Lizzie didn’t want to go back there. She didn’t want to go back into the house that her friend had died in. She didn’t want to go back inside the small, wooden, decrepit place that some random stranger, old and naked, had come at her; tried to eat her and God only knows what else to her. She didn’t want to go near the place of that shadow man, but even more she didn’t want to go near the maggots.
Why was that troubling her? She didn’t know, and since she’d last been there, she had plenty of nightmares. She’d dreamed about the shadow man and his ticky-tat way of talking. She’d dreamed of the old man as she stared up at him with his member dangling in her face, but the ones she truly feared, the ones that woke her up in a sweat was when she dreamed she was in a bath tub covered in maggots, all of them with their hungry mouths. They were all eating her alive, tearing her apart and laying their eggs inside of her, more maggots bursting out of her.
As she stepped out of the back seat of the car bringing her back there, the image of that single white wormlike creature as it fell on her from the man’s penis kept leaping into her thoughts. Though unlike how it happened, she kept remembering it wrong. In her thoughts, it fell into her open mouth made its way into her stomach and was eating her while lying its eggs. With the butterflies she felt in her stomach, she couldn’t help but think there was some truth to nagging sense.
“Lizzie? You okay?”
Lizzie looked over to her friend who had brought her back there. She didn’t want to be back there, but they needed to get her keys and somewhere in there she had dropped them. The police when they went there hadn’t found them. They’d found her phone, but that had been it… Well, the phone, and the bodies. They had found both Sarah and the corpse of the old man. He was also dead, though how she had no clue. The cops knew. They already knew who he was. In fact the sheriff had been to the old man’s funeral a week before he had killed Sarah in the cabin. The guy was dead. He had been a rotting corpse, buried three miles away, but somehow had found himself in her cabin to terrorize her and kill her best freight in the world.
It had been when the cops had found the corpse of the old man, lying there in what was now her kitchen, that their questioning of her had shifted. She was no longer being looked at as a victim. They no longer trusted her, or the story she was telling them. No matter how much she pleaded with them that it was the truth, she could see the doubt in their eyes.
She had been in the hospital for three days and was questioned by the police for the last two days.
“Are you sure you’re, okay?” Elisabeth asked. Lizzie looked over at her and her boyfriend. She was thankful they had brought her out there, but tepid as she was only beginning to know these people. Elisabeth, it felt like Lizzie was using her to fill the void that Sarah had created. Would have created if Sarah, dead or not, was still trying to be her best friend. Elisabeth’s boyfriend though, was just as nice as Elisabeth was, and he had suggested they come out there. Well, he’d suggested coming by himself so he could get Lizzie’s car and look for her keys…
What had possessed me to say I wanted to come back here? Sure, he’d need someone to come with him as they’d have two vehicles, but anyone could have ridden with him. She doubted Elisabeth would have come. The girl barely left Lizzie’s side, becoming her protector the more the sheriff dug into her with questions.
The old man…how could he have attacked her and killed her friend? He’d been dead for a week. The sheriff knew the man and had been at his funeral when they put him in the ground. He’d died of bone cancer barely able to lift his own arm, not able to walk for the last three months when the cancer got bad. There was no way he could have attacked them, or so the sheriff said.
Lizzie didn’t know. She had no answers of her own other than what she saw.
Maybe she really was crazy…?
“Liz?” Elisabeth said, the concern heavy in her voice, pulling Lizzie from her thoughts.
Lizzie looked over at her, trying to not be a zombie as she walked around to the front of the car. Her thoughts kept pulling her deep into her own mind. She just had to not get lost in them. Don’t focus on them, right? That was easier said than done.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just trying not to remember the last time I was here.”
“I get that.” Elisabeth’s boyfriend said. Lizzie struggled to remember his name and felt she should really remember it by now as they’ve hung out for more than a day.
“Chuck, you mind going in first? I’ll stay out here with Lizzie while you check it out.”
“Sure, let me get killed in the spooky old death house.”
“Chuck!”
The color drained in his face as he realized what he just said. Elisabeth was making jerking motions with her head towards Lizzie.
“Oh my God I can’t believe I just said that.”
It was alright. Lizzie barely even noticed as she had slipped back into her thoughts. She found her gaze drifting over Elisabeth and Chuck, to settle on the old cabin. Her first time there, she hadn’t really looked at it. Sarah had been talking but Lizzie had been on the phone with Richard, her brother. He had been having another melt down because his caregiver had a family emergency. Samuel, her brother’s normal caregiver had called her and told her what was going on. Samual had called their service and Tommy, the backup, was on his way. None of this mattered to Richard and he had called her in a frenzy. She had to listened to him rant in that computerized voice as he typed it from his end of the call.
