If you’re new here, you should start here.
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I made myself a cup of coffee with shaky hands in the morning, the lack of sleep from staying up all night was getting to me.
It was only 7 AM, but I was getting jittery, I simply couldn’t wait any longer, so I gulped the remainder of the bitter coffee down in one go and walked upstairs to my son’s room.
The door was open, as it always had been because Liam hated closed doors in our house.
“If all the doors are open, then our house is one big room, meaning nobody is alone!” I remember him saying those words with the widest grin on his mouth as if he was the smartest boy on the planet at that moment. Maybe he was.
I peered inside his room quietly, he was sleeping soundly, cuddled up together with his Pikachu plushie. I walked inside his messy room, no matter how often we taught him to tidy up, he hated doing it, and we didn’t feel like forcing him would be healthy.
My feet took me to his bedside, I gently ran my fingers through his messy brown hair- we never considered that Liam would have brown hair, because I was blonde, and my wife had gorgeous Auburn hair.
Liam began turning in bed groggily, releasing a yawn in the process.
“Good morning sleepy head,” I said in a childish voice, smiling down at him, he was rubbing the sleep out of one eye, while the other was half open looking up at me.
“Dad?” He said in a confused voice. Usually, Alice was who woke him up when he was sleeping for too long, so seeing me must’ve been unusual.
Liam yawned again and stretched his arms. “Why are you here Daddy?”
I kneeled so we’d be face to face. “To wake you up, silly.” Liam giggled at that.
“Okay okay, I’m awake.” He giggled again, and then threw his covers to the side and jumped out of bed.
“Are you hungry?” I asked while beginning to walk towards the door.
“Yeah!” Liam said, now full of energy.
“What do you want to eat?”
Liam stopped flailing his arms around and placed a finger on his chin. I laughed. “What are you doing buddy?”
“I’m thinking.” He said without moving an inch, and then a couple of seconds later. “Pancakes!”
“I want to eat pancakes!” “Pancakes pancakes!”
“Okay okay, bud, I’ll go make some pancakes, and how about you tidy up your toys a little?”
Liam looked at me wide-eyed, like I had just said the unspeakable.
I laughed again and shook my head, proceeding to walk downstairs. It was no surprise that Liam was right behind me.
He sat down at the kitchen counter and noticed the Lego set. “Is that for me?!” He exclaimed loudly.
“Shh, your mommy’s still sleeping.” I scolded him. “Yeah, this is for you, sorry for leaving yesterday.”
“It’s okay Daddy.” His grin was from ear to ear as he opened up the box and began playing with it. Meanwhile, I began making the pancake batter.
“Did Mommy give you my drawing?” Liam asked in a somewhat shaky voice.
I stopped whisking the batter and walked up to him, picking up his drawing in the process. His hands were shaking slightly, his eyes were pointed at his feet. “I did, it’s a beautiful drawing, thank you, Liam.”
Liam looked up at me, his eyes were tearing up. He looked scared, afraid. I moved my hand to wipe away a stray tear coming down his face. “Don’t cry Liam, it’s okay.” He nodded and wiped away the snot coming out of his nose using the sleeve of his pajamas. I shook my head, somewhat amused.
“What is this supposed to be, Liam?” I placed his drawing in front of him.
He lifted his shaky hand and pointed at the boy with red eyes. “Daddy’s friend.” Then his hand moved to the boy with a red chest. “Daddy.” His hand moved back down to his side.
“Where did you see this Liam?” He shook his head in response. “He said I can’t say or you’ll get hurt.”
“Who did?” He shook his head again, his eyes tearing up again.
“It’s okay Liam, daddy won’t get hurt.”
He looked up at me with his eyes full of wonder. I often wondered what he saw, or what he was looking for. At this moment, however, I knew what he was looking for. He was desperately searching for the truth in my eyes.
“Do you promise?” He sniffled.
I smiled at him. “I promise.” I desperately tried not to let my eyes betray my fake promise.
Liam nodded and looked back at the picture, his shaky finger moving to it. “Daddy’s friend told me.”
“The boy with red eyes?” Liam nodded again and sniffled, wiping away his tears.
“Where did you see him?” He shook his head. I released the breath I was holding and tightly embraced my shaken son. “It’s okay,” I whispered into his ear, and he broke down crying.
