The Attic

Nicolas lay awake in his bed, not able to get to sleep. The summer air wasn’t exactly helping him in any way. As he finally felt himself drifting off, he bolted upright as the sound of boxes falling over resonated from the attic. He cautiously crept over to the attic door and attempted to open it. Surprisingly, the door wouldn’t open, no matter how hard he tried. In the end, Nicolas gave up and went back to bed. Nothing else strange happened for the rest of the night.

The next day, Nicolas woke up with a start to the sound of glass shattering. He looked around his room for something he could defend himself with that wasn’t downstairs. The only thing he had was his ukulele, which wasn’t nearly big enough or sturdy enough to combat something like a knife or a gun, but it was the only thing he had. He slowly crept downstairs, making sure he didn’t make any noise at all. As he got ready to swing, he crept into the living room to find the back door completely smashed, along with a couple of wine glasses from the day before. He began to clean up the shards of glass, before calling the police, and then a repair company.

Nicolas was told by a police officer to stay in a hotel until further notice, which he did. After a couple of days, he received confirmation that his house was fully fixed and that the police had installed an intruder alarm. When he got back to his house, it was almost midnight. He thanked the police officer and made absolutely sure that he had something to protect himself with, opting for a pistol. He went into his room, placed the pistol on the bedside table, locked his door and collapsed onto his bed.

It didn’t take long for the sound of boxes falling in the attic to reach his ears again. He knew better than to just ignore it, so he grabbed his pistol, unlocked his door and crept over to the attic hatch. He yanked on the hatch as hard as he could, but it didn’t budge. No sound came from it, so he decided to call the police to check the attic for him. As he settled back down, he shivered as the familiar *click* of the attic hatch sounded and a loud *thud* came from outside his door. He grabbed his pistol hastily and aimed at where the chest of a human would’ve been. The doorknob began to twitch, as if something were trying to get in. Soon after, he heard loud banging on his door. Without hesitation, he released 3 bullets through the door and at whatever was out there. After a good minute, he cautiously unlocked the door, still ready to shoot.

What he saw he could not forget. Lying there, lifeless, was an incredibly grotesque humanoid creature that looked terribly starved. Its canines were unusually large and its eyes were a deep crimson. Its blood began to seep out from underneath it where it had been shot. Nicolas rushed downstairs as he heard the relieving sound of sirens. Nicolas came rushing out of the house, trying to form the words to tell them what happened. As a small group of officers entered the house and went upstairs, most of them came rushing back out, with the same terrified expression Nicolas was wearing. The few that stayed in the house told the chief constable exactly what was up there. He didn’t want to believe it, but with everyone telling him the same gruesome story of what was up there, he really had no logical reason not to. He told Nicolas that he’d better stay with a friend or in a hotel until he received confirmation that the house was completely cleaned and checked.

Nicolas checked into the same hotel he had stayed in before, and after roughly a month, he received confirmation from the police that his house was safe. It was about midnight when he got back, and when he did, the first thing he did was collapse onto his bed. Nicolas could finally get some sleep now that the whole ordeal was over. As he began to drift off, he bolted upright as he heard the all-too-familiar sound of boxes falling over in the attic. This thought was quickly followed with the horrifying realization that he’d left his pistol and phone downstairs. A chill ran down his spine as the * click* of the attic hatch opening resonated through the corridor.