I’m a detective working for a small town called Phoenixville. It’s never been incredibly busy around here, in fact, I think the most interesting thing to happen around here was a small boy that went missing like 2 years ago, it turns out he was just hiding from his parents because they wouldn’t get him a toy, little brat.
This changed a few weeks back though, as a murder happened in one of the houses a few blocks down from my house. The woman wasn’t well-liked in the town, she was an eccentric type who kept to herself most of the time. However, when she didn’t keep to herself she was incredibly off-putting and made it seem like she was better than everybody else. I know she didn’t like me, I had to arrest her multiple times for making things physical with a few people. Nothing ever came of it though it was purely threats, she was as skinny as a stick and I would assume weaker than one as well
As I stepped into the house the first thing that hit me was the smell, it was rancid. I picked up one of those cardboard masks just so I didn’t have to breathe it in anymore, it helped for a bit but eventually, it became of no use as the cracks in between went larger the more I talked.
The house was filled with random junk; she looked to be a hoarder. Every room had piles of newspapers, old toys, and books. The piles of trash seemed to be sorted but in a sort of messy way. As well as the clutter there were scratch marks over every wall, some seemed to be symbols but others just looked like scratch marks.
Some of the symbols had been deliberately scratched out. At the time I didn’t even think of that and figured it was either her mental health suffering or maybe there was a scuffle before the murder took place. It didn’t seem like a big deal but now I understand.
I immediately went over to the woman and looked at her nails, they seemed completely fine, a bit short, presumably because she bit them but other than that, it didn’t look like she had created the marks.
I tried to look for any other signs of how she was murdered but the only one I could see was a massive bruise on the back of her head, I wasn’t sure whether that killed her or just knocked her unconscious. There were no signs of forced entry either so she most likely let the person in. I left the crime scene feeling confused, fatigued, and weirdly dizzy.
It was around 2 pm-ish I want to say when I arrived home, I took the rest of the day off work as the dizziness became too much for me to handle. I assumed it had to do with the crime scene, id never actually seen a dead body before, at least not humans. It may have also been the smell. It seems silly to me now.
I lay down on my bed, just trying to get my head straight. I opened my eyes and I saw something dart past, it was relatively large, and it moved so fast I saw it for what seemed to be half of a millisecond, my heart started racing as I tried to figure out a rational explanation,
“Was it all in my head? “
I suddenly saw all black as o felt the world dropping beneath me.
I woke up rubbing the side of my head as I slowly got up, it hurt like hell. The world around me felt like it was going inwards and outwards. I finally sat up fully and kneeled. I only then realized the blood on the floor, it was pouring out of my nose, however, I couldn’t get up, as much as I may have wanted to. As the world was moving before my eyes I could do nothing but sit there.
It finally went away again, and as soon as the world stopped spinning my nosebleed stopped too, however, the loss of blood made me feel lightheaded, I slowly walked back to my room leaning up against the wall of the hallway in order to stabilize myself. I landed on the bed with a hard thump and almost immediately blacked out again.
A loud ringing filled my ears, I was standing in the house again, the smell was gone and in its place, it smelled like mint. The body still lay on the floor, the blood fresh, pouring slowly out covering the markings on the floor. I stood there watching the symbol get filled up, it resembled a pentagram.
As it finally finished the already somewhat blackened blood, turned into a dark black and became coagulated. The room became suddenly incredibly bright, blinding almost. Two seconds later the lights turned off and then because of the bright light I couldn’t see anything. After a few moments, my vision came back and I saw the black figure standing in front of me, at least 8 feet tall, I heard a quiet, raspy whisper.
“I see you”
I answered back with a shaky voice “what’s going on, wh-where am I?”
The voice continued “you have been chosen to produce my brethren, we need only your blood”
At this point, my voice stopped working. I could barely get a squeak out let alone a word
In a satisfied tone, the figure said “I’m glad you agreed.”
My house came back into view slowly as I felt cold sweat dripping down my body.
I called off of work for the next three days shaking in my bed, wondering when I would see the figure next. Every little sound scared me half to death, and I was already close enough. For those three days I didn’t get any sleep, my head was aching with pain around the back area, and my eyes felt like bags, but I didn’t care. The fear had taken control, I was purely running off of adrenaline.
I saw it slowly coming toward me, and even after mentally preparing myself for this moment I still froze, nothing could help me at this point. It got to the end of my bed and didn’t say anything. The room was quiet. It touched my forehead and I knew everything. It no longer needed to speak, I now knew its goal, and it was beautiful. I had to pick the next person, similar to chain mail. I knew everybody at this point. It was an easy choice.
I scratched out the markings on the floor, creating symbols around the floor, getting prepared for the ritual, I’m just about to start now. I am only writing this to let you know if you have finished reading this, it’s too late. You have already been chosen next. Don’t be afraid when you see him, you will soon understand we are all insignificant compared to the plan he showed me, and the one he will soon show you.
Goodbye.