The very next day I showed up with a pair of bolt cutters and took down the locks those annoying neighbors had put up by the gate. This time it wasn’t the old couple who greeted me but a man in his thirties whom I ignored completely when he tried to talk to me. He seemed pissed once he saw the gate open and the neighborhood’s locks laying broken over the grass.
Even though the canal still gave me a feeling of uneasiness and I noticed in more than one occasion the unnerving glance of a childlike figure from the distance, though they never approached. Both the cultists and the canaleros seemed to be calculating their next move, but neither of them took action at the time being.
Once I was done with the missing sections of the canal which I hadn’t complete the day before I left the crane near the gate before rushing away from the place. Once I made it out I felt a deep feeling of despair and anguish abandoning my body like a great burden being relieved.
I locked up the crane by the canal and left for the day. At first I felt that I was being followed, but after driving around at random for a while I thought whoever it was must’ve left after a while. Most likely it would’ve been the guy who followed me throughout the canal today, I recognized him from Jorge’s sketches. Come to think of it I still hadn’t told Jorge about the encounter with the cultists, maybe I was being a little paranoid after finding that note after out prior meeting but I felt that I couldn’t trust him fully yet.
My phone rang all of a sudden, it was Roger.
“How’d you do, Dave?” He said cheerfully.
“Not bad, I just locked up the crane near the gate by canal number 9 and I’m already on my way home” I answered dismissively.
“Look, I hate to do this but I need to ask you a huge favor” he stopped for a second “I was gonna pick up the crane and drive it to my mechanic, since tomorrow’s your day off he’s gonna take a look and do some proper maintenance. Something came up though and I can’t make it, would you mind driving it to the mechanic?” He asked apologetically.
“Actually…” I looked at my watch, it was now 6pm. “I don’t think I’d be able to make it Roger” I stopped to think for an excuse.
“I understand and I’m sorry to ask out of the blue like this. But this guy charges a lot of money for these appointments. I’ll tell you what, I’d throw in a bonus for you if you do this for me, and of course these extra hours will count on your paycheck as well”
“Do you think you could call somebody else?” I asked desperately.
“You’re the only one with the crane’s keys”
“I’ll do it, but I’ll be counting on that money you promised though” I replied, instantly regretting my decision.
“You’re the man! I can’t thank you enough, really. By the way, you said canal 9, right? I hope the neighbors aren’t giving you any trouble, they’re the lousy type over there” He chuckled.
“You have no idea…” After this, I hung up and turned around once again to canal #9.
The sky was turning orange by the time I reached the crane, I was running out of time. The aura by this place had never been pleasant but by now it was at least ten times more ominous. I could feel the eyes watching me from behind the trees and bushes on the opposite side. The crane was just across the street from the canal by the HOA lunatics, I wonder if they come out at night? I didn’t felt like finding out so I’d be wise to get the hell out as fast as I could.
After I arriving at the gate I immediately opened it and tossed the lock into the ground. I’d rather apologize to Roger later on over not closing gates than risking being out there through the dusk. I jumped into the driver’s seat and ran the keys at once. I assumed I still had at least a good ten minutes before the night sat in completely, by then I’d be as good as dead.
I shift into first gear and slowly picked up the pace, not noticing when those bright yellow eyes appeared in front of me. I had forgotten those things, those fucking child-looking demons. They could appear and vanish into thin air but never too close to the gates. It seems that by dark they were not only able to do so, but the fucking thing even shoved the gate closed, looking at me dead in the eyes and smiling thoroughly. The gates were heavy enough so I couldn’t ran them over despite the size of the crane, same thing with the fences and even though the gate wasn’t locked, someone would have to physically push the gate from the other end for it to open. In other words, I was trapped.
The first thing that came to mind was to call Jorge. At this moment I had left behind all my doubts about him out of terror. He was the only one who could help me by now other than the person who left the note, but how on earth would I reach out for them?
I managed to dial Jorge’s number with trembling hands. My voice was failing me, I couldn’t articulate the words coming out of my mouth properly.
“Jorge, I fucked up… I fucked up really really bad” I cried over the phone.
“Are you in the crane right now?! What the hell is wrong with you?!” He responded apprehensively.
