Storage Full - A Short Horror Story

Mia hated to admit it, but she was running away. Her studio flat in the city that cost almost three-quarters of her salary was not sustainable and the grief that her mother left behind sat in the corner of that flat like a patch of black mould she knew was infiltrating her lungs further and further the longer she stayed. So she packed her boxes, hired a van, and headed to the best place she could think of. Her mother had spoken about the town she lived in before Mia came along with such awe and yearning that Mia created a fairytale image in her mind. Nothing but fields for miles and miles, neighbours who bring their latest bakes to your front door just because they care, greengrocers who know you by your name and know which produce you’ll want them to set aside for you. She felt her heart brimming with the thought of it.

There was only one house to choose from when Mia was exploring the market. The estate agent offered to have her view it immediately when Mia inquired, but she pushed back explaining that she would need a few days to arrange the travel and the time off work. This was not true. She had impulsively quit her job already and was spending her days in bed. What she needed time for, however, was to prepare for the reality of moving. The reality of leaving the only city she had ever called home. When she got there, Mia had to ask why there was such a small market on offer - “People who come here just don’t leave!” - and why the house was going at such a good price - “We know the location isn’t everyone’s cup of tea nowadays, so we want to make sure we give the place a certain appeal for the young’uns”. The estate agent had a habit of chuckling heartily with everything he said and it made Mia feel like there was a joke she wasn’t in on, or maybe that she was the joke herself.

It was not long into the viewing that Mia decided she would have the house. It was almost perfect, aside from an awful yellowing wallpaper that she would replace as soon as she could. She stood in the living room window, looking out onto a perfectly average residential road. Perfectly average, except for the miles and miles of fields that she could see ahead if she looked beyond the houses. Those fields only came to an end when they met the distant wall of pine trees that marked the beginning of the dense forest beyond. She had never lived so close to nature before and she imagined the idyllic life she could live there for many years to come. This feeling faltered only for a moment, when the forest seemed to be broken by a new shadow moving through the trees smoothly, almost casually. It was huge, big enough to be noticeable to Mia at such a distance, but it was fleeting. Must have been a trick of the light, she thought as shook herself off and turned away from the window.

Mia spent the weeks following playing the necessary games with the estate agent, seeming like she had other options when they both knew she didn’t, but a month later she was moving into the new house and the new town. She forgot all about the shadow in the forest. Between boxes and vans and paperwork, Mia barely had a moment to think more than two steps ahead. Yet somehow, she blinked and she was moved. She was stood back at that window - her window - looking out at the edge of the forest and she felt her mother would be proud. She took her phone out of her pocket and snapped a picture of the view, then loaded it into a text to her mum. This was a habit she had now, and while she knew it would have to stop one day she wasn’t in a rush to pull herself away from it yet. She hit send but got an error. At first her heart dropped with fear the number had been disconnected, but she quickly realised that she didn’t have any signal. She was unsure if she should feel a sense of peace or anxiety.

The first day she wandered into the village she did so with a child-like fascination. This storybook place that her mum told her about was real. She lived in it. It was this fascination that made her pay attention to things that ordinarily may have been glanced over. There was an almost unnatural abundance of nature - huge flowers growing through tiny cracks in the pavement, vines working their way along and into the walls of stores, all with insects crawling over them in masses. Mia took a wide berth around a tree to try to avoid the bugs, and noticed the remnants of a flier stapled to the trunk. The starched white was so at odds with the natural world around her that she stopped to examine it and noticed it seemed to have been torn down. The only remaining corner held the letters “MIS-”. A shudder ran down her spine, but she pushed forward.

The streets were quiet. The first person she saw was inside a store, stood at the glass looking out at the street. No, looking out at Mia. He stood stock still, one palm pressed against the glass, gaze boring into Mia as she walked. She smiled at him and waved, but he did not return the gesture. His mouth sat in a straight line and only his eyes moved to follow her as she walked. The discomfort stayed with her after he was out of her view, and she ducked into the next shop she came to to try to get him out of her mind. She found herself surrounded by bric-a-brac in a second-hand shop where the shopkeeper looked alarmed to see her, and scurried away into a backroom while she browsed.

