As I pace the house turning on lights I cannot do anything but laugh at the idea that in the past year I went from a personally successful man to regressing into a timid shell of a human, now a scared child. Knowing the ridiculousness of the situation I still go from room to room, silently turning on lights and checking the locks of each window and door. Since the incident that left me alone in this godforsaken house. The house I once worked towards purchasing for my family to grow in has turned into a prison trapping me in my own memories and impending mortality. I pace the hallways and rooms of my house looking at everything still in place with how it was before they were gone. I cannot bear to touch anything of theirs in fear I will interrupt the capsule of time when I was happy and break the illusion I have created for myself. I know it is a desperate thing and I should move on but there is nothing for me outside of these walls and it is best to live in memories than face what is beyond the walls.
I got a knock on my door today, it was a family friend of ours trying to get me to come out of the house. Going out to say hi to him and listening to his speech about his condolences would mean facing the fact that there is something to feel condolences over. Leaving the house is not an option as of now, I will not face the issue.
I was walking down the hallway going into the back room on the left where my son’s bed and toys are when I heard a noise come from the kitchen. The noise was a creaky noise like a door shutting. My body filled with excitement, I was wrong, nothing bad happened to them, they’re home now! I ran as fast as I could to the kitchen to greet my wife and son. Nothing. No one was there. My cat was sitting on the counter licking the top of his paw, he must have walked in through the cat door which made the noise I thought was the door. They’ll come home soon, I just have to wait.
I walked into the kitchen to get some food and noticed I was low on food, knowing my wife would be unhappy with me if I didn’t make dinner before she got back. I was going to go to the store but I cannot find my car keys so I cannot leave. I did find spaghetti in the pantry so I made enough for everyone, I ate mine and left the rest on the table for when they get home. It should be soon. I’ve been looking for my keys, I know they cannot be far. They’re in the house just like I am.
I’m envious of my cat, it leaves the house day and night out its little door enjoying its life. I watch in awe at the ease it is able to come and go and not be bothered by the outside world. I’m still waiting for them to get home so I poured myself a drink to make my mood better. I held the drink up to my lips and felt pure cold dread, and chills started going up and down my spine continuously. The longer I held it there the more I felt fear at its deepest most primal level. I held the drink away from me and looked at it. It was clear before but it was now dark red and viscous like blood. I threw the glass at the wall instinctively and it collided with a picture of me, my wife and son together. The glass shattered onto the ground leaving no protection for the picture with no protection the bloody drink got all over the picture.
Shaking, I walked towards the picture to get a better look at it. I remember the exact day when this picture was taken. We were at a park and there was a lake at the park we all swam all day in. We asked a random stranger to take a picture of us. All the smiles were real that day. The blood soaked the image now which smeared the picture making their faces look in a frozen state of pure agony. I was not covered in blood though, I was still on the left side of the picture looking happy next to my now brutally malformed family. Looking at the picture brought me fear but also a feeling of clarity I pushed back down. I’m still lying to myself, I know it.
I was laying in my bed waiting for them to come home when I heard a noise. A small skittering, I knew it was probably my cat so I went looking for him. As I walked around the house looking for my cat I turned on all of the lights. I swear I could remember keeping them on, the electricity bill was worth my inner peace that was gained from the fanatic light switching. So I walked confused throughout the house but also with intent, finding where the noise of my cat came from. I went from room to room skipping my sons because the door was closed. If the cat was in his room then I could go back after the search and open his door. I started at my room, then the bathroom, the living room and finally the kitchen. The entire house had been searched with no sign of my cat. I heard a noise from my son’s room with the closed door. The same skittering noise I had heard earlier. My cat must’ve snuck in there when I went in to look around out of boredom earlier today.
I turned to go back the way I came to go to his room when I stopped frozen in my tracks. I was the only one home, I was still waiting for them to come home so I was alone with my cat. I heard the skittering in my son’s room which was loud enough to raise a quiet suspicion in my subconscious but not enough to interrupt my thoughts. This idea came to the front of my mind when I was turning and mid turn I saw my cat sitting on the kitchen counter. I froze, and listened. There it was again, that noise. My cat heard the noise too and it seemed to scare it too, as it ran out its cat door away from the house.
Now I knew I wasn’t alone, I was in the house with someone else. Something was in the room, I could feel the benevolent aura coming from his room. No. There was no aura coming from the room, it was my wife and my son. I nearly ran down the hall in excitement, it felt like I hadn’t seen them so long since the incident. Wait, the incident. I stopped again with my hand on the handle of the door, my same feelings of dread coming back to me. What did happen to them? What was the incident? I remember it being something bad, but not too bad right? How long has it been since I’ve seen them or someone else? It can’t have been over a week, has it? Where are they?
