This is a real story, it involved a friend of a friend. Back in the 90´s we had to move to another city because of my father’s job. Our new home was a small apartment composed of a long room that covered both the living and dining room, besides it, there was a kitchen that would have a washing room. Two bedrooms were at the end of this dining- living and in between those rooms, a small place that happened to be the bathroom as well.
The apartment was part of a building that would be composed of 3 floors, a ground level and a rooftop where families dry up the laundry. Each floor and the ground level had four apartments that were communicated through a hallway and stairs to Access the other floors. Something nice about the layout of these hallways was that they had an opening to see outside and allow natural sunlight to illuminate the building inside, because trust me, this edification really needed all the light you could get.
The building was part of a complex of six buildings, a small ballroom and plenty playground for a 10 year old kid like me. While my social skills weren’t good to make friends, the common interest of riding bicycle around the block helped me to get close to the locals Arthur, Alex and Rick. I started chatting with them outside the bike ride and soon enough, we became friends and began to chat about all sorts of things.
There is a Golden rule: No matter where you go or what you do, you will find a “Haunted” something. My school was haunted, the place where I went to piano lessons was haunted, the hospital where I got my shots was haunted, my favorite pizza place was haunted and sure enough, my neighborhood was haunted, more specifically, a building was haunted.
–Building E-004 is haunted– Arthur told me once.
–It is true, I have seen it– Rick confirmed.
I stared at them in disbelief, simply because Arthur and Rick are brothers so my first thought was “They want to trick me and play a joke on me”
Alex arrived a month before me, so he was as skeptical on the matter as me because it sounded so lame. The slide on the outer part of the neighborhood? Sure. The cabin that once worked as a check point to control Access to the neighborhood? Maybe (it truly had an eerie aspect with the boarded Window and pitch black inside). The ballroom? Perhaps. A haunted apartment? I guess. But a whole building? Ridiculous!
–Nobody lives inside it, all the apartments inside it are abandoned–
I had my share of spooky stories in my short life. Once I heard about a creature lurking my grandpa ranch so whenever I had to use the latrine during the night, I would get the proverbial dilemma: Should I shit my bed or make a run to the unprotected room where I would be vulnerable to this spook. Despite my short age (6 years) I dared to find out that the “Horror” was in fact an employee of the ranch that would walk around trying to scare off coyotes. At 8 a couple of neighbors told me about a haunted house at the end of the Cliff, nobody lived there but lights would turn on during the night, then it turned out to be a holiday house for a family that would go there on vacation every now and then, they even had a pretty daughter!.
–Oh really? The building where every single window has a clean curtain? Oooh, scary–Alex mocked the brothers and I agreed.
–I swear– Rick said– nobody comes in or out of the building.
–So what? That doesn’t make it a haunted place– I sputtered.
–Wait, the thing is, nobody goes in or out of the building BUT, there is a shadow that appears from time to time–
–When? – Alex asked with a cold tone, almost as if he was some sort of inquisitor trying to squeeze the truth out of the poor bastard
–Nobody knows, it can be early in the morning, mid-afternoon or late at night. I have only seen it once–
Maybe it was the fact that the light started to fade as the time of the day slipped away during this conversation or perhaps it was that the atmosphere started to get creepy because of the silence and the serious tone of the boy, but I remember those words appeared too sound to be ignored, almost as if I should keep them present on my mind all the time.
–A shadow? Wow that makes sense and now I believe you– Alex said with a tone of sarcasm that was unnatural for a kid– it could be anything. And even if it’s a shadow, what would that mean for anyone? Does it appear under your bed? Will it kill you during a shower while you wash your hair and close your eyes? No one has ever died because of a shadow–
–It’s not just the shadow, it has no power elsewhere, only in the building–
Alex started to laugh at Rick more and more, the jokes slowly turned into mockery and it ended in contempt and insults to Rick’s intelligence.
–Shut up! – Arthur intervened– Leave him be, he is saying the true and there is nothing you can say to prove him wrong–
–See? That is the problem, how can it be true if only HE was able to see the shadow, let’s get in the building and find out, what do you think? – Alex punched my shoulder, more as a mean to draw my attention than as an aggression.
I was silent, I wondered if it was true or what I should say but Rick answered almost immediately
–DON’T! That’s would be your last mistake. The shadow has all his strength inside the building and will kill you. It lurks everywhere inside it. The four levels, the rooftop, all the sixteen apartments and specially the fire exit (a weird ladder inside the building that communicated the rooftop with every apartment on the left, it was a room of sorts that had the ladder, a window associated to each apartment and an exit on the roof. There was no light other than what each bathroom would provide).
