Horror House

Snippet

Mama always told me to beware of monsters. That the boogeyman comes for you in human form and it may be your neighbors, your family, or friends. That the biggest dangers lurk...in the people you think you know. Now, when she said this, God rest her soul–she had never lived in THIS house. With THIS particular monster.

Luck is not a friend of mine so when I inherited a paid in full for house–I could not believe it. Some distant relative, whom I never even heard of...passing on this property to lil ol ME. That doesn't happen to someone like me. Despite my efforts, I'm rarely rewarded...and I thought this was a blessing I did NOT deserve. Now I am convinced it's my own curse. And the life I left behind was far greater than the life I ran headfirst towards.

It started with small things. Doors opening that I knew I closed. Or the lights switching on all by themselves. I chalked it up to being an older house. It eased my fears a bit at first. Then I started seeing things... out of the corner of my eyes, movement fast and low to ground. Too fast for my mind to comprehend or piece together. Movement that was unnatural to anything physical on this earth. No human or animal could move like what I thought I was seeing. But I couldnt lock onto it. I couldnt make any sense of it.

I tried everything to settle these fears. Everything in my little head I could think of. Leaving the lights on, staying outside as much as possible. Even securing the doors so they couldnt open and close like they liked to do. My sanity even returned a bit and I felt comfort for the first time in weeks. Despite how insane I might look to an outsider for doing all these small things, I did them none-the-less.

Little did I know, all I had done was aggravate what already lived there before me. Poking a beast I had no knowledge of. I got my first full glimpse of it one night, as I was settling down for sleep. I heard a rattling sound, then nudging–like wood on wood. I only realized too late–that it was my bathroom door being unfastened from the screw I had secured it with. The breath left my body when I arrived to the hallway to see that very same door slam shut before me with such force, the baby hairs on my face blew back. My thoughts tried to tell me that an intruder was inside the house but a small part of me knew it wasnt any kind of intruder that could have walked through my front door, in this small house, in the middle of nowhere.

The breath inside me would not come. Not as I stared at that door, wide-eyed and shocked. I wish I could have told you I bolted for the front door and left that house in the dust. But my feet were glued to the flooring in that hallway. Stuck, just like the breath inside me. Just like how my eyes would not shut. My body didnt go into flight or fight...not at first anyway. I was paralyzed in fear. The only movement came from the tears sliding down my face.