So, this all started last year, I figured I should retell it as a warning to others to be careful. I live in a relatively nice neighborhood, a lot of families around and being someone with no kids I have the ability to have fun with my Halloween decorations. I didn’t buy my house, my parents did and since they moved down to Florida after retirement, they gave it to me, and I haven’t sold it yet.
On October 1st I started putting up my decorations. A big skeleton, an inflatable cat, another cat with I guess a metal skeleton. A few inflatable pumpkins and so on and so forth. It’s fun seeing everyone stop by to grab pictures with the blowups. After about a week, I woke up one day to find the blowups plugged in, odd but I assumed I had just forgotten to turn them off before bed like I always do. I go about my day and at the end of the day, I go outside and make sure that my blow ups are unplugged, I stand there, looking at it so the picture of them unplugged is burned into my head. I go back inside and head off to bed, next morning I get up and they are plugged back in.
Alright, this is getting odd, however maybe people want pictures and I turn them off before they can get there, that’s creepy and would prefer them to not do that, or at least turn it back off after they are done. The next two nights nothing happens, and the lights stay off. I assumed I was right, and it was just a misunderstanding. On October 11th, I shut the lights off and headed to bed as usual. I wake up around 4:30 in the morning and decide to get up for a drink of water. I get my water and look out the front window to see the blowups and lights are on and fully inflated, now I’m getting a bit angry, but I keep my calm. I walk outside, walk to the end of the driveway and look around, no cars, no people, nothing. I turn to go back inside and about halfway down a chill goes up my spine. I get a worried feeling but shake it off as the chilly Northeastern weather. I walk back inside, shutting the lights off and locking the door behind me. I woke up the next morning to see the blowups had stayed off.
My sister was coming over that day with my nephew who always loved my decorations. I turned them on early today and made 2 cups of coffee, a cup of tea and a hot chocolate for the youngster. My sister pulled into the driveway with her husband and son. I open the front door and wave to them as they admire the decorations. My sister and nephew go around the yard looking as I invite Tom inside for coffee, plus since we are alone, I will get the chance to ask about what’s been going on. We sat at the table, and I went through the whole story and how odd it was, he agreed that it couldn’t have been people taking pictures due to the frequency of it.
“Maybe it’s a ga ga ga ghost.” He says sounding Shaggy from scooby doo like waving his fingers up and down trying to look spooky.
“Oh great, if that’s the case I get to call the local priest so he can tell the ghost to fuck off.” I replied.
“If it works it works man.” Tom said. I agreed but blaming it on a ghost seemed too easy, something else was up.
“What if it’s just some kids messing around?” I ask
“That’s possible and does actually make sense.” Tom says, “Did you contact the police about it?”
“No, I haven’t bothered, it’s been mostly harmless, so I didn’t see a point.” Just then the door opened, I was about to jump but I heard my nephew yell from down the hallway.
“Dad, Uncle let’s play football!!” Me and Tom shrug, probably a good idea to get my mind off this.
We were outside for a few hours slinging the pigskin. However, the entire time something didn’t feel right. I would say if it felt like something was watching us but..it felt more sinister than that. I notice Tom looking at me with concern, I nod as if to tell him I feel it too. Tom decides to end the trip early before we eat dinner, lying saying he didn’t feel good to his wife and son. My sister apologized but I understood, I wouldn’t want my family here either if something really was off about the situation, especially if it was dangerous. They leave after goodbyes and I am left alone again, I still have that feeling as I make my way back inside… Three days after their visit, the lights were turned back on, each night, I was at my limit at that point. I was going to find out who is doing this and put a stop to it. I decided a stake out was in order.
At around 11 PM that night I had everything I needed, a few cups of coffee, snacks and a baseball bat. I also had my police scanner just in case I heard them mention anything suspicious in my area. I waited around, pacing back and forth and my mind wandered to the events of this month. I was now furious, it has happened day after day, not only is it wasting electricity and money but it’s just pissing me off now. As I was thinking about how angry it made me, around 1:30 AM that night, I saw the lights turn on through the front windows.
Bingo! I raced out the side door where the plug for the lights is. I ran through the kitchen and opened the side door leading to the garage. I opened the door to the outside, stepped our panting and yelled “who keeps doing this! I’m sick and fucking tired of this you piece of shit!” I pause waiting to hear a response or anything. Nothing, I was about to scream again, then I heard it, something, the crunching of a leaf and the inflatable skeleton moving slightly.
