The story I’m about to tell you is a perfect example of how dark this world really is. I was a 15-year-old high school girl at the time and I finally convinced my parents to give me a smartphone. I started an Instagram account not long after.
I had been posting on it for almost a year, mostly about my day to day life with loads of selfies, nothing special, when one of my best friends, Collin, messaged me a link to another profile. When I checked the profile out my stomach tightened. This profile was dedicated to me. It had reposted all of my photos. But what really gave me the creeps were the videos and photos that had been taken of me by someone else. I didn’t recognize the photos. They had been taken without my knowledge.
There were loads of them. Some of them while I was at school. Some of them while I played basketball. There were even some with me at home. A few were taken while I was changing in my room. I was horrified. I immediately reported the account. I even went as far as to reach out to my parents who reported it to the cops.
However, it didn’t end there. It wasn’t long after that the account was deleted another account popped up with even more photos and videos of me. They were new ones. Whoever had taken them was still stalking me.
Even worse, they started to DM me. The messages were really disturbing. Telling me how they loved to watch me change and they sent me a video of me sleeping. I was truly freaked out. Once again, I went to my parents who filed another police report. However, this did nothing to dissuade my stalker.
They continued to create more accounts to harass me. The DMs continued to get even more disturbing. They said how they would love to get their hands on me and what they’d do once they got me alone with them. The things they said I can’t repeat. This went on for months. Every time I’d report them, their account would be deleted and a new one would spring up with even more photos of me. Of course, I made sure to close my windows at home and make sure they were locked. I even went as far as to delete my own account and all my other social media accounts.
Somehow they got my number and continued to harass me, sending me more photos and videos of me that were taken while I was unaware. Every time I blocked their number, they’d text me with a new one. It got to the point where I became afraid to leave my house, not that I felt safe there either.
They started texting me how they were going to kidnap me and all the terrible things they were going to do to me once they’d taken me. It felt like no matter what I did, I couldn’t escape them. I just wanted it all to stop.
One day I noticed something about one of the videos they sent me. I could barely make out a reflection in the video. And who I saw truly made me sick. In that reflection was my best friend Collin’s face. I went straight to my parents and they took me to the police. They brought Collin in and searched all of his electronic devices. Sure enough, they were filled with photos and pictures of me. They even found a shrine of me in his closet. I never felt more betrayed in my entire life. It just goes to show that you really don’t know who you can trust.
I went to his hearing and he lost it, yelling at me that no one would love me as he could. Only he deserved to have me. No one else. I had a hard time trusting people after that. Collin went to juvie for a long time. However, I just recently heard he’s going to get out soon.
I’ve gone to extreme precautions to distance myself from him. I even went to the lengths to legally change my name. It’s safe to say I haven’t been on social media since.
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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I’m about to tell you something that will change your beliefs forever. What happened during the weekend I went to meet my girlfriend’s parents will forever be burned into my memory and I don’t know if I can ever trust anyone ever again.
Now, I will just say this to get it out there, I’m black and yes, my girlfriend just so happens to be white. Before you make any assumptions, just hear my story. It all started with our trip from college to see her parents along with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend.
“Get ready for the shit show,” my girlfriend’s sister Stella said as she sits in the back with her boyfriend Callen while I drive and Kiara, my girlfriend, road shotgun. “Ramon, I apologize on behalf of our nutty family ahead of time.”
Kiara rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to her, our parents aren’t that bad. They’re not racist, they just sometimes don’t understand that what they say is sometimes highly offensive.”
Stella laughed. “That’s putting it lightly. I can’t wait to see dad’s face when he sees the two of you together.”
“Stop,” Kiara said. “Don’t listen to her. We’ll be fine.”
“Your parents couldn’t be any worse than mine,” Callen said. “My parents are real assholes.”
“Oh, way worse. Our mother is a neat freak. You’ll want to take off your shoes as soon as you get in or you’ll get an earful. She spends most of her time cleaning the house and if you get one speck of dirt on her carpet, she’ll let you know about it,” Stella said with that sadistic smile. “She’ll also interrogate you for your entire life. She won’t judge you for it, she’ll just pester you with questions until she knows every small detail of your existence. My dad also won’t ever stop talking. Only instead of asking questions, he’ll lecture you nonstop because he’s the expert on everything. He also loves to tell inappropriate jokes.”
“Stella! Come on. Seriously? Mom and dad aren’t that bad,” Kiara said as she rolled her eyes. She turns to me and places her hand on my forearm. “Don’t listen to her babe. She’s just trying to scare you. She loves to fuck with people’s heads.”
It’s not long before we pull into their driveway. It’s a ways out into the country. Their house is your typical style two-story farmhouse. As I park the car, we get out and grab the luggage. The house looks like no one is home, but after a second glance, I see one of the shades cracked open and nearly trip as I see someone creepily peering out. As soon as the person sees me they shut the blinds.
The door opens up and a man with white hair that’s starting to bald and a white beard steps out. His face is as serious as a 911 operator.
“Dad!” Kiara shouted with glee as she skipped up and went to hug him. He pulled back and put his hands out.
“Don’t touch me!” he shouted out and Kiara stopped in her tracks and looked off-put. He looked at her for a second before he fixed his glasses. “I’m sorry. You are my daughter. Right. I’m sick. I don’t want to get you sick.”
With that, he forced out a cough. Kiara tossed us a questioning look before turning back to her dad. He eyed the rest of us for a long minute. “Come in.”
We all trade looks before hauling the luggage inside. The place is filthy. Cobwebs have made it home. A thick layer of dust is on everything. Stella and Kiara eye each other.
“Dad, we’re going to put our things away and we’ll come back down after we freshen up,” Stella said.
“Right… Well. Don’t take too long. You should all get a good night’s sleep soon,” he said. I look at my watch and it’s only 1 in the afternoon.
“Uh… okay,” Kiara said. We quickly followed her up to her room.
As soon as the door shut, Stella spoke up. “What the fuck is going on? The place is a mess? Did you think Dad was acting funny?”
“Well, he did say he was sick,” she said.
“Where’s mom?” Stella asks.
“I don’t know, but it’s not like her to leave the place so messy,” Kiara said.
“And what the fuck was up with dad? He’s so jumpy. And he’s at a record low of long-winded lectures,” Stella said as she tucked a loose string of brown hair behind her ear while she sat down on the bed. Her eyes continued to flick over to Kiara and her boyfriend as she bit down on her lip.
“Maybe something happened. Things change people,” Kiara said.
“You think it’s that simple?” Stella asks.
“Yeah. I mean, come on, it’s mom and dad,” Kaira replied.
“I don’t know. I read this…”
“Stella, I know what you’re getting at. This is the real world, not a science fiction novel,” Kiara said.
“I know. I know. I’m just saying…”
“Babe, you gonna show me your room?” Callen asked, winking at her.
“Right. Sure,” she said. As they went over to her room, he spanked her and gave her ass a good squeeze.
We spent most of the afternoon upstairs. Eventually, we all headed downstairs for dinner. As Stella, Callen, Kiara, and I gathered around the table, we noticed their mother lingering in the hallway by the stairs. She didn’t say anything, just stared at us for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, their dad came out behind her and she followed him.
“So, what’s for dinner?” Stella asked.
“Dinner?” their dad said. He looked puzzled by the question. “Right. Dinner. I uh…”
“Should we just order pizza?” Kiara asked.
“No, I’ll get something,” he said as he entered the kitchen and started going through the cupboards.
“After dinner, Stella and I thought it’d be fun to head out to the pole barn and bring out the lawn chairs for a campfire,” Kiara said.
“No!” her mother snapped at us. “No fires!”
Stella and Kiara looked at each and their expressions said it all. There was fear mixed with confusion in their eyes.
“And don’t go into the pole barn,” her dad said. “It’s best you stay here in the house for now.”
“You don’t mind if I smoke, do you? I have a medical card,” Callen asked. Stella threw him a sharp look.
“No smoke! No fire!” their mother said. I looked over at Kiara trying to figure out what was going on. I haven’t even met them before now and I can sense their behavior isn’t normal.
“Okay, I was just asking, no need to get upset,” he said as he threw Stella a sharp glance.
My phone went off with the loud annoying sound I picked for an alarm to make sure I take my meds when both Mr. and Mrs. Bradley shrieked out with hissing and screaming sounds. “Shut it off! Shut it off!”
I quickly turned off my alarm as my heart raced ever faster. The look on their faces was horrifying.
“Just stay inside the house,” her father said. He finally pulled something out from the fridge and dished it onto separate plates before he brought them over. What was on the plates was absolutely repulsive. “We’re going have to go check something out in the pole barn. We’ll be right back. Eat up.”
