.When I was sixteen, I had a part time job babysitting. I babysat mostly for families around my neighborhood, and since we had all practically grown up together, my customers felt comfortable enough to hire me for overnight jobs. One day after school, I received a call from one of my frequent customers.
Dave, a 38 year old single father of two girls, Blair, who was five, and Bella who was one. He traveled constantly for work, so I was with them all of the time. He asked if I would be willing to babysit overnight while he attended a business meeting three cities away. I agreed, as he always paid very well and I loved his girls
I showed up at his place around five and by that point, they had already eaten, and were calmly watching television in the TV room, so, my teenage self figured it would be an easy night. When the sky was beginning to darken, sometime around 9:30, I got a text from my boyfriend Julian.
It just so happened that he was babysitting his little brother, Tommy, for the night only a few blocks away from Dave’s house. I quickly invited him over as Blair and Tommy were great friends and it could give us a chance to hang out alone while they played.
Besides, it was a Friday night, why not do something fun? They arrived minutes later and right away both Blair and Tommy took off to her room. Bella was fast asleep at this point and so with all three children occupied, Julian and I started making out on the couch.
Yes, I realize now that this wasn’t the most mature thing to do, but I was young and didn’t care. Our kissing quickly escalated and so, after turning off both the tv and lights, we started going at it on the couch.
About ten minutes in, I remember hearing a bang coming from the patio door beside us. Before I go any further, it’s important for you to know the layout of Dave’s house.
If you walk in the front door, you’ll find yourself in the living room. If you walk forward, on your left will be the kitchen, which contains a back door, and a small dining room attached.
Once you’re past there, you will enter the hall. A few feet in, and you’ll see the bathroom on the left and directly across from it is Blair’s room. Five more feet and there’s Bella’s room, and then just at the end is the Tv room and Dave’s bedroom.
In the tv room, there are two big sliding patio doors that lead out to a deck. Beyond that is miles of thick forest. Dave’s house stood alone at the very end of the block, surrounded by trees, so, when we heard that bang we were obviously alarmed by it.
We remained still, completely still. Since Julian was on top, he had a perfect view out onto the deck and I don’t know what he saw, but, whatever it was, it scared the crap out of him.
He immediately scrambled to his feet, not even bothering to fully dress himself beforehand. Once he was up, he practically dragged me off of the couch and forced me up as well.. “What the hell Julian?!” I shouted, but he wasn’t listening.
He turned on the light, temporarily blinding me for a second and frantically began pointing out the glass, patio doors. I spun around, expecting to see some axe-wielding killer, but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“There was someone out there!” he yelled, his face now directly against the glass, peering out. I let out a loud sigh. “Babe, you’re imagining it.” I said, my hands frantically re-dressing myself.
Julian ran back over to me, his face red and sweaty, “What about that sound?” He asked, his eyes darting back and forth between me and the door, “I know you heard that too.” I let out another sigh.
Dave had mentioned to me once that he was having trouble with birds flying into his windows, so, that’s what I assumed it was, a bird. And although I wasn’t totally convinced that it was an animal, it seemed to calm Julian down, so never-the-less, I was content.
By midnight we were all exhausted, and because it was so late, we decided that both Julian and his brother should spend the night. We set up a tent-like thing in the corner of Blair’s room, for Tommy, and after tucking both of them in, they fell fast asleep.
We knew it wouldn’t be long until they passed out, as it was four hours past their bedtime, and by that point, we too, were tired. We made a quick check in call to Dave, before retiring to the TV room where we both collapsed on the couch.
Sometime around one a.m, Julian fell asleep, and I quickly followed. However, some time in the middle of the night, I woke up for seemingly no reason.
The room was pitch black, except for the radiating moonlight spilling in through the glass. I remember being confused as to how I had woken up. Julian was fast asleep, the baby wasn’t crying and—-I stopped, before I could even finish my thought, a loud, bang, just like the one before, echoed throughout the TV room. I froze, my heart beginning to beat violently fast.
I lifted my head slightly from Julian’s chest, hoping to get a glimpse out the patio doors, and I did. But, once again, there was nothing. I lowered my head back down, hoping that I had only imagined the sound, that’s when I saw it. That—–thing—that still haunts my dreams to this day.
There, standing in the corner of the room was a tall, abnormally thin man, with hardly any hair and baggy skin. His eyes were sunken in so far, I couldn’t even see his pupils and his lips looked as if they had been kissing fire.
