It was a dark and deceitful night.
The moon didn’t dare hang in the sky and the sparkle of the stars was dampened by the clouds. A light cool wind rustled the leaves in the trees, wrapping around me and sending chills down my spine. The usual ambience of late night traffic and crickets filled the air.
I was on my usual late night walk, getting some exercise in after school and also letting off some steam. As soon as I turned the corner into another street and the warming glow of the street lights pulled away from my body, I realised which street I was on.
I don’t even know the name of the actual street.
Delmond Street?
All I know is that it borders the large local park, the wild side of it. The one filled with tall dark trees, standing like menacing shadows in the darkness. A forest in the urban serenity, it’s sharp jagged branches intertwining and giving off an evil aura.
But the forest wasn’t unusual. In the night, it may bring back primal fears of monsters in the woods but in daylight? it was rather tame.
No. What was truly disturbing about this street was the old telephone booth. Actually ‘Old’ isn’t the right word to describe it. It was modern in every sense of the word, up to par with every other telephone booth around the country.
Appearing almost overnight, it was situated in the middle of the street, parked at the end of a clearing in the trees. It was what? maybe 20 feet into the forest? No one really spoke of the thing and it was weird that even the usual spray painters stayed away from it. As pristine as the day it appeared, it seemed content being in the midst of the trees.
I had reached the point in my walk where I would finally have to cross it. My heart began to beat faster in anticipation.
Why am I afraid?
It’s goes the same way every night. I walk past it at a brisk pace and almost immediately a sense of relief will flood my mind. But today, there was a new emotion swirling around in my mind. Bitter Frustration.
It’s just a stupid telephone booth
And so, for the first time in my life, I stopped in the middle of the street and observed the booth for a little longer. All round plexiglass walls bordered by metallic edges revealing a standard metal telephone with sleek square buttons and a traditional handset. A green light flickered ominously every few seconds from somewhere on the telephone.
Most booths are designed to only ever be occupied by one person but this booth was large, made for two people at the minimum. It was strange, because really the only functional part of the whole booth was the telephone tucked off to the right side and on the left? Just empty space. The lack of branding all over the booth was pressing on my shoulders. Most telcos make sure to label their booths but this one had no owner.
My feet stepped forward off the footpath and onto the soft grass of the forest, slightly damp with the rain that had fallen hours ago. I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and moved closer and closer to the booth. The trees in the forest encapsulated me, serving as a warning not to walk any further.
Still I continued, the morbid curiosity commanding my body and driving me further. The telephone booth now lay only a few steps away and I began to analyse a few details.
The clear glass door was now open. Had it been open before? I paused for a bit and squeezed my eyes to try and remember but I couldn’t. I was in front of the telephone booth now. That green light from the telephone blinked at me again, egging me on. I turned my right foot around in an effort to turn back but half my body stayed put.
I was in an internal battle with myself now. I could either walk away and move on or walk into that booth today and figure out what it was that instilled so much anxiety within me. I chose the latter in a split second, willing myself to step forward and walk into the booth.
I’m not even sure what really drove me. Was it a primal instinct? Supernatural force? I could never really be sure but I would lean more towards the supernatural because as I walked into that booth, dim fluorescent lights buzzed to life above me, their hum drilling into my ears. My hand moved towards the telephone receiver and picked it up.
A dial tone began to play. It was playful and fun, something from a cartoon but then the pitches began to rapidly change. A chilling demonic tune began to play as the green light began to blink faster and faster. My body was frozen and the blood was running cold in my hands but the telephone receiver stayed glued to my ears.
The tune abruptly stopped.
A low whisper emanated from the speaker. I managed to croak out a ‘hello’ before the line went dead.
I stood there for a long time, trying to make sense of what had taken place in just 5 minutes. It’s only when the lights turned off above me that, I got a grip on reality again. I shook it all off, rubbed my clammy sweaty hands on my pants and walked out of the telephone booth.
Some things can’t be explained. My goal was to forget all that had happened and move on.
As I walked out, the world was different. I don’t mean this in an obvious sense. Everything around me was the same as ever. Tall sinister trees and streetlights in the distance.
