I always thought the world was a place grounded in logic. The supernatural, the surreal; these things only exist in fiction.
Two months ago, all that changed.
I’d recently moved into a new apartment. It was small and cramped, in one of the city’s social housing complexes at the edge of town. Guess it’s the only place a former junkie such as me can hope for. And yet, I was content. At thirty-four years old, and after months of rehab, I was ready for a fresh start. Apart from mine, only two other apartments were occupied. One by a friendly old couple, the other by a group of young people. They might have been students, they might have been unemployed. I’d heard them a few times during the night, but as long as they didn’t cause me any other trouble, I didn’t care.
Everything about this new life started to go wrong a few weeks after I’d moved in, and it was all related to the building next door. It was a sprawling old mansion, with countless wings and walls so high they towered over every other building in the area. Its immense size was almost unfathomable, but decades of neglect had turned it into a dilapidated ruin, void of any signs of life.
That morning, something felt different. While I waited for my coffee, I took a glance out my living room window. Usually, All I saw were the mansion’s walls, a single dirty window veiled by heavy, musty curtains, and the narrow, constricted alley below. But this time, I could’ve sworn the mansion’s wall was closer. Close enough to make out details I never noticed before: the texture of the satin curtains, the filth on the window, the flaking plaster. Then I shook my head.
“Focus, Linda. Coffee first.”
A few days later, I couldn’t blame it on a lack of coffee anymore.
Every morning, I sat down to write in my journal. It was a little ritual I’d picked up in rehab. The first thing you do is jot down your expectations for the day. Positive reinforcement, they called it, and a way to get the gears in your head turning. After the first few sentences, I noticed just how dark it was. Normally, a few rays of sunshine would reach me through the living room window. I stepped up to it, expecting to see a cloudy sky, but when I looked outside, I could see the sun as clearly as always. It just didn’t reach the small alley anymore. While I wondered about it, and scanned the alley below, I couldn’t help but think it had shrunk in size.
I told myself I was being ridiculous, and that my imagination was playing a trick on me. A moment later, I opened the window and looked up and down the alley. No doubt about it, it had been much wider before.
Unnerved, and unsure what to make of it, I put on some clothes and went down the hallway to the old couple’s apartment. Maybe they’d noticed it too and could tell me what the hell was going on. After a few quick knocks, a tiny old lady, still wearing her nightgown, opened the door.
“Good morning, dear,” she greeted me. “What brings you here so early in the morning?”
I was embarrassed, realizing I must’ve woken her up.
“Oh, eh, sorry,” I started.
I tried to find a way to ask the question on my mind, but I couldn’t very well ask her if the alley outside had gotten smaller. Instead, I opted for a safer option.
“I was just wondering, did you or your husband notice anything strange last night? Outside in the alley?”
She eyed me curiously for a moment before she shook her head.
“In the alley, you say? Oh, I’m afraid not. We keep that window closed. Werner even put our wardrobe right in front of it. ‘No reason to stare at those ghastly old walls,’ he always says.”
I gave her a nervous laugh before I agreed and apologized for the early disturbance.
“Guess there’s no helping it,” I said to myself, sighing, and made my way down the stairs to the young people’s apartment.
I knocked on the door once, then twice more before a tired-looking redhead with thick glasses opened the door.
“Morning,” she mumbled, annoyed, staring at me with half-open, puffy eyes.
“Sorry to bother you. I was wondering if you know anything about the mansion next door.”
“Why don’t you ask the people living over there?”
Her tone of voice had changed noticeably. The first thing that came to my mind was ‘what a freaking bitch,’ but I bit my tongue not to say it out loud.
“Well, I think something strange is going on and-“
Right at that moment, she slammed the door in my face.
“Bitch!” I cursed.
I raised my hand and was about to pound against the door, but then I stopped.
“Calm down, Linda. You don’t want to be known as the crazy chick again.”
A moment later, I was back in my apartment. What if it was all on my mind? God knows my brain could be hazy. I mean, how the hell was an alley supposed to shrink?
While I got ready for work, I did my best to ignore the living room window. As I went on my way, I wondered if the sunlight had ever truly shone into my living room. And yet, when I walked past the alley, I couldn’t help but take another look. My doubts were back instantly. It really had been wider before, hadn’t it? I snapped a picture before I continued on my way.
“Just to be sure it doesn’t shrink again,” I told myself, but couldn’t help but shake my head. “Jesus, Linda, what’s the matter with you?”
Instead of pondering on it, I kept the blinds closed and had soon forgotten about the entire thing.
Two weeks later, the redhead from below, and one of the guys living with her, appeared at my door. For a moment, she looked away, not able to face me.
“Hey there,” she eventually said with an awkward smile on her face.
Well, look who can be friendly if she wants to.
“Hello,” I replied.
“A while ago, you asked me about the mansion next door, right? What was that all about?”
I was reluctant to tell her what I thought I’d seen.
“I heard something at night. Why?”
She probed me, clearly unsure about what to say. At that moment, the guy next to her approached me. He was a fidgety, lanky fellow who’d been shuffling around behind her the entire time.
“Hi, there, I’m Phil.”
He reached out a hand, and after an awkward handshake, he continued.
“We saw something, and we were wondering if you did, too.”
“Like what?”
He was as wary as the redhead.
“Well, our friend heard noises out there, too, but he also said the alley had gotten… smaller?”
I couldn’t say anything. I expected them to laugh, and to reveal it was all an elaborate joke. The laughter never came. Were they actually serious?
“What do you mean by that?”
