Matthew awoke to an argument. It was the couple next door.

“… don’t have all we need…”

“… the special dish…”

The back of his head throbbed and each word of the barely audible conversation caused a fresh jolt of pain.

“… making me go all the way there…”

When their front door opened, Matthew opened his eyes. The dim light of the early evening sun made him squint. The pain in his head persisted. When he got to his feet, he felt weak and shaky. After a labored, painful breath, tiny dark spots appeared in front of his eyes. He fell back on the couch’s soft cushions. For long minutes he rested, but breathing was still terribly hard. His throat felt impossibly sore and the air in his apartment was dry and sticky. Fresh air, he needed fresh air. He stumbled to the window and tore it open, but instead of the fresh evening air he’d hoped for, the smell of cooking reached him. The neighbors must’ve their kitchen window open. He wrinkled his nose at the heavy, spicy aroma. With a curse, he closed the window again.

While he wondered what sort of meal they were making, he heard the husband returning from the store. He sighed, the building’s walls were too thin. He didn’t want to, but couldn’t help listening in as they talked. A fresh argument started, and he heard the old woman pleading about her special dish. Her husband grumbled in answer, and soon Matthew heard his footsteps as he set out on another trip to the store. As he sat there, rubbing his temples, he wondered if something was wrong with his head.

He pushed himself up and made his way to the kitchen. He sighed when he saw the perpetual state of chaos. The trash can was overflowing and dirty, crusted dishes filled the sink. He wondered when he’d last cleaned it, but the pain was still stabbing at his head. His hands were shaking as he he picked up a glass and filled it with cold water. Back in the living room, he considered popping an aspirin or two. Aspirin, in the back of his mind a memory began stirring, one barely out of reach.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the neighbors again. It was yet another argument. Overcome by curiosity about the weird events next door, he strained his ears.

“But it won’t be my special dish without it. Can’t you go to the store and get it?”

“Making me go all the way there this time of the day.”

Hadn’t heard this conversation before?

He wrinkled his nose as the hint of a strange smell reached him. Was it their cooking? Cursing, he went back to the window and tore it open. The moment he did, the same heavy cooking smell hit him. It was heavier now, more oppressive. The sharp spices and the strong flagrance of juniper stung in his nose and made his eyes water. He coughed, waved his hands to drive it away, but the more he fought, the stronger the smell became. He almost gagged and eventually gave up and threw the window shut again. The smell, however, had already spread through his apartment and it wasn’t helping his head at all. For a second his world began spinning, and he quickly got himself another glass of water.

He’d barely emptied it when he heard the neighbors again. The special dish. They were always talking about that special dish of hers. Their argument raged on and soon, the old man set out again. By now, he couldn’t ignore it anymore. He’d had it with their strange behavior. He threw over a jacket, put on his shoes and made his way outside.

When he stepped into the hallway, he caught a last glance of the old man before the elevator doors closed. Cursing and with quick steps, he hurried down the stairs. Once he’d reached the ground floor, he was panting, but he couldn’t see the old man. He must’ve already left the building. He saw him outside, entering the grocery store on the opposite side of the road. Mere moments later, Matthew entered the store and approached him.

“Mr. Schuster,” he greeted him.

The old man’s eyes met Matthew’s. For a few seconds he didn’t seem to recognize him.

“Ah, the young man from next door, how are you doing?”

Mr. Schuster’s speech and mannerism had a certain edge, as if certain gestures and words were too studied.

“Not bad,” Matthew brought out. “How about you, Mr. Schuster, a few last-minute purchases?”

“You know how it is, just getting a few things for the missus. She’s cooking her special dish.”

Of course, he knew. All they’d been talking about was that special dish.

“Hope you find everything you need,” he said out loud instead.

Mr. Schuster smiled at him before he continued on his way through the store. As inconspicuous as possible, Matthew trailed the old man. He’d expected Mr. Schuster to get exotic spices, or certain special ingredients he’d forgotten during his earlier trips. Instead, he picked up the most mundane of things; two packs of meat, a few carrots, a bundle of celery and a selection of herbs. While Mr. Schuster walked to the register to pay for and pack his groceries, Matthew got himself a can of coke.

“Must be one hell of a dish they are making,” he joked as he stepped up to the register.

The young cashier didn’t seem to listen. She had spaced out and was staring at nothing.

“Hey, excuse me, do you know how often that old man’s been here today?” he asked, louder, and pointed at the leaving Mr. Schuster.

Finally, the tired eyes of the young woman met his, almost as if she’d only noticed him now. Then she gave him a shrug. Her mannerism, too, was slightly off.

“Sorry, my shift just started,” she answered in a monotonous voice before she rang up his coke.

After he’d paid, Matthew hurried back to the apartment building. Mr. Schuster was gone, and the elevator was already going up. When he’d made it upstairs, he saw the old man in front of his door, fumbling with his keys. Before long, he unlocked it and shuffled inside, bag of groceries in hand.

From afar, he could hear them again. First a mumbling conversation, then another argument. Even out here, he could hear the old woman’s agitated words. The special dish, the special dish she seemed to hiss. And finally, Mr. Schuster stepped outside again and shuffled past him on his way back to the elevator.

Matthew watched in stunned silence.

By now, the air in the entire hallway was heavy with the oppressive smell of their perpetual cooking meal. He returned to his apartment and threw the door. How long had they been at it? How much of that special dish were they making? All he could remember was the first argument that had woken him. If, he realized, it had even been their first. Before that, though, there was… nothing. He couldn’t seem to remember. His head was clouded, his thoughts hazy. The throbbing was back, and he wondered if it was related to their cooking, to its smell.

In an instant, Matthew returned to the hallway and stomped to their door.

“Excuse me,” he started and gave the door a knock.

When he got no reaction, he knocked again.

“Mrs. Schuster, do you have a moment?”

When the old woman didn’t answer, he grew annoyed, angry, and pounded his fist against the door. As if to answer him, a brownish, soupy liquid leaked from below the door. He stepped back, staring at it in disgust and confusion.

“What the hell…?” he brought out.

There was no end to it. More and more leaked outside and drenched the carpeted floor of the hallway. The ding of the elevator made him jerk. Out stepped Mr. Schuster with yet another bag of groceries in his hands. The old man gave him a friendly nod before he stepped right into the puddle of soup and unlocked the door. When he opened it, more of the brownish soup spilled outward, drenching his shoes and ankles. Mr. Schuster, however, entered the apartment undeterred. Matthew stood there, mouth agape from the surreal sight, the plethora of questions he’d wanted to ask still stuck in his throat. He laughed when he heard them argue. What was going on here?