The dark black blob on our plates didn’t look edible. It smelled rancid. As soon as they left, Stella went off. “What the fuck is going on? What is this shit? They’re acting so fucking weird.”
“Yeah, I’m not eating that,” Callem said. “It looks disgusting.”
“I don’t think any of us should,” Stella said.
“Babe, I need to smoke. I’m just going to sneak out and hit the vape real fast,” he said.
“Fine whatever,” she said.
He sneaked out of the house. As Stella and Kiara talk about how odd their parents are, I looked out the window to find something glowing from the pole barn. What the fuck is going on in there? Callen seemed to have seen it too because I saw him walking over towards it. He was peering in through the window on the door when the door suddenly opened and he was pulled inside. What the fuck?
I’m not sure whether I wanted to see what was inside or get in my car and drive as far away from here as possible. Something not right is going on here.
“Babe, what do you think we should do?” Kiara asked.
“I think we should leave. I just watched Callen get pulled into the pole barn after he was looking inside.”
“God, that fucking idiot. Why did he have to go poking around?” Stella said with a heavy sigh.
“Why do you think mom and dad don’t want us going in there?” Kiara asked.
“I don’t know. But what was up with them when your alarm went off?” she asked me. I only shrugged.
“We should get rid of this crap so it looks like we ate it,” Kiara said.
“Good idea,” Stella said as we all picked up the plates and scooped the blobs into the trash. A minute later Callen walked inside. I was more than a little surprised to see him. Although, something was really off about him. He just came in and sat down at the table. Didn’t say a word or even acknowledge us. “Babe? Hey. Everything okay? What did you see in the pole barn?”
“Pole barn?” He asked, looking at us. There was something different about his eyes. I can’t quite place it, but they’re not the same. “Don’t go in the pole barn!”
All three of us jumped back and traded looks. Then Stella piped up. “What the hell did you smoke?”
He turned his head in a way that gave me the chills. “No smoking! No fire!”
“We’re going upstairs for a bit,” Kiara said, tugging mine and Stella’s arm. We quickly followed her upstairs.
“What the fuck is going on!” Stella said, freaking out.
“It’s whatever is in that pole barn. It changed him,” I said.
“We need to figure out what’s in there,” Kiara said.
“We should call, like, the cops or something,” Stella said.
“And tell them what exactly? That your parents have gone mad and did something to your boyfriend?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“We need to figure something out,” Kiara said.
“I say we get in my car and get the fuck out of here,” I said.
“No! Not without figuring out what’s going on with my parents,” she said. I swallowed down the lump in my throat. I wasn’t going to leave without her and if I was in her place, I’d want to know what the fuck was going on too.
“Fine. If you two can distract them, I’ll figure out what’s in the pole barn,” I said.
“Really?” she asked.
“Babe, I’m not leaving you, that’s for sure,” I said. She buried her head into my chest.
“You shouldn’t go out there without some way to defend yourself,” Kiara said.
“Do you have a lighter and some hair spray?” I asked.
“Yeah, why?” she asked.
“Well, didn’t you hear them? They don’t like fire,” I said.
Kiara reached into her bag and pulled out a canister of hairspray and a lighter. I took them from her and hid them in my sweatshirt. That’s when we heard a creak from the stairs. Someone was coming up. Both girls dashed behind me. Another creak was heard just outside the bedroom door. Someone is standing just outside the door. I had one hand on the canister and the other on the lighter, ready for anything. The handle slowly twisted and the door slowly opened.
“Stay behind me,” I said. My skin crawled as Callen’s head crept around the door. His normally full head of brown hair seemed rather thin as his eyes, those strange pale brown eyes darted at us. I was truly creeped out.
“Callen?” Stella asked as she peered from behind me.
“What are you doing?” he asked, most of him still hidden by the door.
“Nothing,” Kiara said.
“Just talking about going to bed,” Stella said.
“You should do that. Stay in here. Don’t leave the house,” he said as his head slowly moved back behind the door. The door slowly closed, but we didn’t hear his footsteps leave.
We all traded looks with each other, but no one said a word. We’re trapped. I looked out the window and you could climb out onto the roof from it. I pointed to the window and Kiara knew exactly what I meant. She slowly crept to the window and tried to quietly open it. A loud creak came from it as Kiara slid the window open and the hand of the door turned as the door opened up. Callen peered from behind it. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Just getting some fresh air,” Kiara said. He eyed us suspiciously. Then he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He just stood there, looking at us.
I looked over at Kiara and I could see the apprehension in her eyes. I gave her a nod and then pulled out the lighter and the hair spray. Callen’s eyes widened as I lit the lighter and sprayed the hair spray. A giant flame erupted in front of Callen. A blood-curdling screech escaped his lips as both Stella and Kiara bolted out of the window.
What happened next made my stomach turn. Callen started to melt. His face became a big glob of puss as his entire body deformed into one great big blob. Like a slug, it tried to slither away. From the flame. I took that moment to climb out of the window behind Stella. We made our way down the roof and climbed down the Lattice on the side of the house. They followed me to the pole barn just as their parents walked out of the house.
“What are you doing?” their dad asked.
“Get the fuck away from us,” I said, holding out the hair spray and lighter.
“Don’t go in there,” he screeched at us.
We rushed up to the pole barn as their father rushed at us. My alarm went off again and he shrieked, stopped, and held his ears. I hit him with a hot flame of the lighter combined with the hair spray and he melted into another blob. Its eyes were on top of its heads held up by tentacles. It appeared to have a mouth. It shrieked at the flame as it tried to slide away.
We bolted to the pole barn and what we found inside made Kiara puke. I could barely hold it in myself. The entire barn seemed to be infected by the same black slime. There was some giant black round egg looking thing in the middle that had long black slime support beams reaching out to the walls of the pole barn. It had to be the size of a fishing ship. Over by the far wall, I saw them. Not only were Kiara and Stella’s parents trapped in some kind of pods made of the black slime, but so was Callen. Kiara and Stella rushed over to them. I found a canister of gasoline lying around and I started to dose everything in it as Kiara took a long filet knife and cut open her father’s pod. He fell out of it covered in slime. She did the same to her mother and Callen’s pods.
The other imposter that looked like their mother came rushing in. I had just barely enough time to hit her with a big jet of flame before the gasoline caught fire. Loud shrieks were coming from the giant egg-like thing and the imposter mother. I rushed over to help Stella and Kiara get their parents and Callen out. Kiara opened the large door to the pole barn and we dragged their bodies out from the pole barn that was now in flames. I looked to find her imposter father trying to slide away down the yard. I ran up to it and hit it with another flame. I torched it until it shrieked no more.
I then ran inside to find the other one, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I searched the entire house for it. I can’t imagine how it got away.
Kiara’s parents and Callen eventually woke up. We had to explain what all happened, but even then it was hard to believe. I still can’t imagine what would’ve happened if those things were able to take us. I also have a dread sense of paranoia from the one that managed to get away. It could look like anything. It’s safe to say I have been looking over my shoulder ever since.
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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If you asked me if I believed in aliens when I first became a deputy sheriff, I would have called you crazy. However, a series of events changed my beliefs forever.
It all started when a meteor crashed down on the Wagner farm. The Wagners are good people. A family of hard workers. Naturally, they became the talk of the town. Even had a front-page story in the paper and a feature on the local news. That’s all good and well, but it was not long after when reports came in that raised questions. I was first called over to the farm to investigate a few days after the meteor crashed.
Bradley Wagner, the man of the house, walked me out to his fields of corn. The meteor crashed in the far-field of his 5 fields that were all corn. However, as soon as we reached the field, it was clear what the problem was. His entire field of corn was all rotten. The stalks had wilted and turned black. I jotted it down and even took some photos. I told him I’d report it and we’ll see what comes of it. However, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what there was to be done. It’s not like a crime was committed. Little did I know, it was the first of many occurrences on that farm.
It wasn’t long after the entire crop followed suit. The Wagner’s were devastated. Their entire livelihood was taken right from under them. However, that was not the end of it. Soon we got in reports of strange behaviors from the animals. Once again, I had to go out and investigate the land. And what I found was rather unusual. The animals all huddled in the barn and they were eating fertilizers. Their eyes were white. Their mouths had turned black. I did a full report, but again, there wasn’t much I could do.
