Part 1
https://new.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1btz9xc/dont_look/
Parts 2 and 3
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1bzxk7d/dont_look_part_3/
Hey everyone, this is “Jacob”…
Last night didn’t go as planned, but “Anna” showed me her posts on here, and asked me to update everyone if something were to happen to her. So that there was at least some thorough record of what has happened to us, leaving her account logged on at my apartment, and writing down her login info for me just in case.
We returned to the house a bit before dark, resetting the LED lanterns, and plugging them in to charge as much as they could before the power went out.
We also charged our headlamps and flashlights back at my apartment before heading back over.
Everything is such a blur to me now, especially with what came after, and my current predicament as I type this, so please forgive me if it’s not as fluid of an account as perhaps she would have been able to write.
I can hear the sirens even now, growing closer.
They began surrounding us almost immediately after the power went out, having seemed to learn from their past encounters with us, even finding ways to cast their shadows over the beams of flashlights and the radiating lights of the lanterns, almost sacrificing themselves so that the others could get to us.
I quickly realized that my attempts to save my brother’s life were not worth losing Anna as the situation grew extremely dire almost immediately.
I screamed at her to leave, but she stood frozen, being drawn in by them, almost confused, like she wasn’t herself. I know I’ve only known her for a few days, but they say shared trauma bonds quickly, healthy or not.
Her family came again. “Don’t look at the shadows,” They all whispered in unison, louder than the incoherent whispering of the others, so that we could make out their voices. I think that’s what got to her the most. She didn’t want to leave without them, and while I was focused on getting her out safely now, she was trapped in a daze of grief.
Nathan came too. “I told you,” He said. “You can’t save us! You have to go!”
“Anna! We have to leave!” I screamed, but she wouldn’t follow me.
With tears streaming down her face, she turned her now reckless gaze back and up to face me. “I’m sorry, Jacob,” She said. “I just want to be with them. I can’t leave, even if it means this is my fate. At least we’ll be together again.”
“Anna! Put your eyes down! Close your eyes!” I stormed towards her. I would grab her arm and drag her out, force her to leave if it meant saving her life.
“I’m sorry,” She said, and then her watery eyes looked past me, at something behind me, and she was gone.
“No!” I screamed as her clothes dropped into a heap before me.
I stared at them in shocked silence for several seconds, until Nathan snapped me back out of it.
“Jacob, go! You have to move!”
I turned and ran to leave, but I could hear from the congregation of whispering that they were gathering before the front door, blocking my way out, and I dared not force my way forward, not knowing what the consequences would be of passing through them. Maybe just that alone would be enough to take me. Or they could somehow get behind my eyelids, or something, I don’t know…
I ran into a bathroom, and then into the water closet within it that only contained a toilet and a shower, closing the door behind me. My headlamp and hand flashlight were enough to fully light the small space and keep me safe for now.
Falling back against the wall, I slid to the ground and began to weep.
“They’re all gone, now,” I cried to myself. “Everyone else who knows is gone. I’m all alone.”
“Jacob?” Anna’s voice asked in a whisper from the other side of the door.
“Anna?” I jumped to my feet in relief, rubbing the tears from my eyes, sniffling, and reaching to open the door. My eyes must have deceived me, or the shadows tricked me, she wasn’t really gone, I had to open the door and let her in.
“Don’t open the door,” She warned just in time, seeming to almost read my thoughts.
“Are you really still there?” I asked.
“No, not really,” She responded. “I’m one of them now. If you open the door, they’ll get inside.”
I could hear the incoherent whispering gathering around outside the door too, but she was able to speak louder than them.
“Nathan was right, Jacob,” She continued. “You can’t help us. We don’t exist in your world anymore. There’s no reversing this, no going back.”
“I tried to tell you,” Nathan added. “You can’t save us.”
“How do you know that, Anna?” I asked. “You’ve only been gone for a few minutes.”
“Time passes differently here,” Anna responded.
“It’s all at once,” Nathan added.
“Why are you all stuck here?” I asked.
“It’s my fault,” Nathan said with great sadness. “I stayed too long, playing with Anna. I cast my shadow all over this place. They were drawn to it, drawn by consistent shadow. And then, once they congregated here, it created a nest.”
“It’s not your fault, Nathan,” Anna reassured him.
“A nest?” I asked.
“Yes,” Anna responded. “They can’t hurt anyone, all alone, spread out. They’re just a shadow out of the corner of your eye, nothing to fear. But all gathered together like this, congregating in a nest of darkness, people’s gaze can’t ignore it or look away, they are drawn to it, and then they are taken to help the nest grow. And once you’re linked to the hive mind of the nest, you can’t just leave.”
“What am I supposed to do now?” I asked, knowing there was nothing left for me in this world. I considered letting them take me, joining my brother and Anna, but knowing I never would, that I could never let those things that ruined our lives win.
“You must stop it,” Anna replied.
“You’re the only one who can now,” Nathan added. “The only one left in the light that knows.”
“You just said that I can’t reverse it, that I can’t help any of you,” I pointed out in confusion.
“You can’t,” Anna explained “But you can destroy the nest, scatter them all to the wind, where they have no power, where they won’t be able to take anyone else.”