When Mr. Schuster left the apartment again, more soup surged outside, washing over the floor and splattering against the walls around it. Once more, the old man didn’t seem to care, or notice it, and his wet, squishy steps led him back to the elevator. By now, Matthew didn’t just feel anger, wasn’t just disgusted or confused. He was afraid. Something was wrong here, very wrong.

He fled to his apartment, but found the air heavy with the same oppressive smell that wafted through the hallway. The walls in his living room looked different. He reached out his hand and found the wallpaper wet and sticky. When he pulled it back, his palm was covered in grease. As he stared at it in disgust, the argument next door played out again. The old couple’s voices were more animated and strangely over-exaggerated now. When Mr. Schuster went on yet another trip, he heard more soup spilling outside and washing through the entire hallway.

Matthew threw himself on the couch and pushed his hands against his ears to drown out the sounds outside. None of this made any sense. It couldn’t be real. It had to be a dream or a mental episode, a hallucination. After only ten minutes, they were arguing again. He lay on his couch, curled into a ball, and listened to their ever-repeating argument. Each time their voices became more agitated, more distorted, and more inhumane. Suddenly, the strangest of feelings washed over him. It wasn’t so much acceptance, it was indifference. If none of this was real, then…

More than an hour had passed when Matthew left his apartment again. He gave no heed to the soup that flooded the hallway or the sudden, derelict state of the walls. Next door, Mr. Schuster, or what had been Mr. Schuster, pushed himself from the door. His body had changed, warped itself into a bloated, blob-like creature. Matthews’s eyes grew wide, and a cry escaped his mouth. He cringed back, but to his surprise, the creature didn’t pay him any notice. Instead, it shambled through the flooded, derelict hallway and entered the rusty cage which replaced the once pristine elevator. In a feverish trance and strangely fascinated by the changes, he made his way through the liquid, distorted hell of the hallway. When he entered the staircase, it had turned into a twisting spiral of creaking, worm-eaten wood.

The world outside had changed too. The road had become an upheaved crater landscape, and the buildings had contorted into grown together monstrosities of brick and mortar. He stood, staring in wondrous horror, at the waking nightmare that played out around him before he followed the shambling, bloated thing. What was once a grocery store was now a gaping, looming maw, leading underground.

The inside was a labyrinthine mess of twisted, rotten shelves filled with the most nightmarish of goods. Meat twitched and squeaked inside its packaging. Vegetables had become caricatures of themselves, and all around him the shelves were lined with creations that defied explanation. The young cashier had changed into an elongated, impossibly thin version of herself. Her head was gigantic and reached high above the highest of shelves, and her bulging eyes followed his every step as he traversed the once-store.

Matthew stared in horror as one of the squirming piece of meat crawled from its packaging and closed around his hand. When he felt the wet, sinewy flesh, it’s gentle, almost caressing touch, the trance he’d been under evaporated. Gone were the feelings of wonder and curiosity, of acceptance and indifference. If he could feel it, didn’t it mean it was no hallucination, no dream? All of this had to be… real. Fear washed over him and terror gripped his soul. In an instant, he fled from the nightmarish and distorted reality back to the apartment building.

After he’d ascended the winding, spiral staircase, he found the hallway a raging torrent of gooey soup. He had to fight himself forward as the sticky, knee-high liquid washed against his legs. He noticed things drifting past him, staring at him from half-hidden eyes and reaching out for him. Screaming, he tore them off himself, pushed open the door to his apartment and threw himself inside.

For long minutes, he was nothing but a shaking, shivering mess. Why had the world changed to… this? The phone, where was his phone? He had to call someone, anyone, had to tell them… He stopped. The phone, he remembered something about his phone.

“Never call me again, you creep! Leave me alone!”

The words reverberated in his head, mocking him. A call no, a voice message. Emotions came flooding over him, embarrassment, sadness and finally despair. Matthew felt tears coming to his eyes without knowing why.

Next door, the neighbors were screaming at one another. Their voices had become distorted and animalistic, barely resembling those of humans. And yet, he still heard it, still heard the she-beast next door growling about her special dish.

“No one cares about your special dish!” he screamed at the greasy living room wall.

Matthew stepped forward to pound his fists against it, to make his rage heard, but instead of hitting a solid surface, his fists sank into the greasy mess that had replaced it. He cringed back while the animalistic argument next door continued undeterred.

“Be quiet! Shut up!”

Other memories flooded his mind, other voices.

“Be quiet!”

“Get lost!”

“Drop dead!”

Dead.

“Oh god, no,” he pressed out when he remembered what he’d done.

His anger dissipated and was replaced by apathy. He slumped down on the couch.

Finally, Matthew remembered.

The special dish. While he’d overheard his neighbors talking about their special dish, he’d prepared one of his very own. The aspirin, he remembered. No, not just the aspirin, any medication he’d found. He’d downed it all, his very own special dish, to end his miserable life.

But then, what was this world? Was this hell? His very own private hell?

What if he was dying right now and a last surge of brain activity was replaying his final conscious moments repeatedly? Maybe this nightmarish world was nothing but a cruel, never-ending mockery of Zeno’s paradox?

He sat in his hellish apartment. An apartment filled with heavy, greasy air that made his lungs hurt and his head throb. An apartment that was slowly being flooded by the disgusting brownish soup and the horrors that populated it.

If this was caused by his brain shutting down and his memories deteriorating, would each iteration of this hellscape become worse?

And as he sat there, Matthew hoped, no prayed for only a single thing.

That this endless loop would be over and the neighbors would finally finish their special dish.

Job hunting can be tough, especially if you’re an idiot like me.

Now, I wasn’t exactly an idiot, but I didn’t have much of a qualification to do, well, anything. Even worse, my CV was riddled with blank spots, unemployment time and questionable positions.

As you can imagine, my chances in the competitive job market were pretty damn low.

The ever-lasting pandemic didn’t help. After trying my luck at finding a job for a few months, I gave up and spent my days sulking in front of Netflix.

It was my friend Robert who came to my rescue. He’d recently become a department manager at a wholesale company. After lamenting to him one evening, he told me that his department was understaffed and looking for new hires.

I was psyched, to say the least. I went to the job interview the next day with high aspirations of making it in the business world. In my mind, I already saw myself negotiating big time contracts with companies such as Mercedes or Porsche.

The moment I arrived at the office, I was already skeptical. It was a giant, old building complex, but Robert’s company was restricted to only one of its wings.

Even though I made my way inside and, after some confusion, found myself in the recruiter’s office. The man gave me a friendly smile, but I noticed his probing stare.

“Well, glad to have you here, Mr. Gerhardt. Mr. Richter already told us you’re interested in a position as a janitorial assistant. Before we start, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“Janitorial… assistant?”

