If there was one thing I have learned through these experiences, it’s that everything happens without much rhyme, or reason. And sometimes, bad things happen to good people.
Not saying that I’m a good person, or my roommates are good people. However, I like to think that in essence, I am a decent member of society. I have my instances where I do feel like I am better than someone, whether its because of what I have versus what they don’t. And I realize that in a sense of modest euphoria, I had a lot more than most kids did when I was younger, and there were times that I would flaunt it.
I’m not denying my flaws, and I’ve worked pretty hard over the years to correct them. But this entire situation does feel like a punishment for all the hell I’ve caused.
I don’t believe that my past arrogance from high school is what has caused this.
I’ve tried salt. Spells, and I have a Christian friend who directed me towards her pastor and a few other people to come bless the house. At first I thought it worked. But to no avail. It’s here again. But I’m not alone.
My other two roommates are on a trip this week, which only left Sam and I to stay here with the cats. It’s no problem, obviously. They’re our cats.
I’m going to admit, I do have the senseless nerve to confront the thing. I’ve been seeing it in my dreams, each thing I read, I somehow feel like it’s commenting on the demon thing living in my home. Our home. I’m trying to make a life for myself with this opportunity. I’m trying to help my best friends make a life as well.
It’s been a hard few years to change to the person I am today. I’m not proud of my past, but I’m willing to move forward.
Anyways. Sam took VTO today (Voluntary time off).
It’s been about a week. Maybe two since the thing last made any type of contact with me. Even so. I feel like the intensity of this thing is getting more erratic, and aggressive towards me, and my roommates. No one has really noticed the vibe of the house, except me.
There is a darker, thin veil of uncertainty. It’s like a rusty, morbid feeling that festers until it all comes boils over. The intensity of it is absolute. Every time I walk past that door. The door to the basement, I can’t help but stop and look at it. The fleeting sense of lifelessness soaks through the bottom. The smell has changed from a dusty cat smell, to a smell of metallic, and burnt hair. It physically makes me recoil.
The weird thing?
I can still do my laundry fine.
During the day, I can still walk down to my basement to get my clothes. I can load the machines, iron my white shirts. Fold, hang, and pull out random boxes from the basement with no impending feeling of doom or dread.
However, walking by that door makes me so irrationally sick to my stomach, that sometimes tears come from my eyes. Like cutting an onion, but a true sense of sadness.
I would be remiss to say that I didn’t want to confront it. I do. As soon as the thought springs up in my mind. I know better.
It was early when it first made its rounds. Far too early. So early in fact, that I hadn’t thought anything of it. Hell, the Dollar General down the street wasn’t even closed yet. And Sam and I went to get snacks and soda for the movie we wanted to watch. Sit on her bed with some popcorn, a cheap bottle of Pink Moscato. She was going to smoke a little bit, and I was going to lay back.
It’s bothering me to type this out. I don’t know what is going to happen. That scares me if I’m going to be frank. And to be fair, anyone would be.
As I’m writing this in my car. My roommate is currently next to me with her seat all the way back to sleep. Every time I glance over at her, I feel powerless. This is my house. A house I invited her to live in. She should feel safe, and comfortable, Sam should feel at ease. But she doesn’t.
The slam of the basement door caught me off guard the second time. Still, I assumed it was the other roommates back home from their trip.
Sam and I looked at each other in disbelief.
“What the fuck was that?” She asked quietly.
I couldn’t do anything else but shrug. Admittedly at the time, I was hardly paying attention. I did lean over to pull her curtains. It had to be the other roommates right? Was it the new neighbors next door?
There were no cars in my neighbors drive, and there wasn’t a red Chevy sedan parked up front, or down the street.
I look at my phone: 21:25 (9:25pm).
I wasn’t ready for that shit. Sam wasn’t ready for this shit.
Her room is right above the kitchen where the basement door is. You have to pass it once per day at least, especially when you’re leaving the house. The side door, and the basement door are perfectly perpendicular with each other. I pressed my ear to the door as slowly as I could. And I heard it.
tap tap, tap tap Like a heartbeat?
It was so faint, and quiet, and I had to tell Sam to mute her TV.
I listened again.
tap tap, tap tap Like a nail tapping on the door.
It took a lot of courage to gather a few blankets and pillows for us. I knew the door to the basement was closed, and frankly, I wanted to make a run for the front door. The door was so close, you can see the door at the bottom of the main staircase. You can look from the top, and it’s right there. I only needed to muster the courage to lead the way.
The cats weren’t anywhere to be seen. They never made it up the stairs. I couldn’t even hear them eating, or using the litter box. Drinking from the water bowl. In fact, I couldn’t hear anything.
I live in a small town in Ohio. It’s technically considered a village. But we live in between two pretty major cities. I live maybe ten minutes from the Indiana/Ohio line, so traffic can get pretty heavy. But there wasn’t any traffic at all.
Sam was freaked out, of course. And through her questions and nervousness, I tried to ignore it. I even went as far as to open the window and put my head out.
There wasn’t any wind. No sound of leaves.
