(short story)

“Detective Hopes!” Jake shouted, “Detective, there’s something here!”

The shout echoed through the thick trees and dissolved into the evening twilight. Hopes turned off his flashlight and stepped on his leather boots in the direction of the voice.

“Detective, there’s a cabin here,” the man said as Hopes approached him.

In the middle of the woods stood a lonely hut covered with moss and mold. The detective approached the door and pulled the rusty handle.

“Damn!” he exclaimed when the handle fell off and rolled into the bushes on a sloping hill.

Lightning struck somewhere nearby and for a moment the cabin brightened.

“Jake, get out of the way,” he told his partner before running to kick in the rotten door.

With a dull thud, the door fell to the floor. A terrible stench hit their noses. Old floorboards crackled under the heavy boots of detectives. There was sour milk, wormy apples and moldy cakes on the kitchen table.

Hopes bent down and looked under the table, where a carpet was covered with dried sugar stains. He covered his nose with his hand and moved the carpet. A small metal handle was visible under it. The detective pulled it on.

“Jake, look, there’s a way to the basement.”

They stepped down the stairs, and it was pitch black around them. The detectives groped around.

“Where’s the flashlight?”

“Take mine.”

When the light of the flashlight cut through the darkness, Jake yelled out loud. Hopes only pursed his lips slightly. The whole room was littered with mountains of human bones. But something was wrong.

Hops examined the bones and his worst fears were confirmed:

“They were children’s bones.”

Suddenly, a deafening scream came from above. It was accompanied by a loud bang.

The detectives ran upstairs. The sound came from the iron furnace. Hopes quickly pulled the deadbolt, but the screams stopped. Fingernail marks were visible from inside the door. But there was nothing inside.

“What the hell?”

That was the last thing Detective Hopes said before something pushed him into the hot iron furnace.