“Of course, I was informed that Mr. Richter already discussed the details of your position?”

He gave me a questioning look.

“Ah, yeah, he did, sorry about that,” I brought out when I’d gotten over the initial shock.

Robert, that stupid fucking Robert. He’d told me he’d become a manger, but he hadn’t told me he was a freaking facility manager!

And of course, the dumbass I was, I hadn’t even bothered of asking him or checking anything about the position.

As I answered question after question, I considered more than once to just tell the man I didn’t want to work as a freaking janitor, but did I really want to go back to living on welfare? Did I want to go back to sitting in my shitty apartment day after day doing nothing?

No, I decided, and so I went with it and did the best I could. A few days later, I was informed that I’d been officially hired as a janitorial assistant.

I stared at the letter with a mixture of proudness and disdain.

When Monday arrived, Robert greeted me right in front of the building with a big smile on his face.

“Well then, Mr. Gerhardt,” he started in a pompous voice. “It seems you’re my new assistant, so how about I show you-“

“Cut the crap man.”

“Mr. Gerhardt, I like to inform you, that behavior like this is not acceptable.”

I sighed.

“Come on man, knock it off, just show me the freaking janitor’s closet so we can get to work.”

“You mean the facility manager’s office,” he corrected me.

I groaned, but followed him inside as he led me to our ‘office.’

Needless to say, the job sucked, and working with Robert wasn’t as fun as I’d imagined.

He was, for all intents and purposes, my superior, and he made sure I knew it. Even when I confronted him about it, he told me it was all for my own good and so I’d learn the ins and outs of the job. Yeah, sure, scrubbing toilets is really hard to learn. Fuck, Robert, and fuck this job!

Still, I had to admit it didn’t feel half bad to be doing something.

It was a few days into the job when I learned of the worst part: supply deliveries.

Once a week, the company ordered office and packaging supplies in bulk. Every Wednesday morning stacks upon stacks of printing paper, printer cartridges, boxes and other packaging materials arrived.

Robert was quick to inform me it was our duty to get it all up to the second and third floor offices.

“All right, where’s the elevator?”

Robert gave me a look of misery.

“What?”

“No elevator,” he said as he picked up the first of the many boxes and made his way to the stairs.

“Hold on, what do you mean, there’s no elevator?”

He shrugged. “Guess they never saw the need to install one.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I cursed.

It took us almost all morning to bring everything up to the offices and once we were done, the only thing I felt about my legs and arms was a throbbing pain. Even worse, it was barely noon, and we still had to take care of all our regular duties.

When I fell asleep that night, I was more exhausted than I’d been in years. Even my dreams comprised nightmares about endless staircases.

I’d been working as a janitor for two months when I made a discovery that both surprised and infuriated me.

It was Friday afternoon. I’d just finished cleaning the first floor and was getting rid of some garbage when I decided to take a peak in one of the other parts of the building complex.

I walked up to a door and found that the general key actually worked.

This wing of the building had once been used by a different company, but had been abandoned a few years back.

I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, I was just curious. As I made my way through a long, winding corridor and past empty offices, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

There was an elevator here, a fucking elevator!

“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” I cursed.

Well, there’s no way it’s working, I thought. The power had probably been disconnected a long time ago.

When I pressed the button, however, there was a loud ding, and the doors opened. I don’t know what I’d expected, but the elevator looked normal and in working condition.

I scanned the outside, then the inside, but there was no warning sign or anything. For all I knew, this building had a freaking elevator after all, and we’d been carrying boxes up the fucking stairs every single week.

After my discovery, I made my way back to the janitor’s closet to tell Robert about my findings.

I walked up to him and confronted him about the elevator, but he just started at me as if I was an idiot.

“What elevator?”

Instead of answering, I dragged him with me to the abandoned wing of the building and showed him what I’d found.

Robert looked at the elevator, then at me, and then shrugged.

“What’s the big deal? I bet it’s busted, anyway.”

Saying nothing, I pressed the button. The elevator’s doors opened with a ding.

“It’s probably busted anyway,” I imitated him.

“Fine, all right, it’s working. What’s the big deal?”

I sighed in frustration.

“Wednesday? The freaking supplies? Aren’t you tired of carrying that shit up the stairs every week?”

“Oh yeah, that’s actually not a bad idea. You’re smarter than you look!”

And you’re even dumber than you look, I added in my mind.

“So, you want to try it?” I asked.

Robert seemed apprehensive.

“You sure this is safe? We don’t know how long it’s been since this thing last moved.”

“Well, what’s the worst that can happen?” I asked.

“Only that we’ll crash down and die?”

“We’re at the ground floor anyway,” I said with a shrug and entered.

The elevator made no sound, the lights didn’t flicker, and all seemed normal.

“Come on, man.”

Robert stared at the elevator for another second before he joined me.

“I swear, if I die in here, I’ll freaking kill you!”

“That doesn’t even make sense!” I retorted.

“Hey, what’s up with all those numbers?” he asked, standing in front of the control panel.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s only three floors in this building. Why the hell does this thing go up to seven?”

I stepped up to him and couldn’t help but frown when I saw the various numbers and buttons.

“Might be a standard issue thing and they forgot to detach the other numbers?” I reasoned.

“Seen nothing like it,” Robert said. “Shit’s weird.”

“Sure is,” I said before I hit the number three.

The elevator went up with no problem, and we soon found ourselves on the building complex’s third floor. After we’d made sure a route to our company’s offices existed, we made our way back to the elevator.

As we entered, Robert eyed the various buttons curiously before he shrugged and hit the one labeled six.

“It won’t do a damn,” I started, but to my surprise, the elevator doors closed.

Soon after, it started to… ascend.

“Dude, what the fuck’s going on?”

Robert turned to me, looking at me in confusion.

“Haven’t gotten the slightest clue.”

“We both watched, as the elevator went up to floor number four, then five.

“Now many floors does-“

“Three!” Robert burst out, not even waiting for me to finish my question.

“So how the hell are we on our way to-?”

I was cut off when the elevator came to a rest and a loud ding announced that we’d made it to the building’s non-existent fifth floor.

When the doors opened, we found ourselves in an office, but it looked different from the rest of the building. The layout made no sense.

A giant, endless hallway spread out in front of us, one so long it wouldn’t even fit in the building.

There was an eerie atmosphere about it and a strange smell reached us. It was a mixture of sweat and an oppressively sweet odor.

As I looked down the hallway, my eyes hurt. The dimensions of this hallway made no sense. The same was true for the office doors.

It looked as if someone who’d never seen an office had tried to build one and had gotten it almost right, but at the same time, entirely wrong.

