Little is known about my grandpa. Which is strange, but its not like he’s ever been a person of interest. All that we knew, was that he was in the army. After than he suffered from PTSD and died under mysterious conditions. The end.
It was December, 2017. Nathan and I were home decorating for Christmas. Mom was out on a shopping spree. We were jerking around when Dez showed up, a long time friend of mine. With the three of us in the house, something was bound to happen. Nathan decided to go call his girlfriend Anne, They’ve been going out for a couple of days now. “Dude, who’s this?” Dez pointed to the urn that was situated under the tree, “Thats Grandpa. You can touch him, I know you into freaky shit. Might get a boner outta it.” but it was too late, his hands were all over the thing . Dez had already opened the urn “Looks like cocaine. What do you think will happen if you snort it. Do you think you’ll get high or dead ass high?” He took a handful out of the urn. I inched closer to try and take it away from him “Duuude, come on. And no I dont think you get high. Prolly”.
He raised an eyebrow and smirked, I knew that look. We’ve been friends for over a decade. I knew when he had fucked up ideas. He was an idiot, maybe so was I. Thats why we got along. Plan was simple, get Nathan to snort the grandpa coke and get first hand experience to what will happen. Chances are, nothing will happen. I readed the camera, while Dez planted some ash residue on his top lip and nostrils to act like he’s snorted some. With the ashes’ residue on his nose it was Go time! . Knowing my lil brother, he was too innocent and easy to fool.
“What are you guys doing?” He asked when he saw Dez wiping his nose and howling. “Now that you done jerking off my dear boy. Here’s some coke!” Dez grabbed him by the neck, leading him to the table were a line of “coke” was. “I don’t know man. I don’t think he can handle it” I looked at Nathan gaslighting him trying to get a reaction. See the thing is, if he knew me better he would’ve seen right through me. I don’t even let him smoke weed with us why would I let him do coke. I saw him bite down “I can. I can”, beating his chest trying to boost his bravado he lowered his head, taking deep breaths and snorted the whole line. Dez and I both burst out laughing, Nathan was confused for a while. Then he went stiff, his body started convulsing. He fell to the ground rolling and blinking rapidly “Whats happening? What the fuck is happening?! “ Dez shoved me to the side and tried steadying him. “Get some water!” He commanded, I came back with a glass of water and he downed in “What the fuck bro?”, he looked at me “What? I was thirsty” then proceeded to slap Nathan “Wake Up. Wake Up!” Nathan continued jerking his body, then went limp. There was a deafening silence in the room. Beads of sweating dribbling down my face. I splashed him with water and he woke up. “What, what the fuck did you guys do!” He yelled at us. We told him what happened, We couldn’t keep a straight face. And we laughed about it..
Then Nathan started wearing more than one jacket. Claiming to be cold. We shrugged it off. He would come and snuggle with mom during moovies , “Mom is warm” and eventually fall asleep. It was weird, the dude was 17. Still I was getting uneasy feeling that I kept shutting off. At times he’d complain about how his girl Anne was not giving him much warmth. I assumed he was talking about sex or something to get his blood going. Little did I know.
Nathan stopped going out more, and Anne stopped calling. He had quiet down about being cold. Around midnight I’d catch him in front of mom’s room, snuggling something like a blanket. Everytime I’d knock on his door he’d come rushing out. “Is everything okay bud? What’s up with Anne? Y’all broken up” and he’d just act like everything is okay. One day he fell asleep while snuggling mom. Dez was around, “Dude, I heard from Cass’ boyfriend Diego who went with Brian to the theatre about how Matt’s cousin with her R word brother heard Kelly say Anne is missing uh huh. I don’t know bro. Shit is weird”, that was news to me. Nathan told me that everything was fine and he had just spoken to Anne. “I think he’s lying, we need to go check out his room” Dez looked at me like I was high, sized me up from head to toe. I was high but he made it obvious
“Uhmm. I’m not about to go into your brother’s room and check out his porn collection but wait wait . Lets go”. A strong stench waft from Nathan’s room. We had to cover our nose “Thats just nasty. Does he shit the bed? Ugh”, I turned around, looking for something out of place. “I pulled his blankets, and found the source of the smell. There was what appeared to be skin, neatly laid there. Parts of it jagged. It was signs that who ever skinned this person was an amateur.
“What are you guys doing?” We both spun around to find Nathan standing there, eyes hollow and devoid of emotion or recognition. He tilted his head to the side “Ohh I see you’ve found Anne’s blanket. She was saying I’m getting under her skin. So I got under her skin. See Tate, I’ve been feeling chilly for a while now. But mom’s home. And Anne’s skin helps me sleep better at night. There’s 2 more fabrics to that skin blanket though.” he took a few strides towards us, snuggling the thing. Bloodshot eyes, watching us.
