It was a slow autumn. The trees were shedding their leaves and the branches moved rhythmically with the soft wind that was blowing against them. I don’t have much time left before it finds me, so I’ll try to make this as a quick as possible. And if you are reading this… try to finish it, so you can be prepared and maybe think of a solution to this problem.
My neighbour, Mary, held a garage sale yesterday. She pretty much put up all her belongings on sale because she was moving away to live with her sister. It was just a regular sale, nothing out of the extraordinary, but the entire day was almost depressing. I’d known her for almost half a decade, and it was sad seeing her leave, but it was pretty obvious for it to happen, considering all the things she went through the previous year.
She lost her son and husband last October. It was pretty big back then and the entire locality knew it. Nothing really happens here, but last October, we were the highlight of all news channels. A couple of burglars got into her house and killed her son and husband. The police got involved, but all their investigation left them to nothing, but a dead end. It was never picked up again and was left a cold case. Mary just wanted to forget about all of it and just get away from all this misery. I respected her choice, and I thought it was probably the best thing she could do.
Her lawn was completely mobbed by people, half of whom I think are homeless. A lot of the stuff were cheap and heck, I’m surprised that she wasn’t giving any of these for free. I mean, she only charged a couple of bucks on all of ‘em. I looked through the lawn and tried to search for something valuable, but most of the stuff were already hogged by the crowd. I went over to one of the small tables, where I spotted an old Sony handy cam. I picked it up and examined it and to my surprise, it worked.
“Looks like you’ve found something, haven’t you?”
I turned around to see Mary behind me. She had a smile on her face, but in the inside I knew how miserable she was.
“Well, it is a good deal, so I can’t complain.”
“Hey, you don’t have to pay for that. We’re-“
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not taking it for free. I wanna help you out a bit.”
She let out a weak smile and walked backed towards the crowd. It broke my heart to see her like that.
If those burglars chose another house, I bet Mary would probably be busy, trying to get her son ready for school. She would’ve been living the life she would always tell me about. The life with a great husband, a wonderful child and a sublime house… but not all dreams come true I guess.
I looked at the other tables, which had some bigger stuff on it. I noticed a pretty big suitcase lying on a table. I walked towards it and tried to inspect how reliable it would be to me. The suitcase was quite heavy and weighed at least 50 kilograms. I took the things to the counter, which was just a table with some money scattered on it. I waited for Mary, who was running from table to table as customers called her. When she finally came to the counter, I gave her the suitcase and the camera.
“So, how much is it?”
“It’d be 10 bucks, but look, you don’t have to-“
I handed her the money, before she could say anything else. I grabbed the stuff and began heading home, but I turned around to ask her about the suitcase.
“Hey, the suitcase is actually pretty heavy. Is there anything you need in it?”
“No, it’s just probably some old documents. I don’t need them anyways.”
“Are you sure? I mean, it’s like really heavy. I think there’s something-“
“No, just take it.”
Her voice sounded stern. It wasn’t like Mary. It seemed like she lost her tolerance and wanted to get rid of everything she had.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t… want it. You can have it.”
“Alright then, I guess this is goodbye, ain’t it?”
I let out a smile and waved goodbye. I headed home and watched her slowly pack up the garage sale from a distance. Almost everything was sold out, and she must have reaped at least 200 bucks.
I went home and sat down. I tried to watch TV and switched through the channels, but nothing could get my mind off the fact that Mary was living. We were best friends in college, and we lived close by since we were 18, and now she’s just moving to another state. I was happy for her because she could finally get rid of all the depression she’s had to put up with, but I want her to be safe. She’s naive, and I didn’t want her to face anymore misery.
I turned the TV off and heard the rain pouring outside. My house is often quiet. I find it pleasant, but sometimes it’s just eerie, and it feels like someone is watching me.
I glanced at the camera that was seated next to me on the sofa. I decided to have a look at it and opened it, to examine the video’s quality. It seemed old due to the dust covering it, and the lens was covered in a spider web. The video quality was grainy as an old film. It was hard to make out whether the lens were closed or opened. I pressed almost every button on the camera to improve its quality, but nothing seemed to be a solution.
What was I even thinking? A Sony camera being sold for like 7 bucks would work?
Nevertheless, I accepted the crappy quality of the camera and decided to use it to take photos when I went on trips, but before I could do that, I had to make sure if there was anything on the camera.
I began to click on some buttons on the screen and eventually ended up on the gallery tab. The photos and videos displayed on the screen, dated back to 2007 and the last video was in October 2021, the same month Matthew, Mary’s son, died. I didn’t want to look at the videos, but I had to. Matthew’s death was a surprise to the entire neighbourhood. He was a nice kid and would help the old people out. I used to drop him at school before I got a job.
I just wanted to look at all the joy, they happened before everything went downhill. I opened the first video, filmed in May 2007. It was a video of Matthew’s birthday. It was so heat warming to see Mary and her son that happy, but I don’t think I can ever see her that joyful anymore after what happened. I went through all the other videos. It was hard to go through all of them, and at multiple times I just had to pause and get a tissue to wipe my eyes.
After an hour, I finally reach the videos that were shot in October 2021. I clicked on the first video and a loading symbol appeared on the screen. It felt like hours, until the video finally began playing.
Video 1 (October 28th 2021):
The video started out… different. Everything was completely black, and I couldn’t make out a single object. I thought Mary forgot to open the lens, but I could make out the silhouette of something standing in front of the camera. It almost had a human-like body, but I couldn’t be sure due to the darkness.
A voice began talking to the camera. It was Matthew. The video began picking up some brightness.
“Okay. Yeah, I think it’s a bit clear.”
He let out a sigh.
“Gosh, October’s almost done already. I guess time passes by fast when you don’t have tests.”
He let out a subtle chuckle.
“Why am I even doing this. Gosh, this is a really dumb idea. If anyone is watching this, you should probably stop. It’s just going to be videos of me talking to the camera. My mom shouldn’t have even given me this.”
He takes the camera into his hands and almost ends the video, but puts it back on the bed with his face only partially visible.
“I don’t really have anything to say. I mean, today, my friends and I found this diary. I mean, Daniel found it, and he showed us. It was pretty weird, like first of all the handwriting was… it was just scribbles with short descriptions and… I thought I was bad at drawing.”
I looked at the time. It was pretty late, but I wanted to finish all the videos.
“It was about this thing. An entity. It’s an urban legend. I don’t really know, but it talks about this thing called the ‘The Mimic’. Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, and it is, but I’m not lying. I don’t really know much about it apart from its existence, but I probably shouldn’t read more of it.”
I was surprised Matthew never mentioned this to me, but I mean he’s a teenager, he probably doesn’t tell everything to everyone.
“The stuff’s messed up. I really shouldn’t have read it. I mean, I don’t think it’s true, but it’s still bad enough. There was a sketch of a woman and… her baby was ripped out of her stomach and… it was being eaten by that thing. There were red marks all over the sketch, and it was all messed up. Gosh, I look and sound like an idiot. Alright, I think this is enough for today.”
He took the camera into his hands and ended the video.
That was the end of the first video. There are three more videos left, but I can’t type them right now. I gotta get out of here before it gets me. I don’t think I have much time left. It might even be coming for me right now. I keep seeing it in the corner of my eye, or my mind might be playing tricks on me. I don’t know. I’ll try to tell you guys about the rest of the videos within a few days.