Short Stories

6ft Under.

It's frightening when you don't know what's happening in your own house. That's exactly what's happening to Skye. Often, food or various objects go missing in her house. To add to that already strange matter, doors that are normally left closed are suddenly open, and noises in the attic and in the walls can be heard at night. All those hair-raising events, made her wonder if her house was haunted.
It's been over a year since she started living there. Skye, a 25-year- old woman working as a psychiatrist, moved to the peaceful town of Star Lake for work. The strange events started happening only two weeks ago. One day, when she stayed home from work, she heard a light thud coming from the attic. She wasn't too worried at first since she did live with two cats, Liv and Mr. Whiskers. Her attic was like another floor to her house, accessible through a flight of stairs and a door. Maybe the door wasn't closed properly? She still went to check it out. She walked up the old, creaking stairs towards the closed the door of the attic.
"Maybe it's not Liv after all," Skye said worriedly to herself as she grabbed the rusty handle of the wooden door. The door screeched open, causing the hair on the nape of her neck to rise, and goosebumps to appear on her body. She felt as if she was in an cliché horror movie. She froze in the doorway for a few minutes, unable to move, attentive to her surroundings. She was overwhelmed with all kind of emotions. As soon as she stepped into the loft, a few boxes fell to the ground and a white furry and slim animal ran passed her.
"You little!..." She yelped, surprised as she saw Mr. Whiskers run past her.
Skye glanced back at the attic before closing the door behind her and sprinted back down the stairs. She felt like taking a shower to relax afterwards.
After she went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, Skye turned on the water. Immediately after, the room steamed up. Her muscles slowly started to relax as the hot water hit her skin.
She spent nearly twenty minutes under the steam, before the lights in the bathroom suddenly went out. She was in total darkness. She didn't realize how late it already was. Although the house was now a total abyss, Skye wasn't afraid. She actually liked the darkness and could preserve her equanimity perfectly. When stepping out of the shower, Skye nearly slipped on the bathroom floor. She had the time to dry up and get dressed before the power came back on. Skye noticed a perfectly formed handprint on the bathroom mirror that was far too big to fit hers. Who could've done that? She lived alone, after all.
"Maybe a bad joke?" She thought out loud. "But what if it was one of my unhappy patients?..." She added.
Terrified out of her mind, Skye did the most rational thing that she could possibly think of and ran towards the living room where she last saw her phone. Alarmed, she grabbed her phone off the grey couch and called the police. After a few rings, someone answered her call.
"911, what's your emergency?" The female operator calmly asked.
"There's someone in my house," she answered, trying to keep her cool.
"Alright, what's your address? Are they armed?" The operator asked. Skye could hear her typing on her keyboard.
"205 Pin Road in Star Lake and I have no idea, just please hurry." Panic was taking over her and thinking straight was nearly impossible by now.
"Alright, can you leave the house ma'am?"
Skye unsure of what to do. She could try running away, but whoever is here could catch up to her. "No, I can't."
"Alright, now please stay calm. Find a safe place to hide. Help is on the way," the operator reassured her.
She ran ran to the bathroom, this time locking the white door behind her. It was still quite hot in here. The handprint was now gone from the mirror. Skye waited there, still on the phone with the woman.
Awhile after, nothing else could be heard in the house, but Skye's trembling breath.
Soon, the sirens from the police car could be heard in the distance. Once they got there, the two officers carefully walked in, both armed and ready to defend themselves. Once Skye was out of the house and every room cleared, one of the officers walked over to her.
"We found nothing suspicious ma'am." The taller one said with a warm smile.
"Your house is safe. No worry." The other one added.
"Thank you so much, at least now I know it must've been a prank." Skye sighed in relief as she watched the two police officers walk to their car.
That night, Skye slept like a baby. Everything seemed calm in her house. Little did she know, the next morning was going to be a real surprise.
She had to wake up early for work. It was about 6:35am. Skye got dressed and tied up her hair. While she did her makeup and went to work.
When Skye came back home, the first thing she heard was yet, another bang coming from the attic. Now feeling more anger than fright, Skye stomped up the stair to the second floor.