The story gained my curiosity and so, I decided to check the building as much as I could. The first thing I noticed was that the access to this place was impossible, you could only get in the building through the main door. All buildings had this open space on hallways on each floor, and I could climb to the first floor through a trick that involved a pipe behind most buildings. E- 004 had Windows that prevented this trick. The only times I could watch the building was during the afternoon when I returned from junior high, after dinner when I went out with my friends and before getting home after playing with my companions. During a year I never saw a shadow, nor a person get in the building (which was truly unusual, as I watched people get into the rest of the buildings every now and then).
As time passed by I lost interest in the scary story and after two years, Edgar moved to a building inside the neighborhood. I hated Edgar, he was cocky, annoying and always tried to get on my nerves by provoking me. Sadly, everyone else became friends with the little idiot and I had to tolerate him whenever we were out playing. And, when he was close enough to the brothers, they told him about E-004.
– “It is haunted” –
–Shut up, you might scare this guy– pointing at me.
My blood boiled as I knew that he was teasing me to show off with everyone else –I didn’t got scared the first time I Heard that , nor I got scared when I saw the shadow– I lied.
Rick, Alex and Arthur turned their faces to me and with eyes opened due the surprising statement, they started asking
–When? –
–Was it moving? –
–Are you lying? –
I panicked, to be honest I only wanted to shut Edgar’s mouth but didn’t expect the reaction of everyone else, so I had to lie a Little more.
–I started watching the building after you guys told me the story, and around Halloween I saw the shadow, just after I was getting home from hanging with you guys–
–Did it move? –
–Where was it? –
Arthur and Alex started the questioning relentlessly.
I have to admit that the attention was nice, they looked to me as if I was some kind of hero –It was just there, on apartment 301, I saw it on the window, but I could only see what the curtain allowed me to see. Then it disappeared for a minute and appeared on the other window, but I couldn’t see any other movement–
–Did it saw you? – Rick asked
–I don’t think so, I was hiding and peeking. –
–Wuss– Edgar said.
–Say what you want, I’m not an idiot that would risk getting killed by it– my answer was fueled by anger.
–You didn’t watched it, nor you threw a rock to see what happened, it was probably an old lady and you got scared by a grandma, bwahahaha–
I’m not sure if he had a special way to get on my nerves or I simply hated him so the next part is something I regret –I was brave to watch, but I wonder, are you too scared to see it? Chicken wuss? –
He got mad and replied–I’m not scared, because I’m not a coward like you. I could get in that apartment and slap the old lady–
–You can’t, I checked the building and the only entrance is the main door, the Windows have no opening to climb nor there is another spot to get in, I tried on the ground level but even there all the spaces are shut–
Edgar was someone strange, I don’t know how or why he knew this but it turned out he could pick locks so he could get us inside the building. We decided to raid E-004 on Halloween, which was three weeks from that time.
When the day came I was scared, I grabbed a ornamental steel sword I had and wore a ninja mask I bought on a carnival, hoping that would defend me from whatever we would find inside the building. As the hour got close I went out secretly and at ten in the night, I joined my friends. Edgar mocked my ninja mask but I ignored him, I was too nervous.
Edgar used some tools to open the door, I didn’t expect him to be so silent, but he made no noise at all and then we finally got inside building E-004. It was a strange feeling, like a transition ritual that caused little kids turn into grownups. My first action inside the building was check if I could get inside apartment 001, the door was unlocked so I was able to get inside the place but got stopped by my group. An eerie aroma came out the place.
–Stop, can you hear that? –
There was a faint noise that didn’t belong. I lived in that neighborhood for 3 years and knew the normal sounds of the place, so that noise was unfamiliar, and odd.
–Hush, it comes from up there– Arthur said.
–I’m out– Rick said, he was trembling scared and was clear this was above his endurance. So, he left the building as silent as we entered it.
The rest of us sneaked up to the roof slowly but surely, my heart started to race. I was scared, probably as spooked as Rick but I couldn’t leave the place, Edgar would mock me and somehow, it seemed like the most important thing in the world was to prove I wasn’t a coward.
When we reached the rooftop the noise was rather clear, it was a person chanting something that I couldn’t understand. The inside of the building looked totally different, instead of plastered boring concrete walls, there were symbols, candles and skulls, that’s when I broke.
