I’m currently on house arrest in my second floor apartment but I won’t say what for. It’s been a boring, lonely existence for the past six months. My girlfriend left and I haven’t heard from my parents since the conviction but I’m sure they’ll come around eventually.
Even with all this I’ve managed to find ways to entertain myself day to day. I’ve taken to observing the local wildlife that comes around from time to time, even started naming them. I spend most of my time on the balcony; it allows me to feel a small sense of freedom where there currently is none and has excellent views of the parking lot and wooded area just beyond.
Well the other day I was watching a small herd of deer graze on the outskirts of the complex when I noticed a small, too blue puddle just behind parking stall two. We’ve been going through a bit of a drought lately so I thought this to be odd but just figured it was some sort of fluid leaking from one of the cars. I paid no mind and continued to watch Chester the deer and his family graze.
This was about as much excitement as I had been getting so I watched them for as long as they stuck around. They casually walked back into the forest and I figured I could try and follow them with my drone. It wasn’t the best and range was sort of limited but it took videos which is all I really wanted anyway. I could add this new footage to the plethora of other animal videos that were starting to build up on my computer. The flight was successful and I sat down at my computer to review what I had just captured.
The footage was pretty good and I was happy with the results but something caught my eye I hadn’t noticed when I was piloting. My drone had flown over parking stall two and the puddle was much darker, almost black, from a bird’s eye view. The still frame was a little blurry so I walked back out to look and from my balcony it still held the royal blue colour I had seen before. Something felt off but I couldn’t put my finger on it so I went about the rest of my day not giving another thought to the seemingly colour changing puddle.
The next morning I woke up just before sunrise and headed out to the balcony hoping to see more of Chester and his family. This day I wasn’t as lucky, I didn’t see any signs of the early morning life I normally would. I sat down in my chair and sipped on my coffee. It was still nice and quiet and even without the furry creatures around it was still enjoyable. I looked on at the scenery and noticed the puddle from the day before. It had moved in its entirety to parking stall three now. I thought this was strange but figured there was a dip in the asphalt and the puddle was now resting at the lowest point. Once again I pushed it from my mind and carried on with my day.
The next day started just as many of the ones previous had, with me and my coffee on the balcony observing what I could of the nature around me. The puddle I had observed before had made its way back to stall two. Other than its colour and strange movement behaviour it still looked like a normal puddle but now I was curious. So I’ve been tracking its movement around the parking lot ever since. Every morning I’ve seen it in a different spot, as if it’s slowly making rounds. This isn’t normal for a puddle, or any puddle I’ve ever seen, strange, but not alarming.
Yesterday, I was once again out on my balcony watching two squirrels chase each other around the parking lot. They scurried around chirping and climbing and bounding after one another through the small trees and bushes that lined the property. This was a good morning for me, I loved watching them play, not a care in the world. Living their squirrel lives to the fullest. I watched them for around twenty minutes or so until one scampered off into the woods, I guess done with playtime. The other casually hopped around the lot and stopped when it saw the puddle, now in front of stall seven, and headed over for what I assumed would be a well-deserved drink. In the drought we’ve been having I don’t blame him.
When the little guy got within around a foot or so of the puddle he stopped only for a moment. In a split second; an icy blue hand shot out of the puddle, grabbed the squirrel and pulled him in. I almost spat out my coffee. What the hell just happened? Where did that hand come from? I frantically looked around to see if anyone else had seen what I just saw. Not a soul in sight. I couldn’t believe it. I knew what I had just seen but I couldn’t process it. I couldn’t come up with any logical explanation and I ran back inside without any hesitation.
After I calmed myself I decided to grab my drone and get a closer look. It took to the sky and I piloted it over towards stall seven. The puddle had now taken on a faint purplish hue, but once I got overhead, it looked completely black again. Hovering at around ten feet, nothing looked out of the ordinary. I dropped altitude to around five feet. The puddle took up most of my screen now and still nothing.
Then a blue face, same colour as the hand I’d seen, came into view and just stared with white unblinking eyes up at my camera. I jolted backwards and dropped my phone. When I picked it back up there was nothing but a black screen. My drone wasn’t there anymore, and even though I hadn’t seen it, I knew what had happened. Now I’m not one to get scared easily but this put me over the edge and I locked all the windows and doors and just sat on my bed for the better part of the day, thinking about what I’d seen.
Today around noon a large storm rolled in and I watched from my window as the raindrops fell into the puddle without a splash. As if absorbing them, the puddle grew in size, and by the time the bulk of the rain had passed it covered the width of three parking stalls. I paced around my apartment every so often glancing out the window to see if I would see anything at all. The puddle still lay motionless but out of the corner of my eye I saw movement.
A small girl dressed for the rain was at the side of the lot jumping in puddles. With a big smile on her face she jumped from one to the next splashing and giggling her way across.
My heart started racing as I watched her look up and spy the purplish puddle. She started skipping towards the puddle and I raced towards the balcony door. I had to stop her somehow.
I ripped open the balcony door and screamed “DON’T GO NEAR THAT PUDDLE!” but I was too late. She looked up in my direction, confused at why I was yelling at her. She screamed as two blue hands flew out of the puddle and grabbed her by the ankles and dragged her inside.
“NO!” I felt all the air come out of me and collapsed over the railing. The puddle once again grew in size and took on a dark reddish colour. I felt like vomiting. I felt like crying. I didn’t know what to think anymore.
I looked back up through blurry eyes and saw the puddle stand up and take a semi-human form. It turned towards me with that same face I had seen the day before, let out a gurgled yell and took a step towards me. I ran back inside and didn’t look back, grabbed the first weapon I could see, a steak knife, and hid in the bathroom. So now I’m here, hoping someone knows what to do. I can hear water coming through the balcony door and I don’t know what will happen to me.