Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-27652016-20160121191936

I recently moved into an apartment, Room 304. It was close to work and my college was just a few blocks away. It was a small single bedroom apartment on the top floor at the very end of the hall way. The rent was cheap and the neighbors seemed nice.

My mother on the other hand thought otherwise.

“You know, three people disappeared in that room. The cops stopped looking for them” She told me one day over the phone.

“Yeah, but people are always disappearing, for all we know they could have just ran off to another country. That happens you know, and besides the only thing evil about the place is the heater.”

There wasn’t much in the way of luxury though It was an old building .The heater had a tendency to get broken and at time randomly turn on resulting in the occasional night were the entire house was hot summer day and every once in a while the facet sink would release rusted water if you didn’t turn on it on for more than a few days but other than that is was a decent place.

It was a place I could call my own, a place I could be at peace, unwind and forget about my troubles for the day. It was in a way my home away from home and for a while it was great. Everything was fine until late one night when I returned from a long almost soul-crushing day of customer service. I came home with the intent of going straight to bed.

As I was getting ready for the night I noticed there were small holes in my ceiling right over my bed that traveled into the kitchen and living room. They were small pin holes, something that could have been left by a calendar or a picture frames push pin. It was strange for them to be there after all why in the world would the previous tenet put a picture frame on the ceiling it didn’t make any sense but then again there are some pretty strange people out there.

Thinking back to when I first moved into my apartment I didn’t remember seeing them there. I didn’t really trust that thought though. I never had good memory. You could ask me what I did yesterday and I’d still draw a blank. So I went along my daily task as normal think nothing of it.

It wasn’t until a few days later that I really noticed them. I was standing in the kitchen cooking a hot cup of coffee and feeding my cat Oscar when I noticed small black droplets of what I thought was tar or oil on the kitchen table. I looked up and there it was. Three holes about the size of marbles just above my head the black ooze crept along the clacks in the ceiling and dropped on the floor with a thick splatter. I followed the holes across the room and just I had suspected they were steadily growing larger

The same day I called the landlord and asked him about the holes in the ceilings. He told me they were from the sealant that was used to hold the boards in the roof together and that occasionally on hot days the sealant would melt and leak into the floors below and that I was simply unlucky. I foolishly believed him after all it seemed like a reasonable explanation. I asked him if there was anything he could do to get it fixed and he simply told me that a little bit of sealant would get the job done.

I decided to do it myself the holes were small enough to deal with, the next day I bought a water-proof sealant. When I returned home from work my nose was assaulted with a pungent odder of ammonia as if someone had decided to spill bleach in all corners of the room. It was so strong, it burned my nostrils and my eyes watered. It smell grew strongest in my room and my bed sheets, draws and cloths were covered were soaking wet. Someone had entered my apartment and covered my cloths, bedsheets with bleach. Or at least I really hoped it was bleach.

The through that someone had entered my room without my knowledge did not sit well with me. Someone new where I lived, my home, and decided to make it clear to me that they could do so and might still have access to me. Suddenly this small apartment began to feel like a cage.

   I sent about cleaning my sheets and scrubbed the entire house down. As I made my way into the kitchen I saw Oscar hiding on top of the cabinet curled and eyes tracing my every movement. I called to Oscar as I usually do and tried to coax him from his hiding spot with his favorite canned cat food his usual motivator, but he didn’t move an inch. Oscar was clingiest cat in the entire world. He followed me from room to room and got incredibly freighted about my wellbeing whenever I took a shower. I even entertained the idea that he was cat that was raised by dogs. For him to act like this made me even more worried.

It was as of any sense of normalcy had left. My house no longer felt like home and now my cat no longer felt like my cat. I decided to call the police but then I realized there wasn’t much they could do, there was no sign of entry, every window was locked from the inside, I had no enemies or at least I didn’t think I did, and I only had one friend in this area and he didn’t even know I moved here. So either I’ve acquired a stalker or there was some sick asshole that had copies of my house keys and decided this was supposed to be some clever prank. I called the landlord again and was sent straight to his voicemail and I desperately begged him to change the locks to my apartment.

