Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25074573-20140625133024

Part I - A crack

It's been five years now since it happened. I have told this story to quite a few people before, to family, to friends, and in some occasions, to complete strangers. Sometimes the world does something you that you can't deal with. The world doesn’t bother to explain, why it happened. You want to shake it, yell at it until the answer falls out but you can’t. All you can do is keep asking and keep meeting the same people that pity you but cannot deliver a single reasonable explanation whatsoever.

Walter and I had been best friends since elementary school. He was the kind of guy that knew how to get the things he wanted; how to get the best grades, the best looking girl and the best tickets for he games we wanted to watch. He didn’t really do these things for himself, rather, he did it to keep up with his elder brother Michael. One day he told me that in reality those things quickly lost their value once Walter had achieved them. Since I myself was a lot more leaned-back and relaxed person I could learn a lot from him while he had found someone to admire him.

By the time the incident happened, we shared a flat on the first floor of a house at Gables town colony in Florida. I was studying Biology while he was getting the most out of his Physics study. Often, he time he was in his room writing. The 9th of May was a mild Saturday. I came home at around 16:30 and went straight to my room to check my E-Mail. I was expecting to get an internship in a company only just a few miles away. There was no answer to be found. The next few minutes I spent clicking aimlessly through Youtube and Facebook until I heard Walter leave his room.

I finally met him in the kitchen where he prepared himself some ramen. We sat down for a few minutes, drinking soda and talking about the game Starcraft 2 which got its release delayed once again. He didn’t look fine. He told me he was having a headache and felt sick for the entire day already and that it didn’t make writing his paper any easier. Walter was rarely sick. This must have been rather serious. After he had quickly returned to his room I sat there for a while. I happened to look at the glass my friend had been drinking of. It had a crack. I hadn’t noticed before and I wondered whether Walter did.

A few minutes later my girlfriend called me. We had already spent the entire morning together. Admittedly, she was a little clingy. Yet I liked it in a strange kind of way. We spent hours talking about nothing really but it was enough to distract me from a lot of things that where going on that evening as I later found out. The walls of our house we lived in were badly insulated and most of the time we heard exactly what our neighbours were doing. That evening I frequently heard noises that sounded like objects falling on the floor, the neighbours’ baby didn’t stop crying and there was a strange sound like the howling of the wind.

We were in the middle of discussing something over the phone when suddenly the lights went out and my phone went dead. By the time it was around 23:00 I opened my door and looked into the blackness of the corridor while blindly trying to reach the light switch. It didn’t work. The fuse was just a few feet from my door. I tried to turn it back on. The switch snapped right back down. There must be a short circuit in the house, probably caused by Walter and whatever he was doing in his room. I called out to Walter that he should fix the issue. There was no answer and I felt like there was a moaning coming from his chamber. I returned into my room where I picked up a flashlight and my cell phone.

My girlfriend and I had talked for another while when I noticed something. My door was almost closed, yet, through the gap I could see something in the dark. It looked like an animal but with long legs and it moved in a strangely stiff way. We didn’t have any pets. As that thought went through my head I felt a chill running down my spine and my heart skipped a beat. I told my girlfriend to be silent for a few seconds. And there it was. The sound of wind coming clearly out of the corridor and the click clack of tiny, solid feet hitting the floor somewhere. I peered out my room and turned my flashlight on. I still can’t really describe the sight that presented itself out there.

Part I - Ruin

Various grey, woolly spots covered the floor, walls and ceiling. Some of the objects like shoes and hangers where spread across the floor. Some of them seemed to be stuck at the ceiling and one shoe just floated in a corner. I suddenly felt weak and a sickness overcame me. In the corner of my eye I saw something moving. There it was. One of the kitchen chairs, the one Walter had been sitting on a few hours ago stood there just a dozen feet away. The wood was strangely twisted and it seemed to walk up the wall. When it reached the ceiling it suddenly turned and started gliding towards me. In panic I slammed the door and locked it. My heart was racing. I heard a bursting noise outside. What the fuck was going on? I told my girlfriend what had happened.

When I finally got her to understand I wasn’t joking, she started to cry and demanded that I call the police. “Walter” it went through my head. He was in this too. I opened the door just a little bit. Outside I found the chair lying in splinters on the floor. “Leo, get out of there!” My girlfriend was still at the phone. I stepped outside. The windy noise was back and so was the sickness and the headache. What was going on?

The closer I got to Walters room the worse the noise became. I opened the door. The sound of the wind was deafening and the room was even more twisted as the rest of the house. His study material moved in chaotic patterns over the ceiling the room and the grey flume was almost everywhere. There was a light coming out of the burst mirror while slim, weightless silhouettes danced right behind the glass. He just stared at me with widely open eyes. The way he sat on the floor unsettled me. He tried to talk but it looked like he couldn’t coordinate his tongue and jaw.

I felt weak and almost dropped to the floor. I could barely step backwards and there was an unknown feeling like my mind losing its balance. Then his face took a strained expression right before one of his arms snapped under the tension of his muscles. He made a loud, roaring noise, jumped up and ran backwards into a wall, the lamps started to flicker back on as he redirected himself and charged backwards at a window where he broke right through and was swallowed by the darkness. I gathered all the power I could bring up and fled. I left the house and kept running into the night until I couldn’t go any further. My cell phone was screeching relentlessly so I took the battery out. There I threw up. I couldn’t really think straight anymore as if something was clouding my mind. I lay there for a moment until I heard the police arriving. I hadn’t called them.

Part I - Resurrection

Later I saw the rooms of our neighbors being similarly affected. They were the ones who had called the police. Dead objects had come to life or were twitching all over the place. Luckily, the effects diminished instantly after Walter had left the house. The increased radioactivity that was found within the building however, forced everyone to move away. The people I talked to found different explanations for the incident. Most of our neighbors thought of poltergeists or a well-planned prank to scare them off. I don’t believe in poltergeists and it surely wasn’t a prank since Walter vanished that night.

