“So you’re finally moving out huh?”
“Yeah it’s about time I do,” I said as I placed down the last box that I had packed. “Besides, I’ve been here for too long anyway. Time for a change of scenery.”
“And what better than a house secluded from basically life itself,” Noah said with a sigh of skepticism.
“None better,” I said.
I began moving the boxes towards the truck my father let me use at the time as Noah was talking to my parents. My mother was being emotional like I had thought she would be and my dad was being….well him. He didn’t really show signs of caring too much. He did provide me with everything I needed to move though.
“Do you really have to move out so early,” my mother said, tearing up more. I got closer to hug her and stared at my dad for him to say something to her.
“The boy’s turning 21, he should’ve been out sooner, sweetie.”
My mom hit his shoulder as soon as he said that and almost stopped crying at a moment’s notice. “You could at least try to care, Charles!” My mother brought her attention back to me once she was done scowling at my dad. “Even though you’ll be gone, remember to always call at least once or twice a week to check up on us,” she said.
I hugged her once again and said “alright.” I got in the car with all of my things now packed tightly in the truck with Noah in the passenger.
My new house was a good one or two hours away, so it did take a bit of driving to get there, but it was worth it. Finally I had something that was mine and mine alone. It felt nice for a little bit.
Unpacking didn’t take too long with the help of Noah. Everything was ready to be settled in the house and so were we. And we settled down with a nice bit of alcohol to clear our minds just a little. Something I would’ve and did had to hide if I was still at my parents’ house.
“So…..girlfriend?” The question from Noah came from seemingly nowhere. Of course to the sudden question I could do nothing but laugh. “No, no time for it,” I said to him while taking another swig.
Noah put his drink down on the stand that was beside him and made a somewhat serious face. “It’s best to try to find one now, anything could happen and we’re getting older.” Noah has never been the serious type, so this statement and the conversation itself took me aback. Again I just laughed because I had no response. He was right in a way, but I was more worried about other stuff. Besides I had him as a friend and that’s all I needed.
We kept drinking until we both fell asleep in the living room. We woke up rather early and everything felt weird. We had been drinking, yes, but we’ve never had our memory be faulty. Noah’s empty cans were now in the bathroom and my car keys that were on the couch with me were now in the master bedroom. Misplacing keys seems usual, but all of the empty cans?
With no way to explain the occurrence Noah just chalked it up to us getting too drunk and not remembering everything we did. His idea was logical, but it all seemed weird.
Noah soon left after helping a bit with the house.
With him leaving it was just me left to put everything where I wanted. After a couple of hours everything was finally unpacked and where I wanted.
Noah would visit often, but nothing weird would happen like that day.
Everything was going well. I had a nice job and of course I had this place, with nothing going wrong. Maybe I became too optimistic because then it went dark.
Like my mother had asked, I called her once or twice a week. We wouldn’t have long talks, we’d just inform each other about if we’re doing okay or not. Until one day it wasn’t her that answered. It was my dad.
I sat there helplessly and let him explain to me that someone came into their house while he was at work and killed mom while robbing them. I was utterly powerless. Nothing I could do, nothing I could say. I didn’t even speak to my dad while on the phone I just hung up.
My dad tried to call more, but I never answered. Noah heard the news and tried his best to try to cheer me up, just like he would anytime I was upset or sad. He told me about the funeral that my father had planned for my mom, which is probably why my dad was calling in the first place.
After the funeral, I completely isolated myself from the two people I had left in my life. I blamed my dad. I told myself he should’ve been there to protect her and that it was his fault that she was gone. And with that in my head I didn’t want to talk to him. I stopped letting Noah come over so much knowing that my dad would use him to try to talk to me.
Noah still came by and checked on me constantly and made sure that I had food. He let me know that he’d be going on a trip with his girlfriend for a bit. He told me that if I needed anything I could call and he’d come back for me. Never did I talk back to him nor did I call when he was gone.
After some time, I got better. I made sure I was eating and keeping my health good, but I still ignored both my father and Noah and even tried to avoid going out unless I had too. Until that cat came.