“How?” I asked.
“Burn it,” Another voice chimed in, a teenage boy, Anna’s brother. “Burn the house down.”
“Set us free,” The voice of a teenage girl, her sister.
“What will happen to all of you?” I asked.”You’ll all be alone? Don’t you want to be together, even if it is in the dark?”
“We’ll find each other,” Anna said happily. “We’ll stick together, keep moving, make sure a nest never builds, that the outsiders don’t try to join us. They can be alone in the dark, attempting to selfishly take people to feed their own rage at being all alone, and failing, but we’ll be together.”
“What about Nathan?” I asked, my eyes welling with tears.
“He’s a part of our family,” Anna answered simply. “He has been for a very long time. He just didn’t know it. We’ll look after him, always. He’ll never have to be alone again. None of us will.”
“I’ll be okay, Jacob,” Nathan chimed in. “But you have to live in the light, for us. We don’t get to, but it’ll be okay, because we’re together. As long as you’re in the light though, that will keep us warm enough.”
I broke down, weeping loudly.
“It’ll all be okay, sweet boy,” A motherly voice said to me, Anna’s mother. “Everything will be okay now.”
I sniffed, rubbing the back of my hand across my nose and my eyes, wiping the tears from my face as I stood, finding a new resolve. “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll burn it down.”
“Thank you, son,” An older and deeper male voice said, Anna’s father.
I spent the night locked in that room, talking with Nathan and the other new members of our extended family, all of us finding comfort in each other, and saying our goodbyes, as I knew I’d probably never see any of them again.
They planned out where they would meet after they were freed from the nest that was this house, (though I won’t share that location here to make sure nobody attempts to go see their shadow forms). Knowing that the others could hear them, and that they’d have to move again immediately upon reconnecting, but that they’d do so together, as a family.
Once the light of day had fully shone itself, I made my way out of the house and back to my apartment. I took care of some personal matters, left some messages for my parents, and then headed out once again.
I walked to a gas station and got two big 5 gallon jerry cans and filled them with diesel fuel, nearly cleaning out my meager bank account.
When night came around, I went back to the house, never taking my eyes off the floor with my headlamp illuminating their gaze, and covered near every square inch of the house with trails of gasoline.
As I did so, I could hear voices breaking out of the usually incoherent cacophony.
“No,” One whispered.
“Don’t do this,” Another added. “Please,”
“We don’t want to be all alone again,” Another begged my compassion.
This caused me to freeze for a moment, until another voice sounded out behind me.
“You’re doing the right thing, son,” A strong male voice said, surely the voice of Anna’s father. “Keep going.” I could almost feel his reassuring grip upon my shoulder as I imagined that’s what he would have done while saying the words if he could have.
I made my way outside and drenched the front door and front walls of the house before throwing the cans and what remained of the fuel inside to add a little explosion to the fire, to help make sure it thoroughly burnt down everything.
“Hey! What are you doing!?” A man called out from across the street.
I turned to face him, looking him in the eyes, and then I turned back, lighting up a pack of matches with my lighter, and then flinging it inside.
The floor and gaseous air above it erupted into flames, trails of fire quickly spreading throughout the house.
“Call the cops! Someone call the cops! This guy is burning this house down!” The man screamed, and I don’t blame him.
I then walked to the outside walls, igniting one side with my lighter, then the other, then the front door, making sure the house would completely burn before anything could be done to put it out.
I moved to the front doors of both neighboring houses after, as Anna’s childhood home burst into flames, hearing the eruptions of the jerry cans exploding within. “Fire! Fire! Get out of the house!” I screamed, banging on each neighbors door until they answered, making sure neither family would be hurt or trapped inside when the fire almost surely and innevitably spread to their homes as well, though I hoped, by some miracle, it would not.
People began streaming out of their homes, calling 911, and watching as Anna’s home burned in a crazed inferno.
I paused before the house for a few moments, not daring to look inside, but watching as it burned. The heat of the fire greatly warmed my face as soot and ash began falling all around to cover me, the thick black smoke forcing me to cough.
“Thank you,” I heard Anna’s voice call out to me for the last time, and I nodded in heartbroken peace.
“I love you, big brother,” Nathan whispered.
“I love you too,” I whispered back, hoping somehow he could hear me over all the noise, and I chose to believe that he could.
The man who saw me burning down the house was moving around telling people it was me, and before a mob could form to take me into custody, I took off running back in the direction of my apartment.
I’m sitting there now, writing this out to you all as the police sirens and flashing lights surround my building. I know I was followed home and seen by many witnesses, there will be no getting out of the consequences of this for me.
I don’t intend to tell them the truth of what happened or my reasoning behind what I did, out of fear of being locked away indefinitely in a mental institution.
In fact, I don’t intend to tell them anything at all.
I plan to accept whatever the consequences are and do my time in prison.
I need to post this now before they make their way up to my apartment and start banging on the door. I’m running out of time, and I need to make sure this gets out, for Anna.
Thank you to anyone that listened to our story and believed us. I know it meant a lot to Anna, and it means a lot to me.
Maybe I’ll come back and update you guys a few years from now after I get out of prison.
Until then, live a good life, and remember, Don’t Look.