I’m a landlord. I have many different properties that I go and check up on when people get tired of renting, they decide to move, or in some cases… pass away. To begin with, I wouldn’t be writing this, if the latter didn’t happen. Of course, it happened at one of my most sought after properties. It was a charming cabin in the middle of the forest. I was lucky enough to inherit it from one of my friends that wanted to get out of the business of selling and buying. At the time, I couldn’t understand why my friend would sell this property. It was a beautiful home, especially because it was surrounded by nature views. Considering everything that has happened, I now understand why he sold me this property.
A few days ago I got a call from the family that was renting the home. The father told me that his son was being very aggressive to the animals close by, and that he was afraid that he had caused some damage to the home. I knew what I was getting into when I rented the home to a couple with a young child, so I expected there to be some problems, I told them it was no big deal. I made a quick call to my maintenance guy who regularly repaired any issues with the home and asked him to make a stop to check up on the cabin. When he called back, he let me know that there weren’t any evident issues, and that everything was okay. He mentioned, however, that he noticed animal skulls in the forest directly behind the backyard, and that he let the family know to keep an eye out for animals when they were outside. I didn’t think anything of it because, honestly, I was just glad nothing was damaged inside the cabin. To be honest, I just thought it was nature doing it’s thing. Animals dying and decaying; so on and so forth.
A couple of days passed and I got another call. This time it was the police. They explained to me that my property was now vacant, as both the parents were deceased, and the son had been arrested. I read articles that stated that it was believed that the young boy murdered his parents. I was speechless. How could the family, who had seemed so normal, turn up dead due to such a disturbing event.
I waited for the call letting me know that the cabin was cleaned and ready for me to enter. When I arrived there was an officer waiting on the porch. He briefly explained what happened. My curiosity got the better of me, and I asked him to tell me where the murders happened. A chill ran down my spine as we spoke. The moment I arrived at the property, I wanted to leave. It felt as though something was watching me, lurking behind the trees surrounding the cabin. Like someone, or something, was there waiting for something to happen so it could pop out and grab us or some cliché shit like that. I brushed it off as paranoia because, let’s face it, this entire event seemed to come straight from a horror movie. The officer left. As much as I wanted to get in my car and leave, I knew I needed to make sure everything was ready for me to find new tenants, because I didn’t want to wait too long for a rent payment.
I put the key in the door, and turned it till I heard a click. As soon as I opened the door, I felt a gush of warm air hit my face. Despite my body telling me to leave, I took a step inside. In the middle of the living room, there was still the semi clean rug where the bodies were found. Other than the fact that I know what took place only days before, everything seemed normal, and the home seemed to be in good condition.
I stood staring at the door of the final room I had to check. The door was as normal as ever, but the same cold chill ran down my spine when I touched the door knob. Why was so afraid of a little boy’s room? Even if he was a psycho murderer, he’s gone now. I yelled at myself to “be a man” and told myself to“go inside, already”. I squeezed my eyes shut and twisted the knob. I was rewarded with a clean and an undamaged bedroom. No little gremlins waiting to attack me. Just the empty oak wood flooring and plain off white walls. I laughed softly, wondering why a grown man was so afraid of a bedroom. I was just about to leave when I saw a crack in the wall by the bedroom door. “Great”, I thought to myself, as a I kneeled down to inspect it. I’m no maintenance guy, so I had no idea how to fix it, but of course, my curiosity got the best of me. It seemed as though the crack had something behind it. Without thinking, I chipped back the thin wall. There was a hole that definitely couldn’t have been made by a boy that age. There were strange books and a single piece of folded paper inside. Old looking books like this couldn’t have belonged to a boy this age, and a part of me had a feeling that these books had something to do with the murders. I left the old dusty books there, but decided to look at the paper. I unfolded it, and I found a poem. I wrote it all down here for everyone’s amusement; though I’m not sure you could call it “amusement”.
What is Silence?
Silence is the absence of any sound or noise; stillness, but not exactly.
Silence is the monster that lives in your closet and under your bed.
Silence are the legends and folktales that your mother and father told you before bed.
Silence is the moment that you watch your grandmother and grandfather lower into their graves, where they’ll lay for an eternity.
Silence is the moment you watch the snow fall from the window of your family’s cabin in the woods.
Silence is the moment you walk into your parent’s room and hit them over and over again till they lay there motionless.
Silence is the moment you drag your parents out to the living room and pray to shadows.
Silence is the moment you sit in the back of a cop cruiser watching the snow fall.
Silence is the sound of voices that aren’t there.
Silence is the moment those voices tell you to cause another accident.
Silence is you crawling out of the flipped car and walking into the forest.
Silence is what you became.
That last part is interesting to me. As far as I know, there were no accidents or anyone seeing the kid run off. All I know is that the kid made it to the police station and is in questioning. After reading it, I just folded it back up and placed it back on top of the books. I didn’t want to interfere with any evidence that the police might wanna take in at a later date. I was sick and tired of the paranoid feeling I felt sitting in this room, so I locked up the house and began to leave. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the shadow of someone standing by the trees, staring at me. I know this was stupid, but I went into the woods to see who, or what, was watching me.
I didn’t realize how long I had been following this figure until the sun started to set. I quickly came to my senses and started to make my way back to where I thought the cabin was. I suddenly found myself entering a clearing that I hadn’t seen on the way into the forest. I saw things scattered around the ground in the clearing. I walked towards the center, I know this is going to sound cliché as fuck, but I swear to God there was a white pentagram, in the center of the clearing, surrounded by animal skulls and candles.
I’m not religious, but seeing that made me religious, because why the fuck would that be there in the middle of the woods where two people were just murdered and where a fucking poem said some shit about praying about death. At that point, I said fuck it and started to run. I didn’t want to be there anymore. I already knew that I fucked up by even going into the woods. By the mercy of God, I finally got back to the cabin and back to my vehicle. I jumped in without hesitation, and started up the car as fast as I could. Before driving away, I looked into the woods, one last time. There was something clearly standing between the trees, just watching me.
A few hours later, I finally made it home and that’s when I heard on the radio. A cop cruiser was found in a ditch by a very dense, wooded area, possibly escorting a young boy. I have no idea what happened at that property and to be honest, a part of me doesn’t want to know. But the part of me that does, made me write this all down, so if even one person knows anything… then maybe, just maybe, I can get some sleep.