Suddenly, a muffled voice reached our ears. It was strangely high-pitched and indistinguishable. Robert almost jumped at the control panel and hit the button for the ground floor.

With each passing second, the voice grew louder and I could soon make out shuffling movements at one of the office doors in the distant. A twisted shadow pushed itself outside and began moving in our direction.

“Fucking close it already!” I cursed at Robert.

I shoved him aside and began hitting the button to close the doors repeatedly. Finally, with a ding, they closed.

“Freaking hell man, what the fuck was that?” Robert called out to me.

I slumped to the floor next to him and could only shake my head.

“No clue man, let’s just get the fuck out of this thing and never-“

My voice broke up as the elevator came to a halt on floor number five.

My eyes grew wide when the doors of the elevator opened.

This time there was no office. This time the only thing I saw was the grinning face of a man. It was so close to the doors, he must’ve pressed it against them.

This guy looked wrong. His eyes were wide open, his face comically long, and his smile was impossibly wide.

“A little room, friend?” he asked.

For a moment, I couldn’t do anything. I sat there on the floor, staring at the nightmarish figure in front of me.

With each passing second, his eyes grew wider and his smile seemed to grow bigger.

Then he pushed long, dangling arms into the elevator and saw him raise hands that were too bigger than any I’d ever seen. Their fingers were long and emaciated. He spread them out, pushing them towards me, and was about to touch my shoulders.

Almost by instinct, I pushed myself to my feet and retreated.

“Ah, yes, of course,” I stammered as I pushed myself against the back of the elevator.

The man was still staring at me as he pushed his lanky body into the elevator. He was wearing a tight suit, and I realized only now that he was hunched over. If he’d stand up straight, he’d be far taller than either of us, far taller than any normal person.

Once he’d entered, he turned his massive back to me and just… stood there in front of me, not doing anything.

In the back of the elevator, I clenched my mouth shut. In my mind I screamed at myself not to move, not to do a thing. For a second, I considered throwing myself at the man, pushing him outside. But after seeing how tall he was, after seeing those huge hands and his ghastly wide mouth, I just couldn’t move.

Eventually, Robert, who’d stood frozen in the corner next to the control panel, had enough. He reached out a shaking hand and was about to push the button to close the doors.

Before he could, though, one of the man’s giant hands shot forward and closed around Robert’s wrist.

He gave a terrified yelp, and I saw him pull back, trying to free himself. Yet, the man didn’t let go. Instead, he slowly turned his face towards Robert.

“I must insist, friend,” the man said, bringing his face ever closer to Robert before he pressed the button himself.

“Please, I don’t,” Robert started, but within a moment the man pushed his face so close to Robert’s they almost touched.

“Did you say anything, friend?” he asked.

And in that moment, his lips retreated, revealing rows of huge, misshapen teeth.

In the back of the elevator, I pushed myself as far away as I could. The man’s head, I saw now, was almost twice the size of Robert’s and for a moment I thought he’d attack him, tear him apart or bite his head off. And Robert, he just stood there, shaking in fear, his eyes closed. As the elevator descended, the only sound was that of Robert’s bladder emptying.

After what felt like an eternity, we arrived on the ground floor. The man was still grinning, but finally let go of Robert’s wrist.

His face turned from Robert to me before he spoke again.

“Thank you, friends, without you, I’d have never made it out of there.”

And with that he gave us the briefest of bows, stepped out of the elevator and skipped away down the hallway and eventually into the outside world.

As I stood there, I stared after him. His movement, his gait, his size. Nothing about him was normal. His legs moved jerkily, as if they had too many joints in them, and for the first time, I saw how long his neck was.

No, whatever was below that suit, it was no man, it wasn’t human at all.

And as I stood there, as I heard Robert slump down into a puddle of his own piss, I realized the most important thing.

It wasn’t what this thing was or where it had come from.

No, it was that thanks to us, it had been released into the world.

You know those nights, don’t you? The ones when life gets a bit too real and when you can’t sleep because your head’s heavy with questions.

What’s the meaning of life?

What am I even doing here?

Where do I want to be in ten years?

Yeah, those.

With a sigh, I lit a cigarette and leaned out my window, staring at the dark night sky. I drew on the cigarette, still deep in thought.

The dorms were all but quiet, and it seemed every other student was fast asleep. For a moment I was ashamed of myself. What was I even doing? I should be asleep as well. I had a math lecture in about four hours and here I was staring out into the night.

Well, not like it really mattered. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d miss that lecture, and it wasn’t like I’d miraculously understand differential equations of a higher order.

In sudden frustration I stumped out the cigarette, flipped the butt outside and was about to close the window again.

Suddenly, a quiet voice reached my ears.

“Hey.”

“What the hell?” I brought out, straining my eyes to find the one whispering, but there was no one out there.

“Over here,” I heard the voice whisper again.

Leaning outside, I turned left, then right to find a dark figure pushing against the wall mere meters away from me.

“Fucking,” I cursed in shock.

“Can you help me?” the voice asked. It was as quiet as before, nothing more than a whisper, but now I noticed it as distinctly female.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m lost,” came the answer.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. How in the hell did you get lost on campus? She’d probably been out partying and was too high or too drunk to find her way home.

“Where are you trying to go?”

For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence.

“The dorms,” she finally answered.

“Which one?”

Another long pause.

“I, I’m not sure,” she pressed out.

Well, isn’t that great?

“Hold on,” I said.

I threw on my jacket, put on my shoes and made my way outside. It was dark, and it took me a while to see her. She was still in the same place, nothing but a shadow huddled against the wall.

“Yo,” I brought out as a little greeting. “So you’re trying to find your dorm, but got no clue where to go?”

A nod.

“Well, since you’re here, it must be one around campus, right?”

Another nod.

In the dark, I couldn’t see much of her. All I could see was shaggy, wild hair and a mousy face wearing thick spectacles. I’d thought she’d been out partying, but I could somehow tell that this girl was no party girl.

“What happened? How did you get lost?”

She stared first at me, then out into the dark. Her mouth opened, then closed again. For a moment, something was strange about her, about her face.

“All right, listen, I can help you find your dorm, but you’ve got to talk to me.”

“I don’t know,” she finally brought out. “I don’t know what happened.”

For a moment she was about to add something else, but then she shook her head. I gasped. Even in the dark, I saw how strange her head moved, how her neck jerked from side to side.

Shit, what the hell was wrong with her?

“Are you all right? Are you hurt? Want me to call an ambulance? Maybe you fell and,” but I broke up when she repeated the same motion again.

“No. No, I’m all right, I think. I just want to get home.”

“Well,” I started, thinking about what to do and how to help her. “There are only a couple of different dorms around campus.”

I had nothing else to do, and I sure as hell couldn’t sleep.

