“These Things Which Haunt Us”
Vincent Carey walked through the front doors of the high-rise building which on its twelfth floor housed the insurance company that he had worked at for the last three years. Vincent, or Vince as his few close friends called him, waved at Artie the old over-weight security guard who was sitting at his desk in the lobby just like every other day. Vince liked the way his life was, nice and predictable. Perhaps if Vince had ever taken the time to get married or even have a girlfriend she could have convinced him that he was to rigid, to set in his ways. But Vincent thought relationships to untidy, what with all those messy emotions involved.
Taking the elevator up to his companies’ floor he exited and walked immediately into the break room. Already seated in the room were two of Vince’s co-workers Fred Murray and Lloyd Martin. Vince liked both men well enough, even though both were really just co-workers and associates and Vince considered neither a friend. Fred and Lloyd were going through their morning ritual which consisted of dividing up the morning paper over coffee. Vince found this very annoying as each man would read to the other things that he found interesting instead of letting the other read them once they switched sections. In effect it seemed to Vince that they were just reading the paper to each other. Vince reached into the cabinet and removed his coffee cup. After pouring his coffee he added two tablespoons of sugar and then a packet of creamer. He stirred his coffee and tried to ignore Fred and Lloyd’s prattling. Fred was reading an article that had something to do with childhood fears carrying over to adulthood.
“Huh, this is interesting here Lloyd”. He said.
“Oh yeah, what’s that”? Lloyd said as he lowered his section of the paper.
“Well this says that childhood fears are so ingrained in some people that a full 74 percent of adults will not sleep with an arm or a leg hanging off the bed”.
“Well I guess that some people are still afraid that the boogeyman might get them”. Lloyd responded chuckling. “What do you think about that Vince”?
Vince shrugged his shoulders as he took a sip of his coffee and walked out of the break room and to his desk.
Insurance work is mostly the same day in and day out. That was one of the reasons that Vince excelled at his work. He spent the next eight hours shuffling paper here and there and then back to here again. Once the work day ended Vince walked out of the office building and to the subway station which took him home everyday. It had begun to rain sometime during the day, and Vince was looking forward to getting home. One of the few things that Vince actually took any pride in was his apartment. Vince lived alone on the second floor of a three story building the first floor of which was a neighborhood grocery owned by a nice Korean couple who were both always very friendly to Vince. The second and third floors were both divided into four apartments each. The apartments were small but Vince’s was perfect for him. He took great pride in the fact that even though he was a bachelor his apartment was meticulously clean and kept up.
Walking through the door to the apartment, he placed his mail on the kitchen counter until he could sort through it. He then walked over to his television and turned on the local news. As he walked over to his refrigerator to decide what to have for dinner he heard the female anchor, the one who he had always thought was kind of pretty even if he would never admit it to anyone but himself, referring to the childhood fear study that Fred and Lloyd had been discussing.
“Huh, must be a slow news day”, he said to the empty apartment. He decided on a nice piece of chicken and took it from the fridge.
After dinner Vince sat in his recliner and watched an old John Wayne western. He tried to read for a little while but found that for some strange reason he was having trouble focusing on any one thing for more then a few moments. This bothered Vince, as he was not one who usually let his mind wonder. The part that concerned him the most was that his mind was not focusing on one thing but seemed to instead be jumping around. Like his subconscious was trying in vain to find something, but unsure what it was.
After the western ended and Vince realized that he wasn’t going to be able to focus on a book he got ready for bed. Crawling between the sheets his mind returned to what Fred and Lloyd had been talking about that morning. Vince was not one who believed in that sort of nonsense. That being said his mind would not let their conversation out of his head.
“Ah, all that is complete nonsense”, he remarked aloud to himself. “No such thing as monsters and goblins”. As if proving it to himself he let his left leg hang over the edge of the bed before falling asleep.
Vince slept fitfully never quite obtaining that deep relaxing sleep that the body craves. He dreamt but would probably never recall what he was dreaming of. Finally he awoke and found that he was sweating. He looked over at his bedside alarm clock and saw that it was only 2:30 in the morning. He lay back on his pillow and willed himself to fall back asleep. His leg still hanging over the side of the bed. He regarded his leg and laughed.
“Well at least it hasn’t been eaten off of me. What’s the matter monster not hungry tonight”? He tried to turn his body in an effort to get more comfortable when he heard what sounded like deep breathing. He sat up straight in his bed. The room was dark and the only sound was the heavy breathing. He held his breath to make sure that it was not his own breathing that he was hearing. It wasn’t. Suddenly he felt as if his left foot was on fire. He pulled his leg onto the bed and reached for his bedside lamp. Clicking it on he saw that his left foot was bleeding from what looked like five scratch marks. He could still hear the heavy breathing and it now sounded like it was coming from under his bed. He shook his head.