Mia walked away with a vase, two new tops and a handheld camcorder. She could not say why she purchased a camcorder other than that she was drawn to it. Back home, she considered starting to unpack but instead decided to use this new purchase film a video - maybe she could make videos for her mum instead of texting them to her. She turned the device on and was pleasantly surprised to find it was in perfect working order until an alert popped up when she clicked record STORAGE FULL. Someone just left all of their videos on here? Mia thought with a degree of annoyance which quickly eased in favour of curiosity as she decided to look through the stored footage.

All of the videos seemed to be of one person - a woman in her late 20s who introduced herself as Auntie Poppy, had a wide smile and an infectious laugh. The oldest of the videos showed her unpacking boxes and though it was at first unclear, Mia’s heart started to race when she noticed the yellowing wallpaper behind Poppy. It was the same as the one behind her right now. With each video another little detail came to light which left Mia without any doubt that Poppy had lived in this house. A chaotic clip where she knocked a burning candle over leaving a pattern of stubborn wax that Mia could now see the remnants of near the window. Another clip of Poppy complaining about the disturbingly squeaky door to the living room which Mia had vowed to herself that she would fix the minute she heard it during the viewing.

Eventually, she realised she was exhausted and had to put the camcorder down. She looked up and noticed that it was dark outside and that she had spent hours watching through Poppy’s life. Mia decided to head to bed, which she was grateful the movers had already put in place for her. She took the camcorder with her, figuring if somehow she struggled to sleep then she could always watch more footage. In the end, she did not struggle to sleep at all and she entered a deep, dreamless sleep before she was even aware she was drifting off.

It was still dark when she was startled awake by what she was sure she recognised as the sound of the door to her living room. The tell-tale screeching of the hinges was not yet a familiar sound to Mia, but it was hard to mistake. Her heart-rate immediately skyrocketed. Somebody was in the house. She knew her phone still had no signal, but she reached for it anyway to hopefully use the torch and give her some light without alerting the intruder. Her phone was nowhere to be found. She picked up the camcorder and opened it so that she could see through the camera without recording. The night-vision was not of the best quality, but it would have to do. She took a deep breath and tip-toed out of her bedroom. Each shaky inhale sounded far too loud in the silence of the hallway and she begged herself to be quieter.

Below her, she could hear someone riffling through her belongings as though they were looking for something. She heard drawers and cupboards being opened and, presumably as a result of finding these to be empty, cardboard boxes being emptied out. Almost everything Mia owned was second-hand or hand-me-down, but there were some emotionally valuable items that belonged to her mother. She silently pleaded that anything but those would be taken.

Looking through the camcorder screen she saw she was approaching the top of the stairs. She took another deep inhale, still unsure what she would do to confront the intruder, and stepped down. A creak that echoed into the night emanated from the wood beneath her foot. She froze. The camcorder shook in her hands. The silence became all-consuming as the intruder halted their assault creating a palpable moment that was shattered when Mia heard them dash back through the squeaking door and then the front door. What felt like minutes, but may only have been a few seconds, passed before Mia braved taking another step. She paused, waiting for any indication that someone was still in the house but heard nothing to indicate as much. She continued down the stairs at a run, looking through the screen around the entire downstairs area to check that nobody remained.

Once she was confident she was alone, she began searching for her phone. As she began to dial the emergency services she paused and fully took in the room around her. Everything was as she left it. Nothing had been taken out of the boxes, no drawers or cupboards were open. It looked exactly as it had when she went to bed. Had she imagined the whole thing? Her heart felt ready to leap from her chest as she frantically searched for any indication that she really had experienced somebody in her house. When she was beginning to consider if she would never know what was real about that night, she noticed the front door. It was still open.

The next day Mia went through her belongings meticulously. She was unpacking each item one by one, making a mental note of its presence and jotting down anything that she could not immediately find. She was surrounded by items that she ought to have found an actual location for when there was a knock on her door. With a start, she jumped to her feet. She tried to steady herself with a deep breath, telling herself to just answer the door like a normal person. Through the glass she could see the outline of a person in a coat who appeared to be holding something.

