Forgotten House (Part 2)

(Part 1)

Audio Recording

It was the following evening, as I drove home from work, that I heard. I was listening to the local NPR affiliate, and it was after the top of the hour news. The affiliate was doing their own local news recap, and a certain story caught my attention.

“Local police report a string of similar murders in the area from last night. Five bodies were found, suffering the same wounds. Authorities report that the bodies had been dismembered and sliced open repeatedly, and the reports get more grisly from there. No suspect has been found, and police are focused on investigating these murders. No further details are available.”

I switched the radio off as I pulled into my driveway. Five murders. I couldn’t help but think of that…darkness…that had rushed past me in that catacomb last night. I hadn’t seen anything, hadn’t felt anything but a span of air colder than what was already there, and I hadn’t heard anything.

The car came to a stop, I pulled the keys free, and stepped out. 5.30, and the sun was beginning to set on that late autumn evening. The front of the driveway had been covered in fallen leaves, their dead forms crunching as I walked along to the house. My mind analyzed what I’d heard from the radio just then as I entered the house.

I no longer had any urge to fix anything for dinner, so I ignored the kitchen, and headed directly for my desk in the den, switching on lights as I walked. I sat down at the desk, and reviewed what had happened, and what I should do. If I was somehow responsible for those murders, shouldn’t I take my information to the police? I shook my head at that thought, and stopped short of laughing. I could just imagine their reaction to my story: incredulity, laughter, and them telling me to leave. I abandoned the idea.

I stood from the desk, and wandered back into the kitchen, realizing that I’d yet to check the mail. The sun was just disappearing beyond the horizon as I walked across the driveway to the mailbox. There wasn’t much interesting, just a couple bills. I paused there, next to the road, and stared around, my eyes automatically darting in the direction of the house I’d been inside last night. My mind went back to those empty corridors, the suffocating shadows, that chill in the stagnant air.

I suddenly wondered…what was in the house now? Was anyone in there? I thought back to that basement. It looked rather lived in, what with the furniture arranged as it was. Then there was the main floor, but that was probably more down to local, and distant, vandals using it as an occasional hang out. They visited, they didn’t stay.

No, I wasn’t going back to that house. Not tonight, at any rate. I hurried back to the safety within the walls of my own house, laughing at what I’d been considering. I wasn’t about to make the mistake of visiting a creepy old house at night. I could just imagine all manner of creepy monsters lurking in the shadows, waiting for someone as foolish as that to come along. No, that wouldn’t be me. If I searched the house again, it would be during the day. Perhaps this weekend.

I took a final look behind me, out into the night settling in over the valley. Lights were beginning to dot the distant mountains, minute beacons from windows of houses tucked into the mountainsides. Those specks of light did little to fight off the darkness fading in. I noticed an area to the right of my mailbox, near where I had just a moment ago stood, that was a bit darker than the surrounding air. That bit of darkness seemed to take on a vaguely human form, if but for a moment. Then it was gone.

I closed and locked the door behind me. Perhaps I would try talking to the police tomorrow, I decided.

(continued in Part Three)