   When I finally collected myself I felt a heavy sinking feeling in my very beings. I felt helpless unable to do anything, my friend Jamie was out of town and my parents lived out of state. I knew I couldn’t stay here for the night and I a poor college student couldn’t afford to stay in a hotel, so I decided to sleep in my car for the night. As I began gathering what little of the few unsoiled sheets I had and a thick jacket I sought to find Oscar and take him with me. Who knows, what that home invader would do with my cat if they found him? But Oscar was nowhere to be found or at the very least hiding some where I couldn’t find him. Well at least he had the right idea.

I got in my car and just to be safe I drove it a couple blocks away from where I lived and parked on the curve. That night I slept in my car. I woke in the middle of the night by the feeling of my toes freezing and in incredible need to use the restroom. When I looked out the window the outside world was pitch-black, no street-lights, and side-walk, not even chirps of crickets it was completely silence and showered in absolute darkness. I scrambled to grab my phone which had fallen under the car seat. Certainly the outside world couldn’t be that dark.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">A thud shook the car as if something had just landed on the car. I froze. Slowly, heavy footsteps with the clank of claws scraping against metal shook the car. The sound traveled from the hood of the car to the roof and it stopped. I sat there frozen in place unsure if moving would alert whatever was standing on top of my car to my presence and then it the car shook once again and returned to silence.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours of complete silence. It didn’t return. I thanked whatever deity, cosmic law, or luck that allowed me to survive that night. There was no way in hell I was going to exit my car not while it was still dark or whatever it was still out there. I waited until morning eventually falling asleep from stress and exhaustion.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The next forming I awoke I to find long [c1]   scratches on my window and the remains of black feathers and rock towers left in a circle all around my car with the remains of dead small birds, mice, and squirrels. I screamed, now I was terrified. Whatever feeling I had the previous day paled in comparison. I called the police and told them everything.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Like my previous assessment there wasn’t enough information for them to do anything so they left and told me they would look into it and to report any suspicious activity I’d seen. I was beginning to get the feeling that I’d have to die first before I’d get any help at all. The only bit of good news I got this day was in the form of a voice message on my cell phone. The landlord had changed the locks on the doors at last.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">After work Gregory gave me new keys to the apartment. I didn’t feel safe in my car and although my apartment had new locks I didn’t feel entirely safe their either. But there wasn’t anything I could do. So I made a choice, I could either sleep cold and uncomfortable in a car I didn’t feel safe in or I sleep warm and comfortable in a house I didn’t feel entirely safe in. Like a fool I decided to stay in my apartment hoping that changing that locks would keep me safe.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">   I was awakened from the sound of tapping and rustling through the falls. At first I thought it was a rat running between the floor boards, but the loud scraping of nail against wood told me otherwise. Then I heard it, the dripping of thick liquid against wood. The holes in the ceiling were leaking again. Methodical, thick splatterings of oil on wood continued drowning my senses and unnerving me. Eventually I could no longer take. I opened my eyes and turned on my lamp and as I sat up I felt wetness on my toes. Had I stepped on a puddle of water? I looked down. At my bedside was Oscar laying on the floor still eviscerated into pieces.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">For a moment it didn’t truly register as my cat. I was so tired and Oscar in this state looked foreign to me and then when I turned on the light I knew what it was. I screamed, cried tossed aside everything I could find. They killed my cat and left him here for me to find, was stalking me not enough that had to kill my pet why was it torturing me like this.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">And then It finally hit me, the holes, the sounds, the smell, that creature outside my car, there was something wrong with this apartment. There was something here and it wasn’t human. It was some strange paranormal supernatural shit that was going to kill me on day the longer I stayed here. This night I was done with the place completely and utterly done with it. I wasn’t going to stay here any longer. I called Jamie and begged them if I could stay with them, I told them I’d even pay rent, buy them food, whatever.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">   I told Jamie everything that happened from the holes in the ceiling, my bleached sheets, and the incident in my car and the death of my cat Oscar. He didn’t believe me but his concern for me was honest but a part of me worried if it was simply because he thought I had gone mad. Either way I didn’t care I had some place to stay that wasn’t my apartment and staying here with Jamie made me feel safer. For a while everything seemed to be alright. I slept on the coach, paid rent, made sure not to make a mess. It felt good. However I couldn’t say the same for Jamie. For each passing day he was looking worse and worse. His normally well-kept appearance began to degrade.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“I don’t know what but there is something following me, after work, school, I hear it trailing behind me and I smelled it too. Vivian, I really believe you this time.” He said to me one day

