College was an agonizing three years for me. I was too lazy to sit down and study, so I was the guy who furiously turned the pages in his notebook with deep desperation in his eyes, trying to absorb as much information as he could before the exams. I knew I had to get a grip on myself sometime soon and learn to study, or else I would fail miserably. But that wasn’t the case. Barely passing all my subjects, last summer I obtained my degree. Now, past the three worst years of my life, I was ready to hunt down a well-paying job and start my independent, adult life.
Two months later, I was in my shitty car, a suitcase with all my stuff in the back seat, ready to move back to my mother. Unable to find a job, I struggled with rent, so I had to make an embarrassing call to my mom asking for help. I couldn’t ask for money, of course, but I asked her if I could stay with her for a while just until I found a job and could afford rent. She agreed immediately and it seemed to me from her tone of voice that she was happy to have some company.
She has been all alone since my dad died almost two years ago. I didn’t have any siblings, and most of our relatives lived too far for frequent visits. When my father died, I promised to visit her often, seeing how lost she was without him. Unfortunately, that ceased after just a few occasions. I was always angry at myself when I postponed it but not too much to make the trip after all. Now we could spend all our time together, not that it could make up for my lack of visits.
It was well in the afternoon when I arrived. I pulled up the driveway, got my luggage, and headed inside. I entered the front door and stopped just taking in the sight of my childhood home, which I hadn’t seen in almost two years. It wasn’t all that long ago, but I felt a sense of nostalgia. I let go of my bag, which landed on the wooden floor with a heavy thud, wondering where mom could be. I made my way to the living room, where I found her sitting in an armchair looking at the tv.
“Hey mom, I’m home.” – I announced my arrival. I glanced at the tv, walking towards her, interested in what she was watching so immersed she didn’t even hear me enter the house. The tv, however, showed a blank screen. Finally, she seemed to notice me as she stood up, turning her attention to me. She seemed preoccupied as she gave me a weak hug and said hi.
“Hey, your voice’s a little raspy. You’re not sick, are you?” – I asked, a little concerned. She reassured me that everything was okay, and she was as healthy as ever. As I went up to my room to unpack, she went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. I told her it wasn’t necessary, and that she could just rest but she insisted. Putting away my belongings shouldn’t have taken long, but something from my old bedroom distracted me every five minutes. Every time I found something I sat down with it remembering the good times as if they happened a long time ago and not just a few years ago. As I sat down with a picture that showed me and my parents at my 10th birthday party, I felt an odd sensation. I could have sworn someone was watching me. The feeling was so strong I could almost feel the gaze on my back. I looked around the room trying to calm down myself. It was a pretty stressful time in my life, and it seemed my brain started to tire. I considered skipping dinner and going to sleep but I didn’t want mom’s work to go to waste. And I had one other thing to do while I waited. I sat down at my desk and picked up my phone.
“Hey man, what’s up? – Danny spoke. Danny was my best friend. We met in elementary school and as the two troublemakers in class, we quickly bonded in detention. People always told me these early friendships were never lasting, but our friendship was as strong as ever nearly two decades later. “Hey, guess who’s back in town?” – I asked. “No way! Mr. big shot engineer finally showed his face again huh?
“Shut up, okay? I’m a bit lost at the moment.”
“So what? You need me to jump in and save the day? You know I’m ready.” – He laughed.
“No, it’s cool. I just wanted to see if you were free some time to hang out or something” – As our conversation continued, I was nonchalantly spinning with my chair looking at nothing in particular when I noticed my door. In the gap of the slightly ajar door was my mother’s face. She was looking right at me. As our eyes met, she quickly disappeared. Being so weirded out I was probably silent for some time as the yells of Danny were what took me back. Quickly ending our discussion, I went downstairs. It was pretty weird but I surely overreacted. She probably came to get me down for dinner but didn’t want to disturb me while I was on the phone. Probably.
