I’ve been sitting down for a few moments debating on whether or not it’s worth it to write this. I came to the conclusion that it’s better to leave something behind than nothing. My story begins about a week and a half ago, somewhere in the middle of the woods.
The neglect of the surrounding area was substantial. Tall grass and fallen logs took place of a well-kept trail. My sister, Keeley, was further ahead, haphazardly flailing a machete through the towering weeds.
“You’re gonna lose a finger!” I shouted ahead to her.
She turned and pointed the tip of the blade towards me. “Keep up the sass, and I’ll make sure you lose all ten,” she said with a mischievous smile that I returned. “I can see blacktop past that big ass tree up ahead. We’re almost there.”
Keeley and I loved exploring abandoned places.
It started a few years ago when we got into hiking to try and live a more active lifestyle, but that eventually became boring. One day, we came across an old convenience store that hadn’t been touched in years. Nothing super exciting happened, but the addition of liminal space in our adventures proved more enticing than a woodland stroll. Ever since then, we have looked up old businesses, houses, or just structures in general, forgotten by time and pay a visit to see what we can find. Keeley even suggested maybe starting a YouTube channel to document our experiences. On this day, we found our destination in a more unorthodox fashion. While screwing around on google Earth, I came across a building dead center of the woods a few miles outside of town. I zoomed in and noticed the size was actually quite large. After bringing it up to Keeley and a few of our friends, it was evident no one knew what it could possibly be. Even a few older people I knew who ran some of the stores in town couldn’t put a finger on it, despite apparently being familiar with the area.
That may sound obvious, but I live in a painfully small town surrounded by ever-so-slightly larger towns and at no point have they been anything more than that. There’s an unknown number of miscellaneous things flying under the radar in these woods. What me and Keeley set out to do is find all…well, most of them. Our mom left when we were kids and dad died about 3 years ago, so as far as family goes, we’re it. Most people can’t believe a brother and sister could be so close, but I’ve never had anyone else come as close to a best friend other than her. Of course, being twins made it pretty easy.
“Kameron!”
I looked up to see her make a silly jump and turn to me.
“Blacktop! And I can see the building through the trees. It seems much bigger than we thought.”
I quickened my pace and caught up to her. There was a slight incline on the way and when I reached her, I could finally see what looked like a brick building a few hundred feet away as blacktop met my feet.
“Awesome!” I replied. “I guess we can just follow this little road to get to the front. How ya feelin?”
“Oh, i’m fine,” she said. “I know this is probably the longest we’ve walked but i’m way too excited to see this place to turn back now.”
We made our way down the dilapidated road for about five minutes. We went out to the right and curved around the building. As we got closer, I could see a sign out front.
“Wait a minute…is this a school!?” I said excitedly.
“I don’t know,” said Keeley. “Possibly some sort of government building? Let’s go in and check it out.”
She started to walk faster to the front door with me following close behind. As we became closer, I was able to make out more of the building. It seemed to be one story, but quite large and seemed to reach quite far back into the woods. The blacktop was almost completely covered by dirt and leaves. Keeley had remarked that it may be a school but the closer we got, the more unsure I was of the original purpose of the structure. The entrance was a revolving door, something I’ve never seen in a school before. Through the window it looked like some wheelchairs sitting of to the side. Once we pushed through and crossed the threshold, we were met with more questions than answers.
To our right was a room that resembled a den you’d see in a common suburban home. A medium-sized bookshelf the length of the wall with a purple reclining sofa chair at the end in the corner. When I poked my head in, I noticed the back wall was lined with x-ray pictures of human bones against a whiteboard. A skull, ribs, and what seemed to be the lower half of a spine were among the photos.
I heard movement behind me and turned to see Keeley going into the peculiar office. I went in behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Kee, I really don’t know if we should be here,” I said. “This place is really weird. Maybe we should leave?”
Keeley said nothing and continued forward, allowing my hand to slide off. She made her way to the only door in the back of the room.
‘That wasn’t there before!’ My thoughts boomed.
