Alright, before we get into any of this, let me give a quick summary in regards to how the hell we even got ourselves into this situation in the first place. You see, my buddy Cal got laid off a few months ago. He was also kicked out of his girlfriend’s place a few days later for not wanting to meet her parents or some shit. He couldn’t afford another apartment just yet, one - because his savings skills are shit and two - he insists on buying shots of Patron Silver whenever we go out. Because of this, he was staying at my box (AKA studio apartment) until he got back on his feet. He eventually did land another job. However, since it paid considerably less than his old one, he still couldn’t break rent for an actual apartment. Things were still looking bad.
But one day he’d stumbled upon an ad made by a family renting out their basement in a nearby neighborhood. It was also cheap as hell. He’d pretty much made up his mind on the spot. Shit was starting to get cramped back at my place.
So he calls the dad back and they set up an interview. Cal heads over there, they talk for a bit, he gets a house tour and they make everything official. Nothing strange so far. He claimed that the dad and the rest of the family – little twin girls, a teenage boy, their adult son, a baby boy and the mom, seemed perfectly normal and didn’t give off any weird vibes. They seemed like a happy family. At first, that is. The only concern that the dad really raised was that Cal couldn’t go upstairs or have guests over under any circumstances. And that seemed reasonable enough.
Anyhow, the days start to pass and Cal settles back into a routine. He’d work, hang out with us afterwards, and then go to his basement. He claimed that it was nice down there. Pretty sparse, but warm and roomy enough. He’d give the dad 60 bucks cash every week and that was that. No problems.
Shit started to get a little bizarre about a month and a half in, however. He got let off work early one day, came home and found nobody in the living room. This was the first time that it’d ever happened. Usually the teenage kid – his name was Brian, would be playing video games or something. Cal decided to wander around for a little, in order to check out the place a bit more. He never really liked being there with Brian. Said it was always awkward because he’d never respond when he’d asked him something. It didn’t take long before he spotted something on the kitchen counter. It was a receipt from a hardware store. This is what it had on it:
4 buckets of red paint
A power saw
A sewing kit
3 bottles of rubbing alcohol
He didn't really know what to think at first. While these items were obscure, he just assumed that the dad needed these things for various projects he was planning. That’s why he didn’t panic when the dad rushed downstairs, looking flustered when he saw Cal holding the receipt. Cal just laughed it off and said something along the lines of “Planning something big, huh?” I guess the dad sensed that Cal didn’t find this too strange because he just laughed along. “No… no nothing. Just good to have those things on hand, you know?” was what he said back to him.
A couple weeks go by without any incident before the strangeness starts ramping up. Cal said that late one night, while he was watching a movie, he swore that he could hear a soft, anguished grunting coming from somewhere upstairs. Cautiously, he started making his way up there and into the living room. He wandered around for a bit before pinpointing the sound. It was coming from a bathroom near the kitchen. This is where shit went from creepy to absolutely horrifying. The lights to the bathroom were off, but he could clearly hear people talking in there. It was the dad and Brian. They seemed to be arguing about something. This is how he claimed the conversation roughly went:
Brian would grunt as if he was in pain from something and the dad would always tell him to be quiet.
“Shhhh, don’t wake him up”
“Dad, it hurts! Why are we doing this now?”
“Can’t wait till the 4th. You know that”
Brian grunts again. It sounds like he’s about to keel over from the pain.
“Son, relax. Please. The pain’s all in your head. Here, let me stitch it up for you.”
“Do we have to do this in the dark?”
“Yes, I’ve told you. We can’t let it see us, remember?”
It was at that point where Cal realized he’d stumbled upon something very wrong. He backed up slowly and headed back downstairs. He tried to get a look at Brian in the morning, but he seemed fine. Well… more so that he was just acting the way that he’d acted before. Cal told me about all of this the next day. This didn’t really scare me, however. I guess you could say that I have strange interests. I was into weird shit like this, and what Cal had just told me was about the most fascinating thing ever. I asked him to keep me updated.
A few more days pass and Cal’s claiming that none of the family members are even talking to him anymore beyond basic communication. In fact… they were barely talking to each other either. In addition to that, he keeps hearing the strangest noises coming from upstairs at night, usually during the hours of 3 to 5 am, when everybody should be sleeping. Shit like heavy stomping, multiple babies crying, even though he’d only ever seen one, and hysterical laughter coming from the daughters. One time, it sounded like the power saw went off only to be switched off abruptly. The dad had warned him about this beforehand, telling Cal that his wife was going through a “stressful time” and was starting to lash out at night, and to please not bother investigating if he heard anything. Now, I don’t know what constitutes a stressful time in this situation, but this was certainly not normal. One day, the dad comes up to him and tells him that they’re having family over in a few days and that he needed to find another place to stay that night. Cal said that this was fine and asked which day in particular. However… he pretty much knew already.