After a couple of minutes, Liam calmed down, and his sobs turned to muffled sniffles. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned my head to see Alice standing there, looking at us with her worried eyes.
“What’s wrong?” She whispered under her breath.
“I’ll explain later.” I mouthed back to her.
I looked back at Liam, who was clinging to me tightly. “Are you okay buddy?” He nodded. I slowly pulled back from Liam, who didn’t seem to want to let go. Eventually, though, he did. Both our pajamas were covered in tears and snot.
Liam looked me up and down and giggled.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“My snot is on you!” He laughed out loud. I could hear my wife giggling behind me too.
I shook my head. “Well I’m going to go get changed, and Mommy will finish the pancakes okay?”
Alice looked at me in shock. And Liam just nodded. I took the picture with me as I walked upstairs.
Was it Lucifer? Was he the one talking with Liam? Is Lucifer the boy from my memories?
I should call Laura today and speak with her. But I don’t have her number…
I changed out of my pajamas into black slacks and a white t-shirt, and after shoving Liam’s drawing into my pocket, I began walking back downstairs. Liam was now happily playing with legos again, and the smell of pancakes wafted through the kitchen.
I walked over to my wife. “Why’d you wake him up so early? It’s only half past seven.”
“I needed to ask him about his drawing,” I said in a serious tone, and when Alice glanced at me without saying anything, I continued explaining. “The two boys he drew, it’s something from my memory. It’s something that happened when I went missing for a month when I was eight.”
Alice sighed. “That’s barely a good enough reason to wake him up so early, that was almost 20 years ago, you should move on.” She sounded disappointed. It’s not like I wanted to suddenly start remembering, it’s not like I asked for these bizarre and obscure dreams to haunt me in my sleep.
“I can’t just move on.” I sighed, desperately searching for the right words. “It haunts me, every day, I keep remembering more and more, I have nightmares about it.”
Alice turned and looked me in the eyes. “Maybe..” She began speaking, her gaze dropping just below my eyes. “Maybe you should speak to a therapist again.”
“A therapist?” I snarled under my breath. I couldn’t believe her. “How is a therapist going to explain all those dead bodies I found under the cabin?”
“Maybe that’s exactly why you should go to therapy, to get over that trauma, I can’t imagine you being fine after discovering something like that.” She raised her tone too.
I took a deep breath. “It’s not that simple.” She scoffed and turned back around to care for the pancakes. I took another deep breath. My stress levels were over the roof this morning, I needed a smoke, even though I had quit years ago, my wife still smoked. I walked out of the kitchen, through the living room, and into the hallway. I found Alice’s purse and fished out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
I slipped into my flip-flops and walked outside, lighting the cigarette.
I took the first puff and immediately felt a little more at ease. But then I struggled with inhaling the smoke and began coughing.
Something shifted in my vision and I felt lightheaded, then suddenly my vision went black.
I blinked a couple of times and the light returned to me, my vision still blurry, I was in the forest.
“Marc! Marc!” I heard a distant voice whisper to me, it sounded distorted, like a glitch, like I wasn’t supposed to hear it. I was still coughing, except this time I felt a hand covering my mouth, and the coughs were coming from the pits of my stomach, accompanied by blood.
I looked down at my arms, they were stained in it too.
To my left were the red eyes of the boy that saved me. Those eyes were full of desperation. Imagine you were climbing a cliff with your buddy and fell, how would your friend look at you as your body tumbled into the abyss?
“Stay quiet.” He whispered into my ear. I had almost forgotten we were being chased.
This is just a vision. Then why does the excruciating pain in my chest feel so fucking real? It felt like I was being stabbed in the same place repeatedly, it was unbearable.
I could hear heavy footsteps treading all around us. It made me wonder, what was it that was pursuing us, and why? Could it be whatever or whoever turned into my grandmother? Something else entirely?
My breathing was heavy, it felt like I had a huge boulder weighing down on my lungs, and the coughing wasn’t helping my situation.
We stayed like that, huddled up together in a bush for what felt like hours. Eventually, the footsteps began growing more and more distant, until we couldn’t hear them anymore.
The pain however only worsened. I felt my savior’s hand relax and it moved away from my mouth, and in that exact moment, I retched forward, a stream of blood escaping my mouth.