Third degree burns were all around its mouth and cheeks. I slid my head back down onto Julian’s chest, praying that that thing hadn’t seen me. Then, I heard the loud sobs coming from Bella’s room. I whispered a quiet
“Shit!” under my breath and peeked over at the man. He still hadn’t moved, and his eyes were still staring directly over at us. I took a deep breath and placed my foot down onto the floor.
I had the idea to pretend like I hadn’t seen him and hopefully be able to sneak past without arousing suspicion. It took every fiber of my being to not look at the corner as I walked through the darkness. Once in the hall, I stepped into Bella’s room, where she was still crying profusely.
I lifted her up, clutching her tightly to my chest and frantically began trying to think of a way to alert Julian of what was happening.
My mind went through several different scenarios, and after coming to the conclusion that there wasn’t going to be a right way to do this, I ran to the wall just beside the door. I then did the bravest thing I’ve ever done in my life, I opened my mouth and shouted “Julian! Come here for a second! Something’s wrong with Bella!”
I pressed myself harder into the wall and waited. An eternity went by before I heard a response. “Huh?” he mumbled, still very asleep.
“Quick!” I shouted again, “Come look at her!” There was a rustling in the TV room and I could hear him beginning to make his way out into the hall to Bella’s room. I waited until he was one foot away before grabbing ahold of his shirt and yanking him into the room.
He opened his mouth to say something, but, before he could, my hand was across his mouth. I held my finger up to my lips in a hushing manner, and motioned towards the door.
He squinted his eyes a bit, as if trying to figure out what I was talking about. He started to speak, but, again I held my hand over his mouth, this time, I pulled him to the corner of the room and leaned into his ear.
“There’s someone in the living room.” I whispered. He pulled back from me and even in the dark I could see the change in his facial expressions. “Let’s—” I was interrupted by a blood curdling, heart wrenching scream, coming from down the hall. I knew instantly that it was Blair and before I could think, I was already sprinting down the hall. Julian was quick behind me and soon we were right outside of her door. I reached my hand down to the knob, but it immediately slid right off.
“What the hell?!” I gasped, peering down at my now soaking wet hand. Goo. It was goo, or slime, or something—I still don’t know for sure but it was cold and green, very green. More screams erupted from Blair and this time Tommy.
However, Tommy wasn’t just screaming, he was screaming words. He was screaming “Help!” We barreled through the door at lightning speed, Bella now beginning to cry again. Julain went in first, and as soon as he was in the room, he froze.
Directly in front of us, was Blair, she was curled up in the corner of her bed, hugging her knees to her chest. She, as well as the majority of the ceiling, walls, and floors, were covered in that cold green slime we had seen in the hall. To her left, was Tommy, trapped in the corner of the room by the creature.
Tommy was screaming for his life and so were we. “Julian!” Tommy wailed, his body now completely disappearing behind the creature’s figure. “Tommy!” Julian yelled back, lunging forward towards the two.
I watched in horror as my boyfriend leaped towards the creature, attempting to tackle him down to the ground, but that didn’t happen. Just as Julian reached him, the man’s arm bent around backwards, flipping around completely until his arm was sticking out from his shoulder blade.
Neither of us had time to react, because as soon as Julian’s feet left the ground, the man’s backwards hand had lifted him up by the tip of his chin and thrown him across the room, sending him flying into the wall.
He slammed into a picture frame and crashed down to the ground in a frenzy, letting out a loud cry of pain. I started towards him, but he pointed to his brother. “Get them! Get them! Please!” he demanded, his voice shaking dramatically. I handed Bella down to him, who was still wailing herself, and without getting to his feet, he held her tightly to his chest, and scooted himself out into the hall.
I turned back, adrenaline now coursing through my veins. I knew I couldn’t go at him like Julian had, so I decided my best bet was to try and use some sort of weapon, and that’s what I did. I looked around frantically for something to use, all the while Tommy’s screams got louder and louder.
A dark, orange, light began illuminating off the creature and out of desperation, I swiped a pencil from a nearby desk and stabbed it through the man’s back. Instantly, it let out an ear piercing shriek and stumbled back away from Tommy.
I ran to him grabbing ahold of his hand, and by the time he was up, Blair was at my side. We sprinted from the room all the while the creature was screaming at the top of its lungs. Once in the hall, I slammed the door behind us, and peered around frantically for Julian, but he wasn’t there.
