This appears in a pre-2010 issue of Down in the Dirt magazine.
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In my growing madness I soon fear my untimely demise. I know I can not keep going; death follows me everywhere. My nightmare started a long time ago, but it has only been in the last few weeks of searching for the answer do I reveal the horror in the truth.
My damnation down this one way path started as I was sitting in my den one evening for my nightly reading. It had only been ten minutes when I saw it, something right at the edge of my vision moving across the room distracting me from my reading. I looked to see what it was, but nothing was there when I turned my head to see. Considering it might be my mind playing tricks on me or some type of optical illusion, I dismissed it and went back to my reading. Only to find that with in a few minutes I saw it again, moving from one side of the room to the other just at the edge of my vision. Once again upon looking I only found the familiar furnishings of my room greeting me and nothing more.
I have seen it before many times in my life, so have you. We all dismiss it as a trick of optics or demented hallucinations of our mind. We have all seen it or at least thought we saw it. See, you just turned your head looking for it. You know you saw something, was that just your imagination playing tricks on you? You know what I’m talking about, that something you saw out of the corner of your eye just now, moving across the room just in your visual range but right on the edge so you couldn’t see it clearly. You turned your head away from the page trying to see it. I did the whole time in this writing. There it is again. Did you see it?
As I retired to bed that evening my mind could not be released from thinking about the image I saw out of the corner of my eye. Even upon waking the next morning, my mind still mulled over the thoughts from the night before. My fascination grew the next two days into an obsession as I gave considerable thought to the problem. Were we being stalked day and night by some unknown creature, or was it some undiagnosed form of madness we all share? My mind would not rest without knowing the answer and surely madness will take hold of me if I do not try to discover the truth.
It was that evening that a possible solution came, through pure logic it occurred that if the creature was real, in flesh and blood form then it would leave tracks. I immediately went to the den not realizing in my own embarrassment that the den floor is made of oak and would be quite impossible to leave tracks unless it was scratched or scraped. Disappointed I went to the kitchen to cook dinner. As I was eating I realized I could put something on the floor in the den that would leave tracks and I would then have the answer to my problems. Finishing dinner I quickly searched through the kitchen for the ideal substance to use and settled on flour for my experiment. I remembered in my nightly readings of a character in one of the books using flour to catch the tracks of animals that had come onto their porch in the night. Going to the den with a bag of flour, ready to settle in for an evening of reading; I left my current book on the table next to my chair and started sprinkling flour around the edges of the room on the oak floor. Careful not to step in the flour myself I made a huge circle around the room, wide enough that nothing could jump over it without being seen. Satisfied with the circle I settled in my chair for a night of reading and discovery. As I became engrossed in my book; time went by at a faster pass until the grandfather clocked chimed ten. I had been reading for an hour and have noticed nothing. I got up and checked the floor; circling the room the flour had not been disturbed. In my dismay I returned to my reading. It wasn’t long before the grandfather clock was chiming midnight, growing tired I decided to go to bed. Checking the flour once more, it was as I had suspected; nothing. Being too tired to sweep up the flour I left it for a task in the morning and carefully crossed it, so as not to track it through the house. The night went by slowly. Trying to sleep I begin to doubt my reasoning and my vision. I began to fear that an unknown form of madness has taken hold of me and is leading me down a path of delusion and deception. The fear of starting to lose touch with reality began to fester deep within my conscious mind.
When morning finally came and the sun began to peek over the horizon, I got up for my morning walk. Stepping out of my bed chambers, I froze in utter terror. The length of the hallway was scattered with wisps of flour! Before taking a step further I backed into my bed chambers, the first thought that came to mind was I must have tracked it up stairs last night when I retired. Checking the entire bedroom floor and my slippers I found no trace of flour. Surely I must have left a window open, some crack to the outside let in the spring wind to cause this flour to be deposited in the hallway. Putting my slippers back on, I made my way to each door and each window in my large two levels manor. Careful not to disturb the wisps of flour, I carefully checked each window and each door for its security. Finding nothing out of place; all the windows and doors were closed and locked. No leak of air could be found compromising the interior house to the outside world. Even in desperation to discover the cause I checked the door going to the attic and basement, as before each was secure.
As fear begin to rise in my mind, I began the laborious task of cleaning up the flour using a broom I had retrieved from the utility closet. It began to occur to me that something must have made this mess, it was only logical. Logic dictated that nothing could have made this mess, not by any means I have discovered yet. The only other conclusion that it could be was my impending madness. In the back of my mind the terror that reality must be slipping away from me caused shear terror, have I gone mad? Deciding I must now with all effort prove I have seen something out of the corner of my eye, only to prove to myself that I have not been taken by growing madness.