“You have to talk to Will about that,” the redhead cut in. “He’s the one who noticed it. I thought you might know something, since you asked me about the mansion before. I’m Jen, by the way. Sorry about the other time.”
A minute later, I found myself in their apartment. Five people were living here altogether. Jen was the only girl, and I didn’t know how to feel about that. She quickly introduced me to the three guys in the room. One was Will, who she’d mentioned before, the other two were Steve and Jay.
While we talked, I learned Will had rented the place and moved in about a month before I did. The rest were friends who just crashed here. The place was a total dump, and I could tell those guys definitely weren’t students.
“Thought it was a stray at first, you know?” he began rambling, half-stumbling over his words. “But the noise didn’t stop. The tapping against the window, I mean. So I checked it out. Was the first time in, well, forever since I even opened the blinds. First thing I see is a damned window, and it’s really freaking close.”
“What do you mean by close?” I asked, still playing it safe.
“He thinks the freaking thing’s closer than before, lady,” the one named Jay cut in, shaking his head.
Asshole, I thought, as he sat there with a smug smile on his face.
“Well, yeah, that,” Will continued. “Damned thing’s so close now, I can almost touch it if I lean outside.”
He made a gesture, stretching out his arm to demonstrate.
“Wasn’t like this before. Was probably more than a meter away, if it even was there at all.”
“If it was there at all…?”
He didn’t answer me. Instead, he began rubbing his puffy eyes, lost in thought. I made a mental note that this guy was definitely a pothead.
“Oh yeah,” he suddenly continued, snapping out of whatever trance he’d fallen into. “There was this figure behind the curtains, too. Vanished the moment I opened the window. Shit was creepy, I tell you.”
I nodded.
“To be honest, I noticed the same thing about the alley,” I finally admitted.
For a moment, my eyes wandered over the group, once again waiting to reveal they were all playing a joke on the crazy lady from upstairs. Instead, Will’s eyes grew wide.
“You mean last night?” he blurted.
I shook my head before I turned to Jen.
“Remember when I knocked on your door?”
“Wait, back then?”
“Are you guys seriously talking about an alley shrinking? Maybe next you’re telling me the freaking mansion’s coming for us? Fucking listen to yourselves!”
It was Jay once again. No one didn’t know what to say to his outburst. Then I remembered the picture I’d taken and took out my phone.
Moments later, Jen, Will, and I stood outside, staring at the alley.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jen said in a low voice.
All three of us could see it. The alley had shrunk to almost half its size. Before, two people could walk through it side by side. Now, there was barely enough room for one. I snapped a second picture.
“So?” Phil asked, almost jumping off his seat when we returned.
“It’s smaller,” Jen answered.
“The fuck you mean?” Jay cut in.
“The alley, idiot,” she snapped at him.
“That’s not even possible!”
“Check for yourself,” I retorted, fed up by his act. “It’s definitely smaller in the first picture.”
“Maybe you just suck at taking pictures, lady.”
I stared him down, getting angry.
“Seriously, I can believe Will’s coming up with bullshit like that, but you guys, too?” Jay confronted Phil and Jen.
“How do you know they aren’t right?”
It was the first time the one named Steve said anything. He’d just sat there, quietly, listening to the conversation.
“Really, Steve? You, too?” Jay groaned. “Am I the only one who’s not fucking insane?”
“Look at that, will you?”
Jen interrupted, grabbing my phone and shoving it in his face.
“Could be any freaking alley,” he muttered, but I noticed the edge to his voice.
“So, what do you guys want to do?” he started again. “Call social services? The cops? What do you want to tell them? Hello officer, our alley’s shrinking, so maybe-“
“Will you shut the fuck up!?” I finally screamed at him.
I could see the surprise on his face.
“Jesus, lady, no need for that,” he said, raising his hands.
“What if it’s some sort of trick? You know, for YouTube or something?” I tried to reason. “I mean, no one lives out here, right? Might be a prank or a social experiment, or something.”
The others weren’t convinced by my idea. Hell, even I wasn’t, but it was better than a mansion moving or an alley shrinking. No, that’s got to be it. Nothing weird going on here.
I sat with them for a while longer, before I eventually said my goodbyes and returned to my apartment.
That evening, I did my best to distract myself with a pleasant dinner and a movie on Netflix before I went to bed. Around midnight, I was woken by strange sounds. It sounded like something grinding against stone, accompanied by loud breathing. I shrieked, jumped for the night light, thinking someone else was in the room. My eyes darted around in a panic, but I found no hint of an intruder.
Then, after a few seconds had passed, I realized the sounds were coming from outside. An icy shiver went down my spine as I stared at the blinds. With my heart pounding in my chest, I approached them. I hesitated, but then, with a single swift motion, I tore them open and peeked outside. What I was greeted with was… absolutely nothing. The sounds were gone, too. I opened the window and checked the alley below. I looked for animals, for people, even for some hidden mechanism. Nothing. The alley was entirely empty, and everything was quiet. Eventually, after minutes had passed, I closed the window again. My hands wandered to the blinds, about to pull them shut, when the curtains behind the mansion’s filthy window rustled slightly. In an instant, I retreated to the other end of the living room.
For the next hour, I tried to get back to sleep, but I couldn’t. I was too agitated. The thought of someone, or something, waiting for me behind that window was just too creepy. What if they were just waiting for me to fall asleep to come for me? As much as I told myself I was being stupid, I couldn’t shake the thought.