I made a split second decision and soon we were sprinting down the hall. I wanted to go to the front door, but the tv room was closer, and we had no time to waste. By the time we stepped foot into the room, I could hear the man bust out into the hallway.
Both Blair and Tommy let out horrified yells, and as much as I wanted to scream, I knew I didn’t have time to. Footsteps pounded down the hall as I yanked open the door. Both children exploded out and by the time I had slid the door shut again, it had caught up to us.
“Go!” I yelled, starting towards the edge of the deck. They obeyed and wasted no time making the five foot jump down to the grass. Once they were over, I raced after them, but, right as I reached the edge, something hot curled around my ankle.
I let out a cry of agony as my foot began to cook from the outside in. It burned. Oh God, how it burned. I glanced down at my foot and within seconds, I was on the ground. And suddenly I found myself face to face with the unknown being.
“Marlowe!” The kids yelled, but I didn’t respond. I was absolutely paralzyed by the pain. My foot, which was now charred black, had pieces of skin hanging off from it like tiny strings of undercooked chicken, the burns themselves had no skin and only appeared to me as large chunks of red.
As it walked towards me, my survival instincts kicked in, and I slid myself backwards and dove off of the porch and onto the grass where Tommy and Blair ran to me.
The force from the fall knocked all air from my lungs and left me gasping for my life. But, it wasn’t over yet. Almost as soon as we were up, the creature had jumped to the ground with ease and was barreling towards us. We began running to the forest, faster than I ever thought we could.
Halfway across the grass, I heard a shriek and suddenly, Julian was beside me. He was cradling Bella tightly with one arm, and is using his other to push himself along.
We ran for what felt like miles through the forest before my adrenaline died out completely and the agonizing pain in my ankle became apparent. Breaking into a clearing, I fell against a tree.
I tried to stand, but every attempt ended in me crashing back down to the ground again. Julian, who was several feet ahead of me, stopped and ran back towards me. He curled his hand around my arm and tried to pull me up, but I stopped him. “Come on!” he shouted, his voice barely audible over the creature’s high pitched howls.
“No!” I said, pushing him away, “I can’t—-just—go!” He started to speak again, but, once again, I stopped him. “I can’t Julian.” I cried, peering down at my charred ankle. By this point, both Blair and Tommy had run back over to us. Noticing the wounds on my foot and the blood pouring out from it, he let out a groan. He then did something I never thought he would do, he turned around and handed Bella over to Blaire. “Go!” he demanded, motioning towards the distant streetlights, “Go and call 911!” The kids didn’t move.
They just stood there in shock as the monster’s shrieks got closer and closer. Julian dropped down to his knees and pushed himself up against the tree trunk. My knees were laying sideways on the ground, so that I could take the pressure off of my ankle and my upper body was being held up only by my shaky hand. He pulled me to his chest and wrapped one arm around my shin and the other around the back of my neck. He looked back at the children who were still frozen in place.
“Go!” he screamed again and this time they did. With teary eyes, they took off down the grass, before making a turn and disappearing behind some trees. I could feel the creature’s footsteps now, they shook the whole ground and I knew it had to be less than ten feet away. I let out a loud cry and Julian pulled me closer into his chest, trying his best to keep his voice down he whispered “I love you.” Tears poured out from my eyes as I leaned my head into his neck for the last time. “I love you too.” I murmured, my voice trembling with every word.
After that my vision quickly faded away and then. Darkness. I don’t remember much after that, only that I woke up to a blinding white light. I rolled my head to the right, trying to open my eyelids, but they were so heavy, I could only keep them open for seconds at a time. I blinked once more and a voice was yelling at me. “Marlowe!” The voice shouted, but I couldn’t respond.
I was too weak. My vision eventually did clear and when it did, I saw Dave standing in front of me, behind him were three uniformed officers. Beside me, was Julian, his arms still wrapped around me, obviously just as confused as I was, and strangely right next to him was Bella, Blair, and Tommy, all three scattered in different positions fast asleep against the tree.
The police questioned us for hours about what had happened, and after a lengthy search of the house and forest, they decided to blame it on an escaped mental patient that had managed to slip away during a facility transfer.
That story held up well with our town, but not with us. The unexplained horrors that we experienced that night, still haunt me to this very day. And even though Julian and I are grown and have kids of our own now, we know that the most horrifying part is knowing that that—–creature is still out there.