When you live in Raw, chances are you’re deeply afraid of Leslie Torres. Unless you know him. The only thing you have to fear then is getting on his bad side, or, you know, taking on a wager of any kind with him.
I don’t know if Leslie’s cursed or has Loki’s favor or something, but no matter the bet, he always wins. I had to learn that the hard way when I drunkenly agreed to a game of strip poker. He was kind enough to let me keep on my underwear but he laughed his ass off. However in every social group, there’s always this one person who never learns from their mistakes, and in this case, that would be Rocco.
Now if you know Rocco, you know he’s something. He’s funny, easy to talk to and a good guy at heart, albeit a little on the nasty side sometimes, but most of all, he’s not very smart. I mean, no offense to the man but there’s only so much I can give him credit for. Not that he’s an idiot, he just never learns. Imagine my surprise when one day, completely out of the blue, Mars called me and asked me if I could come over and bring some pain meds or something against a stomach bug.
“Yeah, sure. Why?”
“Don’t get too worried or anything, but I think Rocco’s dying.” I could hear pathetic little moans in his voice coming from somewhere in the background, mixed with Leslie’s husky laughter.
“Okay, what happened?” I asked sharply.
Mars let out a deep sigh. “Rocco dared Leslie to pickpocket one of the bigger guys here in Foul.”
I didn’t need to ask who had emerged victorious. “What did he make him do as punishment?”
Mars sighed again, even louder this time. “Rocco is bound by his word as a gentleman to eat his body weight in watermelons.”
See, I don’t think he’s dumb in the general sense, but who in the world enters into a bet with Leslie, especially when they’ve known him for such a long time? Rocco is also a bit of a conspiracy theorist. He believes in ghosts, aliens, evil doctors, bigfoot and all that jazz. Furthermore, he used to be dead set on his suspicion that a certain old, abandoned house on the outskirts of Raw was haunted.
So last year in summer, Mars came to pick me up from home to spend some time with the group. She has this cute little white and pink motor scooter which she only uses when she’s around town “incognito”–she looks a lot less threatening when she’s riding something that looks like it’s from a Barbie doll set instead of touring around with three dudes in all leather. Either way, she took me over to Foul where we arrived just in time to witness a heated debate between Leslie and Rocco.
Hopping off Mars’ scooter, I ran up to Leslie to greet him. He thankfully accepted my hug, despite still obviously being a bit angry with his friend.
“So,” I began, “what’s the deal here?”
Rocco let out a deep sigh. Instead of answering however, he pointed into the air behind him accusingly while at the same time flashing Leslie a triumphant smile. “She’s from Raw, she can literally tell you I’m right! Go on, Pepper. That old large house that’s kind of halfway in Raw and halfway in the desert, know which one I mean?” –I nodded– “It’s haunted, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Oh.” I frowned. “Uh… I don’t know actually. Never really thought about it.”
Leslie grinned widely. “Of course not. Miss Bennett here is a clever and busy woman, Rocco, you really think she gives a damn about that old shack?”
I got a little red in the face from that. Still, I had to contradict him. “Just because I never thought about it doesn’t mean it’s not true.”
Rocco let go of a breath of relief. “See?”
Leslie looked a bit disappointed. “You shouldn’t encourage him, you really shouldn’t.”
“So why do you think something’s wrong in there anyways?” I inquired.
“Glad you asked. It was really creepy. Last week, I was walking around out there because my car had run out of gas. Not gonna lie, I was planning on stealing some. Either way, I walked by the house and there was this odd, distinct wailing coming from inside. The door was hanging wide open since it’s broken and the hinges are insanely old, so I could hear it loud and clear.” He shuddered at the memory.
“Are you sure it wasn’t a squatter or a stray animal?” I asked. “I told him that too,” Leslie muttered from beside me.
“No. It just… I don’t know. It didn’t sound right. But isn’t there, like, any legends about that place? You guys live all around it, someone must have noticed something,” Rocco went on.
I shook my head. “Sorry, but not really.” He hung his head. Seeing his friend so crestfallen seemed to make Leslie soften up a little. “Maybe we could take a look at it. Who knows, could be fun. Like, what do you call it? Urban exploring?” He glanced over at me for confirmation and I shrugged and nodded. “Might even find something. Least it’ll be off the table afterwards,” he added.
