A Horror on Aubertoise Avenue: The First Visit

"Aghhh!" My heart races as I lurch forward. My eyes bounce around the darkened room looking for something tangible to lock onto. I register where I am, my bedroom. My breathing evens and my heart begins to slow.

I was dreaming.

That was the worst thing I've ever witnessed. I take a moment to collect myself from the horror I just immersed myself in. I glance towards the clock.

"Damn." It was only 2:26 am. Still too early for me to get up. It was just a dream. I laid back down slowly, placed my head on my pillow and closed my eyes.

~

My eyes open and I'm standing in an open field. Everything is tinted a dirty yellow. The air is still and thick even though a subtle breeze blows the tall pale-yellow strands of grass in the direction behind me. I feel alone, yet I sense thousands of eyes preying upon me. I don't like it here. The longer I stand still in this field, the more danger and hatred I feel radiating towards me. I hear something. Almost like a faint whisper being carried by the wind. It speaks, but I fail to understand it at such a low volume. It repeats itself but louder. Then it gets louder. Chills race down my spine as I register what it's telling me.

"HELP ME" I hear carry across the field.

"HELP ME" The wind repeats.

HELP ME. It shrieks almost as if it were standing right next to my ear. I stumble and fall to the ground. The voice only adds to the uneasy feeling I get in this field. I collect myself and decide to stand back up. As I regain balance, I feel a strong presence behind me and a gust of wind gush around me. Suddenly the wind stops, and I feel the entirety of its pressure thrust into me and send me to the ground.

CRACK. Black. Everything goes black.

~

"Aghhh!" My heart races as I lurch forward. My eyes bounce around the darkened room looking for something tangible to lock onto. I register where I am, my bedroom. My breathing evens and my heart begins to slow.

I was dreaming.

Wait. This happened before. I remember the field; it was the start of the nightmare I woke up from just a moment ago. I glance at the clock, 2:30 am. Only four minutes have passed. That's weird it couldn't have been that short, I felt like I was standing in that field for hours. Everything feels wrong. I don't want to be awake anymore, I don't feel alone.

~

The field feels full of energy, but I don't see anything, except the rotting grass blades. I hear a faint rustling from the Woodline. I spin around to investigate what's there, and I see a woman come bolting out. She has short blonde hair and a mortified look on her face. She runs directly towards me and misses plowing me down by a few inches to my left. I try to shout at her to get her attention, but I notice that not a sound comes from me. She keeps running. I turn back to the Woodline and see an extremely tall, slender figure slide out of the forest. He is all black, with a white mask that looks as if it were just the face of a doll. Every step he takes is about three yards long. He is carrying an extended butcher's knife. I try to scream, but once again not a sound is emitted from me. I turn to run but in seconds he is on top of me. I fall to my back in the field and my heart seems to pound out of my chest. Thankfully he simply passes by me as if I wasn't there. But then I see he's chasing the poor girl who ran by me moments earlier. In a fraction of a second, I decided to run after them to try and save her. We run for what seems like miles, never able to make up any space between me and that creature chasing her. A building rises in the distance. I see her bolt through the door. Seconds later he arrives too. I see his body bend and crack, reshaping and becoming shorter. He then follows her into the old barn. Everything gets quiet as I make it onto the grounds of the building. I don't like it here. I go to grab the door handle and . . .

DON'T. I hear a voice very aggressively say behind me. Goosebumps cover my entire body and I feel uneasy. I break out into a cold sweat and try to calm myself by crouching down. I want to hide. I do not like the energy I can feel coming from this barn. It is old. The outer walls are decaying and stripping. The wood, which I can only assume at some point was painted a bright inviting red, has faded into an ash toned deep grey. Almost as if the soul of this place had been stripped from the ground entirely. I feel faint. I close my eyes to collect myself and . . .

~

"Aghhh!" My heart races as I lurch forward. My eyes bounce around the darkened room looking for something tangible to lock onto. I register where I am, my bedroom. My breathing evens and my heart begins to slow.

I was dreaming.