“No… of course…of course it was,” I said aloud without thinking.
There was a window on the door, but most of the view was blocked by Keeley, who had begun to slowly open it. At this point the dim light from outside was nonexistent as we had left the view of the front windows. Keeley reached over to flick the light on and to our genuine surprise, it worked. We walked into a grey room with a U-shaped desk facing us. An empty bookshelf stood behind it, looming over the both of us. The top seemed to press into the ceiling, making the tile appear as soft as a pillow.
Keeley walked over to the desk and picked up a black notebook tablet, absentmindedly resting the machete in its place. It was by far the oldest thing in the room, with the corners being a bit curled and a slight buildup of dust across the top. She suddenly shook her head as if coming out of a trance and turned to me excitedly.
“This place is insane!” She said with a seemingly forced smile. “You go and check the hallways for stuff, I kinda want to check the rooms up here.”
With the notebook in hand, she pushed pass me and went into the front room again and, judging by the noise, was rummaging behind the desk. I walked in behind her and looked towards the door to the hallway.
“Kee…are you su-“
“GO!” She shouted back. I could hear she was mostly kidding, but a bit of annoyance was beginning to creep up. Not wanting to upset her further, I slowly creeped into the hall and tried the first light switch I saw. Dreadfully, each light crept on after a flicker or two.
“Keeley, if all these lights work, then that means someone’s paying for it… right?” I hollered back. “I know this is by far the strangest place we’ve found, but it may not be a good idea to stay long.”
I received no reply but could still hear shuffling in the room. My radio buzzed.
“Then ya better be quick! And stop yelling, you have a radio, dumbass.”
I chuckled softly, feeling she was a bit more genuine than before. I finally began walking down the hall and paying closer attention to my surroundings. At this point, I was confused and dumbfounded by what I had seen so far, now alone, was when I started getting creeped out. An unnatural aura surrounded me as I took notice of the strange layout.
The long hallway had no doors, and the layout of the wall kept changing. It would have the bottom half painted two colors, like a school, but then transition into wood paneling, then to wallpaper, then to stone. Both sides always matched, but never were consistent the further I got down the hall. The floor was no exception. Starting as tile, it went to hardwood, vinyl, and even carpet at one point. I finally came across a door, and the sign next to it indacted it to being a stairwell. I was confused, as the building appeared to only be one story. Assuming it was maybe to a basement, I opened it up.
I didn’t really know how to react. What I was seeing made zero sense. It was a stairwell, going up. That much I could make out. However, when I looked up, it continued upward to an impossible height. This looked to be something out of a skyscraper.
Another detail, even more mind-boggling, was that the stairs were upside down.
The railing you’d normally hang onto burst out of the concrete attached to an oriented staircase, moving diagonally toward the wall into a platform that turned back and continued up, opposite from where it started.
Unable to take a step, I just looked on in awe of the height the stairs seemed to go. That’s when I heard it. Keeping the door pushed open, I leaned in and peeked through the middle to see higher. A sing-song like voice was quietly humming from the top but nothing could be seen. It got a bit louder…and then I could just barely make out my name.
“Kaaaaaaameroooonnn……kammerrrrrooonnn”
A stillness overtook the area I could barely withstand. The weight of what I heard held me in place as I glared skyward at the impossible stairs. The voice was one of familiarity. One I couldn’t admit to myself at the time.
In a moment of dread, a rush of air flew from above as the sound of heavy, pounding steps flew down the staircase. I didn’t have time to think of how it was possible, I just turned and slammed the door closed. Beginning to run back to Keeley, I reached for my radio as an even more bizarre occurrence brought me to my knees. I fell to the floor as piercing loud feedback from the intercom speakers tore through the hall. My radio went skidding across the tile, halting abruptly onto hardwood while I covered my ears in agony.
“Attention patrons, there appears to be an intruder on the premises. Please remain in your current area until the problem has been dealt with accordingly.”
