Author: kay

New York is always loud at night, but I always found a certain peace walking the dark corners of the city so late. I know that it’s dangerous for a small girl like myself to just walk about dim alleys at this time of day, but I’ve always found it enjoyable.

Tonight, however it was just depressing. As I wandered through my familiar paths, admiring the graffiti and street art that people left about, I felt alone. I suddenly longed for someone’s company, no matter who that might be.

I took my phone out of my pocket, and scrolled through my contacts. There had to be someone I knew who I could call to come out and walk with me. They might enjoy it as well.

I stopped my phone on one particular number. Clarisse. She was always up late at night, and constantly slept in past noon. As long as she retains a good work schedule, she’ll be fine. I tapped the call button, then held the phone up to my ear. I kept meandering down the street.

A few tones later, I was greeted by a voice telling me she was unavailable, and to leave a message at the beep. I sighed, and hung up the phone. It looked like I would have to walk alone again tonight. Maybe I should plan ahead next time?

With that in mind, I continued along my barren path. I just need to persevere a little longer, and then things will turn out better. Right?

Sighing frequently, I just carried on. Thinking about how drab things are isn’t the worst thing I could do, and sometimes you need a little introspection to put yourself in order. I think.

Then, I heard coughing in an off alleyway. I was startled at first, but quickly regained my composure and looked into the alley. There was a battered young man facing away from me, and also at a dead-end wall. He wasn’t too poorly dressed, so I knew he wasn’t homeless. I wasn’t sure what it was that he was doing.

“Excuse me, sir? Are you alright?” I spoke at him a little loudly, so that I could be sure he heard me. However, he made no notion that he had heard me. I pulled a small knife out of my pocket, and held it at the ready, just in case. I’d heard stories of sociopaths who would lure people, especially girls, into alleys and then murder them. I wasn’t going to let that happen, but this fellow still confused me.

“Sir, are you alright?” He kept coughing, but didn’t make any other movement.

“Um…” I took another couple of steps toward him. I could clearly see that his hands were empty, so he couldn’t beat me down with some weapon. Most likely.

A moment later, the man turned to face me. His eyes were glowing orange, as if they were burning iron. The veins in his face supported that same glowing color scheme, but his skin was deathly pale. I gasped and put one hand over my mouth.

He stumbled toward me, and started to slowly arch his back backwards. After a couple of steps, his torso faced the sky, and I was surprised his legs were keeping him stable. I took a few steps backward, keeping some distance between us. Although, if he tried to run towards me, I could easily outpace his weird steps.

I held my knife at the ready. This guy was some kind of ghost, and I had to deal with him. This isn’t how I had planned this walk to go.

He took a couple more steps towards me, and I took one step more than him backwards. “Okay bud, I’m just going to leave you to your death, and head out. Okay with you?”

Apparently it wasn’t because then his rib cage burst open. There was no blood, however. Even though I could see his pristine and white bones, I could only see a black emptiness within his chest. I had spent countless amounts of bored hours online reading about demons, and had never heard about something like this.

“Shit!” I shouted, and I turned around to escape. I hadn’t taken more than a step before I had heard sounds of water splashing loudly. No, not quite water. It was something heavier than water. I took a scared look back, and witnessed something climb out of the man’s chest. It first reached one hideous and black hand out, grabbed the side of the open rib cage, then did the same with the its other arm. It then lifted itself out of the man’s chest, and stood- or maybe sat- up from within the man.

The demon was just as black as the open chest, and it looked two dimensional, even while it was moving. It’s hard to perceive depth within direct blackness. Its silhouette was jagged and messy, and it shook constantly and blinked frequently. It extend at least ten feet out from the man, and that was while it still sat inside of him at the waist. Its arms were around the same length as the creature itself, and hung next to the man’s thighs.

The demon also had the same shade of orange within its own eyes, and inside of its gaping and raw mouth. It opened its mouth, then screamed at me.

I shook off my shock, then bolted out of the alleyway. I looked back a few seconds later, and saw the man’s legs shuffling out of the alley. It looked as if the beasts reach didn’t matter because of the small and weak legs. I slowed to a fast walk, but continued my escape of the creature. This was a fine time to catch my breath.

I kept up my pace for a few minutes, then turned to look behind me once more. The demon was gone. It had either given up on chasing me, or it had disappeared, because of its summoning restrictions or something.

I leaned against the wall, and was satisfied to simply breath. That had been more excitement than I had ever wanted in the first place. I only wish that someone else had been with me to see that beast.

I leaned against a wall, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and finally took in a long breath. I didn’t smoke very often.

I savored every breath that I took of that cigarette before deciding to leave. I tossed the cigarette to the ground, and stamped it out. In its last moments, I couldn’t help but notice how similar its orange glow was to the man’s and the demon’s orange.

I rubbed my foot on the cigarette a little extra, out of spite, then wiped the ashes off of my shoe. “Good riddance, you beast.”

I stretched my arms upward, yawned, and took a couple of steps away. I heard a loud crash. Panicked, I turned around and saw a black shape formed out of a man’s chest.

“Hell!” I screamed as I scrambled to get away. I had taken maybe one step before the beast had grabbed me with one of its large hands and began to pull me towards it. It turned me to face it. I was breathing rapidly, and struggling to get away. My eyes glanced up from its hand, and at its face. The moment It knew I was looking, it grinned.

The demon lifted me above its head, and sunk back into the chest at an agonising pace.

I shrieked, and my high tone pierced through the night without a reply.

The demon kept its shit-eating grin on its face the whole way down. I saw its glowing eyes disappear into the abyss, followed quickly by its smile. The last thing I saw before I was completely submerged in black was the face of the man. I reached out to touch him, but I was gone before I had the chance to have one last human touch.

***

“For the longest time, the most terrifying thing about this purgatory was the loneliness I felt. The only sound I knew was the sound of my own voice.”

“That sounds terrible. I hate to seem selfish, but I suppose I’m glad someone fell in here before I did. I would have gone mad being here on my own. At least now I have someone to talk to.”

“That’s only if I don’t die in here. I don’t know how long it’s been.”

“Funny. I don’t remember the date. I think it was someday in mid April?”

“I couldn’t tell you.”

“I suppose it’s all the same either way.”

“You know, the last thing I tried to do before falling down in here was touch the man’s face. Can you believe that? I had only moments to live, yet my last living thought was to touch the thing consuming me.”

“You must have been lonely. I’ve read theories about what the last thing people do before they die means.”

“…”

“Are you still alive?”

“I think you might be right. Maybe I was lonely.”

“Well, you won’t be anymore. At least, for a while.”

“Do you think we could shake hands, or hug, or something?”

“Um…”

“Maybe we could swim toward each other? I know that there’s some atmosphere or something, because we can breathe. That means we could use the air resistance a little bit, right?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you have a phone? You could shine it, and then I could see you and go towards you! I’d take mine out too, but I’m pretty sure it’s dead!”

“I’ll- I’ll try.”

“Perfect!”

“…”

“Anything?”

