Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-24946232-20140601131432

19/05/2013

I thought I’d start this blog to document something that I think might be pretty big, maybe nothing will happen but in case it does I’ll keep you updated. For now I only have one weird thing to report. Before I start, I’ll set the scene: I recently moved to a small town in South Africa to live with my dad. I’m from the UK and have been brought up without religion. To me it all seems so silly; but here in George it’s everywhere. Every street has a church, I don’t know how there are so many churches in such a small town! How do they fill the pews? My new high school is so different. Very conservative and strict: uniforms and short back and sides. Every Friday there’s happy clappy praise sessions. I feel like a complete alien. Even though I consider myself to be completely different from everyone, and pretty isolated, I’ve become really close friends with a guy named Ben. He’s also religious (like everyone else) but he’s such a funny and kind guy. Like me he’s also only recently moved to George. His family came down from Johannesburg to escape the crime, the final straw was a nasty hijacking. Yesterday I went to stay over at his place. This is where the story begins. I arrived at around 5. We swam in his pool, took his dog on a walk and had dinner with his parents. After we’d eaten we played some video games and watched movies etc. At around 1 we got ready for bed. I noticed that Ben had a big old Bible by his bed, I didn’t say anything because I like him and didn’t want religion to spoil our friendship. Very soon we were settled down and ready to sleep.

I was woken by Ben thrashing around. I’m not a heavy sleeper so small things can wake me up. Upon waking I realised I really needed the bathroom so I went off and took a piss. When I got back, Bens lights were on and he was sitting up in bed all bleary eyed and he asked me what I’d done with his Bible. I hadn’t touched it, but there was nothing by his bedside table anymore. I told him I hadn’t moved it and he checked if it at fallen off his bedside. There was no sign of it.

He accused me of messing with him and I accused him of messing with me. He then said he’d look for it in the morning before slumping back into bed and turning off the lights. We went back to sleep. My dreams after that turned into nightmares. I can’t remember what happened but I had a really unnerving feeling when I woke up the next day.

Over breakfast he asked how I’d slept. I told him I slept well but that I had had nightmares. He asked me what they’d been about and I told him I couldn’t remember. He then told me that he’d also had nightmare but also couldn’t remember what had happened. I then asked him if he’d found the Bible. He’d obviously forgotten because after I asked him he bounded upstairs. He checked every drawer, under his bed, every cupboard. He then asked me where I’d put it, he thought I was messing with him. I told him that I hadn’t and he got angry and started swearing. It was his grandpa’s old Bible and meant a lot to him. I felt bad, but I was as clueless and confused as he was.

He told his parents and soon the whole family was looking for it. It was really awkward. They were really distressed.

My dad then called me to say he was picking me up in ten minutes. I got my stuff ready. Ben’s mum then stopped me, holding me by the arms and asked me really seriously if I’d moved his bible and if I was playing a joke. She then said if I was then it was a sick joke and that I should stop now. I told her I hadn’t.

My dad soon arrived and Ben stopped his search to walk me to the car. On our way out we passed the pool and Ben stopped. I followed his gaze and there at the bottom of the pool was the old Bible. He looked at me and his face was full of hate and he began shouting at me, accusing me of throwing it in. I looked him straight in the eyes and told him I hadn’t. He didn’t buy it and told me to fuck off. I walked to the car while he fetched the net. I felt so confused and unnerved by the whole situation. I know I hadn’t touched that Bible but what could I do to make him believe me?

For the next week Ben would not talk to me. He was really pissed off. I tried to tell him it wasn’t me. I begged him to believe me and he’d say it had to be me because who else could have done it. I then began to doubt myself, maybe I’d done it in my sleep…

Then the next week arrived and to my surprise, on Monday morning, Ben walked up to me. He looked terrible, like he hadn’t got any sleep. He apologized and said he didn’t think it was me who’d done it anymore. That Saturday the whole family had woken up to missing Bibles and they’d found them all at the bottom of the pool.

There was something weirdly exciting about this and I told him I had an idea. That Friday coming up I suggested that I come round to his house. We could stay up all night and see what happens.

So in a few days I’m going back to Bens; I’ll report back after.

24/05/2013

So Friday came and I headed home with Ben afterschool with an overnight bag. His mum apologized for being so accusing the week before, I told her it was fine. Ben and his parents all looked very tired and there was a weird atmosphere in the house.