Weeks went by without much word from the farm. I didn’t quite know what to make of it. Then one day, we had got a call from a neighbor that the Wagners had disappeared. No one had heard from them in weeks. Once again, I had to go out and investigate. What I found will haunt me for the rest of my life. I arrived on the farm and found it almost completely empty. After searching the house and finding no one, I went out to the barn and sure enough, the Wagners were in there along with all the animals. They were eating the fertilizer along with the animals. Their mouths, like the animals, were all covered in a black substance. Their eyes were pale misty white. I hesitantly went to grab Bradley by the shoulder. He hissed at me, pulled away, and continued to eat the fertilizer. That’s when I saw it. Giant long worms the size of railroad nails all inching towards me. I’ve never seen worms like those before. They were hairy and scaly. It’s safe to say I bolted out of there. I made a full report on what I found.
Not even a day later a small army of black SUVs that all apparently belonged to some government division pulled up and blocked off the farm. No one was allowed in, not even the Sheriff. I don’t know what’s going on in there or what to make of those worms, but I do know this all started with that meteor. I really believe those worms came from that meteor and they’re the reason the animals and the Wagners are acting so funny. Ever since that day, I’ve had a craving for fertilizer.
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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I never believed all that extraterrestrial nonsense for most of my life. Of course, I don’t really watch much tv. I spend my days working in the garage. There’s always something that needs fixing. Anyhow, one night changed everything.
It was late and I was just wrapping up working on the truck before I cleaned up, grabbed some grub, and had a beer while I sat in my chair and listened to the game on the radio. Call me old fashion, but that’s how I like it.
Anyway, it all got strange when the power started flickering. Bright lights shined into all my windows. Then things got really weird. My beer started to float out of the bottle. All sorts of things levitated into the air. A giant white flash happened and everything went blank.
I remember laying down on a cold metal table. I could barely see anything because a blinding light was shining down on me. Figures were moving all around me. I couldn’t make out who or what they were, but I felt like I wasn’t all there. I felt aloof. Like it was all just one terrible nightmare. The next thing I remember, I woke up in my bed. I don’t know how I got there. I just chalked it up to a dream.
Now here’s where things get really strange. The next day my phone was ringing and I answered it. Apparently, I missed my doctor’s appointment. I was supposed to get one of them scans where they shove you into one of them machines with a giant magnet. But it wasn’t for another week. However, I went out to get the mail and there had to be a bucket’s worth of mail. It was starting to fall out of my box. After sorting through it all I found I had at least a week’s worth of mail. Apparently that little dream I had taken a week away from me.
That’s not all. I had to reschedule that scan and here’s where things get real weird. After I got my scan, the doctors pulled me in. They were stuttering and having a hard time trying to say what they were looking at. I told em to spit it out. Apparently, my innards had been rearranged. Can you imagine that? There’s no point in denying it now. Whatever happened to me on that cold metal table was not a dream. I was abducted by aliens. Just makes you wonder what kind of creatures are really out there…
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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I’m first going to start off by saying I never believed in the paranormal or ghosts. I’m not really atheist or whatever, but I’m not religious either. My sister on the other hand is very into the paranormal stuff. You could say she’s a big believer in ghosts. I was a total skeptic. However, what happened on the night I’m about to tell you forever changed my beliefs.
To begin, I need to tell you I was desperate for cash. Like every teenager who’s about to turn 16, I was stashing away every dollar I could to save up for a halfway decent car. My family isn’t exactly what you call wealthy. My parents worked really hard to provide for me and my sister. They both worked for our newly elected mayor Brayden Palmer who won by a landslide. However, my father isn’t too hyped on him. He says the man isn’t all that trustworthy and may have bought himself into the office. Apparently, he inherited lots of money or something.
Anyway, at that point in time, I decided to put an ad on Craigslist to babysit for a fee. That was my first mistake. I only put my email down because I hate talking on the phone to strangers and I really didn’t even feel comfortable giving my phone out to people I didn’t know. Especially on Craigslist.
Now after a few days, I just so happened to be reading through a bit of history about our town, I’m a total history nerd, same with my sister. That’s something we had in common. The article was about the disappearance of a prominent family. I ended up sending her the article. Anyway, as I read I got the notification that I received an email. It was from a couple who lived out in the fringes of town. They were offering to pay me a lot of money to watch their baby boy. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
My sister drove me out to their house and dropped me off the night they needed me. The driveway was long and wove through the woods. With the overgrowth of trees, it made it almost feel like we drove through a tunnel. As we reached the house, it was beautiful. It had one of those wrap-around front porches with white siding. It was two stories. I walked up to the front door while my sister waited in the driveway. I knocked on the door and after a few minutes, I was greeted by a beautiful middle-aged woman. She had steel blue eyes and long wavy hair. She welcomed me in with a great big smile and introduced herself along with her husband as Health and Viviana Palmer. The names sounded vaguely familiar. Her husband was a man about the same age with dark black hair and a salesmen-like perfect smile.
I heard my sister drive off as they showed me to the baby’s room. The baby was fast asleep in his bed with a teddy bear in his arms. Mrs. Palmer gave me the rundown on the baby. It was the typical stuff, to check up on him every so often but for the most part, he should sleep through the night.
Anyway, after a few last-minute notes, they got ready and took off. One thing that I found odd was I never heard them drive away. I brushed it off and went downstairs to watch a little TV. I have to admit this house is very clean and immaculate. They had a fireplace with the mantle decorated in little figurines. One, in particular, caught my eye, it was an owl. There wasn’t a speck of dust or a scratch on any surface. As I grabbed the remote and hit the power button, the tv wouldn’t turn on. After pressing it several times, I got up and tried turning it on through the button on the TV itself. It still wouldn’t turn on. Figures. I even checked to see if it was plugged in, which it was.
I resigned to sit down and listen to an audiobook. Something really bugged me. I couldn’t stop thinking about where I heard their names before. I knew they sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
As I pondered their names, I heard a loud crash in the kitchen which nearly caused me to piss myself. I quickly got up to look at what the cause was and my heart sank into my stomach. Sitting on the floor with a bunch of knives was the baby. It was holding a really sharp knife and was about to cut himself when I bolted to him with only seconds to spare. The baby threw a hissy fit when I took the knife away from him. I tried to calm it but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to stop crying. I took him back up to his bedroom and placed him in his bed, hoping he would cry himself to sleep. I went back downstairs and cleaned up the knives in the kitchen. Just the thought of what could’ve happened if I was a second too slow left me in chills.
The baby cried for over an hour. When it finally stopped I felt a small sense of relief. However, I decided to check up on it to make sure everything was okay. I’ll admit, the baby was kind of ugly. It was very wrinkly and looked almost sickly. As I crept into his room, I froze in my tracks. The baby was gone. All that was in his bed was a teddy bear. I felt my heartbeat quickening.
This couldn’t be happening. If something happened to that baby, I would never forgive myself. I searched everywhere for that baby. As I searched, I started to notice something very odd. The house that was very immaculate when I arrived started to seem rather dirty. What was very odd was that dents and scratches started to appear on the walls and furniture where they previously weren’t. Things became very dusty.
My phone vibrated. My sister sent me a text, asking me what the names of the people who hired me were. I sent her a text telling her their names. I didn’t really understand why she was so interested. I continued my search as I started to panic. I tore through the entire house which was starting to look even more shabby the more I searched. I heard a sudden creek downstairs. I rushed down there and found the door to the basement was open. That was the last place I wanted to go to.
I reluctantly made my way down to my own dismay. Of course, the lights wouldn’t work. I pulled out my phone and turned the flashlight on. The basement was covered in cobwebs and dust. I received another text from my sister that made my skin crawl. She said I needed to get out of that house right now and she was on her way to come to get me. I asked her why. She sent me back the article I sent her a few days ago about the prominent family that went missing. Their names were Heath and Viviana Palmer and they had a baby named Dustin. They disappeared nearly 2 years ago for no apparent reason. They just vanished. I looked at the picture of the family and immediately recognized them as the same family that hired me. This couldn’t be real.
I could hear my heart thumping wildly in my chest as I read this. I nearly tripped over something. I looked down on the floor and saw two decayed, rotting corpses. I screamed as loud as I could. I recognized them immediately Mr. and Mrs. Palmer. And that’s when I finally found the baby…
He was dead on the floor next to them, just a rotting corpse. I could feel myself getting sick as I raced back up the stairs. Before I could get there, the door slammed shut, leaving me in the dark. I tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. I started crying uncontrollably.
“Don’t leave!” I heard the voice of Mr. Palmer as a light to the basement flickered on. I thought to myself, this is how I’m going to die… By ghosts, I don’t even believe in.
“Please, we need your help,” Mrs. Palmer said.
I stumbled down the stairs, my feet felt like they were moving of their own accord. Standing there in the middle of the Basement were Mr. and Mrs. Palmer. Viviana Palmer was holding her baby. I looked on the floor to see their dead bodies lying behind them.
“You’re not going to kill me are you?” I asked.
“No, we need your help,” she says.