“The 4th” is what the dad says to him. What a surprise, huh? Anyhow, I get an idea once he finishes telling me all this of shit. If Cal wasn’t just bullshitting this whole time, then this was a potential chance to see some crazy stuff. Now I’m not entirely sure how legal what we did next was... but at the time, I didn’t really care.
I called up my friend Ricky – who works at a security shop and asked if he could hook us up with some surveillance cameras. Ones that picked up audio as well. I also told him about everything Cal had experienced. I wasn’t surprised when he jumped at the idea. He was arguably more into the supernatural than I was. In fact, he came over straight away and we started planning. Cal was understandably hesitant at first. We were going into some weird shit, after all. However, we eventually managed to break him down on the basis of sheer curiosity. Some even better news arose when the mom apparently had to go out of town in order pick up some family members sometime in the morning tomorrow. This was perfect, because the mom was usually the only one home between the hours of 9am-3pm, since everybody else was either at school or working. The baby would be in a day-care. Now, Cal had already told them that he’d be leaving yesterday, so they took his key away from him until the 5th. I guess whatever they were deciding to do needed to be secretive. However, Cal had noticed that the dad would always put a spare key inside a small crack on the steps. This meant that we were all set to go.
So it’s about 6am on the morning of the 4th and we’re waiting inside an all-night diner roughly across the street from the house. We got there so early because we didn’t know exactly what “morning” meant to the mom. We watch as the dad drives off first with the baby and the daughters. The adult son – Jake, was the next one to leave and Brian followed suit soon after. At about 10: 30 AM, the mom finally peels out of the driveway. We wait for another 15 minutes, just to make sure that she hadn’t forgotten anything before we make our move.
Walking as inconspicuously as we could, we cross the street and make our way to the house. Oh, I forgot to mention, Ricky’s friend Phil also decided to tag along, making it four of us in total. As Cal had promised, a spare key was indeed inside the crack. We unlocked the door and hurried our way inside. As soon as we entered, we were hit with the vague smell of burning incense somewhere. Cal said that the family didn’t usually do that, but we didn’t bother checking it out. We didn’t know when the mom was coming home, after all. We didn't have time to waste.
We started setting up the cameras. One in the living room, one in the kitchen, and one in the basement. We tried making them as discreet as possible, and I think that we did a good job. I mean, there was no way that you’d be able to spot them if you weren’t looking in the first place. After covering the bottom floors, we decided to head upstairs. Cal had never been up there, so even he didn’t know what to expect. But… things a got a bit peculiar here. All the doors up there were locked, including the bathrooms. Well, except for one. It was a mostly empty room with one bed and one dresser. I suppose it was a guest room. We decided to just set up a camera in there and one in the hallway. I have to admit, we were starting to get anxious here, so that’s where we decided to call it quits. Five cameras were probably enough.
As we were going down the steps, Cal swore that he could hear a baby crying somewhere. “I knew it!” I remember him saying. “They have two babies, don’t they?” I guess that we somehow missed it the first time, so we strained our ears, trying to catch it again. After about a minute, the muffled cries of an infant did become audible. We started walking towards where the sound seemed to be coming from and were led to one of the locked doors. That’s when we noticed something even stranger. The crying sounded muffled. Like it was being suffocated or something. However, it wasn’t intense or anything, just what you’d expect from a normal baby. Safe to say, this shit was getting really weird. We didn't know what to do, so we just decided to get out of there. As we were about step through the door, we’d noticed that Phil wasn’t with us anymore. We didn’t even notice that he was gone up to this point. I was sure that he was there when the baby started crying. We called out to him, but were met with no response. We were about to go back upstairs to look for him when he came out of the damn basement. We asked him what the hell he was doing, but he claimed that he was down there the whole time. In retrospect, that response really made no sense, but at that moment, we just wanted to get out of there, so we didn’t question him further.
When we got back to my place, Ricky started setting up the video feeds in order for us to watch. As we sipped on some cheap beers while waiting for him, I’d noticed that Phil seemed to be really quiet. In fact, he hadn’t said anything to us at all upon leaving the house. Really, I should’ve known that something was wrong right then. And maybe I did. Maybe I just didn’t want to admit it. In any case, Ricky got the thing set up and we all gathered around the monitors. These are the notes that we took while watching:
LIVING ROOM – (12:05 PM)
The mother comes into the house, but she's alone. It seems that she hasn't actually brought any family over. In her hands, she is holding a small white box and sets it on the coffee table.
LIVING ROOM/KITCHEN – (12: 05 PM – 3: 37 PM)
These are the times where the mom is the sole inhabitant of the house. Nothing much happens here. She sits on the couch, reading a book while the television plays in the background. Occasionally, she’ll get up and go to the kitchen to grab some fruit or something. This goes on for a while. However, at around 1: 00 PM, we notice something interesting that we hadn’t before. She hasn’t turned the page once. She just stares at the book.