“I know, I’m sorry… I’m really really sorry, I know I fucked up but what should I do?”
“What canal are you at right now?” He took a deep breath.
“Number 9” I said, I could feel Jorge boiling up in rage on the other side of the line.
“Can you drive the crane to one of the main roads?”
“They closed the gate, fucking kids closed the gates” I explained desperately while Jorge cursed in Spanish quite loudly for a minute.
“Listen to me. It’s already too late for you to get out and open it, DO NOT LEAVE THE CRANE FOR ANYTHING, do you understand?”
“Yes yes, what should I do next?”
“Spray yourself with the window cleaner, don’t use too much, you’re gonna need it to spray the crane’s windows throughout the night, keep on using it, you’re gonna need a lot of it”
“What else?”
“There’s nothing more I can do for you, Dave. That’s all I know. Don’t try to play dead, don’t fall asleep, that’s all you can do, spray the windows and hope for the best”
I kept on insisting on more info, but Jorge cut me off and hung up. Was this really the end? I still have so much to live for. I immediately sprayed the windows but without wiping them with the rag, perhaps it would be better to keep as much of that stuff in the window as I can for now.
Ten minutes later, my fears as expected. It was completely dark outside. I could see the sides of the canal vaguely but the water was completely black. There wasn’t much light, every now and then the moonlight would shine a ray for a vague second before disappearing behind a cloud. That didn’t mean I couldn’t see at all in the dark, the eyes of the kids, the canaleros, shun their mustard-like yellow eyes in my direction.
There were quite a few canaleros out there. I could count at least twenty pairs of eyes moving behind the trees and hiding by the bushes. The first one caught me off guard and just tapped at the window behind me, shortly after it shrieked and backed off. The window cleaner was doing it’s job by keeping those things at bay.
The canaleros were not the only ones out there. If anything they were the least frightening thing I saw throughout the night. I had already killed two of them but unlike the canaleros, the rest of the night creatures were a mystery to me.
Right after the canalero backed off I saw a humanoid creature walking in all fours from behind a tree, white as paper and completely naked. It had long limbs and its skin was so white you could see it move clearly without any light. The worse by far was its face. It was poorly detailed and hard to distinguish. If you draw a happy face with a sharpie on a slip of paper and then let it soak on water, that would be the closest thing to what it looks like.
This creature didn’t seem too interested in me, but after a few minutes it turned in my direction and slowly started walking towards the crane. “OH SHIT” I said to myself while generously spraying the window cleaner once again across the cabin. The creature turned around uninterested and walked away.
There’s also a bug-like creature, close to a praying mantis or a scorpion, maybe both. This thing the size of a German Sheppard, it had the same color as the dark green blood the canalero spilled the day before, but it shun vaguely for some reason. However, this one wasn’t alone, there were plenty more of these giant mantis walking around the crane.
These are some of the things I saw during the night. There were more, some way worse than the ones I’ve described so far but to even think about them makes me shiver and makes me feel like throwing up just by the mere thought.
By the other end of the street I noticed a hooded figure holding a torch walking deep into the canal, shortly after followed by similar individuals. Are those the cultists? I wonder if they’d seen me, after all the crane was on and it was quite noisy, not to mention the lights inside the cabin were on. They hadn’t attacked me which was a good signal, by this point I’d take any help I can get. I considered driving up to the cultists and asking for help opening the gate, one way or another if they were to kill me it’s not like the night creatures wouldn’t had done it anyways. But something told me it would be better not to disturb whatever they were up to, after all they’re already bold enough to walk into the canal at night despite of everything I’ve seen so far.
It’s been at least two hours since I got trapped, I’m running low on window cleaner, it was already halfway gone this morning, by now it’s got about a tenth of it’s entire content. Once I ran out I’m thinking of smashing those salt crystals and diluting them into my water bottle. I don’t know if it will have the same effect and if it doesn’t then I am done for.
This might be my last night on earth. Tears are rolling down my cheeks and I can’t even hold on to the spray bottle without dropping it from my trembling hands. I wonder if I’ll ever see any light again, I wonder if I’ll get to share my last thoughts with anybody. But if there’s something I’m not wondering about, it’s that I most likely won’t make it passed tonight.