“We were murdered,” Mr. Palmer said. I can’t believe I’m having a conversation with dead people.
“Please, just let me go, I’ll do whatever you want,” I pleaded with them.
“Help us. Please help us,” the woman said. She pleaded with me.
“I don’t know how,” I said, as tears fell from my eyes.
“You can help us. Please. Find the bear and the owl. They have the truth,” Mr. Palmer pleaded. Then the light flickered off again and the door to the basement opened. Their ghosts were gone. I ran upstairs to find the house in shambles. Everything seemed to be broken. The wood was rotting. Dust and cobwebs covered everything.
I saw headlights outside and my sister texted me she was here. I was about to run out and leave this place forever, but I couldn’t get the look of their faces out of my head. They were so sad. What did they mean by look for the bear and the owl? I looked around and nearly screamed at the sight of dried blood on the dirty carpet. That’s when it clicked. The owl. I looked over to the mantle and found the owl figurine. Surely this is what he meant. I rushed over to grab it and sure enough, it was a hidden camera. I popped out the SD card in the back. Now the bear. I knew exactly what he meant. Where else would you put a hidden camera if not for the baby’s room? I rushed upstairs to find the teddy bear and sure enough, it too was a camera. I took it with me as I ran out of the house and got into my sister’s car.
“I was so fucking worried you were dead when I pulled up to find this beaten-down house in shambles. It was in mint condition when I dropped you off. What the hell is going on?” she asked.
“Do you have something that can read an SD card at home?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Why? And what’s with the dusty teddy bear? Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Just drive! I’ll explain it on the way home,” I said.
I told her all about the Palmers and every little weird thing that happened to me in that house as we drove back home. Once we arrived home, we rushed into my sister’s room and I handed her the SD card that was in the owl. She put it in her computer and it was filled with videos. We pulled up the first one and it was of Mr. Palmer.
“I’ve decided to put this hidden camera in here because I do not trust our babysitter. I think she’s stealing from us but my wife thinks she’s an angel,” he said to the camera. “This will prove everything. I also need to figure out how Dustin is getting out. No matter what we do, he manages to somehow escape his crib.”
We watched through the videos and sure enough, their babysitter was stealing from them, but I don’t think that’s what we were meant to find. We continued watching. Then we saw it. Both of our jaws dropped. I felt my stomach get tied up in knots. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer was with another man. I recognized him.
“That’s… That’s dad’s boss. The Mayor. Brayden Palmer,” my sister said as he pulled out a gun and shot them. He killed them in cold blood.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“Aren’t they brothers?” she asked. I shrugged. “I know they are. Didn’t you read that article you sent me? It said that Heath and Brayden were supposed to inherit a lot of money, but when Heath disappeared it all went to his brother Brayden. He killed them to get the entire fortune.”
“It all makes sense now,” I said. We watched Brayden drag their bodies out of the living room and most likely downstairs where I found them.
Then we plugged in the other SD card and what we saw was downright sickening. He killed their baby. He suffocated him. That’s truly terrible. I couldn’t hold it. I rushed to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet.
My sister and I showed my parents everything. I couldn’t exactly explain to them how I got the SD cards. No one would believe me if I told them I was hired by ghosts to watch their dead baby, so we told them a lie about finding the old house and exploring it. They bought it because that’s totally something my sister would do. They took the SD cards to the police the next day Mayor Palmer was arrested and it was all over the news that Brayden Palmer had been charged with the murder of Heath, Viviana, and Dustin Palmer.
I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Eliza and I drove back out to that house a few weeks later and we both saw them. They were standing on the porch. Viviana was holding baby Dustin with Heath by their side. They were smiling as they watched their baby boy. They looked up at us and waved. Then they were gone. I’d like to think they found some semblance of peace together.
I still have a hard time bringing myself to believe what had actually happened, but I will never forget it. Ghosts do exist.
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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I’ve always believed in ghosts. I don’t really consider myself a spiritual person, but I had a respect for the paranormal. However, my sister, Caylee on the other hand was obsessed with the unnatural. She’s what you call a goth. She even had her hair buzzed off on one side and always had on black lipstick with black clothing. I’m kind of your average kid. Just a nerd really. I even wear glasses to prove it. Anyway, the night I’m about to tell you really made me a believer in the paranormal. It’s a hard story to tell. I’m still not over it. What happened that night… It still haunts me to this day.
It all started on a Friday night. My friends Brantley, Shawnee, and Kassidy came over to chill. We all hung out in my basement watching a horror movie including my sister who just so happened to be only a year younger than me. It’s a movie we’ve all seen a hundred times. I think it might have been the Shining, but I can’t remember for sure. No one was really paying attention to the movie. We were all trying to find something fun to do while Brantley packed a blunt. On this particular Friday, not a lot was going on, not that a bunch of high school teens live all that exciting lives anyway.
As we were throwing out ideas, it was Kassidy who mentioned the house. Deep in the woods behind my house, there was a house that was thought to be haunted. It was an old abandoned boarding house that was once an orphanage where a lot of kids went missing. No one really knows what happened to them. Kassidy was the one who thought we should go out there. My sister wanted to go even farther and have a séance. Of course, my sister had an ouija board and wanted to see if we could talk to the dead souls who were murdered.
“Nah, that sounds stupid,” Brantley said. “You can’t honestly say you believe that shit.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared, Brantley?” Kassidy asked.
“Pff, I’m not scared,” Brantley said.
“I am,” Shawnee said as he cleaned his glasses.
“I think it’d be fun. It’s got to be better than sitting here watching the same movie we saw a hundred times,” Kassidy said as she ties up her blonde hair into a ponytail. “Besides, it’d be a perfect opportunity to smoke that blunt you rolled.”
“Fine, I’ll do it,” Brantley said.
Caylee was ecstatic. “Sweet, I’ll go get my ouija board.”
After she grabbed her board, we all made our way out to the woods. Luckily it was early October and it hadn’t got all that cold out just yet. We followed Kassidy out through the woods. The hike was rather long as Brantley sparked the blunt and passed it around. The sun started to dip below the horizon as we finally arrived at the old beat up boarding house. The windows were boarded up and everything seemed like it was only one storm away from falling apart. The paint was nearly worn off and most of the siding was rotten. I nearly choked at what I thought I saw in the window on the second floor. Everyone looked at me as I blinked and took a double look. I could’ve sworn I saw someone in the window.
Brantley thought I was just pulling their legs, but I swear I saw what I saw. It looked like a little girl. We all looked at each other before Kassidy was the first to head in.
“We should really be careful. This place doesn’t look structurally sound,” Shawnee said. As soon as we head inside, we all notice a rancid odor. It smelled like rotten eggs mixed with meat that had been left out for far too long.
“Let’s find a good spot to do our séance,” my sister said.
“Let’s split up and look around,” Kassidy said.
“We should stick together,” Shawnee said.
“Don’t be such a wuss,” Brantley said.
“I’m just being cautious,” Shawnee said.
I looked around in the living room and found an old framed photo of a group of people in it. There were at least 10 people. None of them looked happy to be in the photo and most of them were kids. A sudden creak in the upstairs floorboard made everyone flinch.
“We should leave,” Shawnee said.
“Fuck that, let’s go see what that was,” Brantley said.
“I agree. Besides, we’ve got strength in numbers,” Kassidy said.
Reluctantly we all followed them up the rickety stairs to find several rooms full of cobwebs and dust. Each room had several bunk beds. Brantley and Kassidy went into the room on the left. I was about to follow when something caught my eye. I went into the room on the right and as I walked inside I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. There was a mirror attached to the wall. Two bunk beds that were long past sleepable. I walked over to the mirror and a scream escaped my lips.
I quickly looked behind me, but I saw nothing. I looked back at the mirror. I could’ve sworn I saw the face of a little girl with pitch-black hair.
“You okay?” Shawnee asked as they all rushed in.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just… I don’t know,” I said.
“What the fuck is that?” Brantley shouted.
We all whipped around to see what he was pointing at, but none of us saw anything. We turned back to Brantley who was laughing hysterically. “Gotcha.”
“You’re not funny,” Caylee said as she stormed out. For some reason, I felt this freezing cold chill. I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone or something was watching us. I followed them downstairs. It was Kassidy that discovered a door to the basement.
“I’m not going down there,” Shawnee said.
“Fine, you can stay up here all by yourself,” Kassidy said as she made her way down the stairs. Caylee was right behind her followed by Brantley. I gave Shawnee a sympathetic look before going on after them. He soon followed.
Downstairs was a complete mess. Everyone pulled out their cell phone flashlights to look around. There was a big bookcase filled with dusty old books that caught Caylee’s attention.
“This spot is as good as any to have your little séance,” Kassidy said.