As I did my daily chores around the manor, it came to my attention that I did not have to be reading at night in my den to see the thing out of the corner of my eye, it would happen at random times through out the day. The first time I noticed it was when I was cleaning my yard, I thought I saw something move across the yard but like always when I looked there was nothing. Later that day as I made lunch, I noticed something move just out of the corner of my eye pass the kitchen door and down the hallway. Checking the windows and doors once again I found that they were still securely locked as they have been all this time. During dinner I saw it move just out of clear vision range towards the den. Every time I would check and find nothing.
I slept with the lights on the following night, I don’t know if it was madness or fear. If whatever caused the wisps of flour to be in the hallway would easily be able to come into my bedchamber; I would never hear it. Retiring to bed every night had turned into a ritual, as I checked all the doors and windows. The following morning was my weekly shopping trip to purchase items for the week; passing the local sporting goods store in town I decided to stop. I had seen it many times in the past, but I do not indulge into the sports like as many of my neighbors do, so I had never found a need to visit. As I wondered around the store I found myself wondering into the trapping department. Trapping is a popular sport in this part of the country and the section was very large, looking around I wondered into the live animal traps department. Looking over the traps it occurred to me that if whatever I was seeing could move flour then maybe it was flesh and blood and could be caught in a trap with the correct bait. The only question was what size of a trap would be needed. My madness in this affair had not overwhelmed me yet for I did not asked the clerk what size of trap needed for an unknown creature that had invaded my home. Browsing the trap further it occurred to me that all the times I had seen the creature it never seemed large in size, at least not any larger then the local wild cats in the area. I asked the clerk for a trap that would be fitting for the local wild cats, purchasing the trap I headed for home, in my obsession I had forgot all about doing the weekly shopping.
Assembling the trap it was quite larger then I had thought, but it still would be small enough to fit in the hallway in which I had seen the creature from the den and the hallway to my bedchamber. Moving the trap to the hallway outside my den I placed it next to the hallway table, the creature had come from this direction each time to cross the hallway past the door. It was only then that I realized I had no clue as to what the creature would eat. In the past years I have seen the creature; I could not remember a time food had been missing. Going to the kitchen to search for bait, looking over possible baits, not knowing if the creature ate meat or plants to increase my chances of success on my first attempt I decided on lettuce and left over cold cuts from yesterday’s lunch. Now all I had to do was wait until evening, when I retired to the den for my reading.
As evening approached, I baited the trap and retired to the den for my reading. In my overwhelming anticipation it was hard to read that evening, my lack of interest in the book made it hard not to watch the door for movement. I concentrated on my reading as hard as I could when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I tried my best not to look and continued to read, over the course of the night I saw the creature several times. As the night grew on I continued to read until I could no longer stay awake, I never heard the trap engage. Checking the trap on my way to bed, it was as suspected the trap had not been tripped. Neither of the baits showed any signs of being touched. Surely the creature eats, as my mind continued to ponder what kind of bait to try next; I retired to my bed chambers for the night. My growing fear of this creature did not feel any comfort though until I had secured the chamber door and locked it.
The night was restless, even in my locked chamber I kept looking for movement. My lack of success in my first attempt to capture the creature caused me to sink into a dark despair; I feared my own madness had erupted into full blown insanity and hallucinations as I pondered what type of bait to use next in my attempt. As soon as sunrise came I set about returning to town in search of new bait. At the farmer’s market I bought one of each type of vegetable and fruit, a trip to the butcher shop weighted me down even more and got some strange looks as I purchased a small quantity of each meat in various cuts.
That very night I started on the methodical task of trying each of the meats and vegetable and fruits, to expedite the process I use one meat, fruit, and vegetable each night. As the week progressed, each night I was met with failure as the bait and trap was ignored. I grew more restless with each failure; I was haunted now by the thought I might be going mad. The trap had been ignored, but the sightings of the creature out of the corner of my eye had grown exponentially during the week. My nights had turned completely to sleepless as each night has progressed to a ritual of securing the house in an effort to keep the creature out, all to no avail as the sightings increased.
It has been over a week now, all my attempts have failed, the sleepless nights and failure I know now is causing me to go mad. It was in the lowest hour, as I sat in my den reading, that a possible solution to end my madness and discover once and for all if the creature was real or just a figment of my growing insanity. The book I was reading was the story of a crashed plane in the arctic wilderness, in the latter part of the book the victims of the crash in desperations of not being rescued had turn to cannibalism. Was that the answer? Have I over looked the simplest solution, did the creature feast on human flesh?
