I was bored. It was Saturday night and I had nothing to do. My mates were all busy with their girlfriends or their jobs or their drugs. I was stuck at home with my mum, who was watching some shit reality show on the telly. ‘Jimmy come and join me on the sofa’ Bugger that. ‘no thanks Mum I’m busy’.
I decided to go into the loft and see what old junk I could explore. After rummaging around for a while I found an old VHS player my parents used to use. It hadn’t been used in a while but looked like a solid bit of kit, now to find some tapes. There were quite a few, luckily my Mum was terrible at throwing things away. A least 2 large boxes were full of tapes, quite a selection of old video nasties that might be fun to watch, even a few that I’d never even heard of. They must have been my uncles as Mum and Dad both hated horror, while my uncle used to love that kind of thing before he past a few years back.
There were quite a few home made videos as well, some of various holidays and birthdays, there was one that particularly caught my eye which just said ‘Jimmy’. I grabbed a selection and took them and the player down to my room.
It took me a while to finally get the player connected to the TV but I was soon in business enjoying some classic 80s horror.
After watching Zombie Apocalypse and Texas Chainsaw massacre, I was all grossed out and thought I’d try a few homemade tapes and bring back some happy childhood memories. They were all pretty boring, mainly shaky videos of old family holidays and birthdays. Then I remembered the one than just said ‘Jimmy’. I was thinking it would be another birthday video or something. How wrong I was. I put the tape into the player and pressed play. The screen flickered and showed a grainy image of a dark room. Interesting, what on earth as this?
There was a table with some candles and a book on it. A man in a hooded robe walked into the frame and picked up the book. He opened it and began to read aloud in a language that I didn’t recognize. I felt a chill run down mine spine as I listened to the strange words. They sounded like gibberish, but somehow they also sounded familiar. I felt a strange urge to repeat them, to join in the ritual.
I shook my head and tried to stop myself but it was too late. The words had taken hold of my mind and I couldn’t resist. I opened my mouth and began to chant along with the man on the screen. As I did, I felt a surge of energy flow though my body. My eyes widened and i stared transfixed. My heart was racing and my blood felt like it was beginning to boil.
I felt something else too, something dark and sinister, something that wanted to get out.
I looked at the screen and saw that the man had stopped reading. He had put down the book and was staring at the screen, he came closer. I now recognised the man, what was happening? I was suddenly overcome with pain and exhaustion and blacked out.
I slowly opened my eyes, I no longer felt like the person I was. I picked myself up off the floor where I had woken up. I felt good, strong, better than I had in years. I tried to remember the last thing that had happened before I had woken up but I couldn’t. I stumbled around the house, a house that felt familiar but somehow different. It was dark, I came to a large mirror in the hallway. I looked into the mirror and didn’t know who the person was staring back at me. I looked harder and longer, and I then I recognised him. It was my nephew little Jimmy staring back at me. I smiled and so did Jimmy. He must have finally watched the tape.