“Hi there, can I help you?” She tried to sound cheery as she opened the door and found a familiar old-looking man on the other side. He was wrapped up against the October chill and, as she suspected, holding a dish with both hands.

“Sorry to bother you, miss. Just wanted to introduce myself is all. I live next door,” he struggled to pass the dish over to one hand and pointed at the house a stone’s throw away from Mia’s. “Name’s Bill. I think we met briefly at my shop in town. Anyway, my wife loves baking and she’s made you this here apple pie. Now I know that might not be your thing so know no offence will be taken-” Mia cut him off, beaming.

“That’s so lovely, Bill. Thank you for bringing it over I really appreciate it,” she took the dish from him and noticed him peering over her shoulder into the house as he leaned forward to help. “Um, I would invite you in for a slice but I really am all over the place at the moment…” She apologised.

“Oh no not a worry at all. You just enjoy yourself some pie and drop the dish back round when you’re done,” he patted her on the shoulder and gave her a smile that seemed to show a few too many teeth. She was relieved to put the door between them again, making sure she locked it. As she held the pie in her hands and felt its warmth, her stomach began to growl.

Mia cut herself a slice of pie but didn’t remove it from the dish - cleaning plates was not something she felt ready to face in the midst of moving just yet. As she took the first forkful, she noticed that the apples were a darker shade than she had ever seen before and the syrup surrounding them was thick and smelt too strongly of cinnamon. She took a bite and screwed her face up at the strong taste of spices, mixed with something slightly bitter underneath, but she forced herself to swallow it down. If he ever brings me anything again, I definitely won’t be taking it, she promised herself.

The terrible habit of her generation made her pick the camcorder back up. It would usually be her phone, but it was useless until the wi-fi was installed and so Poppy was her entertainment for now. The next video that she clicked on was hard to watch, as it seemed Poppy had not found the night-vision setting, but it made Mia’s blood run cold. Poppy was whispering into the camera, clearly filming in the middle of the night. “I think someone is downstairs,” she uttered as Mia saw her take the familiar route from the bedroom across the landing with the same careful footing as she had done herself the night before.

Unlike Mia, Poppy grabbed something to use as a weapon and rushed down the stairs. The footage became slightly brighter with the street light coming in through the open front door and Mia saw that the same living room in which she now sat had been infiltrated by several masked figures. They looked directly at the camera before rushing at Poppy. The next few moments of the footage were impossible to decipher until the camera fell to the floor as Poppy was dragged through the front door. The screaming was so loud that it became distorted on the recording until it faded away into silence as the intruders disappeared with Poppy into the distance. The camera kept rolling, and Mia couldn’t stop watching. It took only a few moments until the dark edge of the forest was disturbed by an even darker shadow. One moving in the same huge, swift, easy movements she remembered catching a glimpse of on her first visit.

Mia found herself struggling to watch the rest of the clip. She suddenly felt as though she could not stay awake, her eyelids drooping and her hands refusing to keep their grip. The camcorder fell from one hand and her fork fell from the other. Fork? I haven’t been eating- her thought cut off as she saw that the apple pie was almost completely gone. Her mind raced for an explanation for only a second before everything went dark.

She woke to the heat of a raging fire. At least, she thought she woke up but for a moment it was hard to tell as the complete darkness made her feel like her eyes may still but shut. She could hear the people around her, though. Someone laughing. “I thought for sure she was going to run once she watched what was on that camcorder. I can’t believe Bill sold it to her.” “Bill sold it to her because he likes the chase. He wanted her to run. Sick bastard.” “Well, she clearly didn’t get far enough through the footage.” “Would you two shut the fuck up, we don’t have time for this.” She was being dragged. The fire was getting hotter. No. Closer.

Without vision, her other senses heightened. She smelt gas. It was all over her. Her clothes were drenched in it. Adrenaline kicked in and she began to fight. Hands were on her wrists and ankles, but she put her whole strength into trying to get free. “There we go,” someone laughed. She tried to take a breath so that she could scream but the gas in the air hit the back of her throat and it was all she could do to control her coughing. She realised that she could scream though. She wasn’t gagged. Her mind began to race with possible options of how to use this to her advantage.

