Just moved into a new place. Was exploring the basement and found this letter buried in a closet:
“I can’t tell if I’m dreaming. I suffer from severe insomnia. It usually happens when I’m afraid. I moved into a bad neighborhood recently, and I didn’t sleep my first week of living there. I’d lay in bed, listening to gunshots down the street, hearing voices that sound like they’re mere inches from my bedroom window; I swear the other night someone was jiggling my doorknob for hours on end.
So I decided to start spending my time at my boyfriend, Seth’s, house. I felt bad even asking, we’ve only been dating a couple months, but it was my only option if I wanted to get some sleep. Seth was hesitant at first, feeling that we might be moving too quickly, but after seeing how terrified I was, he agreed. At least for a short while, until I found a new place.
My first night at Seth’s was the best I had slept in months. I passed out before it was even dark out and slept into the early afternoon the next day. Seth greeted me with a smile, a kiss on the forehead, and a late breakfast in bed. Who knows, maybe living together could be good for us? Maybe I’ll see the real him, and him the real me, and it’ll make us that much closer. I felt safe with him. Maybe every night’s rest would be as great as the first night’s.
It wasn’t. By the second night, I was wide awake yet again. I lay next to Seth, hearing nothing but the sound of him gently snoring. Breathe in, pause, breathe out. Breathe in, pause, breathe out. Breathe in, *squeeeeak, breathe out. Breathe squeeeeeak in, breathe out.* I sit up in the bed and look around the room. What was that squeaking sound? It sounded like it was coming from outside the bedroom, maybe in the kitchen. Did I imagine it? I listen closely… squeeeeak, squeeeeak. I sit up even taller in the bed, looking closely at the partially-open bedroom door. It sounded like footsteps, someone walking across the old hardwood floors just outside Seth’s bedroom. I debate waking Seth, I debate stepping into the hall to see what the noise was. And then… I hear the floorboards creaking again, slowly growing louder, someone inching their way down the hallway and towards the bedroom, closer, closer…
I squint my eyes to try and see into the pitch-black hallway. At first I don’t see anything, absolutely nothing in the dark. But then it starts in come into focus… for the first time, I see it. It looks like a man, but I can’t tell for sure. It stands just outside the bedroom door, its pale white skin barely visible in the dark; it’s shockingly tall, probably close to seven feet; it’s incredibly skinny, its entire body skin and bones without even a trace of muscle; it is completely naked, yet it seems as if it feels no shame.
I am completely frozen. The creature simply stares at me, pressing its body against the wall as hard as it can as if trying to stay hidden. The thing that I find the most unnerving is that it has no mouth. It has no features I can see on its face besides those big, yellow eyes that look more animalistic than human. Despite its lack of a mouth, I can still hear it breathing… it’s a muffled breath, as if its face is being smothered. You’re dreaming, I tell myself. None of this is real, this can’t be real. The creature slowly raises its hand and waves at me, and that is when I finally scream.
Seth jumps awake, his face looking around the room frantically, before grabbing me by the shoulders and asking me what’s wrong. I look at him for a moment, pointing at the door, but when I look back, the creature is gone. I tell Seth what I saw, and at first he looks at me like I’m crazy; but after some convincing, he walks into the hall in search of it. I offer to go with him but he tells me to stay in bed. Seth leaves the room, gone for a few minutes; I can’t stop crying and shaking the entire time, terrified that the creature will return while Seth is gone. But Seth finally comes back into the room, shaking his head and saying that the house is empty.
“You probably dreamt it,” he says.
“No!” I yell. “No, I haven’t been able to sleep all night!”
“Really? Because you were snoring just a few seconds before you started screaming.”
“I…” Was I? I swear that I was awake, that my insomnia was acting up again. But… maybe I was asleep… Maybe I did dream everything…
Seth managed to fall asleep again after getting me to calm down. For the remaining few hours before sunrise, I don’t take my eyes from the door. It was like that every night for the next few nights. Every, single, night. I spent every second watching the door, waiting for the pale, naked, scarred body to come into focus. The image of its face–that somehow mouthless face, and those horrifying, yellow eyes–flashed in my mind every time my eyes closed. I wait for it to return… but it doesn’t. Not for those next few nights, at least.
On the seventh night, it finally returned. I was lying in Seth’s bed, my eyes glued to the door once again. I feel like I could actually sleep. I don’t know if I had ever gone this long without any sleep, even with my insomnia. Usually I won’t go more than a couple days before I finally doze, but the way I’m going now, I feel like I could set a world record. I could sleep, but I won’t. Not until I see that thing again…
Squeeeeak, squeeeeak.