In the end, I gave up on sleep, prepared myself some coffee, and stayed awake until it was time to go to work. On my way to work, I took another brief glimpse at the alley. Now, not even the alley seemed to have changed, but the mansion itself as well. The wall looked different, almost as if it was leaning over towards our building. All the bricks seemed to bend, the outlines warped, as if they were alive, trying to make contact. That wall, it hadn’t been like this before. Definitely not!
And yet, what could I do? Was there anything anyone could do about something like this? No, just ignore it, Linda. Don’t look at it. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and hurried on.
Work went terribly that day. I couldn’t focus at all. I was sleep-deprived, and my thoughts constantly returned to the mansion and the events of last night. Multiple times, people yelled at me to get a move on and to stop daydreaming. Eventually, my superior came over and demanded what was going on. I told him I suffered from sleep deprivation because of night terrors.
“Well, if the job’s too hard on you, why don’t you take a few days off and get some rest?” he suggested in a sarcastic tone.
I said nothing, and nodded, knowing damn well it meant almost the same at being fired. I was furious, mad and cursed at the damned mansion and whoever was behind this entire thing.
Even after I got home, I was still pissed. I slumped down on the couch and put on a show on Netflix, but fell asleep almost instantly. When I woke up again, it was already dark outside, and my phone told me it was late at night. Great, so much for my daily routine, I cursed to myself. Soon enough, I realized why I’d woken up. It was the same strange grinding and breathing sounds. At this moment, I’d had it. I pulled the blinds and opened the window.
“Knock it off, you son of a-“ I started, but what I saw wasn’t a person.
While the breathing and grinding continued, I saw something moving on the wall itself. It had to be some sort of mechanism to move it closer! Yet with my dim night-lamp, I wasn’t able to see anything. I reached for my phone, opened the flashlight app, and pointed it at the wall. My eyes grew wide. The entire wall was covered in bumps, pulsating bumps. Even the bricks below were moving, moving in and out rhythmically. A heartbeat, breathing.
I stood there in horror and confusion, not able to do anything but to stare at the surreal spectacle in front of me. Then one bump grew bigger and bigger before it burst open. The plaster crumbled from the wall, and a syrupy, yellowish liquid leaked from it. Instantly, the air was heavy with a smell so putrid it made me gag. The worst, however, was the place where the bump had been. Instead of bricks, I saw a twitching fleshy mass. It was covered in holes, no pores, from which the disgusting ichor was pumped outward.
When the trance I’d been under finally broke, I stumble back, not even able to scream. In an instant, I was covered in sweat. My heart was pounding in my chest, and for a moment, my legs almost gave way. Then I dashed for the bathroom and vomited.
For long seconds, I just stood there, over the toilet bowl, panting. God, I could still smell it, even here. Then I turned toward the bathroom door. I told myself to go, to reach out for it and open it, but I just couldn’t. What the hell had I just seen? I tried to reason with myself. None of it could’ve been real. It had to be a nightmare, a hallucination conjured from constantly thinking about the damned mansion. My mind must’ve made it all up for some fucked up reason.
And yet, the trick didn’t work. Not this time. Not after what I’d just seen. When I stepped up to the door, it wasn’t to open it, but to lock it.
I don’t know when sleep arrived. I must’ve sat in the bathtub for hours, trembling. Even when the sounds stopped, when the only thing I heard was my racing heartbeat, I still couldn’t calm down.
I jerked awake because of a hard knock. For a short terrified second, I thought it was coming from the bathroom door, that someone, or something, had entered my apartment and was coming for me. Then, with each new knock, I realized it was distant, muffled. The front door.
For a moment I hesitated, then I got up and carefully unlocked the bathroom door. I peeked outside and let my eyes wander over my small apartment. Nothing was there. Finally, I hurried toward the front door. There, I found Jen waiting for me. She looked as shaken as me, but the moment she saw me, relief flooded her face.
“Oh thank god, Linda, you’re okay!” she said. “I thought you’d be gone too!”
I didn’t know what she was talking about.
“What’s going on?”
“Will’s gone!” she exclaimed. “There’s no trace of him, but he wouldn’t just run off!”
“You think something happened to him?”
Jen nodded, the shaken look reappearing. Only now did she seem to notice what a mess I was.
“Linda, what happened to you? Are you all right?”
“I…” I started, but for a few moments I couldn’t continue.
“I saw something, that’s all.”
Jen didn’t press on.
“You want to come down with me?”
“Yeah, I’m not going back in there,” I said, taking a wary look over my shoulder.
When Jen led me inside, the others were talking, words flying back and forth between them. It sounded like an argument, but I couldn’t make sense of anything. Their voices were muffled, distant, their rambling words bleeding into one another. When they noticed me, they fell silent, and all their eyes focused on me.
“What did you bring her down for?” Jay asked, annoyed.
“She is scared, asshole,” Jen replied.
“Something happened to you, too?”
It was Steve who’d stepped up to me. I nodded weakly, only now realizing how exhausted I was.
“Well, you gonna spit it out, lady, or what?”
“Jay. Just. Shut. Up. Okay?” Jen snapped at him.
She turned back to me and motioned for me to take a seat on the couch. Then she vanished and brought me a cup of watered-down coffee. After a few sips, I told the rest about what I’d seen last night.
“All right, just what the hell’s going on here?” Steve cursed after a while.
“Is that shit still there?” Jay asked.
“I only saw it in the middle of the night,” I admitted.
Right away, Steve got up.
“Let’s check it out,” he said, and made his way to Will’s room.
I quickly followed him.
“Careful,” I urged him.