“All right, how about we walk to each one of them until we find yours, how’s that sound?” I finally suggested.

For a moment she seemed unsure before she gave me a weak nod and pushed herself from the wall she’d been huddled against.

In the night’s dark, I’d only been able to see her hair and her face. Now, as she moved, as she pushed her body forward, my eyes grew wide. There was indeed something wrong with her, entirely wrong.

A pair of dangly arms stretched out from her body. They were too long, way too long, and a second later they came to rest in front of her. Then another pair pushed forward and her body was lifted from the ground. Not arms, I realized, legs, two pairs of long, dangly legs.

I stumbled back, fell to the floor at the sight of the apparition in front of me. Her body was thin, but tall, way too tall, and I realized she must’ve been crouching near the wall.

As she stretched herself, I saw an elongated neck.

A short, high-pitched scream escaped my mouth.

“What’s the matter,” the thing brought out.

Her neck jerked into my direction and long spidery fingers reached out to me.

I threw myself backward, crawled away in shock.

“No! Go away! Go away!” I screamed at the thing.

For a moment its eyes met mine. I’d expected them to be hungry, to be wild, but they were filled with nothing but confusion.

We both froze, both staring at each other.

Then a light from one of the dorm rooms above flooded us.

In an instant, the creature’s hand jerked back. Its eyes grew wide, filled with shock and terror.

“Not right, this is not right,” the creature brought out, retreating from me.

Its voice was louder now, and for the first time I could hear how different it was. It was inhumane, distorted, almost gurgling.

“Not right,” the creature brought out once more.

Its mouth opened, unhinged like that of a snake, and an inhumane shriek, full of misery, cut through the night. A second later, the thing rushed away and vanished into the darkness.

I was left alone in the grass in front of the dorm building. Behind me, more lights were turned on, windows were being opened and angry voices called out at me to be quiet.

But I didn’t react, I couldn’t

Instead, I just sat there, staring out into the night with yet another question on my mind.

Bringing a hot girl to my dorm room was not something I ever expected would happen to me. I’m not the popular type, never was. Hell, I’m a freaking nerd!

Making out, however, felt great. Her lips were so soft, her kiss sensual, but domineering. She pushed me onto the bad hard, and I felt her heavy breasts on my chest.

For a moment, I tried to move so she wouldn’t feel how excited I was, but she merely giggled and pushed me down harder.

We continued, our tongues entangled before she moved back to take off her shirt and bra. Seconds later she was entirely naked.

When I sat there, ogling her body, she giggled again.

“Get naked,” she whispered into my bear, slightly biting my earlobe.

“Y-yeah,” I answered in an excited, almost shrill voice.

I tried to pull off my shirt so quickly, I almost entangled my arms. Then I tore down my pants.

“Come here,” she whispered, bidding me forward to join her in bed.

All right, condoms, where are my condoms?

“H-hold on,” I brought out, turned around and rummaged through my cupboard. I pushed around all the useless clutter that had accumulated over the course of multiple semesters, but the tiny pack of rubbers was nowhere to be found.

Shit, shit, shit, where the hell are they?

“Dammit,” I cursed up.

“What’s going on, lover boy?” she asked laughing.

“Condoms,” I brought out. “I knew I had some, but,” my voice trailed off before I got an idea. I didn’t like it very much, but…

In mere seconds, I’d put my clothes back on and rushed for the door.

“All right, hold on a second,” I blurted out, holding up my arms, bidding her to stay in bed.

“I’ll be right back!”

“Don’t take too long, lover boy,” she joked, while playing with a lock of her hair, giving me a seductive smile.

Shit, for a moment I wanted nothing more than to go for it, but then I left the room and raced through our small three-room apartment.

I could hear my roommates, Rick and Barry, already. The two of them were still sitting in the kitchen, each holding a beer in their hands.

They stared at me, puzzled, before their faces turned to glee.

“What’s the matter, Jake, did she run away?” Barry asked.

“Couldn’t get it up?” Rick joined in.

“What? No, it’s not that, she’s waiting. Do you guys, eh, have any condoms? I can’t find mine so,” my voice trailed off.

I stared at them expectantly, but for a few moments there was nothing but awkward silence. Then they both burst out laughing.

“Holy shit, dude, what?” Barry pressed out, sprouting beer from his mouth.

“Sorry, bro, I’m all out. Used them all up the other week,” Rick added, laughing himself.

“Fuck, come on, guys, she’s already naked and-“

“Should’ve thought about that before you took her home.”

“Shit! You know what? Fuck you guys!”

With their laughter trailing after me, I hurried to the front door. I threw on my shoes and was out a moment later. The late night store at the edge of campus, I was sure they sold some!

As I hurried past the dorm buildings up to campus, I couldn’t stop cursing about Rick and Barry.

Why’d they have to be such fucking dicks all day, every day!?

Even earlier today, they acted like total fucking assholes. While I was busy working on a project due in two weeks, they kept pestering me all evening.

“Whatcha doing there, Jake?”

“You working on your project on Saturday evening?”

“Why are you such a fucking nerd?”

Yeah right, I thought, not everyone’s got mommy and daddy paying for their tuition. No, some of us had to actually worry about their grades and rely on scholarships.

Yet, even after I told them I had to finish this, they didn’t leave up. They barged into my room repeatedly, annoyed me, and kept pestering me to join them on their night out. I knew damn well, they only took me along to use me as a wingman when hitting on girls.

I hate to say it though, but I eventually told them I’d come along. The condition was that they’d leave me alone all of next week, though. Of course they agreed, and of course I knew they didn’t mean any of it.

“Come on, dickweed, we’re going to be late!” Barry called out to me as I put on my shoes. With a sigh, I got myself a beer from the fridge and hurried after them.

On the subway they talked their usual talk. Parties, drinking and girls, girls, girls. Every once in a while, they pestered me about my experience with girls before they both started throwing around the word ‘virgin’ and high-fiving each other.

God, why had I come along again?

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in the middle of a crowded club. The music was a mixture of shitty pop and over-tuned EDM. I hated it already.

Barry and Rick were right in their element, though, mingling on the dancefloor and hitting on girls.

I watched them for a bit before I propped down at the bar and ordered another beer. As I sat there, beer in hand, I couldn’t help but sigh. Once more I wondered why I put up with their antics.

“Bad night?” a voice spoke up from my right.

“Nah, it’s just,” I started but broke up when I saw the woman sitting next to me.

To say she was gorgeous would be an understatement.

For a few moments, I couldn’t help but stare at her. She giggled before she took a sip of her drink.

“You came here all by yourself?” she asked.

“Ah, no, I’m here with my, well, friends,” I brought out, “but they left me.”