Caylee pulled herself from the books and took her ouija board and placed it on a table. We all grabbed a chair and gathered around it.
“So how does it work?” Kassidy asked.
“So basically, we all touch the planchette and ask the spirits or ghosts a question and it’ll answer using the board. It’s not too complicated,” Caylee said.
We all shrugged and placed our hands on the little wooden plank with wheels and a hole to see the letters below. The board itself had a yes on one side and a no on the other along with the alphabet, a set of numbers, and the word goodbye on the bottom.
“Spirits, can you hear us?” Caylee asked. The planchette started to move and I had a suspicion it was one of us. It moved to the word yes. We all looked at each other. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”
The planchette started to move again. First, it bolted right to the F and then went straight to U. Next it flicked over to the C and I knew where this was going as it settled on K followed by the O and then two Fs. Caylee rolled her eyes and we all stared at Brantley. “What? Oh come on, it wasn’t me. I swear!”
“Seriously?” Kassidy sighed. “Not even the dead are that childish.”
Suddenly the planchette started to move. We all looked at each other as it flickered to the word Yes. All of our eyes were wide.
“What is it you want to say?” Caylee asked.
The planchette moved again. It went to the B and then it went to the O. It moved away and then back to the O. Next it hit the K.
“Book?” Caylee asked. “I saw the books, there’s nothing special about them.”
The planchette continued to move. It hit S and then H. E was next and followed by L before moving to F. “Bookshelf?”
We all looked over to the bookshelf before back at each other.
“So what?” Brantley said. “It’s just a bookshelf.”
The planchette moved once more. It hit a B then an E before going over to the H. Next was an I followed by an N and lastly a D.
“It wants us to look behind it,” Caylee said. We all got up and went over to the bookshelf. Brantley and I started to push it out of the way. Behind it was a door. We all looked at each other with gaping jaws. After a long moment of disbelief, Kassidy reached over and opened the door. It leads to a stairway that winded down to what seemed like another level.
“I don’t think we should go down there,” Shawnee said.
“For once, I agree,” Brantley said.
We all jumped as every door in the house beside the one in front of us slammed shut. We all looked at each other.
“Well, fuck it. Looks like we don’t have any other choice,” Kassidy said and without another word, she started to make her way downstairs. There’s no way Brantley could be out braved by a girl, so he went down after her followed by Caylee after she grabbed her ouija board. Shawnee and I looked at each other. I shrugged and headed down after them and I heard Shawnee follow. ‘
Upon arriving at the bottom of the stairs, we all stood there frozen in place. What we saw was beyond horrifying. What could’ve possibly been going on down here was beyond any nightmare I could’ve dreamed up. There was a long hall of rooms. After appearing in one of them we saw a bed with restraints to the bedposts. We followed the hallway down out to an opening.
All of us gasped. Our jaws hung open as we saw cages filled with skeletons. They were small skeletons of what could only be children. There was a table of saws, pliers, and other devices that could only be used for one thing, torture. There were several doors that lead elsewhere. We all looked at each other wide-eyed. Suddenly, Caylee bolted over to a table. She set her ouija board down before she picked up what looked like a picture album. She flipped through it before she threw it back on the table where she found it and threw up in a bucket nearby. What could she have possibly seen in that album? The rest of us shared some eyebrow-raising looks before Kassidy went for the album. She picked it up and opened it. The look on her face said it all. It was a look of pure horror and disgust.
She slammed the book shut and set it back down. This time Brantley picked it up and opened. “What the fuck?” he yelled. We all looked at him as Kassidy shushed him. Everyone quickly looked around as if someone else was here with us.
I quickly looked over his shoulder to find pictures so horrible, it made my stomach clutch in havoc. There were kids who changed up to beds without clothes. Some kids were shown to be tortured and even murdered. There was a picture of a big metal table covered in blood with body parts. I thought I was going to be sick.
“Is this what you wanted to show us?” Caylee asked.
A gasp came from Kassidy and we all looked at where she was staring. To our horror, the planchette on the Ouija board was moving. We all shuffled around to see what it was trying to say. The planchette first went to H and then an I before moving to a D. A sudden chills started to sweep over my skin as the planchette lastly landed on an E. We all looked at each other with fear in our eyes before a loud creak was heard upstairs somewhere. Both Caylee and Kassidy clamped their hands over their mouths. We all looked around before bolting into separate rooms. I was alone in one of the rooms with a bed with shackles as I listened to the creaks coming from upstairs. I was so scared, I was sweating profusely. That’s when I turned around and to my horror, there was a little girl sitting on the bed. She held up a finger to her mouth.
I wanted to scream, but nothing came out, which probably saved my life. It sounded like someone was walking around upstairs. From the sound of it, they were opening doors. We heard them go up a set of stairs. We also heard a loud slam followed by a scraping sound. Like wood sliding against wood. There was a sudden movement of footsteps as the person moved back down the stairs. We heard them trying to open a door. By now, my heart was clapping so loudly, I thought for sure everyone could hear it.
The little girl on the bed just stared at me as she kept her finger tightly pressed against her sealed lips. She seemed to have a faint glow about her. Her skin was as pale as a bleached wall and she wore what seemed like a dirty pillowcase. My heart sped up as I heard a loud crash and suddenly footsteps came down a set of stairs. I thought I was going to piss my pants as the footsteps clambered around the basement. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before they’d make their way down the secret stairway, knowing full well that none of us closed the bookcase behind the gap.
There was a long pause for what seemed like an eternity. I felt like I was having a panic attack as that little girl just stared at me. Her face was expressionless. Her finger still attached to her closed lips. Suddenly the footsteps made their way back up the stairs. We heard them walk out of the house. I looked back to find the girl was gone. My heart was racing so fast, I thought I was going to die of a heart attack.
I heard noises outside the room I was in. I knew it had to be my friends. I walked out to find Kassidy taking pictures of everything with her phone including the photo album.
“What are you doing that for?” Brantley asked.
“Someone needs to know about this. I’m taking these pictures to the police,” she said.
“Are you crazy? They’ll know we were trespassing. We’ll get in trouble,” Brantley said.
“These kids deserve justice,” Kassidy said.
“I’m getting out of here,” he said.
“Wait!” Kassidy said, grabbing his arm.
“What?” He asked.
“We can’t leave yet. Whoever was here still might be outside waiting for us,” she said.
“She’s right. I don’t think whoever came into the house was someone we wanted to run into,” I said. That girl definitely didn’t think so either. Caylee tapped my shoulder and pointed. I looked over to see the planchette moving again on the ouija board. “Look!”
We all circled around it. The planchette swiveled over to a G than an O before moving to an N and then an O, then a W before moving to the word Goodbye.
“Go now,” Kassidy mouthed. “Well you heard it, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Caylee grabbed the board and planchette and we all scrambled back up the stairs to find our path blocked. The bookcase had been moved to block the stairs somehow. That must’ve been what that noise was. It somehow moved back to cover the gap. Was it the girl?
Brantley and I managed to push it out of the way before we scrambled back up the stairs. That’s when I saw that photo again of all those people. It had been moved to the doorway. I looked at it closely and that’s when I saw her. The little girl was in the front of the photo. Her sad and fearful expression said it all. Caylee tugged on my arm and I grabbed the photo and left with them. I took one last look at the house and could barely make out the girl in the upstairs bedroom staring down at us. She waved with that same sad expression on her face.
We all sprinted back to my house. The next morning Caylee, Kassidy, Shawnee, and I went into the police station and Kassidy showed them the pictures she took with her phone. Brantley wouldn’t come with us. We fully admitted to trespassing, but fortunately, no charges were placed. The police later investigated the house and the story broke the news not long after. They called it the Orphanage of Horrors. We still have no idea who entered the house after us.
One night a few weeks later, my same friends were over and we were outside smoking a blunt when I looked over at the forest and froze. I saw the little girl standing at the edge of the forest. She was crying, but she had a smile on her face. She waved at me and then disappeared into the forest. I haven’t seen her since. I’d like to think she found some semblance of peace. To this day I firmly knew the truth. Ghosts do exist.
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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What I’m about to tell you is quite hard to believe. I barely believe it myself and I experienced it first hand.
Do you believe in ghosts? I was never a believer in the paranormal. Not until one night in August. It was the last night before I was supposed to head off to college and I remember it like it was yesterday.
It had only been a week since my grandmother’s funeral. Losing her has been really hard on me. Still is. We were very close. She babysat me my entire life. She taught me how to cook. She even taught me how to play poker. How many grandmothers do you know that’ll show their grandkids how to gamble? We had so many conversations over the years. She was always the one I went to with all my problems. It’s hard to believe she’s gone.
