Right Above Me

I was a pretty fucked up kid I must admit, nothing short of a juvenile delinquent. Not huge crimes I mind you, small things like threats and petty thievery. I could tell you about many of my crazy stories, ranging from getting shot at by drug dealers to driving into a mail box, but I decided I'm going to tell you about one of my more "disturbing" encounters.

It started back in Needles, Arizona. This town wasn't too big and was in shambles. Half the town was nothing but ghetto and I was merely a product of my environment. I hung out with some people on a regular basis. One person I used to hang out with everyday however was Reggie. Then I stopped, my parent's thought he was a bad influence, which he was to be honest. Our favorite thing to do would be sneaking out at near-midnight, breaking into old houses and sweeping it clean, it was more of a hobby than a job and it still earned us a few hundred each time.

We broke into foreclosed houses, burnt down houses, abandoned houses, you name it and we have probably been into at least one, seeming as they're common here. There is one that I could unfortunately add to my long list, a rather large house. It used to belong to a man named Oat Buckley, a rich man gone mad, who lived just on the outskirts of town. His house was surrounded by brick walls on each side, and the only way to get in was by getting through the now locked gate. The only way to get to Oat's house was by traveling a several mile long dirt road into what seemed like the middle of nowhere.

We planned the sweep out well, we spent several weekends drawing up plans. Reggie's dad let him borrow his utility van, so we already had transportation. We had to make up lies, we told him we're going to a friend's party, and he lives on the farther side of the city. We were going to act it out like usual, we each carried two or more satchels and we snatched anything that looked of value. This plan seemed kind of narrow, but you wouldn't expect any danger, we still carried a crow bar, in case we ever needed to pry ourselves out or defend ourselves from something. I let Reggie handle the crow bar, he's stronger than I am. At around eleven we set out on a 45 minute trip to the house. We turned off into the dirt road and slowly progressed downward.

"I don't know if anything's down here anymore." I said after a good 30 minutes of driving down the road. "No keep going, " Reggie persisted. "There has to be something, even if it's just a foundation, at least we'll know we can turn back." Minutes passed slowly and it seems like we've been driving for hours, though it's only been a bit less than a half an hour. The headlights were only able to illuminate a bit in front of us making it harder to spot oncoming rocks and tumble weeds. The darkness engulfed us, and my anxiousness soon turned into disappointment, as we have actually been driving for a good hour and a half now.

I was just about to turn back when the light shone in the right spot to reflect off some kind of crossing guard vest. It sat just a couple feet from the front gate. Reggie leaned onto the dash to get a closer look. "Damn, man musta had it good!" He said, slinging a dark green pack on his left shoulder. He was anxious to get in I could tell, but something about this unnerved me to the point where I started to feel sick. I collected myself and nestled my backpack onto my shoulders, opening the van's door as I looked at the house. The house was surrounded by a long maroon brick wall. The entrance gate was rusting and bending, the black paint was peeling off too. The house itself looked in decent condition. A good coat of light yellow paint complimenting the white bordered windows. I walked up to the gate's buzzer. Buttons were missing and it was unresponsive.

I walked around the corner with Reggie through dry bush and weeds to find an easier way in. He was straying far from the wall while I was almost hugging the wall. Just when I thought the terrain couldn't have been worse, my foot slipped into a hole and I nearly fell onto my face. "Hey, I think I found something..." I said, Getting up and wiping my hands on my jacket. Reggie turned on his LED flashlight and shone it in the hole. "Looks like someone dug this, maybe we're too late." I said, half-hoping he would say that we should turn back, to no avail. He pushed his backpack through and crawled in. After a few seconds of silence he called me through. I went in feet first and reach through for my back pack after I was through. I replaced the backpack onto my back once more and took my flashlight out of my pocket. We searched for an entrance and he found a sliding glass door. He tried to open it but it wouldn't budge.