My motion sensor light that is incredibly sensitive didn’t even light up. It’s so sensitive, that even on the second floor, if you even press your hand against the window, it would light up. There’s a roof that connects underneath the window, so it could be turning on due to the vibration of my hand. So, I reached out and knocked on the roof. Nothing. It was unusual, but I was also intrigued.
Did this happen every time that thing made its presence known?
I waited for a car. A horn, the sound of a farm truck rolling through on Main Street. They were awfully loud things, and often woke me up.
Nothing.
At this point, I had to tell Sam to chill out. Not that those types of gestures or words ever help someone ‘chill out’, we can all agree. However, she got the message when I finally put my pointer finger to my lip with a shush.
Several things were going through my head at this point.
We’re we stuck in a weird time warp? Did we cross dimensions? Did everyone stop in time, but we were for some reason still moving with it?
I pulled out my phone to check the time, and sure enough, a few minutes had passed.
The basement door opened and closed again with force. And I was brought back from my trance.
The worst part was the fact that the cats were nowhere to be seen.
I’m not proud of what I did next. And as I sit here typing this in my car, I take small glances at the dining room window, I’m filled with regret, and for some reason, In my mind, I am mourning them as if they’re dead. But they’re not. I can see them.
I grabbed a bunch of pillows, blankets, and a phone charger. I made sure to grab some snacks too. I ushered Sam to slip on a pair of shoes with me. I made sure to grab my keys and my bag. We left the bedroom light on. We walked down the steps, and they creaked something fierce. It’s an old, unrenovated house. Even though the sound wasn’t an issue in the past, it definitely was now. Right when we reached the bottom of the steps, we heard the basement door slam open with force. So much force that I’m sure, absolutely positive that there was going to be a gash in the wall. The most frightening part was the fact that it was so close. I had never heard the thing so close before.
The worst part though, was the footsteps.
It sounded like boots, slowly stomping their way towards us. I was stuck in place. Sam juggled with the lock on the door. It was always hard to open sometimes, the mechanism got jammed.
I saw the worst of it though. My blood ran cold, and my eyes widened. I shortened my breath in fear, but an overwhelming sense to also fight was there.
When faced with certain issues, typically your brain gives you two signals to choose from. Fight or flight. The adrenaline is there to give you the energy to survive. But, in my case. There was both.
I wanted to flee as soon as I saw it. But I also wanted to throw everything on the ground and fight. I’ve never been in a fight before, so I try to avoid it. But this urge to try and take it on was hot on my trail of stupidity.
I stood there, in anger of my home being invaded, and my friends being tormented. But I also stood in fear. Fear of what it wanted. Fear of where my cats were. What happened to them? When the commotion started, did they hide?
The rooms are separated by a wall of course, but there is also an archway entrance.
I saw a hand. A pitch black hand, slowly gripping that archway. The metallic smell that had permeated the house creeps in with it, I could hear it breathing harshly. And the fingers curled meticulously in a grip. Almost like it was taunting us.
I remember when I came downstairs that I had put my own hand on the wall for support, and accidentally flipped the upstairs light switch on. The light reflected down the steps and illuminated the living room quite a bit. Even with the light reflecting to the bottom of the steps, and even a part of the dining room, the hand never got brighter. I don’t know how to explain it. Even as sleep lingers and the adrenaline is gone, I don’t think I ever will. But, it always remained pitch black.
When I noticed this, Sam was able to unjam the front door, and she grabbed my forearm, and ripped me out the door. All the shit I had in my arms tumbled onto the front porch, and Sam slammed it shut.
As I grappled with picking the pillows, blankets and the phone charger up. Sam slammed the door closed, but again, the latch overall, has a tendency to jam. And so, instead of latching shut, the door popped open.
We didn’t look back as we ran to the driveway, and since I was the only one who grabbed keys. We ran to my car. I’m lucky in that I have a fob key, so all I have to do is pull the handle for the car to unlock.
That is where I am typing this right now.
I don’t know what’s going on. How to feel. I don’t know what to do.
I’ve been trying to text my mom, friends, and any family. But nothing is sending.
I’ve tried turning my car on, but I can’t put it in drive. It won’t go anywhere. My car will run. So we have heat.
I used the few pillows that I grabbed to block some of the windows. I even used my backseat to get into my trunk to get out the windshield cover, and put it up.
Sam cried herself to sleep. And I’m in a state of total shock. Occasionally, I’ll peek from the driver side window to see into the dining room, the curtains are parted slightly. And I see our cats glaring back at us. Unblinking, dead eyes. But are surely alive.
It’s been nearly three hours. And not a single car has passed. I can’t text anyone, but I can watch YouTube or read Reddit posts.
I miss the cats. The fact that we had to leave them devastates me. Maybe it was too late for them though. Maybe they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe they’re gone, and they’re not our cats anymore. But instead, a husk of what they used to be.
Sam cried herself to sleep a few hours ago. I can still see the dried tears on her cheeks.
I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to post this. I don’t know if I’m going to die tonight. I don’t know if my family is going to wonder where I am, or how my mom is going to react. I don’t know a lot. But I do know one thing:
If I get out of this hellish night alive. I will get to the bottom of this.
I know this is probably going to be the least exciting story you read. But to those of you who stuck around, or who want to stick around. I will find a way to survive.
Suggestions and advice are much appreciated.
Until next time.