LateNight Reading

As my feet touched the basement floor, silence filled the room. I scan the room for any places my friends and I could hide. The room was open, with no walls to divide it. A washer and dryer sat on one end, a water heater hummed in the corner. A desk and the furnace were placed on the other end. A few rows of shelves held the emergency food supplies stood in the middle of the room. The wall across from where I stood was two windows that brought the afternoon sunshine inside. The light shined around a floor-to-ceiling cabinet that stood just between the windows. That was the only place they could hide. I crept closer to the worn wooden doors. I could hear faint breathing coming from inside. “I can hear you.” I laughed at the door. “I found you!”

My hand had gripped the door handle when I heard two voices upstairs. The voices of my friends as they laughed. Nausea and fear washed over me as I realized that whatever was breathing in this cabinet was neither of my friends. I backed up to the stairs, I never took my eyes off that cabinet. The cabinet door slowly pushed open a crack, long dark fingers wrapped around the side. I screamed and bolted back up the stairs. My friends were seated at the dining room table, my mom was serving them snacks. “Hello sweetie, I was just about to call for you, where,” I wrapped my arms around my mom; crying in terror at what I had seen, what I had almost seen. “Honey, what is the matter? What has gotten you so upset?”

I turn my head towards the basement stairs, half wondering if the thing had followed me. “There was something bad downstairs. It was in the cabinet. I heard it breathe! I think it might eat me.” My friends sat still in shock at my words. My mother bent down, wiped the tears away from my eyes, and rubbed my back.

In a calm voice, she told me “There is nothing bad in the basement.”

I’d been a little more nervous being in the basement since then. My eyes would never stray from the cabinet when it came into view. If I even heard the cabinet creak, I would be out of the basement within seconds. I rarely went down there alone. My parents would continuously repeat the phrase “There is nothing bad in the basement” whenever I asked them about it. One day I had gotten tired of this ridiculous saying and yelled, “Well if it isn’t bad, then what is it?! What does it want?!” My parents looked at each other, a silent conversation between them. Finally, my dad looked at me with a tired expression.

“Nothing bad.” I let it go after that.

It was when I was a senior in Highschool. I had brought my close friend Ian over to work on a project. My parents wouldn’t be home from work until later that evening, so it was just us two. It had been a little over two hours when I noticed that Ian was acting weird. He was constantly staring at me, anytime we made physical contact he would make it linger, and I thought I even caught him sniffing my hair. I was getting really creeped out. “Let’s take a quick break, I need a drink.” I stood up and almost ran into the kitchen. I was filling up my glass when Ian wrapped his arms around me. I pushed him away as roughly as I could manage. “What are you doing?”

Ian looked upset, and I suddenly realized that my friend had wanted something more from me. He gripped the back of my neck and tried to kiss me. My hands became the wall that protected my mouth by covering his, and my arms shoved him away hard enough that he stumbled to the floor. I watched as he transformed from my friend into something possessed by a dark determination. The look in his eyes told me that I should escape by any means necessary.

I scrambled past him as he got to his feet. The thundering footfalls behind me gave me a grim reminder that Ian was on the track team. My fingertip grazed the front doorknob as Ian gripped my hair and dragged me to the basement staircase. He tossed me down those stairs like I was weightless. My head landed on the cement floor. My vision spun, but I could see Ian as he slowly walked down the staircase. I fought the urge to vomit from the pain of being dragged across the room to the front of the cabinet. Ian kneeled over me; his hands gripped my neck and squeezed. My hands scratched desperately at his. Every time I came close to loosening his grip, he slammed my head against the concrete floor. My vision blurred and I knew I was going to die. Tears streamed down my face, Ian was a watery blur. “Help me,” I whispered as dark spots clouded my vision.

The cabinet doors flew open and a loud roar filled the room. Ian froze with fear; his face turned white at whatever he saw crouched in the cabinet. A large dark figure leaped over me to push Ian onto his back. I gasped for air before I could pass out. I heard the sound of Ian’s cries of pain with the sound of the creature tearing into the flesh under it, and all I felt was relief. My vision was spinning too much to keep my eyes open. I heard the screams stop along with the wet tearing noise. There was a sound as the creature turned towards me, and my fear returned as I expected to be ripped apart too. I squeezed my closed eyes and braced for more pain. I heard it crawl over until it hovered right above me. I could feel its breath on my face. I felt something sticky brush through my hair slowly, I stayed as still as possible as the thing continued with the soothing motion.

“Nothing…bad.” It whispered in a deep voice filled with gravel. “Nothing…bad. Safe…now. Nothing…bad.” I did not know why it decided it would not kill me. I did not care to know. I finally accepted that it saved me, and the relief that I felt mixed with the creature’s reassurance that I was safe pulled me into a deep slumber.

I was shaken awake by my frantic parents. They found me asleep on the basement floor covered in bruises and blood. I told them what happened with Ian, and what the creature had done. They were confused, “Where is Ian? It’s just you down here.” I looked where I knew Ian’s mangled corpse should be, but there was nothing there. There should’ve been a large bloodstain at least, but the floor was completely clean.