I fell backward with a rough landing, making me cough again, and then watched as the boy inspected me with curiosity.
“Your stitches came undone.” He said while removing his shirt. “Can you move? get up?”
I shook my head in response. He lifted me and began trying to pressure my wound by tying his shirt around my torso. I couldn’t even fathom how a boy my age knew to do something like this.
Despite the pain I felt all around my body right now, my mind was clear. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, but my lips wouldn’t open, as if I wasn’t meant to speak right now, as if fate itself was holding my mouth shut.
“There, should be better.” The boy admired his handiwork. Then he began going through his pockets. He pulled out a zip-locked plastic bag with what looked to be white pills. He took one out. “Open wide.” He instructed me, and I obliged. He placed the pill on the top of my tongue. “Try to swallow it, it’ll make you feel better.”
I wondered if it was a painkiller. And if it was, it was truly powerful, because as soon as I somehow managed to swallow the pill, the pain began subsiding in my chest. And not even a minute later, I could breathe again. It was gone. What is this miracle medicine?
“What happened?” I muttered still trying to catch my breath.
“Your organs- it- it took them.” The reality of that didn’t really hit me at first. It was like my eight-year-old mind didn’t understand what that meant, but my twenty-eight-year-old mind was in full panic mode right now.
“Who did?”
“It.” The boy was crouching beside me, still alert for whatever or whoever was chasing us.
“Was it who was chasing us?”
He nodded. I pulled myself off the ground, slightly wincing in pain.
I could tell my younger mind didn’t understand what organs meant, and I could tell that it was curious.
“What organs did it take?” The boy looked me in the eyes with surprise. He scratched his head as if deciding whether to tell me or not.
Then he stood up and motioned for me to follow. “I’ll take you where it’s safe.” I felt at ease with this boy. But his red eyes scared me. I had never seen someone with red eyes before.
We quietly walked through the forest, jumping at every twig snapping, or leaves crunching.
The conversations were minimal and done in hushed whispers. “What’s your name?” He asked me after some time.
“Marc, what’s yours?” I answered and asked back.
“Iris. He replied, glancing back to make sure I was right behind him.
I smiled at him, and he turned back. We continued walking through the eerily still and dark forest in silence.
After a couple more minutes Iris stopped walking and I almost bumped into him. “We’re here.” He took hold of my hand, which surprised me. He pulled me to stand next to him, and in front of us was a tall spiral staircase made of brick, or stone, looking brand new. He clutched my hand tightly. “All of them.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“It took all of them.” He said again.
He pulled me forward to walk, and my vision grew blurry. Both of my eyes were stinging intense like I had something inside of them. I tried to blink it out, and soon the light began returning to me, sunlight.
The intense burning receded and I could see again. I was back on my front porch. My cigarette was nothing but a burnt-up bud.
My head was throbbing with an intensity I hadn’t felt before and I felt light-headed, I held onto the doorframe for support. Once the sudden wave had passed, I steadied myself and re-entered my house.
The sudden waft of pancakes relaxed my tensed-up body that was still feeling the distant sting of the chest wound from my memories. I still hadn’t fully processed what happened, the things that I learned, the things that it meant.
I instinctively pulled out my son’s drawing from my pocket. My blood froze when I saw it. It had changed. I saw the backs of two boys holding hands and in front of them a spiral staircase leading to nowhere. Why did it change- how did it change?
I walked into the kitchen still looking at the drawing. Liam was eating his pancakes and my wife was nowhere to be seen. “Liam,” I said in a higher-pitched tone. He looked at me with curiosity.
Then his eyes went wide when he saw the drawing I was holding.
“Do you know something about this?” My tone was serious. He swallowed.
“It’s you and your friend.” I sighed. I need to calm down, Liam has done nothing wrong.
“I’m sorry Liam.” I apologized to him and walked upstairs.
I need to clear my head. I also want to go to the forest. Maybe I can find these stairs I’ve been dreaming about. But I can’t go alone, I still remember being stalked by whatever or whoever was in the forest the last time I went.
I search for my phone and call my best friend, Chris.
It rings for about 15 seconds before he picks up. “Marc, why are you calling me so early?”
“Do you want to accompany me to the forest?”
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