Garden of Horrors

David's Story

I had been hanging out with my friend David all day, he had dropped me off at home and driven himself home. I told him to text me when he got home, since he had to drive through the back country roads late at night. I always felt safer knowing my friends got home safe after dropping me off. He agreed as usual and we said our goodbyes.

I went inside and started boiling water for my pre-bed tea, keeping my phone near me for the awaited text. I grabbed a mug and dropped a chamomile tea bag in, poured in the hot water, and brought it up to my room. I got changed into my PJs letting the tea steep, my phone on the bedside table, still as silent as ever. I dropped my clothes down the clothes shoot then crawled into bed, grabbed my book and read while I drank my tea. Eventually I had fallen asleep. No text messages had disturbed my slumber.

In the morning after I had woken up and been awake for a few minutes I checked my phone, still nothing, I thought maybe he had just fallen asleep as soon as he got home. I shrugged it off and decided to call him after I ate breakfast. I did my morning routine, got dressed, headed downstairs and put a kettle on the stove and went about making an omelette. Still my phone lay silent. I ate breakfast and took a couple sips of tea before phoning him. The phone rang four times before he picked up.

"Hello," he said oddly, almost like the word felt unnatural in his mouth.

"Hey David, you didn't text me last night." I told him.

"Oh uhm I must have forgotten, I wasn't feeling well last night." He lied, I knew he was lying because David never drove when he felt unwell; it was one of his quirks. We chatted a little while longer and I got a bad vibe, I ended the call with my stomach in knots. Something was wrong. I decided to drive into town and see David in person. I grabbed my bag and keys as I headed to my car. I got in and texted one of our mutual friends who lived in town.

'Hey David didn't text me last night and he sounded weird on the phone, I'm coming to pick you up then we're going to check on him' I hit send then started my car and drove down the country road.

I drove roughly fifteen minutes before I had to stop. There, crashed into a tree, was David's car. I grabbed my phone, got out of my car and rushed over. peering into the cracked drivers window I saw dried blood stains, outside where drag marks leading into the forest. My heart was racing as I phoned the police. I told the operator about David not texting me last night, phoning and someone impersonating David on the other line, and the crashed car. They told me to contact one of David's family members and they would send an officer to his house and one to where I was, I gave them both locations as I walked back to my car, shaking. I phoned Mike, David's brother and told him what was going on and to wait outside of David's house for the officer so he could let him in. I texted the friend I was going to pick up and explained the situation.

That was two months ago, David is still a missing person. Mike and I have bonded over this experience, we still don't know who or what was impersonating David on the phone but the police found his cell phone in his house rather than in his car. I knew David had his phone on him that day as he had been texting his boyfriend, who was on vacation, several times over the day. The other odd thing about David's house was Mike had seen humanoid shadows moving in David's house while he was waiting for the officer. The police found no traces of anyone being in his house. I don't think we'll ever know what happened to David but I know he's not missing, those drag marks weren't made from someone pulling themselves out of a wrecked car— They were from someone or something pulling someone out with no regard to their safety.