ꍏ ꉓꂦꀎᖘ꒒ꍟ ꌗꉓꍏꋪꌩ ꌗ꓄ꂦꋪꀤꍟꌗ

ᎬᏞ ᏟᏌᏟᎾ

ᴛʜɪs sᴛᴏʀʏ ᴡᴀs ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴍʏ ᴏʟᴅᴇʀ ᴄᴏᴜsɪɴs "ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ"

  Nights in Puerto Rico are always pretty hot and humid without air conditioning so it was often hard to sleep some nights. My cousin,who we'll call Jake for this story, and myself were born there but we moved to Florida around the age of 6, but we go back for some holidays. Well, around Easter  my aunt took Jake and his little sister to San Juan to visit our grandma. My abuela is a very sweet lady (cause she spoils us way too much) but she was very strict on her house rules. On the night that Jakes's family got there, him and his sister pretty grouchy from the 3 hour flight so they were fighting for a while, and since his mom and abuela were watching TV, they began getting annoyed with them. My cousins were yelling at the top of their lungs when my grandma yelled, "That's it! go to the room if you're gonna keep fighting." They huffed off to the guest bedroom they would be sharing for the next week. 

A couple hours had passed and it was around 2:45 am and my cousins were up watching any cartoons that they could be able to find at that time. Their mom was already asleep in the living room and abuela was getting ready to sleep herself, so she came in to tuck them in herself. "Vamos mi amores, time to sleep." Jake's sister whined and cried since she wasn't tired in the slightest somehow. But Jake already got on grandma's bad side earlier and didn't want to do it again. Once abuela calmed down his sister, she kissed their heads and chimed, "duermete niño duermete ya que viene el cuco y te comera." As she left, this made Jake shiver, he hated that tune. 

For those of you who don't know, "El Cuco" is a urban legend to get kids to behave. It lives some where in the house of surrounding area, and it basically says that "if you don't do what i say the cuco will come and get you!" and it honestly depends on the child that scares them into behaving. Some what like Krampus or The Boogeyman. Or mostly like Pennywise since he is able to shape shift into anything, something you fear or something you love. From your favorite animal to a monstrosity of a creature hiding in your closet or under your bed. In most forms, he'll have a large brown sack with him, with stains that from away would look like smudges of dirt, but this is the sack where he grabs children and takes them away to eat later, and those dirt stains turn out to be the dry blood of past victims to taunt you while you wait for your impending doom inside the bag. 

But back to Jake, he knew about the legends of the monster, which made him nervous. Since he knew both he and his sister had acted up that day and he honestly didn't want something to snatch them up and devour them. So, Jake leaned over to the dressed and picked up one of the Jesus candles (one of the many, she has one in every room, it ain't even funny) and placed it near him, saying a small prayer before turning over and closing his eyes to sleep. He got a bit till, 6 am, but since it's usually pretty bright outside, so he thought he was in the clear. He thought. 

The next day, Jake's family took a trip to Vaca Brava restaurant, that specific day, the restaurant was holding some sort of party or specials for adults. Which included an indoor bull riding ring. This made Jake so excited, but unfortunately he was 8 years old so he couldn't do it. So when his mom didn't let him go, he had a full blown meltdown. Bawling loudly, eyes red and puffy, arms flinging, and screaming as he threw himself on the floor. His mom grabbed him and dragged him out. The drive back to Abuela's house was a quiet one for Jake as he listened to his mom yell at lecture him for his behavior. He didn't pay attention to what she was saying, so he just stared out the window. But pulling into the drive way, he saw something sort of strange. From behind the dumpster from the store in front, was a small dark  figure peeked out from the side. Standing still, and just standing there. It did freak him out a bit but, as soon as a car passed it wasn't there any more. Shrugging it off he went off the stairs to go inside the house. After dinner, Jake sat on the porch, slipping his feet through the bars of the balcony railing and swung them softly. And here it came again. A shadowy black figure standing now in the middle of the driveway, only, taller and lankier. It was hunched over, hiding it's face, well if it even had one. Jake watched as it began to walk under the house to where the cars where parked, he stood up and made it half way down the stairs till he saw that it wasn't there. So he turned around and went back up the stairs with a bit  of a rush in his step. 

He pushed the thought of whatever that was to the side and continued with the rest of the night till once again, it was time to sleep again. He was laying in bed, chatting quietly with his sister, when the AC went out. It wasn't uncommon for there to be power outages in the neighborhood so they thought nothing of it, but till his sister stopped talking and her eyes focused to the corner of the room. "Jake..." She whimpered and pointed over his shoulder. Jake turned and look, and there it was again. But now the figure was large, stilled hunched over, heaving and wheezing. The smell of rot filled the room and the corner where it stood darkened with dark veins spreading through the walls. Jake gulped, a shiver running through his spine as he looked at the entity. His sister clung to his arm and began crying a bit, as the creature flattened onto the floor, completely out of sight. 

This gave them a moment to breathe until it crawled onto the roof with a screech, Jake's sister screamed and began crying again. It soon made it's way on the bed, skittering like a roach across the ceiling above the two children. With cracking noises, like breaking bones, it's face with pure white, with large black eyes, and no mouth. They screamed loudly as the face cracked open and black ooze dripped onto them and the covers of the bed. Hearing the commotion, his mom swung open the door. And as soon as it came, it dispersed into a cloud of dark mist, which vanished just as quickly.  

They told her everything they saw, of course she told them it was just a nightmare. In attempts to prove her wrong, they tried showing her the ooze stains, but there was nothing there. To comfort them, their mom came into the bed with them, and they were able to sleep for the rest of that night. Turns out that mom would be sleeping with them for the rest of the week. Until the day that they had to leave. Their abuela hugged them good by and stood at the gate of the drive way. 

After buckling his seat belt, he looked out the window to wave goodbye to grandma. But instead, he saw grandpa leaning against the balcony railing, waving goodbye. This wouldn't be a problem, if grandpa hadn't passed two years prior. Jake scanned him up and down, when he noticed the sack on the floor and the puddle of black ooze pooling at his feet.