I live in a fairly large city on the northeastern seaboard of the United States. For privacy reasons, this is pretty much all I can tell you.
I haven’t exactly been dealt the best cards in life. Born into poverty and orphaned in my early teens, I took to a life of crime in order to support myself. During the twenty years since, I’ve been a member of multiple street gangs, taken part in numerous armed robberies, and I’ve been to jail more times than I can count.
I’m not proud of the things I’ve done. I wish I didn’t have to. But, you don’t get to choose how you start out in life. Especially not in my city.
The experience I’m about to share happened to me a little over a year ago and is the reason I stopped committing crimes for good. I can’t go any longer without telling somebody. My therapist told me it might help speaking openly about my trauma, so here goes.
Before you judge me, know that I have already repented for my sins and served my sentence. Ever since my release, I’ve made an active effort to turn my life around and become a better man, but I still have a long road ahead of me.
Though I now consider myself a redeemed soul, my heart still skips a beat whenever I walk by a dark alleyway or the lights in my rundown apartment begin to flicker. I sleep with a nightlight now, It’s battery powered so as to not be affected by any unforeseen power outages. You might call me crazy, but I’m not taking any chances with this thing, whatever it is. I know it’s still out there, somewhere. It thrives in the dark. There have been more sightings recently, or so I hear. The police refuse to comment on the matter. I think they’re scared of it too. Sometimes I swear I can still feel its presence, watching, waiting to strike.
Let’s wind the clocks back to last year. My story begins on a stormy October night. Me and a couple of associates I had gotten to know from the previous gang I used to be a part of had recently made the jump over to organized crime. We figured the pay would be better, and the line of work more respectable. We would still be criminals, sure, but going from street thug to professional crook somehow felt like a cut above.
Our new boss had made us run a few minor operations over the course of our initiation period. As he didn’t fully put his faith in us just yet, the tasks he gave us were pretty mundane. This job however, the one we were just assigned, would be our turning point. Without getting into the details of my city’s criminal underworld, just know that if we were to succeed, our boss’ influence in this city would skyrocket, and we would be getting a fat paycheck along with it.
I didn’t care that we were already down a man from the week prior. It didn’t matter. I immediately accepted the offer. So did the rest of my crew. And besides, the job sounded easy enough, a simple B&E. What could go wrong?
As the four of us disembarked from the stolen cargo truck, the chill winds and rain greeted us with open arms. Crowbar in hand, we made our way toward the derelict warehouse and began prying open the century-old rusty metallic door. Though it eventually opened with an ear-piercing creak, we didn’t care about drawing attention to ourselves. Nobody ever came out to this part of the city anymore except homeless people and druggies. Everybody knew it was off-limits. The police certainly stopped caring about these docks a long time ago.
We made our way inside the warehouse and quickly got swallowed by the oppressive darkness within. The howling wind outside hauntingly slammed against the old walls of the building as if it was trying to ward us off.
After a while of fumbling in the dark, Mike, the oldest in our crew, discovered a lightswitch on a nearby wall. With a heavy thud, a few of the old lamps that hung from the ceiling cast parts of the warehouse in a sickly shade of yellow and orange, revealing rows upon rows of large wooden crates and boxes.
“Would you look at that…» Mike exclaimed with a chuckle, «This place is huge!» He said gleefully.
And he was right, there must’ve been well over a thousand boxes in here. It was like we had entered a treasure chamber. I certainly didn’t expect this. I was surprised the lights even turned on.
“How do we know which ones to take?” Joshua, the youngest in our crew said, comparing it to finding a needle in a haystack.
“Don’t worry.” I replied. “Look for the boxes marked with a red double-u”.
We made our way further into the warehouse, flashlights in hand since there were significant parts of the building still cast in darkness.
We searched around for what must have been half an hour before I heard Joshua call out in excitement from deep inside the building. He had found them.
We all gathered around the pile of crates Joshua had located, each marked with a red double-u.
We stood there for a while, contemplating. The implications of what we were about to do loomed overhead as I think we all began to have second thoughts.