“I don’t think so. I can’t see anything, but I know I did it right.”

“Oh… That’s okay! I can just follow the sound of your voice! Keep speaking at me!”

“Um, alright, I suppose. Do you really think this will work?”

“Do you have a better plan?”

“I mean, not really, but-”

“Then just keep talking until I find out whether this works or not!”

“I really don’t think you have any idea what you’re doing…”

“Keep going!”

“I think that you’re just desperate at this point. Have you ever heard of that theory that claims that if you are alone for too long, you’ll create personalities and place them onto objects? How do you know I’m not just a voice you created?”

“I don’t!”

“Then why are you so insistent?”

“I trust you!”

“You can’t trust a stranger so easily! What if when- if!- you get to me, I just try to kill you?”

“It’s better than what I have now!”

“This isn’t going to work!”

I stopped. His voice was behind me suddenly. It never passed either of my sides, it was just suddenly behind me.

“Speak again.”

“Is this really want you want to do? Chase down a fever dream as if he is a reality?”

“You aren’t fake!”

“Says the crazy person desperate for someone else! You’re irrational”

I’m not irrational…

“You’ve gone crazy!”

I haven’t gone crazy…

“Then prove it!”

My throat was hoarse, and my arms were tired.

I think I just want to take a short nap. Goodnight, Vox.

“Goodnight, I suppose.”

I put one foot in front of the other, and walked home. I really like that phrase. It’s nice. I like to use it whenever I can.

Either way, that was exactly what I was doing. It was Friday, school was over, and my twelfth birthday was this Sunday. I was going to go home and clean up so that we could have a really good party on Saturday, so that we could still go to church on Sunday.

I found a small rock and kicked it around for a couple of blocks, before I ended up kicking it into the road. I wish I had had a friend to talk with while we walked to our houses. Maybe we would live right next to each other, and become best friends! We could spend every night together, and hop over each others fences to grab things from our houses. That would be the best!

Eventually, I got home. I stepped inside, kicked off my shoes, then took off my jacket and hung it up. “Mama, Pop, I’m home!” Most kids call their parents just mom and dad, but I wanted to be cool and different, so I called them Mama and Pop. They seem to like it, too.

“Come upstairs, Jon, I’m in the kitchen,” Mama yelled out to me. I rushed up each step, and hurried into the kitchen.

“Perfect, you’re just in time to lick the cake batter off of the whisk,” Mama handed me the whisk. I thanked her, and did just as she suggested.

“Pop isn’t home quite yet, he went to go get some party supplies,” Mama went to the oven, and turned a knob. ‘Preheating’ is what she calls that. It’s when you let the oven get hot before you try to cook anything.

“That’s okay, Mama. I’ll say hi to him once he gets back,” I took another big lick off of the whisk.

Mama smiled at me. “That sounds fine, Jon. We’ll be heading to the store to get dinner once the oven is preheated and the cake is baking. It shouldn’t take us any longer than an hour, but that’s only if traffic is really bad.”

I nodded at her, with the whisk still close to my mouth.

“I think you should also clean your room while we’re gone. You’re going to get presents, and I think it will be good if you have some extra space to put them.” Mama put her hand on my shoulder, and guided me to the table. We both took a seat.

“I cleaned my room last week, though,” I protested. It was true; I had cleaned my room last week, and I did it well, too.

“I know, sport, but your closet is really jammed up with stuff. Really, it’s just your closet that you need to clean. I don’t think it’ll be that bad, you’ll just get rid of some clothes that you don’t use and toss out some things you haven’t played with for a long time, and don’t think you will for even longer.” Mama was right. I did still have clothes that didn’t fit me in that closet, and I did have some toys that I hadn’t played with in years.

“Alright, Mama. I’ll go clean up my closet after Pop comes back.” I stood up from my chair, and put the whisk in the sink after rinsing it off.

“That sounds fine, Jon.” Mama stood up after me so that she could put the cake in the oven. The oven usually preheats really fast, so Mama doesn’t have to wait long when she preheats things.

Then, because I’m really lucky, I heard the door open from a distance. Pop was home.

“Pop!” I ran over to greet him. He worked in a big, fancy business, so he always wore suits to work. He looked fine in suits, but I think he looked even better in jeans. Jeans are really comfy.

“Hey, buckaroo, how are you doing?” Pop said while he picked me up and tossed me onto his shoulder.

“Pop, I’m getting too big for this. I’m going to hurt your shoulder! I’m too wide!” I tried to climb off of him, but Pop grabbed me and put me down.

“You’re probably right, kiddo. I just don’t remember when you got so big. You’re almost twelve! That’s crazy!” Pop took my hand, and we walked up to the kitchen.

“Yup. Twelve is almost as old as you are, Pop!” Once we got into the kitchen, I hopped onto a chair again and swung my legs.

“I’m not so sure. Thirty-six is three times the age of twelve,” Pop replied. I made angry-eyebrows at him. He just laughed. “Sorry, but you can’t fight facts.”

Mama stood up then. “Well, we’d best get going. It’d be bad if we didn’t have anything for dinner tonight.” She then grabbed her purse and Pop, and started to head out. “Make sure you clean your closet, son!” She shouted at me from the door.

“Will do, Mama!” After they left, I went down into the basement so that I could clean my room. Well, my closet mostly.

I walked into my room, and opened up my closet. It was filled with all sorts of toys and clothes. It also had my guitar that I practiced with every other day, and a few other things. First, I took everything out of the closet and spread it all over the floor. That would make it easier for me to sort out what I should keep and what I shouldn’t.

After clearing out the closet, I sat down in the center of the pile. This was going to take a while. I started sorting things into two piles: things to keep and things that I wouldn’t keep. There were a lot more things that I wouldn’t keep than I would.

After a time, I felt like I had finally sorted through both piles. I didn’t know how long it would take me, but I imagined that Mama and Pop would be home soon. In the meantime, I needed to put away my things back in the closet.

That’s when I noticed a strange little door sitting inside of the closet that I didn’t remember. I thought about it really hard for a few moments, but then I realised that I didn’t have that door when we first moved in. When was it added? Was it while I was on vacation? If so, why did no one tell me about it?

This was perfect! I could put some of my old stuff into that new closet and have extra storage space! I wouldn’t have to throw anything away.

I hopped to my feet, and leaped over to this small door, and opened it up. I crawled into it, and started looking around.

There were dolls all over the wall. There were plastic dolls that looked like Ken, there were porcelain dolls, which were easily the creepiest ones, there were wooden dolls that hung stiffly, and there were even a few dolls made out of metal. I suddenly didn’t want to put my things into this closet.

Then, in the center of this candle lit room, I saw a woman stooped over a table. Her hands were moving furiously. I gasped at the sight of her.

Suddenly, she stopped and turned to look at me.

“Alex… Alex, is that you?” She stood up from the table. She was wearing a red dress that was torn in many places, and had a few patches of blue. The biggest patch of blue was on her right leg. Or was it her left?

“Alex, come here!” She rushed toward me, and picked me up. I wanted to scream, but she covered my mouth.