When we were both in the room, I could see that the window was still wide open. Will’s bed was in chaos. The rest of the room, however, was untouched. Steve stopped up to the window and leaned outside to check out the mansion’s walls. A moment later, he turned back to me.
“Nothing.”
Somehow, I already knew there’d be no hint of those bumps.
When we returned to the living room, the rest had already gone back to argue about Will’s disappearance.
“Why are you all so sure he didn’t just run off? Maybe he freaked out about what’s going on here.”
It was Phil who answered. He shuffled around awkwardly.
“It’s not so easy. He needs his,” he paused for a moment, trying to find the right words, “medication. You know? He’s…”
His voice trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished.
Medication, I thought, and smiled knowingly, while Jen frowned, clearly irritated at his all-too-obvious attempt at covering things up. Everyone else stayed quiet, trying their best to not meet my eyes. Typical stoners, I thought, seen it all before.
“Someone pried his window open,” Jen added. “We called the police, but…”
“But what?”
“They haven’t arrived yet,” she blurted.
“Listen, lady,” Jay added, after giving Jen a brief glance. “They probably won’t show. We had some trouble before. Took them days to get here, and they didn’t care one bit.”
I probed him, unsure about his words, but I knew the cops didn’t give a shit about these buildings… or the people living in them, for that matter. It was always the same.
“So, if he didn’t run away, and someone broke into his room, what do you think happened?” I finally asked.
While they argued about it, I remember what Will had said before. Someone tapped against his window, and just like me, he’d seen a silhouette behind the mansion’s window. When I spoke up about it, everyone turned to me.
“You think someone from the mansion took him?” Steve asked.
I nodded before I turned to Jen.
“Hey, Jen, is it all right if I take a nap here? I’m not doing so good…”
She looked around and frowned.
“Let’s go to my room. You can sleep there. You never know what happens with those guys around.”
“Fuck you, too, bitch,” Jay said, giving her the finger.
Jen’s room could barely be called that. It was tiny and only comprised a bed and a small shelf.
“Sorry, but do you have some water? Oh, and if possible,” I added, with a weak smile. “Maybe something that helps me sleep a little better?”
“Sure thing, Linda.”
She left, and after a minute, returned with a glass of water. After the first sip, I gulped it down greedily. I was surprised by how thirsty I was, but a few moments later, I’d already drifted off.
When I woke up, I was glad that I hadn’t been plagued by any weird nightmares. It seemed whatever Jen added to it did the trick. I got up and stumbled from the room.
“You were out pretty long,” I heard Phil from behind me. “It’s already dark.”
I nodded and made my way to the living room.
“Hey there, sleeping beauty,” Jay greeted me with a wink.
I didn’t even bother to react.
“What about the police? Did they turn up?”
“Nope,” Steve answered.
“Any news about Will?”
A second nope.
Steve told me they’d gone over to the old mansion. They rang the doorbell for minutes, pounded against the door and called out to whoever was living there, but got no reaction. When I asked him if he thought the place was abandoned, he could only shrug. They thought so at first, but felt watched the entire time. Yet they saw nothing. No one watching them, and no movement behind the windows.
As I listened, I fumbled for my phone, but realized it wasn’t there.
“Shit,” I cursed.
It was still at my place. For a moment, I considered giving up on it, but then I told myself I was being ridiculous. My apartment was on the second floor, so what was the worst that could happen? Not like a wall could come for me. I’d just rush in, grab the damn thing, and be gone a moment later.
“Linda, where are you going?” Jen asked when I made my way to toward the door.
“Gotta get my phone. I’ll be right back.”
In front of the door, I told myself to calm down. Then I took a deep breath and opened it. I pushed my head inside, then hit the light switch and waited. All was quiet. In an instant, I dashed into the living room. For a while, my eyes darted around before I found the phone lying below the window. The moment I kneeled down to get it, the same terrifying sounds started again.
“Oh god, please, no.”
I told myself to just get the damned phone and run. Yet when I got up, my eyes wandered to the wall, driven by a strange sense of curiosity. When I stared at it, I saw the same pulsating bumps all over it. Fear washed over me, and a voice in my mind screamed at me to run, yet I couldn’t. I just couldn’t move as I stared at the absurdity in front of me. My heart was beating in my chest, but I just stood there, frozen, mesmerized. The sounds were so much louder now. The grinding, the breathing, now almost like a dry wheezing, as if a giant organism was exerting itself, doing… something.
I took a single step back when another bump burst open. Instantly, the same pungent smell reached me, and I saw the same disgusting yellowish liquid. But it wasn’t all. With wide eyes, and uncomprehending, I watched as the flesh below began to wiggle and push itself outward. It stretched further and further into the direction of my building like a tentacle. A moment later, I heard a wet splash as the flesh made contact.
I stumbled back, tripping over my own feet, and crashed to the floor, only to see that the window on the mansion’s wall was wide open. My eyes were met those of a figure hiding behind the curtains. When they parted, I could vaguely make out an older woman. I opened my mouth to say something, but then she leaned forward, and I could see her horrible, inhuman face.
Behind greasy strands of overlong hair lay a bulging, leathery forehead. Her eyes were tiny, almost invisible behind her puffy, almost swollen skin. Where her nose should’ve been, I saw only a jagged, bone-like protrusion. When she saw me, her lipless mouth changed to a smile, a smile that grew wider and wider, almost dividing her face in two.
“Why don’t you come over here and join me, little girl?” she asked, cackling.
Everything about her voice was wrong. It was deep, guttural, and distorted, like a faulty, barely intelligible recording. Then she opened her mouth, and I watched as her jaw unhinged like that of a snake, revealing rows upon rows of rotten, misshapen teeth.
