and soon their house was empty. They needed a place to stay while their belongings were being moved, so Erica's friend Kurt had offered them a place to stay in his family's large house. Though Erica's parents were wary at first, they finally decided that Kurt's house did have a lot of room, and therefore would be perfect for the short interim. Erica's older sister Alice was away at college, so it would only be Erica and her parents.

The first evening was uneventful. Erica's parents passed stories with Kurt's over dinner, but the teenagers didn't speak much.

Nightfall came, and both families went to bed quickly. Erica had trouble sleeping. Every time she felt about to fall asleep, something would keep her awake. She finally decided to get up and get a glass of water.

Kurt wasn't doing much better. Even after many years of living in his house, Kurt had always felt lonely, and the thought of someone else his age in the house made it hard for him to relax. Just when he thought he could get to sleep, he heard a breeze. Who would open a window at this time of night, and in the middle of autumn? Kurt got up and flipped the switch for the hall light.

Nothing. That was when Kurt heard a loud strike of thunder, and the pitter-patter of drops on the roof began.

Great. On top of it being a cold night already, now it was raining. Unable to find a flashlight, Kurt lit a candle to light his way. He grabbed a blanket to keep him warm and left his room to find the open window.

Meanwhile, Erica was having trouble finding her way around the large house. She had meant to go to the bathroom, but now she felt she was somewhere near Kurt's family's library. She had always had a terrible sense of direction, and the fact that Kurt's house was so enormous made it even worse. Erica turned another corner and found a hallway with an open window at the end of it. That was why she had been so cold… The curtain in front of the window was fluttering lightly in the wind. She moved to close it, but a light around the next corner made her stop. The light grew brighter, until finally Kurt stepped around the corner. Erica let out a sigh of relief. "Erica?" Kurt asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for the bathroom," Erica answered. Kurt looked about to say where it was until Erica added quickly, "But I just needed a drink, and I don't anymore."

"Oh," Kurt answered, unsure of how to respond. He walked over and gave her the blanket he was using, saying, "Here—take this. It's cold in this house; you need it more," he added, looking down at her goose bump-covered arms. "Thanks," Erica replied.

The two stood there awkwardly for a moment. Erica decided to take a chance and start a conversation. "That's, um, a nice table over there," she said, pointing to a small table sitting next to the window.

"Thanks," Kurt replied, "I guess…" He had always been terrible at carrying conversations. "It belonged to my grandmother; we got it with the house."

Erica nodded, trying to keep the conversation moving. She looked over Kurt's shoulder at the still-open window. "Shouldn't we close that?"

"Oh, yeah," Kurt responded, remembering the supposed reason he had gotten up. He walked over to the window, nearly bumping into the table next to it, and closed it quickly.

Kurt started to back away from the window when he noticed something strange.

"Wait…" he began, crouching down. "How…?" It was so strange he was unable to finish his sentence. How could the curtain still be fluttering with the window closed? There weren't any seams that air could come through…

Just as Erica moved closer to see what was wrong, there was a loud whooshing sound. Then—

CRASH! The glass was shattered by a gust of wind, blowing Kurt's candle out. In seconds he was sent flying through the air away from the window, dropping the now unlit candle. "KURT!" Erica shouted, leaving the candle where it had been dropped, and ran to where Kurt had landed quite a few feet away.

Erica bent down over Kurt, whose eyes were closed. "Oh, God, please…no…" She moved her hand to check his pulse when Kurt's eyes opened. But the look in them was far from comforting.

Erica leapt back and screamed. No one seemed to hear her in the large house. She backed up against the wall as Kurt—or what seemed to be Kurt—rose.

Kurt's eyes looked as if they were staring into an endless abyss past Erica. They were cold, unfeeling—nothing like the normal Kurt. His hair seemed thinner and scragglier. As Kurt approached the frozen-with-fear Erica, the flesh on his face seemed to become more and more pale, until it started to crack and fall off in some places.

Erica stopped screaming when she finally found her legs and started running. She grabbed the candle and ran to her room, with the creature that had once been Kurt in close pursuit. Erica closed her door and locked it. Kurt started banging it, trying to break it down. Erica dropped the candle on her bedside table and hid under her covers like a small child. What was wrong with Kurt? BANG! Was their anything she could do? Ba-BANG! It was a few moments before Erica realized she was crying. She hid there, crying, as the banging on her door grew worse.