“God, Alex, I was worried I’d never see you again.” She put me down in a chair, and tied my arms to it.

“MAMA! HELP ME!” I screamed as loudly as I could.

“Sh sh sh… Don’t worry, Alex. I just want us to be together again. We’ll be a family once more.” She started to play with my hair.

“M-m-my name is Jonathon,” I managed to say. “I don’t know anyone named Alex.”

“Oh, Alex, is that what the kids at school told you? Look at all of these dolls! Don’t they look like you? Don’t you like them, Alex?” She held my hands, and I looked around desperately.

I looked around at the dolls, secretly scared. I couldn’t let her see my fear. The dolls did have a similarity to each other, but none of them looked like me. Most of them looked like they could be another boy, but I didn’t know that boy.

“No, miss, they don’t look like me. Their hair is too long, and too dark. Also, I have green eyes and theirs are brown. My name is Jon. Please let me go, miss.”

“What about this one, Alex? I was just making it before you came in. Doesn’t this one look just like you?” The lady pulled the doll off of the table that she had been at before. The doll was made out of what looked liked sewn together shirts and jeans. It was messy, and didn’t look as clean as some of the other dolls. Its eyes were just small holes torn into the fabric, and it didn’t have any hair yet.

“Miss, that doll doesn’t look like me. It looks-”

“Oh! Of course it doesn’t look like you! It’s missing something!” She crawled over to the table where she had it, grabbed something, put it on the doll, then came back to me. The doll now had a full head of hair. “Here we are! It was missing its hair! Isn’t this better?” As she spoke, she shook the doll around in her hands. Every time it was shaken, the hair would fall off, and she would stick it back on.

I took in a deep breath, and collected all of my courage. “Miss! Listen! Your dolls aren’t bad, but they don’t look like me.”

She stood up and stared at me. Her dress was dry and stiff in the places where it was red.

“Alex. I worked hard on these dolls,” Her stare was scaring me, and I wanted to cry. “Are you going to sit there and insult my hard work? The details, don’t matter, but they are you Alex!” She leaned back down toward me.

“I think I could give you some longer hair,” She said that, then took the hair off of the doll in her hands and put it on my head.

“I don’t think that’s enough.” She quickly grabbed a doll off of the wall and tore out its hair and placed the hair on my head. She threw the doll away, and I heard it shatter.

“There. That’s better. Isn’t that better, Alex?” She grabbed my hands and held on desperately. I felt hot tears roll down my cheeks.

“Please, miss. My name is Jon.”

“Alex… Jon. You aren’t Alex. Are you sure?” She stared at me. Her eyes looked empty, and it felt like she was looking through me.

I nodded, still crying.

She sighed. “Alex, I’m going to let you out of the chair. I want you to hug your mother, like a good boy would.” She did as she said, and started to untie my arms.

“There you go, poor dear. Now come hug me.” I stood up, wiped tears off my my face, then ran past her. I looked back, and saw the lady limping after me.

While, I wasn’t looking, I ran into a wall and fell on my butt. I looked up at the wall, and saw something crazy. I stopped my sniffles, and simply admired the doll on the wall. It was made of porcelain, and it almost looked like a real boy. I could have easily pretended that this doll was my younger brother or something.

“Alex!” I shouted. I figured out what the doll was. I looked back at the lady. She was still limping after me.

“Yes! Alex, that’s you!” She smiled at me, got on a knee, and held her arms open for me.

I pulled the doll off of the wall.

“Alex, what are you doing?”

I lifted the doll above my head.

“ALEX! DON’T YOU DARE!”

I threw the doll onto the ground, and it shattered. I saw its face break into a million pieces. One of its eyes didn’t break, and it sat on the ground and faced me.

“Alex! It’s going to take me weeks to fix that doll!” She stood up, and started to limp towards me again.

“Miss! I’m not Alex! My name is Jon! JON!” I was angry now, and I knew that she couldn’t run as fast as me. There was no way that she could get me if I decided to run off.

“Alex, you will not get away with this. You are going to be in a lot of trouble.” Her head started twitching. I felt a lot less brave.

“Miss, I’m still not Alex. My name is still Jon…” My voice got quieter with every word.

“Alex…” She sounded angry and threatening. My eyes got blurry. I didn’t want to be there anymore. I made my feet push me forward, and I ran past.

At least, I tried to run past her, but she managed to grab me again and hold me in one arm.

She held me in front of her and looked at me. Her eyes stared into my eyes. I looked away, and my vision got even blurrier. I held my breath, so that she couldn’t hear me cry. “You aren’t Alex. I can’t make you Alex.” I looked up at her, and wiped the tears out of my eyes so that I could see her face. I wish I hadn’t.

“Then I don’t want you here!” She threw me away from her.

Everything began to move slowly for me. I saw how angry the lady was. I saw the blue of her dress swirl with the red. I felt the wall hit my back, and I felt it crumble behind me. I saw my legs flailing forward and I saw dolls slide off of my skin, pelting me and breaking once they hit the floor.

Then, the tiny closet was in front of me, and there was a large hole in my closet that led into that room. I felt my back hit another wall. I fell to the floor. At least I’m not in the chair anymore.

I looked up at the lady, but she was no longer in the tiny room. I felt my eyes close.

“Mama…” the word left my lips, and I fell asleep.

“You know what you need? A girlfriend,” Ben whispered to me.

“Shut up. I’m fine as I am, thank you very much.” I would have glared at him, but I was busy aiming my rifle.

“Look, I get that you have this whole ‘being-a-virgin-isn’t-bad’ deal, but come on! How old are you, twenty-eight?” I aimed the rifle downward a bit. This would be clean shot, right through the buck’s heart.

“I’m twenty-seven, but that doesn’t matter. Now shut up, and let me take this shot.”

Ben stopped talking. Good, now I can actually pull off the shot. I put my finger on the trigger of the rifle and squeezed.

Ben stood up and bolted away from me, and I saw him turn on a light.

“Ben!” I yelled as I ran toward his light. I knew he had an industrial lamp, so I figured that would be bright enough for me to keep track of him.

I picked up the pace as I ran towards him. His light seemed to be moving away from me at about the same pace. I kept sprinting faster and faster until I thought I was catching up, or I couldn’t go any faster.

Eventually, his light started moving back towards me. I stopped running, and tried to catch my breath. Once I had caught enough, I yelled to him. “Ben! It’s me!” The light kept rushing towards me. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t know where we had camped.

The light kept getting closer and closer, until I had to cover my eyes to keep from being blinded. It was at that moment that I got tackled to the ground, and the wind had been knocked out of me.

I tried to speak, but my lungs wouldn’t let out a sound. “Quiet!” He whisper-shouted at me, “It’ll hear you.” I would’ve asked what, but my lungs still didn’t work. I was gasping for air, but without the actual gasping happening. Ben laid on top of me, and wouldn’t move.

Once I could breathe again, I whispered my question at him. “What will hear us?” He covered my mouth.