“I don’t know about this” Vinny said after a while, breaking the silence. “Stealing from the mob just doesn’t sit right with me, you know the sorts of things they do to people in this city, imagine if they find out”.
“Relax” I replied, deceivingly confident in tone. “You know the boss has us covered. He won’t let anyone even so much as curl a hair on our heads if we manage to pull this off”.
“Just like what happened to cousin Larry?” Vinny countered.
I could see that Vinny’s remark agitated Mike.
“What happened to Larry wasn’t the doing of the mob.” Mike grunted.
A puzzled grimace formed across Vinny’s face.
“Oh really? Then who did it?” He raised his eyebrows and said mockingly.
The room fell silent for a moment. The four of us all exchanged knowing looks between each other. I knew what Mike was about to say.
The rhythmic tapping of the rain against the glass frame of the skylights above began to fill the room as the storm outside picked up. A slight shiver crept up my spine as we stared at one another. We’d all heard the rumors by that point. Who hadn’t? Ghost stories travel fast in our profession.
“You can’t be serious!” Vinny scoffed, interrupting the silence as if he knew what we were all thinking. “That boogeyman? Really?”.
«You should have seen him, Vinny, at the hospital. The mob didn’t do that, they couldn’t have.» Mike said.
“Wait, you’re not suggesting he’s real are you?”. Joshua interrupted. Asking in disbelief, a nervous stutter in his voice had started to form. «I thought that was just a myth!».
“It’s not a he, It’s an it. A creature they say.” Mike replied.
«What, like an animal?» Joshua further inquired.
”No, like a demon.”
Vinny chuckled, then a heavy silence once more fell upon the room. I could hear Joshua take a nervous gulp. I sighed, knowing this conversation would go nowhere. As if Mike’s Boston accent wasn’t insufferable enough to listen to, we weren’t getting paid to stand around and tell campfire stories to each other.
“Easy on the new kid, Mike.” I told him. “You know he’s already superstitious to the bone, he doesn’t need any more reasons to look over his shoulder tonight.» I laughed, trying to ease up the tension.
Reluctantly, Mike agreed and backed off.
A sharp thud sounded throughout the warehouse as the first crowbar jammed itself between the wooden panels of the crate. Vinny’s face turned red as he put his whole body into prying open the lid. He was the muscle of the group, but even he struggled with this one. Just as it opened, a crack of lightning turned every color and contrast inside the building into a bright ghastly white, as if opening the crate was a bad omen.
When the four of us leaned over the contents of the box like eager kids on christmas eve, we quickly understood why the boss had emphasized the significance of this mission.
“Is that what I think it is?” Joshua stuttered to no reply.
We were all so transfixed with the contents of the crate that we had failed to notice the lights beginning to flicker. It was subtle at first, barely noticeable. But after a while, the monotone buzzing of the lamps overhead grew louder and louder until…
POP! The sound of shattering glass fell to the ground as one of the lamps furthest away from us had burst, casting another corner of the warehouse in complete darkness. As a result, the other lamps stopped flickering and returned to normal.
We snapped out of our trance and now fixated our eyes toward the newly formed spot of darkness a dozen crates away from us. We then looked at each other.
“You know, they say that’s how the creature hunts.” Mike spoke. “Kills the light so you can’t see it coming. Next thing you know you’re…-”
“That’s enough, Mike” I firmly interrupted him.
Obviously, it must have been the result of faulty wiring, I reasoned. This place was old and neglected after all. But as I stood there I could hear the sound of Joshua’s heart trying to escape his body. I turned around to face him. A few drops of sweat ran down his pale forehead. The kid was terrified. Mike’s stories must have made a deeper impact on him than I’d realized.
Vinny had noticed it as well and seized the opportunity. “I’ve heard that it has long pointy horns like the devil.” He said mockingly, raising two fingers behind his ears, mimicking horns with the intention of unsettling poor Joshua. Vinny laughed. He could be cruel like that.
