The Strange Story of...

The Strange Story of Wally

         "I like games. Do you?" Monica opened her eyes at the sound of her six-year-old's voice. She silently groaned. For the past week, Jaime had been sneaking out of his room at night to talk to the wall. And every night, she had to drag him back to his room, and endure his complaining that "Wally" would get upset.

         They'd lived there for two weeks. His sisters, Kayla and Lilly Ann, had settled in amazingly well, but he had not. Instead of playing outside, reading or even watching TV like most kids, Jaime spent every free moment sitting with his ear against the wall, listening while "Wally" spoke to him.

       Monica was positive that it was just a reaction to her husband's sudden accident and the sudden move to their new bungalow in Oregon. But, after a while, her daughters started to get nervous. 

       "Are you positive that Jaime's imaginary friend is completely in his head?" Kayla had been making the mac and cheese for dinner while Monica made mashed potatoes, and Monica could see that she, who usually stayed out of other people's business, wasn't kidding.

       "I'm sure. Why do you ask?" 

        "Well, Lilly said I was crazy, but the other night, I woke up at around two or three, and thought I heard a voice." Monica's hand gripped her spoon tighter, and she stirred a little less evenly.

         "It wasn't saying anything weird or scary or anything like that. But, it said something like 'I wouldn't use the shower in the morning if I were you.' I thought I was just dreaming, so I went back to sleep. But then, in the morning, Lilly got in the shower and found a big spider."

          "I remember that." Monica knew all to well that, while Lilly Ann was unusually calm around spiders, Kayla and herself were absolutely terrified. The two had shied away as Lilly Ann trapped the spider with a paper cup and last month's fashion catalog and set it on the back step.

          "I mean, I'm not saying that Jaime's imaginary friend warned me about the spider or anything," Kayla reassured her mother, "but either way, it's possible that Jaime isn't a complete nut case."

          "Don't call your brother that."

          "What? I just said he wasn't a nut case!"

           "Watch the attitude and get your brother and sister." Kayla took the macaroni off of the stove, then went to get the others. Monica tried to ignore Jaime's refusal to leave his spot by the wall.

              If it had only been that and Jaime's odd behavior, Monica might have been able to ignore the whole thing. But then, the next morning, Lilly Ann came to Monica, uncharacteristically inquisitive. 

            "Were you listening to a radio last night or something?" Monica, who'd been helping the girls pack for a slumber party that night, stopped her folding for a second. 

           "No, I wasn't."

           "Well, that's just weird, because last night, I thought I heard a voice repeating the words 'Don't deny my presence' over and over again. Weird, right?"

            Monica nodded in agreement, and sensed that Lilly Ann couldn't see her pale face, or that the pink nightgown she'd been folding had been twisted into a wrinkled knot. She didn't say anything else as Lilly jabbered away about the slumber party her friend had planned. And, as soon as she had finished helping the girls pack, she used all of her strength to drag a sobbing Jaime away from the wall. 

          "Mommy." It was hours later when Jaime woke her up. "Mommy, you need to get up."

          "Jaime, go back to bed."

          "But Mommy, Wally says that there's someone in the house." She heard a loud bang come from downstairs. She shot up, and, looking at Jaime's face, realized that he wasn't kidding. 

          "Wally says that you and I need to play a game with him. He says that we need to go into the bathroom, sit in the tub, and not come out until he says so."

          "Jaime, there's someone in the house, now is not the time for you to--"

          "Do as he says."

            A third voice, a gravelly, male voice, came from the wall. And it definitely wasn't imaginary. 

           Jaime grabbed his mother's hand and led her to the bathroom as she stared at the wall in shock. He closed and locked the door from the inside, and got into the bathtub. He motioned for his mother to do the same, but Monica rushed to the door and pressed her ear against it, listening as intently as Jaime probably had to the wall. 

         At first, everything was quiet. But then, she heard the sound of a drawer being opened, and the sounds of someone rifling through it. And, much too close for comfort, she heard something move past the bathroom door. Something that was too small to be a man, but much too big to be an animal. 

        "Mommy, Wally doesn't like it when you don't play the game."

       "I-I can't just stay here and do nothing! Stay here until I come for you!"

      "Mommy, don't!" But Jaime's cries were pointless, as she had already unlocked the door and flung it open. She thought she heard it shut, and she thought something was chasing her. She ran down the stairs, and into the kitchen.

      She came face to face with a burly man in black, holding their microwave and staring at her, first in surprise, then in complete and utter horror.

      "What is that thing?" That was all he said. The creature, the monster that lived in their walls, jumped out from behind Monica, and tackled the intruder. He screamed once, and only once, before the creature pinned him to the wall. 

       It was ash gray, and looked like a snake. No, not a snake. It had legs, six or eight unbelievably spiky legs, four or five of which had pinned the stranger to the wall. In the dark, she couldn't clearly see its face, but she saw two, glowing, orange eyes, that turned and looked right at her.

    "You're not playing fair, Monica. Go back and finish my game." That was all the encouragement Monica needed. She raced upstairs, and nearly ran through the bathroom door. She locked it, and she and Jaime sat in the bathtub until they heard a set of nails pass over the door. Jaime got up, and opened the door. Monica gasped, but nothing was there. Only a slight waver of the wallpaper, over a hole in the wall that no one had noticed before. 

      "Thanks, Wally. Good game!" Jaime nudged his mother, and she, in a daze, repeated the phrase. Jaime slept in her bed that night, at her insistence. He slept soundly, but she couldn't help but notice the scratching in the walls. 

      The next morning, Monica called the police, reporting a break in. The police began an investigation, but didn't find any evidence. But, the officers did find a message scratched into the woodwork, right where, according to Monica, she'd seen the thief. And, while the police were certain that the message was not meant as a threat, they didn't blame her for moving out immediately. 

     The message was blunt, and not exactly threatening, but terrifying all the same:

          You'd better play fair, Monica.