“It chased me. I don’t know. We have to avoid it.” He pulled his hand off of my mouth. “Stay silent.”

We walked through the forest, as quietly as we could. I kept seeing other lights out of the corner of my eyes, but Ben pulled my face toward him whenever I tried to look at the lights. He wouldn’t tell me why I couldn’t look at them. His light was still on, which didn’t make sense. Wouldn’t a light this bright attract whatever was chasing him?

“Hey, Ben,” I tried to get his attention.

“Shut it!” He whispered at me again.

“Those lights could be a search party,” I tried to reason with him.

“No!  They aren’t! Now quiet!” He turned back around, and kept moving forward.

“Ben, I’m not just going to follow you to our death! I’m going to find one of those search parties, you can come with me if you want.” I continued the tense, whisper-shouting, but I don’t know why

Ben grabbed my arm. “Stop. Those aren’t search parties. We’ll die out here if we stay. We’ve already spoken too much to begin with. We’ll be heard. Come on!” He tried to pull me towards him, but I pulled my arm back.

“HELP!” I finally built up the courage to shout. Ben stared at me in horror. He turned off his light, then burst away from me, leaving me in the dark.

I turned toward one of the lights, and started jogging towards it. “HEY! HELP! I GOT TRAPPED OUT HERE!” I kept moving forward.

The light floated up into the trees, and out of my sight. It hadn’t been a search party with another lamp. I don’t know what it was, but I think I had scared it off.

Then I realised that there was no sound. Usually I would hear crickets and owls and other insects and nocturnal birds, but this time there was no sound. I only heard my own breath. I turned around, and saw a few more lights. I didn’t know if any were Ben, but I now wish I hadn’t left him.

I stood in place. I didn’t know whether or not I should run, stay where I was, or hide. So, I chose to hide by climbing a tree. If there was something out here, I didn’t really think it could climb a tree. Black bears didn’t reside in this area, only grizzly, and even they weren’t common.

I started shifting myself up from branch to branch, ensuring that I wouldn’t fall, and making sure that I don’t get myself hurt.

I got up a few feet before suddenly noticing a totally white face right next to mine. It looked as if it were a mask, but its features were perfectly symmetrical, and its features were very soft. It looked like a lovely porcelain doll.

For a split second, I was fine with its presence. I admired the handiwork. The moment that I saw the face tilt I realised that something was wrong. I fell a few feet off of the tree, and landed on the ground. I might have felt sore, but my panic was overwhelming. I scrambled to my feet, and started to dash away. I looked back, and saw the face floating above the ground, with a shadow of a human body beneath it.

“AAH!” The ground disappeared beneath me. I found myself lifted into the air, my body contorting into a ball, where I realised I was stuck within a net. My eyes could still see the porcelain face moving toward me. Its face didn’t hold any new expression. It stayed neutral, and it stayed empty.

I  tried to reach for my pocket knife. I was going to cut myself out of this net before that thing got to me!

I grabbed at the knife, and slid it out of my pocket. I was lucky I hadn’t dropped it, because all of my weight was forced onto my side with the knife. I opened it, and began to cut at the rope.

“YOU GET AWAY FROM THERE!” The shout startled me, and I tightened my grip on the knife. I looked up, and saw Ben. He was waving his lantern around like a madman. Suddenly, the porcelain thing ran towards him with incredible dexterity. I hadn’t expected that sudden grace.

A moment later, I realised what Ben had done for me. I took the chance to continue cutting at the rope. A few strings later, I was falling to the ground. This time the wind wasn’t knocked out of me, because I was prepared for the fall. I might have broken my off-arm, though.

I stood up, and raced away from where I thought I remembered seeing those two run off. I had no clue whether or not I would get away.

After a few more moments, I had to stop. I was out of breath, and needed to stop and catch my breath. Then, I saw another light flicker into existence. Ben!

I ran toward the light before suddenly realising my mistake. This light was going to float away, too. I watched it for a moment, then saw it move toward me ever so slightly. I guess that means that this wasn’t one of those fake lights. This was Ben.

I broke into a hastened walk, and made my way toward the light. Ben wasn’t speaking, so there might have been a chance that he still needed me to be silent.

Once I got into range of the light and could see the lantern, I realised it was alone. I stared at the tree it sat before blankly. Why would Ben abandon his lamp?

Then, I heard muffled sounds of struggle from behind the tree. I leaped toward a nearby tree, and hid behind it. I listened to the sound closely. I heard some rope, and some quiet cries, as if the person crying was gagged.

I kept listening. Maybe that wasn’t Ben and the porcelain thing. Maybe it’s a couple of fetishists? I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to find out until the sounds stopped.

A few more minutes passed, and the sound continued as it had. Then, there was one much louder cry, the sound of animal flesh being torn into, a splatter of blood, then nothing. I didn’t hear the sounds of any footsteps running away.

I slunk toward the origin of the sound, and hoped for the best. Maybe it’s just a satanist?

I picked the lamp up off of the tree, then moved myself around the tree to see what had happened.

“BEN!” Ben was tied up. His arms were tied onto a branch above his head, and his feet and legs were just tied together. His head hung over his neck, and his abdomen was torn open, and everything was falling out of him.

I gasped and dropped the lantern. Ben was dead, and I was alone in this forest- alone with god knows what.

I hurtled away from the scene. Ben’s dead. Ben’s dead. Ben’s dead.

I kept sprinting, hoping that I wasn’t going to run into the porcelain thing again. Then, lights of various colors appeared from behind the trees, and I took a sharp left.

More lights began to show themselves. I kept turning and kept seeing more lights, until I realised I was boxed in. I dropped the lantern, and stood in place. There was nowhere for me to go. There was nowhere for me to run.

The lights slowly moved toward me, the colors becoming more muted tones: grays, blues, and yellows.

When they were close enough to me that I could have taken one jump and touched one, they opened up a small entrance, and a porcelain mask floated through. Now, however, I could see what the mask’s body looked like. It looked like scrap metal jammed into a humanoid shaped, albeit a rather accurate one. I could consistently see through certain parts of the body, and many areas of it were rusted. I could tell it was supposed to have a more feminine form, because of its small steel breasts and its visible curves.

It walked up toward me, and lifted my chin to match its eyes. I should have ran, but I didn’t know what the lights would have done to me.

She grabbed my jaw, and pulled me up to my feet. She stroked my cheek, almost as tenderly as a real woman. At least, I think. I closed my eyes, mostly out of fear.

She placed her hands behind my head, and pulled me forward. Suddenly, I could feel the curves of her cold, glass lips between my own. The lips stayed rigid in their place, which caused my lips to move to make way. Her face stayed near mine for a moment, then she pulled away, and released my head.

I opened my eyes once again. What is this thing? Her hands ran down my neck, shoulders, and onto my hips, which she pulled into her own. I could feel the metal of her pelvis rather clearly, but those same curves felt almost natural, if only a bit stiff.

She quickly pulled her hands back to my face, and pressed my face against hers once again. One of her hands stayed on my head, and the other slid down to my lower back. It felt like a real person trying to love me, but her metal fingers and hands didn’t hold the same qualities flesh did.