As I was walking to the dining table, I asked her about it. She pretended like she had no idea what I was talking about. Now it was really weird. Looking down and glancing at my dinner made everything much more bizarre. My mom allegedly cooked for hours and on my plate, there were simple scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs with shells in them. Mother wasn’t a world-famous chef or anything, but she wouldn’t make a mistake like this. Something was wrong. Now, I was sure. While I thought about how to bring up the topic again, I hunted down the parts without shells in them. When I finally knew what to say to her, I was shot down almost immediately. I finally told her to go rest a bit while I wash the dishes. Feeling lost, and uneasy, I decided to turn in for the night. On my way to my room, I said goodnight to mom who was once again sitting in front of the turned-off tv.
The next day I woke up at noon. I was really tired if I managed to sleep fifteen hours. I was going to meet Dan today. I didn’t set an alarm, because how could I be late for a meeting that was at one pm? Well, I almost managed to do it. After I was ready, I searched for my mom to tell her I’m off. When I finally arrived at the café, we agreed to meet at, Dan had already ordered two coffees for us. Sitting down I made my excuses which he ignored and asked how I was. Time passed quickly as we talked. We had much to catch up on. After we were caught up on each other’s life, we fell silent for a while.
“So. What’s wrong?” – Dan asked.
“What do you mean?” – I answered with a question between two sips of my coffee.
“You have this worried expression. You look like shit, to be honest.” – he chuckled. – “You can tell me you know”.
“I’m a little worried about mom. It’s nothing serious. Or at least I’d like to think it’s not.” – I confessed.
“Is she ill or something?” – Now he too, had a look of concern on his face.
“Yeah, I think so. It’s nothing concrete. She just really seems disorientated. Like she’s confused all the time. I found her watching tv when I arrived. But it was turned off. I also caught her spying on me and when I confronted her, she pretended like she didn’t know what I was talking about.”
“Woah, that’s a little weird, but I’m not sure that means she’s ill. Everyone has these kinds of days When you’re just spaced out throughout the day. But if you’re that worried take her to a doctor.”
“But that’s the thing. She refuses to see a doctor. I just don’t know what to do. She gets so angry when I mention it.”
“Look. What if you’re right? What’s worse? Her being upset with you because you forced her to see a doctor or her condition worsening because she didn’t get treatment in time?”
“You’re right” – I admitted.
“As always” – he smiled.
“I’ll talk to her when I get home, and tomorrow I’ll take her to the doctor even if a have to drag her away.
The sun was already going down when we said our goodbyes. I told him I’ll text him about how it went with mom and went home. Dan was right. I didn’t care if she would be angry. What mattered was her health. There was no time to waste. As soon as I got home, I was determined to convince her it was in her best interest to seek help. I found her in the living room. She was standing in front of the tv, just looking at it silently.
“What are you doing mom?” – I asked in a worried voice.
“Oh, I’m just watching tv, son.” – she said as she turned to me. She only turned her neck, her body still facing the tv.
“But it’s not even on.”
“Oh, is that so? I didn’t realize.” – she spoke without any emotion. It was scary to see her like this.
“Mom, you have to admit, there’s something wrong. Please just let me take you to a doc…” – Her expression turned into anger so quickly I couldn’t finish my sentence. She screamed at me.
“NO! I already told you, there’s nothing wrong. Just leave me alone.” – With that, she walked towards the front door.
“Please wait mom.” – I said as I grabbed her arm. There was something seriously wrong with her. She needed urgent help; I couldn’t just let her go. Strangely though, I couldn’t stop her. She pulled me along for a few steps as I tried to stop her with more and more power. She finally stopped and looked back at me. Her eyes were so full of anger it honestly creeped me out. She escaped from my hold and stormed out the door.
I called her dozens of times and left voicemails and texts, but no response. I was hoping she was at a friend, trying to calm down. Something was bothering me though. When she pulled away from my hold. Her skin was loose. I didn’t know how else to describe it. When she pulled away it was like her arm was moving but her skin remained in my hand. Like it was not attached to her or something. I told myself I was just imagining it. It was already a weird situation, and my mind just made it up. I went to sleep assuming she would be home by morning.
