Bogleech.com's 2018 Horror Write-off:
The Apartment
Submitted by Mitchell Bennink (email)
She was running the vacuum cleaner when the phone rang. Setting off the vacuum to answer, Alex dashed
to the phone stand on the table.
“Alex speaking, what’s it to you?”
“Al? Hey, it’s Will. Just settled in, and thought you’d like
to know.”
“Well, it took long
enough, but congrats. Maybe we’ll have a
little hovel warming party.”
After 2 years of college, Will had bought a new crib at the
SunPocket apartment complex down in Burlington. Alex could always tell he
wasn’t comfortable at home – his brother would disappear for long periods of
time, and everyone had to chip in just to pay his dad’s gambling debts. They
had gone for therapy, but addiction of any kind was hard to shake. She was happy for her pal, but even over the
phone, she could feel his guilt.
“You’ve checked this place out, huh? Think it’s your style?”
she inquired.
“Well, that place has been standing since I was 12. It
seemed pretty freaky back then, but what doesn’t at that age? It’s like getting
to know the old man from Home Alone! You
hear creepy stories, but then you start bonding when you actually see them up
close.”
Alex hadn’t heard any “creepy stories” but she was just glad
he was settled and wanted to see the new digs for herself.
“You know what? How about I come over this weekend? We could
hang out and see if it’s good for parties.”
Will was enthused. “Wow, sounds great. Though, we probably want
to chill with the “parties” idea. “
Alex’s folks weren’t using the car that Saturday. She was delighted when her mother gave her
the keys, but when she mentioned SunPocket apartments, her mom looked a little
grave.
“Ally, I’m really happy how you and Will are getting more
independent. But that place...I’ve heard things.” Alex was a little surprised
she hadn’t heard these “things” more frequently.
“Mom, it’s an old place. Some domestic issues, a few kids
fooling around, how’s that different from any other hood?”
“Well, it’s easy to overlook on the news, but a man died
there recently.” That shut Alex up. “By all accounts, he was in perfect health.
His heart had just stopped. And then Regan told me her cousin’s story. He says
he had lived there for a few weeks, and then one night he woke up to some kind
of sleep paralysis. But there were marks
on his body when he woke up. When Regan
came to help him move out, there was something wrong with the elevator. It kept
opening on different floors, when no one was coming in.”
“It’s all too random and infrequent, but still…those stories
make me shudder.” Alex thought back to
the odd little phenomenon they called “Building Sickness”, where health
problems in residents are linked to the poor conditions of an apartment or work
complex. “Sounds like this place needs
some serious repairs. I’ll tell Will if
it makes you feel better. But Mom, all these old places have their
problems. Someone’ll work them out in a
few months.”
Her mother seemed satisfied, and soon Alex was off.
Will’s residence was certainly spruced up. Some weird little
cats stared up from the welcome mat, and the entrance gave way to a spacious
living room. Several movie and TV
posters decorated the walls. The kitchen
blended nicely with the main area. Will
had poured some wine and laid out some snacks.
“This is a new hangout,” he grinned. “Might as well start treating it
like one.”
Within seconds, the two friends were crashed on Will’s
couch, telling silly stories, laughing about things on TV, and even broke out
some of the old green weed, or as Will called it, “the stuff you can take
without destroying your life.”
They even got into a semi-stoned discussion about drugs and
art. “I think it’s undervalued, you know? I mean, it’s a big risk, but so many
artists can thank it for their craft. Samuel Coleridge was on opium when he
wrote that weird poem about Xanadu and Kublai Khan. And I can’t help but wonder if today’s
cartoon creators do something like that. Adventure
Time, Flapjack…they feel like dreams, ones you only get if you’re flying on
a whole other level.”
Alex decided to bring up something that was barely on her
radar now. “Hey… you ever hear any spooky stories about this place? Cause some
people have some really weird feelings about it.” Will tried to shake himself out of his
half-baked glaze.
“Well…people do come and go pretty quickly, from what I
hear. You don’t think it’s haunted or anything, right?” In spite of herself, Alex chuckled. “When the walls start dripping blood and long
haired ladies start showing up, you might want to check out.” They went back to flipping channels, but soon
came to a halt.
Filling the screen of this particular channel was an
abnormal shape. One could call it a head
or a face, but it was so far removed from that concept. From the upper half of the strange visage
protruded two writhing, tubular stalks, like on a mollusk, but with an almost
artificial quality. The lower half was
divided into two vertical mandible-like structures that snipped open randomly,
like the automatic doors of a supermarket. It’s head was draped in what seemed
to be a hood. You couldn’t tell if this was a face or a mask. As they watched, the thing backed away from
the lens to give a slightly better look at its body. It had a hulking frame,
clothed in what seemed to be a mechanic’s vest, with at least four powerful looking
arms, baring wrinkled reddish flesh, like an elephant’s trunk.
It stood like that a bit longer, and Alex started to giggle nervously. “The SyFy
channel’s effects are getting better…That thing looks too good for TV movie
schlock!” Will did not return the joke.
A mixture of confusion, awe, and fear was etched into his face. “This isn’t a movie…this is the building security feed.” As the words sunk in, Alex turned back to the screen and saw what he meant. The thing had crawled down from its position in front of the security camera and sure enough, the entrance of Sunpocket Apartments came into view.