What sounded like a middle aged woman’s voice bellowed from the speakers and cut out with an upward spike in feedback that made me grit my teeth. The lights in the hallway were now becoming increasingly dim. I looked forward and shot up running, collecting my radio as I moved. Growing closer to the front office Keeley was in, it could be seen the door was now shut. What light could be seen through the thin, vertical window quickly shut off and back on perpetually in a strobe like fashion.
“KEELEY!!”
With feet pounding against the ever-changing floor, I closed the gap between me and the office, slamming my hand down on the handle only to find it locked. I pressed my face to the glass to try and see Keeley through the brief flashes of light.
Even through the strobe effect, I could tell the room looked completely different from before. The walls were pale white and void of any windows or doors. The only furniture I could see was a recliner facing away from me, offset just enough to see Keeley’s hand at the end of the arm rest. I shook the door relentlessly to no avail, punching the glass and screaming her name. Finally, the chair began to turn slowly towards me as I began to scream louder. A rumbling was beginning to ramp up throughout the building as if thunder was present in the hall.
“KEELEY! UNLOCK THE DOOR! YOU HAVE TO-“
The chair was facing me. Keeley’s blue eyes stared back at me from a face not of her own, but of someone I have not seen in a very long time. In one blink from the room, my mother was now standing barely an inch from my face on the other side of the glass, her lips slowly stretching into a smile. I stepped back slowly in disbelief, unsure of how to react. The rumbling from before was loud enough to shake the ground beneath me. Mom’s lips continued to curl until the skin began ripping like rubber, the ends of her mouth reaching the bottom of her ears.
“What the fuck is…”
Out of nowhere, everything switched. The rumbling came to a screeching halt as all lights shut off in an instant. For about 3 seconds, I couldn’t see the hand in front of my face, and you could hear a pin drop. The fear inside of me felt like I was gonna implode.
My radio chirped.
“I’m going away for just a bit. Take care of your sister for me, okay?”
The lights came back on.
In place of where I saw my mother was Keeley standing, looking dazed for a moment before taking a couple steps back and collapsing. I ran forward to the now unlocked door and threw it open to see Keeley laying on her back, eyes wide open.
“Keeley! Keeley, WAKE UP!”
I bent over her and shook her shoulders. Her eyes twitched a bit but she didn’t seem to be coherently responding. Without really thinking about it, I raised my hand and slapped her cheek. Air left her body in a deep gasp as she sprung forward nearly head butting me in the process. I pulled her into a hug as relief flooded my stomach.
“Oh, thank God,” I said through tears beginning to well up. “I thought you were gone forever. We nee-“
Keeley shoved me off and shot up. Backing up against the closest wall, her eyes stayed glaring upward.
“Do…do you see it?”
I remained on one knee looking up at her in confusion. “Kee, I don-…see what?”
“The corner,” she said not looking away. “It’s not her. I know it’s not her.”
Without making a sound, I slowly turned my head to where she was staring. The fear I felt earlier began to creep back up. Every instinct I had, wanted to bolt the fuck out of that room, but I was not gonna leave my sister. Gradually, I looked at the wall to my left and followed up to the corner to see…nothing.
I turned back to Keeley only to see her still fearfully glaring at the corner.
“Keeley…there’s nothing up there. What do you see?”
Her breathing was labored as she replied, still not looking at me.
“Her.”
I slowly stood up and looked to the front of the building out of the door behind me. It had gotten dark out and we still needed to trek through the woods a good twenty minutes before reaching the car. I looked back at Keeley, and she had begun shuffling towards me slowly, eyes still glued to whatever she was seeing. I walked over to her and cautiously lay a hand on her shoulder. When I did, she finally tore her gaze away to meet mine.
“Just don’t look, okay?” I said softly to her. “You can hide your face behind my back if you want.” She looked down for a brief moment before nodding. I turned and glance up at the still empty corner while feeling Keeley’s head press against my left shoulder and her hand clutch my arm. We slowly started to make our way towards the door when a scratching noise came from my right. Keeley tensed up and pulled herself closer into me. I turned my head towards her.