“It’s still a dump.” Sarah said as though she could read Lizzie’s thoughts. Lizzie looked over, across the car to the other side and there she stood. Of course, her dead friend was still with her. No matter where she went, Sarah followed now, though she did have the decency not to follow her into bathroom.
Lizzie tried to pretend she wasn’t there, but it was hard. Closing her eyes never helped. Wishing the nightmare away didn’t do anything. Sarah was there, whether she liked it or not.
Sarah was right though; the house was a dump. It looked like it had once been painted a drab yellow, tough not that much of the paint was still visible as much of the original color had long peeled away. The remnants of the paint lied in a bed of debris around the base of the house having been torn away after years of neglect and vicious winters tearing at it.
Outside, you couldn’t really see that the windows were blacked out. With the sun coming down and the boards that looked hastily placed to cover them, the house just looked dark inside. Her uncle really didn’t want anyone seeing in, or maybe he didn’t want to see what was out there? Had her uncle seen the shadow man? Had he been hiding from him?
Maybe there were answers inside? She hadn’t thought about that before, but there could be something in there that explained that thing.
Now you’re just reaching. You know that. You just don’t want to go back in there and trying to give yourself reasons to go, never mind that you’ve come all the way back out there, you need to go in or else you’ll be running the rest of your life afraid to face anything.
And somewhere inside her, she was okay with that. Why not just run away from everything?
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll go in then. It’s unlocked right?” Chuck said as he neared the door. It was obvious he didn’t relish the idea of going in alone.
“Should be. I doubt the sheriff’s department locked up after themselves and I’m not sure where my keys are.” Lizzie said as she finally moved, taking tentative steps towards the house. The dried leaves crackled beneath her, fallen from the trees overhead. There were a lot of them. She was surrounded in trees. The whole area was nothing but trees, and then a clearing with an old house. It was like the house was hiding from the modern world, and the only connection to it was that small driveway barely wide enough for one car. “Be careful, the woods all rotted on the stairs.”
She had stopped him just before he had stepped onto the first step. There were only three of them to reach the small landing and the front door overhang. It was odd how it was set up. The overhang was blocked off, walled on three sides so that it didn’t allow for those inside to look out past the person directly at the door. Visitors had to walk up the stairs next to the house. It didn’t allow for someone inside to look out, but outside no one could see in.
Why would he be so worried about someone looking in? It was obvious the overhang was not a part of the original design as the metal was unpainted and it didn’t fit in with the architecture. It looked like it had been hastily done, with ribbed sheet metal quickly bolted together to add another layer in hiding her uncle away from the outside world. He had to have built it himself.
“Your uncle was nuts.” She didn’t know who had said it. It was getting hard as Lizzie could no longer tell if it had been Sarah or Elisabeth. Both of them were behind her, and it had been just a whisper.
“I see what you mean. One of the boards collapsed, probably one of the deputies that’d been trampling around out here. I should be okay using the sides.”
“You be careful.” Elisabeth called after him. He disappeared and then there was a door slamming shut, what must have been the screen door as he entered the house.
“I don’t like him going in there alone” Lizzie said.
“This house is a dump. Why did your uncle live out here? It’s in the middle of nowhere, hidden in trees. I’ve heard of getting off the grid, but this is going too far.” Elisabeth said, Lizzie sure it was her this time.
“And you live here because?” Lizzie said, looking back to her.
“Hey, I live in town.” Elisabeth holds her hand up motion towards the house and the surrounding clearing, “This wanting to know no one. He was hiding from someone.”
“Well, he did leave me a lot of money.” Lizzie said quietly, biting back what she wanted to say. That dread turning in her stomach. Her gut told her that he wasn’t out there to hide from someone, he was hiding from something and that eventually it got him.
“Yeah, I’d be careful with that money. You got no idea where it came from?”
“None.” Though it was becoming nice having it. The lawyer had somehow found out she was in the hospital and had let her know he had the money already put into her account as of yesterday, a full week sooner than anyone had expected. That allowed her to get ahold of someone, a person that one of the nicer deputies had suggested, that would come out and clean the mess of the kitchen so she wouldn’t have to see the blood.
Once Lizzie had told the lawyer about it, he had taken care of all the details. Lizzie didn’t have to worry about any of it. She guessed with money, none of that stuff was important anymore though the revelation was still mind boggling.
Lizzie started towards the side of the house. She had to see it, to see where it happened but she wasn’t sure she could go in the house. Not yet, but if she went around back…
“Hey! where ya going?” She heard Elisabeth rushing to catch up.
“You can see into the kitchen from the back clearing.”