“That’s cause it really is the devil, Vinny. That’s why it only goes after people like us. It’s cause we’re sinning!” Mike chimed in with a serious tone. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
“Huh, I haven’t heard that interpretation before.” Vinny responded smugly, struggling to contain his laugh. He definitely was joking. “Hey, ain’t you religious, Joshua? Catholic? I’d maybe start running now if I were you!” He followed up with a smirk cackle.
Joshua paid no mind to Vinny and Mike’s remarks however, he just stood eerily still, preoccupied with intently staring into the newly formed black void. He strained his eyes, fixating on something.
“There!” He whimpered and began pointing out into the darkness. “I think I saw something move!”.
I shone my flashlight over to the spot he pointed at. Nothing but crates and boxes as far as the eye could see.
“There’s nothing there, get yourself together, man. Don’t let them get to you.” I scolded him, annoyed by how much time we’d already wasted by that point.
“No, I swear I saw something!” he hastily replied. I once more shone my flashlight over at the spot he pointed to, but again saw nothing out of the ordinary.
I explained that it was most likely his mind playing tricks on him, and thankfully, the young man seemed to ease up a little. I was surprised by how deeply the stories had affected him. Sure, we’d all heard the rumors, but they were just that, rumors. There was no demon-creature. Those things exist in fairy tales only. But, Joshua acted as if the devil himself was actually out to get him. It struck me as odd since he was usually such a tough kid, getting into fights here and there, often showing up to work bruised and beaten. What had gotten into him? Maybe it had something to do with his religious background?
We returned to business and put the lid on top of the crate, getting ready to lift it back to the truck. My heart sank as I realized It was probably gonna take us all night to carry these boxes out of here, though that thought quickly dissipated as I reminded myself of the hefty payday that awaited me the following morning.
Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass once again filled the room. Unlike previously, this time the lights didn’t flicker before the lamp had burst. I thought this was strange seeing as how I figured that was the reason the first lamp exploded.
“It’s coming to get ya now!” Vinny once again mocked, looking over at Joshua with a grin.
“Shut up, Vinny. Be quiet!” Mike whispered as loudly as he could. He too seemed on edge now.
The storm outside had turned into what felt like a small hurricane. Raging winds slammed against the old metal walls of the warehouse. The rain came pouring down so hard now that I thought it would break through the glass frame of the skylight directly above us.
“Don’t wanna jinx us.” Mike said. “For all we know you could be summoning the demon by talking about it or something!”.
Vinny took a step back and scoffed.
“Come on, Mike. You too now? You can’t possibly be seriou-…” The sound of shattering glass interrupted him. Another lamp had burst, even closer this time. He turned around, facing the abysmal darkness.
We once again exchanged nervous looks. Even Vinny had begun to form a worried grimace on his face, though he tried his best to hide it. Always a tough guy.
I will admit that I had also started becoming increasingly nervous by this point. There was just something about the air now that wasn’t present before, it had a special kind of feeling to it. A sinister feeling. The kind of dread that sets in when you’re walking home alone late at night, or when you inexplicably wake up in your bed, surrounded by darkness, and you begin to hear the floorboards outside your door start to creek. I can’t really explain it. Whatever this feeling was, it was enough to cover my body in goosebumps. Still, I tried to be reasonable. I wouldn’t allow myself to become like Joshua and let these tall tales get to my head just yet.
Vinny must have realized that we were all a bit unnerved now, so he unzipped his jacket and stuck his right hand in.
“Relax, guys. We still have these, remember?” He said as he revealed a Colt 1911 pistol from his holster in an attempt to reassure us.
He was right, I had almost forgotten about it. I placed my hand under my left arm and sure enough, there I could feel the outline of my gun poking out. A small wave of relief washed over me. It calmed me down knowing I had it there.
“It doesn’t matter, bullets don’t work on it.” Mike chimed in.
“What do you mean bullets don’t work on it? Nobody is bulletproof, idiot!” Vinny argued.
“Oh yeah? Tell that to cousin Larry. He emptied his whole magazine into that creature and it did nothing!”. Mike argued back.
Then another lamp burst. This time, right next to where we were standing. At this rate, the surrounding darkness would soon engulf us.
“I’ve heard it can fly.” Joshua whispered, pointing up at the skylight above while taking a few steps back.
