Crawling

There is something inside my house.

A week ago, I was jogging in the park. It was a brisk, cool morning in October. I was passing by an old, overgrown shrub when I saw a faint glimmer inbetween the branches. My curiosity piqued, I bent down and reached into the branches to take the thing out and look at it.

I held in my hand a little brass-colored bauble, a little bigger than a baseball and slightly oval shaped. It had a thin groove along the midsection. It wasn't exactly heavy, but it had a bit of a heft to it. Curiously, it was almost warm to the touch. I stood for a while studying the thing in my hand, trying to wonder what it was or why it was there.

I stuffed it in a pocket of my coat and rushed home.

I studied it under the light of my desk lamp later that day. From the groove on the middle, I thought it could be screwed open but it wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pried at it. On the other side, there were strange symbols etched into it, like some sort of code or language.

Over the next few days I left the thing on a shekf in my basement. Every time I picked it up, it seemed to get warmer to the touch.

One day, I heard a loud cracking sound coming from the basement. I rushed down to it to see what the racket was when I saw the strangest thing.

The thing had broken open. It didn't fall from the shelf, it just cracked open by itself. Stranger still, it had spilled a sticky grayish substance all over the shelf and it was dripping to the floor. I spent a good hour cleaning up the gray sludge, which stained the wooden shelf pretty badly.

Later,I started hearing scuttling sounds coming from behind a chair in the den, like the footsteps of a large insect. I looked behind the chair and there was nothing. I dismissed it as imagination and went about my business.

The next day, I tried to make a phonecall only to discover that the phone line had been chewed to pieces.

Then I heard the same scuttling coming from the kitchen. I grabbed the baseball bat I always key under my bed and went to investigate.

There was nothing.

Today, I kept hearing the scuttling sound, it grew louder every time as if some terrible insect was stalking me. Out of the corner of my eye, I would see a small shadow linger for just a few seconds before darting out of view. I spent hours with all the lights on in the house, looking behind every piece of furniture and under every shadow. I'm not sure exactly what I expect to find.

I started typing this to keep myself calm. I have the bat laying next to me in case the thing comes in here.

It is quiet now.

Uncomforatbly quiet.

I think I heard sometthg/.,kl;

Everything is fine. I am alright now. I feel better.