“I thought you didn’t want to go in there.”
“I don’t. I just want to see in, see where it-”
She didn’t finish saying it as she went around the corner. As she walked along the side of the house she could see more of the back yard and it was different from what she remembered. When she had left the kitchen through the back door, it had been a small clearing, no buildings just woods, but now she could clearly see a large shed. It was unpainted and old, but definitely used. She saw a well trampled path that ran from the house to it.
What had her uncle been doing in there? It was large enough to fit three cars and something she’d more often find on farms for those large tractors. Back there amongst all the woods, she couldn’t see a way for them to bring in any large vehicles. So why was it there?
She had to pull her attention away from the shed. It wasn’t why she was back there. She came around the corner and stepped into the backyard and turned back towards the cabin.
The kitchen door was open, the screen door twisted at the bottom hinge, the top broken so that the door hung off to the side. The wooden interior door still open as it had been and now as she walked up, she could see where the small metal stairs that were supposed to lead up to the door had been pulled away; set to the side where there was nothing but the kitchen wall. They were out of place there, almost belonging more in line with a photo out of Alice in Wonderland, a staircase to nowhere. It would have been funny if she wasn’t where her friend had been killed. It did make her wonder about the sickness of the mind that drove her uncle to move them over there, never wanting whoever climbed them to get in.
Maybe he was dealing with zombies? Lizzie shook away the thought as she heard Elisabeth calling out to her.
“Lizzie! Wait up.” Elisabeth called. Lizzie wasn’t sure why she was supposed to wait. She was standing there by the back door. She hadn’t run around the house, so why would it take Elisabeth so long to catch up.
“Hey, what are you doing back here?” Chuck said, looking at her from where he had been standing in the kitchen.
Lizzie barely noticed either of them, her eyes transfixed on the last place she had last seen Susan alive. The tile floor was spotless. The cleaners weren’t supposed to clean up more than the mess the bodies had made, but as she looked in, the kitchen was clean. All of it. She was sure the kitchen hadn’t been that clean in over ten years as it actually now looked like a room that food could be prepared in.
It truly was amazing what mountains money could move. Who ever had come out there had gone the extra mile, that was for sure, and to have been out there on their own? Lizzie didn’t think she’d ever be able to stay out there by herself. It was all just too creepy. Too much nature, all the bugs and animals. Never mind that the last time she’d been out there, there had been a homicidal deadman out to massacre them. How had her uncle been able to do it?
“Lizzie, we should get away from here.” Elisabeth said. She came up to her gently wrapping an arm around her shoulders. It was soothing and Lizzie wanted to melt back into the woman as she guided her away. Lizzie didn’t want to go though, pushing away from those comforting thoughts as she twisted out of Elisabeth’s grip and looked back at where her friend fell.
“I did… I died there.”
Lizzie didn’t have to turn to know that Sarah was also behind her. She could hear the tears in the dead woman’s voice and knew those tears were for her own death. Lizzie wanted to turn to her but what? How do you comfort the dead?
Maybe that was what she needed to do. Maybe Sarah was a ghost and until she came to deal with it, she’d always be there to haunt Lizzie?
As much as it hurt Lizzie to have her there with her, she wasn’t ready to let Sarah go. She couldn’t help Sarah with her grief when she was barely holding on with her own?
“-nothing..” Chuck was saying, though Lizzie hadn’t heard anything else. They were talking around her about her and she tried to shake free from the thoughts that kept tying her down so she once again could to focus. There’d just been so many thoughts and memories in such a short time it kept drowning her in randomness.
“What?”
“I’d been through the house. I found your phone and keys but other than that, I couldn’t find anything. You sure you lost your purse in here?”
“I thought I had. I don’t know.”
“Well, here’s this.” He said as he held out to her her phone, dead from lack of a charge, and her keys. As she studied the phone, she saw the spiderweb or cracks down the screen. She’d hoped she hadn’t dropped it.
At least now you can afford to get a new one.
The thought didn’t comfort her, but as it dawned on her more and more it felt more like a rock growing in her stomach. Just ‘buy it’ was giving her a sour taste.
“Thanks.” She said, her voice flat as she flipped over the phone and saw the scratches on the back. They made up an odd pattern that tickled the back of her mind. She turned the phone back so she could look at the screen. Looking at that shape in the back hurt her eyes, though she didn’t know why.
“Was there anything else we need out here or should we go?” Chuck said as he jumped down the short distance to the ground.
She wanted to say yes, let’s get out of there, but found herself climbing into the little kitchen. She didn’t know why, she didn’t want to go in, but something inside called out to her. She could feel a thrumming course through the wood as she touched it. The air was different, cooler, and she knew if it was winter and cold outside, that air would be warmer. It wanted her in there and would accommodate for her. She just had to finish going in.