“Yeah, that’s how it got Larry. Came at him from above!” Mike replied. “He said it had giant leather wings, like that of a dragon!”.I looked up at the skylight and also took a few steps to the side, just in case.
I could see that Vinny had had enough of this foolishness. He drew his pistol and chambered a round.
“Screw this!” he said as he walked out of the small circle of light we had been standing in and took a step into the dark. He began taunting the theoretical creature, shouting obscenities and making jokes at its expense, all while waving his gun back and forth like a cartoon gangster. Mike and Joshua begged him to stop, but Vinny didn’t care. After a minute of continuing this behavior, he spun around to face us, turning his back on the endless black abyss.
“See? There’s nothing to worry about” he laughed. “There is no such thing as a demon-creature that eats criminals! You know how insane that sounds?”
He was right, maybe we were overreacting a bit. Maybe the stress of this high-stakes job really had taken a toll on us.
Just as I was about to order my crew to get back to lifting the crates out of the warehouse, a slow rhythmic sound emanated from a distant source. This didn’t sound like either the rain nor the strong winds outside. Due to the size of the building, it was hard to determine the source of the sound. The only discernible feature was that it was growing louder and louder.
Vinny turned around, once again staring out into the empty darkness. As the sound grew closer, a chill crept up my spine as I realized what it was. Footsteps. Slow, heavy thuds, one after the other. As the sound grew even closer, my heart sank as I realized that whatever the footsteps belonged to was slowly approaching from behind where Vinny was standing.
We all had flashlights in our hands, but none of us dared turning them on. We stood completely still, frozen in fear. The footsteps stopped. We didn’t move, listening keenly for any more sounds.
“You think it could be the cops?” Joshua finally whispered after what felt like an eternity of silence.
“No.” Mike replied.
Vinny slowly raised his pistol and pointed it at the dark void in front of him. His flashlight followed soon after. I could see now that he was scared, maybe even more so than Joshua was. His legs were shaking, and short rapid breaths entered and escaped his body. Vinny was about to turn on his flashlight when he turned his head to look back at us.
It all happened so fast. If I’d blinked I would have been sure to miss it. A large dark hand emerged from the shadows and wrapped itself around one of Vinny’s outstretched arms, yanking him out of the light. His screams grew more distant as he was dragged deeper into the oppressive darkness of the derelict warehouse. The dwindling sounds of thrashing, shouting, and crying filled the building. After a while, two gunshots rang off in the distance, followed by abrupt silence.
We stood there, waiting. Hoping that Vinny would eventually come back. We called out to him, but to no avail. Besides the sounds of the storm, the building was cast in a thick veil of silence. Mike began frantically swearing under his breath, and Joshua began praying. I was left dumbfounded. I couldn’t comprehend what I just witnessed. It felt surreal. Realizing Vinny wasn’t coming back, I unholstered my gun and instructed Mike and Joshua to do the same thing.
I turned on my flashlight and shone it down the aisle the creature had dragged Vinny down. I swiveled the light from side to side in hopes of catching a glimpse of the entity, but saw nothing. Then I remembered what Joshua said about the creature being able to fly. I raised the beam of light and searched on top of the tall crates that lined the ceiling, but again, nothing.
I turned back around to find the remainder of my crew doing the same thing and yielding identical results. It was as if Vinny and the creature had both disappeared into thin air.
“We should go out and look for him, right?” Mike eventually asked.
“No way man, you saw what that thing did to him!” Joshua quickly countered. “Let’s just get out of here while we still can”.
As much as I hated to admit it, Joshua was right. Vinny was a lost cause, as much as it pained me. Thinking we still had time before the creature eventually returned, I ordered my men to grab the crates and get out of there, but I was met with protest.
“Screw the crates, man, I wanna live!” Joshua cried out.
“If we don’t get these crates back to the boss we’re as good as dead anyway!” I clapped back.
Before Joshua got the chance to respond, a massive surge of electricity made the last two remaining lamps start to intensely pulsate. The lights flickered harder than ever before until both lamps simultaneously burst. Mike groaned with pain as some of the glass fell down on his head.