I was still frozen, stunned by the ghastly, surreal creature opposite me. This couldn’t be real! None of this could be real! Something like this thing, it shouldn’t exist!
As if in a dream, I watched as two bony hands reached out for my windowsill, and the creature began pulling itself over. I scrambled back, not able to tear my eyes from the horror I was witnessing. Her body wasn’t that of a human being. It was nothing but a bloated mass of flesh, disgustingly worm-like.
When the thing’s body made it past the windowsill, the trance I was under finally broke. I pushed myself up, rushed from the living room, but a moment later, one of the creature’s hands closed around my ankle. I hit the ground hard, saw stars, and soon felt myself being dragged backwards. My fingers clawed at the floor, desperate to find a hold, anything.
“Where do you think you’re going?” it cackled in its distorted, mechanical voice.
I kicked and screamed in sheer and utter terror, flailed around, trying to get free, but it was futile. Its strength was too much. A second later, its other hand closed around my arm, restraining me. I tried to call for help, to alert the others downstairs, but my voice didn’t want to work. All I managed to produce were incomprehensible, animalistic sounds.
I was prey, a powerless, useless thing caught by an indomitable hunter, just waiting for the final blow. All the strength left my body, and time slowed, while the creature’s maw of a mouth moved in closer. It reached my foot, and a disgustingly swollen tongue pushed outward. It entangled my ankle, as if savoring my taste before it slowly moved upward. My skin hissed and blacked, and for a second, burning pain shot through my entire leg before I lost all feeling in it.
I waited for the creature to think its teeth into my leg, but it just continued to pull me in closer. Oh god, I realized, it was going to swallow me whole.
Right at that moment, a scream cut through the air. When I looked towards the door, I saw Jen standing there. A second later, Phil and Steve joined her.
“What the fuck!?” Phil screamed.
They froze, their eyes wide, and for a split second, they weren’t able to grasp the situation. Steve was the first to move again. He rushed forward, got hold of a chair, and began attacking the creature. Jen and Phil got a hold of me, trying to pull me free, but they were no match for the its inhuman strength.
The thing wailed in pain as Steve slammed the chair down on its head. Wood splintered against skin again and again. Dark blood oozed from a wound, but the creature barely flinched. Instead, it redoubled its efforts, and pulled me so hard, I shrieked, thinking my leg would be torn off.
Then it let go of me and turned to attack Steve. It swatted the chair aside with such force, it was torn from his hands and crashed against the wall. A stunned Steve backed away, but the creature lunged for him. Its ghastly fingers scratched over his chest, leaving behind a sizzling mark. Steve winced in pain, but instead of backing down, he kicked the creature. Phil was with him a second later, and together they both beat it until it was forced to retreat.
Finally free, I scrambled away from the window and watched as the creature’s worm-like body slithered backward. A moment later, it vanished behind the mansion’s window. It grinned at me a last time, before the curtains fell shut.
As soon as it was gone, I screamed again. The nihilistic thought of giving up vanished from my mind. Panicked and out of it, I crawled toward the hallway, tried to get up, but crashed down again instantly.
“Linda, wait. It’s all right, it’s all right,” Jen whispered to me in a quiet voice, trying to calm me down.
When I came to my senses, a wave of searing pain replaced shock. I felt tears streaming from my eyes, and I could only stare at the red burnt skin on my arm. The leg was even worse. My ankle, as well as the entire calf, was nothing but a mess of blistered and cracked skin.
I only remember fragments of them carrying me downstairs. Faces, movements, words. My thoughts were too disjointed, barely holding together. Everything felt hidden behind a thick, heavy fog, floating and out of focus. Was any of this even real? Was I… dreaming?
While Jen treated my wounds, she explained to a confused Jay what had happened. Their mouths moved, but I didn’t understand the words. Slowly, as if in a trance, I turned and saw Steve and Phil in front of Will’s apartment. They began stacking boxes and furniture in front of it, but I couldn’t make sense of what was going on.
Then, with a jolt, I snapped back into reality.
“We need to leave!” I snapped at Jen, trying to push myself up, but my legs didn’t want to cooperate.
I sank back down. The pain from my burns was unbearable, making me want to scream. Suddenly, the grinding sounds started again, but this time, much, much louder. While the others were still confused, I knew what it meant. The mansion was dragging itself closer again. Terrified, I wanted to call out to Jen, but before I could, we all heard a loud shattering noise, followed by terrified screaming. My eyes darted around in horror before I realized its source.
“The old couple on the upper floor!” I shouted. “That thing must be back!”
The guys rushed out, and only moments later, Jen and me leaning onto her followed behind. Right as we made it up the stairs, I saw Jay kicking in the door. Instead of going in, however, all three of them cringed back.
“What are you doing? Help them!” I called out, but the moment Jen and I reached them, my voice dropped.
The old couple was standing in front of the remains of their living room window. The twisting, wriggling mass of flesh must’ve destroyed it and pushed itself inside. It was spreading over the walls while pumping copious amounts of the disgusting, putrid liquid from its pores. It had already leaked over the entire living room.
The two of them were screaming, trying to get away, but in shock, I saw their feet were stuck to the floor, seemed to have melted into it. When their pleading eyes met mine and their arms reached out for me, I stumbled back. No, I couldn’t, I couldn’t do anything! Then the old woman toppled over.
