Creepypasta Stories And More

Down Here

'Down Here'. Those were the words my friend whispered to me that night, and though a year has passed, they still fester in my mind, shapeless and meandering like a blinding fog.

When I entered his house the lights at the front were off. Outside, the weather was still; the air thick and muggy as if waiting for a breath. It seemed as though the summer had been building towards that evening. Stifled, sweat-drenched, sleepless nights one after the other – we just needed a little rain to clear the air. Forecasters warned us that we were in for a lot worse than that, but they had been wrong so often that many in our little suburb did not listen. I was one of them.

I had received a phone call from Aalia an hour earlier. It had been a while since we had spoken, a couple of years in fact. When I answered the call there was a momentary silence before she spoke. Her words trembled with nervousness. I put this down to anxiety – she probably thought I would yell at her considering everything that had happened before – but now I know there was much more to it than that.

After a brief exchange of reluctant pleasantries, we finally got down to the root of the phone call.

'David,' her voice said quietly. 'Eric needs you.'

Those were the last words I expected her to say. Two years previous I had cut both of them out of my life. Aalia and I had been in a relationship, albeit in its early stages. But I cared for her deeply. Eric was a close friend. I need not tell you of what went on between them, it was too painful then. It still is now.

'Why would Eric need me?' I asked, feeling the old resentment, the festering betrayal still burning a poisoned hole somewhere in the back of my mind.

A slight crackle of interference hummed over the line. 'He's sick. We broke up a few weeks ago and he won't get help. I've tried to get through to him. His parents too. But he won't listen to any of us.'

'And you think he'll listen to me? What makes you think I'd want to help him anyway?'

'Please, David. Put everything aside for a minute. If you can't do it for Eric, do it for his parents.'

Aalia was right. Eric's parents had always been good to me when I was growing up. My own parents were pretty cold, but Eric's had always welcomed me into their home with open arms like a surrogate son. At first, I wasn't sure what help I could be, but from what Aalia told me, David had been suffering from delusions and refused to seek medical help.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to me. Eric had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia several years previous. It had been a tough time for everyone who knew him. After spending nearly a year in a psychiatric ward, he was released back into the community. Everyone rallied around him, and in time, with medication, therapy, and support, his symptoms became manageable. As long as he stayed away from booze and drugs, it looked like he'd be able to live a normal life. Things had obviously changed since then.

Aalia sounded desperate, and when she finally told me that she had split up with Eric a few weeks earlier, that softened the blow to a degree. If Eric didn't have her, then at least he could not hold that over me. I am ashamed to admit it, but where love is involved, pettiness seeps through the marrow. It gets into your bones.

As it turned out, Aalia had tried to phone Eric earlier that night and check in on him. Although they were no longer an item, she still wanted to make sure that he was okay while his family was out of town. She had promised Eric's parents that she would check in on him a couple of times while they were away on an important business trip. When she knocked on his front door, Eric refused to let her in, his voice sounding manic and confused.

'I'm afraid he's going to kill himself,' Aalia said, the pain in her voice evident. The fact that she still cared so much for him stuck in my throat like a jagged lump of ice. And yet, I was unable to resist the pain in her voice. She was asking me for help, and there was a satisfaction in that. Not something I am proud of, but there nonetheless. Bolstered by this, and giving into what little affection I still had for Eric – most of it from memories of us playing together as children – I did as Aalia asked and headed over to his parent's house.