“Kee, we’re fine. We just really need to…”
The area around me seemed to drop nearly 20 degrees. I could feel the hair on my bare arms begin to stand as goosebumps ran all over my body. If the cold wasn’t enough to do so, the sound of breathing coming from where the noise did would have easily done so. It was quick and short. The kind of breathing you do after a run. Trying to keep my wits about me, I turned to where both noises made themselves known. I still didn’t see whatever Keeley was claiming to see, but there was definitely evidence. A long series of scratch marks were on the wall, running the length of the corner where Keeley was staring to about a foot beside the door frame.
I breathed out for a few seconds in an attempt to calm myself. Once I felt I could speak soundly, I turned my attention back to Keeley.
“Okay…here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna keep our heads down, and just go. Walk fast, but do not panic. Stay with me.”
I felt her head nod. Keeping true, we moved forward at a steady pace. Nothing was heard going through the doorway, but something caught Keeley’s attention as we stepped outside into the night. I felt her try to push past me, but I sped up a bit and held her with my arm.
“We have to stay together,” I hissed. She turned back one time before speaking.
“Then fucking GO!”
Keeley burst forward, pushing past me while grabbing my hand and pulling along. I resisted for only a second before the sound of beating against the blacktop propelled me forward. It didn’t take long before we were side by side, hand in hand.
After a few minutes, I didn’t really hear anything behind us. It could’ve been that I was too focused on running but it felt as if something was gonna tackle me any moment. As dark as it was, I could barely see Keely to my left. Keeping a strong grip on her hand, I focused on the ground, trying to step on what few clear spaces I could see through whatever moonlight made it past the canopy. Abruptly, I heard Keeley let out a short yell and felt her tug behind me suggesting she fell.
I stopped and turned back towards her feeling for a proper hold to pull her up. It looked like her silhouette was facing away from me. She started to crawl backwards, and her head smacked the bridge of my nose, hard enough for me to feel blood rush down my lips.
“Fuck, Keeley!” I screamed through pain while clutching my face.
“No! No! NO!” She began frantically saying, ignoring me and still moving back.
“That’s it!” I said, frustrated at this point.
Keeley is a small girl, weighing maybe a hundred pounds. My eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to see her arm movement, so I reached under her right one and pulled up. Turning to my left as she lifted, I threw her on my back, situating her arms around the bottom of my neck. An attempt to run was made but then it was as if she gained an extra hundred pounds out of nowhere. Letting out a gasp, I fell to my knees, fighting to keep her up. I heard a low growl followed by only a second of silence before Keeley let out a blood curdling scream directly into my left ear.
I let out a yelp of pain unheard to myself due to the intense ringing that followed. I could feel Keeley fighting something, shuffling around on my back, both arms clasps tight enough around my neck to nearly choke me. I reached up and pulled her arms as forward as I could, but the extra weight was still present. Blood was still pouring from my nose and my ear still had a slight ringing going off. With all my strength, I bolted up, holding onto Keeley’s arms as tight as I could manage. I heard her let out a small screech before the extra weight finally receded. There was no time to see whatever had leapt onto us, I just broke into the quickest sprint I could with Keeley on my back.
It was much easier to see than before, so we were back to the car in a matter of minutes. I never turned around and Keeley didn’t make much of a noise outside of a whimper or two. The sound of something behind us was also not present. I brought her around to the passenger side and sat her facing sideways to the seat facing me after throwing open the door.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
She looked up at me and yelped.
“Oh my God, Kameron! I am so sorry, is it broken?”
She reached up to my nose and lightly touched it. It was a bit sensitive, but the pain was tolerable. Now that we had come to a stop, I could feel the dried blood on my face and the soreness was setting in.
“I’m fine,” I replied reaching up to feel around. “Got me good but…I don’t believe it’s broken, no. Just bruised.”
Her eyes welled up with tears as she slumped her shoulders.