Save for the faint rays of moonlight that made their way through the building’s windows, the warehouse was now completely dark.
The dim white gleam of our flashlights danced all over the place as we frantically searched our surroundings. In the dark, the warehouse quickly became a labyrinthine maze of wood and concrete.
I agreed to ditch the crates now. I’m sure our boss would understand, right? The mission seemed so miniscule now, my priority was to make it out of there alive. Besides, we could always come back sometime during the day, right? We started to slowly make our way toward the exit, though the dark had made it unusually disorientating. As we traversed row upon row of wooden boxes, I became increasingly worried that each step would be our last. On occasion I would hear the sound of scuttling and commotion coming from above. It was hunting us, I could feel it. I could feel its inhuman eyes burn into the back of my skull, but every time I turned around there was nothing there.
As we continued to search for the way out, I came to a horrifying realization. There were only two beams of light now. One beam from each flashlight. Last time I checked, there were three of us left, so why was I only seeing two beams?
I called out to Joshua, who then nervously responded with a whisper. I then called out to Mike but to no response.. I stopped and turned around. I shone my light over to where I’d always presumed him to be, but as I feared, he was gone.
“Where is Mike?” I asked Joshua. A bleak expression formed across his face as he came to the realization we were down a man. He hadn’t noticed it either. We searched around for a bit but sure enough, Mike was nowhere to be found. Had he become lost or did he meet the same fate as Vinny? I couldn’t recall hearing any sounds that would indicate a struggle. It was as if he just silently disappeared off the face of the earth. In truth, it didn’t matter. If the creature did indeed get to him, that would only buy us more time, I figured.
A sudden strike of lightning caught me off guard and made me trip over myself. I fell backwards and brushed against a metal shelf. The sound of clanking metal spread throughout the warehouse like wildfire. Joshua looked over to me, horrified that I had accidentally revealed our location.
Then, a second strike of lightning once again lit up the entire warehouse. The entire warehouse except for a large black shape on the ground in front of us. It was a shadow, but it belonged to neither me nor Joshua. The shadow cast the frightening image of a tall figure with two long sharp horns protruding from each side of its head, the creature loomed overhead.
Before I could get a closer look, darkness once again filled the room and the shadow was gone. I nervously raised my flashlight and aimed it toward the ceiling, looking for the source. Way up above, sitting perched on one of the warehouse’s support beams, my light came into contact with a large black shape. I nearly didn’t see it. It sat so still, blending into its environment like a chameleon from hell. I gasped, taking a few steps back. Joshua followed my gaze and noticed it too. My flashlight lingered on the creature until it eventually had caught on to the fact that it had been spotted.
Faster than we could react, the creature plunged down from the beam and used its large wings to effortlessly glide toward Joshua. It slammed into him at breakneck speeds and knocked him to the ground. Startled, I aimed my pistol and fired four rounds in the monster’s general direction. It was hard to tell whether I hit it or not due to the lack of light. But if I did, it certainly had no effect on it. I didn’t even see it flinch.
The demon ran toward the fallen-down Joshua and grabbed ahold of his leg. He let out the most gut-wrenching screams I’ve ever heard in my life as the creature dragged him across the floor and took him into the dark, just like how it did to Vinny. It didn’t take long before Joshua’s wailing grew so distant that it was barely audible.
It was just me left now. I stood still, shaking in fear. Taking in what had just happened while regretting the life choices that led me here. I never should have taken this stupid job, the money wasn’t worth all of this.
I saw a shadow move in the corner of my eye, and in a panic, I took off blindly running through the warehouse. I couldn’t tell if the thing was chasing me or not, I was too focused on getting out. As I rounded one of the aisle’s corners I spotted a dim green fluorescent light glowing in the distance. It was an exit sign. Below it I saw the rusty metallic door we had entered through earlier in the night.
As I was closing in the distance between me and my golden ticket out of this nightmare, I really thought I was going to make it. I was so close. But alas, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
I must have been no more than twenty-five feet away from the exit when I saw the black wings of the creature make its silent descent from the ceiling and land a short distance in front of me. I stopped dead in my tracks, my blood ran ice-cold upon the sight. I was so close. The monster stood between me and the door, hindering my escape.
