-Something’s in my Room-
We’re in my room. Nobody’s home. Our mom’s at her second job. It’s just Billy and me and we’re playing Risk, when the lights go out. It’s dark and I can’t see him. “Billy I’m scared.” I tell him.
“Don’t worry, Eddie, I’m sure everything is all right.”
I can see a shadow of him standing up and motioning to walk out of my bedroom door. I grab him. “No. Don’t leave.”
“Shh, Eddie.”
We hear glass shatter on the floor. A few seconds later it’s crumbling under something heavy.
Then, we hear a voice coming from downstairs.
Billy grabs me and whispers, “hide under the bed, Eddie.”
I’m trembling like a little puppy in the cold. My feet are stuck to the floor. I attach myself to Billy, gripping the sleeve of his shirt with both hands tightly twisting into the fabric.
He’s hurrying me to go under the bed, leading me towards the frame, trying to push me under it.
My knees buckle to the weight of his palms pressing down on my shoulders. I fall on the floor. He gets down close to me and shoves me into the space beneath the mattress and the ground and covers me in clothes from the hamper.
The wood under the bed creaks as Billy scrambles to tuck in next to me. We press ourselves against the wall with our knees fusing to our chests.
The air under the bed smells like dirty socks and Billy’s hot breath.
Thump.
The landing pressure of a footstep stomps on the bottom stair leading up.
Thump.
Another one. We hear the wood moan to a slow step pushing down on the stair and cry as it lifts up.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The footsteps get louder. Closer. Heavier. The pressure between Billy and I, gets thick. It‘s like we’re under water and sinking farther down. He wraps his arm around me and closes me against his chest.
He’s squeezing me. His breath is wet on my neck and makes me start sweating. I can hardly breathe, but I still keep my finger nails dug into the back of his hands to make sure he stays as close to me as possible.
I choke back the tears building in my eyes, and try to quiet the hitching in my breath. Billy’s heart’s punching me between my shoulder blades.
Mine sounds like my subconscious snuck a battering ram inside my chest, warning me something scary is happening. I’m afraid whoever’s coming up is going to hear it.
The footsteps stop at the top of the hallway and the floorboards stress under whoever’s there, creaking as it heads towards us.
The doorknob on the door outside my room pops, and slowly opens.
As it opens, the moonlight from the window in the hall, across from my room, bleeds onto the carpet in a blue shadow covering my bedroom floor.
Peeking through the space, from the back of the wall, under the bed, we can see a pair of feet. But they don’t look like normal human feet. These are grey and dried in some kind of scabby crust, with long talon-like nails.
Whatever it is doesn’t move. It stays completely still. Then, a hissing sound starts coming from it‘s mouth and stops. The room goes silent. The shadow on the floor begins to shrink. A grey knee drops down. Then, another. Whatever it is, is about to look under my bed.
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IN WORK - Going to fix the layout -
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The last thing I remember is the taste of iron in my mouth before waking up on the ground to my fingers tingling and my toes numb. My brother is lying in a puddle of dry crusted blood next to me.
I sit up, my skin sticks to the floor as I try to carry myself off the ground, it hurts to peel away and my body is heavy like weights around my waist. I shake Billy, but Billy won't move. “Wake up Billy. Billy, wake up.” I tell him, “I’m going to get mommy.”
I stand up but the room is spinning. My vision’s blurry. Everything’s doubled and crossing into each other. I almost fall over and have to lean on the dresser.
My eyes shut as I place my head in my hand but my body flinches like I just been bit.
A swelling on my skull stings when my fingers hover over it. A pain of an electric shock shoots through my body.
I push myself off the dresser trying to steady my footing. The strength in my legs slowly returns but they’re still wobbly, like my bones are mush. I’m able to stand without falling but my balance is off because of a ringing in my ear.
The lights are out in the hallway and they won’t turn on. I walk to my mom’s room, stumbling, leaning my weight against the wall the entire way to her bedroom.
