The Dead of Night

“Has anyone ever really thought about what career they wanted as a kid? I did. I wanted to be a veterinarian, a doctor of some kind. Sadly though, bad things happened in my life... I got into some trouble and dropped out of school. Eventually, I was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety that stemmed all the way back to my childhood. My parents never believed me when I told them I tried my best to deal with my issues, so I quickly became the black sheep of the family. Everything went south for a while, making me think nothing good would come of anything I did. Until I met him. He made me believe. He made me realize I can do anything I wanted to if I put my mind to it. He saved me. We would do everything together, go everywhere together. We were inseparable. He believed in me when nobody else did, not even myself. No matter what it was, he was always there for me every step of the way. Do you have someone in your life like that?”

As my eyelids felt heavy, I closed my diary, placed it on the nightstand next to me and turned off the light. I wiggled down under the soft, warm covers to get cozy and comfortable. Within seconds, those strong, loving, familiar arms wrapped around me and pulled me in close. Soon after, I drifted into a deep sleep. Around 3:30am, I groggily woke up with that annoying urge everyone knows, the need to pee so bad it feels like your bladder is about to explode. I did not want to disturb him, so I gently moved his hand. He woke up anyway, then asked in a sleepy voice, "everything okay?" I quietly replied, "yes babe, just going to the bathroom, go back to sleep". He gave me the cutest little smile and rolled over. I grabbed my phone off the bed side table and tip-toed quietly into the bathroom. As I sat there on the toilet waiting for my bladder to empty, I decided to scroll through Facebook out of boredom. A few strange things popped up on my newsfeed, but I did not think anything of it as it happens often. They were probably those fake news articles you see a lot anyway, just like the one about Ebola bringing people back from the dead. “Whoever came up with that idea, clearly has nothing else better to do.” I thought to myself as I scrolled past them. After I was finished peeing, I wiped, flushed, and washed my hands. I took a moment or two, then walked out of the bathroom. Glancing over at the bed seeing him sleep so peacefully, it reminded me that life is not as bad as I thought it was. I smiled gently, then shut the bathroom light off. Feeling a little thirsty and more awake than I should have been, I figured I would go downstairs for a drink of water, maybe a little snack too. I walked out of the bedroom into the hallway and closed the door slightly behind me.

Just as I started to walk down the stairs, I took a step down and, “ROWWW!” I jumped so high I missed a step and almost fell down the stairs. I accidently stepped on our cat’s tail. He darted across the hallway and into the bedroom, “Ugh... damn cat”, I muttered to myself while feeling how fast my heart was beating. Continuing down the stairs, a little on edge after getting spooked, I made it to the cupboard above the coffee machine to grab a cup. I filled the cup with water from the sink and slowly took a sip. I sighed with satisfaction, “oh man that was refreshing”, I thought to myself in relief. It was probably about 3:55am at this time, and I felt myself starting to get tired. Hopefully, I can get back to sleep. I decided that maybe it was time to head back upstairs to bed since I had to get up early that morning. Once I finished the last drop, I quietly placed the glass in the sink. Feeling like I was now ready for bed, I walked towards the stairs, put my hand on the railing and yawned. Just as I placed my foot on the first step, I heard something coming from outside, almost like an animal was rummaging through the trash cans. I paused for a moment, “... nah, it’s probably just raccoons in the neighbour’s garbage again” I said quietly to myself. I went to take another step up the stairs, but something felt a little off, a little strange. That horrible gut feeling you get when you know something is wrong, and that is when it happened.

A loud, blood curdling scream came from the house next door. Moments later, the scream was followed by a series of hard knocks at my front door. I froze, I could not move. Because of my condition, I have a hard time dealing with stressful situations. I closed my eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and went to see who it was pounding on my front door at 4:00AM. I nervously looked through the peep hole of the door. It was our neighbour, Frank. He looked so terrified, almost as if he saw a ghost. I slowly opened the door while rubbing my right eye, “Frank, it’s 4’ in the morning, what is going on? Is everything okay?” I asked with a puzzled look on my face. That is when I noticed the one of the most horrific thing anyone could possibly see. Frank was covered in blood. It was all down his shirt, on his pants, and up his arms. There was even some blood on the side of his left cheek. "Oh my god! What happened!?" I asked in a panic. "I don't know... I came home late from work and my wife… she... she... oh god! Please help me!" he stammered, trying to catch his breath from hyperventilating. Without thinking, I reached behind the door and grabbed the baseball bat I had stashed in the front closet. You know, just in case of emergencies because you never know when you might need it.

I crept out onto my porch and looked around to see of anyone else was around. There was nobody. “What are you going to do with that?!” Frank asked frantically, “Who did this to my wife?!” I took a deep breath, and said calmly, “I don’t know, just stay quiet.” Cautiously walking up the front steps, I could hear moaning and groaning coming from inside the house. Something felt very wrong about what was happening, so wrong it was like this was a dream, an imagination. I thought to myself, "no, this can't be happening... could it?"

I entered Frank’s home, “do you see her? Oh Joanne… my darling Joanne!” Frank nervously said a little louder than I had hoped. I closed my eyes tightly and thought to myself, “for god sakes, really!?” I began to search the main floor, but I did not find anything, except for smears of blood all over the floor as if a body were dragged throughout the house. Frank stepped into the house and asked loudly, “did you find her? Please tell me you found her! She’s there in the kitchen.” I may have snapped a little bit, “Frank, for the love of god, stay outside and stay quiet! Please!” I followed the smears on the floor to the open basement door, it had blood on the handle, and it was also running down the side. I stood at the top as I looked down into the dark, cold basement, only imagining what could possibly be down there. Maybe she just cut her hand and went looking for something to help stop the bleeding, or so I had hoped. “Is she okay? Please say something! Anything!” Frank yelled into the house, once again. I clenched my fist, took a deep breath and replied angrily, “Frank! Shut up!” Suddenly, I got a whiff of something, something strange, yet oddly familiar. “What on earth is that?” I asked myself, as I took another sniff. I paused, quickly covered my mouth and nose. It was the smell of a rotting corpse. The scent started to burn the hairs in my nose, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. I flipped on the light switch for the basement light, but nothing happened. The power was out. I closed my eyes for a second, took a breath, and muttered to myself, "of course the power would be out, why wouldn’t it be?... Thank god for iPhones." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned on the flashlight. I tightly gripped the bat, took another deep breath, then started to head down the creepy, old wooden stairs into the basement.