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Those words echoed in my mind while I stood next to hospital. Most of his face was gone, covered by bandages. They were only able to save one of his arms. He was walking to his car one night after getting gas and was attacked by and nearly mauled to death. But was saved at the last moment by the store clerk that heard his screams. Long animal like claw marks covered his body and his arm was broken and twisted sideways.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“You can’t stay at my place” he told me. “I so sorry, but I can’t deal with this any longer you’ve got to stay somewhere else. I don’t want that thing coming after me. I’m really sorry but I just can’t. You can stay while I’m in the hospital but when I come back I want you gone.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">This thing whatever it was attacked me, it killed my cat, and now it was making it clear that outsiders weren’t welcome. I couldn’t go home to my parents, it would fallow me and if I moved out it would follow me. I was left with only one option to confront it. It didn’t want to but that was all that was left for me to do. No longer knowing what else to do I decided to talk to the landlord directly. I caught him in the morning on his way to the work.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Gregory, I need to talk to you.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">   He flung around surprised as if he hadn’t expected to see me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Oh Hi Vivian wh-“

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“There is some fucked up shit in that apartment and I want to know everything, now I’m not going to stand here and listen to lies or any other bull shit. I know you know something you own that damn place now tell me what the hell is in that building, why is it torturing me!” I said seething, I didn’t have anything else to loose. I needed to know what cruel force was taking pleasure in my sadness. I at the very least deserved that.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">He looked startled by my outburst. For a moment he looked like he was about to reply but instead he bolted to his car. I chased after him like a deranged mad woman and began banging on the class.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“You piece of shit, you knew didn’t you. You fucking knew. You sold it to me to give me to whatever the hell is in there.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“You’ve been chosen, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t…If…. I saved everyone if it came about of its room everyone would die. I’m doing what I had to.” With that he drove away speeding away in his car.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I stood there tears welling in my eyes.” I was chosen by what my apartment? God, I should have stayed with my parents. I should have stayed home with them. Mom was right!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">   I never liked crying. It made me feel weak and reminded me of my childhood years as a bullied kid. I hated that feeling that weakness and now it was as if all of that had returned to me in single feel swoop. No longer was I an adult but now I felt like a child that no longer had control of their life. No I wasn’t going to have this thing take control of me any longer. I decided to confront my fears, it would either kill me or I kill either way I wasn’t going to live on like this. That night I returned to my apartment and took a knife with me to bed. I waited for it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">There was a rattling in the walls just like before. The scratching sound continued for about three minutes until it came to an abrupt crescendo vibrating my entire room. My heart was pounding in my chest I sat there frozen in fear too scared to move and desperately clutching my knife as sweat dripped from my forehead. And then there was nothing. Nothing but silence and the ringing in my ears. Then I heard it. The splatter of thick ooze falling from the ceiling. Squinting my eyes through the darkness the holes in the ceiling were much larger now and slowly oozing from them like a sickening orifice dropped a small of tar and oily black feathered. It hit the ground with a sickening platter.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Slowly the mass of feathers and tar began to coalesce and collect itself clumping together like strands of hair in a shower drain. Now before me there was a creature it had no legs save for the mass crud that made up its torso and connected it to the ground. Its arms were long and human like with thing boney fingers tipped with claws and the place where there was supposed to be head was a long neck that ended with a smoothened mound of flesh. It crept forward, its black body stoop out in the darkness as if its body absorbed whatever little light was in the room as if the creature was a cut out hole from the fabric of reality