Me and Ben took the dog out. The suburbs in George are very different to the ones I’m used to in the UK. Here its big houses all spaced out. Not a semidetached in sight. It’s similar to the houses you see on American TV programs. The dog seemed really pissed off, when I tried to pet it, it growled at me. The days were getting shorter now as winter was coming in: the seasons are switched on the southern hemisphere (just a reminder). The sun was setting when we got home.

After the dog walk we had a braai (South African barbeque) and Ben, to his mother’s dismay, began teaching me all the Afrikaans swear words: Poes, Kak, Fok etc. After a while the bad mood seemed to disappear and we had a really nice evening.

<p class="MsoNormal">At 11, Ben’s parents went to bed and we stayed downstairs. We discussed what could have happened with the Bibles on the previous nights. Ben said that they had called the police but that there had been no sign of forced entry. Why would someone do it anyway? I asked him if any of the family had ever sleepwalked and he said they’d been discussing it and none of them had ever done it before. We settled on a plan:  placing all five of the water damaged Bibles on the coffee table in the living room and waiting. Ben fetched his pellet gun to keep by his side.

<p class="MsoNormal">We watched TV and drank coffee to pass the time. Getting progressively nervous as the hours passed. I told him that if something happened it would only happen really early in the morning, maybe at 3 or 4.

<p class="MsoNormal">Once it was passed 1 we started to get paranoid. I felt really vulnerable and like I was being watched. I could tell from the look on Ben’s face that he felt the same. We decided that it would be a good idea to go outside and light a fire in the braai area and we stole some of Ben’s dad’s whiskey and mixed it with coke. After the whiskey we took some vodka and little bits of whatever alcohol we felt we could away with without Ben’s parents noticing. Soon we were a bit tipsy and began joking about what we would do to the crazy person who was messing with the Bibles. The whole situation was beginning to seem more and more unreal and soon we changed the subject and began talking about other things; movies, games, sex.

<p class="MsoNormal">I took out my phone and saw that it was three o’ clock. I told Ben that I didn’t think anything was going to happen. He agreed but said we were going to stay up all night anyway. We decided that the best way to stay sharp and waken ourselves up would be to take a dip in the pool. It was pretty cold outside and the pool was freezing but we stripped into our boxers and jumped in.

<p class="MsoNormal">Then the dog started growling. It didn’t bark, it just growled. We looked up from the side of the pool into the house. The porch light was on, but the lights in the living room had turned off. Ben’s dog was standing on the lawn separating us from the house with the hair on its back standing up. A sense of dread filled my stomach, but I continued staring into the dark of the living room. Ben and I had left the sliding door open, if someone had been braking in we had made it a whole lot easier.

<p class="MsoNormal">It seemed we stayed in the same position for ages, not daring to get out. We silently treaded water with our arms on the side of the pool: just staring. In a whisper Ben said that his dad may have come down and switched the light off or maybe that a fuse had gone. It was clear that he was trying to avoid thinking about a stranger lurking in the darkness of his own home. I told him that I thought we should get out. We agreed in hushed voices that we wouldn’t go into the house and that we should get a phone from our crumpled clothes and call the police.

<p class="MsoNormal">We silently put our plan into action, we got out of the pool and I fumbled for my phone. Then Ben grabbed my arm and pulled me and we began running towards the street. We ran down the road past three houses and stopped under the beam of a street light. Ben said that he had seen movement in the dark room. I took my phone and dialled 10111 for the police. After the lady on the other side of the line said police would be there in 5 to 10 minutes, Ben took my phone off me and began frantically dialling his parents. After a tense few seconds his dad answered the call. Ben told him there was someone in the house and that the police where on the way. He also said we were waiting on the street (he didn’t mention that we were there in only our underwear). He handed me my phone and then began praying while I stood shivering, looking down the empty street, waiting for the headlights of a police vehicle.

<p class="MsoNormal">After what seemed like hours (probably only five minutes) a police pickup truck arrived (that’s what they drive here). The two policemen gave us funny looks but became more serious when they saw how scared we were. We led them to the house and let them walk in front of us when we came to the front gate. In whispers, Ben guided them to the back of the house were the open sliding door was. The policemen walked into the dark with their guns drawn and seconds later the light was on. Ben’s dad came downstairs with a concerned look on his face. A crackling, popping sound made me turn around. And there in the braai: five Bibles were burning.

<p class="MsoNormal">The next day I went home. I’m not going to tell my dad what happened because he’d freak out (he’s very neurotic). Over whatsapp, Ben told me that his parents were planning on upping the security: getting a better alarm system and a gun.

