My parents had divorced years ago when I was still a teenager.
My father was left with my childhood home, a small rural farm house - and almost all our belongings and childhood memories. We didn’t really have a chance to grab anything on our last night in the house.
I hadn’t really been in contact with my father after that. I know my siblings - big sister and little brother - stayed in touch with him, but not very often. My father was not a pleasant person to be around with - he was violent and unpredictable. A toxic asshole, I’d say.
Well, that happened long ago, and life was pretty good. But I did miss some things from the past every now and then. One day, after a wave of nostalgia, I had an idea. I walked to my husband, Pete. “I think we should make a roadtrip together”, I suggested. “ Roadtrip? Where?” he answered. “To see my childhood home.” My hubby looked surprised. “Why do you suddenly want to go there? I thought you didn’t want to have any contact with your father.” “It’s not about my father. He doesn’t even live there anymore - Terri told me he bought a little condo from city and just occasionally goes to check that everything is fine at the farm house. They visited there last time.” Terri was my big sister, who had visited our father earlier in the summer. “You know, I’d really like to go see that place. Maybe get some of my old stuff back too - after all, it’s my junk. It’s not like my father needs it.” Pete shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, why not. We can do it on Saturday. “ He knew he had no choice to go against me in this case.
Saturday came and we started our roadtrip in the afternoon. It was quite a drive, and when we finally arrived, it was getting dark. We had decided not to drive all the way to the house, in case someone was there to see us coming. If my father was there I wouldn’t want to meet him.
But the house was dark. No car in the yard, and the lawn needed mowing - but you could tell someone was taking care of the house. Like my sister had told, it wasn’t abandoned even though nobody was currently living there.
The house looked just like I remembered - a white one story farmhouse, just the paint on the walls had gotten a little chipped.
“I don’t think there’s anyone inside. Come, we can get in through the back door”, I said to Pete, whispering for some reason. We grabbed our flashlights and started sneaking to the backyard - like teenagers coming home from a party they weren’t allowed to go to. The back door of the house was brown and locked only with a rusty sliding bolt. I yanked the rusty latch open and opened the door slowly, careful not to make it creak too loud. “Let’s go” I whispered and stepped into the dark house. We walked to the next room - kitchen - listening if there was any sound to be heard. I let out a relieved sigh. “It’s just us”, I said and pressed the light switch.
Everything was pretty much like I remembered. The outdated 80’s style brown kitchen cabinets, wall clock with flower pattern.. Even the same old calendar hanging on the wall.
Pete was already raiding the kitchen cabinets. “Ew. Looks like your dad doesn’t spend much time here”, he said, pointing a box of cookies, way past the expiration date. I let out a little laughter. “That’s just a good thing he doesn’t. Come on, cookie monster, let’s go see my room.” I grabbed Pete’s arm and gently pulled him with me to another door.
“This is it”, I said and turned the knob. I turned on the light and felt a tear falling from my eye. “Just like I left it.” I smiled, gazing the posters on my walls. All my favorite rock bands back then. And on the bookshelf, my manga collection and jewelry box. “Oh wow, I remember this teddy! It’s Snuggles” I gasped. Pete smiled. “Well, here’s the backpack. Grab what you want, and then we can leave”, he reminded. I dropped some things in the backpack when I noticed something weird.
My old laptop on my bed was turned on.
“Hey, did you touch this?” I asked Pete, who shook his head. “How can this be turned on? Was someone here today?” I wondered. I turned the laptop off, feeling nervous. I was sure (well, almost) that there wasn’t anyone else in the house but this made me feel unwell.
I felt nervousness and anxiety tingle down my spine and Pete must have felt something similar too, because he asked me to get my things so we could go. I knew the house was empty, it was just a stupid house with lots of bad memories, I kept thinking.
After couple minutes I was ready to leave. We turned off the lights and left everything look like we never were there. We walked back to the guest room where the back door was. Pete had already put his hand on the door handle when I saw something on the guest room sofa. Something we had missed earlier.
My sisters handbag.
“How is this here?” I mumbled. My sister had just visited my house two weeks ago, right after visiting our father, and she had the bag with her then.
“Come on, just leave it”, Pete asked nervously. “ No”, I said. “This shouldn’t be here. It cannot be. Terri had this handbag with her when she was visiting and when we took her to the airport. It’s her favorite handbag and she flew right to home”, I reasoned.
“She would have told me if she came back here so soon. After all it’s a five hour flight and the drive here is quite long too.”
I searched through her bag. Souveniers that she had bought for her friends, a rotten sandwich inside a tight plastic wrap, and most important - her wallet. “Pete, look. This isn’t right. Even her wallet is here” I said. “Tina, listen. She cannot be here. The house is empty and there’s not even edible food in the cabinets. Maybe that bag is just a similar one, and she left it here with old her old wallet and got a new one..” Pete tried.
“Please, let’s just go. I don’t feel good in here” He begged. I sighed. “Okay. I don’t want to stay here any longer either.”
We left the house, making sure all the lights were off and door locked - like we never were there. The cold night air felt fresh after the dusty old house. We walked to the front yard when I stopped. “You go get the car, Pete. I really need to text my sister to get some answers” I said. Pete nodded and disappeared into the darkness of the long driveway. I opened my phone and WhatsApp. “Hey sis, something weird just happened. Is everything fine there? Call me when you see this” I texted. When I lifted my eyes from the phone screen I saw something weird.
The house. It was not empty and dark anymore.
Every room had lights on and there were people inside. My heart skipped a beat, when I saw my mom standing in the kitchen. And next to her was.. My dad. What the heck? They couldn’t stand next to each other due to nonstop fighting yet there they were. Had they been there all the time - hiding quietly somewhere? It didn’t make any sense. I let my eyes wander to another window. There I saw Terri, talking with our little brother. What on earth was going on? Terri left the room, and I didn’t see where she went, so I moved on to another window.
What I saw almost made my legs go jelly.
In one room I saw my grandma Mary. But this was impossible - she had died 15 years earlier. My throat started feeling tight. This had to be some weird dream yet I knew I was wide awake.
I got that weird tingly feeling I was being watched - even though it was dark outside - and then I saw my father staring right at me through the window.
My instant reaction was to raise my arm and middle finger towards him. How could he see me in the dark front yard?
My father just looked at me, with his lips slowly turning into a weird, creepy grin. It was unnatural looking, demonic smirk, with his mouth almost going from ear to ear. “I don’t know what the hell that is, but that’s not my father” I thought and then noticed another person standing next to him. It was me - a teenage version of myself, staring at me, looking dead serious.
I gathered all my strength to my legs and started running away to the driveway. Huffing and puffing, I finally got to our car and jumped to the front seat. Pete looked me, without a clue what had just happened. “Drive” I managed to gasp while gathering my breath. Pete stepped on the gas and drove away.
We didn’t speak, just kept driving. My mind was blank and I don’t know how long we had travelled, when I heard my phone ringing. I checked the caller ID - it was Terri. I almost tapped “answer” When I suddenly remembered my father’s demonic grinning. My sister had been there too. Or whatever it was. I couldn’t be sure who was calling me - Terri or that imposter. I declined the phone call. “Who was it? Why didn’t you answer? “ Pete asked. “Nobody. Just a scam call”, I said and turned off my phone.