Sizzling, burning sounds reached my ear, and when she lifted her head again, it was covered in blisters, the skin burning, bursting open. Jay wanted to rush forward to help, but right at that moment, another gush of yellowish ooze squirted from the fleshy mass, drenching both of them. Their screams turned into a high-pitched wailing, something so terrible it shouldn’t come from a human being. The liquid, sick and yellow, soaked through their clothes and into their bodies, melting them from the inside out. Limbs sagged, flesh turned soft and mushy, melting from their bones and mixing with the puddle at their feet.
When the nauseating smell of searing tissue reached us, Phil stumbled back and vomited. Finally, Jay slammed the door shut. For a moment, we all just stood there, traumatized and in utter disbelief at what we’d just witnessed.
Then a loud, crashing thump brought us back to reality.
“What now!?” Jen shrieked.
“Help me. Quick!” I yelled at her.
“Linda, what are you doing?”
I didn’t answer, and instead pulled her towards my apartment. The moment we reached the front door, we both stopped.
“How in the…” Jen started, not able to finish the sentence.
My living room window was gone, sealed off by the mansion’s walls. No hint of the mansion’s window remained.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Phil yelled from down the hallway.
Steve and Jay barged in after us, but immediately took off downstairs without saying a word. When Jen and I made it back to their apartment, we saw them tearing down the makeshift barrier in front of Will’s room. A second later, Jay ripped open the door, but I already knew what he’d find. A window blocked off by a solid wall. No one even mentioned that the here, too, the mansion’s window was gone.
“What the hell?” I heard Jay curse.
Steve walked up to the wall sealing the window, and after hesitating for a moment, he reached out for it with his hand.
“Feels warm,” he said, his face pale and uncomprehending.
I stared at the wall, watched as a bump formed under the plaster, rapidly growing bigger.
“Get away from there!” I called out, but it was already too late.
The bump burst open.
The first thing I heard wasn’t the tearing of plaster, neither the squirting of the liquid, but the sound of burning flesh. Then all sounds were drowned out by Steve’s screams. The corrosive sludge ate into his hand, arm, and shoulder. I watched, screaming and horrified, as bits and pieces of his arm fell to the ground and melted away. Then his shoulder vanished, as if his body was collapsing into itself. His bloodcurdling screams died even before his ravaged body hit the floor.
That was it for me. Panic got hold of me, and before anyone else could react, I turned around and rushed from the room. I’d only taken a few steps before I crashed to the floor.
“Out!” I cried out. “We have to get out!”
Pain shot through my entire body, but I fought myself back up. With adrenaline coursing through my veins, I dragged myself forward, onward, thinking of nothing but escape. I reached the hallway, and finally the exit door. I almost blacked out from the pain of my burned arm when I tore open the door.
Instead of the fresh, chilly night, another wall greeted me. The air left my lungs, and I slumped to the floor in disbelief. Jen stopped in her tracks behind me, covering her mouth, before letting out a terrified yelp.
“No way,” she muttered.
Phil and Jay were already moving when I turned around, kicking down the nearest door. They disappeared inside, only to emerge moments later, shaking their head and rushing on to the next apartment. Each time, their silence grew heavier. By the time they returned, they sank down next to us, pale and hollow-eyed.
I didn’t even bother to ask. I knew what they’d found. Every window and every other spot that led outside was gone. We were trapped, and cut off from the rest of the world.
After we’d mustered up enough energy, we checked the basement. There was no way out there either. All the tiny basement windows had been sealed off.
Our phones were still working, at least for a while, and so was the energy. For hours, we desperately tried to get help, all of us did. I called the police repeatedly. I got through several times, but the signal was so bad, they weren’t able to make out a word I was saying. Before long, utterly frustrated, I just gave up. Even if they’d understand the address, would they even come? And if they did, what would they find? Our building was most likely surrounded by the mansion’s walls by now, and had become just another part of it.
We also tried to break down the walls trapping us, but it was another futile attempt. The weird fleshy mass had already replaced the plaster and bricks below, pulsating faintly, like a sick heartbeat. The moment we discovered it, the same corrosive liquid that had killed Steve and the old couple oozed from it, the acrid stench burning my nose. It didn’t matter what we used, everything that touched it melted away in seconds.
In the end, we couldn’t do anything and before long, we settled down in the building’s central hallway. At least here, we reasoned, we’d be safe, at least for a time. While we gathered all the food and water we could find, we noticed that the walls around us were shifting.
At certain times, the central hallway was shorter than before. At others, it appeared longer. The layout of the apartments, too, began changing. At first little by little, but soon entire rooms were replaced by different ones. It seemed as if the entire place was being remodeled, as it was incorporated into whatever this godforsaken mansion was. Because of these changes, I remembered, we weren’t alone in here. I’d returned to one of the vacant apartments in search of anything useful. I don’t know why I even bothered. We’d gone through them so many times already. And even if we found something, what would it do? Wasn’t it all a waste of time?
Suddenly, a wall in front of me began moving. I stumbled back as fast as my injured leg allowed me to, but for a few moments, the interior of the mansion was laid open for me. Words can’t describe what I saw. It was a void, but also glistering in all the colors of the rainbow.
I found myself face to face with a hulking humanoid figure. Its body was too tall, its limbs unnaturally long and twisted. Its head jerked in my direction, tilting at an impossible angle. A grotesque grin stretched across its face, mocking but also inviting. Then the creature moved. Like a marionette, held by invisible strings, it jumped up and down mechanically as if dancing, producing strange oohing and aahing sounds.
I should’ve been scared, should’ve screamed, but I started… laughing. A wave of strangest euphoria washed over me, and I began giggling, clapping my hands together rhythmically, as the surreal performance played out in front of me.