<p class="MsoNormal">I’m in two minds about going to his house again. It was bloody terrifying but I want to find out what the fuck is going on…

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">01/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">I didn’t go to Ben’s house last weekend. To be honest I was too scared… He came over to mine on the Saturday night and he seemed in good spirits. Apparently nothing had happened on the Friday night. Maybe the police have caught whoever was messing with Ben’s family. Maybe we had scared him off by calling the police. Either way, Ben felt secure with the new security measures that his folks had taken.

<p class="MsoNormal">While Ben and I were hanging out, my dad came upstairs and told me that he was going up to Johannesburg for work meetings next Thursday. He asked if it was possible for me to stay with a friend while he was gone. Ben instantly said that his parents would be happy to take me in, and as Ben is pretty much my only friend I didn’t really have a choice.

<p class="MsoNormal">So next week I’m going back to Ben’s house. I’m pretty nervous….

<p class="MsoNormal">06/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">I’m at Ben’s place. Yesterday was Thursday and nothing weird happened (thank god…) but todays Friday: the day when weird shit happens at night at 15 Bokmakierie Street. I’m not going to write much because I really don’t have anything to report and Ben doesn’t know about this blog and I don’t really want him to find out. If anything happens tonight; I’ll report in tomorrow after my dad picks me up.

<p class="MsoNormal">07/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">Just got home. First thing I’m going to say is that Ben’s new security system did not stop whoever, or whatever, it is from fucking with us… I’m going to say now that I’m really struggling. I don’t know what to believe. I know I saw something, but I can’t bring myself to admit that what I saw was real. It can’t have been.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben and I had gone to bed. We must have settled down to sleep at around 2 am… I was in that state between being awake and asleep when I heard it. There was a scampering sound coming from above us. This meant that it was coming from the attic. I nudged Ben and he turned on the light. He bolted up in bed when he heard it and both of our eyes gazed up to the ceiling. I asked him if it was maybe rats. He replied, in a whisper, that if it was: they’d be fucking huge. As soon as we started talking, the scampering stopped. Ben and I were really nervous. And then I noticed something: in the corner of the room there was a square in the ceiling. I looked at Ben and the look on his face indicated that he had also made the realisation. The access to the attic was from his bedroom.

<p class="MsoNormal">We sat in bed, staring at each other. Frozen in fear. Then we heard a horrible creaking sound. The door in the ceiling was being moved… Ben and I kept looking at each other in a game of chicken; who would look away first? Who would swap the eyes of a friend for the eyes of an intruder? Ben looked up first. Then I joined him. The door to the attic was fractionally open. All we could see in the space above us was a dark slither. I instantly got the impression that eyes were gazing from out of that crack. It was torture to gaze there but, like a deer caught in headlights, I couldn’t look away. Then I noticed that part of the crack was darker than the rest. It was like a scene in a horror movie where you can tell something is on the other side of the door because of the dark shadows of the feet. Never before have had I felt more in danger than I did staring into the darkness.

<p class="MsoNormal">Then the darker part of the crack moved. It became bigger. It became clearer. It was a shape. It was the head of whoever was behind the attic door.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben and I got up and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind us. We went straight to Ben’s parent’s room and woke them up. Ben’s dad jumped out of bed and fumbled in his drawer. He turned around with a gun in his hand and sprinted to Ben’s bedroom. The rest of us stayed behind in hushed silence.

<p class="MsoNormal">We heard him shouting and we sheepishly walked into the corridor to hear what he was saying. He was shouting that he had a gun. He was frantically screaming threats. Then we heard a slamming sound and Ben’s dad shouted “shit” really loudly. He then walked out of the room and his face was white, “We need to call the police.”

<p class="MsoNormal">The police arrived pretty quickly and Ben’s dad explained how when he had told the intruder he had a gun the attic door had slammed shut. He escorted the police upstairs with a ladder and they checked the attic space. There was nothing up there….

<p class="MsoNormal">It was four in the morning when the police left. Ben’s dad spoke to us when they had gone. He told us it was windy outside and that’s probably what had caused the whole thing. He said we could go sleep in the guest bedroom if it made us feel better. He said that the whole situation with the Bibles had probably made us all see things that weren’t there.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben and I relocated to the guest bedroom. What little sleep we got was plagued with nightmares.

