Preston Greens

2. The Moaning Man

In the middle of the night, the moaning voice seemed to be louder than usual. I sat up in bed, groggy. Suddenly, I started to scream. The voice was right next to me, coming out of a body. The person wanted me to open a window, and I told him I didn't know how. I knew that if I told him how to, he might harm Lisa. The person started to walk closer to me, and I screamed when the person started to bite me. I threw one of my books at him, but he wouldn't leave. He wanted me to open the window, and he kept on asking me over and over again. I said I didn't know how and in a split second, he picked me up and threw me towards the window. I was full of fear, kicking and screaming, but he told me to be quiet or he would curse me forever. I kept my mouth shut and he grabbed my neck. All he wanted was for me to open the window, but I wouldn't spit it out. I couldn't let him hurt Lisa or terrorize the rest of the neighborhood.

Dad ran into my room with a bat. Upon seeing my dad, the man hissed. Dad started to hit him, but the man threw him aside, knocking dad unconscious. Once again, the man asked me how to open the window. I told him to come out the way he came in, but he hissed at me and said these exact words:

"You stupid little girl, I have lived here all my life and have been moaning for someone to come and get me, but you have been too ignorant to let me out!"

He hissed at me one more time, and mom ran in the room with the police at her side. The man screamed at dad saying, "you will pay! You will pay!"

After that he was gone. He had vanished. The police saw the man with their own eyes too. Lisa and her family ran over since they heard all the commotion.

All I wanted to do was cry and spill everything out, but the tears wouldn't come. I didn't want to go back inside my own home because I was scared. I realized this man was punishing me for thinking this neighborhood was creepy, but now I knew this wasn't just a thought, but a reality. Lisa started to cry in my arms after I told her what happened. At first she didn't believe me, but the police confirmed it. Once dad was conscious, he asked me what happened after he got knocked out. Once he heard everything, he fainted. Mom was crying in Lisa's mom's arms, and the police were stunned.

Lisa held me close. "Carly, I love you so much, I am so glad you are safe." She whined. I hugged her tighter, "Lisa, please, help me, I can't take the pain anymore." I whined. "What pain?" She asked me. She then saw the deep cut on my back from the man throwing me. Lisa immediately took me to the ambulance that was parked on the sidewalk. I then heard the moaning voice again. It was coming from my house. Everyone heard it. We kept quiet. The shutters started to shake, and the garage door flew open. There was a stream of light coming from the garage and the moaning got louder. Dad's Hyundai turned on, and it rolled out of the garage. Nobody was in the front seat and the car was driving itself. Lisa started to scream, and I watched in awe. I found my cellphone in my pocket, which I grabbed right before the man threw me. I started to record. 

The window rolled down and the moaning noise was louder; it was on the stereo! Something tuned up the volume and the moaning echoed through the neighborhood. The moaning got so loud that the windows on my house broke and the car started to vibrate. The road shook and the garage was bursting with light. The man I had seen earlier opened the car door and walked out. He hissed. "I said you would pay, and now you have. I will steal this car and haunt this house. One thing I will do is to forever haunt your daughter!"

I became so mad that I pounced. I jumped into the car, grabbed the steering wheel, and stepped on the gas. Before you knew it, I was driving out of my neighborhood. Nobody was out tonight, so I decided to take a drive. Even though I was twelve, the car seemed to like me. My mind was telling me I knew how to drive a car, but I knew in my heart I didn't. This wasn't a dream. I tried to wake up, but my body said I was awake. I slowly drove down the road and I turned on a dirt road. I could vaguely hear mom screaming my name as I took the car, but I seemed to ignore her. I don't know why this was happening, but dad's Hyundai trudged on. The dirt road was bumpy, so I slowed down. The moon was guiding me, and the stars shone above me.

Suddenly, my mind went mad. I started to swerve down the road. I yelled, "Please! I don't want to hear this noise anymore!" "PLEASE!"

