Fear comes in many different forms disguising itself as danger. A crippled god unable to move to fulfill its dark purpose. This doesn’t stop it from fulfilling it, it uses the light to show you a truth. Once you are open, it takes its deformed crooked steps towards you, dark hollow eyes-empty, skin damaged pail and tight. You only know it’s close when you hear its moans of pain but by that time it’s too late. It embraces you with its dumb empty cage, not to keep things out but to keep you in.
At 3 am the door of her bedroom slightly opens. The ray from the warm orange-yellow hue rested on her face, beckoning her. Lidia heard whispers soft and quiet. The sound of a woman’s lustful whisper sharing her secrets shaped like a dagger. The whisper slowly turns into a deep distorted groan that seems to sting Lidia’s ears, vibrating the light. Lidia wants to scream but she has no mouth, she wants to close her eyes but can’t, she wants to run but can’t move. Imprisoned in her own body Lidia starts to lose all hope, as she does it all comes to a quick and abrupt stop. Quiet, not a sound. Lidia closes her eyes because she could and when they opened all was as it once was. Dark.
Lidia’s home is haunted but her husband doesn’t believe her. Instead of comforting her, he gets agitated.
“What do you mean you heard whispers last night, what did they say?”
“Well… I don’t know but I know someone was in the house. It sounded like a woman’s voice.” “A woman’s voice? Women don’t break into houses.”
“I know what I heard Charly.”
“Okay well did you see anything?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Well, why didn’t you get up and check if you were so sure you heard something?”
“I couldn’t move.”
“Okay well, why didn’t you wake me up if you were so sure you heard something?”
“I couldn’t scream even if I wanted to.”
“You seem to be moving and talking now. You know what, I know what you’re really trying to do here. We’ve already been through Lidia! Jesus, I swear you’re going crazy or starting to make me go crazy! We moved because I’m the only one working and it seems like all you do is sit all day doing nothing but get bored and come up with stories about hearing women’s voices. If you really want to be trying to come up with reasons to move back you’re going to need to try harder. I’m tired of always seeming like the bad guy for doing the big-boy decisions. You’re not the only one that left family and friends behind!”
“Wait what? N..”
“I don’t have the energy for this today. I have a project due next fuck’n weekend and already starting to get a headache. Im just going to head out.”
The day broke cold and gray; the soft tappings on the window helped Lidia drift to sleep. With each tap on the window was like a gentle soft key being played.
The door of Lidia’s room opened slightly, a warm orange-yellow hue radiating, jutting out towards her, but this time it doesn’t feel welcoming. The rain still softly tapping the window but the rhythm was lost. The sound of creaking floorboards that crumble under the pressure of a weight that holds too many secrets. Behind the door, a shadow is carefully tip-toeing maneuvering through the hall toward her room. Failing at every step to not make a sound. Lidia opens her eyes, then silence. The tapping of the rain, the creaking floorboards, nothing. The silence was eerie at least with the noise Lidia knew something was out there. Filled with fear she wondered if the creaking stopped because she opened her eyes or because it reached where it wanted to be. She would give anything just to hear something. The silence only seemed to grow louder. Lidia closes her eyes so tight until she heard the soft tapping by the window. She slowly turns her body towards the window still with her eyes closed shut. Then she opens them. She sees the many trails the little raindrops made racing down the window. She almost forgets that her door is cracked open and the light is on, on the other side behind her. Through the reflection of the window, she sees something peeking through her cracked door. Standing there staring. In the dark mirror, she sees Her open her mouth unnaturally large and the sound it made was of a void sucking the life out of everything accompanied by a deep moan. Lidia closes her eyes filled with fear she starts to thrust and turn.
*
Charly opens the door and walks in, yawning. He sees that Lidia is tossing and turning and thinks to himself that she might be having a bad dream. He quickly heads over to her.
“Babe. Baby. It’s just a bad dream. Everything is okay.”
Lidia is finally freed as it seems from the nightmare. Lidia starts to cry and holds Charly.
“I’m scared Charly, scared.”
“I know.”
The night came to an end and the smell of fresh pancakes tickles Lidia’s nose. Lidia is woken up by their song that echoes through the halls. Charly comes walking into the room.
“Hey babe, sorry if I woke you. Can I just say something real quick? I know you’ve been having a hard week. So I’ve been thinking, since the weekend is finally here and I’m free. Why don’t we go out and do something?”
“Yeah, that sounds fun. What do you have in mind?”
“Well, we can go and get a nice lunch, walk through the mall, and go shopping, and oh yeah you know what? I just remembered there is this new bar that just opened up a few months ago. It’s pretty fun. We can then go there later tonight. I don’t know, get a few drinks, come back, and see what happens next. How does that sound?”
“Oh yeah, that sounds good. But I don’t remember going to a new bar with you. How do you know about this bar? Have you gone by yourself?”
“No, yeah. We haven’t and no I haven’t. Some friends told me about it at work. They said the AMF is really good. So I want to try it when we go.”
“Okay.”
“But first-” Charly holds up a plate of pancakes and eggs. His left palm is heating from holding the plate. All the fingers felt it but one. The finger that is stained from a discolored shape of a hole that never ends.
“First you need to eat this.”
“Thank you. So what’s the name of that drink again?”
* “Another two AMF, thank you!”
“They’re pretty good right?!”
“What!?”
“The drink, it’s pretty good, no?”
“Oh, yeah it’s okay! I’m getting a headache. It’s pretty loud in here.”
“You want to go home?”
“Is that okay?”
“Okay, but you need to drive.”
“Do you still have the keys?”
Charly drunkenly smiles and pats his right pocket.
After a long day, Lidia opens her bedroom door, and Charly stumbles in and flops on the floor.
“Babe, get up I can’t pick you up.”
Charly moans and adjusts himself. Lidia was frustrated seeing him just lay there, almost wanting to kick him. Lidia finally is all ready for bed hoping that He doesn’t crawl in. As she is laying down she remembers. She looks at her door, memorizing it so that she knows this isn’t a dream. She stares and stares until she falls asleep.
Late in the night, she feels a heavy pressure at the end of her bed, her blanket seemed to tighten around her feet. Lidia, too tired to focus slightly, opens one eye. She sees a dark figure sitting at the end of her bed staring at her. The air starts to thicken. Lidia’s body starts to warm up, she slowly pulls her feet back and whispers,
“Wh-what are you doing Charly?”
The dark figure slowly starts to sink under the bed. The whole way down it stars. Until she can’t see it anymore. Lidia wants to run but is scared it will grab her leg. So she pulls the blanket over her head hoping it will all go away.
That’s when she feels small pressure points on her bed. Lidia dropped the blanket ready to run but when she did she noticed that she was stuck, as she lay there in fear. She noticed something else. There was no distortion above the blanket, there was nothing there. As she lay frozen she felt the pressure get closer but the blanket still isn’t moving. Her fear grows; she knows it’s not coming from above the blanket but from inside.
She slowly lifted the blanket not to peek but to run! And there, there it was crawling towards her, moving her legs apart, shaking its head to reach her. Breaking free from her frozen state she runs towards the hall, it stretches far and wide. Echoes of the cadence from tinkling keys bounce off the walls.
The door violently swings open, breaking the wall. Lidia stumbles and falls not 5 feet away from her door. No matter what she does, this thing is always there. It slowly reaches for her, its mouth opens wide, and the moans of an unknown woman get louder and louder, its finger reaching getting closer and she doesn’t want it. The walls seem to be closing in if they could talk they would be filled with pain and resentment.