There is! “Come out you con of a bitch” I yell shining the flashlight I brought onto the rear of one of the blows up. I wait, silence overcomes my yard, I realize for a short moment that I hope I don’t wake up my neighbors, this would be hard to explain. That thought leaves my mind the second the Blow up starts moving slightly, finally. I see something black and long move around the blow up. Suddenly, I get a strange feeling, something familiar…it’s what I felt the other day outside with my sister’s family. I see what I assume to be a foot, I stand confidently, I know I should show no fear to this jerk. More of their body moves into the light of my flash light…wha..what?
What I saw made me want to vomit, I felt dizzy and disgusted. What walked out I can best describe as a..tall…skeleton..? similar to the one pictured on the blowup, it seemed unnaturally long and was much taller then inflatable blow up, which was about 6 feet. It took…a step towards me while moving away from the blowup and looked at me with the skeletons eyeless holes where its eyes would be. I took a defensive step back and stared in horror. “wha…what the fuck…” I mumble. It takes another step forward as I take another step back in response. My flashlight had the…thing fully in view. it was…a perfect copy of the skeleton on the blowup.
Then…then it started to shake, or….no..its body, if you can call it that, started to crawl..like millions of small bugs surrounded its body. After a minute of what I best describe as morphing or..changing, what I saw was almost worse than a skeleton…it was the black cat decoration that stood on the front steps of my house, but standing up right like a person. It fucking transformed…what the fuck is this thing. I stare in shock, what do I do now? I doubt this thing will listen to me politely asking it to stop turning my lights on. It takes another step towards me, Ithink for a second, I’m 10 feet from the door, can I turn around and run fast enough to beat it to the door?
It started to change again, this time into another skeleton, similar to the first one but with a little red bow tie, the thing pauses for longer this time, it’s now boney mouth starts opening, is it trying to speak? No..it’s…it’s..trying to..smile? Oh God, it starts to lift its skeleton arm up, that’s it I turn and bolt for the door. I ran into the garage slamming the side door behind me and ran up the short stairs to the door leading into the house. I looked behind me as I opened the door, I…I saw the doors bronze colored knob begin to slowly turn, and then… the door opened slightly with a creek.. I stood in shock and terror, frozen I..I couldn’t move… I saw what looked like a talon, or claw, slowly reaching towards the light switch beside the door. It had changed again.
It reaches towards the light switch… *flick* I am met with pitch black in front of me, the only light coming from the night light in the kitchen. Maybe a second or two goes by, run! my brain tells me, but I can’t move, I’m frozen in place. RUN!! I turn and run into the house making a half assed attempt to shut the door behind me. I hear the door leading into the garage slam open with a thud as it hits the garage wall and scuttling as that thing runs up the stairs leading into the house. I make my way into the kitchen and juke right as if I was a wide receiver in an NFL game. I put my hand on the knob that holds onto the railing to the stairway up to my room. I hit the first step as I heard the thing slam into the kitchen table and chairs, vital seconds I needed.
I get to the top of the stairs and thank god I had shoes on, or I would have slipped on the floors. I made a dead sprint maybe 20 feet to my room as I heard the clacking of the talon claw things following me up the stairs. I get into my room, slamming the door shut behind me and quickly double lock the door. I wait a second and hear a thud on the door and feel the door shutter as the thing makes contact…then…silence.. I sat in silence, fear and adrenaline coursing through my body. I think about what it would have done to me if it hadn’t tripped or I didn’t make it inside in time. I wait, maybe a minute in silence, too afraid to move. Suddenly, I hear something.
“U..uncle…c..can we go out..out and play….”
I don’t know if I went pale, I couldn’t see myself in the dark. but the cold sweats all over my body, the goosebumps, the chill down my spine..dear God..it was impersonating my nephew. I knew I didn’t want to see what that thing looked like, I had to get out of there quickly, before it figured out how to get in. Think..THINK..then it hits me. I keep my keys in a drawer in my room, along with my wallet and other essentials. I just need to figure out how to get out of the room. As I silently make my way towards my bed and drawer, I hear its claws, slowly scratching against the door. I grab the keys and start looking around where to make my escape, thanks to the carpet of the floor, I am silent on my feet.