<p class="MsoNormal">09/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">Today our school preacher came to speak to us during praise session. His name is Stephen and while he talks, he gently plucks at his guitar… it’s pretty cheesy. He told us we had a special guest. The guy he was referring to was a huge bald guy with tattoos all along his arms. Apparently the guy was a Satanist turned Born Again Christian. Stephen had performed an exorcism on the guy and removed seven demons (apparently). After the guy had given his spiel about how drug abuse had turned him to the devil and how innocent the road to destruction can seem, Stephen took the mike. He told us we needed to be weary of Satanist and not be naïve enough to believe they weren’t active in the community. He said that the church he belongs to had recently experienced a spiritual assault. Satanist incantations had been scrawled on pieces of paper and hidden around the building: under seats and even in toilets…

<p class="MsoNormal">I began to think that maybe this was an explanation for what was going on at Ben’s house. Maybe Satanists have been messing around there like they had been doing at Stephen’s church…

<p class="MsoNormal">All this shit is so weird. Nothing like this would happen back home in the UK.

<p class="MsoNormal">Later when I was at home I whatsapped Ben asking if he’d found any incantations in the house. I meant it as a joke, but he actually went looking for them. He didn’t find any.

<p class="MsoNormal">11/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">I went round to Ben’s today to work on a project. I had decided that id not stay the night at his again (I just can’t face another night like the ones before). But I figured during the day it would be fine. We worked for an hour but got bored and decided to walk the dog. While we walked, Ben told me about the night terrors he’s been experiencing. He’s moved to guest bedroom for good (even though his dad screwed the attic door shut). Ben says that at night he wakes up and feel absolutely terrified and that he hears sounds in the corridor but doesn’t dare to go out. I asked him what he thought it was and he told me he thought the house must be haunted. I don’t want to believe it but I couldn’t help but agree… He said I should stay another night so that we could find out together. I don’t want to, but I'm still super curious. So I went against my decision and agreed to come back to his on Friday…

<p class="MsoNormal">14/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">So I just got home from Ben's. Last night was insane… something happened which has completely changed my view on the world. I’m really confused and unsettled. I doubt anyone will believe any of this: I wouldn’t believe it. But it’s all true.

<p class="MsoNormal">Me and Ben were staying in the guest bedroom. The room opens up to a really long and dark corridor. Even though there’s no attic door, it was in no way an improvement… By 2 we were in bed. By no surprise we were both woken up by noises in the night. A sound was coming from the corridor outside.

<p class="MsoNormal">We apprehensively got out of bed and approached the door. A shuffling sound was coming from behind of it. We put our heads against it and listened. There were definitely footsteps. My whole body tensed when Ben put his hand on the handle. He looked at me and I nodded my head. Very slowly he pulled it down and the door opened to the dark corridor.

<p class="MsoNormal">At the end of the long passage we saw a dark shape. As my eyes became more focused I saw that it was a human figure. It wasn’t particularly tall. And when it spoke I realised it was a child. Its voice was as distorted as its form. Everything about the kid was vague. It seemed more like a shadow then a proper flesh and bones person. It said in a voice that seemed really far away, but close at the same time, that we needed to leave soon and that the house had been prepared. It said that next week the house needed to be empty. The voice was wavering and it seemed like the kid was afraid. Even thought I was deeply unsettled by the shadowy form I didn’t feel like I was in danger. Ben nervously cleared his throat and asked the shadow child who he was. The kid said he was a friend and that we had to listen to him. And then the kid walked back and disappeared… it seemed like he just walked through the wall at the end of the corridor. What we saw was impossible. The kid must have been a ghost or something. Ben’s house must be haunted. That explains it all. But what did the kid mean? What was the house being “prepared” for? Why was it so important for Ben’s family not to be home next week?

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben and I didn’t say anything to each other we just went back to bed and slipped into an uneasy sleep. The conversation with the ghostly child seemed like a dream. Thinking back it seems like we were in a weird trance.

<p class="MsoNormal">This morning at the breakfast table we spoke to Ben’s parents. The sincerity with which we delivered the account obviously effected them. Ben’s mum took the whole thing very seriously. She told us that she believed in ghosts and that she had had experiences with them as a student. Apparently she had rented an apartment while studying and had been woken by a light turning on. She had hidden under her covers while the sound of retching had come bathroom. A few days later she found out that the previous owner had died of a drug overdose by the toilet bowl…

<p class="MsoNormal">Both of Ben’s parents agreed that they would spend the weekend away. Something is going to happen. I’m sure of it. I’m really scared. It’s becoming clearer to me that death is not as black and white as I had previously thought it.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">21/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">I got a phone call from Ben just now. He and his family are staying in another Town for the weekend. He phoned with news that really shocked me. His house had burned down on the Friday night. His family were about to head back and so far the police and fire department hadn’t found anything to explain the cause of the fire. It was clear to me that listening to the ghost kid was the right thing to do.

