Gone Mad: Short Stories

Skittering

June 12, 2014
It's been some time since I've written; I guess there's been so much stuff changed that I completely forgot about this. We've moved, and no longer live in Indianapolis. It was a long journey to reach our new house, now in Albany; dad got a job offer there. He said if it worked out, he would be making $65,000 a year, and we'd be far from poverty. I don't know how money works, and I'm not good at math, but 65,000 seems like a good number; this is especially true when considering that he used to earn 56,000.

Our new house is smaller than our old one, but not in a bad way; it's cozier, you could say. The walls are beige, and although not my favorite color, it works well with the simple architecture. It especially works with the fireplace, which we probably will never use since the chimney is all blocked up by bird nests. Grandma died a couple weeks ago, so the mood in the household is very bleak; my sister is holding up well, though, since she never really talked with Gran. Dad, of course, was devastated. I mean who wouldn't be? His mom took care of him with all her love, she was with him his entire life! Sis and I wouldn't have to suffer the same fate, obviously, but we still wondered what having a mom was like. Anyways, thats what's happened.

June 16, 2014
Dad has been acting weird lately; I'm pretty sure it's just a part of grief, but it's still uncanny. He attempts to avoid light as much as possible, shrieking in its presence. He just wants to be left alone. I get it, grandma was a big part of my life too, and I want to brood in the dark alone sometimes too. Sis often tries to get light near dad, to maybe show him that everything will be alright, but I try to tell her to leave him alone; it's not like she listens, though.

Sometimes I hear dad moaning at night, painfully, and then hear his footsteps going to the window, and then back. I assume he goes to close the curtains, considering his general hermit disposition, and since every time me and sis play in his room we forget to close the curtains again. He seems really shaken up most of time, and through my research he appears to be going through denial still; this is even more evident considering that he still talks about Gran as if she was still alive. It's all depressing, really. Other than what I've mentioned, dad has been relatively fine.

June 23, 2014
We visited auntie Cath today, telling us her crazy thrift store stories. She told us one where this kid wanted to get a robot toy, but it was covered in gunk so the parents wouldn't let him; she said that it eventually ended in the parents buying it and IMMEDIATELY cleaning and disinfecting it. Another one featured a man that was trying to sell the thrift store used condoms; that one ended with the store personnel having to drag him out of the store. His final words before being dragged out? "But I didn't use them, it was the blanks!" Overall it was a good day; dad even let out a laugh!

On the way back, dad was a little reckless on the road, and was nearly always above the speed limit. This grief thing is really getting to me; who knew that something sad would be so sad? I know right! In all seriousness, getting home was "normal," and dad left us all in a very cold mood. Bad atmosphere all around.

June 30, 2014
God. It's all my fault, all my fault. Something—wrong—happened. I was the cause of this, I was the cause of it.

Me and sis were trying to help dad get back in the light, you know, so he wouldn't be a hermit. We were worried for how healthy living in the dark was, and research proved our thesis.

It was 20 minutes after midday, and dad was being very quiet; more than normal. Me and sis were attempting to get him to go to the light again, and simply mentioning light to dad was enough to cause him to whine. We were really worried about him, and we just wanted to help. Who knew we were just doing the opposite? Sis and I waited for dad to go to sleep, but he never did; this made us do the unthinkably cruel. We went upstairs to dad's room, and I went in. Sis just waited outside. Very slowly, I walked around dad, who was in the corner of the room, eyes covered. Suddenly, I pulled the curtains from their support, allowing for the sunlight to fill the room. Dad shrieked, and a wretched howl filled the room. It still brings me shivers, though now nearly everything does. I ran to the doorway with the curtains, dad running after me. I managed to reach the hallway, and sis closed the door. For hours, all that was heard in the house was screeching; until everything was silent. After dad stopped suddenly screaming, me and sis grew weary. We did not know why he had just... stopped. I wish I still didn't. We were curious, though, and with fear, we opened the door to his room.

I... I still don't know the reality of what I saw, and am completely up to the conclusion that this is all a Dream. Evidence for that is scarce, though. After opening the door, dad was—there. Wrong, all of it was wrong. Dad lay on the floor, dead; but he was all... wrong, just wrong. His neck and chest were bloated, pushed outwards by something. His jaw was... broken, if that's all you can call it; it was open all the way, the sides of the mouth ripped to allow it. It was like—like something came out of his mouth. Like something was trying to escape. I think that—whatever it was—it was running away from the light. I did this, I killed my dad. And he wasn't just dead, he was... disfigured; wrong and disproportionate. God, it's so hard.

Sis and I both live with aunt Cath now. It's not the same.

July 10, 2014
Me and sis were looking at the news, and there have been multiple reports of—similar incidents. All of these people dead, killed by light, it seems. I don't think it was the light at all. I think it was something else, inside the people. I think what killed dad—what killed those people—is still out there... growing. I swear, whatever it is, it's not the work of God; maybe not even the devil's.

July 11, 2014
God... I regret going to my friends house today. I don't think it's going to stop. I was feeling lonely, since me and sis stayed at home all the time. The streets were barren, everyone staying home, afraid of the presumed outbreak. I should have done the same, I really should have.

As I left the house, the cold and barren air was stagnant. You can't understand what it's like walking through an empty city, knowing that inside the houses, anyone could be dying a gruesome death. Some windows were bloodied, and some even had flesh bits glued to them. The whole city was dead and stale, and the walk towards my friend's house was a hell in it of itself.

When I got to my friends house, the door was open; not like it was unlocked, but it was fully wide open. I could hear nothing inside. Walking up her stairs, I began to hear a faint sticky noise; like someone moving through syrup. As I got closer to her room, the noises grew louder and louder. At her doorway, the noises were met with the sound of cracking, like thick twigs cracking. Cautiously and slowly, I opened the door.

At the other end was no longer my friend. She was dead, like dad; her jaw broken open and her upper body bloated. It wasn't just her, though. I saw a—thing—coming out of her mouth. It... it was grey, and had four sharp legs like a spider. It had—it had my friends face, but it was... wrong. It was ugly and wrinkled, and didn't look human. The body of the thing was long, having no arms and... I can't do this anymore.

July 12, 2014 12:00PM
My sister and aunt have all died... I don't know how many live people here are in Albany anymore... I keep hearing skittering and tapping on the walls. Aside from that everything has gone quiet. The power has gone out.

July 12, 2014 7:00PM
It's sundown. I don't know what will happen when there is no light to protect me from those things. Maybe I'll become like my dad too.

July 12, 2014 9:00PM
They're after me. Those things grew, they aren't tiny anymore. They're just as big as me and some even bigger. I can hear them skittering across the floor behind me as I run into the woods. I'm scared. I'm so scared. I want my dad back, I want my sister, I want my aunt. I don't think I'll survive much longer, they're catching up. Bomb sirens are going off everywhere. I can't continue running for much long. Wait... I think I feel something inside my chest.