As soon as sunrise came I was looking for a source of human flesh to try out the grisly solution to this nightmare. My first choice would be subtracting a bit of flesh from a recently deceased cadaver, but I doubted access to such would be limited once it was discovered my dark purpose. In my efforts to find a source I checked the obituaries in the local paper and found that today was the funeral of the accident victim, the female victim died in a car wreck of the highway just outside of town when her car tire had a blow out. The grave would be fresh that night so it would be the safest and freshest source of human flesh. I spent all day planning my raid on the cemetery to retrieve the gruesome bait I needed to make another attempt in my capture of the creature. When night fall came, I made my way to the cemetery. The freshly placed earth gave up easily the prize for my digging and it wasn’t long before I was prying the lid to the casket open.
The entire time of my excavating, I kept seeing things move just out of visual range, the creature had followed me to the cemetery. My anticipation in capturing the creature had expedited the digging a great deal. I was also beginning to fear being in the cemetery any longer then necessary. Even out weighting the risk of being discovered, there was the added risk of the creature, at this point it hadn’t made any harmful moves but if it wasn’t a hallucination of my impending insanity I didn’t think I should take the chance of being in the cemetery alone with it at night.
Surveying the female cadaver, she was beautifully dressed. It was a shame to start cutting parts off of her. Looking her over I decided to take the smallest pieces in locations that would be hidden to the casual viewer if she was exhumed and examined. Laying the tools I had brought for this task next to the edge of the hole, and opening up the plastic bags, I decided to remove the left pinky since it was being covered by the other hand. Cutting off the pinky at the second joint; I dropped it into plastic bag and sealed it. I also decided to remove her big toe, since it was covered by her shoe. Placing it in the second bag, I started wondering what other area I should take flesh. It was then I realized I should collect a larger piece with out bones. I was trying to be as logical about it as possible, even as I doubted my own mental state. After carefully looking over the body, I decided that collecting a section from a thigh would be the easiest. Raising her dress I collected a five inch oval section from her inner left thigh; I knew I needed to hurry I only had a few hours until sun rise and I still had to cover the grave again. Bait in hand I placed them in the backpack that I had brought along with the tools. As quickly as I could I covered the grave and headed for home. I was seeing the creature more and more out of the corner of my eye. I felt a deep sorrow for what I had just done to the female in the grave, but she was dead and didn’t and never will suffer. I tried to reason what I had done, to justify it to myself. I had kept coming back to the same logically conclusion though, “Only a madman would cut up a dead person for bait”. The image of her face as I defiled her remained in my mind the entire trip home.
Arriving home, I placed the bait in the refrigerator. Taking a shower to wash all the evidence of the cemetery away, I couldn’t contain my desire to try out the new bait and went to the kitchen. Removing just the finger, I decided to bait the trap and read in the den. Settling into my reading chair, I quickly became engrossed in the book, trying with all effort not to look to the hallway even if I saw movement. Shortly after the grandfather clock chimed eleven I heard the trap snap shut in the hallway. Startled by the sound it took me a moment to realize what the noise had been, leaping from my chair I raced to the trap to see. To my dismay however, the trap remained empty. Then I noticed it, I noticed the trap was indeed empty! The bait was gone! I couldn’t contain the joy. I wasn’t going mad!
After a sigh of relief, for my fears of madness had disappeared, I was overcome with the real fear before me. I really did have a creature stalking me. My hands started to shake as I opened the trap to reset it. I quickly went and retrieved the toe I had collected for bait and baited the trap. Once again I retired to the den to read in hopes this time the trap would capture the creature. It was even harder this time to ignore the movement of the creature out of the corner of my eye. I kept finding myself looking in the direction each time I thought I had seen something. I continued to read until the grandfather clock struck noon, I was about to set the book down and eat lunch when I heard the trap snap closed. Racing to the trap, I was again met with disappointment. The trap was empty again, though the bait had been removed. Disappointed I sat down next to the trap to once again reset it. Leaning back against the wall once the trap was reset, I was quickly greeted with a rush of air past my face. Looking around the hallway I saw no reason for the movement of air, the manor had been known to have leaks of air from the outside regardless of how well the windows and doors were secured. Assuming the air was the result of another leak I made a mental note to call the repair service in the morning.
My appetite had waned in my disappointment in the trap’s second failure to capture the creature that stalks me. As I continued to sit on the floor next to the trap I began to meticulously look at it for any defect or flaw that might be preventing the trap from successfully closing faster enough to capture the creature. It was then that I saw a couple of holes in the plate that the bait is placed. In my own rush and ignorance I failed to secure the bait to the trap like the design had intended. Retrieving a short piece of wire from the maintenance shed, I also brought the last place of bait, the section of thigh, in my last attempt to capture the creature before I would require more human flesh. Running the wire through two locations on the flesh, I threaded the wire through each of the holes and securely tied it. Once everything was ready, I went to the kitchen to get a drink, the morning activities had me exhausted. While I was in the kitchen I heard the trap snap shut. Racing into the hallway way I was once again met with an empty trap. Sitting down on the floor next to the trap, I could see the last of the bait was gone and only small drop and bits of flesh remained. Once again it had failed to capture the creature. I was debating returning to the cemetery that night to collect more flesh when it happened. I could feel my heart stop as the cage began to shake violently. Rocking back and forth the cage moved slightly on the floor. I was at a loss, as I could not see anything causing the cage to shake. Fear coursed through my veins as the cage stopped shaking. As the cage settled down I began to slid backwards, trying to put distance between the cage and myself. I had managed to slide four feet away when once again the cage started shaking violently. I stopped moving for fear that my movement had provoked it further, the cage continued to shake violently for some time.