“You killed Anne, and took her skin? Are you, are you sick! “, the whole scene made my head hurt, realization dawned on me. He was possessed, he had to be. “You’re fucked up man. Really fucked up” Dez, pulled the skin by the corner, there were blood stains and bruises, the thing flappy. He scrunched his nose “If he’s capable of this. What else is he capable of. He killed Anne and Skinned her! That’s just sick man” he spat, Nathan giggled “Nahh uh. Anne is alive. I love her. So I did not kill her. She killed herself. To keep me warm. After the coke ordeal I was feeling cold ya know”. My heart sank, blame crashing into me. “We did this. We did. We need to fix this. We need to fix you” I moved closer. Each step heavier than the last, heart hammering in my chest. My breathing was strained, and went in for a hug. “We?” Dez asked, while trying to get the cogs in his head working. He mattered “Mafucker what do you mean we? Nahh uhh Bruhh” . I watched Nathan get in bed, and pull Anne’s skin over his body, let out a deep sigh “Close the door on your way out” he pulled it tightly around his body almost snuggling it. And smiled.
Look you probably wondered, why we were calm. It was the weed. You wondering why we didn’t tell anyone, well because we did this. Dez’s place was the best place to think without Nathan eavesdropping, we didn’t want to make him suspect us. When our heads were cleared, we yelled, kicked things. And cussed at our own stupidity. “So your grandpa possessed your brother and now he’s doing his bidding. Your brother is a cry baby. This can’t be him”. Dez was going up and down, biting his nails. “And, and dead people are cold. Meaning thats why he’s been feeling cold. And, he only finds warmth in those he love. Mom” I fumbled for my phone and dialed her number, it went to voice mail. I tried it and it went straight to voice mail again. Dez told me to put my phone on record because he had a weird feeling. We had to bail, but without a solid plan things would get outta hand, that’s how we did things. Act now, think later.
Dez was quick to google some exorcist stuff and phrases. We got holy water, salt and crosses. Ran like hell back to my place. The lights were off which was strange. We tried our best to sneak in, turned on the lights. Nathan was sitting on the couch, his skin blanket wrapped around him. The whole room reeked of decay, he seemed to be asleep. Slowly as possible we made away towards him.
Just at about arm’s reach he woke up. Eyes bloody red, he went feral. Jumped up, gnashing teeth and finger nails into my face. He was clawing, with that thing dangling off his shoulders like a cape. Dez pulled him by the skin blanket “Oh ma God Oh ma God its so slippery and stinks” Nathan turned around to head butt Dez, who fell with his nose bleeding. I splashed him with holy water and he shrieked, retreated to the corner. His voice went deep “Son, don’t. Its grandpa Max. I’m cold” I splashed him some more. He whimpered, demeanor changing “Tate, what’s happening? What are you doing?” It was my brother’s voice. His eyes pleading, “Please help. I’m cold”. Everything around me became muffled, I looked at what I was doing. Then back to the person before me “I’m. I’m sorry”, Dez pushed me to the side and threw salt at him yelling “Exi ergo, transgressor!. Exi seductor,plene plene omni dolo et fallacia virtutis inimici innocentium persecutor!!”
Nathan growled, with gritted teeth “La Diablo estas vivanta ene di mia korpo! Mi sangas pro la vundoj de inferaj trancxoji!” a cacophony of these words raining down on us. His eyes rolling to the back of his head, lights started flickering. Grunting like a feral animal with drool dribbling down his chin “Ni vekigu la lordon de la abismo!” Nathan’s body twisted and jerked, cocking his head to the side and grinding his teeth. We kept throwing salt and water on him. Dez reciting his phrase. There was yelling back and forth , in a deep rumbling voice “Mia nomo estas Legio,cxar ni estas multaj!” Then everything went silent. Nathan fell to the ground. “Is it over? Is it done?” I didn’t respond, but dashed to my brother’s side. I hugged him tight “What happened? Why am I wet and on the floor?” when we told him about what happened he sobbed and threw away the skin blanket. His eyes looked droopy, bags under his eyes showed that he wasn’t sleeping much.
A week later, Anne’s case dying. I went to find a public phone to give the police an anonymous tip. My phone rang “Sup Dez?”, he took a deep breath. “This feels way too easy don’t you think. I mean how it went down”. He waited my response, when he got none he continued “See, Right now I’m in Nathan’s room, remember when we asked what happened he said he doesn’t recall shit. But when I asked if he knew any latin prior to him speaking it. He said that wasn’t latin that was Spanish”, I rolled my eyes, “Where are you getting at?” cogs in my brain started grinding in sync, Dez paused but continued with a deep sigh “Thats the thing, my incantation was in Latin. He was responding in Spanish, meaning he remembers. Ohh pfft the whole thing was a hoax. What if he was lying. What if he was never possessed. What if–”. The line went dead after that, the beating of my heart echoed through my eardrums. Hands slippery with sweat. I had trouble dialing his number . I tried calling and calling but Dez’s phone never went through.
I received 3 documents on my phone from him. And that was the end of it.