Part 1
A year ago, I took a black & white photography class as an elective. In this class we used old cameras to shoot black and white photos, then developed the film with water and chemicals in a special room called the dark room.
It was actually a pretty cool class. I felt like I did decent.
Now, the reason I bring this up is because I found something. While cleaning out a deceased hoarder’s possessions, I stumbled across some rolls of film. See, my close friend Felix bought a house recently and asked me to help clean it up. He explained that this house belonged to a 91-year-old man who kept mountains of garbage and stuff in his house. Now that he passed away, his daughter put the house on the market and left the cleanup to the next idiot that wanted to buy the house.
That idiot was my friend Felix.
Felix asked me if I could help him clean and throw all this guy’s sh*t away. Payment included of course. I said yes since I’ve been low on cash and needed anything to keep me afloat, including emptying a house of its earlier residents’ garbage.
Felix and I were discussing the situation and I thought, “well, who knows? Maybe we’ll find a box of gold. Or some authentic jewelry. Or a never before opened Nintendo game. First edition Pokémon cards?” Only one way to find out, I guess.
So, there I was, in the basement, sorting through the boxes and choosing what’s trash and what’s treasure. By that point, we have already cleared the living room and bedroom upstairs. Unfortunately for us, there wasn’t much treasure.
The guy was a massive hoarder. He kept some of the weirdest things for whatever reason. Stacks of newspapers from 2002, old broken toys, board games from the 80’s with missing pieces and cards, old dirty cassettes and records from the 70’s and so much more. I’ve even seen some real nasty stuff like old diapers and dirty napkins. Felix nearly threw up.
Not gonna lie, even though clearing the house of the stuff was a huge pain in the ass, I found some of it oddly fascinating. There’s something about going through old stuff that isn’t yours that’s so intriguing. It’s like a time machine especially when the stuff dates back to before you were born.
Felix wasn’t as interested as I was. Taking out all the stuff in bulk was heavy work. He just wanted the job to be done so he could move in, but occasionally, if he found something strange or cool, he’d hand it to me.
We made it to the boiler room of the basement which had stuff in there too. Felix sighed, “is there a single room in this house that DOESN’T have sh*t in it?” In the boiler room, there was this rack full of boxes nearest to the door and we began there.
I pulled a box from the top rack. There was so much dust on the lid, and it blew into the air as I removed it. At the top of the box there was an old disposable camera. After I had examined it and set it aside, I dug deeper. Past all the papers and junk, I found two tiny yellow canisters. Film. “Woah”, I thought, “I haven’t seen one of these in a while”.
I rotated each film roll in amazement. Then, I shook one roll and heard a rattle. Then I shook the other and heard it again. I thought, “wow, they haven’t been developed yet”. I looked over at the disposable camera sitting only a foot away from me. Looks like the old man did some photography.
“What pictures are on these film rolls?”
Suddenly, I hear, “the trash containers’ almost full can you believe that?” Felix walks in as I’m holding the film. “What’s that?”
I look at him and say, “these are rolls of film. Found them in this box”. I held the camera up to him, “Here’s the old camera the guy probably used. This is really cool! Like, what could these pictures be of?”
Felix’s reaction was kind of the opposite of mine, “I mean, they’re just pictures, man. Everybody takes pictures. But I guess if you want to keep it then that’s fine”. He turned and walked out to continue throwing more stuff out.
I guess I’m not too surprised at his reaction. Taking that photography class taught me to appreciate how people used cameras before smart phones existed. If I hadn’t taken that class, I would’ve thrown the camera and rolls into the garbage bag.
I’m just so curious. I want to know what these pictures are of. It reminds me of this guy named John Maloof who became a millionaire after finding photos taken by Vivian Maier. Vivian had died in 2009 and her stuff was being sold at an auction. Fortunately, John Maloof bought her photos and negatives and showed the world some of the best photographs we’ve ever seen.
…
Later that night when I came home, I took the film rolls out of my pocket and just looked at them. I knew what I had to do. I had to go back to my university and use their dark room just one more time. I decided to do it the day after, right before work.
Developing film can be quite a long process, especially if you haven’t done it in over a year like I had. I had to look over my old notes to get a refresher on it.
…
As soon as I walked into the dark room, I searched for the light switch using my phone’s flash as a light source. It’s incredibly hard to see in there even with a light.
See, the purpose of a dark room is to develop film in complete darkness. Film cannot be exposed to any light whatsoever when being developed. If even a tiny bit of light exposes the film, then the entire roll could be ruined. Phones and smart watches should be set aside in case it lights up from a call or notification.
