https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/v449zn/she_comes_for_anyone_i_fall_in_love_with/
I was cold and naked, standing at the end of the longest hallway that had ever existed. My breath rose up in front of me as I stared down at the hall towards the door at the end, which looked suspiciously like a tombstone. Though it was faint, I could distinctly make out the sound of a beating heart, somewhere far behind me. Or was it getting closer? I needed to move.
I ran, but I was surely moving in slow motion; The door far ahead of me was my salvation, I needed to get there, to open it…I needed to know what was within…
The beating of the heart was even nearer now. It surrounded me, a ghastly hellish drum that had no end. My legs ached nearly as much as my chest; The smell of blood, which I had never been a stranger to, stung my nostrils. I ran past the skeletal remains of Ellie, her empty eye sockets blacker than any abyss. She had one arm raised, pointing in the direction of the door. The cold air was tugging at me, threatening to suck out my insides. I passed Brenda now, her withered white hair wild in the wind, her finger also pointing at the door. I’m sorry, I wanted to yell, but I had no time; I had to make it to the door, I just had to…
I came upon Stephanie last. Her head was bent at an unnatural angle, her neck broken, her eyes completely fogged over. When I looked at her, her mouth fell open, and the cries of a tortured child blared from within as maggots spewed out. I could barely tear my eyes away from her; When I did, however, the door was gone. No, no, no, where did it go? Where did it go!
The heartbeat had enveloped me. I spun around and found myself face to face with a gray-haired, cloaked figure, slowly reaching out for me…
“Wake up!”
I sat straight up on the couch, sweat rolling down my face. I turned to my therapist, Wendy, who sat holding a notebook and pen.
“What did I say?” I asked, still skeptical about this hypnosis thing. Wendy sighed and removed her glasses.
“You described to me what you believed you saw the night that uh…Brenda passed.”
“Oh,” I muttered, my head falling. Of course it hadn’t worked…nothing ever would…
“But you mentioned something else,” Wendy continued, tilting her head. “A name.”
Her eyes met mine before she said it. “Christine. Does that name mean anything to you?”
I stared at her, then looked away quickly, tearing up. “Yeah. That was my mom’s name.”
I thought about my mother as I sat in my car, the rain rolling down my windshield, thunder booming outside. She had passed long ago, back when I was a child, from a heart attack. I don’t remember it happening, but I do remember my father’s anguish, which eventually led to his alcoholism. We had never spoken about mom again after she left us…but it was time to have that conversation.
It was nearly midnight when I pulled up in the driveway of my childhood home. I sat there for a moment, staring at the gray house looming in front of me. It felt incredibly surreal to be here again after so many years. I got out of the car, the rain pounding at me instantly, and trudged over to the front door. I knocked and waited. No response. I knocked again, harder this time. I felt as though someone was watching me and turned slowly, looking towards the driveway. She was coming towards me, her cloak black now, her face hidden behind her hood as she opened her arms wide-
“Ahhhhh!”
“Whoaaa, hey hey hey, calm down buddy, it’s just me!” My dad lowered the hood of his raincoat. I had been pressed up against the front door in terror, but I straightened up now, straightening my shirt.
“Holy shit Dad. What are you doing out here? You scared the shit out of me.”
“I got stuck at Miss Mills’ place down the street. Can I get a hug, big fella? It’s been a while!”
I hugged my dad, and though it was such a simple gesture, it felt damn good. I couldn’t help but notice that he smelt like the inside of a whiskey distillery. He unlocked the door and we went inside. He made us both bowls of soup before sitting down across from me at the little table in his dining room. We ate in silence for a few minutes before my dad got up again, walking back to the kitchen. My eyes wandered to the pictures on the walls. I could see mom, young and full of youth, holding me close as we sat in the sand at the beach.
“Want a whiskey?” dad asked, holding up a bottle.
“Dad, I thought you were sober?”
“I was…and I hope I will be again, but that sure as hell ain’t gonna be tonight. Do you want one or not?”
“I’m fine.”
Lightning struck outside, followed by thunder as the corner of my dad’s mouth twitched. “I hope you’re doing alright, son. Heaven knows you deserve some sort of happiness in your lifetime.”
I shook my head, looking away. “I can’t be happy. Never. Not as long as she’s around.”
My father sighed. “She doesn’t exist. Have you been taking your medication?”
“What really happened to mom? And what does this thing have to do with her?”
I could see the pain in my father’s eyes just before the lights went out. We were both suddenly bathed in complete darkness, the only light coming from the dull streetlamps outside.
“Ah shit, gimme a second. I’ve got some candles around here somewhere.”
My father stumbled around as I sat staring into the blackness. He returned a couple minutes later and lit four candles before sitting down and drinking the whiskey right out of the bottle.
“I owe it to them, Dad.”
“Owe it to who?”
“Ellie. Brenda. Stephanie. They’re all dead because of me. If I had never met them, they’d all be alive and well, possibly in love with some lucky guys. I know we never talk about mom, but I have to know.”
Dad took another long swig out of the bottle before he slammed it down and glared at me from across the table. All I could see was his face, the light from the candles dancing about it.
“It was fucked up, son. I had been out in the yard, doing some work, and when I came in, the house felt…different. I called out for your mother, but she didn’t answer. I uh…stepped into the kitchen, right over there in that spot, and that was when I found the two of you. Your mother had been dead more than ten minutes. You were huddled over her, just holding her pretty head in your hands. I don’t know whether or not you saw it happen, but if you did, you wouldn’t talk about it. A heart attack, the coroners said. You were traumatized. You didn’t speak for weeks after it happened.”