“Wait, so this is actually a thing we’re gonna do now?” Mars asked incredulously, exchanging looks with Sandy, who had been standing beside them watching the scene in silent apathy.
To answer her question and fast forward a little, yes it was. Soon enough, we were all standing in front of the old, abandoned building.
“This must have looked really pretty once,” Leslie remarked as we climbed up the porch. He had an almost dreamy look on his face when he turned to me. “Imagine living in a place like this.”
“Actually, if we don’t find, like, a ghost inside and if the roof and walls are intact, why don’t you guys start staying here?” I suggested. “It definitely doesn’t belong to anybody and it looks better than the sheds and trailer.”
“Not a bad idea… we’d be closer to you too,” he replied, raising his brows as he looked the old building up and down. “Always thought Raw was kinda nice.”
“Oh my god, that’d be so cool!” Mars blurted out, tugging at the guys’ arms. “What do you think? Sure the door might need some fixing, else the monsters will get in, but other than that…”
“Let’s just take things slow for now, shall we?” Sandy reminded her and motioned for Leslie to go inside first. As my friend vanished inside the doorway, us others followed suit. Mars went in behind him, then Sandy, then me and at last Rocco. The light from outside didn’t even reach past the hallway right behind the porch. After our first steps into the old house, which were accompanied by the ominous creaking of the withered, decrepit floorboards, we were already surrounded by darkness.
I could hear Rocco draw in a sharp breath behind me as we began to look around, careful not to break out of the small line we had formed when entering. The air inside was stale and I could see flocks of dust dancing in the dying sunlight.
“No crying yet,” Leslie murmured. “So far, so good…”
The wallpapers were faded and peeling off in places, but I could make out the pale remains of a white and pink bouquet pattern on a light yellow background. It truly must have been quite pretty once. It reminded me of my own home a little, except that it was completely unfurnished. The place had really been left to itself.
The further we proceeded inside, the darker it got. We found an old, scabby kitchen and figured the room we’d found ourselves in right after entering must have been the living room. The next thing we stumbled upon was a set of staircases, one leading to the upper floors and the other down into what was probably the basement.
“For your information, I call upstairs,” Sandy said, immediately making good on his claim and shaking up dust as he ascended. Mars shrugged and followed him and Leslie leaned against the wall, lazily stretching his arms.
“I’ll leave the basement to you, bud,” he told Rocco with a smirk. “Go right ahead, I’ll wait here.”
Rocco was looking understandably uncomfortable. Leslie nodded at the staircase. “What are you waiting for? The ghost’s gotta be expecting you.”
“Aren’t you gonna–?”
“Nope. Your idea, your spook. Knock yourself out.”
“I’m coming with you,” I told Rocco. He let go of a relieved sigh and thanked me as he turned to go down the stairs, but not before sticking out his tongue to his friend. We tried to tread as carefully as we could. I had taken out my phone and was shining its flashlight down so we could at least see the way ahead of us. The stairs were wooden, old and just as decrepit as the rest of the house. I remember hoping they wouldn’t break down underneath us.
With the only light cutting through the blackness veiling the basement being my tiny phone flashlight, the mood was more than strained. The air was stale and had me feeling like I would suffocate if I breathed in too deeply.
“Like inhaling wool,” Rocco muttered and I nodded.
The room was surprisingly large. My light didn’t even reach every corner at first. I know it sounds stupid, but it felt a bit like we’d stumbled into another dimension.
“Leslie?” I called up the stairs, regretting it instantly seeing as my throat was getting dry but hoping for a hint of affirmation. “Are you there?”
“Still here,” came the reply. “Everything okay down there?”
“It’s fine,” I shouted, shuddering slightly.
“Yeah, we love it here!” Rocco added from beside me.
I could hear Leslie let out a coarse laugh. “Sure you do.”
I shined around my light some more, only to find another passage in the back of the room. Rocco seemed elated and waved for me to follow him. I shook my head. “I’m sorry, man, but this is getting a little too much for me. I’ll wait for you upstairs.”
He gave me a disappointed look. “I thought you were gonna help me! Come on. Please?”
I ignored the sting of guilt and instead handed him my phone. I quickly climbed up the stairs again where Leslie greeted me with a slightly mocking look on his face. “So?”
“I was shitting myself, okay?” I hissed as I plopped down beside him. “I just can’t with dark rooms sometimes.”
“Hey, least you own up to it. I respect that.” He chuckled. “Why do you think I don’t wanna walk around down there?”