"All I want is a normal life!" She yelled at top of her lungs. For her all of this was unfair. Was it still a prank? She didn't care anymore. She wanted peace and quiet in her house where she would be able to sleep soundly at night, without having to check every room of the house and keep her lights on.
She walked up the old squeaking stairs and walked through the doorway leading to the attic. Skye took a long deep breath, before pushing the air out of her lungs and taking a look around the humid place. It was filled with boxes and spider webs, which she was terrified of. After a few hesitant steps towards the other side of the loft, Skye suddenly felt watched. She felt a presence behind her. She was far too frightened to look over her trembling shoulder. A ghost? No, those didn't exist.
John looked at the girl's back. He placed his large, slightly dirty hand on his shoulder. His nails were pretty long and the two weeks without a shower were clearly starting to show. John looked at the girl slowly turn around, before she froze in place, staring up at him in horror.
His brown rough beard wasn't groomed, and slightly dirty. He parted his greasy brown hair which was originally covering his blue eyes to look at her. John was tall and slim, his clothes old, dirty and torn in places. His face was darkened by dust. Skye could only stare at him. His torn and not so white uniform was the one the cleaning crew at the asylum where she worked would wear. Everything just stopped, both were staring at each other, not saying a word to the other.
Suddenly a light bulb lit up in her mind. She saw him before, but what is he doing with the cleaning crew's uniform? He was a patient, after all.
"Don't scream, it's alright I won't hurt you. Please listen to me." The man begged. Skye sighed and nodded slightly.
"Alright, let's go downstairs." She walked down the stairs and to the kitchen. She sat down on the grey leather couch. The man sat on the couch as well. After a few minutes of awkward silence, the man started talking.
"I was accused of killing my wife and put in an asylum. I escaped to visit her grave one last time. Your house is the closest to the cemetery. Please," he said calmly.
"Alright, I will let you stay the night. Tomorrow we can go to the cemetery," she said, before standing up. "Do you want something to drink?"
John nodded, his hair falling in front of his eyes. Skye walked to the kitchen, not realizing the figure following her. She opened the fridge door when she suddenly felt something behind her.
"Wha-" She didn't have time to finish since the man began talking.
"Could I have milk please?" John politely asked.
"Gosh! You scared me there! Of course you can." She took the milk out of the fridge and poured him a glass. "There you go. The guest room is upstairs at the end of the hallway to your left. I'm going to bed, goodnight John." Skye smiled and placed the milk back in the fridge before going to bed.
That night, John never went to the guest room.
In the morning when Skye woke up, he was sitting at the kitchen, waiting for her.
"Good morning Skye, did you sleep well?" He asked.
Skye hummed lightly in response and started making breakfast for two, which is something she haven't done in awhile. After breakfast, she went the her room and slipped on a pair of jeans and a hoodie, before going back downstairs.
"Let's go, it's still early. Not a lot of people are outside at that time." Skye said as she headed towards the front door.
"Yes ma'am," John answered before they both left the house. The sun was barely up by now.
"So what happened to your wife exactly?" She asked out of curiosity.
"She wanted to leave me. If I couldn't have her, I made sure nobody would get her." His tone suddenly became dark and cold.
"Oh?.... I-I see." Skye's instinct was screaming at her to run, and yell for help. Instead, she walked into the cemetery with him and to his wife's grave.
John realized what he just did; he told his deepest secret to someone. The one that no one should ever know.
"I will let you alone with your wife for a few minutes, I will be right back," Skye said as calmly as she could before walking further away. After pulling out her phone, she was about to call the police when she heard a voice in her ear.
"Calling someone sweetheart? I don't think so." Suddenly she felt hands wrapped around her tin neck before she could even scream, the hands started squeezing her with a surprising force. A pained yelp escaped her mouth as she tried to fight for her life. Her lips began turning blue, her blood-shot eyes wide as he kept applying pressure. Soon, she lost her strength and slowly lost consciousness. Skye took her last breath, before John let her lifeless body fall to the ground. His secret was safe, 6ft under. John knew Skye had to end up like his wife, who had also seen his deepest secret, one of his many victims.

The end.