My father fingered the rim of his bottle, his eyes glassy. “It was bad enough, losing your mama and all. But then things started to get worse…much worse. Do you remember your dog, Bliss?”
I slowly shook my head.
“Well she turned up dead, her insides ripped out in the kitchen. I’ll admit, I was terrified; I thought that you had done it. I buried the dog but I didn’t send you away; I figured that this was just temporary, just a boy acting out because of a terrible, terrible loss. But then I started to notice her. She was just a shadow at first, lurking outside the curtains as I showered. Standing behind you at the table, watching me as I ate. I ain’t never been super religious, you know that, but I thought some sort of demon had invaded our home. I yelled at her to go away, to leave us alone. But giving her attention only made her more real.”
There was thunder, and I glanced over at the window as lightning illuminated the room. There was a shape outside. Just the tree, surely. Just the tree…
“Soon enough, other kids at your school started to get hurt. And it wasn’t like they were bullies or anything; They were your friends. Little Amber claimed she was pushed into the street; Kelly Clay fell from the jungle gym, lost all her little teeth. I could see her in full now, whenever I picked you up from school, or sat watching T.V. with you, or took you out to eat. No one else seemed able to see her, only me, and the stress of it all…well…” He held up the bottle. “But one day I decided that I’d had enough. I stopped yelling at the damned thing. I started taking you to church, and no longer acknowledged her presence. Slowly, very slowly, she began to fade away. And so I thought that she had finally gone, been ridden from your life. Until you told me about the first girl.”
“Ellie,” I sighed.
Another round of house-shaking thunder boomed, and I couldn’t help but glance at the window again. Nothing.
“But Dad…where could she have come from? What does she want from me? Do you think she’s a relative, or even…Mom?”
Dad shook his head, swigging from the bottle. “Hell no. Your mother emanated joy and love, she blessed every single thing she touched. She was sort of like Cupid. But that woman…she’s the opposite. Where your mother gave love, as you know, this thing only takes it away. I don’t know if God meant to send ya a guardian angel or something and messed up, or if she has always existed and only took advantage of our grief, but I know for a fact she isn’t anything close to your mother. If Heaven is real, your mother is there now. This woman came from somewhere down below, somewhere rotten.”
More lightning. I looked instinctively towards the window again. She was there.
I fell over backwards out of my seat, but sprang up immediately to my feet. Judging by my father’s reaction, he could see her too.
“No…no…no…” he murmured, backing away from the table and dropping his whiskey on the floor. This didn’t make sense; She had only ever come for the women that I had fallen for, what the hell was she doing here now?
She walked through the wall, joining us in the house. It was suddenly very hot now, and the all-too-familiar, putrid stench brought tears to my eyes. The woman was drenched, her wet hair clinging to her cloak. She was looking directly at my father, whose chest was heaving up and down. Another heart ready to be snatched away.
“Dad! Dad, come with me! Come on!”
I snatched my keys off the table and my father and I dashed out of the house. I started my car and peeled out of the driveway as my dad yanked on his seatbelt.
“Dammit I knew I shouldn’t have told you!” he stammered, turning to look out of the back window. “It’s only made her stronger, I shouldn’t have said a thing!”
“I’ve told people about her before, Dad, and she’s never materialized to them!” I said, turning to drive down a bridge.
“Yeah, well, none of them ever truly believed you, did they?”
“I’ll…I’ll take us to my therapist, Wendy. I think she can end this, Dad. If she can hypnotize us, then she can make us forget-“
She was standing in the middle of the road.
I swerved, my car spinning and flipping over. I briefly lost consciousness before the car finally came to a stop, right side up now, the back end hanging just over the edge of the bridge. My head rang like a bell; My arm was surely broken, and I could taste blood in my mouth. My dad was unconscious, drool dripping from his open mouth. The radio was on, but no music played; No, only the sound of a heartbeat, slow and steady, emanated from the speakers. Though the passenger side window was cracked, and my glasses had flown off, I could still see her, standing only yards away on the bridge. Dazed, I could only watch as she began coming towards the car, her stride slow and deliberate.
No…I had to move, had to get my dad the hell out of there…but any little movement I made could send my car plunging over the side of the bridge and into the black water rushing down below.
“Dad…Dad, wake up! Wake up!”
I reached out with my good arm and shook him; Dad came to, looking confusedly at me.
“Dad she’s here! You’ve gotta get out, even if it means I fall into the river! Get out!”
She stopped just outside my dad’s door and lifted one arm. We watched, trembling, as the window slowly lowered, revealing the emaciated woman. Without my glasses I still could not make out her features; But lovingly, delicately, she stuck one hand into the car and punctured my dad’s chest. I was a wreck; I stared blankly, the memory of Brenda surging back to me as my father screamed his last screams. Blood sprayed onto me and my windshield; My dad was convulsing, his arms raised above his head in a gesture of utmost agony.
She extracted it at last; His pink, beating heart. I stared at her, my eyes glazed over, and the woman turned and simply began to walk away. I couldn’t take it anymore. It had to end.
I sat forward and then thrust my body weight back with as much force as my damaged body could muster. The car gave way, and then I was falling, falling to the black waters below.