And there were three other visitors lounging about,
mostly identical, but showing traits of different species. The thing from the
camera walked into view to join the others, a stout, ape-like thing with six
red appendages indistinguishable from arms and legs. Another
resembled a plant, it’s arms and legs clusters of slithering tendrils,
like roots. The largest was built like a Yeti, with blue “fur” coating it’s
limbs and no visible finger or toes. The
last one was a slender figure, with what seemed to be steely gray pants, and
hands in it pockets. Seemed the most human, but that wasn’t saying much.
Yet all four boasted the same bizarre hooded insect-snail “mask", and strange vest covering their torso.
It was like a congregation of different worlds.
Will and Alex had only now noticed the man reading the paper on the
bench. The group was crowded around him,
and he didn’t raise his head once. The tall one peered down at the ignorant
reader, and took a ghastly looking claw device from his pocket. No, his hand.
The creature placed it’s claw on the man’s head, he barely
shifted. Then, the vine thing slithered up and shoved its tendrils into the
man’s face. It was plugging the man’s nose and mouth.
Both kids at this point wanted to turn off the TV, away from
this nightmarish display. The things must’ve knew they were watching, wanted
them to see. “Turn it off.” Will finally found his voice. He leapt to his feet and flipped it off, as
the red spider-thing and the furry brute walked off frame.
It was Alex’s turn to react. “Jesus, this isn’t real. It’s
gotta be some kind of fucking performance. I’ve seen weirder.” But she knew
what she saw. “L-let’s just lock the
door.” Still reeling from the shock, the
two did just that and propped some chairs and a shoe rack to be safe.
At Will’s behest, they chose different hiding places. Will
rushed into his closet, while Alex dove to the bathroom and slumped in the
tub. Several minutes passed at a drawn
out pace. Alex kept her breathing steady as she lay in silence. But as she lay back to calm, she began to
feel the vibrations of the thing’s footsteps as it moved through the third
story hall. There were dozens of people living here…who would it come for?
Her question was answered as a scream rang outside the
flat. Short but sharp, even threw these
walls. The footsteps carried on a bit
more, and stopped. There was a knocking from the front door.
Alex’s blood froze.
Yeah, they knew they were being watched. They wanted to preserve the
fear. The knocking grew louder, and then turned to pounding. The thing wanted
in. It’d got one victim, but it wanted
more.
And with the force of a tornado, the door gave in. She
listened to the footsteps as the creature shoved the barricade astray and moved
from the foyer to the main area. It was
searching the apartment, and when it reached the bedroom, they were dead.
No. No, they couldn’t let that happen. They had to protect
each other, not just die like punks in a slasher film. Bracing herself for a fight, Alex crept from
the tub with careful tread. As she left
the bathroom, Will was waiting, crouched against the foot of his bed. Without a
word, he motioned her and held out the swiss army knife his dad gave him. With
a solemn nod, she took the weapon and gestured him to stay put. Creeping to the door, she shut her eyes as she
slid the door ajar. Thankfully, it made hardly a sound. Whatever was in here was occupied with the
furniture.
You could tell by half of the couch tilted in midair. A cry
died in Alex’s throat as she slid into
the kitchen. Great, an invisible monster.
The couch lowered and dropped with a resounding thump, and the footsteps
began to move toward the bedroom. It had
noticed the open door. Alex’s mind
raced, and then something went off in
her head.
She whipped out her phone and put on camera mode. From behind the counter, she aimed it in the
unseen presences’ direction, and sure enough, captured in the lens was the
blue-furred hulk from downstairs. The
thing stopped, jerked back, and to her horror, turned its attention to the
kitchen. Then it hit her…these things could pick up video signals or something,
like they had done at the As she gripped
the knife, prepared to bury the blade the moment the thing reached the counter,
a loud grunt, followed by the resounding thud of hitting the carpet. Will stood in the doorway, having pitched the
little gargoyle in the direction of the monster’s steps. On the phone screen,
the thing turned to look at the man who couldn’t see it, but was poised to
fight either way. It paused it’s advance, as if it couldn’t decide between
prey.
By now they noticed the commotion outside. Another knocking,
clearly from the ruckus heard from the halls. The brute looked at the door.
Would it settle for the visitor? Alex
held her breath as the knocking continued.
Soon it would answer the door and there’d be a scream as
the-wait, no. It had turned the
opposite. On the screen, the thing was lumbering towards the window at the
back.
“Hey! What’s going on in there?” She shook off her confusion, and reluctantly,
they went to answer the door. Alex took
a glance backwards and saw the window was ajar. As she told herself the thing
was gone, she opened the door to a confused middle aged woman living across
from Will.
As Will explained, a bird had flew through the open window
and they were trying to scare it off. The lady said she had seen the door open and
close by itself. They replied that they
had actually tried letting the bird fly in the halls, to which she chided their
irresponsibility.
As it turned out, the man who had screamed earlier had
recovered. He had no memory of such an event. He told his neighbours he had
just come back from the store, and then he had just blacked out. Of course, Alex and Will knew he was not the
only other person affected by these visitors. But no one was speaking out.
Perhaps the things had got to them.
Some time later, after Will had gone back with his folks,
Alex heard from her mom that Regan’s cousin was having night terrors. And that
he would have frequent memory lapses where he couldn’t tell what he’d been
doing for the past few hours. Alex probably knew a bit more about that. Her and
Will, along with a few other tenants who couldn’t speak out in fear of the
things that came once in a while to do their unknown work. But one
thing was certain. She made it clear she would never go back there again.