<p class="MsoNormal">So this is what the house was being prepared for? Nothing seems clear… Maybe more will come to light later. Or maybe we’ll never know what really happened. If I find anything else out, I’ll let you know.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben seemed really happy on the phone, even though he’d lost all of his possessions. I think his family was glad to be rid of that house. There was evil in that house. If not for that kid; maybe Ben would have burned with it…

<p class="MsoNormal">23/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben didn’t have any of his books for school (or a school uniform). He got extensions on all of the projects that were due. Everyone buzzed around him asking what had happened. He didn’t have any answers.

<p class="MsoNormal">His family are staying at his uncle’s house (who also live in George) till they find a new place. I sure as hell hope for his sake that next place isn’t haunted by evil from beyond the grave…

<p class="MsoNormal">30/06/13

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben’s mum works in real estate so it hasn’t taken too long for them to find a new place to stay. They are renting a house on the other side of town. Maybe they are trying to stay as far away from Bokmakierie as possible. I went around to the house today. It isn’t as big as the old one but it’s pretty nice.

<p class="MsoNormal">23/07/13

<p class="MsoNormal">Ok, so I haven’t had much to report in quite a long time. Things have been really normal and the memory of all the weird shit that went on last month have been fading away like a bad nightmare. But now we’ve learned something that is pretty creepy. I said in the last update that Ben’s mum works in real-estate, well she was recently assigned a job to sell a house that was situated right behind their old one. The family that had owned it previously had disappeared but had said they wanted the money from the sale to be distributed evenly between a number of overseas accounts before dropping off radar. Ben had said his mum had been apprehensive to go to a house near Bokmakierie Street. To be honest I don’t blame her. I don’t want to go anywhere near that side of town again.

<p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, she visited the house. Directly after viewing it she informed the real-estate agency that she didn’t want anything to do with the place. Ben told me that the moment she walk through the door she had experienced an acute sense of dread. But her decision to have nothing to do with the place was finalized when she walked into the living room: all over the walls there had been red painted symbols. There had been pentagrams, 666’s and other weird shit. The agency tried to calm her down by saying that perhaps it was vandals who had done it, but the proximity of the property to her old house, and the crap that went down there, made her take a point blank position not to be involved in the sale.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben and I have been talking about the whole thing. We’ve decided that the stuff the Satanist owners had been up to must have been having an effect on the Bokmakierie house. I don’t think we’ll ever understand the forces that had been at work there, and to be honest I don’t really want to understand them. We have decided we don’t really want to discuss it any further.

<p class="MsoNormal">04/08/14

<p class="MsoNormal">Things have been pretty normal. Ben and I hardly discuss the stuff that happened. But now a news article has been released that I think offers an explanation to certain things I’ve been thinking about over the past few weeks.

<p class="MsoNormal">The news article was about the house behind Ben’s old place. The family that bought it had been doing renovations to the place. In the attic they had found something. It’s more accurate to say they found someone because up there in the attic they found a corpse. The dead body was that of a boy. The body was all burned and had been tightly wrapped in blankets.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ben and I have come to the conclusion that the boy must be the same that visited us that night with the warning… We think that perhaps he had paid the ultimate price for that message.

<p class="MsoNormal">After reading the article we did some research and we have theorized that perhaps the Satanist living behind Ben were capable of some form of demonic astral projection. That’s how they’d been getting into the house. Getting rid of the bibles was obviously the preparations that the kid had mentioned. I think they wanted to kill Ben and his family in some evil sacrifice. Maybe the kid had saved Ben and ended up being sacrificed in his place. I think the kid was the son of that evil family and that he’d used their occult teachings for good.

<p class="MsoNormal">I think that the Satanist family killed their own son. It seems impossible, but there is incomprehensible evil in this world…

<p class="MsoNormal">There’s little hope that the Satanists will be found and brought to justice. No one knows who they are and the bank accounts don’t seem to have any connection to anyone. The money from the sale hasn’t even been touched. The scary thing is that they are still alive. I hope they don’t come back to George. I hope that they are gone.

<p class="MsoNormal">This whole experience has changed everything for me. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I don’t feel safe anymore. How many Satanists are out there? What is their agenda? Am I safe now? <ac_metadata title="finished pasta, ready for publishing?"> </ac_metadata>