“What the hell is going on?”
Oscar was staring at the small mask in my hand with a mixture of fear and disbelief that mirrored my own inner turmoil. This was all so strange that from moment to moment I would find myself wondering if this was all some kind of extended dream or an elaborate prank like you see on reality shows where they try to scare people. But despite my wishful thinking, neither seemed likely. This had been going on too long, and was too real, to be a dream, and even the best prank show would have a hard time accomplishing all this unless Oscar was in on it, which I doubted. Looking at the older man’s face, it was clear he was terrified.
Shaking his head, he looked around the hallway a final time before moving back to the relatively comforting light of the guard station. “Well, whatever this is, we know we can’t trust this building to be secure either. We’re going to have to be on our guard all the time or just pack up and leave.” Oscar scratched at his nose as he looked into the shadows dejectedly. “I don’t know that’s not the best option honestly.”
I sat down across from him, both of our backs to different walls so we could see anything coming. I hated the tension and anxiety that I could feel spreading across my body. It had become like a growing infection since returning to work, tainting my perceptions and thoughts even when I was away from this place. But I wasn’t ready to quit just yet. I knew enough to be scared, but not enough to know how much danger we were actually in.
It sounded like both Oscar and I had been abducted in a way, and it was that idea that horrified me the most, but…well, we both seemed okay, didn’t we? No signs of us being hurt at all. That, combined with the strangeness of it all made me question again if any of this was actually happening. Clearly, if it was all true, we needed to leave.
But what if it wasn’t? Maybe we had gotten into something toxic on the property that was giving us delusions. Or maybe there was some other, less sinister explanation behind it all. I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, but I did want to understand more before I made any final decisions about the job, and I told Oscar so.
He eyed me warily for several seconds before nodding. “I get where you’re coming from, kid. And I’ll hang with you, at least for now. But I don’t make any promises, and you don’t be dumb. A job, money, those things can be replaced. Your life can’t. Get me?”
I nodded back. “Yeah, I do. If things start getting too intense or dangerous, I’ll beat you out the door. Promise. I just don’t want to quit if we’re being pranked or there’s a simple explanation for what’s been going on.” Oscar was looking off down one of the hallways and didn’t respond, so I added. “So finish telling me what you were telling me. Anything else happen after you watched your bodycam footage from that night?”
Letting out a sigh, he looked back at me. “Yeah. It did.”
Like I said before, my card was wiped after I watched the video, just like yours. So I…
“Wait a sec,” I interrupted. “Didn’t you tell me before that you watched the video at the main office, not here?”
Oscar frowned. “Did I? I don’t think so. No, I definitely watched it here. I remember.”
I studied him for a moment. I wasn’t sure that he was intentionally lying, but I know he had originally said he watched his video at the main office. “How are you sure that you watched it here instead of there? What makes you sure of that memory being right?”
His frown deepened into irritation. “Well, first, I’m not a damn idiot, and I’m not senile. I remember waking up outside the Red House, coming back here. Remembered the camera, played the video. Losing the video, and then…oh yeah. Here’s the other thing. I was dirty. What I mean is my uniform had dirt stains all over it…I guess from being drug through the tunnel. That’s another way I knew it had really happened. And if I had gone to the main office like that, even in the middle of the night, don’t you think someone would have noticed and asked me about it? No, it was definitely here.” Licking his lips, Oscar rubbed his cheek and gave me a hard look. “Now you done interrogating me like I’m a criminal?”
I felt my face grow hot. “No, man. I’m sorry. That wasn’t what I was trying to do. I believe you. It’s just…we don’t know what we’re dealing with, and the details are important. But I’m sorry if it seemed like I was grilling you. Go on.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the entire truth either. I didn’t trust him, or myself, in this weirdness yet. Not all the way, at least. But that just made it more important to talk through everything. “Tell me more.”