It’s the last night before I have to go off to college. My parents have never been more proud of me and yet, going to college is the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to travel and see the world. I wanted to visit exotic places, meet unique people, and write all about it. My grandmother used to always tell me it’s my life and I need to decide how to live it and yet I felt like I was living the life my parents wanted for me.
After I spent the whole day packing for my flight the next morning, my friends pulled up. They’ve been trying to get me to go out with them all summer long and now that it was the last day before I left I felt like I had no choice. I let Chance, Ryan, and Joel, my three best friends pull me along to a party on the beach.
Everyone from my high school was there. There was a fire set up and Joel pulled out his guitar. Cassy greeted me as soon as I got there. We dated for a while before we ultimately decided we were better off being friends. She always had her hands in my dark black hair. I have to admit, I kind of miss that.
As everyone was having a great time for the last bash of the year, I slipped out and went for a walk along the shoreline. That’s when I met the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and yet she looked familiar. Very familiar. She was about my age. She had the most exotic olive golden skin. She was wearing a flower dress as she walked barefoot in the sand. She had the kind of face that made even the darkest nights feel warm and cozy. Her eyes met mine and a lovely smile turned up on her lips. She waved me over.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi, have we met before?” I asked.
“Perhaps,” she said, tossing her silky black hair to one side. “So, what brings you out here all alone?”
“I just needed to get some fresh air and space to think,” I said.
“Oh? And what thoughts did you want to ponder?” she asked. She had a way of speaking that I found very appealing. It reminded me of someone.
“Oh, tomorrow I head off to college. My parents want me to get a law degree. They tell me I’d be the first in our family to graduate college,” I said.
“But that’s not what you want, is it?” she asked.
“No. Not really,” I said.
“What do you want to do?” she asked.
“I want to travel around the world and write about it,” I said.
“That sounds fantastic. Why don’t you do that?” she asked.
“I tried to convince my parents that it’s what I want to do, however, they think it’s a terrible idea. They don’t want to see me throw my life away like that. At least that’s what they said,” I explained.
She stopped and looked at me with those eyes that seemed to be able to see deep into my soul. “It’s your life and you need to decide how to live it.”
Those words struck me right in the heart. “What did you say?”
“I was just saying, you shouldn’t let your parents dictate your life,” she said with a smile. “If you want to travel the world then do it. Life’s too short. Trust me. Don’t waste your life following choices made by someone else.”
“You know, you’re right,” I said. She gives me a smile. “What did you say your name was?”
“Yo, Leo!” I heard Chance yell, pulling my attention away from the pretty woman. I looked over to see him walking up. “Who are you talking to?”
“Oh, this is…” I turn around to find no one there. What the? “I swear I was just talking to the most beautiful girl ever. She was right here. I swear!”
“Okay… sure,” Chance said with an expression that told me he didn’t really believe me. I wouldn’t either. I was confused about what just happened. “Anyway, I’ve got a blunt rolled with your name on it.”
“Okay, sure,” I said following him back to the fire. I took one last lookout and in the far distance, I swear I saw what could be a silhouette of a woman, but it was too hard to tell.
—
“Honey, are you up? The plane leaves in a few hours. We need to get to the airport soon,” my mother said as she pounded on my door. She opened it up and turned the light on. I felt like shit. I must’ve drunk way too much that night. I didn’t remember most of the night. God, my head was pounding.
I forced myself up and got ready for the plane. Thank god I already packed my bags. We all scrambled to load the car and get to the airport. As I waited in line I had this strange feeling like I shouldn’t be there. I tried to remember what all happened the night before. I remembered meeting the most beautiful girl… What was her name?
I remembered walking on the shoreline with her. “Honey, if you forgot to pack anything, just let me know and we can mail it to you.”
“Okay,” I said. We got up to the ticket booth and got my boarding pass. Flight 7123. We made our way to the TSA check and my mother smothered me in a hug. I gave my dad a hug as well. “Call us once you’ve landed.”
“I will,” I said as I got in line for the security walkthrough. After I got myself scanned and grabbed my stuff, I waved goodbye to my parents and had a seat at my terminal. I got there just in time as they started boarding for the plane.
I was next in line to have my boarding pass checked. Suddenly I remembered. It’s your life and you need to decide how to live it. That’s what that girl said to me the night before. That’s what my grandmother used to tell me. I remembered her saying those words all the time. She’s right. I couldn’t go through with it. It’s not what I wanted.
“Excuse me, may I see your boarding pass,” the TSA woman asked.
“I’m sorry, I won’t be boarding for this flight,” I said, I grabbed my luggage and walked away. I felt so elated at that moment. I knew I was doing the right thing. I just hoped my parents would see it that way. I rushed out to find them still sitting. They were not pleased to see me.
“What are you doing here?” my father asked. “Did you miss your flight? We made it with plenty of time.”
“I’ve decided I’m not going,” I said.
“What do you mean you’re not going?” My mother asked.
“Going to college and getting a law degree is what you want. It’s not what I want,” I said.
“Oh don’t tell me you still want to travel the world,” my father said with a sigh.
“It’s my life and I will decide how to live it,” I said.
“God, you sound just like my mother,” my mom said sharply. “I know you miss her, but this is your future we’re talking about.”
“I’ve made up my mind, mom. I’m not going to college. I’m going to do what I want to do,” I said.
“Is there anything we can say to make you reconsider? You’re making a huge mistake,” my father said. I just shook my head no. They finally gave up and we all headed out to the car. It was a 2-hour drive back home and no one said a word the whole way back. I could just feel my parents’ anger seething off of them.
Once we arrived home, my dad slumped in his chair and turned on the tv. All of our jaws dropped at the news. Flight 7123 had crashed during its flight to Boston. No one survived. I searched through my shorts before I pulled out my boarding pass. Sure enough, I read Flight 7123 on it in black letters. I felt like I just dodged a bullet. I should’ve been on that plane, but I followed the girl’s advice. I listened to my heart.
Both of my parents were speechless. They’d just gaped at the tv. Before I realized what was happening, my mother had me wrapped in her arms, tears falling down her eyes. “If you want to travel and see the world, I’m not going to stop you.”
God, I felt so lucky to be alive right then and there. If it wasn’t for that mysterious woman, I probably would’ve still been on that plane. I wish I could’ve gotten her name.
—
A few weeks later, I had planned out my journey. I decided to visit most of the US before going abroad, which would definitely be less costly, seeing how I could drive most of it. My plans were to stay a few months in each state, get a job to pay for my costs, and work as I take time to see the sights in each state before moving on to the next one. I’d work on my travel blog all the while. But before I left, I decided to help my parents clean out my grandmother’s house. That’s the least I can do for the woman who taught me everything.
I was putting all of her books in boxes when I stumbled upon an old photo album. I opened it up to find something that made my breath catch in my throat. It couldn’t be…
I pulled out a photo and looked at it closely. It was the woman from the beach. She’s even wearing the same flower dress and if I’m not mistaken, it was the same beach in the photo. I turned it over to see my grandmother’s name written in it. She was only 18 when this picture was taken. This can’t be right. That woman on the beach… Was it my grandmother’s ghost? That… That’s absurd. Right? I didn’t have any other explanation for it.
Tears started to well up in my eyes. Even after she died, she’s still looking out for me. I love you grandma and I always will.
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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“God, you wouldn’t believe it. That same creep was at the bar last night. He makes my skin crawl,” my girlfriend Gracie says as she fixes breakfast.
“Is it the same weirdo that orders the fuzzy navels?” I ask as I pack my suitcase.
“No, that’s Donny, he’s a sweetheart,” she says.
“This guy orders a bloody mary every time and he always just stares at me with this hungry stare. He says the creepiest shit too,” she says as she puts her long blonde hair in a ponytail before flipping the pancakes. “He asked me if I enjoyed pain once. Who does that?”
“Oh, I think I know the one you’re talking about. Yeah, he is a weirdo,” I say, trying to get my luggage zipped up. “Do you want me to come by once I get back and teach this asshole some manners?”
“No, Chelsea says that if he continues to harass me, she’ll sick Stewie on him,” she says, dishing up our plates. “I totally understand your mother is sick and I can empathize. I just wish you weren’t going to stay there for the next few nights. I really don’t want to be here all alone.”
“I’ll only be a little over an hour away,” I say.
“Still… I just feel so freaked out about this guy,” she says.
“I’m sure he’s just that way with every girl,” I say.
“You’re probably right,” she says.
She sets both our plates down and I pop a squat next to her. I take a bite of her special blueberry pancakes and my mouth has an orgasm. “Fuck, babe, these are so good.”
She blushes her normally warm honey skin blemishes into a rosy pink hue. “Aww, thanks, babe. They’re just how you like them.”