She’d noticed how I’d mumbled the word ‘friends’ and eyed me curiously.

“Doesn’t sound like you’re too fond of those friends of yours,” she whispered conspiratorially.

I couldn’t help but sigh before I agreed with her. When I asked her what brought her to a club like this, she laughed and told me she liked to mingle, at least at times. We continued chatting, her talking all sensual and seductive while I was my usual awkward self.

It wasn’t long before my ‘friends’ noticed my new companion and joined us.

They plopped down to our right and left and outdid themselves in their attempts at charming her and excluding me from the conversation.

“You know, boys,” she started, “I’m talking to your friend here.”

With that, she put her hand on my leg and inched closer towards me, pushing herself against my body.

Rick and Barry’s jaws dropped at exactly the same time. For a while they kept up their spiel before they went on their search for easier prey.

“My, oh my, those two are something else,” she said amused, trailing after them.

It wasn’t long before she whispered sweet nothings into my ear and asked me if I’d like to get to a more intimate location.

With my head on standby, I blurted out that my dorm was a mere fifteen minutes away by subway. I regretted it instantly, thinking of my cluttered and cramped dorm room, but to my surprise she took me up on the offer.

Yet, it wasn’t so much my room that had me worried, it was Rick and Barry.

For a while now, the two of them had kept watching us. I knew it must’ve stung that I’d ‘gotten a girl’ while the two of them hadn’t ‘conquered’ any of their own.

The moment we went to leave, the two of them hurried along, clearly intent of ruining things for me.

While we were on the subway, they tried once more to impress the nameless beauty next to me, but she didn’t give them any attention.

The moment we’d made it back, she pushed me into my room, the room she was still waiting in.

And now, I wasn’t in that fuck room fucking, no, I was on my way to the goddamn late night store at the edge of campus!

Once I was past the dorms and had crossed two streets, I could already see the store’s dim light. As I barged inside, throwing the door, the cashier started at me.

“Ah, shit, sorry, I’m, never mind,” I stammered and began traversing the shelves.

Shit, why’s the place so big? Where the fuck are the condoms?

I moved past rows of cheap beer and equally cheap liquor, past microwave meals and canned goods, but I didn’t find any condoms.

“Fucking hell, where are they,” I cursed to myself, but in my erratic state I couldn’t seem to find them.

Eventually, I gave up and hurried back to the cashier who was busy arguing with two guys who must’ve entered the store after me.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where the,” I started, trying to push myself to the front, but found myself face to face with the two guys who were clearly drunk.

“Yo, how about you wait till it’s your turn,” one of them slurred at me.

“Shit, sorry, I just want to-“

“Listen pal,” the other one started moving up in front of me. “How about you shut the hell up and let us get our shit, all right?”

The other guy had already turned back to the cashier, laying into him about the price of a bottle of booze.

“…yeah man, no way I’m gonna pay ten freaking bucks for that shit! I get it for five at the freaking liquor store!”

“Then go there,” the cashier said with a shrug.

“Well, it’s fucking closed asshole, that’s why we’re here!”

Another shrug.

“Guess you don’t want it then.”

With that he was about to take the bottle from the guy’s hand, but he jerked it back instantly. Under a tirade of heavy curses, he brought out his wallet and threw the cashier a bill.

“There you go, asshole,” the guy spat at him before the two of them turned and made their way from the store. Not without elbowing me aside.

“Thanks, be sure to come again,” the cashier called after them with a grin on his face.

“Yeah, fuck you too, asshole!” I heard them scream from outside before they threw the door.

“So, what are you looking for?” he asked, turning to me.

“Oh, eh, I was wondering if you had any, well condoms,” I brought out.

The dude couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“Big night, eh? They are over there, second row to the left, near the back, a little hidden.”

In an instant, I hurried to where he’d pointed.

The moment I reached them, I stared at the various packs in utter confusion.

It was a mesmerizing ocean of sparkling colors. Rhino Rubbers, one pack was called while the one next to them sprouted the term Strawberry Slippers. What the hell’s all that stuff? Fuck!

After a few seconds of staring at the mess in front of me dumbfounded, I grabbed a pack of the most vanilla looking ones and hurried back to the cashier.

He scanned them, called out the price, but when I brought out my debit card, he shook his head.

“Sorry, but our card reader’s busted, cash only for the moment.”

I stared at him in disbelief and began rummaging through my wallet, then my pockets, but I still came out short.

“Fuck, come on man, can’t you like write it up or something? I swear, I’m going to be back first thing tomorrow and give you the money, hell, I’ll give you a tip and-“

“Sorry, I can tell you really need those, but no write ups, store police. There’s an ATM behind the IT building, right next to the bus station though.”

“Behind the IT building? Shit, that’s like… fuck, all right, I’ll be back, okay?”

“Sure thing,” he said as I rushed from the store.

“Fucking goddamn fucking fuck!” I cursed as I ran past lecture halls and faculty buildings.

All right, calm down, the IT building is to the right of… shit. Where the fuck am I even going?

I ripped out my phone and cross-checked my location. Of course, I’d ran into a completely different direction.

Fuck! Now it’s gonna take me at least five minutes to get there! With the time it took me to get to the store and now this… fuck! Please, please let her still be there when I get back, please, I prayed to any and all gods.

Following the directions of the phone, I finally made it to the IT building. I rushed past it and I could already see the bus station and soon the ATM behind it. Thank fucking god!

Without giving the two figures at the station any notice, I hurried to the ATM and inserted my card.

My fingers flew over the screen while I cursed at the machine to hurry the fuck up and give me my freaking money.

“Yo, dude, you got a light?” someone called out from me behind.

Ignoring the drunk guy, whose voice sounded a bit too familiar, I punched my PIN into the keypad, shuffling around.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey, I’m talking to,” the voice started, but broke up.

“You’re that asshole from the store!”

“What?” I asked, as I grabbed my money.

“Yo, Alex, it’s the guy from the store! The scrawny asshole who tried to cut in line!”

“Hey, sorry for that, but I’ve got to-“

Before I could even finish to apologize, he pushed me back against the ATM

“Oh yeah, you’re sorry?”

Instead of answering, I pushed myself past drunk guy number one, only to crash right into the second one who’d come to join in the fun.

The bottle of booze he’d been holding slipped from his fingers and crashed to the floor. For a second, the only audible sound was the shattering of glass. All our eyes wandered to the growing puddle of alcohol.

“What the fuck man?!” he screamed up.

“Shit, sorry, I didn’t,” was all I brought out before he hit me in the stomach.

Pain shot through my body and I stumbled back.

“What you gonna do about it, asshole? Eh!?”

Another hit and this time, I slumped to the floor. When I was about to get up, I was pushed down once again.