So I stayed in the clubhouse the rest of that night. I thought about asking off Saturday night or getting someone in with me, even if it was Spires, but by the time I got home after the Friday shift, I was feeling better about it. I don’t know why and it doesn’t make sense even now. Maybe it was shock or something. But anyway, I wound up going to sleep, getting up and eating a big meal, and then coming in Saturday night to work.
Saturday night wasn’t as bad, though there were still strange things that happened. When I was in Zone Six the first time, I stopped a couple of times because I thought I saw movement. I never saw anything else, but when I turned off the engine, I heard a lot of little noises out in the dark. Not just the normal woods sounds we hear out there sometimes. Loud, clawing sounds. Scurrying sounds. And not just in the bushes or on the ground, but in the trees above me. Now that I know about these rat things or whatever they are, that makes more sense.
At the time, it still spooked me enough I skipped the second patrol of the woods later that night. I felt like I was walking this tightrope the whole night between thinking I had somehow imagined the tunnel in the Red House and knowing that I hadn’t. You’d think it would upset me, but it didn’t. Not really. I just kept steering my mind away from either idea when they got too close—it reminded me of a ship navigating between icebergs. Really something out there to be afraid of? Start watching t.v. Going crazy or imagining stuff? Read a chapter of my book. And that’s how I got through most of Saturday night.
The only other strange thing I remember from that shift was right at the end. There was this young girl that came up to the guardhouse—early twenties, kind of pretty. Not used up looking like a lot of the druggies we normally run across. She came up and knocked on the door of the clubhouse. I had seen her coming up on the camera outside, and it looked like she came from the direction of Zone Three, though it’s hard to say for sure. Either way, when I went to the door, I started off by telling her the standard: this was private property, and unless it was an emergency, she needed to leave immediately.
But before I was even done saying it, I could see something was wrong. She didn’t seem hurt or anything, but she was clearly upset. She was asking if I had seen her boyfriend Tommy. I told her I hadn’t. Did she know where she had seen him last? Did she think he was on the property somewhere?
She admitted that they had been trying to sneak onto the property when she lost him. He had climbed the fence to get in, but he never came around and let her in or answered when she tried yelling for him. Eventually she got scared he was hurt and climbed over herself, but he was nowhere to be found. After looking around for awhile, she had come to the clubhouse, I guess because she saw my car outside.
Anyway, I was going to offer to call 911 when a dude comes out of nowhere. It’s Tommy, of course. She runs over to him, asking if he’s okay, and he seems a bit muddled, but not hurt or anything. I wasn’t too keen on going out in the dark with two strangers, so I just told them to get out and gave them directions back to the gate. After that, I never saw them again.
I took a couple of days off after that, and since then, everything has been fairly normal. I’ve still been worried about it, of course, but I held off telling anyone about it, even my wife, until now. But I trust you. Trust your judgment. I wanted to see if you had anything happen before I mentioned something. I didn’t want to put ideas in your head, and if nothing happened, I didn’t want you thinking I had gone off my rocker. But now it seems clear that I haven’t unless we’ve got some kind of shared craziness. I’m not sure if knowing its real makes me feel better or worse, but at least I’m not alone any more.
I felt a pang of sympathy for Oscar. I hated to think about him worrying about it for so long, questioning if he was going crazy or not. I knew from personal experience how terrible a feeling that was. Trying to give him a comforting smile, I nodded.
“No, you’re not alone. And we’ll figure this out. What do you say if, for the rest of the night, we just stay in the clubhouse and watch the cameras. And if something happens where we have to go out, we’ll go together and watch each other’s back.”
He gave me a relieved grin. “That sounds good. Maybe it’s over with and things will go back to normal.”
I frowned slightly. “Maybe, but we can’t just assume it’ll go away. Are you working with me tomorrow night?”
Oscar shook his head. “No, you get soldier boy I think. I won’t be back on until Tuesday, and won’t have a shift with you until next weekend.”
I considered for a second. I didn’t want to try the next thing I was planning by myself, but I also didn’t want to involve Spires in it. I didn’t know how he’d react, and if he hadn’t seen anything strange himself, he might just think I was crazy. I asked Oscar if he thought he could swap shifts with Spires so he could be back with me the following night.