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">. My eyes now fixated on the mass of tar and feather began to swell with tears as it slowly crept towards me shambling its body as if the creature didn’t have full control of its thin arms and legs. As it came forward I was bombarded with the pungent stench of ammonia. I shut my eyes closed and held them tight as I laid frozen in bed hoping that if it knew I was asleep it would leave me alone. That didn’t happen. It came slowly towards me inching forward with caution. This was my stalker, my home invader, my friend’s attacker. Whatever resolve I had previously was now gone. Now there nothing but a scared child sitting underneath those sheet covers trying desperately hard to hide.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">It came closer, the wet think writhing motion of tar and feather slithering across the wooden floor boards grew loader as it approached me. Curiosity got the better of me and I took a peak at the creature peering at it through the gaps of my eyelashes. Its long smooth head-neck revealed thin slit of a mouth that slowly opened revealing a circular jaw and rows and row of teeth like that of a leech or a lamprey. I clutched my knife and my hand began to shake as it stood over me at the edge of bed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Slowly long slender finger began to reach for me. I didn’t want that thing to touch me. I lunged forward with knife in hand. It happened so fast and it moved so quickly. The next thing I was face forward on the ground and my knife was out of my hand and through across the floor. An inhuman gurgling wail emanated from the creature as it stood over me. I frantically scrambled to reach my knife only to feel cold we finger touch my ankles and by body was dragged backwards. My finger dug into the floor boards bleeding, as I tried to grab hold onto as many nook and crannies as I can find.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">My mind began to race, as I felt my hind legs raise of the ground as I was lifted upside down. The leech-head was dragging me up the walls. Looking up I saw, pieces of the ceiling to fall as the holes became gaping mouth. Realization hit me, and I kicked and shook in the leech-head’s grasp. I guess I must have annoyed it as the next thing I knew the ground was rushing towards me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">My nose burned with the smell of ammonia and I felt thick tar rubbing against my face. I slowly opened my eyes. Thick claws touch my ankles as I was dragged across the ground. I opened my eyes. The world around me was dim. I was in a long hallway not too unlike the one just outside my apartment door. The falls were sullied by black tar, and the ground was covered with feathers, tar, bottles, cans and the decaying remains of dead animals ceremoniously placed in a single file line at the sides of the fall. I was in some other hell like mirror of my own world. The leech-head came to a stop.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I stayed still and pretended to be unconscious shutting my eyes close again. I heard the scrapping of more claws against wood and the sound of heightened gurgling. The creature began dragging me again. I opened my eyes again and saw one of the passing doors. Room 432. This was upstairs [c2]   ? My building had only three flours not four. Was this over my head the entire time?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The leech-head stopped and let go of my ankles. Quickly I turned around ready to run away in any direction as fast as I could but as I got up I stood face to face with a large mound of white oily feathers that began to writhe. I turned to run but I stopped. Three of the black leech-heads blocked my way out. A wail erupted and five long mounds of thick flesh erupted from the white leech-head each one bearing rows of long circular teeth.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I began frantically searching for a way out. I noticed a staircase leading up and out of the living room and I ran as quickly as I could towards them. Behind me I heard the low gurgling and growls of the other creatures as they followed. The stairs led me to a small room clear and yet surprisingly clean room with a small open window and- In the middle of the room siting were the bodies of three women. Their bodies were torn open from the inside at their waists. I turned away, coughing as bile rose from my stomach.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I didn’t have much time to think. Wailing. The leech-heads were right in from of me. I ran to the window and without a single moment of hesitation I flung myself outside the window. I hit the ground, and I hit it hard and yet I didn’t die. I had hoped I did and I didn’t. Instead I looked up. The world was dark, the sky moon-less and covered with a thick haze. It looked just like my apartment street except the differences were one house began and the next ended did not exists and houses oozed thick oil or tar that flowed down the streets. In the distance I saw them shambling, thick masses of feathers and oil. I tried to get up but my body was heavy and it hurt to move.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">My legs were broken.

<span style="mso-comment-author: contemplatecast;mso-comment-providerid:None;mso-comment-userid:contemplatecast"> <ac_metadata title="The Holes in my Ceiling (Looking for Feedback)"> </ac_metadata>