“Woah.” Chuck said as both Elisabeth and he reached out, both grabbing her and pulling her back. She didn’t fight them. They were right, but as much as she knew it, she still wanted to go in there.
“Lizzie?” Elisabeth moved to face her and look into her eyes.
“I’m fine. We can get out of here.”
“You sure?’
“Yeah, lets just go. I don’t ever want to come back here.”
“Yeah, the place is a dump.” Chuck said as he led them back to their cars.
“You know you love it out here.” Elisabeth was teasing him, wrapping her arms around him.
“In the woods, yes. This house, no way. I saw inside there. There’s voodoo, or witchcraft shit all over in there. I think I’m cursed for just walking through it.”
“You’re kidding.”
“He’s not. Sarah and I saw some of it when we’d gone through. It’s disgusting and creepy in there. I’d never want to stay the night.”
Elisabeth studied the two of them as they stood to look back at the house. In the woods, something rushed through some of the underbrush, and it was loud in the silence around them. There were no birds chirping and Lizzie didn’t hear any flies buzzing around her. The slight breeze pushed back strands of her hair, but the leaves surrounding her remained still and silent.
Where were the mosquitoes? It was fall; they should be eating them alive. There had been plenty in town and had even been some really big nasty ones larger than she’d ever seen back home. She was here, out in the woods where they should be attacking and feeding on her like a pack of vampires at a feast.
Into the trees, there was the occasional sound of something scurrying, but even those sounds were few and far between. By the house, it was silent, dead, and that silence grew, pressing more as she had now realized it and listened for it. The open clearing and the space around her was closing in, suddenly feeling much smaller, almost on top of her.
“Okay, well, I’m thinking we get out of here unless there was something else you need.” Elisabeth said. Chuck nodded and she turned to Lizzie.
“Sure.”
“So, you get what you needed?”
Lizzie nodded, holding up her keys and her phone.
“Okay, so we’re probably going to head back to my house. You can meet us there if you’d like. You remember the way, right?”
“I don’t know. I might just head back home. I should check on my brother, see that he’s okay, and see how Jess and Dennis are doing. Sarah was their friend too.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to follow us. I didn’t know if you wanted to drive this late or not.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Okay.” Elisabeth said, but Lizzie could feel the worry in her voice.
Lizzie looked back at the house. The sun was lowering on the far side casting the shadow towards them. She just didn’t know how she felt or what she wanted to do. Where should she go? She didn’t know and if left alone, would probably just sit in her car at some parking lot crying. Was that a bad thing? It probably was, but still just felt right. She didn’t want to be around people right now, no matter how nice they’ve been to her.
“So, what are you going to do with the house? Sell it?”
“I don’t know.” But she did know. She wasn’t going to do anything with it. She’d be back there again. She didn’t know why, but there was something in there she needed. She should go in and look. Her back muscles wouldn’t relax until she did. That little nestling of a panic attack she’d had all morning, that shortness of breath she felt would never go away until she did.
She watched as her friends climbed into their car and she walked over to her own driver’s side door. As they pulled away, she opened her door and got in. The world around her feeling like a dream that was fading and for now it was time to leave. She wasn’t going to go back in, not alone.
Sarah was waiting in the car’s passenger seat. She was still crying.
“I’m dead.”
Lizzie nodded.
“I’m dead, and I’m still here. What am I, a ghost?”
Lizzie shrugged. What did she say to her dead friend? Lizzie sure as hell didn’t have any of the answers.
“Can we get out of here please.”
Lizzie nodded again, starting the car and turning around to drive down the driveway. They got to the end of the drive and saw that Elisabeth and Chuck had stopped at the end, waiting to turn on the main road.
Lizzie didn’t feel like she was really there. Everything around her slipping into this unreal around her and she just sat there watching. She saw as the brake lights dimmed on the back of the car in front of her and then creep into the road. Then the truck felt like it came out of nowhere as it struck the car. The car had been a small compact. The semi was a large behemoth of a vehicle in comparison and had been going way to fast at it struck the little car on its broadside.
Lizzie just sat there, not knowing how long for her to comprehend what she had just seen. It had been Sarah tugging at her arm, telling her to call 911 and telling her she needed to rush to help them.
Help who? It couldn’t be? No, not again. But yes, it was all happening again, and more of her friends were probably dead.
Slowly, Lizzie pulled herself out of her seat, getting back out of the car. She knew what she would see but walked to where the car was positioned against a tree, both sides smashed in by the multiple impacts. There was no rush. Why? She knew what she would find…
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