After another few moments with her lips forced onto mine, the lights began to shift to more warm tones, such as red and orange. I think the yellow lights probably stayed the same.

The doll held my hips, and kept them pressed to hers. She cocked her head at me a few times, as if trying to decide whether or not I had said something funny or embarrassing. I found myself awaiting her judgement.

Then, one of her arms was caressing my chest, while the other stayed in place. Her iron appendage made its way down my torso and onto my abdomen. Her head tilted back forth at a slow and random pace all the while.

“There’s no way you were the one who killed Ben. What am I missing?” The porcelain doll’s face didn’t change its neutral expression.

Her hand was forced into my abdomen. She punched through my organs, and I felt her hand slide out of my back. I gasped, and she pulled her fist out of me just as quickly as it had gone in, tearing even more flesh off of my midsection.

“You lied…” I feebly let the words go. She removed her hand holding me up, and let me fall to the ground. I saw my insides fall out of me. My vision was turning red. That might just be the floating lights. I might have chuckled to myself, but the color faded to black before I had a real chance to think.

Part 2 of 2

Part 1

---

I woke up.

It was just a nightmare. I didn’t actually see any of my family last night

I stood up, and dragged my feet toward my door. I turned on the light, then opened the door. Rubbing my eyes, I stepped out into my hall. Everything was in place. What a vivid nightmare.

I trudged my way to my bathroom. I rubbed my eyes again, then pulled open my door and walked in. I looked around. I wasn’t actually in my bathroom.

I was staring into a room filled with corpse after corpse, all of them being plagued with a condition I was all too familiar with.

Every corpse in that room had died of starvation. I could see it in their sunken eyes, and in the way that their skin barely clung to their bones. My eyes watched, forcing me to bear witness to all of the dead, before my stomach caught up and I vomited. I had seen many corpses before, but I was rather sensitive to starved ones.

I shut the door, and continued to dry heave in the hallway.

After regaining control of my breath, I pissed on the wall. I still needed to go. It was high-time I take some real action, and tried to do something about my situation. I looked into my kitchen. It still looked exactly as it should. I guess I’d just have to stop using my bathroom, and maybe my bedroom as well. I should get breakfast and see if someone will let me stay with them.

I stepped toward my fridge, feeling much more awake and alert at this point. Because of that, I noticed a note stuck to the freezer door. It was certainly out of place, to say the least. I tore it off, and looked at it.

Hope you like the food I left for you

~<3 Mom

I was no longer on board to open any sort of door in my house. Cupboards, rooms, closets, even my toilet lid, if it ever decided to show itself again.

I sat at my kitchen island, and dropped my head onto it. “Maybe now would be a good time to leave.” With that, I stood up, and walked briskly to my front door. I prayed that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with my only real exit. Damn this concrete box I live in.

I put my hand onto the doorknob, and took a deep breath. Please don’t jinx anything.

I squoze my eyes shut, twisted the knob, then shoved the door forward. I tensed up my muscles, hoping that I would feel a breeze, or some sunlight, or even a gunshot at this point.

There was nothing. I didn’t see anything past my eyelids, I didn’t hear anything, and I didn’t feel anything slide past my skin. I felt weak. I felt sick.

I let my eyes open, looking at my feet, then slowly panned up. There was another room where a street should have been. It had some cracked cabinets and shattered shelves tossed around on the walls, and crumbling counters dotting the middle. Scrambling on everything were cockroaches. It might have looked like a lab, except for its disrepair and pestilence.

“waaaaaaah…” I heard the subtle cry of a child. It was an infant! I stumbled into the lab type room. The door shut behind me, as I had expected. That didn’t matter at this point, those ghosts of my family had taken a baby!

I stopped to try and listen to the crying, so that I could find the child. The crying had stopped. The only sound was of cockroaches scuttling. I was standing in a broken and empty room.

“SHIT!” I ran back toward the door, and flung it open. It fell off of its hinges, and revealed my home’s main hallway once again. I was boxed into my house.

“What the fuck…” I stared into my home. I didn’t know what to make of anything that I had been faced with.

My feet sputtered toward my kitchen again. I needed a drink. I only hoped that I had some running water.

Leaning against walls, I pushed myself toward the sink. I was glad it was near my door. I placed my hands on the counter before it, and weakly forced my hand to turn the ‘cold’ handle.

Nothing came out for a second. That’s okay my sink usually doesn’t release water for a second. Right? Shit, I don’t remember.

Then, some dust puffed out of the faucet and into the air, before a single spider let its legs climb from the faucet, and used them to pull its body out. It climbed on top of the faucet, and stared at me with its many eyes. It was a dingy grey color, and lacked any hairs.

“What do you want?” I glared back at the spider. Its mandibles shifted around for moment, but it made no effort to move. It simply watched me with its beady eyes. I wasn’t usually afraid of spiders, but I didn’t want to touch this one.

If there wasn’t any water in my sink, I figured I might have a bottle or two in my fridge. I needed to do something quick, as the edges of my vision were beginning to become spotted.

Still leaning on the countertop, I used both my arms and legs alike to move myself toward the fridge. I slipped my hand into the handle, then pulled it open. This was when I remember the note that had been left.

There were only two items in my now shelfless refrigerator: a jar with a brain, and a pitcher of blood. I’d recognise blood anywhere. This was what she expected me to eat.

I knew that drinking human blood could kill me. At least, if I drank too much of it. This pitcher definitely counted as too much. A brain, I wasn’t so sure about. Considering how important the brain is, I’d like to imagine it’d be nutrient rich. I’m not a doctor.

I reached into the white box, and dragged the jar across the shelf. I couldn’t lift it, so it fell off of the shelf and shattered on the floor. I loosely swept glass shards away with my feet. I sat down, and let my hands reach for the brain. They picked it up, and pieces of it sloshed back to the ground. The brain got pulled toward my face, and I willingly took a bite of it. It tasted like metal, except it was made of flesh. I chewed slowly, then let the ruined matter float down my gullet.

I gazed at the brain. What did I just do? I didn’t just… Oh god.

I might have vomited, but my body had given up on resisting this nightmare. As if by reflex, I threw the brain straight at a wall. I stood up, no longer feeling sick or weak. Did the brain do this, or am I hopped up on adrenaline?

I closed the door to the fridge, and stepped away from the kitchen. Maybe there was something wrong with every room in the house, seeing as how my bathroom was filled with corpses, and my kitchen held blood and a brain.

I turned to go back toward the hallway, and remembered the spider. I looked at the sink, trying to find the watchful spider. It wasn’t on the faucet. I looked around, failing to see it on the floor or counters. I looked up, and saw it standing on the ceiling, with eyes tracking me ever so vigilantly. I wish I had killed it when it was sitting on my faucet.

I stepped into the hallway again. I had four more rooms I could look into. Although, I could also look more into the room that led “outside.”

I didn’t really have a lot of time. I didn’t know how long this adrenaline would last. I chose to look into my bedroom next, because I had woken up in there, and nothing seemed out of place at the time.