My thoughts are interrupted by more skittering coming from his room. I couldn’t run, where would I go? I couldn’t go outside for fear of. . . awareness. The word rang in my head like a thousand church bells, reverberating off the corners of my mind. The idea of awareness also put dread and something worse, suicide. I did not want this awareness so I opened the door to face what was in the other room. I saw it there for the first time. It was in the corner of the room opposite of the door facing me. Its body was spider-like with the torso of a human with no ribs or arms, it had many long black legs that scaled the wall, and a gaunt face with hair or eyes. It was just sitting there on the opposite side of the room staring at me with its mouth agape and its dead sockets staring into my soul. It opened its mouth wider and began to make a shrieking noise that made my ears feel as if they were going to burst. I slammed the door and ran back to my room.
I heard it skittering around for a bit before there was silence again. I sat in my room shaking for a long while before I got the courage to leave again. When I left the room I looked down the hall to see my son’s door was open, as was every single door in the house. The front and back door were not open nor did I hear them shut. That thing was still in the house with me. I ran back to my room to get my gun, I had purchased it years back when I realized I needed to protect my family from home invaders or anything bad that may come our way. I walked out of my room and went from room to room in the house.
First my son’s room, the image of where the monster was was still clear in my mind still but there was none there. Next I went to the guest bedroom where there was also nothing. Next I went into the bathroom, and nothing seemed to be wrong. I heard a skitter come from the living room ending with the noise of a sliding door shutting. The door to the closet. I ran into the living room with fear coursing all throughout my body. The existential dread peaked as I looked into the closet. There was another skittering noise, but this one across the house in my room. It made zero sense, the only way to get from the closet to my room would’ve been to pass me in the hallway. It was impossible, there was no way for it to be possible so it must’ve been in my head. Unless, the thought was another subconscious thought I had but seemed outlandish considering the idea. Now this idea was very possible and possibly correct, it may have been getting away from me and around me by crawling on the roof.
I looked up slowly and saw it there at the end of the hallway, its absent holes of eyes staring at me from the roof. Its head was twisted so it could see me in an unnatural way. I had nowhere to go, if I were to run into one of the rooms in the hall it would surely catch up with me, and if I were to run into the kitchen or living room there would be nowhere to run. That’s when I remembered I had a second story in my house, of course I had forgotten something so simple. How did I forget something so obvious? I had no time to think of this as I ran up the stairs and threw the door open to the only room, slammed it and locked it. I was alone now, in this room with almost nothing.
That’s it, all I have to do is wait for them to come home and they’ll call the police and save me from the monster. I backed up from the door when I heard a loud creak come from the floorboard. I looked down and all of my problems with the monster left my mind as I looked at what was there. The floorboard was bent up a bit to where I could pull it back and reveal a small space between it and the roof of the bottom floor. I did not see the bottom floor as I saw she was obscuring my vision of it. She as in my wife, she was just laying there motionless. Of course she was! She was just hiding from me as a joke and that’s why they had been gone so long, and look my son is there too right next to her. As well as my car keys and my phone. I went to grab the car keys so I could go grocery shopping but when I touched them I stopped. All the memories, the clarity came back to me. What have I done?
It was an average Friday night when it all happened. I was getting too drunk again when my wife told me I needed to stop drinking. It was in the evening after work and I had nothing going on the next day so I deserved a drink and a nice night to be left alone. I could run errands and do stuff for her the next day. She didn’t like it and tried to take the bottle of vodka I had away but I instinctively hit her in the head with it. She ran to our room crying and locked the door. This really got to me because why does SHE get to ruin MY night when I need a fucking break. I walked to the room and started banging on the door and she screamed at me to go away. I was busy banging on the door when our son tugged on my shirt crying begging me to stop this behavior. I lost it at this moment and threw him against the wall. All of the alcoholic rage that had built up had burst out of me and turned me into the real monster. He hit his head on the wall and tried crawling away but I grabbed him by his leg before he could get away and swung him down the stairs breaking his fragile body over the steps and he landed motionless at the bottom of the stairwell. It wasn’t my fault, it was my wifes, she did this to me, SHE did this to him.
I kicked the door as hard as I could and walked in there already knowing what I was going to do. I jumped on her as she tried to run away. She scratched and clawed at my arms but she was shorter than me and weaker so she couldn’t get free from my intoxicated grip. I moved my hands to her throat and squeezed. She choked for a long while staring at me with pleading eyes begging me to remember who I was and to stop this gruesome act. Soon she stopped struggling.
This was all my fault, I did this because of my own selfish acts. The real monsters to fear aren’t the ones under your bed or in the unknown. The monsters you should fear are the ones that walk among you every day. I had been living a pipe dream of them coming home and staged an accident to my friends. This was no accident, this was my fault. Why do I still get to breathe whilst the two people I loved most are dead? I don’t want to anymore, I don’t deserve to live.
I walk to the door to open it, I know the thing was sent here to kill me. That’s what I’m going to let it do. I walked towards the door accepting my fate. I knew it was right outside so all I had to do to end it all was open the door. I opened the door to face my fate. There was nothing there, I fell to my knees crying. It wasn’t real, the monster wasn’t real. I called the police and they are going to be on their way soon. I do not deserve to live after what I did to them. The hand holding the gun is shaking, I know what I have to do. I’m afraid of dying by my own hands, I’ll go to hell. Well, I guess I’m going to hell either way.