“I saw the video! I know what you’re doing, what you did to Poppy! I know what you’re doing this for!” She felt them pause in their dragging of her. The heat from the fire was causing sweat to drip from her forehead and down her back. She felt several wet drops land on her cheeks from the sweat of her captors. There was a beat of silence in which she heard herself sobbing, and then she was dropped. She heard of one of the men who had been carrying her say “Goddammit this is why we have rules, Bill!” but his voice was fading as her ran into the distance. Her body took its own weight on again and she collapsed fully to the floor, back in control of her limbs. She felt heavy, like she was moving through quicksand, as she raised her arms to rid herself of the blindfold.

The first thing she saw was the source of the heat. A bonfire which had been built higher than the houses, set just far enough away from the edge of the forest. All around the bonfire were people - she recognised only one of them as her neighbour, Bill. He was the only person who was looking up, everyone else was staring at the ground, holding each others’ hands and chanting something that Mia could not make out. But Bill was staring directly at her and smiling. There were people dotted around who were not chanting, and she noticed they all wore a look of terror on their faces as they looked at her. No. They looked beyond her, behind her.

There was a sudden change in energy and they began to scream, turned and ran in the opposite direction into the trees. She knew without looking that something was behind her and that it was horrifying. But she had to look. She turned slowly, holding her breath as though trying to keep her presence a secret. The creature she saw was huge. There was some resemblance to the humanoid shape, but it stood taller than the bonfire and wider than a truck. Its arms hung below what should have been its knees, if its legs weren’t shaped like the hind legs of a dog. At the bottom of its arms were knife-like claws - four on each side. Mia was stood too close and its head was too far up for her to make out anything but the red liquid that dripped from its mouth.

She screamed and set off running. She had the sense to run in a different direction to the villagers, heading for the west border of the forest while they continued running east. The smoke from the bonfire filled the air and made breathing difficult and she wanted to keep screaming but she also wanted to cough her lungs up or sob until her chest was completely deflated. But she ran. As soon as she was in the cover of a few rows of trees, she checked behind her to find the creature still in the clearing. It was swiping with its huge claws at the bonfire, showing no concern for the heat of the fire as it tore the structure to pieces, raining burning rubble down on the villagers who continued to stand chanting. They made no effort to run, they just continued their ritual. Bill continued to stare at her, and though she was sure there was no way he could see her exact location in the trees it felt as though they maintained eye contact as his skin was set alight. He did not fight as he fell to the ground.

A roar so loud it caused leaves to fall from the trees came from the creature. For a terrifying moment, it looked over at Mia and the flames revealed a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. And then it turned to the other direction and ran, chasing the villagers deep into the woods. She watched until the creature was swallowed entirely by the trees, and then until the last of the flames burned out leaving only the charred remains of her neighbours.

Eventually, Mia made it home that night. She was shaking, crying, and exhausted. The house waited for her with its reminders of the hours before - the almost-empty pie dish on the table, the chair on the floor which must have been upended during her capture. She found herself sat on the floor, staring at the living room wall and was suddenly aware that she was still holding the camcorder. Mia thought about Poppy, the fate she found that Mia was surely supposed to have met that night. She remembered the flier on the tree and knew what had been torn away.

She was snapped out of her daze by a buzzing noise. At first she couldn’t understand it, but then she recognised it as her phone. She grabbed it and saw notifications coming through rapidly. One bar of signal at first. Then two. Her crying grew more intense, but for another reason now. She opened her messages to her mum and typed out a simple text.

I’m sorry. I love you.

She dropped the camcorder completely and opened the camera app on her phone. She looked terrible, but she thought that was understandable given the circumstances, and clicked record anyway. She smiled as wide as she could and started: “Hi Poppy, I’m Mia. I know you don’t know me, but I think I know you quite well by now. I want you to know I’m sorry for what you went through, but I promise I will make this house the home you deserved. Starting with this wallpaper…” She stopped the recording with a deflated sigh, unsure even within herself if she meant her promise or if she’d ever feel steady enough to fulfil it. But she got up anyway and started peeling the already loose wallpaper from the wall, one strip at a time.