I peak over the blankets a bit more, struggling to control my trembling breath as I wait for it to reappear. After a moment, there it is. It creeps into my view slowly. It stands in the doorway, not pressed against the wall this time, as if it isn’t trying to hide from me any longer. It stands slightly hunched, its arms folded across its chest like it’s cold. It blinks a few times as it stares at me, and then waves again. For some reason, I’m not as afraid this time. I had planned to wake Seth immediately at the sight of the creature, needing to prove to him that it existed, but now… I stare into the creature’s eyes, eyes that now seem somewhat gentle. I squint to get a better look; I think its eyes are full of tears. It gives me one more wave, a shy one this time, as if it was embarrassed that I didn’t wave back the first time, and slowly starts to walk away.
I tell myself to wake Seth, to catch this monster invading his house… but instead, I get out of bed, and slowly begin to follow it. I watch from the doorway as it looks at a portrait hanging in the hall. It’s a picture of Seth as a teenager with his family; his parents are standing, huge smiles on their faces; Seth’s mom holds onto her newborn son, Seth’s baby brother Jared. Seth told me that his entire family died just a few months after that picture in a tragic car accident. The creature stares at it for what feels like several minutes before going to the basement.
I continue to follow. The creature starts down the basement steps, and, just before it reaches the bottom, it notices me watching from atop the staircase. I tense up, worried that it will attack, but it doesn’t. It’s hard for me to make out it’s features in the dark, but I watch it blink a few times at me before turning and walking across the basement. I follow it into the back room, a small room that was packed with boxes and random junk. I wonder what the creature is doing in there when it suddenly pushes aside one of the boxes, revealing a trapdoor on the floorboards. The creature glances at me again. I’m close to it now, standing just a few feet away, yet I feel no fear. It bends forward, its lengthy knees cracking, as it open the trapdoor. I peak down inside, unsure of what I will find. And what I see horrifies me even more than the creature did the first night I saw it.
Inside the trapdoor is a small cell. It has no windows, no doors, no exit besides the tiny trapdoor on its ceiling. It reeks inside, smelling worse than anything I had ever smelled in my life, like it was stuffed with hundreds of dead animals. The wall is smeared with blood, shit, and scratch marks. A couple of long chains are fastened against the far wall. In the corner closest to the chains is a bucket overflowing with piss and shit. And next to the bucket is a framed picture. I have to squint to see what it’s a photo of, but I’m almost positive that it’s the same as Seth’s family portrait hanging in his upstairs hallway.
I look up at the creature, and for the first time, I can truly see it. It is no monster… it is a man. A starved, weak, beaten man. His body is even more pale than I initially realized, looking like he hasn’t seen sunlight in years, if ever. The hair on his head is long and full of bald patches, as if he had spent years pulling his own hair out. His lips are sewn together shut. I listen to his muffled breaths once more as he tries and fails to get just a little air into his mouth. I flinch as he slowly reaches his hand towards me. He looks afraid at first by my reaction, but when I respond with my best attempt at a smile, he calms down. He places his hand against my cheek, tears in his eyes, tears in mine. He looks oddly familiar. I struggle to place it for a while when it finally clicks… He looks like Seth. He does… He looks like Seth, as if they could be
The man’s eyes grow shockingly wide as he notices something behind me. I watch as he starts to open his mouth, blood and skin pouring onto the floor as he tears his stitching. He opens his mouth wide, blood staining his few remaining teeth, and screams.
I turn to see Seth behind me. I see him for just a brief moment before he knocks me unconscious with the swing of a baseball bat. Darkness. I sleep for the first time in days.
I awake in strange surroundings. Everything is dark. At first I think I’m in Seth’s bedroom; or maybe I’m in my apartment. Everything that I just witnessed had to be a dream, it had to be. I squint to try and see where I am, but that does no good, I still see absolutely nothing. I’m amazed at how dark this room is, I’ve never experienced a darkness quite like this. I sit up and freeze once I hear the sound of chains. I shake my hands and hear them again, and I can feel them wrapped around my hands now.
I squirm for a while, trying to get free. I kick and I fight for what feels like hours, but it is of no use. I am alone. I open my mouth to yell for help, when I notice that my entire mouth is numb. I open my mouth wide, trying and failing to speak, and I taste blood slowly dripping down my throat. I reach my hands to my mouth, just enough leeway on the chains so the tips of my fingers can touch my tongue… Or, I should say, where my tongue once was. I can see it now… my severed tongue sitting in the center of the cell, surrounded by a pool of blood.
I think I screamed for days on end after that. Seth brought me a pen and paper after some time. I think he gave it to me just so I can communicate with him, but recently I’ve started using it to tell my story. How long have I been down here now? Days? Weeks? Years? Maybe all of this is just a dream. I think that’s why I’m telling this story. Because, if just one person reads what I’m saying, then that has to mean I’m awake, right? And, if this is all real, maybe someone reading this can save me. If you’re reading this right now, then I have to be awake. Right?
That, or perhaps you’re nothing more than a character in this never-ending nightmare.”