Some Things Never Change: A Book Dedicated to Absolutely Nothing At All

When A Midnight Stranger Calls, Hang Up The Damn Phone!

Have you ever been so terrified, that you heart feels like it's going to pump itself through your chest? Have you ever felt helpless and alone? Have you ever heard a strange noise when your all alone at night? Well, I've had plenty of moments where the sound of a branch scraping another damn near makes me lose my shit in sheer panic. I've also been tricked into being so terrified, that even my balls quake in fear. Here's one of these times: In the pale light of moon, I saw something one night. This was way back when I lived in the town of Sartree, Alabama. Life was interesting. Things made sense, had meaning, and had their respective place. I was on the bus one Friday, to go over to my friend's house for the weekend, and we could hardly wait. We sat and talked about stuff, and we even got ideas for what we'd do when we got to his home. Luckily for us, his dad was away on a work assignment in New York, and his mom was working until about midnight. We got stuck with Jaynie Loretta Thompson, a real cutie teen babysitter. She had long, curly brown hair, clear, sparkling green eyes, and had gorgeous tan skin, beautiful, long, muscular legs, and a perfect set of curves. She was the dream sitter. We listened to her no matter what. She could've blown us a kiss and told us to jump off the roof of the house, and we'd be in too much of a trance to do anything else. She smiled sweetly when we came in and told us we could go outside for a while, just Kelvin and I. So we walked, knapsacks packed with essentials, and we walked up the road a ways. We counted steps from the intersection, turned left, and cut through the woods. We arrived at a small cemetery, one which we hurried through superstitiously, and headed to the Shack, a large treehouse, built from the remains of an old shed we found near the edge of the cemetery, down in the brush. We arrived and climbed in, shutting our fancy trap door behind us. We pulled the Faithful Floorboard up, revealing the secret stash of items we'd collected: a couple toys, two knives, a cigar, a metal lighter, a little pouch of tobacco, a metal spork, and some other assorted junk. We pulled out tin canisters of cigarettes that we'd lifted off Kelvin's Dad and Uncle, and put them in the hole, saving two smokes, and closed up the board. We lit the smokes, taking baby puffs, so as not to lose the refined taste of mentholated filters. The taste was weird, but we thought we looked like a couple of cool, badass kids with cigarettes in hand, blowing smoke like the wind. Of course, we were just being dumb, and I was just irritating my asthma, but we were 8. After awhile, it got boring, so we headed back to the house, and burned time playing video games. It was 11:00 when we first heard the sound. It was innocent, really, just scraping, the sound of dry bones on a chalky surface. We kept hearing it as we played, and eventually, it piqued our curiosity. We decided to investigate. We walked down the stairs, and received our first shock. At the bottom of the stairs was a door, a door with glass on either side, covered, so nobody could peek in. We saw a shadow cast by the moon, the shadow of a tall man. It didn't move, but we felt it stare straight through the glass, the cover, and directly to us. Me, being the guinea pig, I stepped forward and peeked through the peephole, only to see the asshole neighbor walking towards the front door, grinning. We walked into the living room and saw him again, grinning oddly, and as we continued to the kitchen, we heard him talking to Jaynie. He smiled, nodded, and left. Jaynie said he'd given us our pocketknives back, which had fallen out on the road near his driveway. She gave them to us and sent us back upstairs. We played for awhile, then heard it again. We looked out the window, only trees scraping the house, caused by that damnable wind picking up. We kept hearing it, and then heard it get loud. We went to the stairs, and saw the shadow figure again, spthis time closer. As we observed he walked towards the door. We screamed and hid, waiting for the scream when it came into the house. We waited and did hear a scream, then came dead silence. We shut his bedroom door, locked it, and then hid in the closet. We burrowed under a pile of unkempt clothes. Whenever we'd hear a noise, we bunkered down and waited. We heard scratching again, but this time it was too close to home: it was the bedroom door. It scratched and clicked and clacked, in weird ways. And then, in the most sinister way, to our horror, it slowly squeeeeeeeeaaaked open. The door opening was followed by scratching, and then a sound that filled us with terror: heavy footsteps. Whoever the feet belonged to, he was large and heavy, maybe overweight, and each step made the floor groan. The steps circulated about the room, the person checking this, that and the other, curious of our whereabouts. He walked around some More, and the footsteps drew nearer. To our dismay, the steps arrived in the exactly last place we wanted: right in front of the closet. The knob jiggled, and we bunkered down low, deep in the closet, sheltered by a mound of clothes, and overlooked by coats, blankets, and other things. The knob jiggled more and more, and the door was being violently shaken and thrashed. Finally, the door opened, revealing a strange man and Jaynie, both laughing hysterically, and pointing at us. We slowly came out, and realized it was a joke, a prank put on by Jaynie and her new boyfriend, Lance. We sat in utter bemusement, trying hard not to cry. We were brought downstairs and ate cookies n cream ice cream to help us forget our terror. But, I never did, and the sound of scratching always brings me back to that moment..........

*Note: I punched Lance in the arm hard for being that much of a dick. After that, I stayed over when at least one parent was home, to avoid being fucked with. Each time I play that story over in my head, I pick a detail, and each one I pick apart seems out of place. But, this story is part of my life, so it's a good one fro you guys to hear. What with the end of this book coming up, you guys needed a personal terror story. Anyways, I hope this book is doin' it for you so far. Let's just cross our fingers and hope.