“Yo, I’m talking to you asshole!” he screamed up again.

Right at that moment, a window opened on a building nearby. A tired and furious woman demanded what all the ruckus was about.

The two drunks turned and started throwing insults at her.

While the three of them were yelling at each other, I pushed myself back to my feet and booked it.

It wasn’t long before the two drunks noticed and came after me.

Shit, how the fuck did it come to that?! I could’ve been getting laid right now, and instead…

“Where you think you going, asshole?!” one of them screamed after me.

I rushed past the IT building, then towards the adjacent chemistry building, but when I turned the two of them were still coming after me.

Then in a swift motion, I turned a corner and hurried up the stairs to the roof at the side of the chemistry building. Up there, I did my best to duck away so they wouldn’t notice me.

I saw them hurry on, past the stairs before they came to a stop and scanned the area.

“Where’d he go?” one of them asked.

The other was still scanning the area before a tirade of curses followed.

Shit, fucking leave already, assholes!

For a while they kept walking around, trying to figure out where the hell I went before they turned to leave.

I forced myself to wait for at least half a minute, counting down the seconds.

Once I was done, I jumped down the stairs and rushed over campus back to the late night store.

The cashier looked up when I barged inside again, panting.

“Well what do you know, you made it?”

I nodded, walked up to him and handed him the money without saying a word. He handed me the pack of condoms and my change.

“Good luck,” he joked.

“Thanks,” I finally brought out.

Once I was back outside, I couldn’t believe the night I was having.

I almost laughed when I looked at my phone and noticed that more than half an hour had passed. Knowing my luck, there was no way she’d waited for me that long. Hell, she probably thought I pussied out or god knows what.

“Fucking hell,” I cursed up.

Then, on my way from campus to the dorms, I noticed a lonely figure making their way down the streets.

From afar, I noticed the long brown hair, the tight dress and the sensual walk.

Oh god, no. Fucking no!

“Hey,” I called out and rushed towards her. “Hey, wait up, wait up, I’m sorry, I didn’t-“

Yet when I reached her, when she turned around, I broke up.

It was her, but at the same time it wasn’t.

Her hands and fingers looked different in the dark of the night. They were long, elongated and spidery. Her hair was wild and disheveled.

For a moment I cringed back, as she seemed to grow, seemed to become some hunched over, birdlike monstrosity.

“My, oh, my,” a distorted version of her sweet, sensual voice started. “You actually came back, lover boy.”

“Yes, I,” but I couldn’t go on.

Her mouth hung open, was distorted to a ghastly grin. I could see long pointy teeth, saw the blood covering her lips and dripping from her chin.

“It’s too bad,” she cackled as she stepped up to me.

I was frozen, paralyzed by fear as her hungry eyes stared deep into mine. Her long, pointed fingers reached out, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t escape her embrace.

For a moment, her appearance shifted once more. She seemed to grow, seemed to seep up all the surrounding darkness. Her head pushed forward, her lips brushing against my ear.

“You know, your friends weren’t all that bad, but I really would’ve liked to taste you,” she whispered before she sunk her fangs into my ear.

When I cringed back, cursing in pain, she giggled again. Once more I saw the long, needle-like teeth in her mouth.

“Maybe another time,” she said before she turned and vanished into the darkness.

When she was gone, all strength left my body, and I slumped to the ground in sheer and utter confusion.

When I heard chaos erupting down by the dorms and when I heard the police sirens, I knew whose blood she’d been covered in and I knew what must’ve happened to Barry and Rick.

As I sat there, I stared at the little box of condoms in my hand, the little box that had caused me so much trouble and that had ultimately saved my life.

And as I sat there, I couldn’t help but laugh and laugh and laugh.

When I was a little boy, my two best friends, and I loved nothing more than to sneak into Old Herbert’s barn.

Old Herbert had been a farmer all his life, one of the biggest in our small town. By now, though, he’d retired, and all that remained was an old farmhouse and the huge, old barn next to it.

This barn was our prime destination, during the scorching afternoons of a certain summer break years ago.

Of course, Old Herbert didn’t like the idea of some kids wreaking havoc in his barn and kept it locked all day, every day. We kids were crafty though, and the barn was as withered and old a thing as Old Herbert himself.

Small nooks and crannies were everywhere, allowing us to sneak in as we saw fit.

We loved to search through all the old tools and belongings inside, hoping to find hidden treasures, but our favorite was the giant haystack at the barn’s back.

It was there we played most of the time. We built little nests and huts made of hay, or dug into the outer layers of the giant stack.

Our favorite, though, was The Jump. The Jump was as simple as it could be. You’d climb up on one of the barn’s many beams, and from there you’d plunge yourself down into the giant stack of hay below.

It was exhilarating and I still remember how we’d all jump down there, screaming and laughing as if mad.

Old Herbert, though, wouldn’t have any of it.

If he caught us inside the barn, he’d curse at us and chase us out. Should he find us jumping into the hay stack though, he’d be furious, angrier than usual, and screaming at us, his tirade reminiscent of that of a sailor.

Thinking back, I don’t remember any of the insults he’d hurled at us. Yet, there was one thing he always spat at us in his rage. His rheumy, bloodshot eyes would be wide, saliva would fly from his mouth and his teeth would chatter in his mouth.

“One day, you’ll get lost in there!”

I remember how we’d laugh at that as we ran. How d’you get lost in a stack of hay? It was clear to the three of us that the old man, as we called it, was full of bullocks. All he was trying to do was to keep us from having fun!

Now, Old Herbert might have been old, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what we were up to, even if he didn’t catch us, and so he tried his best to keep us out of his barn. Yet, for every nook he closed off and for every cranny he fixed, we found a dozen more. Even better, there were a lot of loose, old boards we could pull aside to enter.

One day my friend Robby and I were waiting at the local soccer field. Melanie, the third member of our group, was late, and we were getting annoyed.

When she arrived, a little boy was following her.

“This is Terrance,” she started. “He’s here with his parents over the summer and he wants to play with us.”

“City people,” I mumbled under my breath, repeating my father’s words.

City people were common in our small town. Countless people from the nearby cities had built small summer cabins and holiday homes near our small little town to spend the warm months of summer here.

Some locals weren’t too fond of those ‘rich folks,’ one of them being my father. As so common for kids, I soaked up his hate and his superstition, not understanding a thing. All I knew was that city people were to be scorned.

Robby, of course, was the same and seemed even less happy about Melanie’s little companion.

Still, it was Melanie who’d brought him along, and we were at this delicate age when we started to see her with different eyes. So, of course, we didn’t mouth up and grudgingly let the little boy come along.

“Hey Andy, how about we take him to the barn? You wanted to go, right, Terrance?”

