Cut

Breath held

I held still

Stillness consumed

consuming fear

Fear sharp

Sharpened wires entangled

a tangle crossing room

Room glimmered

Glimmering as they hung

Hung as gossamer web

Webbing of some unseen spider

Spider was his name

Naming it made all the worse

Worst of all my heavy eyes

Eyes lolling to and fro

Forgetting my fear

Falling back

I scream

As the web ensares

Enmeshing with flesh

I bleed quickly

But not quick enough

Rope

Above the door

Chiseled roughly

A few words

“To appease Them what live below”

Coils wound round gears of wood

Pulling and groaning in protest

What was its purpose precisely?

I followed the hemp cordage

But always it moved farther

Deeper within the mill

Below the basement

Before reappearing

Now slick with something oily

And fatty in smell and feel

This mystifying contraption

This horrible machine

Ground away at something unseen

And just behind this noise

I was just cognizant of

A distant and harried cry

From those untouched depths

The sobs of a woman

The squeals of a pig

Melded and twisted

All I could think

Was the farmer’s words

“My wife’s the one

Who works the mill

I’ve not seen her

For a few nights now”

What had she wrought?

What had she aimed to mollify?

What in God’s name lay below us now?

Thumbnail Source: https://www.deviantart.com/4ddesigner/art/Old-mill-252991403

Crooked

It was built wrong

Not poorly constructed

Its angles were minatory

Malevolent

Something cruel

In the crossing of those lines

If a home has a soul

This one weighs heavy with sin

But this is a house

No one lives here

Could exist here

In this unheimlich domum

And yet

I call this my heart

The place I return to each day

And I patrol its halls alone

I would not inflict

Not force upon another human

This awful sight

This odd angled room

This crooked house

Dolls

A standing layer of dust

Covered every inch

Of every surface

And as I perused slowly

The smell curled and soured

The scent of abandonment

I ran a finger over glass

Cabinets laden with antiques

The dust piling under my touch

Something stirred within

I stopped

And leaned in close

Porcelain placid face

Stared out at me

Hand held up

And beckoning

Then her mouth

Twisted slowly

Into smile

Teeth shimmering in the dark

Human teeth

Children’s teeth…

I should have ran

But I stood

Frozen by fear

As the doll stood up

Pressing forehead to glass

A crack appeared

Down its head

Slowly spreading

Then opening

The jagged edges

Lined with yet more teeth

And within

Something fleshy

And quick

Pressed into the glass

Sucking

Needy

Hungry

I awoke screaming

On the floor

Of that self same shop

And readied myself

For yet one more pass

The fear repeating over again

Just as acute

Just as sharp

Silent

The books were lined perfectly along their shelves

Battlements of knowledge

An army of thoughts

I eased my way between the stacks

Careful with each footfall

Paying heed the warnings given

“Oh sure plenty of value to be found there

In thought or coin the library’s a trove

Though…

You must be quiet…”

I slid past adult fiction

Approaching the archive and rare books

I held my backpack before me

Hands gripping the tools within tight

No jingle or rattle would I allow escape

The cabinet stood before me

Cracked leather spines

Cloth worn down to wood

Each one worth enough to feed me for months

Gently I set the backpack down

Undoing the strap which held it closed

I lifted from within my lock pick set

With nimble fingers I tested the size of the lock and tumblers within

When satisfied I began gently lifting and testing each one

Finding the order in which to move them

And the height at which they caught

A smile broke over my face

As I managed the final tumbler

Slowly

Carefully

I turned the lock

Then

click

It turned and opened for me

I had a sack within my backpack

Which I then pulled out

And with greatest care

Lowered the tomes within

A bible

Illuminated and gilded

A Tree of Codes

Barely held together

On the Origin of Species

Signed too infact

creeeeak

Behind me

I didn’t look

I simply grabbed my bag

And ran

Ran with all my might

Behind me something hissed

Serpentine

But footfalls crashed as it followed

Barreling ever closer

I felt the breath

Its labored heat

The doors but feet away

The moment I passed the threshold

The sound stopped

Replaced instead

By churring crickets

And a gentle breeze

Which were quick drowned out

By my own panting

Keeled over

And clutching my books

Months of food

Waiting to be traded

Thumbnail Source: https://andriishafetov.artstation.com/projects/Pe6bZ

Dirt

I stretched my toes

Feeling the soil spread beneath them

Slowly I closed my eyes

Easing a breath from my lungs

Was I truly ready for what I’d find?

For what it would show me?

But no one could truly be prepared

I knelt and with a black bladed knife

Carved an eye into the dirt

Then pressed the point of the dagger into my thumb

dripping a few drops of scarlet blood upon the mound

The frimament began to shift

Quaking in excitement as a low rumbling took up

Then the eye I had drawn

Blinked

As it opened the loam fell away

Down into the earth

I lowered my face to this hole

And stared back into the eye

Black nothing greeting me

Then a distant light

Sparkling

Shimmering in the dim

It was magnificent

Horrible

Awful

Terrible

Everything which had died

Or will die

The churning mass of souls

Which comprised the earth

The lives we walked upon daily

Without thought

They looked up at me

And screamed their truth

“The final life

The ultimate form

Of all that is

Or shall be

Is simply the dirt

And that which lives within”

Box

Mom kept it at the back of the closet

The one that curved beneath the stairs

She caught me trying to open it once

Tanned my hide for that…

Just a dumb box

What’s wrong with it?