I got to my room without any issues in the hall. Yet, everything in my room was still in place. Nothing had been moved or touched since I had last been in there. However, my photo of my sister was facing the ground. That wasn’t right at all. I always stood it up before I would go to sleep. Maybe the terror made me forget.

I took a few steps into the room, then bent down and picked the picture frame up. I looked at the photo inside. Nothing was out of place within the photo, besides a cockroach climbing out of the back of the frame. I didn’t know how it fit its body through the small space, but that was the least of my concerns.

I turned around and looked up. The spider was still staring at me, and held its body close to the ceiling. The stark black eyes were only slightly discernible from its grey body.

I put the photo back down, ignoring the second and third cockroach climbing from it. I swiveled around, and left the room, trying my best to ignore the spider.

All of my other rooms are rather barren, and wouldn’t be very hard to examine for misplacements. I chose to study the smallest of them first, and made my way down to my closet.

With another amount of flawless steps, I was standing before my closet. I opened it up, and numerous moths flew out. Once they were out of the way, I got a look inside. All of the walls were covered in moth cocoons. Fragile moth cocoons, holding the sludge that caterpillars became as they metamorphosed.

My sister loved butterflies, and I can’t imagine that she would hate moths. Because of her, I would normally admire something like this, but the dingy brown colors covering my walls and coat wasn’t enjoyable in this context. I shut the door, and slunk away.

I saw my vision begin fading again. I panicked, and ran back into my kitchen. I looked toward the wall where I threw the brain, to find only the blood stain remaining, and all of the brain gone.

I thrust myself toward my refrigerator, and tore the door open. That door flew into the opposite wall. I greedily grabbed the pitcher of blood, and guzzled the ruby nectar as quickly as possible without choking. After three breaks, the pitcher was empty. I had drunk at least a gallon of blood.

Yet, despite the typical negative results, I felt stronger than before. I felt as if I could punch my way through the windowless walls. Not like I really would, however.

I had two rooms left. My front room and…

I was going to investigate my front room next. It seemed like the best choice to me.

Now the hallways had finally decided to join in on the game the other rooms were playing. There were numerous amounts of mirrors hung up on the walls. Not enough to disorient and confuse me, but enough to make the red covering my face rather apparent.

The first mirror I saw was enough to sober me up, and I hung my head in shame. I stared at my feet while hurrying to the living room.

Inside the living room was a large spider web, with a few giant bundles of webs scattered around. The bundles had humanoid shapes. I really didn’t want to think about that.

This new spider web reminded me of the companion who had started following me from the kitchen. I looked up, hoping to see him, or her. It.

I wasn’t disappointed. The spider was still following me, but it had grown an amount larger. Initially, I could have killed it with my bare hands, but now it was larger than either of my hands. Maybe even both. The sickly grey creature sauntered across the ceiling, before using its spinneret to lower itself onto the web encompassing the room.

This was when I noticed one bundle sitting squarely in the center of the room. The spider was sitting on top of it, and grew steadily. Once it had grown to be the size of my torso, it sunk one of its elongated limbs deep into the web, where it eventually broke through to the other side.

The Spider lifted the opposite leg, and lightly slipped off the webbing. Inside was another starved corpse. The Spider turned the emaciated corpse toward me, forcing its empty and sunken eye sockets to stare into mine.

I turned away from the door, slammed my eyes closed, and vomited. I can’t believe I let myself watch the Spider with such morbid curiosity for so long. Opening my eyes, I saw the floor in front of my unshut mouth was covered in red. I vomited again, this time seeing the ochre bile leave my mouth.

I hurtled away from the front room. My bedroom should be safe from whatever monstrosities the Spider wants to reveal to me. I made my best effort to avoid looking into any mirrors while I sped.

My room door had been shut in between the time that I had left it and now. I crashed into the door, opening it and falling into the room.

Within a matter of moments, I was covered in cockroaches.

“AAAHH!” I scrambled to my feet, screaming and wiping the vile things off of my body. They started pouring out of the door, climbing over my feet and out. I took a few breaths, and steeled myself. These cockroaches weren’t a big deal.

I looked into my room. All of my walls and ceiling were covered in cockroaches. They had made a shrine in the center of the room, made up of more cockroach bodies. On top of it was my photo, with more cockroaches continuing to climb out. The photo shifted in place atop the writhing cockroaches.

I turned around and shuddered. That was when I saw it again.

Blue.

It rushed into my sister’s room, and I feebly followed. I had regained the tunnel vision that I had worked to avoid.

Cockroaches continued to rush out of the bedroom and slide about my feet. However, they left a small radius empty around my sister’s bedroom. I stepped into the empty space. I placed my hand on the knob, and the door slowly slid to an open position.

I stepped into the room. It glowed with a light blue color, and flowers lined every wall. All of them released the blue tint. Scattered on the ceilings and walls were more of the moth cocoons. In the center of the room was the apparition of Syf once again. She sat on her knees.

“So you came back.” She held a moth in her hands.

“I guess I did,” I whispered to her from the door.

“Mother and Father haven’t been very nice to you. I told them they wouldn’t have to be so rude. They didn’t listen to me. They said that a child wouldn’t know how to handle adult things.” She stroked the moth with one hand.

I stumbled into the room towards her. “I didn’t see either of them. What are you talking about?” My voice was still frail, but it managed to carry in the room.

“That’s okay. I’m here for you now.” Her voice echoed loudly. “You don’t have to worry about either of them now.” She lifted her hand up, and the moth flew away. She stood up, and opened her arms to me.

“Come here. I’ll take the pain away, big brother.” Her voice sounded more mature than it had before. This was when I finally noticed the thin dress she wore. It revealed her shoulders, and the bottom of it only reached halfway down her thighs, leaving the rest of her legs open.

I felt the tunnel in my vision begin to widen at the same rate that my vision blurred. Tears were welling in my eyes.

“You are crying?” My sister gave me a puzzled look, and cocked her head to the side.

“Come here. I wish to hold you, and make you feel better.” She stayed where she was.

I staggered toward her. I managed to take two steps before tripping and falling into her arms. She held me, then moved down to her knees again, with me in her arms.

“Be quiet, big brother. Soon you’ll be with the moths.” With that, she placed her hands on my neck. My eyes widened, and I tried to slip away.

“Be still, big brother. This will only hurt for a moment, and then you will be among the moths.” She tightened her grip.

I felt a sharp sting in my neck, then darkness quickly rushed over my vision.

I leaned my head against my door. I had forgotten my keys inside once again. Once again, I’d have to use the key I stuffed underneath my welcome mat to get in. I know that I shouldn’t leave a key underneath my mat, and that it makes it easier for others to break in, but if I didn’t I would end up never getting back in my house through conventional methods.

I slid my mat aside and reached down for the grubby key. God, I should find someplace better to hide this thing. This is just disgusting, every time I have to touch it. Either way, I slid it into the lock and opened my door. I then lazily dropped the key back into the dirt, and exhaustively slid the mat over it. The only reason I need a mat is to cover up the dirt in front of my door.