While things may have been the same on the surface, something felt different below it. You know that feeling of being in a dream? The air thicker than usual. Your mind slow and groggy. That’s what I felt but I was lucid. At edge even.
Then I noticed the very slight blue tint. Like a gentle cold filter on a photograph. It hung over everything as if I was wearing sunglasses. Just ahead the typically warm yellow streetlights now carried a cold aura.
I shook my head again.
I just needed to get home. two more minutes and I’ll be laughing it off with my brother. My pace was brisk and I focused my entire energy on getting home but I couldn’t help notice the minor things. It’s the ambience you take for granted once you are familiar with a place.
For me it was the low rumble of cars in the distance, the sounds of crickets and the refreshing cool wind on my face. All these things had no disappeared. It was like I was in a vacuum where no sound could pass. I made a note of stomping my feet extra hard on the ground to reassure my senses.
When I finally walked onto my home street, more eerie details jumped out at me to indicate that the world was not quite right. All the houses were shrouded in darkness. Not a single light on in any window and it could not have been later than 8pm. It didn’t matter. I was closing in on my house and soon I’d be cuddled up in my bed reading a book.
I nearly missed my house because of the absence of any light. Surely my parents would not have slept before ensuring I had come back home. My little brother still wanted me to play a final round of COD with him.
The accumulation of all the anxiety I had felt during my walk weighed down upon me now. A loud panic crept into my bones and set itself in my brain. Everything had gone cold, and my stomach was sinking.
The front door was unlocked. The little light from the outside cast long shadows of my figure down the hall. Inside was pitch black, to the point where it looked as if a black curtain had been drawn over my eyes. Not only were the lights off, but the curtains were drawn too.
The absence of light caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. I crept into the hall, making slow careful movements.
Why am I sneaking?
The position of the light switch on the wall was imprinted in my brain. It was something I could find even in my sleep. So when I reached into the spot and was met with the cold hardness of the wall instead my breath caught in my throat. I shifted my hand in all directions around the wall for a bit until the darkness slowly heightened my panic. Slow calculated shifts turned into manic clawing at the wall and then when even that failed, I threw my whole body at it, desperate to find that damn switch.
Shuffle
I froze
Shuffle
It sounded like someone was dragging a rough bundle of paper across the hardwood floors towards me. I stopped clawing at the wall and stepped backwards towards the front door. It was beginning to swing shut, seemingly on its own.
I made the decision to completely leave the house and slowly walked back out. The shuffling followed inquisitively, trying to search for me. I slipped around to the side of the house and strained my ears to listen for the shuffle again.
First, I heard the front door slam shut and then I heard the shuffle again, this time outside the house. Whatever it was, it was following me now. And then it went all quiet.
The silence returned around me, a dead weight on my chest.
It was also a good reminder of how loud I was breathing.
The shuffling started again rapidly. This time fast and coming right towards me. I sprung into action, no longer concerned with making no sound. I ran around the back of the house and took to the back door, aiming to lock the thing out or confuse it.
I searched for the lock on the back door once I closed it behind me but could not find it. The knob was there but the locking mechanism had vanished. The absolute darkness didn’t really help me either. I decided to leave it and waved my hands around in front of me as I took slow steps into the house.
I could visualise the layout of the house flawlessly, aware of where everything was, so navigation should have been simple and thankfully it was. Nothing else had changed about the house, except for the fact that the light switches and locks had disappeared.
I kept on walking, aiming to reach the living room so I could open the curtains to let some light from the streetlights inside. It would be dim, but definitely better than the blindness I had to face now.
All was going to plan until my hand bumped into something unexpected.
It was hard and firm but soft at the same time like cooked chicken.
It was also warm
I stumbled backwards immediately as shuffling sounds emerged right in front of me. A hand like structure made of that same flesh brushed against my chest as the thing tried to grab me in the darkness.
I jumped backwards, falling flat on my backside. In an attempt to keep moving, I rolled sideways across the floor and then stumbled to my feet, just in time for the shuffling to follow right at my heels.
I ran
And rammed face first into a wall.
I had lost my bearings in the house and whatever this thing was, it was coming closer and closer. That’s when another realisation hit me. I could not see in the dark, but whatever this thing was, it most definitely could.
