The Black House

The house sat in the middle of the block, silently watching the comings and goings of the neighborhood residents and all that went on around it; soundlessly appraising each person and event while patiently waiting for an opportunity to claim an unsuspecting victim. The squatty boxy structure, so like all the other houses in the neighborhood, exuded evil and breathed malice while it quietly planned the destruction of the tenants that lived in its adjoining dwellings.

It hide in plain sight, trying unsuccessfully to blend in with all the other small row houses on the block that sat atop small swaths of dark green lawn. The cookie cutter homes, each adorn with small concrete porches, large picture windows, and an occasional maple tree looked completely and totally ordinary, except for this one. While being disturbingly similar to all the other residences on the block this house had one unsettling feature. It was black. Dark black, depressing black, evil black.

Some said the owner painted the house the oppressive, dismal color to keep people away. Others said the outside of the house was a disturbing manifestation of all the wicked things that went on inside. It was a building infected with evil completely and totally; an unholy place filled with the twisted, vulgar nightmares and abominable actions of it's inhabitants. When the secrets of the people who resided in this hell on earth grew too heavy for its plaster walls to contain, they simply bled through and formed the gloomy black skin that enveloped the residence.

It wasn't uncommon to see people walk in the street to avoid walking on the dilapidated, cracked sidewalk directly in front of the house. Most of the people walking to the store on the corner did so without knowing why, but the children in the neighborhood knew the house and it's tainted history quite well. If you asked any of them they would tell you stories of the witch who lived inside, the one who spewed hate filled profanities at you if she caught you looking in the house's direction. The one who sent her bulbous eyed, three legged, rat like mongrel out to chase them as they flew past on their bicycles frantically trying to get past the house and the snarling, gray nightmare that nipped at their heals.