I walked over behind Reggie, as he tried and tried to yank the door open. "Here let me try." I said, pushing him aside. I pulled as hard as I could but it wouldn't move. "Oh, must be locked, maybe we should-" My words were cut off by the shattering of glass. I was startled and jumped back. Reggie was hitting the door with a lawn chair while I was still trying to catch my breath. "God damn, warn me before you do that next time." I said, still holding my chest as if having a panic attack. In a matter of second he broke a rather large hold into the face of the door, he removed an old, stained shirt from his pack and proceeded to knock out some more glass before stepping in, I followed. I turned on my flashlight and pointed above to see a chandelier. I looked back down and saw that fine china and glasses were shattered and dusted. Reggie picked up fragments of plates.

"Damn dude, would have sold for a lot." He said, dropping the shard on the floor and continuing his search. He approached a cabinet and opened it. Silver platters and china lined the shelf, Reggie smiled and began placing several dishes at a time in his pack. He motioned me to help and in minutes we filled both our packs. He zipped his up and I did the same. "Here let me see you pack, " He said, reaching out towards me. "There's still more shit to explore, I'm going to go empty our earning so far into the van, this is going to make up rich!" I asked why we couldn't both go, but he snatched my bag before I finished. I decided it would be best to stay here and scout out the area. As he left and entered the living room. It wasn't too fancy, a nice little sofa, a glass coffee table, a rather rustic lamp, a fire place, and a TV. Everything was dusty, and just watching the dust bunnies roll around because of the draft was enough to make you want to wear a mask.

This place was a hazard zone though. Broken shards placed up right, misplace power power tools, water leaking onto electronics, as if suffocating because of the massive amounts of dust wasn't enough to kill you. All though, at this point in time I wasn't too paranoid, but looking back on it, everything was positioned perfectly enough to cause someone harm that it was almost too suspicious. I could have blamed it on people breaking in, but there were too many valuable things left unattended and ready for the taking for it to be that. I quieted down and listened for Reggie, but it was dead silent. When I finally found serenity in this old creepy place, a toy car came thumping down the stairs. I was frozen in fear. I inched slowly towards the stairs, not to be attacked by a crazy drug addict or something that now resided in this house. I felt something down my neck, like, a breath. I stood in place, before I turned around sharply ready to run. Reggie yelled out "Boo!" and stomped a foot down. I nudged him in the arm. "What the fuck man, stop that!" I said, still scared shitless, almost forgetting about the car. "But did you see that car man? Scary shit! Come on lets go check it out."

Reggie ascended the stairs and I trudged reluctantly behind. I picked up the car. It was an old matchbox car, a really old matchbox car. I placed it in my pocket hoping to score a few tens from a collector. Only one of the few mistakes I made already, like following Reggie in here or even breaking into to any house for that matter. The steps creaked as Reggie and I climbed up the oak wood stairs. I glided my hand along the dusty railed, then I wiped it off on my jeans. Just then there was a thump loud enough to scare the shit out of Reggie even. Being the fearless muscle clad man he is, he continued on after a moment of shock. If it were me right now, I would have turned around at the sight of the house, but now here I am going upstairs. What the fuck was I thinking? The upstairs didn't look promising. Five doors, each were closed. Reggie reached for the first door and pushed it open. It was an empty office room, not much to describe about this room except the beige shag carpet and the navy blue walls.

The next room was the bathroom. The medicine cabinet was empty and the plumbing had been turned off, so no water was in the toilet. We continued to the next room. It was a bedroom, a little girl's room. The walls we're peeling off, strips of flower covered wallpaper hung and swayed slightly in the draft. We continued in and searched the room. We found dolls, and doll houses that were pricey looking. We weren't too big on girl's toys and dolls so we looked some more. We didn't have much success, snagging a porcelain dog or cat ever few minutes. I heard a faint sound in my left ear and a breeze flow across the back of my neck. I took no notice of this and went back to rummaging through a box of toys. The wind blew slightly on my neck again, except this time I swear I heard the voice of a child, a little girl. I looked over and saw the window cracked up. I took no hesitation to shut it, and in an instance, all sounds stopped dead in their tracks, save for the sound of Reggie pillaging a dresser. Except for this nothing else happened in this room.