As the cage begins to slow down in its shaking once again, I begin to notice movement inside. As the cage settled to a stop a form inside the cage was beginning to take shape. It was a vile form, short in statue at approximately two feet; it had thick but short elephant shaped legs. Two arms protruded from each side of a thick body, while the head of the creature was out of proportion to the body size. It looked like a child in some ways, with the head proportioned like that of a baby to its body. The creature had no hair that I could see and was naked. The head was a mass of veins, two small black eyes looked back at me, as the huge mouth opened and closed. I could not see any ears or nose on the creature. Its skin was veined extensively, and was of a dark greenish black tint. As the creature stood there looking at me, it looked tired. As the creature gained its rest, it turned invisible once again and the cage started to shake violently. As I approached the cage, the creature became more violent and viscous in its attempts to exit the cage: fearing it might break loose from its cage I retrieved a sheet from the linen closet and covered the cage. After a few minutes the creature started to calm down and soon was no longer shaking the cage. I sat back down on the floor to watch the cage and ponder the inevitable question that would arise if my attempt proved successful. Now what do I do?
A few minutes later I heard a knock at the door. Startled by the sound, I hadn’t expected visitors. Jumped up from the floor I headed to the door, opening the door I was greeted by two of the city’s police officers. After confirming my identity, they soon had me in handcuffs and escorting me to the police car. Asking what I had done they told me I was under arrest for grave robbing. They said cameras had been set up in the cemetery for some time due to vandals turning over markers and breaking other head stones. In there attempt to catch the vandals on tape, they caught me on tape.
At the station, I trying in vain to explain why I robbed the grave and the creature I had captured that now sat in a cage in my hall. It wasn’t long before they presented the cage from my hallway and asked me to show them the creature I claimed to have caught. They broke out in laughter when I explained that the creature could turn invisible but it was truly caught in the trap. I explained to them everything that night, I figured it was the truth and even with the crime of grave robbing haunting me, I still had the proof the creature in the cage if I could get it to show its self. I knew they must not let the creature out though or my proof would be gone.
Since the crime of grave robbing was a very unusual crime for the area, I had gone to court quickly. A media spectacle was made of my crime and the news reports blanketed the area. As I sat in the court room listening to the prosecution, I noticed they had found the bags I used to store the human bait I had gathered from the cadaver. The cage was also in the court room being used as evidence. As the prosecution recreated the night I collected the bait from the grave, I noticed movement in the cage and the trap bait holder had moved. They hadn’t opened the cage, so the creature was still inside. As the prosecution continued he went to the trap and started to explain as he reached down to open the trap. In an instant I had jumped up from the defense desk I was sitting at and darted across the room screaming at him not to open the trap. Bailiffs tackled and cuffed me halfway across the room, as I was being dragged from the court room I pleaded with them not to open the trap that if they did the creature would escape.
I was convicted of grave robbing. My outburst in the courtroom and my insistence that a creature was in the cage caused them to find me mentally unstable and I was sent to a mental hospital. When my lawyer came to visit me one last time in the mental hospital he told me they had opened the cage in the court room. He said he thought I should know since I had been barred from the court room due to my out burst. I thanked him for all he had done, but I didn’t need to know they had opened the cage. I told him the creature was already here stalking me once again.
I fear now that I may be killed soon. The creature knows I am aware of it stalking me now. I see the creature more and more frequently, it must be plotting my demise. I am drugged every night now, they tell me it is to help me sleep but I know they are lying to me. They started drugging me when I started waking up screaming during the night. I told them that something had bit my foot while I slept which caused me to scream. They examined my foot and found teeth marks. They claimed I was biting my own foot for attention. Each morning now, I awaken to sore bite marks on my body. The creature had apparently never had to kill for its food, just only devour the dead flesh it found, but it seems to be learning.
Did you see it? It was on your left just then running behind you. We both know you saw one of the creatures. You don’t believe me either. You think I am insane. Catch one and see for yourself. There it goes again. Did you see it? It was out of the corner of your eye on the left, you saw it I know you did. Don’t let it get you.