–Hold, let’s get out of here! – I said, my voice was trembling and my hands shaking of fear.
–I knew you were a coward– Edgar said, his smile was wicked, like he had so much power and was about to use it to destroy me.
–I’m not, but this is weird, a shadow it’s something but that sounds like humans, we might get in trouble–
–Hush idiots! The will hear us– Arthur whispered.
–Scared baby, you are a scared baby! – Edgar started to sing, the volume of his voice got out of control and the chant stopped.
–Someone got in! – A voice muttered.
–Go get whoever got in– another person answered
–RUN! – Alex said, and the four of us started running as fast as we could.
I could heard the other steps, it sounded like they were around three guys, but we weren’t planning to stay and find out. We had a great advantage, a trick that involved jumping half the stair that would give us runts an advantage, but the average adult couldn’t do it because there was a small wall-like that would hit the person’s head so when we reached the exit, we could see that one of the man was peeking from the first floor.
–They are going to E-003– the man screamed.
–Spread out! – Arthur ordered.
Now I was a dumb kid, but not as dumb as to guide these guys to my house. So I had a plan. Building E-006 had a faulty door, so I didn’t need a key to get in and I could use my trick of climbing the gas pipe to go behind the building and jump the outside fence, grab a bus and get elsewhere, I could pick a taxi and make a couple calls to some friends. Maybe someone could pick me, maybe not, but at least I would get far from these weirdoes. There was an issue with this plan, however.
–I’m not letting you inside my house– Edgar screamed at me.
–I don’t want to go to your stupid house bozo–
We were both running, but since I was taller than Edgar, I could run faster. As I sprinted first into the building I turned the lights out, to act as a cover. Edgar however thought that it was right to try and lock the door with his key. I followed my plan, and went out through the space on the first floor and climbed down to the back of the building, jumped the fence and sprinted for a bus. I knew I could catch a bus because the avenue was one of the main roads in the city and transportation was both frequent and had variety of routes. When I boarded the bus I crawled most of the steps trying to stay out of the windows and got to the end of the bus and sat down. I peeked out of the window and what I saw still haunts me. A man in black grabbing Edgar shutting his mouth and struggling with him, hiding besides the building. A person in front of the building was standing looking around but static, probably because he heard the struggle between the hiding characters. Now, I really hated Edgar, but I’m not a heartless douche so I had to do something, but what? For starters I was moving and not close enough to say all the message, getting down the bus was too dangerous so that was off the question. In the end the only thing that came to my mind in the split second was to shout “OVER HERE”, trying to hide inside the bus.
And so I did, after shouting hoping for the best I kept with my plan, got to a hostel downtown, and called my parents from there. I explained them everything and after they ensured that I was ok they started to act properly.
–Young man, when you get home, you will be grounded for the rest of your life. Your father will pick you up and you both will go to the police station and you will tell the officers every single thing you just told me–
I could let you know what happened after this, but my story is already too long, so I will write this in short. Edgar disappeared. The police raided the building and found nothing and no one. We were told that it was our imagination and probably Edgar got in trouble with someone and the story ended.
You may think this is dull because the looming shadow was a person, but in reality it’s not. Years later, when I grew up and internet became accessible for everyone a memory assaulted my mind. Edgar, I checked the news and what I found left me stunned. Police did found something. The building belonged to a rich nuthouse who directed a cult. They committed mass suicide years before we got there and the building was full of corpses, four guys were in charge of keeping the corpses from rotting by spraying alcohol or something that would keep bacteria from growing. They believed that a creature would come from hell, eat all the corpses and grant them and the leader powers beyond comprehension to rule the world. Edgar was the last victim of these fiends. None of the individuals was caught but they were tracked because the owner of the building was the rich guy and he had four associates that were always close by. The building had a secret entrance behind the edification. Instead of the water tank that was on any other building inside the neighborhood, there was a tunnel that would communicate the exterior to the inside of the building that was the way in which no one was seen get inside. The shadow that Rick saw, probably was one of the cult mad men keeping the apartments corpses in shape and they moved through the fire escape to any apartment, so nobody was seen in the hallway and because the rooftop was entirely covered, they could do and say whatever they want. I keep telling myself that I did what I could to save Edgar, I was a kid and the best I could do was to escape to tell the tale, I want to believe that he wouldn’t follow me even if I told him my plan. But you see, the guilt that returns every day works as a shadow, lurking my every move, telling me that no matter what I say to myself, I’m the reason Edgar is no longer around.