I call it “The Crawler.”
The reason I chose that name is because that’s exactly what this thing does. I sleep with the door open each night to hear if someone’s breaking in. I know the excuse is stupid.
Wouldn’t you be safer with the door closed if someone broke in?
Perhaps, but because I’m a heavy sleeper, I want to be absolutely sure I’ll wake up if someone tries breaking into my apartment. I don’t consider myself built by any means, but I like to think I can hold my own in a fight. Call me paranoid, but my apartment isn’t in the best neighborhood– I guess you really do get what you pay for, but I digress.
I always have the TV playing in the living room each night to deter intruders, and I have a nightlight plugged into the wall in the hallway leading to my room. These provide just enough light to keep my room dark and let me see what’s going on in the rest of my apartment. Granted, I can’t see the living room to the left of the hallway, but I can still hear better with my bedroom door open.
My first experience with the Crawler was about three weeks after moving into the apartment. I woke up and reached over the side of my bed, grabbing a can of lukewarm beer and finishing it. When I looked to the left and down the hallway, I jerked my arm back and shot up straight. At the very end of the hall was a…
Torso, holding itself up straight. The body was charred black like charcoal, and this thing’s lower jaw looked non-existent. The arms had patches of burnt skin barely hanging onto the dirty gray bones. And its eyes were gone, leaving only gaping black holes that seemed to be overflowing with nothingness.
I was in shock. I thought I finally snapped. Had the stress of work caught up with me mentally and caused me to start seeing… monsters?
Then it vanished from reality as quickly as I could comprehend what I was looking at. Suffice to say, I stayed awake the rest of that night. After dumping all the beer and liquor in my apartment, I dreaded the following night. Somehow, I got through the day, and when I finally went to bed, I slept with all the lights on. I survived the night and realized I had seen that thing because I was drunk. It had to be because I was drunk. Why else would I have seen something as hellish as that?
Everything was quiet for the next few weeks, and I soon pushed it to the back of my head. That was until last night, however. Last night was possibly the most horrific night of my entire life.
I woke up to silence.
Upon opening my eyes, I saw rays of light from the street lamp outside my apartment, pooling in from the gaps in my broken blinds. The sound of the TV was replaced by my beating heart. I could feel the sweat slowly running down the right side of my forehead as I sat up and turned to my right. Again the Torso was at the very end of the hall. I was paralyzed with fear, unable to move an inch.
The torso extended its right arm forward and slowly started dragging itself. Then the left arm reached forward, and I watched, frozen in place as this… this… this thing started crawling toward me. Finally, it stopped in the middle of the hallway, next to the nightlight.
I can’t compare the horror of watching its left hand cover the bulb and crush it to anything else. I was in complete darkness, unable to move. I could hear what sounded like a joint popping, followed by what I assumed was its hands slapping the floor as it started crawling to my room faster. The noise continued on until it reached my doorway.
Before I knew it, the sun was shining through my window, lighting up my room and the empty hall. Near the outlet in the middle of the hallway was broken glass from the bulb. A sharp pain in my left hand finally made me type this post. There were shards of glass stuck in the palm of my hand. After spending all day in the hospital, I’m back in my apartment with all the lights on, and staying awake is getting harder with each passing minute.
Do any of you have any idea what the hell is going on? Am I losing my mind? I’ve read online that I should burn sage, but does any of that stuff even work? Where the hell do you even get sage at? Some websites suggest laying down salt to check for any signs of disturbance, but what if I lay it down and it is disturbed? How will that solve anything?
I don’t have anywhere else to go, and I can’t afford a hotel. If anyone has anything that might help me, then please let me know. Until then, I don’t plan on sleeping anytime soon.