My name is David. I’m an engineer, and I own a small business that I’m working hard to grow and expand. After all, that was the wish of my wife before she passed away.
We were blessed with Kelly 10 years ago, right before my wife was diagnosed with cancer. It was really tragic news for us. We’ve already structured and planned everything for 5 years ahead, and now it’s all gone and shattered. But that’s behind us now. I miss my wife a lot, but Kelly makes up for that emotional void she left in her own way.
She’s a smart kid and picks up on things pretty quickly. I try teaching her some of the things I know in my own free time, because I don’t trust the things kids learn in school these days. I’ve taught her to always be inquisitive and question everything she’s told, until she does her own research. And I, carefully, taught her never to believe anything about spirituality, ghosts, souls, and demons as they are things people created in their mind to get some obligatory sense of morality in life. Prize and punishment, karma, and consequences of your actions. It may not be wise, you may think, but I didn’t want my kid to grow up believing in ghosts and nonsense… but that day changed our lives, and perhals our beliefs.
“Daddy.. someone is watching me..”
That morning, I woke her up as usual, I’d already prepared breakfast and called her down to eat. “Don’t forget to brush your teeth, sweetie” “You don’t have to tell me, twice” she smiled and ran to the bathroom. I finished changing, took my laptop, and headed to the door. “C’mon, you’ll be late for school.” I called as I checked my watch. She came instantly and raced me to the car. I dropped her off at school and continued to my work. It was a hectic day, lots of meetings, lots of plans, and the usual routine.
I was really exhausted when I came back home. We had a meal, watched some tv and I told Kelly that we should go to sleep. “You can go if you like, but I’ll stay up for a bit then go to sleep. There’s this really really good show and I can’t miss it.” She told me with her puppy eyes. She sure felt mature, but she’s still a child. “Fine, but no more than 1 hour. It’s almost 9, alright?” “Yepp! Thank you.” I went to my room and threw myself in my bed and completely blacked out.
Then I woke up to the sound of Kelly screaming. “What the hell!..” I looked at the clock, and it was 2 a.m. A rush of adrenalin filled my veins, and blood filled my thigh muscles, I got up as fast as lightning and ran to her room, then opened the door. “Kelly!” I screamed. “Are you alright?” My eyes couldn’t quickly adjust to the darkness, but I could see she was in her bed. “No…” she said with a tone of sadness. I turned the lights on and sat on the bedside. I thought she probably had a nightmare or something, so I felt a bit relieved. “What is it, baby? Tell me what’s wrong.” I put my hand on her shoulder.
“Daddy.. someone is watching me..” she said, almost whispering, as to not alarm whoever is watching her. ‘Fuck!’ I thought to myself. The adrenalin rushed back in my veins. I looked around, but there was nobody. “How do you know that, baby? I don’t think anyone is watching you.” I tried reassuring her. “I saw one of the drop ceiling tiles move. It was moved slightly from its place.” she stressed the word ‘moved’ as she whispered.
“Which one is it? It can be easily explained. Though I’d hate to admit, but I think we have a mouse problem.”
“Dad.. it was moved back after I screamed.” “Did you see it being moved?” “No, but I’m sure.” “Based on what evidence?” “Dad, you have to believe me.” “I believe you, baby. But, I’m sure it’s a just a mouse. A classic case of mice in drop ceilings. I’ll get some traps tomorrow and we’ll place them up there.”
The next evening, we came back home, had a meal, and got to work as we started putting traps in the drop ceiling. “You know they love cheese, they’ll be caught in a few hours at most, so don’t be alarmed if you hear them squeaking.” “I won’t. I hope you’re right. I really do.” “What else could it be, baby? Mice really love drop ceilings” I said as I finished setting the last trap and closed the tile. “Why did you put four traps?” Kelly asked me as I got down from the ladder. “Well to better the odds of the mouse being caught, and, we don’t know for sure if there’s only one mouse. So I couldn’t risk having more of your nights being ruined by being stingy with the traps.” “Thank you, daddy.” “You’re always welcome, baby”
I sent some emails and Kelly finished her homework then we both went to bed. I set the alarm to wake up early, checked my latest messages, and fell asleep.
“Daddy!”
I woke up to the sounds of repeated screaming. The traps must have caught it. I looked at the clock.. 2 a.m… ‘bloody hellish timing’ I got up and ran to her room. “Kelly!” I turned the light switch but the lights didn’t turn on. “Kelly!” I screamed trying to make out her outline on the bed.. she was there. “Kelly, are you alright?” “No.. it’s still watching me. It’s watching us right now.” She cried. “Where is it? Which tile?” I searched with my eyes but my vision wasn’t that helpful. “In the corner..” Kelly finally said with fear possessing her face. I looked at the tile, and it was indeed open. I started walking closer to it, but it moved. It closed.. it fuckin closed on its own. I jumped back as I heard multiple clicks in the ceilings then a loud thud. Those were the four traps I set. They all clicked at the same time, before the thud. The lights came on on their own and Kelly broke down crying. I could feel her fear myself.
“It’s ok baby. Everything’s gonna be fine” I sat beside her as pulled her in and hugged her. “How is anything fine? You saw. Everything is not fine.” She cried endlessly and I just felt helpless. Paralysed. I didn’t know what happened or what ‘that’ was.