The next room was that of a storage room. Boxes on boxes, bins on bins, it was a good sight to see when you though you've already seen the best of it. The light bulb was missing from the over head bulb socket. We started pulling out boxes. I pulled out one with the word "appliances" on it. I opened it up and found a single light bulb placed neatly on top of all the junk. I twisted it into the socket, pulled the cord, and it flicker to life. I squinted my eyes, as I haven't seen any light except that from my flashlight for a good hour now. The room's walls were an eggshell white, and as we pulled more boxes out we noticed something strange. There was some black writings on the wall. Someone of them were scribbles and others were random words like "please" and "door" and "birds". It didn't help that a cardboard cut out of Michael Myers from Halloween was standing in between two stacks of bins, peeking out, as if there wasn't enough jumps tonight already.

I felt a chill across my neck, the same one I felt in the girls room. I heard a whisper, a faint whisper. I couldn't make it out, but just as I was ready to forget it, the whisper came back, this time more clear. "The Garage" it said. Normally I wouldn't have been frightened at such arbitrary words, but since it obviously wasn't Reggie, ankle deep in spilled boxes, I left that room. I sat by the door way while Reggie filled his back half way up and then turn off the light before exiting, closing the door with him.

There was one final door though. Something about it seemed off. It was newer than the others, and a cold draft blew from under it. I grabbed the handle to turn it, and it felt like ice on the skin. I shivered as I twisted the knob and pushed the door open. It was a master bedroom. A small house plant sat in the far corner of the room. The bed was neatly made, and it look like the bathroom was cleaned out neatly, everything in there shined. What was odd enough was the water in the toilet was running. The same cold rush went over my neck, and I held Reggie back with my left arm. "I don't think we should go in, we have enough stuff." I said, nervous. Something else was in this house, it wasn't an animal, it was another person, or so I thought. Reggie pushed me out of the way and continued on. "Come on dude, don't be a pu-" His words were cut off from shear terror. He looked into the corner of the room that was not visible from where I was standing. Something that could scare him, had to be bat shit insane. I stood there trying to get a read on what was happening, but before I could speak, a long bony arm reached out to Reggie. It wasn't human like, leathery skin, long black nails, dark red skin, almost like some kind of animal. It grabbed hold of Reggie's shirt and pulled him to the corner. The last sounds I heard from that room were Reggie's screams, the sound of an animals howls, and the tearing of cloth and skin. I slammed the door shut and ran for my life.

I was just about halfway down the stairs when a noise stopped me. It was the door, of the little girls room. Eyes, yellow, glossy eyes peak out from the door. Not ground level like you'd expect, but upside down, suspending from the ceiling. I didn't have time to study it before I ran, dropping my flash light and my back pack. I made a bolt for the nearest door. I opened it, went inside, slammed it shut and locked it. It was dark, besides a small amount of moonlight shining through a small window. I thought I was breathing heavily, but I noticed the sound of many tiny breaths. My heart sunk as a crowd of tiny yellow eyes opened, all hanging from the ceiling. The next thing that happened was me making a mad fucking dash, accompanied by the howls and hoots of the creatures. A couple snagged my shirt, but I shook them off, and dove through the thankfully unlocked window. I crawled through the hole and made a hasty retreat back to the main roads on foot. It ran for miles before collapsing on a street corner. Someone must have seen me because the next thing I know, I awoke in a hospital bed, next to me were my mom and dad. I went home the next day, no complications.

<p style="margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:5px;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">I lived out my days as a good kid from then on. I got my grades up, hung out with different crowds, and must noticeably stopped breaking into abandoned houses. Nothing much else to my story. I could go into more detail but I have to get back to my psychiatrist. I've been seeking some mental help ever since I thought over the fact I could have been dead. It's not because of the snagged shirts or Reggie dying, but the fact the whispers were not coming from next to me, but above me. Thank god I didn't look up.