The little boy nodded eagerly, but I couldn’t help but be annoyed. The barn was our place, our little secret hideout.

“It’s not for city people,” I mumbled to myself, looking over at Robby for support.

“Don’t be a poop, Andy! Just let him come along.”

Of course, both Robby and I eventually agreed.

We’d made it to Old Herbert’s farm a good ten minutes later. For a while we stayed on the lookout until we saw the old man sitting on a bench in his garden. The coast was clear and thus we rushed to our destination.

I quickly found a loose plank and pushed it aside. Melanie was first to enter, then Robby followed.

Terrance, however, didn’t move, and I turned around glaring at him.

“Isn’t that breaking in? My parents always told me I’m not allowed to-“

“Well, your stupid parents aren’t here, are they? But if you don’t want to come, that’s fine, we’ll just go on our own.”

He shuffled around a moment longer before he hurried past me and pushed himself inside.

“Oh wow,” I heard him gasp next to Melanie. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool, isn’t it?” she whispered to him.

Here’s the thing about the barn. It was huge from the outside, but the inside always seemed so much bigger. Now, of course, it wasn’t, but it seemed like it because of all the things the old man had accumulated in here.

For a while we snuck around as usual as Melanie laid open the many secrets and mysteries hidden inside the barn to our young visitor.

To be honest, I didn’t like it one bit. She even showed him the little hideout we’d made from hay bales at the right side of the barn.

After a while, I was too annoyed to just go along with this anymore.

“How about we do the jump?” I asked in a loud, excited voice.

“What’s the jump?” I heard Terrance’s high-pitched voice pipe up from inside the hideout.

“The Jump,” I started in the most official voice a twelve-year-old can muster, “is a jump from a beam into the hay stack over there.”

As I said this my finger wandered to the beam we usually jumped from, but then it continued on to a different one, the highest one near the roof of the barn.

“From the highest beam in the barn,” I added with a smirk on my face.

Robby answered me with a smirk of his own. “Yeah, a jump from the very highest one into the hay down below!”

“Hey that’s not-“ Melanie started, but I cut her off right away, relishing in my new position of leader.

“Anyone who’s part of our group has done it! It’s our official initiation! You want to be part of the group, you have to do the jump. Otherwise, you can’t play with us anymore.”

“Stop being a dick, Andy!” Melanie called out.

My eyes wandered to the little boy. He wasn’t listening anymore, instead he was looking at the hay stack and then further up. His eyes went higher and higher before they came to rest on the highest beam of the barn. I could see his eyes grow a little wider, could see him gulp, but then he nodded.

Getting up there was easy enough. We found one of Old Herbert’s huge ladders, propped it up against the beam and ascended.

It took no longer than five minutes for all four of us to make it to the top.

“You don’t have to do it,” Melanie whispered at Terrance.

I grinned. “Yeah, you can just go back home to your parents and stay with them at their cabin, no problem.”

Yet Terrance didn’t react. Instead, he stared down at the giant stack of hay below.

“Well, what’s the matter little baby, not gonna jump?” I called out to him with the biggest grin on my face.

He didn’t answer though, instead his eyes rested on the hay stack below and were growing ever wider.

“I don’t wanna anymore,” he said in a low voice. “It’s scary.”

“Oh my god, what’s the big deal?” Robby started. “There’s like a billion tons of hay down there! We’ve jumped into it so many times, nothing’s gonna happen!”

But Terrance was inching back from the edge of the beam. By now all the color had vanished from his face and I could see his lips quivering. He seemed to be in a state of panic.

“I don’t wanna, there’s something down there and, I,” but his words trailed off.

Robby had gone forward and given him a push, annoyed at his lack of courage.

For a moment Terrance was balancing at the edge, grabbing at the air in front of him before he fell backwards.

His scream cut through the air. It was a high-pitched shriek filling the entire barn. I saw his wide eyes, his terrified face before he was swallowed up by the hay. His scream cut off the moment he vanished and silence descended upon the barn.

Robby and I were laughing our asses off at his terrified expression while Melanie called us stupid.

Eventually our laughter ebbed away, and we kept staring at the hay below.

“Hey, where’d you go, city boy? Come on, you can come out now!”

“Terrance, are you okay?” Melanie called out as well.

“Good work, pipsqueak,” Robby added, still grinning.

Yet, all there was were our calls. No one answered them, and the giant stack of hay remained still.

Melanie hurried down the ladder and over to the stack of hay, looking around to see where he’d landed. At the same time we continued calling out to him from atop, telling him it had all been a joke. By now, we were getting worried.

Our worries turned to fear when the heavy barn door burst open and Old Herbert stormed inside.

“Now what did I tell you, you damn troublemakers? You’re not supposed to be in here! I dare you, if you don’t leave this instant, I give you the beating of a lifetime!”

With that he picked up a wooden stick and waved it around while his rheumy, angry eyes focused on each one of us.

Robby hurried down the ladder, making his way to where we’d entered from.

I was about to follow him, but then stopped, my eyes wandering to Melanie.

“He’s not coming out,” she mumbled, her eyes focusing on mine.

“Who is?” the old man demanded as his heavy steps led him towards us.

“The little boy,” she started.

“Terrance, one of the city kids. He jumped down into the hay, but he’s not coming out,” I added.

“Oh you dumb little… How many times did I tell you it was dangerous? How many times? Did you see anything sticking out of the hay from the top? A piece of wood or something like that? Anything he might have landed on?”

“No, Mister Herbert, nothing, it was all normal, just like yesterday and nothing ever happened to us then!”

At the word yesterday, he squinted his eyes, but let it slide a moment later.

“No, but he said, I don’t know. He said he saw something down there,” Robby, who’d snuck back, added.

The old man jerked towards him and a tirade of courses escaped his mouth before he rushed towards the stack of hay, beginning feverishly to search through it.

I don’t remember many of his words, of his mad, angry ramblings, cursing at us and the damned barn and the hay. Yet, I remember one thing he said as he tore it aside, throwing heaps of it left and right.

“… just like trying to find a goddamn needle…”

It wasn’t long before the old man realized he couldn’t do this alone. Old Herbert went out calling over his wife to help and he told us to head over to the neighbors to explain the situation.

Of course, we did as he told us, especially under the threat of being responsible for what had happened.

Before long almost a dozen people had gathered, us included, all taken away the hay and putting it outside.

The work continued for hours and the sun had already started setting when we’d cleared it all out and the back of the barn was finally empty.

Yet, there was nothing there.

There was no hint of the little boy named Terrance. There was no wood or rubble below the hay he might have hit, no trap door he might have fallen through.

All there was, was the barren, empty floor of the barn.