After we finish eating, I quickly help her clean up. I swat her on the butt, before wrapping my arms around her. She laughs. God, I love her laugh. It’s such a sweet melody. She turns to me as she leans back and I plant my lips on hers.
We finally had to break apart. She sticks out her bottom lip at me. “Please come home as soon as you can.”
“I promise I will,” I tell her as I grab my suitcase and head for the door. She gives me one last final kiss. I take one last look into those ocean blue eyes and savor the taste of her lips. “I’ll call you as soon as I get there.”
She blows me a kiss and I head out. The drive to my mother’s house is uneventful. Hopefully, I won’t have to stay there too long. My brother usually is the one to watch her, but he had to go with his wife down to her family, so I agreed to watch her for the next few days. She’s deathly ill with a rare form of cancer.
As I arrive at the house, I call my girlfriend telling her I made it before I walk in. My mother has her head wrapped in a scarf and looks very sickly. She has lost a lot of weight since I last saw her and her skin seems to cling to her bones. God, it’s so sad to see her like this. She used to be so vibrant and full of life. She pulls me into a hug as I walk in. “Oh Josh, I’m so happy to see you, dear.”
“You too mom,” I say.
“How is Gracie? It’s too bad she couldn’t get off work to come as well,” she says.
“She’s doing well. She’s very close to finishing up her degree,” I say.
“Well, the sooner she graduates and gets a good job, the sooner she can quit that terrible bartending job. I don’t like her working there. A lot of filth and scum go there to drink,” my mother says.
“I know, I don’t like her working there either,” I say. My brother walks over with his own luggage already packed.
“Hey Josh, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve got to get going,” Damon says as we hug. I follow him outside. “Her medications are already organized by day. You need to make sure she takes them. You have to stay here. She hasn’t been doing well and I’m afraid it’s not looking good. You constantly have to check up on here. I left the number of her nurse on the table. If you have any questions, just call me. Obviously, for emergencies, call 911. If you have to leave, Catherine, next door might be able to watch her. We are going to need to talk when you get back by the way. I think mom’s showing early signs of dementia.”
“Alright. I think I can handle it. We can talk about it. Maybe get her into a neurologist. Don’t take too long,” I say.
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it,” he says, giving me a salute before he gets in his car and takes off. I head back inside with my mother and she lays down for a nap as I clean up around the place. I took a look at her meds and she’s on quite a few. Having a background in biochem as my job is a biochemical researcher, I have a pretty good idea of how these drugs interact.
As the day turns into night, my girlfriend texts me.
You wouldn’t believe who showed up tonight! Her message read.
The same creep? I text back.
Yes! Josh, I think he’s been watching me. He asked where you went. I have never told him anything about my life. She replies.
Did you tell Chelsea? I ask.
No, she’s not here. She had to leave for a few days! I’ve got to go, it’s starting to get busy.
Our conversation left me a bit on edge.
“Where’s Damon?” my mother asks, nearly giving me a heart attack. I see her standing in the hallway naked. How did she sneak up on me like that? Why is she naked?
“Damon had to go see his in-laws. Don’t you remember? He left earlier,” I say, hurrying up to grab her robe and get it around her.
“He said he was going to play me some music. You know how good he is at that piano,” she says. Damon hasn’t played the piano in years. In fact, we sold the old piano we used to have here. Besides, nobody took care of it ever since dad died and it was constantly out of tune. Damon was right, she’s really slipping. We need to get her looked at. “Where’s Herald? He was going to tune that piano up for Damon.”
“Mom, dad died years ago,” I say.
“That can’t be, I was just talking to him,” she says. This night just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I help my mother eat her dinner and take her meds, before putting her to bed. Then I get a call from Gracie.
“Hey babe, what’s up?”
“He followed me home, Josh. His red pickup is parked out in the street. I don’t know what to do. I’m freaking out right now,” she says. She’s breathing hard. I can’t tell she’s flustered.
“Don’t panic. Did you make sure all the doors and windows are locked?” I ask.
“Yes, I double-checked them all,” she says.
“Call the police,” I tell her.
“Baby, can you please come home. I’m really scared right now,” she says.
“I can’t leave my mother alone. I think she’s got dementia. She said she had a conversation with my dad and he’s been dead for years,” I say.
“Babe. I’m freaking out right now. Oh my god. He’s standing in the yard looking into the house. He’s watching me,” she says. I can hear her start to panic. She sounds like she’s hyperventilating.
“Baby, I’m going to call the police. You need to barricade yourself. I’ll see if I can get my mom’s neighbor to watch her. Just hide somewhere,” I say.
“Okay. Just please call me right back,” she says.
“I will, I promise,” I say.
I quickly hang up the phone and call the police. I tell them exactly what’s going on.
“I will try and get someone out there, but currently all officers are busy,” the operator says.
“What do you mean all officers are busy?” I yell at her as I scramble to get my shoes and coat on. I rush out the door while I try to get any help from the operator. I finally give up and hang up the phone. My phone vibrates with a text message.
He’s in our house! He broke a window! Please hurry!
My heart starts to race as I bang on Catherine’s door and she finally opens it in her nightgown.
“Josh? Josh Bennett, it’s been a long time. How are you doing, dear?” she asks with a smile.
“Hi, Ms. Catherine. I have an emergence back home with my girlfriend and I need someone to look after my mother for the moment. Could you please help me?”
“Oh of course. What’s wrong?” she asks.
“My girlfriend is in trouble. I need to get there as fast as possible,” I say.
“Okay, I understand. You get going, I’ll head over and watch Sharon,” she says.
“Thank you so much,” I say before rushing over to my car. I get in and floor it out of there. I drive like a madman back home, going well over the speed limit. I try to call Gracie, but she doesn’t answer.
A minute later I get a text message. I’ve locked myself in the bathroom. He knows I’m here. I’m so scared.
I text back. I’m coming. I’m on my way!
My heart’s racing as fast as the car as I max it out. I try calling the police once more, but they’re no help. They say they’re sending someone as soon as they can. Fuck! I can’t lose her. She’s everything to me.
She calls me. I pick up immediately.
She’s crying hysterically. “He’s trying to break the door down! I don’t know what to do.”
“Is there anything you can use as a weapon?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I… I’m scared.” In the background, I can hear the banging on the door.
“You better open up, slut. If I have to break this damn door down, it won’t end well for you!” the man shouts in the background.
“Hold on. I’m coming.”
“Please hurry,” she whimpers. This can’t be happening.
I’ve got the pedal all the way down to the floorboard. “Baby, I love you!”
I hear a loud crash. She screams. “Don’t you dare hurt her!”
The line goes blank. My heart explodes in my chest. Fuck! Fuck. I’ve got to get there.
I race home and get there within the next 20 minutes. The cops are there, which gives me some relief. I rush over to them and try to explain who I am. A woman officer tries to get me to calm down. “Let me speak to my girlfriend.”
“I don’t know how to tell you this…” she looks at me with a stern cold stare. My heart sinks into my stomach. “We found no signs of her or her assailant.”
“What do you mean? He took her?” I say as the blood drains from my face. I feel sick.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find her. We’ve got our best officers on the job,” she says.
“Why couldn’t you come sooner? I called over a half-hour ago. If you would’ve come sooner, this wouldn’t have happened,” I shout out. A sudden nauseous feeling takes over.
“I understand how you feel. It’s been a really hectic night. We’re doing all we can to help find her,” she says. I start pacing back and forth. This can’t be happening. I fall down to my knees and as everything starts spinning and throw up on the ground. I need to find her. He couldn’t have taken her far.
“Is there anything you can tell us that will help with our investigation?” she asks.
I pull myself to my feet and look up into her eyes. “Yeah, she said he drove a red pickup. She said he’d always show up at the bar she works at. You have to find them. I can’t lose her.”
“We will. I promise,” she says. How can she make that kind of promise? She couldn’t even get here in time to prevent this from happening. As if I can talk. While she was being kidnapped, I was with my mother.
—
Weeks had gone by, but still no word on Gracie. Every day I go out searching for her. I put up signs all over town. I go door to door asking if anyone had seen her. I haven’t been sleeping.
One morning, I got a call from the police. They asked me to come down to the station. I feel a dreadful pit in my stomach as I head down there. Walking in there felt like I was walking through a funeral home. The police officers stared at me with concern. The same woman who was there that night greeted me with a grim expression.
“We think we’ve found her. I’m sorry to tell you this, but we found a body that matches your girlfriend’s, Gracie Wilson’s description dumped off in the woods off Highway 66. We still have no suspect and the evidence on the body leaves no trace as to who was behind it,” she says. Her face remains as still as a wall. I feel dizzy. My stomach clenches as if I ate something rotten. I follow her mindlessly down to the morgue.