One day while making myself breakfast I heard scratching at my front door. I of course looked through the peephole and asked if anybody was there. No one answered and so although I was hesitant to answer, I opened the door.
There it was, a bright white cat with blue eyes in front of me. It came closer and rubbed its body on my leg and ran into my house. It went straight into my room and everything went silent.
I didn’t know whose cat it was, but surely someone would be looking for it. So I went to get it, but it was gone. Not a trace of the cat ever being there was in the house. Not in my room, not in other rooms.
A few days later one of my neighbors went knocking on everyone’s door asking if we had seen a cat. And well, I couldn’t tell her yeah it came into my home and disappeared. So I said no. She went up and down on our street for days looking for it. Not knowing that it was never going to get found.
I started going back to work after being on unpaid time off for so long. Decided that it would be better for me to continue working so that I could still have money.
Life started to be normal like it had been at the beginning, just without mom, dad, and Noah. Then just like always when I settle and be optimistic something went missing. My computer was gone. That’s not something I could or would simply misplace. I still looked for it throughout the house, but knew I wouldn’t have found it. If it could grow legs and walk out it surely wouldn’t be here anymore.
I was basically in the middle of nowhere, but there were still a decent amount of other houses around. I went around asking if they had seen anything suspicious or if their stuff had gone missing. I only got two different responses other than no. One was from the lady whose cat went missing. The next was this old man who had seemingly lived in the neighborhood for a long time. “Maybe it’s not your memory,” the man had said to me. He didn’t answer my questions and that was the only thing he had said to me and closed his door.
I thought long about what he could’ve meant, but just couldn’t. I got basically no sleep and went to sleep really late and woke up.
But where I woke up wasn’t my home. It was dark, but everywhere had this red tint to it. It smelt horrible and there wasn’t anything that I could possibly do to hinder the smell. Luckily I still had my phone and tried to call Noah. My phone only had 30% left so I couldn’t be on it for long. Noah didn’t answer. The only person I could call was my dad and I still didn’t have it in me to talk to him.
I didn’t know where I was but I decided to try to walk around and find my way out. Of course I didn’t know where I was going. I couldn’t see and was basically covering my whole face. I used my phone to find my way for just a bit. Everyone looked the same and there was no distinct place. If anything it felt like I was going in circles.
I cut off my light and kept walking around until I saw something. But then I saw something I wish I hadn’t.
As I was walking I stepped on something that felt small. I dismissed it because the smell was getting to me too much. I kept walking over it, over and over and over. I finally took my phone out and used the flash light and saw what seemed to be a ball of flesh.
It soon hit me. The thing had little bits of white you could see, but the rest of it was mostly filled with blood. I had been stepping and going past the girl’s missing cat this whole time and hadn’t known.
Something in my stomach tried to come up as the idea of the cat being dead being my fault. I walked away from it, but just kept going past it. This place was constantly moving. I couldn’t get out and the smell kept getting worse. I tried calling Noah again, but still he didn’t answer.
After continuous walks through what seemed like an ever changing labyrinth, I heard a knock. It was above me to be exact. Someone had called my name and was trying to get into the house.
It was my dad.
The place seemed to be under the entire house. The only difficulty in my mind was finding my way towards the front door for my dad to hear me. I kept walking but it didn’t seem like I was getting closer. It didn’t seem like I was getting further away either though. I was simply in a perfect spot for me to hear my dad and for him to not hear me.
My dad had a key. Both my mom, dad and Noah had a key to my house. He finally realized he had it and got inside the house.
“Sean,” I heard him say. He kept calling out my name while seemingly checking some rooms. “I haven’t been the best father, but that’s no reason to ignore me.”
He went into rooms constantly saying things like “It’s my fault I know.” Or “It’s okay for you to blame me.”
His voice became wavery. He stopped moving and started to cry. I’ve never seen or even heard of a time where my dad would even do that.
“Sean, come out. I’ve already lost your mother, I can’t lose you too. That’d be too much to bear. I’m sorry, okay?” He began getting louder with his words and feelings. “I’ll show that I care, I always have. I just wanted you to have a strong figure to look up to. I’d never thought that doing this would cause you to hate me. I’m sorry.”