I crashed into a tree trunk and jumped out of the car. I ran down the road yelling. The only source of light I had was the headlights of the Hyundai and the moon overhead. The key to the car was still in ignition, and I climbed back inside. The there was a stabbing pain inside of me and I passed out. There I was in the middle of the night in a stolen Hyundai on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, passed out.

It felt like hours before someone picked me up. I was writhing in pain from the collision. "Mijita, que paso?" They asked me. I reached for the car that was still in the middle of the road, right where I left it. "Help me," I mumbled. Mom and dad were there. This guy carrying me was a Mexican paramedic. Mom felt my head. "Sweetie, how did this happen?" She asked me. "The moaning was taking over." I moaned. She gingerly kissed my forehead when I sat up in the bed of the ambulance. "Mom, please help me, the man came again and he made me take the car and swerve and crash in the tree! He took over my mind!" I cried. Mom looked skeptical.

"Carla, I saw you take the car and drive out of the neighborhood, but what did the man do to you?"

"I remember him biting me," I replied weakly. My mind was overstimulated and I couldn't say much else.

The police were inspecting dad's car, and the paramedics were inspecting my wound. Dad was right next to mom and Lisa was in mom's arms. Cars were everywhere. Mom's Honda, Lisa's Buick, five police cars, and the ambulance. Lisa's parents were on the side talking to the police. Mom looked into my eyes. Something was wrong here. Something really wrong. "Mother, the moaning we have heard since we moved in and the people before that, does that mean we have a spirit in our house? You saw the house going crazy, didn't you?"

Mom nodded her head. "Yes, and I think we are going to have to do something about it." She said with worry in her voice. "Mom, if he has been in our house for over twenty years, how come this is the first time he has attacked?" I asked. Mom looked at me thinking the same thing. We had to figure this stuff out. "Are we going to move out?" I asked mom. I may have been too tired to talk about what I saw, but my mind was overflowing with questions.

"We don't have enough money and nobody would buy it." Mom replied.

Dad looked at me with worry. "Carly, why did you just take off with the car? Did you think you would be able to run away from this?" He asked me. "Dad, something told me to flee, but then that man took over my mind and somewhere I went wrong," I told him. "Carla, whatever is going to happen, we will deal with it together." He said with confidence. "Dad, we need to stop this, I can't live like this..."

"Hush sweetie" Mom said. The police came and said that we will have to go back home and that it was not a break in or a murder attempt. They already inspected the house and heard no noises of any kind. Since they said it was safe, maybe the spirit escaped and it won't come back. That was always a good thought. I asked mom if we could spend the night at Lisa's house but she said that we couldn't be afraid of our own house. I guess you could say I agreed. I asked her if I could at least spend tonight in her room with dad. Thankfully, she said yes. As soon as I got that answer, my body relaxed. I don't why, but I was feeling tense before. How could that man easily take over my body?

Now, I tend to think a lot and I always have an opinion about everything. The paramedic interrupted my thinking and informed my parents that yes, I did have a mild cut in my back from the man throwing me, but that it wasn't infected. That was supposedly good to hear. Lisa was still hysterical and in tears, which in my opinion, I think she's overreacting. I'm the one who's stunned here! I'm the one who suffered a gash and some random man taking over my mind and body!!Lisa climbed up in the ambulance and stroked my hair while mom and dad went to go get a fresh breath of air. "Lisa, I moaned softly, I really need you to help me out tomorrow" "Oh anything for you Carly" Lisa replied. She continued to stroke my hair and I liked it. There was something about Lisa that soothed me whenever I needed her love the most. She was like a mother who always took care of you and always stood by you no matter what. I always try to treat her the same way, but I don't have that gift she does. I have the gift of "intensive thinking," or whatever my mother says. I always try to help her by hearing her out when she needed to blow off steam or cry, because I always found a solution to her problems and usually my own, but I have a feeling that I won't be able to solve this problem alone.

Who would be up for this job?