Finally, the noise stopped. Had Kurt—that thing—left?

Erica slowly climbed out of her bed and sat on it for a moment, staring at the door. What if he—it—was just waiting for her to walk out, just to grab her and—

Erica shuddered at the thought. She stole herself and got up off the bed. Looking in the drawer of her bedside table, she found a box of matches and lit the candle. The frightened girl slowly made her way towards the door, candle in hand.

Erica forced the door open quickly in her fear.

No one there.

Erica walked out the door slowly, looking up and down the hall for any signs of the strange creature. She closed the door quickly; checking to make sure the thing wasn't behind it. After assuring herself that the creature wasn't lurking nearby, she started making her way down the halls, looking for Kurt.

After a long while, Erica finally heard some movement around a corner. She held the candle further in front of her to see as much as she could, and then walked swiftly toward the corner. She pulled her empty hand back, ready to hit whatever was around the corner, when—

"Erica!"

Erica gasped.

It was Kurt. But he was back to normal. The candle lit up his healthy features.

"Kurt? But… What happened?" Erica asked incredulously.

"I don't know; all I remember was getting thrown back by the window. Did I pass out or something?"

Erica hesitated. Should she tell him about…?

"I don't know," she finally said, deciding against telling him the truth, "let's just find out what's wrong with the window."

The two teenagers started to make their way back to the hallway with the window, walking side-by-side.

"It's so cold in here," Kurt remarked.

Erica stopped and said, "Do you want the blanket, I mean—"

"No," Kurt cut in, "It's okay." But the entire way back, Kurt seemed on the verge of shivering.

They finally arrived at the hallway with the window. The curtain was fluttering lightly in the wind.

Erica shielded the flame with her hand. She began to wonder… Had that creature even been Kurt? Had it even been real? Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Maybe there wasn't even anything to worry about.

Erica began to approach the window. She had almost reached the window when she saw something strange.

"That's weird… The ground in front of the window isn't damp. It's been raining for a while; shouldn't it have gotten a little wet? …Kurt?"

She stopped.

"Kurt?" she called timidly. His footsteps had stopped.

Erica turned around slowly. Kurt wasn't there.

"Kurt, this isn't funny—" she began, but she was cut off by an arm being wrapped around her neck. She screamed and turned her head as much as she could. It was the creature, looking worse than ever.

Erica struggled against the thing with her free hand, but she was losing air. The creature was strangling her. She remembered the flame in her hand—maybe she could use it as a weapon. Erica raised the candle towards the creature's face. The creature leapt back.

She thought she must've burnt it. Erica spun around to face the creature, holding the candle out in front of her. The creature cowered away from the light—or was it the creature?

"Oh, God—Kurt?!" Erica cried out.

The person bent over in the light was obviously Kurt—healthy once again. But he had a troubled look on his face. "What was I doing?!" he cried out in horror. "One moment I'm following you, the next I'm choking you! What the hell happened?"

Erica looked at Kurt's hurt face, unsure of how to answer. "I don't know," she said despairingly. "You keep—changing—into this thing, it's like—like a zombie or something…" She backed a step away from Kurt, afraid he might change again.

Kurt dropped to the floor, shaking. Despite the fact that he was wearing a hoody, he felt colder than ever. "I feel so—cold," he said aloud. "It feels like—like there's something in—inside me, keeping me cold…" He looked up at the candle Erica was holding almost longingly. "The light—I…I want to be near it, but part of me doesn't."

"Wait…" Erica thought aloud. She came close to Kurt so the candle barely lit his entire body. "Stick your hand outside the light," she said.

Kurt moved his hand as far from the candle as he could. As it ceased to be illuminated by the candle, a dark change came over it. His skin began to turn back to the cracked and sickly flesh of the creature. Kurt quickly brought his hand back into the light, horrified by what he had seen.

"What…the…" He trailed off, staring at his hand.

"It's the light," Erica realized. "Something happened when you were hit by that wind…" Erica helped Kurt to his feet, since Kurt still seemed a little incredulous. She gave him the candle. "You should take this."

"Yeah," Kurt replied, still shaken by the sight of his hand going through rigor mortis. They both made their way back to the window.

The curtain was still fluttering lightly, and though there was wind making it flutter now, it still seemed an ominous sign to Erica. "Stay close," she told Kurt, even though she wasn't completely sure why.