My home is a rather small home. I only have about six rooms. I have a front room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a closet, and two bedrooms. Each of those rooms branch off from one central hallway, which doesn’t have any turns. The first door to the left is the poorly furnished living room. It has a couple of wooden chairs and a coffee table. The room straight across from it is my closet. It was built with the idea of quickly storing coats and shoes after entering in mind, clearly.

After those two rooms are the kitchen and the bathroom. The kitchen is on the left, and the bathroom is on the right. It’s a rather nice kitchen, honestly. The rest of the house might be cheap and poor, but the kitchen is above par. I have a stove, an oven, a refrigerator, and- get this- an island counter in the center of the kitchen. This is why I don’t often keep guests in the front room, because my tiled kitchen is just so much nicer.

The last two rooms are the two bedrooms. One is utterly empty- the one on the left- while the other is my room, and thus more full. I haven’t had any reason to use the spare bedroom in years, and so it has remained an empty and dead room for quite a long time.

I stepped into the house, and tossed my shoes and coat into the nearby closet. It had rained a couple days ago, but it was dry now. However, that didn’t mean that the weather wasn’t getting progressively chillier.

I thought about stopping in my kitchen for a late-night snack, but decided against it so that I could just get some more rest. It had been way too long since I had just stopped to sleep. My sleeping was certainly getting worse with every day that passed. It was hard to balance a job on top of other, more personal activities.

I walked past my kitchen, and toward my bedroom. This would be one well deserved rest. I haven’t had the chance to sleep this well in ages.

I groggily stumbled into my room, and let myself fall onto my floor bound mattress. I didn’t have any need for a taller bed frame, so I didn’t bother trying to get one. It’s not like anyone came into my bedroom for any reason. God, not that I’d want anyone to come into my bedroom with me.

I lay in bed, and closed my eyes. I hadn’t bothered turning on any lights in my house, now that I thought about it. I had just gotten used to the darkness rather fast. I was okay with that. I didn’t like spending extra money on my electric bill anyway.

I opened my eyes, and reached for the photo on the floor next to my bed. It was a photo of my long dead sister. She had died years ago, because of a disease. I tried to plead to get her medicine, but none of the doctors cared if I could pay or not. She was only eleven when she died. I still remember how she told me to face the problem head-on. She wouldn’t even let me use euphemisms like “passing on.” She demanded that I acknowledged that she was dying. I couldn’t get the word out the first time without crying. She just held me close to her, until I could finally say what she wanted. She was a rough little girl.

Then again, so was our father. At least, until he killed himself after the death of my sister. He didn’t even kill himself in an easy way, like blood loss or hanging. He just refused to eat until he finally shriveled away. He demanded that I have all of his rations, and told me that I was more important to him than he was to himself. That was the point that made me glad that my sister had been so abrasive about death, because it gave me the courage to tell my father I didn’t give him permission to die. Sadly, he didn’t care about whether or not I gave him permission.

So, he starved to death. I had been working for a few months already, so I didn’t have any issues paying the bills. I was mostly lucky that my co-workers were rather supportive.

I kissed the photo frame, and put it back. I closed my eyes again, ready to sleep. I slightly hoped I wouldn’t open them in the morning.

However, only minutes into my rest I saw a bright blue glow from beneath my eyelids. I opened my eyes and looked toward the glow at my door.

It was a hand, beckoning through the door. A small, girlish hand. It glowed blue. I didn’t care much for this ghostly presence. Yet, I didn’t feel uncomfortable with it, either. It continued to wave me over.

I stood up, and followed it. As I approached the door the hand slid back through it. It wasn’t going to make this easy, apparently.

I opened the door as fast as my jaded mind would let me. I saw a blue skirt float through the door across from me. My heart stopped short.

I gulped, then took a nervous breath. Squinching my eyes shut, I stepped forward and placed my hand on the knob. I twisted it counterclockwise, then tossed the door open. I turned my head toward the door, then opened my eyes. My sister was standing there. Standing in the empty room.

This wasn’t the first time I had seen apparitions of her. However, this was the first time she was so solid and coherent.

“Come,” she spoke. Her voice sounded more beckoning than I remembered. Not exactly seductive, but certainly attractive. God, I don’t know how it sounded. It just sounded.

I stepped toward the ghost. “Syf? You’re dead.” She nodded solemnly. She knew that she was dead too.

“That’s okay. I can still speak right now, in this room. There isn’t any reason to be afraid of me. I just want to be here, with you.” She had a moth sitting on her finger, and she pushed her finger up, and it flew away.

I nodded in response. She was certainly here. Yet, the way she said all of that felt just a bit off.

“Don’t worry. I sound a little strange right now, but that’s what happens to ghosts.”

Was I dreaming? Everything that she was saying felt off. Like, more off than anything I had been faced with before. Usually she was bubbly and excited, even while she was dying. Right now she was just so… something. She was too something.

“Come here. I will help you sleep.” She stretched out her arms, ready to embrace me. It was a stance I knew well, and it was certainly accurate.

I stepped toward her. I was one step closer to her than I should’ve been. Yet, I couldn’t stop myself.

“Syf, you shouldn’t be here. You died. This is unnatural.” I shook my head, and stepped backwards from her.

She put her arms down and shrugged. “Fine, suit yourself.” She then proceeded to walk through the wall that was next to the kitchen.

“SYF!” I shouted at her as she slipped through the wall. I turned around to see the door had shut behind me. I didn’t hear it, so it must have been a few moments ago. I tore it open, and ran into my kitchen.

There was a woman standing in the kitchen. I had never known this woman before.

“Hello, my child.”

I stood in my place. “I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. Get out of my house.” I took a step toward the ghost. I was feeling rather gutsy in her comforting presence.

“I suppose it isn’t true, what they say about children knowing their mothers at first sight.” She motioned for me to hug her. I wasn’t sure whether I should or not.

“I’ve never seen you before. You died when I was an infant, refusing to eat because you thought that I would survive better if I had more food.” I wasn’t sure if I was saying that to her or for my own sake.

“That doesn’t matter. I’ve missed out on so many years of your life, and I don’t want to miss anymore!” She started walking towards me, trying to embrace me. I backed away, matching her pace.

“Don’t you trust me?” She whimpered. I shook my head.

“I’ve never seen ghosts before, and this is the absolute shittiest time to start.” I slid out of the door, and forced it close. I felt calm and collected. I wasn’t sure why that was the case.

I shook my head, and turned to walk back to my bedroom. Before I even took a single step, I heard a quiet hum behind me. I turned to look at it, and saw a blue and vaguely human shape slip into my living room wall. Even after seeing that, I didn’t panic. I just followed the figure.

“Let me guess, my father is in this room?” I stated just before turning in to the empty doorway.

“That sounds about right.” My father was sitting on one of the wooden chairs. He was leaning back, and looked relaxed. Once more, I felt perplexed by the appearance of all of these people in such quick succession.

