Jars

In the beginning, it was all just a silly little dare between friends. Or at least that was what the rest of the group had thought. Mateo himself wasn’t so sure about it, as he trekked along an overgrown path meandering into the woods. To be exact, he was getting quite nervous.

A week earlier Mateo and his two friends, Eric and Gabrielle had found a seemingly abandoned cottage in the woods. But as they had advanced towards it, a heart wrenching scream had soared into the air. The kids had gotten all frightened and took the flight. They had only stopped running after they were safely inside their homes.

But the terrors of that night were forgotten quite quickly, and now the young friend wanted something even more exciting. So, in a game of truth and dare, Mateo was dared to go into the woods and go inside the creepy cottage. At first Mateo was hesitant, but after some resisting he finally agreed to complete the dare. 

So there he was, standing in front of the ramshackle building. Just as last time, the cottage looked completely abandoned. There were no signs of anybody living there, and Mateo started to believe that what they had heard last time must have been just the wind whistling through the broken glass.

He took a deep breath and opened the door. Inside there were things so off-putting that Mateo almost threw up his bowels. The walls of the cottage were fully covered with shelves and the shelves were crammed with jars. Big jars, small jars, massive jars. And inside the jars there were dead things. Not only tiny things like bugs and worms, but also other animals like rabbits, deer, foxes and some other animals that Mateo couldn’t even recognize. 

What was on the bottom shelf finally made Mateo puke. It was a small girl, curled up inside a jar. The look in her dead eyes looked like a warning. “Run, while you still can.” Mateo’s heart was pounding and his hands were cold and clammy. He stumbled towards the door attempting to escape, his eyes still fixated on the human girl inside a jar.

“Not so fast,” said a sweet voice from the door. 

That night, another scream was heard in the woods. Mateo was never seen again, and the peace of the cottage was never disturbed