Thanks to the moonlight shining in through the nearby windows, I could see the creature a lot clearer now. It had a large and brooding frame, humanoid in appearance. Its two pointy horns looked sharp enough to impale anything it came into contact with. The wings, when not in use, neatly draped around its body like a cloak. I couldn’t make out its face, but the creature’s eyes reflected the pale moonlight back out into the night, making them appear to glow white in the dark. The monster’s skin was a dark gray color, perfectly adapted to nocturnal predation and hiding in the shadows.
I raised my gun and took a shot at the demon, but to no effect, It didn’t even flinch. The creature then started slowly walking toward me. Each step it took looked more menacing than the last. There was just something otherworldly in the way it carried itself across the floor. It wanted me to fear it. I took another shot, then another, but to no avail. There was nothing I could do to stop it. The creature was closing in.
I tried to turn around and run, but in my terrified craze, tripped over and fell on my back. Lying on the ground, I aimed my pistol at the infernal entity, and in a last desperate attempt to save my life, pulled the trigger. Instead of a loud boom, a sharp click sounded from my gun. I was out of bullets. In that moment, the final flicker of hope inside me died. I tossed the gun to my side and began to plead, begging for my life.
“Please, I’ve got nothing! Don’t hurt me!” I cried out. “I’m only in it for the money, I swear I’m not such a bad guy!”
The creature lunged toward me, and everything faded to black.
I woke up in a hospital bed, handcuffed to its frame. I still can’t recall exactly what happened to me, or how I ended up there. I guess someone must’ve tipped the police off about our operation. Most likely someone must’ve heard all the excessive gunshots that went off that night. Somehow, I woke up relatively unscathed from the whole ordeal. My right arm was broken in a few places, and I had a couple bruises here and there along with a mild concussion, but nothing all that serious. I consider myself extremely lucky to have survived.
The nurses alerted the police a short while after they had noticed I had woken up. Two detectives came to visit me later that afternoon. I told them nothing, of course. I knew better than to talk to the police without a lawyer first. But they told me a piece of information that almost made me pass out. Apparently, Vinny, Mike, and Joshua had all survived the ordeal as well. Though they were in a significantly worse state than I was when the officers at the scene had found them. I didn’t know what to make of it. It was unbelievable to say the least. Nothing short of a miracle. I thanked the detectives and they left shortly after.
In the following months, we all had to stand trial for our little break-in and attempted burglary. I won’t bore you with the details, just know that our boss’ operations were set in serious turmoil after that night. It didn’t matter to me though. Shortly after I had served the mild prison sentence I was given, I decided to turn a new leaf and work on improving myself, leaving the criminal world behind.
I tried to convince the rest of my former crew to do the same. The way I figured, it was a miracle we had survived. It was like we had been given a second chance, we’d be foolish to waste it. Lightning never strikes twice. In the end, I only managed to turn Joshua over to the light, but that was fine with me. Their downfall, not mine.
As for the creature, or demon, or whatever it is, It’s still out there. More criminals in this city have turned up in a similar manner. Some people think it’s the mob, but I know better. As I said earlier, I can sometimes feel its presence. Like it’s either watching over me or waiting for a slip-up. Maybe It’s not a demon at all, but rather an angel of karmic justice. Funny as it seems, it certainly inspired me to lead a better life, so maybe I should really thank it. Either way, the nightmares I wake up from each night would disagree.
I’m writing this as a precautionary tale. I don’t know what it is or if there are more of them, but there is something out there, lurking in the shadows. As of late, it has been more active than ever, more proficient than the police ever could be in this city. It’s coming for the morally corrupt, and you’d be foolish if you think you can stop it.
If anything, take this final piece of advice, if you are currently leading a life of crime, or you’re planning to commit one; please reconsider. It’s not worth the trauma, trust me. But if you’re not in a situation to make that choice, which I can understand, at least make sure you’re home by the time it gets dark…