“We’ll figure it all out in the morning. For now, you can just come sleep in my room” “Aren’t you gonna check the traps?” She asked. I was, though its hard to admit, too scared to check them, but I couldn’t relay that fear to her. “I’ll check them in the morning. I’m sure they caught nothing anyway. They clicked at the same time and their click was clean. Nothing was caught.”
We went to my room and slept the rest of the night there. I was wondering, however, how was she awake at exactly 2 a.m when it happened? Same time as the other night.. 2 a.m.
We woke up together to the sound of my alarm. I told Kelly to go get ready while I check the traps and make breakfast. The traps were indeed empty. I took a flashlight to check the upperside of the tiles for any signs at all. Any droppings, any animal hair. I needed something to make this whole thing..sensible, but it was futile.
We had our breakfast, got in the car and took off. I looked at her as she sat. She was clearly still in that terrified state. “Baby, are you feeling alright?” “Kind of.. but not really. I can’t stop thinking about it.” “Say, how were you awake when that.. incident happened?” I asked looking at her, her face expressions were changing. “I don’t think you’ll believe me.” “Try me, then.” “I heard a voice in my sleep. It was calling my name and wanted me to wake up.. then I saw a pair of eyes in my dreams fixed on me. When I woke up, my gaze was on that one open tile” she said as the tears started welling up in her eyes. “Hey, hey.. it’s ok, I’ll figure it out. You’re not making it any easier but I’m sure there’s an explanation for all of that” I tried reassuring her. “Maybe you should just start believing that some things can’t be explained.” She said and her tone was becoming angry. “Nope. Science always finds a way to explain everything. Just have faith in me” “Alright.” “I would never let anything bad come near you, kelly. You know that” “I love you, dad.” “I love you too, baby.” I dropped her off and went on to my work. As the day was about to finish I decided to get a camera equipped with infrared vision, in addition to a mic, and a motion sensor.
Once we got home later that day, I ran straight to Kelly’s room and called to her. “Can you get me my tool bag?” “Don’t you wanna rest first?” “Not at all, we have a lot to do.” I checked the traps first of all and they were as I expected, all clean, so I took em down and resumed I set up the cameras, one in the corner of the room and the other above the drop ceiling. I set up the motion sensor next to the upper cam for an extra layer of security, I linked the system to my phone and all was ready and rolling.
I made some dinner with Kelly and we decided to go to sleep. “I want to sleep in your room tonight..” “But you’ll miss all the funn” “It’s not fun. It’s scary” “I’ll be right next to you so you don’t have to worry. Besides, I’ll link the surveillance system to your phone too so you can see with your own eyes that it’s nothing scary. Just some animal looking for food” She whined for a bit but I didn’t want her to get used to sleeping in my room every time something happens.
We went to sleep and I was asleep at the blink of an eye as I was extremely exhausted.
I woke up to the alarms of my phone it was the motion sensor app. I looked at the clock and it was 1:59 a.m. I checked the cams starting with Kelly’s. She was turning around in bed but still apparently dosed off. I checked the upper camera and that was when I got up on my feet in a blink and my hearted started beating uncontrollably. I saw a matte black figure in front of the camera. It was so dark that the camera couldn’t make its outline. And there was.. breathing.. heavy breathing it got my hairs stand on edge as I kept staring at it it started moving and turning and that was the first time I saw its face. It looked at me with its red glowing eyes and its head was round and bald like a human’s but it had hair on its neck and it couldn’t be a human. There was no way a human could fit in there and still keep the tiles intact without falling over. And the eyes.. you could say they were two red demonic pits for eyes. They literally paralysed me.
I couldn’t think straight but one thought came to my mind as I looked at this abhorrent being.. Kelly. And as if it were reading my thoughts somehow, it grinned and moved away from the camera and the whole broadcast was cut off. It must’ve cut off the wiring I thought. I switched to the next camera and Kelly was up on her bed looking up at the ceiling her eyes going towards the corner and I felt my guts falling when the tile opened. I threw my phone away and ran to her room. “Dad!…” I opened the door and tried switching the on the lights but they wouldn’t turn on. I searched for Kelly on the bed and grabbed her as I heard growling from the corner of the room. “Dad! It’s down here” I carried Kelly with all my strength and ran towards the door. The thing attacked my back from behind me but there was no way I’d stop unless my feet were cut off. I rushed to my room and locked the door behind us. I called 911 and reported having a rabid animal in my house. Even though I knew very well it was anything but an animal. That grin and soul stripping gaze couldn’t belong to a simple animal. The animal control arrived and escorted us out as they checked the rooms. Some of the tiles in Kelly’s room were down and when they checked the ceiling. They found a huge crack that gods only know where they lead but there was no way to tell. They suggested leaving the house for a couple of days and calling an exterminator to fix it as the situation was out of their control.
It was already six in the morning so I called work to take a day off and rented a hotel room for me and Kelly while we get an exterminator.
A few days later the exterminator called me saying the house was clean and he found nothing worth mentioning. He tried to fill the crack in the wall with poisonous gas but it seemed endless and the gas kept flowing nonstop. “Whatever is in there. Is still in there. The crack probably is connected to the basement and you may need to take down everything to find it.”
At that moment I decided that it’s not worth it and I put the house for sale.
I got as far away from the neighborhood as I could and tried not to completely ignore any potential news about the new owners as I could. It may be selfish but whatever was there is someone else’s problem now. They’ll figure it out somehow. Maybe I could’ve but not with Kelly with me to worry about all the time.