Under The Rug

Two weeks have passed and it happened again. It all started 3 weeks ago when my son screamed out in the middle of the night. Something had crawled out from under his bed, he told me. Like any good parent I checked the closet and under the bed, there was nothing. When I told him there was nothing, he said "no it's right there." When I looked where he was pointing there was nothing. As I told him good night, and turned out the light, I fumbled over something, and it was...UNDER THE RUG.

I tried lifting the rug, but there was nothing there, when I placed the rug back down, the lump was still there. I tried kicking it. It was solid; I stubbed my toe and it hurt so, goddamn much. (Stubbing your toe is actually a leading cause of death in America.)

I tried stepping on it, and my foot went right through. Not the rug, the lump. I grabbed the chair beside the lamp on the table, I was going to try to squish it. I stopped myself and said we would deal with it in the morning and went back to bed.

I went to bed and that was the end of that. Until, two weeks later. The lump came back! We tried calling a carpenter to see if they knew anything about this. The carpenter came an hour later, but the lump was gone, it was no longer there, it had disappeared.

We moved the rug out into the living room. Then, I said "Problem solved" and went to bed. We turned off all the light, and a few minutes later we heard a noise. A sort of pitter patter. It started in the living room and worked its way up the stairs. After a minute I turned on the light, and looked out into the hallway, and there was the lump...under the rug!

I did what any sane person would do: I grabbed the rug, went downstairs opened the front door, and chucked that bad boy as hard as I could. It only landed on the road, good thing there were no cars passing; actually bad thing there were no cars passing, it would be their problem now.

Then I didn't say anything, to anybody. I didn't want to jinx it. I just got into bed. I thought I heard a voice, but it was a dream, actually a nightmare. When I woke up I didn't remember anything about the dream besides hearing a creepy voice. After my morning coffee, (two creams, one milk, three sugars). I woke everybody for school. There was a lot of complaining, "we don't have school today; it's a PD day; it's summer holidays" but I kicked them out anyway. After getting dressed I started cleaning. The last room I cleaned was my sons' room. I went in and you'll never guess what was in there. Go ahead, I'll give you 3 seconds. What did you guess? The lump? You would be correct.

I scooped up the lump with the carpet, took it into the back yard, and set it on fire. Then, I woke up, and slowly realized it was the same morning. I did everything the same except this time I tossed it into the basement, making sure it would never escape. I blocked all the windows, doors, mouse holes, cracks, etc. Then I posted on Amazon: Almost perfect condition rug for sale-$10. Later everyone came home, we had burgers for supper, and went to bed. The next day someone had bought it. The buyer's name was Johnny Firecracker, he was a stunt man, I had no idea what he wanted the rug for. Then, everything was not happily ever after.

A few days later, I am watching the Sunday morning news, when, there is a report of someone named Johnny Firecracker, and Josh Firecracker who were both murdered in their sleep. The report said that there was multiple ways they may have died. While authorities were unsure on the cause of the deaths, I knew how it happened. I was the cause of their deaths!

I knew what was going to happen next. The rug would come back and it wouldn't leave this time. I decided we would move. We would sell the house and move without telling the rug where we were going. We would change our names, and leave. The movers scheduled to come in 2 weeks, most of us didn't make it through the first.

So far in the journal, I have only mentioned one of my kid's and me. But there are more. Samantha, my eldest daughter, and Daniel the youngest, who discovered the lump; Gwen my wife, and myself Thom. Samantha didn't make it past the second day. She was meeting her friends at the park, but she didn't even make it half way. The rug got to her first.

That night Gwen died from a heart attack but I knew she died of a broken heart. I blamed it on the rug. Daniel was taken by Child Protective Services. I knew he would be better off there. Safe from the rug. At least that was what I hoped. I told him we would be back together again soon.

I tried not to leave the house and called the movers to tell them to hurry up. By the time they arrived I had barricaded everything except the front door. I was guarding the front door myself. When the movers got to the house, I was wrapped up with a blanket, a giant thermos of coffee next to me, and was wide awake and asleep at the same time. When they came in they saw me on the stairs watching the door. I was so unnerved I couldn't comprehend what they said. I remembered one said, "he looks like a shadow of himself. One of my friends went crazy once, he kept muttering about lumps and rugs, and nobody could figure out what he was going on about. He ended up hanging himself."

I heard this and passed out. The next thing I knew I woke up in the back of my car. It was being towed by the movers. A few hours later we turned into a driveway and I saw a sign saying Dark Croft Asylum.

After a few weeks, I finally got settled in, for lack of a better word. Dark Croft was not a fun place but it was nice. The food was good, the people (staff and patients) were okay. They were very strict there, and although I didn't like it, I did what I was told and was well behaved. I was only allowed to have a few things. One I brought with me: this journal. Another, came a few days after I arrived. It was sent by nobody, I knew it was coming, I just didn't know when, and to my knowledge, I was the only one who ever saw it.

I tried to believe what they were telling me. That Gwen really had died of a heart attack, and Samantha had been hit by a car on her way to the park. But at night, after lights out when everything is quiet; I hear that pitter patter sound. I hear someone's door being opened. Next thing I know I wake up, in the morning light, never sure if it was a dream or not.

One day I received a package sent from Daniel, it was a big package and in the package was a note that said read me first. It said: Dear Dad. I know I haven't sent you very many letters but I need to tell you something. I am sorry for everything I have done. The rug was not real. It was just a prank planned by me and Samantha. Mom really did die of a heart attack, I'm really sorry about that. Samantha never was run over by a car, she staying with her friends and is doing fine. We didn't mean to hurt anybody, it was a joke that got carried away. By the time we were going to tell you, you were on your way to Dark Croft; and I was with CPS. We were too afraid to tell because we thought nobody would believe us.

That was all I read of the note because at this point I had a heart attack and died. The paramedics tried to revive me but were unable. They sent my journal to Daniel writing DECEASED on the cover.

THE END