Then it was over, and the walls in front of me closed again. The bout of insanity was gone, and I was left terrified and shivering. What the hell had I just done? What even was that thing? Had it been another inhabitant of the mansion, just like that ghastly worm-woman? If so, where did they come from? A terrifying thought came to my mind. What if all these creatures had once been normal people, people who’d been trapped just like us?
No, don’t think about it, Linda. Don’t you dare!
As I retreated from the apartment, I heard noises all around me, noises that seemed to follow me. At first only giggling, but soon it turned into distant, gurgling laughter. My heart was pounding, and my eyes darted around, expecting the thing to come for me again, but the moment I made it to the central hallway, its sounds ebbed away. Yet they weren’t gone completely. Occasionally, I still heard it from different parts of the building and from the walls around us. The creature was still there, hidden behind the walls or inside the crawl spaces, exploring this ever-changing mansion.
We divided the food and water between ourselves. No one said a word. Jen stared blankly at the wall, her eyes glassy, not even glancing at the small stack of provisions in front of her. Jay rubbed at his temples, muttering under his breath about how long it might last. No one dared to speak up. We had nothing left to say. Hours blurred into days as we huddled together in silence.
Phil was the first to break
“Why don’t we just drink from the freaking tap?” he suddenly yelled at us, staring at the small cup of water he was holding.
No one replied. There was no need to. After Phil emptied his cup, he continued.
“I mean, the energy’s still working, right? So why not the pipes?”
He looked at each one of us, trying to find either reassurance or someone stopping him. He got neither. None of us said a word. Jen didn’t even look up.
“Come on, you guys must be thirsty, too! We might be able to drink it, so why not give it a try? You know, to see if it’s all right!”
“Go ahead, then,” Jay said, shrugging.
Phil just stood there, unmoving. Then he turned to me with a pleading expression on his face. I could see how anxious he was. His body was trembling, his eyes were wide, and his lips were quivering. I wanted to stop him, wanted to tell him that water wouldn’t be fine. He was so goddamn afraid, mirroring my own terror, and after a few moments, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I turned away and stayed quiet.
“Go do it,” I spat, my voice colder than I meant it to be.
I just wanted this interaction to be over with. I heard him cursing to himself about doing nothing, not even trying, as he walked away. Soon after, I heard the sounds of running water.
“It’s fine,” he called out to us. “Nothing’s happening. My hand isn’t burning at all! I’m sure I can drink it, right guys?”
His voice was high-pitched and cracking. Once again, no one said a word.
Then I heard him gulp down. What surprised me the most wasn’t that he actually drank it, but how clearly I could hear it.
Only a few moments later, he returned to us.
“I told you guys it would be fine. I knew we could drink it,” he said, snootily. “You guys are such idiots, saving and rationing those few bottles of water as if they are oh so important. Why not just-“
“Will you shut up already?!” Jen yelled, without even turning to face him.
Phil opened his mouth to snap back at her, but then he just mumbled a ‘whatever’ and sat back down.
Not even ten minutes later, he started panting and shifting around on the floor.
“Will you stop, already?” Jen screamed at him again.
When I looked over, I saw his face was glowing red and covered in sweat.
“Hey, what’s the matter?”
Phil focused on me with teary eyes. He opened his mouth as if to say something before he coughed up and spat out copious amounts of bloody phlegm. When he saw it, his eyes grew wide, and reached out for me, getting a hold of my arm. I tried to tear myself free, to escape, when his body tensed up. The grip around my arm became tighter and tighter before his nails dug painfully deep into my skin. I cursed in pain, but when he started twisting and flailing, I could finally tear myself free.
Suddenly, he clutched at his body and pulled up his shirt. My eyes grew wide when I saw the plethora of deep, bloody holes covering his abdomen. Instantly, I was assaulted by the nauseating smell of charred skin and flesh. I watched in horror as he dug into himself, tearing at his mushy flesh and burnt intestines, as if he could fix what couldn’t be.
His screams continued on for another minute before silence returned. No one said a word about what happened. Jen had already turned away. Ever since we’d been trapped, she’d become nothing but an apathetic wreck.
Jay looked on for a while longer, his eyes lingering on the body of his dead friend. A mixture of fear, regret, and frustration distorted his face. When tears came to his eyes, and he noticed me staring at him, he too turned away.
Ever since we’d moved into the hallway, I’ve been journaling. I wrote down everything that happened: my thoughts, my worries, and the many regrets about my life. I thought back to how I’d done it in the morning. Get the tears turning, Linda, positive reinforcement, a voice in my head taunted me. What a goddamn farce it all was. I’d have laughed if I still had the energy for it left.
This thing here, this mansion, it’s not a building. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know where it came from, but I know it shouldn’t exist. The noises around us started again: the giggling, the shifting of the walls, and the grinding outside. The mansion was closing in on yet another building, driven by its will to extend itself. I knew what it meant. By now, not a single trace of our small building was left, and soon enough, the same would be true for us.
When I last woke up, a wooden door had appeared at the end of the hallway. It was just there, out of complete nowhere. It’s nothing, but a normal wooden door, slightly aged, the paint flaking, the knob old and rusty.
Jay has been staring at it for hours. Jen ignored it, like everything else. She’s alive, but she doesn’t talk or move anymore. All she does is take the occasional sip of water or nibble on a piece of food.
All I can do is write, write and ignore that damned door. Jay is trying to do the same, but I know he’s growing restless. Every once in a while, he’s gotten up, taken a few steps forward, mumbling to himself, before he sat back down. I know he’s contemplating opening it.
