It was the last weekend of the summer and my friend Ian invited me and a few other good friends (and some coworkers) to visit his parents house in Long Island and to swim in their pool. We’d all been out the night before and were a little hungover, but otherwise everything was totally normal.
For a while we ate hot dogs and swam in the pool. Derek and I drove up together and met Carson (who derek when to elementary school with) and Ian, Ian’s girlfriend Marchelle, gabby, Gabby’s sister, and a few of Gabby’s friends from work. I sat by the pool and hung out trying to get a tan and failed miserably. I never tan but it’s still nice to be in the sun.
For a while Derek was talking with one of Gabby’s coworkers, a girl I’ll call Polly. Actually there were two girls there named Polly, which is weird to me because it’s not that common of a name. Derek had recently broken up with his girlfriend and I could sense that the two of them were getting along really well. She was pretty but something about her seemed slightly weird. I think she might have been wearing a retainer.
At about 6 o’clock, Gabby and her sister and her friends from work all decided to go home, but me, Carson, Ian, Marchelle, and derek decided to spend the night. We wanted to keep hanging out and it was a long drive back into the city. Plus, we wanted to go swimming later when it was dark. Everyone was down with the plan, but for some reason Derek seemed a little weird. I chalked it up to his recent breakup, and figured if he drank another beer and ate some of Carson’s banana bread, he’d be back to normal and having fun again.
The party had dwindled and we decided to start up a fire. Ian’s dad came out with some lighter fluid and we all hung out for a while, trading funny stories about Ian. He mentioned that one of his hobbies was making wood carvings (there’s a lot of big trees in Ian’s backyard) and said he had made a samurai sword that he was really proud of. We all asked if he could show it to us because he said it was still in the house. He laughed and said he didn’t know if he could find it, but then Ian said isn’t it in the garage. His dad looked kind of strange then. He made some excuse about having to check on Ian’s mom and left. It was really abrupt, and kind of changed the mood. I didn’t really think anything of it and assumed the old man was tied. I definitely wanted to check out that sword but I figured it would ruffle some feathers and forgot about it.
We drank our beers for a while and hung out by the fire, reading our favorite creepypastas. They weren’t that scary, but definitely a few of them made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, especially the one we heard about a woman who meets a man and then her twin emerges later from the darkness and kills him and everyone else. We definitely thought it sounded like the story could be about us, and laughed but maybe we were laughing to avoid admitting that we were a little scared.
The fire was getting low and we were running out of random kindling to keep it live. Marchelle had gone to bed, so now it was just me and the boys. I had a lot of fun, but everyone was getting a little tired and maybe a little spooked after the creepypastas and the now almost total darkness.
This is when things started to get weird. Carson had been playing spooky music on his phone (as usual), and the speakers were playing sounds of laughing children and stomping boots. The strange laughter and rustling noises continued on as we started picking up our stuff to go. Ian told Carson to shut it off so we could go inside and cool down with a movie (and because the town has an 11pm sound curfew). That’s when Carson said, I’m not playing any music any more.
What are you talking about, Ian said. We all suddenly froze.
It’s not my phone, Carson said with trepidation. Look — he showed us his phone and it was dead.
Then… what’s that noise, Ian asked. Everyone looked around. There was still this strange, eerie laughter, and rustling noises coming from where we had the speakers set up by the pool. But now that we knew it wasn’t the phone, I realized the noises were somewhat different than what Carson had been playing. It was hard to see anything In the darkness, but I realized Derek wasn’t with us. That definitely was weird, but I chalked it off because I assumed he was in the bathroom or something.
I told Ian and Carson we should not even worry about cleaning up and just go inside and even admitted I was feeling a little creeped out. Ian said the bodies were probably just his weird neighbors who had just moved in and were even doing karaoke the week before. I figured he was right, but the laughter sounded so close, and I thought the rustling might even be getting closer. It was time to go in.
Carson wanted to unplug the speaker and went off into the bushes. Ian wanted to check on Marchelle anyway and came in with me. We were all going to be sleeping in the basement that night because they have a pull out couch.
When we got into the basement bedroom, we couldn’t find derek or Marchelle. These tiny bird statues that Ian used to love playing with as a kid, were strewn all over, and the fridge door was open emanating a weird hum.
This is bizarre I said to Ian, and this time he agreed.
I went to pick up one of the bird statues, a tiny cardinal. It wasn’t broken or anything and seemed intentionally placed there. Ian checked the fridge and nothing was out of order. We decided to go find Carson because it was becoming clear something was going on. When we went outside to he pool, the laughter and strange noises were even louder. They seemed to be coming from the garage.
Now things get from weird to bizarre.
Trying to appear coolheaded, Ian and I went to the garage, seeing the light was on. I was pretty freaked, but Ian thought maybe everyone was playing a prank. We slowly approached the garage, and Ian went in first. What I saw then I’ll never forget.
That’s all I can share right now. If you guys want a part two comment and I can DM it to you — it’s honestly too weird to post.