I woke up in the middle of the night. I had this terrible feeling that I wasn’t alone. As I picked up my phone, I saw that it was almost 1 am. I turned on the flash to look around the room. As the light shone on the open door I panicked. I always closed the bedroom door before sleep.
“M-Mom?” – I stuttered. I wished she would answer me, confirming it was her, but the silence remained. I didn’t move. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t. After a few silent seconds, something moved. A hand appeared on the wall. It was followed by a face. It was my mother’s. she peeked into the room looking right at me. I wanted to say something, but nothing came. I was petrified. Her mouth slowly stretched into a grin. At that moment, I was sure. Whoever or whatever was standing at the door was not my mother. I hadn’t seen my mother since I came home.
“Don’t worry son.” – her words pulled me back to the moment. – “Just go back to sleep. Mom’s here.”
I was so scared I felt like I could die. She probably saw it on my face as she started giggling. As slowly as she appeared she disappeared behind the wall, but I didn’t hear any footsteps. I was too scared to move but I had to. I had to at least close the door before she came back. I wasn’t sure if she would only talk the second time around. It took some time, but I convinced myself to go. I ran to the door slamming it shut. I pushed the dresser in front of it and sat down against it. I sat there the whole night without sleeping.
The next day I went to the police and reported my mother missing. I only told them that we had an argument which ended in her leaving, and I haven’t seen her since. I couldn’t tell them about the thing that looked like her, I didn’t want to be seen as crazy.
I didn’t want to go back to the house. But where could I have gone? I started applying to every job listing I found determined to get out as soon as possible. I prayed that for the time I had to spend in that house she – or rather, it - wouldn’t come back. My prayers fell on deaf ears though. The thing visited me every day and always made sure I would know. Items were misplaced, and sometimes I would find the back door open or there would be dirty footprints on the floor. But the scariest ones were the messages. I found them scratched into the wallpaper from time to time. They were all along the lines of how it misses me, and that it would come back to me soon.
Sadly, as time passed, she became bolder. She came when I was awake. I heard footsteps behind me and found new messages while I was home. She would often knock on the doors and windows. I felt like it was constantly watching me. I couldn’t sleep at all. I was too terrified. I was slowly going insane.
The last incident happened a week before I moved out. I came home from work. I was beyond exhausted. Work was hard and I didn’t sleep for the past two days. I sat down on the couch and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up the sun was already setting. I just sat there trying to cheer myself up telling myself I could rent a place soon. That’s when I felt it. A strange warm feeling on the top of my head. Like someone was breathing down on me. I looked up.
There I could see something looking down at me with joy in its eyes. Its eyes were terrifying, like a wild animal’s, its skin was like the whole body was badly burned a while ago and now scar tissues covered it. I could only see the face through something that hung from its head. It was like a rubber mask that melted and stretched out. When I tried to focus on it, I recognized my mother’s face. Tears welled up in my eyes as I jumped up and faced the thing. I saw a smile behind the skin it wore as a mask. It spread out its arms.
“Give your mother a hug.” – it said. I started backing up towards the kitchen.
“What’s wrong son? Can’t you recognize your mother?” – at this point I was crying. Not only from fear but also cried for my mom. I already knew she was dead, but it was like a dream up until now. A long, terrible nightmare.
The smile disappeared from its face suddenly. It leaped at me. I ran into the kitchen, ripped open a drawer, and picked up a knife. I only had time to turn around as the thing crashed into me. And right into the knife as well. With a puzzled look on its face, it moved back a few steps. It let out a horrifying shriek as it grabbed the knife. I didn’t wait any longer, I ran out the back door and went for the car. Luckily, I still had my keys in my pocket. I didn’t stop until I was out of town. Pulling over I just cried until I fell asleep behind the wheel.
I crashed at Dan until I found a place to stay. When I found one cheap enough to afford, I went back to that house once more. I collected my stuff, often looking behind me, scared that I would see the thing running at me. When I finished, I went to the kitchen. I saw a trail of dried blood leading to the open back door. And there was something else in the kitchen. In a heap on the kitchen floor, there were big chunks of something rotting away. It was human skin.