Erica looked at the curtain. It veiled the entire window, and it was too thick to see how much damage had been done to the window. She slowly lifted her arm to pull the curtain away. Why was she so frightened? She would just pull the curtain away, and she'd see Kurt's front yard—

Erica screamed. She had pulled the curtain away, but Kurt's yard wasn't what she saw through the window. It was some strange, black, misty space… In the distance she thought she could a full moon. She backed away from the window.

"AH!" she screamed again. Something was coming towards them! At first it seemed to be part of the mist, but slowly it gained a wispy form that looked almost humanoid. Two glowing eyes opened in the strange spirit.

Kurt wasn't backing away from the window, though. He seemed almost drawn to it…

"Kurt!" Erica cried, taking a tentative step towards him. "Stay away from it!"

"I—I can't…" he replied in a strangely constrained voice. "It—it won't let me…" And then he dropped the candle. The drop blew the light out.

"Oh, no…" Erica whispered, knowing what was about to happen. She turned and began to run just as Kurt's deathly form turned.

Erica had no idea where she was going in the dark. She could barely see a foot in front of her. She could hear from his footsteps that Kurt was close behind.

She had to find some form of light! A candle, a flashlight—something!

"OOF!" Erica seemed to have run into a door. She quickly opened it, not knowing where she was, and ran into it. She had just a moment to see the horrifying thing Kurt become before she closed the door.

Erica felt around, and her hands immediately hit walls. So, she was in a closet. She could feel towels on shelves on the opposite wall of where she came in—would those help? No, they wouldn't.

BAM! Erica screamed at the sound of the creature banging on the door. This time, if it broke in, she wouldn't have anywhere to run. She sank to her knees in desperation and tried to feel for something—anything—she might be able to use against the thing that had once been her friend. Her hand hit something round—BAM—something cylindrical—CRACK—a button!

Erica pressed the button and the closet was immediately illuminated. A flashlight! She grasped it, stood up, and threw open the door with a force the creature had not been expecting. It stumbled back from Erica, but quickly regained its composure and began to walk towards her again. Erica raised the flashlight and shined it at the hellish monster. Unlike the candle, the light didn't change the creature back into Kurt—it was literally causing it pain! Erica hesitated for a moment and wondered if this was hurting Kurt as well, but she quickly decided anything would be better for him than prolonged existence as an undead. Erica walked resolutely toward Kurt, the light causing it to stumble backward, trying to shield itself from the light.

Erica was able to push the creature back to the window using the flashlight. A mild breeze was coming through the window, pushing the curtains apart and giving an easy view of the nightmarish landscape lying behind them. By this time, Kurt was forced up against the window by the light, with nowhere else to go. Erica continued to walk towards him, shining the light directly at his chest. Suddenly, the creature cried out in pain—something was happening! Erica watched in wonder, as something started to come out of its mouth—a misty form, like the spirit she had seen before. If not for her determination, she might've dropped the light. The spirit clawed at Kurt's (now normal) body, but was pulled in through the window.

Kurt slumped to the floor, but Erica had more to worry about. A fierce vacuum was now coming from the window, trying to suck everything inside. Kurt's body was slowly being pulled towards it.

"NO!" Erica cried out. She moved towards the window, being careful not to trip or let it pull her in, and grabbed the table sitting next to the window. It was small enough that she managed to lift it and force it over the gaping window. The wind stopped, and the table seemed to be held in place by the vacuum.

Erica breathed. For the first time that night, there wasn't anything truly threatening happening to her. Then she remembered Kurt.

"Oh no, please, no…" she moaned, bending down to see if he was okay. He didn't seem to be breathing.

"No!" she cried to herself. She kept saying it to herself as she lifted Kurt and held him in her arms. No. Not after all that…

Kurt's eyes shot open. He gasped for air.

"Oh my God," Erica said barely over a whisper. She shut her eyes and tears continued to poor from them as she hugged him. "Kurt."

Kurt was wide-eyed for a moment and took a few deep breaths, wheezing audibly. His breathing returned to normal after a few seconds, but he was still shocked by what had happened.

"Thank you," Erica cried to no one in particular. "Thank you…"

Kurt returned her embrace. "I'm so sorry," he said. Tears started to well up in his eyes. "I can't believe…" He had no idea what he could say.

After a few minutes of crying in each other's arms, he did. "I'm not cold anymore." Erica laughed.