“Wait, you’re scared too?” I asked incredulously.
He shrugged. “I like being a chicken sometimes.”
When Rocco’s piercing scream rang out from the basement however, he seemed to forget all about that. Leslie jumped up and dashed down the stairs, warning me to stay back, but I couldn’t help but follow him. Mars and Sandy appeared to have heard as well, seeing as I could hear them run to join us from upstairs. For the time being however, it was just Leslie and me in the darkness with Rocco shouting for help somewhere ahead. My heart was pounding in my chest as I called out to answer, asking him where he was.
“It grabbed me! It fucking grabbed me!” he howled instead.
“Who grabbed you? Where are you?” Leslie bellowed.
“It’s alive! Holy shit, it’s alive!”
I grabbed onto Leslie’s shirt with trembling fingers, afraid to lose him in the pitch-black room as we tried to follow our friend’s voice. Rocco was still screaming like a madman. When it finally seemed like we had gotten close to him, we still couldn’t see anything.
“Rocco, where’s my phone? Turn on the light, quick!” I shouted.
“I can’t find it,” he whimpered in response. “Wait…” Finally, a light came on right in front of us. It wasn’t as bright as before and barely illuminated our surroundings at all. There was Rocco, cowering on the floor like a wounded animal, holding my cell phone in his shaking hands as he looked up at us. “It’s behind you,” he uttered.
My heart sank. Leslie drew his gun, spun around and fired aimlessly into the darkness. I winced. “What the fuck are you doing, stop!” I whined as I tore at his shirt. He was breathing heavily but instantly gave in.
“Sorry,” he panted. “Mars? Sandy? Are you guys around?”
We could hear their answer somewhere up on the stairs. Leslie sighed. “Rocco, why do I feel like there’s nothing there?”
“Gimme that,” I said as I took my phone from his hands.
“It’s behind you, I swear,” Rocco cried out. It was only then that I noticed he didn’t look right. He seemed too panicked, too afraid. I bent down beside him and began to caress his arm.
“It’s okay,” I told him, trying to soothe his nerves. Without standing up, I gave Leslie my phone and whispered to him to go check. Rocco was still having trouble catching his breath. I grabbed both his hands and squeezed them, quietly giving more words of affirmation. I was sorry I’d left him there, I really was. The dim glow of my phone had already vanished somewhere up ahead and when I turned around to look for it, I spotted it a few feet in front of where we were sitting, unmoving in mid-air. It shone down on something I truly wish I hadn’t seen before.
It looked like the pale, bare remains of a person, but stretched and dented in an unnatural manner with thick rolls and huge lumps of flesh where they shouldn’t be any. The sight was grotesque and disgusting, but what was worse were the memories it stirred up within me. I felt sick to my stomach.
“I’ll be damned,” Leslie muttered. “What the hell is that thing?”
“I don’t know,” Rocco finally managed to press out. He appeared to have caught himself again to some extent. At least he was talking to us and breathing normally again. “I saw it lying there so I went up to it to get a better look. I thought it was something else at first, I don’t know what, but then it suddenly stuck out its arm and I swear to God, it grabbed my foot…” He took a deep, shaky breath. “I stomped on it a few times before I got away from it.”
“Yeah… I think it’s dead.” Leslie bent down, took out his gun and poked the mass of flesh with the muzzle a few times, looking to be too disgusted to touch it. “Yup. Dead. We should get out of here.”
We made our way up the stairs where I tucked away my phone. Its battery was too low to use it by then anyways. Mars and Sandy helped us once we had reached them and pulled Rocco into their arms to support him while walking. He was still a bit wobbly on his feet. The shock had really been too much for him.
“Hey… you don’t look so good,” Leslie remarked, walking slowly on purpose in order to stay beside me while the others were already out the door.
“I’ve seen that thing before. Well, not exactly that thing. But one that looked like it,” I replied.
“Oh,” he uttered. “Oh,” he suddenly repeated. “I think you’ve told me before… was it–?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it right now. Can you guys drop me off somewhere around home?”
Leslie apologized a hundred times, even though it wasn’t his fault I was in such a gloomy mood. It’s true that I told him where I’d seen a creature like the one in the abandoned building before, but that doesn’t mean it was easy talking about it. I’m not sure if doing it again will be fun, but I think I want to share this other story too, so I’ll try. Next time.