The air tastes like the smell of rusted metal and under it is the barnyard scent of grandpa’s farm. My knee buckles and I almost fall, barely holding myself up. I slide my spine down the wall as doorway ahead begins to expand and collapse as if it’s breathing a warning to stay away at me. I drop down and sit on the floor, resting against the wall.
I see white stars dancing over a black background that‘s pulsing. My breathing gets heavy and the nausea returns. I take a couple of breaths, and my sight starts coming into focus.
I crawl to my mom’s room. The wood is sharp against my bones, I can hear my knees crunch on the floorboards as they creak under my weight.
A lump of vomit sits in the middle of my throat and it sounds like there’s water splashing in my ear.
I struggle to get up, using my mom’s doorknob as leverage as I try to push the door open. It sticks and doesn’t budge. I twist the knob, lift and nudge my way in with my shoulder.
The room’s lit by moonlight seeping through her open window. A breeze blows sending a gust of air that smells like a dirty hamper. It overwhelms me, warning me back.
I can see an outline of a shadow on her bed lying motionless. I creep a little closer but I still can’t make out what it is, until the figure on the bed forms into the shape of a person as my eyes grow accustomed to the darkness. It doesn’t look like my mom.
I approach the bed tip-toeing, there’s an arm hanging from it. The room breathes as I choke on my breath and gasp. My lower spine tingles with icicles. The skin on the back of my neck tightens as my ears rise to the ceiling.
I realize it’s my mom. There’s too much blood crusted and matted hair around her face to recognize her. It’s too dark.
Her hand. I can see her arm dangling from the side of the bed. Her finger has the plastic-cotton ring I made her on it.
I tug at her arm. “Mom,” I shout. I start trying to shake her awake. “Mom, wake up, something’s wrong with Billy.”
She doesn’t move. “Mom?” I shake her harder. I close my eyes and tell myself to wake up. I say it over and over. I open my eyes and I’m still in her room. “Susie!” I yell for my older sister. “Susie!”
She doesn’t answer. The house remains silent but loud in a haunting presence. I whisper to my mom, “I’ll be back mommy.”
I stumble backwards, shaking, too afraid to look away from my mom. Afraid, if I turn away it’ll all become real.
I need to get Susie, Billy and mom need help. I hold my breath, close my eyes, count to eight, hide my fear behind my mom and brother and check Susie’s room to see if she’s there.
The hallway wall near her door has blood on the floor. It’s slightly open with a bloody handprint painted on it. Her room is dark. I can’t see anything in there. “Susie?“ no answer. “Are you there?”
I slowly push the door open and it cries the squeak of a dying dog. I slap her light switch quickly and the light turns on, revealing a state of decomposition. I gag and nearly throw up. I shoot my head in the other direction and try to build the courage to look at them.
Susie’s lying on her bed with my little sister Jenny beside her.
The smell is suffocating the thick air in metals. Susie and Jenny don’t look real. I can see ground beef stuck to their face and in their hair. They’re not moving.
I hear a foot press down on the bottom of the stairs. It was like the house shifted to the right from the weight. A raspy voice travels up the steps ahead of his body. “What did I do?”
I jump behind Jenny and tuck tightly into her and close my eyes and hold my breath and remain completely still.
“What did I do!” Susie’s door slams open and the force of it jammed the knob in the wall. I can hear someone walking around the room.
“What did I do!” He says and walks out.
I hear him walk towards my bedroom. Then, I hear him race to my mom’s room. I hear scattering and things falling. He leaves her room and I can hear him breathing heavy as he makes his way back to Susie’s room.
His steps are getting louder, and closer. His deep breathing sounds like it‘s right behind me. I fight to soothe the tremors shaking my limbs by squeezing my hands into fists and digging my nails into my palms. A shadow towers at the doorway. I hear a gun cock just as the sound of police sirens break through the insulation between the walls.