“This is all my fault,” she said, choking up. “It was my idea to go to this place. I mean what the fuck was that? Was any of it real? You…you saw it right? Her?…did you see mo-“
“I don’t know what I saw,” I cut her off. “I don’t have an explanation, but I’m not ready to dive into it.”
She looked up at me with an expression of hurt that broke my heart. We’re both 27 now, but every time she gives me that look, I see the same eight-year-old girl I had to tell our mom is gone and never coming back.
“Look…Kee, I-“
“Forget it,” she said, swinging her legs into the car. “Let’s just go, I wanna get the hell out of here.”
I sighed and leaned back to close the door, not sure of what else to say but something caught my eye. I reached for her right shoulder, but she recoiled.
“Don’t touch me,” she said, with venom present in her voice. I was taken aback from the sudden aggression.
“Keeley, your shirt is torn. Did something scratch or bite you?”
“I said I wanna get the fuck out of here, SO CAN WE PLEASE GO!?” She screamed, facing me and slamming her fist down on her knee at the end.
I rolled my eyes and slammed the door shut.
On the way to my place, the car remained completely silent. I reflected on what had happened, trying to make sense of what we saw despite knowing damn well that was impossible. In all honestly, I didn’t know how I was supposed to react. I wanted to believe I was crazy and simply having an episode, but if Keeley saw it too, we both can’t be hallucinating the same thing. Twins have special connections but that would be something different entirely. All I knew was whatever built that place could not be human, let alone natural in any way. Keeley broke the silence as I pulled into my driveway.
“I moved out, remember?” She said lowly. “You can take me home if you want.”
“You’re staying here,” I replied. “Non-negotiable. I’ll cave and be the first to admit I don’t wanna be alone tonight. I have a suspicion you don’t either. You have plenty of clean clothes still hanging out here.”
She crossed her arms and side-eyed me.
“Fine…but only because you admitted it first.” She moved to open the door, but I reached over and lightly grabbed her arm.
“Kee, please…I’m sorry if it didn’t seem like I was taking you seriously earlier. I know I saw…something. Can we please just get some rest and talk about it in the morning?”
She said nothing, keeping her head down.
“Please look at me,” I whispered.
Slowly, she turned her head to face me. Her eyes still seemed like she had been quietly crying on the drive, but I didn’t hear anything. We looked at each other for a few moments, waiting for one another to speak but I had already said what I wanted. It was her turn. However, she didn’t take it until being outside the car.
She slowly got out while still facing me and stood with the door open.
“We can talk tomorrow, but I want you to go in ahead of me.”
Trying to suppress annoyance building up inside me, I got out and stood facing her over the roof of the car.
“Why won’t you let me see your shoulder? I can tell you’re hurt, there’s even bits of blood on the torn part of your shirt,” I said to her. “You don’t seem like yourself.
“Neither do you,” she replied. “I find that appropriate after what’s happened. You said you wanted to talk tomorrow, so we will. That includes my shoulder.”
I reached up to rub my eyes and once again felt the dried blood on the bottom half of my face against my palm. I sighed and started walking around the front of the car.
“I’m gonna go in and clean myself up, but I’m leaving the door open and I wanna hear it shut, followed by your footsteps in under ten seconds or i’m coming back out. You know I’m faster than you.”
I threw in the last part to lighten the mood, and to my relief I heard a quiet chuckle behind me as I passed her on the way to the door. I walked through the front of my two bedroom townhouse we used to share, and made my way to the stairs. Only a brief moment passed before the door closed and footsteps could be heard before a creak as Keeley sat on the couch. Feeling better now that we were inside, I made my way up to the bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit from the cabinet.