There laying on a medical table was unmistakably Gracie. Her lifeless body is full of bruises and cuts. Her skin has a sickly blue color to it. I feel that nauseous, knife-wrenching feeling in my stomach. I quickly rush for the closest trash can and dry heave what little substance I have in my gut. I find I can’t fight the tears falling from my eyes. I feel the officer’s hand on my shoulder. That man… he’ll pay for the things he did to her. I swear it.
—
The tv blares in the background as I sit at the table of the old house I shared with my Gracie. It was the first house we bought together. The only house we bought together. The news anchor goes on about a man named Henry Losborne they found tortured to death. They said he had been tortured by some chemical compound. He was the son of a wealthy businessman. They had a video of him confessing all the horrific things he had done to so many women chained to his neck on a junk drive.
It had been 5 years since the brutal murder of my girlfriend. 5 long miserable years. My mother passed away not long after that terrible night. I take a long pole from the bottle of whiskey in my hand and slumb over the kitchen table. I had done so many terrible things to many horrible people over these 5 long years. I look at my reflection in the window and I don’t even recognize the man I’ve become. A beard has grown wild on my face. My eyes now carry bags under them and I’ve lost weight. Too much weight.
It took me 5 long years, but I finally found the bastard that took Gracie from this world. The things I did to him… Well, let’s just say my degree in chemistry really paid off.
I miss her very much. I don’t know what to do anymore. I feel like there’s only one thing I can do. Tears stream down my face as I grab the gun lying on the table. I close my eyes as I put it to my temple and…
The End
Remember. You’re never safe in the dark.
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What I’m about to tell you will be very difficult for me to talk about. It was by far one of the scariest moments of my life. My name is Amber and I’m a college student. This horrifying event took place about a year ago during my sophomore year.
I had created an Instagram account and I’ve been posting to it avidly since high school. It recently blew up, gaining me loads of followers. I’m not going to lie, the pictures I was posting were rather scandalous. I’m not proud of them, but I’m a broke college student desperate for some extra cash. Anyway, my account started to gain a lot of attention. Mostly from guys who usually post disgusting comments about the things they’d like to do to me. I just brushed them off, but I also started making friends with other influencers.
I heavily started to network with other “instamodels” so I could increase my following and hopefully gain some sponsors to start making some money. I definitely didn’t aspire to work a dreaded 9-5 job. I watched my parents work their lives away in jobs they hated and I didn’t want to follow down the same path.
Anyway, I had over 400k followers at the time and received an interesting invitation. It was for an Influencer event. It looked legit. There were going to be speakers that would share secrets to grow your following, other influencers to network with, and potential sponsors there. It got me excited and it was too good to pass up. Not only that, but it was also here in LA, which is where I was currently living at the time.
Now, here’s where things started to get odd. I mentioned the event to my influencer friends. None of them received an invitation. It surprised me because most of them had 10x the followers I had. Surely they’d get invited to something like this before I would. Even so, there was no way I was going to pass up this opportunity.
So just to be safe, I invited a guy friend of mine whom I knew has wanted to date me for some time now. Gavin is his name and he’s one of those gymaholics who is built like a bus. He definitely didn’t want to miss an opportunity to go to an event where it’d be mostly instamodels even if he did have eyes for me.
So he drove us out to where this event was supposed to be held which apparently was out in the middle of nowhere. That should’ve been cause to turn around, but I really needed those sponsors. We pulled up to what looked like a pole barn. It looked very sketchy.
Both Gavin and I knew something had to be up. However, Gavin wanted to know what was inside. I just wanted to get out of there at this point, but I let him talk me into going inside. We hesitantly walked up to the building and walked in. It was dark inside and I pleaded with Gavin to leave. He wanted to see what the hell this was all about. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. I grabbed onto his arm and followed him inside. My heart was pounding inside my chest.
We found a table and what was on the table nearly made me throw up. There were pictures. Pictures of me. There were some where I was walking to class. Some of me in my apartment. There were some of me changing!
“You were supposed to come alone,” A voice echoed out from the darkness. Both Gavin and I looked at each other before we both ran out of there. We rushed into the car as several masked men chased us out. Be barely got into the car and locked the doors as they tried to pull the door handles. Gavin floored it out of there. I still can’t believe we managed to escape. I took that as a lesson that if something sounds too good to be true, it definitely is. I’ve been looking over my shoulder ever since.
I’m about to tell you something that happened to me that I will never be able to forget. It happened when I was only 15. My name is Alayna Caldwell and like all 15-year-old teenage girls, I was saving up for my first car so I didn’t have the luxury of turning down good-paying jobs and that’s where this all started. My neighbors were going out of town for the entire day and wouldn’t be home until tomorrow morning. They had just moved here not that long ago.
When they offered to pay me to watch their house and let their dog out at first I thought twice about it. You see, my neighbors, Tyler and Lacey Alston are rather strange. They’re most likely in their early 50s and give me bad vibes. Mr. Alston was a scrawny man with a scruffy face and dark eyes that were layered in bags. Mrs. Alston tried her best to stay young with her dirty blonde hair that was obviously dyed. She had a terrible smoking habit and she too developed bags under her eyes.
They constantly go on about how pretty I look and the way they stare at me makes my skin crawl. However, when they offered to pay me $100 to stay the night with their dog, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
They said they’d be gone until the next morning, but they’re still might be an opportunity they would return earlier. They made it clear not to go down in the basement and to stay out of the room on the second floor. Mr. Alston added that it’d be best if I just kept to the living room and the kitchen. They keep their dog, Jackie, a rottweiler, in the laundry room on the first floor. It wouldn’t stop barking all the while they were talking to me. It seemed rather angry. What was really odd was as soon as they left it seemed to calm down. It was very friendly with me.
It wasn’t long before I had the house to myself, besides Jackie. I took him out for a walk before resting in the living to watch some TV. The news talked about a missing girl about my age with dark black hair named Paula Edwards. She was very pretty. Thoughts ran through my mind of all the horrible possibilities of what could’ve happened to her. The distinct possibility that I could’ve been her ran through my thoughts. She too was a cheerleader and lived in the city next to ours. I pushed the thought from my mind as I quickly changed it to one of the reality shows I enjoyed watching.
As the day turned dark and it became late in the evening, I snuck out to smoke some pot and let the dog out. As we returned, the dog went straight for the door to the basement and started clawing at it. I thought that was odd. I could’ve sworn I heard noises coming from the basement. It sounded like muffled screams. I tried to chalk it up to my stoned paranoia. However, as the night carried on, the noises didn’t cease. I tried the door but it was locked. My curiosity got the best of me and I started to search the rest of the house. Now this was really strange. All of the other rooms were empty except for the room they said to stay out of which was also locked. There was no sign that anyone had been living here, let alone two people.
I got to the point where I couldn’t help it anymore, I had to know what was down there. The locked door had the kind of lock that you could easily shove a nail or something thin in and click it unlocked. I used to pull this trick on my older sister all the time when she took too long in the bathroom. As soon as the door opened, the dog rushed down the stairs. I grabbed my phone and turned the light on as I slowly climbed down the dark stairs. The noise was now unmistakable. It was a person. Their groans were being muffled out. I could hear the dog whimpering.
I could hardly make out anything in the dark as I crept forward with my little flashlight. However, as I crept down the basement, the things I saw in the light of my phone’s flashlight, started to terrify me. There were shackles, cages, and things I can’t begin to explain. My heart was thumping faster than ever as I continued to look through the basement. I heard the muffled sounds of a person along with the whimpering of the dog.
I cast my light over to where the sound came from and nearly shrieked. Chained to a pipe and gagged was a girl with black hair. She was dirty and it looked as if she’d been crying. Her eyes had dark spots around them. I quickly called the cops as I rushed over to her and took the gag out of her mouth. The dog was licking her face, and stayed by her side.
She immediately pleaded with her to help her. They kidnapped her and had been keeping her down here in their basement. The police arrived not long after. They identified her as the missing girl from the town over.
If things couldn’t get any worse, what they found in the room on the second floor was beyond creepy. They had pictures of me, rope, bindings, Chloroform, and other horrifying items. Apparently, they planned to come back later that night and kidnap me too. The rest of the house was empty and apparently, they only used the house to keep their victim.
The worst thing was that they still haven’t been caught. They’re out there somewhere, probably still kidnapping girls. I now live in constant fear, always looking over my shoulder. Afraid I could find them in my home waiting for me. On a side note, the dog happened to be the victim, Paula Edward’s dog. It certainly explains the odd behavior. Paula and I had become very close friends since then.