In the weeks after the incident I kept feeling sick. I often found myself doing random things without realizing it. I believe that it was still an effect of that sickening wind. One day I injured myself trying to swallow a fork just because I wasn’t paying attention. On another occasion, I was talking gibberish for minutes when meeting my girlfriend one evening. These incidents were especially unnerving because I had to move in this time period and did a lot of things that could have gone wrong.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">For a long time I was certain that the laboratory Walter had been working for was responsible for his death even though is body was never found but things took another turn.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">Four years later, about a year ago I was invited to a hidden Facebook group called „The Distorted“. It was a group of people who all had lost someone to the same, strange phenomenon. They were discussing their observations and experiences searching for an explanation just like myself. As I found out, disappearances like these had happened all over the world long before my incident with Walter. They had all been similar exept some details differed. Some described deafening screeches throughout the house, Some observed disgusting tumors on plants and animals in the area and on themselves. One even claimed to have seen unearthly creatures crawling through his house right before his pregnant wife disappeared.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">As if that hadn’t been enough, some of the missing had obviously returned - pale, in the same age as when they vanished, with their limbs and proportions twisted, parts of their faces missing or with new, unnatural body parts. On the site we called them „the distorted“. Those who came back were found stalking their former friends, relatives and in many cases complete strangers. This part I found very unsettling because all of those who had reported such sightings started to write nonsensical posts and ceased their online activities soon afterwards.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I miss Walter. We had spent years together I still feel like somebody owes his family and me an explanation. There was a point after five years where I thought I could let those things rest. But I can’t. I feel watched. I don’t know why he returned or what he wants from me. A week ago when I was about to leave home right before I closed the door behind me I saw him for a split second.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I’ll start a journal. I swear I’ll find an answer to all of this before it’s too late for me.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:14px;font-size:18px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">Part IV - Descent

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/2/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I came back to my place after staying with my girlfriend for about two weeks. I really didn’t want to come back but I since I didn’t see anything strange in these two weeks it might as well have been imagination in the first place. Saw something on my way home. I was sitting in a train when I spotted a figure out on the field just standing there staring at the train.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/3/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I slept well. No disturbance. When I woke up to get a shower I heard the curring of a pigeon outside the bathroom. I’m getting paranoid I see him hiding behind corners sometimes during the day. Why don’t the others notice?

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/8/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I hear objects moving around at night. Saw him standing on a roof.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/14/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">Yesterday somebody slammed the kitchen door right when I was about to fall asleep. When I went so see what happened, There was Walter sitting in the kitchen with four empty glasses in front of him. He just sat there in the darkness looking at me with a calm look on his pale face. His broken arm was elongated and dangled right beside him. “its underneath” he said. “It’s all underneath”, then he repeated it over and over and didn’t stop. I started to feel sick again. “Underneath, Leo” I was too disturbed to say anything. I turned back and ran to the bedroom where I closed the door behind me. Then I peered through the Keyhole. “What is underneath?” I whimpered. The kitchen door slammed open and shut in quick succession for a while. But there was no one out there. I didn’t get any sleep that night. In the morning he was gone.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/17/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">No grave incidents for the last few days I need to bring up the courage to confront him. I strongly believe I could talk to him if I’d get a chance. Saw him behind a window on the second floor of a building.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/19/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">At 3AM in the morning my door rang. Unnerved I left my bed to see who dared waking me up in the middle of the night. Nobody was out there. “Must’ve been a prank” I thought even if the light sickness I felt at that moment should’ve warned me of what was coming. On my way back I came across the bathroom and threw a quick look into the. I let out a scream when I saw what was supposed to be my mirror image. It was me but different. It seemed like someone had let out the air out of a balloon.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">My head was smaller, wrinkled and my eyes where white marbles. I could make out the same eerie shadows wandering around right on the other side of the glass as that night everything started. Walter was standing behind my mirror image holding my shoulder while staring at me. I darted around. Nothing. But the sickness grew stronger. “Over here, Leo” Walter whispered inside my head. When I woke up I was lying on the floor of my bedroom. I don’t know how I got there but the rest of the day I couldn’t use my left arm properly. Whenever I wanted to grab something with my left hand, I just lashed out aimlessly.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I don’t think I can handle this. Walter if you can read this, leave me alone.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/20/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I moved to a hotel just to get a few hours of sleep but I couldn’t. I heard the wind at night. There are woolly spots all over the bathroom. At closer inspection, the tissue of the walls and the floor seems to have dissolved and twisted into some kind of foam or flume. I called the police so they could inspect it. But after I told them my story they didn’t even bother to get a closer look. I feel lost. The hotel manager made me leave. I’m going to cover the mirrors and leave the lights on. I really need to sleep right now.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/22/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">I’m hungry. But I can’t eat. I have never felt this before. The mirrors are covered now. My head hurts but my girlfriend isn’t ready. So much to plan right now. No signs of Walter so far.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/23/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">Some friends from Facebook came over for the night. I’m still hungry. I feel hollow. Saw Walter today. He was underneath a door coming across to us. A woman shot a hole into the wall. She became woolly and went away. The rest left after that. I’m alone now with Walter. He’s still very confused. But the other man is not. He seems to be a professional.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">6/24/2014

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">If you were a drowning fish, would you leave the ocean?

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">--> Thanks to WaveDivisionMultiplexer<span style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(212,212,213);font-weight:bold;line-height:18px;">  for original editing <ac_metadata title="&quot;The Distorted&quot; (&quot;Walter&quot; reworked - Feedback &amp; Grammar Naz*es needed)"> </ac_metadata>