But it was halloween

She thought I was out

Trick or treating with my friends

I crouched low beneath the steps

Squeeze charged flashlight in hand

Pumping slow and steady to keep it lit

There it sat

Brown and plain

No markings

No indication of contents

I kneeled and slid forward

The cape of my batman costume dragging

The world’s greatest detective…

I reached it and slowly grasped its sides and pulled it out a bit

I held the light in one hand, still pumping away

And with the other I eased open the unsecured lid

Nothing was inside

No not an empty box

Nothing

I saw nothing

Black

Endless

Nothing

The inside edges of the box were there

But where the bottom should be

Nothing

I didn’t get it

I couldn’t get it

I still don’t

My hand shook as I slowly eased my flashlight down into the box

Passing the floor and dangling it in the void below

The light dimmed

battery draining quickly

I heard something

Deep and low

Predatory

My body jumped

And the light fell

Fell

So far

Then nothing

Gone without a trace

I slowly closed the lid

Slid it back

And never spoke of it again…

Thumbnail source: https://www.deviantart.com/jusdog/art/The-Scary-Box-449433139

Root

My little garden

So perfect

Placed exactly

Quite precisely

Measured spacing

Exact depth too

Even the watering

And lighting of course

See how they sprout

Flourish anew

From the old

And decaying

Glorious blooms

Crimson and violet

It seems right

That this should come

From a night

Crimson and violent

Yes as I ease the rows

And till the ground

Eyes vacant and grey

Stare up from the loam

Haunted

My last patient of the day

Her eyes were pocketed and harrowed

Thumbs fiddling nervously

“Is there something specific

You want to discuss, Priscilla?”

I asked

Penciling in my observations

She nodded slowly

“Yes Dr. Jacobs…

I haven’t been sleeping well

I haven’t closed my eyes

In so long

Because when I do…

It…

It…”

She began to cry

Great heaving sobs

The whites of her eyes

A pinkish hue from strain

I let her have a moment

Waiting

“Two days ago

It started

I was having coffee

I closed my eyes for a moment

Just a blink really

And then crouched

Slavering and bestial

It sat on my table all fangs

And claw

And piercing predatory gaze

I ran

But it did not give chase

I eyed it from behind a corner

As I blinked

It was halfway across the room

Eyes locked on mine

I fled to the bathroom

Locking the door behind me

I shut my eyes

And heard it pacing

Claws scraping the wood flooring

Breath heavy

Excited

Then it hit the door

I heard splintering

Eyes flying open

It stopped

The door was split in the middle

Wood poking out at odd angles…”

She took a deep slow breath

Trying to steady herself

“I managed to get past it

Holding my eyes open the whole time

And left my apartment

I slept in a hotel that evening

But in the middle of the night

The window of the room I was in

Shattered inward with explosive force

I saw it as I sat up

Frozen in air

Claws extended

In mid-pounce

Saliva fell in long ropes from its fangs

It-

It’s been chasing me ever since

I can’t

I can’t sleep

I can’t run

It always finds me…”

She shut her eyes and weeped

Palms pressed to her eyes

I heard a bang from the reception

Valerie screamed

Then the door shattered into hundreds of pieces

Nothing stood there

Priscilla screamed

Suddenly lifted from her chair

Eyes still shut

“Kill me damn you!

Do it!

Fuck you!”

Claw marks appeared over her clothes

Long streaks that quickly bloomed crimson

Her screams became strangled

As punctures pierced her throat

Her body shuddered as the flesh was ripped

Tossed to the side

And soon her body fell limp

Collapsing to the floor

Then silence

A complete

And perfect

Silence

Hollow

I was sent to the Principals office

I had been passing notes in class

“This is very serious

You’re here for your education

If you don’t shape up

You know what will happen?”

His tone was scolding

But face

Tranquil

I shook my head

“You’ll miss what we’re teaching you

Then you’ll fail out

And you’ll be fed to Them.”

His voice was now tinged with concern

But still

His face was calm

“What?”

But he lifted a finger to his lips

“If you listen…

You can hear…

They’re hungry.”

I could hear the whine of the AC fans

But then

Behind that

A scrabbling scratching noise

Like rats

But hundreds

So many individual scratches

“And if they eat you…

Then you’ll be just like me…”

The Principal opened his mouth wide

All I saw was black

He gripped the bottom of his jaw

And pulled down

Flesh stretching

Extending

Impossibly far

Still all I saw

Within his mouth

Was an inky black

His mouth grew further

So massive

Down to his chest

And still only that impenetrable dark

I screamed

And ran

I ran until I was home

A sobbing mess on the kitchen floor

My mother held me

“It’s okay sweety

It’s okay…”

She consoled

“And now you know

Not to pass notes

So you won’t end up

Like your old man

All hollow.”