I looked towards the front facing window, I realized I could sneak out my bedroom window. I quickly and quietly make my way and look out; I see the slated roof that ends about 10 feet before the ground. Being 6 foot 1, if I can quickly hang myself by my hands that’s about a 4-foot drop, looking out I can see my car sitting there in the driveway. I can do this. I unlock the window, keys in hand, and slowly lift I, the sound of the air entering after breaking the seal makes me pause, fuck I forgot about that. I hear the bedroom door knob start to jingle quickly. I rush over and get an office chair my Dad used to read in his room in peace, his words not mine. Pushing it up to the door, I make sure to make a slight noise, just in case it doesn’t think I am in here any more. Maybe not the wisest idea as the door handle starts jiggling even more..fuck.
Rushing towards the window, the is jiggling and gets louder, as if it is trying to rip the knob off the door. I open the window fully thankfully more silently than before, the sound muffled by the creature. I slid myself through the window feet first (maybe being tall and skinny paid off) As I scooted down the slatted roof, looking at the pavement below.
I carefully look down, I turn facing the window, grabbing the gutters as quickly as possible. It then hits me that this won’t hold my weight. Well too late now it’ll have to do. My waist makes it past the gutter, I have maybe 7 feet before I hit the ground, I feel the gutter start to bend a bit towards me, I try as quickly as possible to let myself down. Now about chest high to the gutter, I say fuck it. I let go, making an attempt to launch myself back so as not to hit my face. It works, sort of, as I hit the ground with a clap of my shoes.
I lose my balance and land on my ass, I feel pain shoot up, I stand up realizing it wasn’t so bad and glad I didn’t break anything, yet at least. I reach for the door and pause. it’ll hear me, I waited a moment. I need a distraction or something. Suddenly, I hear it, *BANG* the thing I assume, slams its body full force against the bedroom door. I’m sure I heard the door splinter. I rip open the car door and put the key in and turn, no cliche here, she starts with a purr. I slam the car door as I hear the thing slam through the bedroom door, the door flying across the room.
I shift into reverse and floor it down the driveway, I make it to the end of the driveway and spin the wheel to turn the car to face the street.
I didn’t even want to lookback, but I did, I saw the thing trying to get out the bedroom window that I had just slipped out of. I shift into drive once again and floor it down my street. I aim for the highway since I can floor it for as long as the car will take me. I look into the rearview mirror as I am about to turn on the main road, I see it in the middle of the road, facing me, turning, I manage to turn without rolling over and haul ass. I made it all the way to the largest city in my state, about a 45-minute drive turned into 25 due to my foot never leaving the peddle. The lights made me feel a little bit better. I ended up getting a hotel room and stayed the night.
I called the cops as soon as I got up and explained that I think someone broke into my house. I tried to explain that I panicked and just ran instead of immediately calling the police. I don’t think the dispatcher believed me but She asked me to meet the officers at my house. I obliged, I didn’t want to go back but I did. I revisited the house the next morning, against my wishes, thankfully I had 4 police officers accompanying me. They were horrified to see the damage to my house, thankfully they believed me when I said I didn’t, couldn’t have done this.. I think they put it down as an animal that broke in or something. After that day, I sold the house and moved. Luckily, I have family in Ireland, so I figured I could move in with them until I can get citizenship or something. Having been a year since it happened, I’ve slowly stopped second glancing at everything and staying up all night scouting the house and looking out windows. My family was confused at first but assumed it had something to do with the trauma of an animal attack, I decided sticking with what the police said was better than the truth. They recommend a therapist, but I’ll be cold and dead before I see a shrink.
All though, the thing that still haunts me every night. With what I believe to be its true form, though I’m still not sure. In the window, originally, I thought it was pale like a person, but it was more red, dark, dark red, as if it didn’t have skin covering its body, or what I assume was its muscles. It was skinny like it hadn’t eaten in years, and its face, sunken eyes that were half pitch black and half white, its massive teeth, long spindly needles like the anglerfish seen in finding nemo. Its teeth went as high as where its nose should have been and as far down as the end of its chin. It had long talons like a sickle or bush cutters you’d see at lawn care stores. It was entirely unnatural. I thought about researching what it might be, but I just want to forget it existed. I still see that monster in my dreams, but thankfully I haven’t seen it person since that day, and let me tell you, I don’t ever want to see that fucking thing again.