He shrugged. “Sure, should be able to. Spires might not like it, but the main office usually works with me on stuff like that. Just for the company, or you have something else in mind?”
I puffed out a breath, trying and failing to get rid of some of the tightness in my chest. “Yeah, I think so. I want to go back and check things in Zone Three. See if there are any signs of blood or hair or anything in the house I passed out in. See if we can find where that splashing sound was coming from. And then,” I paused as I caught his eyes. “I want to go back to the Red House and see if the tunnel is still there. Not because I think you’re crazy or anything. But we need to verify what we both saw.”
Oscar surprised me by smiling. “That sounds like a good idea, Jack. But why wait? Why don’t we go ahead and check things out tonight? I don’t mind going with you.”
I shook my head. “Two reasons. First, I want to see if anything else weird happens tonight. If it does, we’re safer here than out there. Second, I’m bringing my gun from home tomorrow night. We’re not going out in the dark with just a stun gun and pepper spray this time, rules or no rules. You okay with that?”
His smile thinned a bit as he nodded. Rubbing his neck absently, he said, “Yeah. That sounds like just what we should do.”
The next night I brought my .45 Glock for myself and a snub-nosed .38 for Oscar. He looked a little disconcerted when I offered him the gun, only taking it reluctantly when I pointed out it was for my protection as well as his own. After some nervous chit chat and procrastination, we decided to get started before it was fully dark.
We headed over to Zone Three on the two ATVs, and I suggested we start with the nearby exterior pool to see if it was the source of any of the noises I had heard. I knew this was a delaying tactic on my part, but it did need to be checked, and I was happy to wait a few more minutes before going back into that house. I still found myself looking up at the black bay window as we passed, however, my heart racing at the idea of seeing a face floating there in the dark. This time, however, it was empty.
So was the exterior pool. The concrete in the bottom of the pool was broken in several places I didn’t remember from before, but I couldn’t say that was connected to anything that was going on. It was an old pool that had not been maintained, and concrete was known to crack. Plus, I wasn’t exactly a reliable witness as to the precise condition of the pool, as all I had ever been looking for when I checked it were trespassers and drug paraphenalia. It might have been busted for years and me not notice. Either way, the pool looked like it hadn’t seen any water for a long time, and I doubted it could retain much now anyway. So on to the house.
We went up the front steps, and unlike before, I had to unlock the door this time. Pulling out my gun, I turned the knob and pushed the door open before quickly stepping in. There was no sign of anyone at first glance, but I still made Oscar go with me as we cleared the entire house. No one was there, and there was no sign of anything being out of place.
At least almost. This house, unlike Oscar’s description of the Red House, was not immaculately clean. Instead, it was covered in a thin rime of dust that had accumulated in the eight months since the cleaning crew was last there. In fact, the only places where the dust was visibly disturbed was where me and Oscar had been walking and a separate wide path between where I had seen the woman at the window and where I had fallen when the rat things attacked me. Looking closer, I also saw some much smaller, lighter footprints scattered around, as well as a trail from where I had fell to the front door. This trail had largely been obliterated by our own new footprints, but I wondered if it was from where the creatures had drug me from the house. I fought back a shudder as I stood up again, and when I pointed out the dust patterns, Oscar nodded meaningfully. Scratching his head, he sounded somber when he spoke.
“I guess we should go find out if there’s more to see in Zone Five.”
On the way over to Zone Five, I felt my phone buzz and saw I had three missed calls from Spires. I wasn’t sure what his deal was, but I wasn’t in the mood to hear him bitch about getting his shift switched so Oscar could work. And if I wasn’t picking up his calls at the house in Zone Three, odds are I’d lose him if I tried to call him near the Red House too. He’d just have to wait until I was done with this.