I flipped the lights on and began setting up at once. At my station, I had everything that I needed for the first step, which was to unroll the films and put them into these special canisters to be developed.
The thing is, I had to do the first step in complete darkness.
I always hated this step because it gets so dark that you can’t even see your hand in front of your face. So, imagine trying to grab stuff and put it in places while you can’t see.
I was hesitant to turn the lights off again. I got the chills whenever it got completely dark. It’s not so bad when there’s someone else with you, but this time I was all alone.
Then I figured, “let’s just get this over with” and then turned off the lights. In the dark, I walked over to my station while feeling around for stuff to not bump into. Once I knew I was at my station, I quickly found the film rolls and then got to work.
So far, it was going smoothly, and I was starting to calm down. Until it happened.
I was just about to finish. I had the canister with the film inside in my left hand, and my other hand was feeling around for the lid. I swear, as soon as I touched and grabbed onto the lid, I had the most unnerving sensation on my skin.
Something cold was making contact on my neck and I winced. I slapped my neck where I felt it and yet nothing was there. My hair stood on ends, and I had no idea what was happening. I was almost too afraid to move and continue, but I was so close. I didn’t want to turn the light on yet because the film would get exposed.
Then, a few seconds later, I heard a *HUFF* and felt a huge gust of air hit the back of my head. It sounded like a horse when it blows air out of its nostrils. The wind blow was so strong it pushed me forward and I dropped my canister and film on the floor.
I quickly dropped to the floor to try to grab the film and canister but then another gust hit me from above.
*HUFF*
Now I was motionless in a fetal position unable to see what the f*ck was happening. But then, I heard something rolling on the floor and then felt it hit my elbow. I waved my hands along the floor and grasped the object with my left hand. It was the canister with the film still inside. Thank God. I just need to put the lid on and then I can turn on the lights. I got up slowly.
As I was pulling myself up, I bumped my shoulder on the counter and then it happened once more. *HUFF*. I instantly dropped back down. And then again. *HUFF*. Then again and again. *HUFF *HUFF* *HUFF* *HUFF* *HUFF*.
It was happening even faster and just wouldn’t stop. I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting on the floor holding onto myself and just waiting for something to happen. If I was going to be attacked, I just wanted it to happen already.
After about a minute of me just sitting there, I felt the floor shake in a rhythm with a boom. Each time the floor shook, it was less intense and quieter than the last. The rhythm got faint until I couldn’t feel it anymore. It was as if the beast thing walked away from me on two legs.
It took me about a minute to regain my composure and I didn’t want to sit there for a minute longer. At that point, I didn’t care about the film, I just needed to turn those lights on and get out of there. Whatever that thing was, I did not want it to come back.
“Where’s my phone? I need my flashlight”, I thought, but I remembered that it was still on the counter. I had to get up.
I started with positioning my legs forward. My palms were on the floor as I pushed myself up while making no noise whatsoever. When I was half way up I placed my hand on the counter for balance. Then I placed the other but felt something round. The lid.
“There you are”, I thought. I now had the lid, but not the canister. It was still on the floor but at least I knew where it was. I reached down and picked it up. I thought, “Finally. I have them both”. Unfortunately, when I tried to put the lid on, I did not account for the noise it would make.
*POP*
Not even a second after, I felt something under my feet. Vibrations. It started off faint but got more noticeable as it started to make the floor shake. It got so violent I felt like it was going to knock me off my balance.
I walked towards where I thought the light switch was but as soon as I heard those huffs, my walk turned into a full on leap. As I leaped, my hand was stretched in front of me, hoping to find that damn light switch. My hand collided with the cold flat wall and nothing else.
I started to panic and frantically glided my hand against the wall for the switch. Right as I could feel the wind of the *HUFF* right on me, my ring finger caught a bump on the wall, and I violently pushed against it.
*CLICK*
*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*
My eyes were closed but I saw the light piercing through my eyelids. I heard the buzz of the fluorescent lights. I opened my eyes slowly. I was sitting on the floor with my arm raised above my head and my other arm gripping the canister against my chest.
I looked around the room. It looked the same as before I turned the lights off the first time. What the hell happened?? I swear I wasn’t the only one in this room when the lights were off. Who or what was with me in the dark?
The film is ready to be developed. I still don’t know what’s inside and I don’t know if I’m supposed to. Should I continue?