“Come on Vince” he said trying to keep himself calm. “Get a hold of yourself, you must just be hearing things, and you dope you probably cut your own foot pulling it back to the bed so fast”. Even as he was talking to himself he felt his bed beginning to shake. He jumped off of the bed as it started to buck wildly up and down. He reached his bedroom door and turned the knob just as the bed flipped over on its side. Standing there in the full bath of lamp light stood a creature just about four feet tall. The creature was stooped over and its two arms which ended in sharp knifelike claws hung almost all the way down to the ground. Vince saw that the creature also had a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. The creature’s skin looked like the bark of a tree but was a sickly greenish gray in appearance. Vince grabbed the door to his bedroom and flung it open. As Vince turned to run, the creature raised its head and glared at him with two yellow eyes.
Vince ran down the hallway that connected the bedroom to the rest of the apartment. As he ran in the pitch black of his apartment, he could hear the creature right behind him. Although his apartment was small, and Vince had lived there for four years he now found himself lost in the small apartment. He couldn’t tell if it was his fear or not, but once he was out of the hall way he wasn’t sure which way to turn to get to his front door. He fumbled for the light switch, and as he did he noticed that he could no longer hear the creature coming for him. He could instead only feel a hot breath on his neck and on the back of the hand that was fumbling in the darkness for the lights. The breath on his neck sent a whole new ripple of soul crushing fear through his body. It was then that he noticed the stench. The creature’s breath smelled like a mix between rotting fish and soil. It was the smell of death and decay.
Running from both that smell and the creature that it belonged to Vince continued to run straight. He kept running straight until he ran into something big and square. Vince’s eye’s settled on the soft glow of the clock from his microwave and realized that he must be in his kitchen. He ran to the wall and this time knew exactly where to find the light switch. As the lights came on Vince’s jaw dropped as he spotted the creature crawling along his living room ceiling. It crossed into the kitchen and let go of the ceiling dropping to the floor a few feet in front of Vince. Vince lunged for his knife drawer and found a long steak knife. Holding the knife in front of him he yelled at the creature.
“What the hell are you”? Vince didn’t really expect an answer and jumped when he actually received one.
“That is none of your concern” answered the creature as he continued to move towards Vince “what is of your concern is that you belong to me and I am sooooooo hungry”. The creatures spoke in more of a growl and its voice sounded like it was being routed through gravel and mud. The creature jumped towards Vince, and he jumped back. Vince felt his legs going out from underneath him and he fell flat on his back onto the cold linoleum floor. The creature fell onto Vince with his razor sharp teeth snapping. Up close the stench of decay from the monster was overpowering. Vince gagged and stabbed at the creature and was rewarded as the blade sank into the creature’s arm. The creature screamed out in pain or anger, Vince fighting for his life couldn’t tell. Vince tried to pull the knife out and found that it was stuck. Vince pushed the creature, trying to get it off of him. Instead the creature sunk his teeth into Vince’s arm. Vince screamed out in pain and shock. He could feel blood running down his arm and the creature was chewing on the piece of flesh that it had ripped off.
“Stop squirming”, the creature laughed “I don’t like to play with my food”. Vince pushed at the creature again with all his strength and managed to knock the creature off balance. He tried pulling the knife again and this time was relieved when it slid out of the creature’s arm. Vince stabbed at the creature and found his mark for a second time. The knife slid into the left eye of the creature. The creature grabbed at the knife and began screaming. Vince was able to push the creature off of him, and stood up. He grabbed at a butcher knife lying on top of the counter almost out of reach. The creature jumped and grabbed onto the ceiling. The creature left the kitchen and continued screaming as it crawled back towards the bedroom.
Still armed with the butcher knife Vince looked out of the kitchen. He tried to decide what to do next. He thought his best bet would be to try to make it to the apartment’s door. But what would he do once he got out? No one would believe that he had been attacked by the creature from under his bed. In spite of his wounded arm he was still having a hard time believing it. Vince decided that his best bet would be to get to his phone, which was closer then the door. He would call the police, and they would have to send someone out. He would figure out what to tell them before they got here.
He stayed close to the wall as he snuck towards the phone. He was hyper sensitive to any sounds or movement in the still dark apartment. It took him a full five minutes to reach his phone next to his television. It was with a sense of relief that he actually reached it. As he picked it up he unexpectedly heard the heavy breathing again. It sounded like it was coming from his right. He dropped the phone as he raised the butcher knife in front of him. Suddenly the creature dropped onto Vince from above him, it grabbed his head and beat it to the floor. For Vince only darkness followed.
When he awoke Vince realized that the creature was carrying him towards the bedroom. Vince tried to move or struggle, but found it impossible to do anything other then raise his head. The creature carried Vince through the door of the bedroom, and Vince saw that the glow of the moon was now lighting the room. In the glare Vince saw that his bed was now right side up again, like it had been before this nightmare started thought Vince. The creature dropped Vince to the floor as it climbed under the bed, its claws reaching back out and sinking into the soft flesh around Vince’s waist. The creature started to pull Vince under the bed. As he was pulled to the blackness under the bed, all Vince could do was scream.