The road leading to the Red House was already dark when we reached it, and a part of me rebelled at the idea of exploring that massive house without more light. But no, I wanted this to be done. I needed it to be done. And I wasn’t going to put it off because I was afraid of the dark. So I followed the glow of Oscar’s taillights and parked near his ATV.
For his part, Oscar was already off the four-wheeler and halfway up the weed-eaten lawn of the Red House as I turned off the engine. I almost yelled for him to watch out for snakes, but then saw there was little point. The way he was moving, he’d be on the porch in a few seconds. Just like me, he was ready to know what was going on, once and for all.
Still, I picked my way through the grass more slowly, shining my flashlight in front of me as I went. The last thing I needed was to step on a rattlesnake or cottonmouth while wandering around this place at night. Glancing up, I saw that Oscar had already opened the front door and stepped inside. I muttered a curse as I picked up speed to reach him before he went any further into the house alone. That’s when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.
It was a car. Spire’s car, and it was traveling fast. He came to a hard braking stop next to our ATVs and jumped out quickly, and my first thought was that he had finally snapped. He had gotten pissed about the shift change or whatever else, and lost his shit. I shifted the flashlight to my left hand as I put my right onto my belt holster.
“Hey, Jeff. What’s going on?” He was crossing the yard even faster than Oscar had, and when I turned the light on him, I saw he had his baton out and extended. Feeling a thrill of fear, I pulled my gun. “Hold up, there. Fucking stop.”
Spires slowed to a halt almost immediately, and when I shined the light up into his squinting face, I saw he didn’t look angry or crazy. He just looked scared.
“Where’s Oscar?” He was speaking just above a whisper, and despite the gun I had pointed at him, his eyes were constantly roving the dark that surrounded us. Something was really wrong here.
“He’s inside the house. The Red House. Just went in. Why?”
Spires glanced at me before looking past to the house. “Oscar…he’s married to my Aunt Jenny. That’s how I got the job, though he didn’t want anyone to know it. When he called me and asked to switch shifts tonight, I said sure. But since I was already out, I decided I’d go visit Jenny tonight. I know Oscar doesn’t like me, so I try to visit when he’s not around. Also, he’s been acting weird lately, and I just felt like I needed to check on her.”
I had lowered the light to his chest, but I could still see his face in the reflected glow. He had been somewhat calm when he began talking, but as he went on, his words grew faster and more weighted with emotion. By the time he started tearing up, he looked like little more than a boy.
“He’s fucking killed her! He fucking killed Jenny!”
I felt the world begin to pulse around me in time with my thudding heart. “What? What the fuck did you say?”
He wiped at his face angrily with his free hand. “Oscar killed his wife. Had to have been him, she’s been dead for days. I broke down the door because of the smell and found her. What’s left of her.”
The gun felt leaden in my hand now. Either he was lying or crazy, or he was telling the truth. Either way, I was out in the night with someone very dangerous. But I had to know what he meant. “What was left of her? What had happened to her?”
Spires was crying freely now. “He’s been fucking eating her! She’s been hollowed out…Oh God…she’s been hollowed out where he’s been fucking eating her!”
I heard something behind me, but a second too late. Suddenly I was slamming into the ground, through the ground, into the black of unconsciousness. I’m not sure how long I was out, but I woke up as I was being drug through the kitchen of the Red House. My head felt like it was coming apart, but I managed to lift it enough to see Oscar was dragging me toward the open door to the root cellar.
As though sensing my gaze, he stopped and turned to look at me with a ghastly smile. A strip of skin hung down his cheek like old wallpaper, and as he looked at me, he idly scratched at the wound. I realized absently that I could see his face because of the ever-shifting electric glow of dozens of fake candles that filled the room and trailed down into the cellar below. Meeting my eyes, his smile grew wider as he spoke.
“Sorry for the bump on the head, kid. But things were getting out of hand, right? And we’ve still got to check out the cellar.”
“Wha…why…” Oscar cut me off with a slight shake of his head as he began pulling me toward the cellar door again.
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Credits
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