After cleaning my face up, I got a clearer look at my nose. Some light bruising was beginning and I grimaced, knowing it would be worse in the morning. Definitely was sore as I felt around, but not broken. I disinfected the small cut where Keeley had collided with me and placed a bandage over it. Since I didn’t know exactly what Keeley’s wound was, I just gathered everything back in the kit and brought the whole thing downstairs to find her sitting on the couch facing me. She had gotten one of her old jackets from the closet and placed it over her shoulder. Considering it a lost cause for her to show me tonight, I just ignored it and layed the first aid on the coffee table in front of her, next where she had sat her radio down. She looked up and cracked a slight smile at my handy work
“You look hilarious,” she said said giggling a bit, though it did seem forced. “If I’d known this is how you’d look, I would have head butt you a long time ago.”
I smiled down at her. “Well, you found a way to make me uglier. I’ll get ya back one day”
She looked down at the kit and back to me. I looked to the stairs.
“If you want, you can have my room since your old one is pretty much empty now. I don’t mind the couch”
“The couch is fine, Kam,” she replied. “There’s a shower down here, I saw a box of some clothes I left behind in the closet…” She trailed off a bit, looking at something behind me.
“Keeley?”
She shook her head out of a daze and looked back up at me with a smile I didn’t quite believe.
“Thank you for the first aid,” she said. “I would like to take a shower, change and go to sleep but I can’t do that with you down here.” She said, not breaking eye contact. I normally would pry, but in this moment, I attributed her odd behavior to the earlier events. I was feeling the weight of the day as well. After slowly nodding, I turned to head to my room.
“G’night, Kee. I love you.”
“I love you too, Kameron.”
I stopped. Her voice choked up when she said my name. I turned back to her, only to find her smiling at me with eyes full of tears.
“Go to bed, please,” she said quietly. “I’m gonna be fine.”
I felt my throat getting hot and started to fight tears from creeping up myself. Before it could happen, I turned back and went up to my room. I can’t even remember the last time Keeley saw me cry. Hell, I can’t even remember the last time I ever did. Either way, that ended once I got to my room. I sat on my bed and wept into my hands. For so long, I tried to make Keeley feel like I had answers and knew what was going on. After today, I’m not sure how much longer I can do it. I’m still not sure it was real. If it wasn’t, then I’m unraveling, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do.
After pulling myself together, I got in the shower to wash the day off of me. Every time I closed me eyes, I saw her. My mom, with that horrid smile, piercing me with her eyes. Quickly, I finished up and prepared for sleep, thinking a good rest would set me straight. Unfortunately, that would not be the case.
For what felt like hours, I tossed and turned through the night, the images I seen playing back in my head like a video tape. The stairwell, the ever-changing walls and floors, Keeley trapped in the room with mom, or…whatever is pretending to be her. My mind kept swimming, wondering what happened before I got there. Even when I drifted off, I had the first nightmare I’d had in years. I’m not much of a dreamer, so when I do I tend to remember most if not all of it. Even now, wide awake, I shudder thinking back to it.
I was still in my bed, but unable to move. My eyes frantically darted around and I realized I was in that white room Keeley was locked in. What little light shown swung from the ceiling, dimly flickering as it swayed. The only sound was the same droning feedback that came from the intercom earlier. Another noise made itself known and I saw two hands rise up from the end of the bed frame and grip the top with long black claws. A dark figure heaved itself upward, lumbering over my paralyzed body. The breathing coming from me was so visceral it felt as if my lungs were the size of a baseball. Before I knew it, mom was at the foot of my bed looking into me with the face ripping smile I ruthlessly hated.
The intercom humming grew in volume until it was practically shaking the ground. Freezing temperatures encumbered the room like a portal to the arctic had opened. The only warmth I felt were the burning tears beginning to flow down my face as I desperately tried to move an inch to no avail. Abruptly, the feedback distorted and a voice blared throughout the room. It was similar to the one from before but as if it were combined with radio static. Like if running a knife along piano wire had a voice. Even worse, mom’s torn mouth moved in unison to the words, dark blood pouring over her lips.
“There appears to be an intruder on the premises. Please remain in your current area as I locate them.”
The creature leaned forward digging its claws into the frame. When it spoke again, the noise came only from it’s blood soaked throat in a deep, wet growl that ripped away at my sanity.
“And it doesn’t matter where you hide, Kameron.”