IT31 || 31 days of IT

11 - Wallpaper

*based off a short story read elsewhere*

Thank you GoreBabe
for being such an amazing co-writer!

Beverly smiled lightly as she walked through the front door of her new home. Her husband, Ben, walked in behind her. His hands held her hips and his lips pressed gently against her cheek.

"Welcome home, Bev" he whispered softly. Beverly's smile widened.

Of course, the house had a lot of work needed to be done. The creepy wallpaper covering the walls and even the ceilings weren't very charming. They spent the first night on a blowup mattress in the middle of the living room floor.

The next morning, Beverly brewed up some coffee while Ben made breakfast. They ate together on their blowup mattress. Then they got to work.

They started in the living room. They peeled away at the ugly leather like wallpaper. Beverly found herself making a silly little game. She challenged herself to find the longest piece of paper to peel from the wall. With every pinch and tug of the old wallpaper, she watched the lengths peel back. It was satisfying. Therapeutic, even.

 As she was peeling, something caught her eye on a long piece that she pulled free from the wall. She looked down at it in her hand, noticing something scribbled in the corner. 

Betty Ripsom - 5.25.87

Beverly slowly raised an eyebrow and shrugged it off, tossing it in a pile on the floor. She continued peeling the layers off the wall. A little while later, another name appeared.

Laurie Winterbarger - 2.4.85

Beverly picked the other piece with Betty's name on it and looked at the two pieces again before turning around toward her husband.

"Ben, look" Beverly walked across the room, strategically stepping over the piles of wallpaper scattered about. Ben stepped down from the ladder and dusted his hands off on his jeans. 

"What is it?" Ben asked, his hand held out to take the pieces. Beverly handed them over.

"There are names and dates on these pieces," she pointed at the scribbled names and numbers. Ben looked them over then shrugged his shoulders.

"Probably just past owners of the place," Ben told her. Beverly nodded. Sounded like it could be true. She took the pieces back, walked back to her area, and tossed them back down on the floor. 

As she worked, she found more names and dates throughout the night. Curiosity got the best of her.

The next morning while Ben went out to the hardware store, Beverly pulled out her laptop and typed in the first name she had found. Betty Rispom. And the date beside her name.

Derry's police station website came up. She clicked on the link and stared at the page as it loaded.

MISSING
Betty Rispom
Last seen on May 25, 1987.
If you know anything about this case, please call the station at (...)

Beverly furrowed her brows, went back to the search bar, and searched the next name she found. Once again, a missing person's link came up. She continued searching each name to find the same thing. She stood up as soon as she heard Ben's truck in the driveway and walked in to the front door. 

"I'm home!" Ben called out as he opened the door then looked at Beverly who was already standing right in front of him. "Oh," he chuckled. "Hey beautiful"

"Hi" Beverly muttered. She bit her lip then turned the laptop toward him. "Look, I searched those names we found. Every one of them is a missing person's link. Ben set his bags down on the floor and scanned over the screen. His eyes widened.

"Do we call the police over this?" Ben asked. 

"I think we should. Even if it's nothing, we shouldn't chance it" Beverly frowned. Ben nodded and fished his cell phone from his pocket. He called the police and Beverly walked back to the mattress and sat down, reading over each missing page.

The police showed up in a timely manner. Beverly and Ben waited in the kitchen while the police looked over the pieces of wallpaper that had been peeled from the wall.

"Yep, it's human" an officer sighed heavily from the other room, on his way to the kitchen with his partner. 

"What? What's human?" Beverly asked, her face flooding with fear of the possibilities. But what she heard next was the last thing she would have guessed.

"The wallpaper. It's skin"