“You shouldn’t be here, either. You starved yourself. You died only a few blocks away. You- you aren’t alive.” I held my face in my hands. I had begun crying. I leaned against the door frame.

“That seems about right. I would react the same way if I saw my own dead father in my living room.” I heard the chair creak. “Son. There are a few things I would change if I had a second chance. One, I would’ve had a meal or two before I passed away. The second is that I would’ve tried to get you and your sister in school. I know that that isn’t really possible now, but I thought you might like to know of my regrets.”

I wiped my eyes with my wrists. “Why are all of you here?” I mumbled, almost as if to myself. “This isn’t right!” I screamed, almost as if to the world.

“I’m not one to question a good thing, kid. You should just let it go, and enjoy my company for a bit.” He stretched his arms upwards. “It would be nice to hold you again.”

I stepped away from the door, and away from him. My back hit the wall, and I slid down it. I didn’t feel right. They didn’t sound right. I didn’t want this to be right.

“I see. Maybe some other time. Stay safe in the meantime.” He slid through the wall leading into the kitchen again. I stood up, ready for whatever was going to greet me in the kitchen.

I took a tentative step down the hall. My hands were shaking, but not out of fear. I took another step. My heart was pounding, and my breath was staggered. I took another step. My teeth were chattering. I took another step, and looked into my kitchen.

The blue fell through the wall, and into the spare room once more. We were back to where we had started. I hoped that the encounter was over. I didn’t want this to repeat. Everything was wrong.

I walked away from my kitchen and toward my useless room. I opened the door, expecting to see my sister again.

Turns out, my expectations were accurate. My sister was in the room again. Sobbing in the corner.

“Syf.” I walked halfway across the room, and stopped in the center.

“Do you not love me anymore?” She picked her head up and looked toward me. She was crying, and looked absolutely shattered.

“Syf, of course I love you. I did everything in my power to keep you alive. You told me not to die, and I love you for that. You wouldn’t let me sacrifice myself like our parents did, and I love you because of that.” I leaned down to meet her eye level.

“Then why didn’t you hug me? Why did you deny my affection?” She stood up. I stood up with her.

“Syf, please don’t do this to me. I don’t need this right now. I’m, just trying to sort out what I’m seeing, okay?”

She screamed, and ran away from me, through the wall and into the hallway.

“SYF! WAIT!” I yelled after her, and tried to follow her. I burst through the door and into my hallway. I looked to my right, and saw her slip into my bathroom. I sprinted toward her.

“SYF!” I threw the door open, and witnessed my father vomit into the toilet.

“Wait, where did Syf go?” I looked at my father. He stood up from the toilet, with his back facing me.

“You had your chance to appease her. You denied it. Now, she’s gone. It’s just me and your mother now, and she isn’t very happy with you.”

“You three are ghosts, and you don’t think I’m going react poorly?” I stepped into the bathroom. The door slowly fell closed behind me, like usual.

“Well, I didn’t expect you to react this poorly. I never thought you would’ve treated your family so poorly.” His voice became more gravelly, and angry. “Matter of fact, I’m not very pleased either.” He turned around to face me.

His eyes were missing from his face, replaced by many tendrils reaching out, as if they were trying to grab me.

“I’m leaving. I hope you’re happy dying alone.” He turned and stepped through my wall to the right.

“Wait! Dad!” I leapt towards him, and missed. He slipped through the wall, and I fell to one knee. While I was on the ground, I saw what he had vomited. There were cockroaches swimming in the toilet bowl.

I stood up. The wall he escaped through leads to my closet. I shoved the door open, and began running to the closet.

“No one is in there, you know.” I stopped in front of the closet door. The voice had come from behind me. It had come from my living room.

“You!” I turned around, ready to face my mother.

It wasn’t my mother, however. It was my sister again. “Well, it looks like Dad isn’t very good at foreshadowing, is he?” I stepped toward my sister.

“Dad doesn’t have to do anything to make you happy.” She sat in one of the chairs, facing away from me. I shuddered. She was probably going to have another dramatic reveal, much like Dad.

“Look, Syf. I didn’t mean to make you feel rejected. I just really don’t know what’s going on here. I would love to help, if you could only explain what’s going on.”

“I also don’t have to do anything to appease you. You’re too late for apologies.” She stood up from the chair. I braced myself to see another awful thing.

She turned and looked at me. Nothing was wrong. She looked just like she had while in her bedroom.

“Syf, I saw Dad in the restroom. He vomited cockroaches, then his eyes were replaced with tentacles. Did you see anything like that?” I stepped toward her again. One step at a time, I would make it to her.

“No, I hadn’t. But I also hadn’t done anything to make Dad furious like you have. Maybe you should retrace your steps, try to make things right with him.” She stood perfectly still. I took another step toward her.

That was the point that I realised that there was something wrong with her. Her face was utterly blank. She stared through me, as if I was a ghost that she couldn’t see. Her eyes looked glossed over, as if she had been dead for a few hours. Her eyes were in the exact state I remember them being.

“I’m leaving. I don’t want to be around you anymore.” She walked through the chair, and swerved away from me, then phased through the wall to my left. I leaped out of the room, and saw blue slip through my front door.

I took a bound toward my front door, and shoved it open. It closed behind me as I ran forward.

I only ran a few steps in, before I tripped and fell onto something soft. It was my bed. I was back in my bedroom. That wasn’t right, though. I had gone outside, hadn’t I?

I sat up in my bed, then went back over to my door. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and pulled my door open.

I let the breath out and opened my eyes. I was facing my bedroom once more. I looked back, and saw my room behind me as well. I closed my eyes and tried to shake the image out of my head.

I opened my eyes again, and was greeted by the exact same sight. Regretfully, I stepped forward. The door shut behind me once again. I tried to flick the light switch. I didn’t feel it on the wall. I looked to where it should have been, and there was only wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I also noticed my door was missing. I faced the wall where it should have been. I was stuck in a concrete box, with a bed and a photo.

I laid back down on the bed. I was going to die in here. I sighed. I wasn’t angry, or sad. I still felt calm. This was exactly as it had been when I was chasing those ghosts.

“Well, you’ve got me pinned, guys. Take your revenge or whatever. I can’t imagine that any of you would be mad at me for surviving, though.”

As if on cue, the blue figure floated through the wall. “You are a lot more accepting of this than I would have expected.” The blue shape was blurry, as if I were near-sighted. It became clearer as I looked, until it had once again taken the form of my mother.

“I could easily kill you now. It would take no effort on my part. You would be gone within a few moments.” She paced back and forth in front of me.

“It seems to me that you would enjoy that too much. No, I have something much better in mind for you.” She turned to me and smiled, with all her teeth replaced by jagged shards of glass. A few spidery legs reached up and past the teeth. 

“I hope you enjoy your stay.” She turned back to the wall, and walked through it. “Wait!” I yelled, and I scrambled to my feet. I started pounding on the wall, hoping she would return.

She didn’t.

I laid back down and sobbed. Eventually, I cried myself to sleep.

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Part 1 of 2

Part 2