Jay is gone. He just couldn’t take it anymore.
When he finally stepped up to the door, I followed him as best as I could.
“I’m going,” he said when I reached him. “Just sitting here won’t do anything. Maybe I can find a way out.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I mumbled, not able to meet his eyes.
“Right? The mansion has doors and windows,” he rambled. “If I find anything, then…”
His voice trailed off. We both knew. We knew about the liquid, the shifting walls, and the monsters.
“I’ll bring help, I promise.”
With that, he put his hand on the doorknob. I nodded as he turned it. Behind it, I saw nothing but impenetrable darkness. A second later, he stepped in.
The darkness engulfed him instantly. I stood there, listening to the ever-fainting echo of his footsteps. I waited for the screams, the giggling, the laughter, the mad glowing lights I’d seen before, for… anything. And yet, no matter how much I waited, nothing happened.
Tears stream down my face before I threw the door shut, cursing at the damned mansion for giving me hope.
While I sat there, pen in hand, Jen suddenly started talking. She’d been watching me for a while now, but had never reacted to it, never said a word.
“What are you even doing?” she asked, turning toward me.
Her voice was hollow, emotionless, as if she couldn’t fathom why I bothered.
“Journaling. Keeps me sane.”
She laughed. I didn’t know she had the energy left for that.
“Why do you even bother? We’re going to die, anyway! Why not let go? God letting go is the best feeling in the world. I wish I had some right now,” she rambled.
“What do you…? Wait, is that why the police didn’t show up? Because they know you guys are… addicts?”
When she heard this, Jen burst out laughing before she dropped me a freaking bomb.
“Oh god, Linda, how you can be so stupid? You think we actually called them? You really did? What would we even say? Hey officers, our friend vanished, ignore the drugs and search for him, kay?”
While she kept on laughing, I just sat there, trying to take in what she’d just told me.
“With all the shit in Will’s room, we’d be looking for some serous time! Fuck, even the shit in my blood would’ve been enough for that! But I guess prison would’ve been better than dying here, right, Linda? At least I’d still be alive…”
I was fuming, not able to bring out a single word.
“Linda?” she asked again.
When I said nothing, she turned around.
“Well, then fuck you, too,” she mumbled.
I kept quiet, and wrote down everything that bitch just told me, what she and her friends had done. If the police would’ve come and cleared out their fucking apartment, I wouldn’t be here! It’s her fucking fault, their fault! They’ve been lying to me this entire fucking time! If not for them, I wouldn’t be trapped in this, this…
The door is still there, even now, even hours after Jay went in. It’s still tempting me. Occasionally, I can hear something scratch over its wooden surface. Maybe the creature is back, maybe it’s something even more terrifying. I can imagine it, some horror sitting behind that door, waiting until I get as desperate as Jay.
That’s why it’s still there. To lure me in. To give me hope. Hope that doesn’t exist.
No, not me. I won’t fall for it.
I don’t know how much time has passed. Could be days, could be weeks. Our foods gone, but we still got water. I’ve been checking the apartments again, trying to find anything that could help, or a way to escape, for an opening.
The rest of the time, I’m just writing. Nothing but writing for hours. Writing down every little thought that comes to my mind. To stay sane. To keep me from breaking.
The noises are back, scratching giggling, but also whispering. Taunts. Suggestions. I shut them all out. I’m not listening.
Jen is nothing but a husk by now, more dead than alive. But I won’t end up like her.
I told myself not to listen, to not give into the whispers, but I fail more and more. They tell me about my past, my failures, my mistakes, but also about opportunities, about ways to change.
I scream at them to shut up, to leave me alone, and that they are wrong. But that’s what they want. I know it.
More than once, I wandered the building, lured by the ever-present whispers, following them around, while I tell them they are wrong, explaining myself, trying to make sense of everything. I ended up in distant hallways, in areas and rooms that didn’t exist before, only to snap out of it and run back.
And then, I saw her, just lying there. Not caring, not moving, not doing fucking anything!
“Say something!” I laid into her. “Do something!”
Yet all I get is the same stare. Hollow eyes, empty face. Nothing.
The lights are dimming, occasionally giving out. It’s all coming to an end. I’m going to starve here, aren’t I? In this hellhole of a place.
I’ve been making up scenarios, ideas, plans. At first, I was scared, terrified, but not anymore, not after all this time.
It’s her fault, isn’t it? I went over it again and again. Pages upon pages upon pages. Her. Her and her friends. If not for her, I wouldn’t even be here.
I keep staring at her, thinking about what I could do. What she could do. What I want to do.
During my wanderings, I found a knife in one of the vacant apartments. I didn’t mean to pick it up; it was just there, in my hand.
Heavy. Sharp. Pointed.
I know she’s still alive. I know she’s just sleeping. Only a single moment. That’s all I need.
I’ve planned it all. I can’t help but giggle about it. About her. About how she can help me, how she can finally be of use.
No, I can’t hold back anymore. I just can’t. I’m almost euphoric, rocking back and forth, smiling, grinning, just like that creature I saw. A way out. The only way out. My god, it’s all so easy, so hilarious. No, don’t laugh, Linda. Don’t wake her.
I listen to the walls, to the whispers. I can hear them, encouraging me. Do it, Linda, they say, do it, and you’ll survive.
These things, these creatures, they are just like me. And I, I am like them.
I know I have to be quick.
The knife’s been in my hand for hours, but now I am ready.
A thousand thousand voices cheer me on from all around, repeating the same thing.
Do it, Linda. Do it now.