Lucky for me, because just when I figured that out, a strong grip curled around my torso and pulled me off the ground. The thing brought me close to it
I could smell its hot breath now. Like black mould. Stale and rank. I don’t know how I managed to startle the creature. Perhaps it was a stroke of luck. I was kicking frantically in an attempt to get out of its grasp and one of my kicks must have landed in the right spot.
Because the next thing I know, I fell to the floor as the creature released me like I was a hot coal. A rush of adrenaline primed me as I got to my feet in no time and clung to a wall to quickly trace my path out of the house. It was apparent that the indoors was the worst place to be.
When I found the front door, I nearly cried in relief. I could somewhat see again, through the light from the dim streetlights as I ran off into the open street. My mind was racing with thoughts and the adrenaline was beginning to wear off.
The question was: What do I do?
When stuck in dangerous situations, there’s always an option to run away. We all have a safe space. But my space, my home, it was gone. I literally had nowhere else to go and I wasn’t sure what to do.
I walked down the street, trying to calm my unsettled mind and unconsciously grabbed a stick that had fallen from a tree on the sidewalk. My mind finally settled on the solution
The Telephone Booth
It had transported me into this dark replica world and it was also my only bet in terms of leaving this place.
I was about ready to dash it to the booth when I heard shuffling behind me. This time it wasn’t a single of those entities though. I heard many. Creeping on me from the back, ready to pounce like a pack of wolves.
Slowly I turned around.
I still wish I hadn’t
The first thing I noticed were their eyes. Or should I say eye? A large red ball, dug into the bottom of their bloated humanoid bodies usually where the stomach would be located. It was defined by a small shining green pupil in the center, which had shrunk to a small size. Their bodies were made of smooth flesh, like plastic mannequins at a store and they were headless. A large mouth lacking lips and teeth looked more like an abyss on their chests. Their hands were way too oversized of their bodies, hanging on the floor and getting dragged behind them.
My description still doesn’t do justice to the absolute deformities these things were. They were all that was wrong with humanity. Exaggerated mutations of evil.
I knew I needed to get out of here.
One of them drew closer to me. I still didn’t really know what they wanted from me, until they began to whisper. With mangled voices like their vocal chords had been burnt, they croaked.
We need your humanity
I pressed tighter on the stick that I had picked up and lifted it in front of me as a weapon. My mind flashed back to how I had gotten away from one of them inside the house. I had kicked them… in the eye.
As the thing came closer to me, I quickly reached out and stabbed its eye.
Red liquid, oddly reminiscent of jelly began to leak
And then I turned and ran, not daring to look behind me once. I passed all the houses and ignored the army marching up from behind me. The little park appeared and I knew I would be on the street soon.
Feeling somewhat safer, and nearly there, I stole a glance behind me and…
tripped.
The momentum of my run sent me crashing to the floor. My ankle made a pop that it should never make as it got caught in a large crack in the pavement and my knees and palms burned with an intensity that I hadn’t felt since I fell of my bike as a young child.
Before I knew it, the shuffling was back and the creatures were onto me. One of them picked me up and brought my face to its mouth. I struggled and squirmed, my ankle still throbbing in pain and my skinned knees burning from exposure to the air.
It began to suck at my face, seemingly pulling at my very sole. Then I felt the stick in my hand again. I had kept a firm grip on it despite my fall and I did as I had done twice before. A firm stab into the eye made the creature let go of me immediately and I limped as fast as I could to the telephone booth.
The clearing finally came and I saw the green blinking light. What had once been a sight of fear and unease was now a sight of relief and salvation. I bit through the excruciating pain in my ankle as I walked to the booth and quickly swung its door open to jump inside.
The creatures had stopped just outside the clearing, watching me.
I grabbed the receiver and the same haunting tune began to play again, but this time it warped into a happier tune and when the line finally died and I put the phone down, the creatures had vanished in thin air and the world was normal.
I’m typing this up with the stick from that parallel world right beside me. Whenever I try to pass off the whole experience as a bad dream, the red sticky jelly on the stick reminds me.
And it seems to be growing…