The Scratching

I can't get it out of my head.

It's resonating within my cranium, I'm going insane. Every time I touch something I hear it, that obnoxious scratching, it's driving me insane.

I recently moved to a nice house, it's far from any other houses, it's right in front of a cove. "I really have gotten myself a nice house I thought" what an ironic statement I think now. I went in, the place was neat, I guess they had cleaned it for me, because when I checked out the house it was pretty dirty, I had to clean I guessed. I guessed they did the job for me, I though "such nice people".

I unloaded everything and set in, I didn't have much stuff, I had guessed I would just buy the rest.

I watched a few movies, called a few friends and let them know how everything went, and I was set to sleep, ready to see the light shine through my window and into my face, to smell the breeze of the morning, to get ready to meet new people, but my thoughts were interrupted by a faint scratching coming from above my head I thought "Damn it! The house is rodent infested" frowning, I stood up and started poking the ceiling curiously, I didn't find it to be weak, it was pretty firm in fact, I could've kicked it and it would've held.

I went back to bed, thinking I would call somebody to come check the house, in case the house was infested... but as soon as I sat down, the scratching sound came back, this time a little louder, like it was a pretty big rat, it really pissed me off, I couldn't go to sleep because of it, and somehow, that scratching sound made me anxious, so I started banging on the ceiling in hope of scaring away whatever was making the sound, to my surprise, from the other side, something banged on the ceiling as well. I got really scared, and fell down to the floor, I looked up, I was scared that someone, or something may be living up there, after all, the house was unoccupied for a pretty long time, I couldn't sleep anymore, not with something big enough to bang on my ceiling, I had a gun, a 33. Caliber, it was in my dresser, in case of any break-ins, but what was ironic about this, is that I was the intruder.

I made my way to the attic stairs, I lowered them, took all my courage, and finally climbed up, it was dark, but luckily I had a flash-light, I illuminated the entire attic, searched the perimeter, and found nothing, I was still scared, uneasy, like I could feel like someone was there. When I was making my way down the stairs, I felt eyes watching me, like they were burning little holes on my back from how concentrated they were on me, I turned around and I found a doll, sitting there, in the nothingness of the attic, it was plain brown, it had little strings sticking out of it's head which I had guessed was it's hair, and two bubbly eyes, staring at me, like it was alive, curiosity made me go over there and check it out, I lifted it up, it was pretty heavy, maybe 40 pounds or so, like it had something inside of it, didn't really pay much attention to it and made my way back to my room, still feeling uneasy, a thought came over me "What if that doll was causing everything?" I chuckled and thought I sounded like an idiot, I closed my eyes but then I heard banging on the ceiling and the stairs hit the floor like something had thrown them, then I heard footsteps running to the restroom, I literally almost shat myself. I panicked, I could not move, I took all my courage and stood up, pressing the gun against my hand like I've never gripped before, I went to the restroom and I found a little piece of paper folded up, like it had something inside it. I picked it up and closed the door behind me, then I opened it, it had a bunch of nails and inside it was another piece of paper that read "stop" I felt like it was all a vivid dream, why in the hell would there be somebody that kept nails and eerie writings in my fucking house? I thought over and over "This is not happening" but I just couldn't wake up. I then saw two tiny shadows beneath the door, like somebody was standing outside, and I yelled "Look son of a bitch, I have a gun, I will blow your head off, just step in here and you'll see!". Then I heard scratching outside of the door, and someone's faint voice whispering "Stop". My legs were shaking.

Then I heard the door being opened and I saw a man, with dirty clothes and a jagged knife on his hand, he looked up at me and I saw his face, the man had taken out all his teeth and replaced them with human nails, his eyes were like a bottomless pit, jet black, like he had no soul, he had no expression in his face, he was like a mannequin, he walked slowly, and limping towards me, I fired my gun at him, shot him right through the forehead, he fell down and began laughing, he said "It stopped, it stopp-" then he let out agonizing tears, his eyes looked human now, he looked relieved, I called the police and they inspected my house, they searched for stuff, and found the doll, they ripped it open and it had human organs inside, they were fresh, it also had insulation, which is why I couldn't smell them, I felt so empty after killing another person, after seeing his eyes when he died, I knew I killed a human, after the police left, and the investigation was concluded, I heard scratching, I immediately jumped up and felt thought he was still there, that he wasn't there, but then I noticed the scratching wasn't coming from the ceiling, it was coming from inside my head.