"Shit!" What is going on? I've dreamt this all before, but I can only remember feelings, not exact imagery. Why is this dream the only thing happening? I can't escape it, every time I close my eyes, I pick up right where I left off. I don't want to go back. I sense evil. Something bad is going to happen, I can remember the feeling of pure terror, but I don't know what is going to happen. I drag my eyes to my clock, 2:46 am. It's been sixteen minutes since I woke up last time. Still seems like a lot less that what it feels like there. I can't wait up in fear of what is going to happen though. Maybe if I hear out the rest of the story, I can have a peaceful rest of my night. I lay back down and closed my eyes.

~

The grass blades surrounding the barn feel extra sharp. A sign of danger inside. I pushed my emotions away in order to try and rescue the woman in immediate danger. I grasp the door handle and push it open. As I step inside the foulest smell rushes into my nostrils. I can only describe it as smelling of death. I look around and see hooks hanging from the ceiling. And sharp scythes nailed to the walls. Beneath each appears to be a dried puddle of something dark. Each object seems to be covered in the substance as well. I notice that as I travel further into the barn, fences appear to reach in and make the path narrow to a makeshift hallway. I follow the chain-link down this makeshift corridor and hear the woman whimpering, a mixture of her being out of breath and her injuries. As I walk further this noise gets louder. The walls begin to push back out and I see her. She's standing in the center of what looks like an old workshop. Sharp dirty tools are spread across the walls on nails and dull ones are littered across the workbench. All of them are covered in the same goop the hooks in the front of the barn are. I try to speak to her, but not a sound escapes my throat. Then she looks up directly, but her stare goes through me as if I wasn't there. She looks horrified and suddenly I see the creature that was chasing her in the field, pass through me and grab her. He slams her to ground. He picks up one of the dirty tools and jabs it directly into her side. She screams as he drags the dull rusty screwdriver through her midsection. He splits her open and drags out something richly colored red and long like a tube. Throwing his mask to the side of the bench, he begins eating things out of her. She continues to scream. Then it stops. She goes limp and it stops consuming her. The hay coated floor runs deep red. He picks up her lifeless body and a hook on a chain falls from the ceiling. She is placed on the hook and he stops. Almost as if he's admiring his work. Then without any warning his maskless face twists towards me and I lock eyes with it. Its eyes glow blood red and the rest is featureless. We stand locked in each other's gaze for what seems like forever. Then suddenly his face splits in two showing rows upon rows of horrendously sharp teeth. He snarls and lunges forward at me. I gasp in horror as . . .

~

"Aghhh!" My heart races as I lurch forward. My eyes bounce around the darkened room looking for something tangible to lock onto. I register where I am, my bedroom. My breathing evens and my heart begins to slow.

I was dreaming.

That was the worst thing I've ever witnessed. I took a moment to collect myself from the horror I just immersed myself into. I glance towards the clock. 3:00am. Fourteen minutes. I watched someone die for fourteen minutes. I shuddered to myself at this heart wrenching thought. I try to forget everything I saw and lay back down to get some more sleep.

I jolted forward screaming again. This pattern occurred every fifteen minutes for the rest of the night. I relived the entire ordeal on an endless loop for the rest of the night. The last time I screamed and flung myself forward I saw the beams of light peaking in through my bedroom window. It was 6:30am. Finally. Time to get up. I left my room and stretched a bit. The house felt peaceful. I heard my father out on the mower working on the field and the radio was playing in the garden, meaning my mom was getting a head start on her work that day. I walked briskly to the kitchen and prepared a glass of coffee before stepping out the door to greet my parents.

The second I shut the door behind me I dropped the mug onto the stone path leading to the garden. It crashed and shattered into millions of shards landing everywhere. The steaming liquid splattered all over my bare feet burning me. I barely noticed. All I could see was that roughly forty-five feet ahead of me stood the creepy old barn from my nightmare. We have never had a barn.

"What is it doing here!?" I screamed and pointed at the wretched building.

"What? Dearie?" My mother said calmly and sweetly as she approached from the garden. Noticing my pointing arm she said,

"Oh, you mean the barn. Sweetie it has always been here." Then my mother slid past me and calmly stepped back inside our home.