His words got to me. Almost as if I was in a trance-like state. Tears started flowing out of my eyes more than I expected. I began banging on the wall of where I was, in hopes that he’d hear.
Nothing.
I kept listening to see if he had said anything else, but the strange thing was that there wasn’t sound at all. No sound of him moving around, no sound of his subtle crying, nothing. It’s as though he too had disappeared without a trace.
I gave up. There was nothing I could do, no one that could possibly help without needing help themselves.
I sat there in that blood filled labyrinth. There was nowhere to go. I was just constantly going in circles anyway.
The air then became heavy….more dense maybe. The stench became even worse than before. I could feel my insides wanting to jump out. I looked for the source and the horrors I encountered when I found it made my choice to look that much worse. A creature who seemed to be crawling towards me was heading towards me.
Its head was on its back, it had no arms, only legs, and they were all facing the opposite way of where they should be. The thing had what looked like a tail and that had claws yet teeth on them at the exact same time.
Chills ran down my spine. My body began moving on its own. My mind was filled with thoughts of being helped. “Maybe my dad will find me,” “Maybe I’ll find my way out,” “Someone will know I’m missing and will help.” What else could I do but hope for help in this hell hole?
The creature growled at me. It’s growl and yelling was weird though. I was watching it chase me, I was barely looking ahead, but the growl seemed so far away. It wasn’t normal if the thing growling was right behind me. Then I realized that it was the thing that was yelling for me. I kept running and found something even more disturbing, something indescribable. The cause of what I had been hearing.
If you were to ask someone to describe a biblically accurate angel, what I had seen in front of me would be a prime example. My mind was fried, and my body was fatigued from all the moving I’d been doing. The hope had been drained from my body. My helplessness didn’t stop those things from chasing me.
So I continued running. What else could I do? Let them catch me? I was backed into a corner. I took a wrong turn and they were still coming. The footsteps of the first one pounding the ground with every step and the growling becoming louder. Then as luck would have it the labyrinth changed again. After all that time the labyrinth had finally been on my side.
I sat there for a bit. I was tired. The stench of the place making it harder to breathe than ever before. I truly believed that there was no hope for me. And I was right.
After a bit of resting, I decided to walk out and check to see if I had been in this area before with my flashlight from my phone. Everything looked as it always did, nothing out of the ordinary. So I kept moving with my flashlight on in hopes of finding maybe a door or ladder to get out of this place.
I saw the cat once again but there was something else in the same room in the opposite corner. I didn’t want to check it, but it was the only thing that had changed at all in this place.
I flipped it over and I felt the little bit of life that was left in my body dissipate completely. I don’t know how long I sat there, but my entire body was covered in throw up and tears.
The thing I saw was my dad’s head. There wasn’t a body. No other parts. Just a head. Left there as a trophy, just like the cat had been. My dad had finally expressed his feelings to me, and I’ll now never be able to apologize to him. Say that I’m sorry knowing that he too was hurting from mom dying, say sorry for blaming him although it wasn’t his fault. Thinking of it makes me want to cry even now.
I didn’t move from that room. I sat there with the only two people who had experienced this crazy place with me. Maybe I had even gone crazy myself. I started to talk to them, talk to myself.
I’m not too sure how long I had been there. But my phone was low. No food, no way to get out, no hope. My body was done. I was done.
I heard the screaming again, as well as the footsteps of the first creature. I knew that I wouldn’t make it out nor would I see them again. So I hugged the remaining bit of family I had left and started running. And they came after me.
They either became faster or I got slower, but I kept running. I had no more energy to scream anymore. No more energy to call for help. No energy to hope for help.
The labyrinth was continuing to change, and I just kept the same pace.
Finally, almost as if I was in a movie I saw a door with a bright light illuminating from it. I knew that’s where I had to go. If I had even stopped for a second I knew I was food.
The door became closer and closer. The footsteps and yelling got closer as well.
I got close enough to go through the door.
I’m stuck here.