LIVING ROOM – (3:37 PM)
This is when Brian comes home. As he walks through the door, he seems to make brief eye contact with his mom before heading down to the basement.
BASEMENT – (3:38 PM – 4:08 PM)
Brian enters and steps onto the treadmill, starting a light jog. Cal says that this is strange, as he’s never done this before.
LIVING ROOM – (3:55 PM)
The two twins walk through the door at this point. The mother does not acknowledge them as they go directly upstairs.
UPSTAIRS HALLWAY – (3:56 PM)
Using a key, the girls enter one of the locked rooms and close the door behind them. Upon recollection, it seems to be the one where the baby was heard crying.
BASEMENT (4:01 PM – 4:35 PM)
Brian gets off the treadmill and drinks some water. He sits down on a couch for a while, seemingly catching his breath. After about fifteen minutes of that, he gets back up and starts doing jumping jacks.
LIVING ROOM – (4: 12 PM)
Jake comes home and this time, the mother actually acknowledges him. She gets up and they start walking towards the kitchen.
KITCHEN - (4:12 PM – 5:12 PM)
Once there, Jake and the mother take a large pot out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. It seemed like they were having a lot of trouble lifting it up. Jake takes off the lid, revealing what looks like thick, black liquid inside. They stir the pot for about twenty minutes before lifting it onto a stove and turning the heat on. An interesting note is that during the whole duration of this process, Jake and the mother seem to be talking casually, but not about what they’re doing. The conversation is about Brian and how he’s flunking science class. The liquid takes about twenty-five minutes before it starts boiling. Once it does, a light black smoke starts arising from the pot. Jake and the mother open up the pantry and take out gas-masks, putting them on. The smoke eventually engulfs most of the room and covers the camera. At this point, we can only see vague shapes we assume to be Jake and the mother moving around. But… not naturally. The mother seems to be walking back and forth in a bizarre manner, taking large exaggerated steps while waving one hand in the air. Jake looks like he’s twitching violently.
BASEMENT – (4:35 PM – 5:15 PM)
Brian finishes his jumping jacks and bends over, coughing out blood. He stares at the stain for a second before walking somewhere off-camera and coming back with two of the red paint buckets. He dips his hands into them and starts drawing a symbol on the floor, around where he coughed out the blood. He draws a circle within a triangle, with what looks like squiggly appendages coming out of the three triangle points. The blood stain seems to be turning black now. Eventually, it starts to move and a bloodshot eye materializes from it, blinking rapidly. Once Brian has finished drawing the symbol, he walks into the center of the circle – where the eye is, gets on his knees and starts praying. While he does this, he utters out a language that none of us are familiar with.
UPSTAIRS HALLWAY – (5:20 PM – 5:25 PM)
The twins walk out of the room, carrying a baby. Cal remarks that he recognizes the baby, it being the one that the family had first introduced him to. It is now unclear what the dad had brought out of the house in the morning. The twins set the baby down, and it begins crawling towards the guest room.
GUEST ROOM – (5:25 PM – 5:50 PM)
The baby crawls around the room, seemingly at random. About ten minutes of this occurs before the closet door suddenly opens on its own. The baby turns to look at the interior of the closet, and a worried look washes over his face. What he is looking at is unknown, being obscured from our angle. Eventually, a somewhat playful voice oozes out from the closet, babbling in baby talk. The baby suddenly smiles and then starts crawling towards the voice. Once in, the closet shuts behind him and everything goes silent. The twins soon walk into the room soon after and sit, cross-legged in front of the closet. They do not move at all.
KITCHEN – (5:12 PM – 5:45 PM)
The smoke seems to have gotten thicker and has obscured our view of the kitchen completely. The alarm has not gone off, however. Also, somebody seems to be continuously laughing hysterically somewhere right in front of the camera. But the voice doesn’t sound like it belongs to either Jake or the mother. It’s too deep and distorted. In fact, it doesn’t really sound human.
BASEMENT – (5:25 PM – 6:05 PM)
Unfortunately, we were too preoccupied with the other cameras that none of us had checked on the basement for a while, so we missed about ten minutes. At this point, Brian is praying erratically and speaking at an inhumanly fast rate. There is now a tall, dark figure standing in front of him. It seems to be humanoid with clear, shiny skin but has no defining characteristics, other than the huge, singular eye in the middle of its face. This goes on for a while. Halfway through, Cal left and locked himself in the bathroom. I can hear him crying in there. In addition to this, Phil still hasn’t said a word. He just watches the screen blankly, with a glazed look in his eyes. We’re going to need to keep an eye on him.
LIVING ROOM – (6:10 PM – 6:15 PM)
The dad finally enters the house, and there’s an obvious sense of panic on his face. He seems to be holding a baby doll wearing the same clothes as the real one. On second glance, the doll actually seems to be alive, moving around in the father’s hand. Upon realizing this, he screams and throws it across the room. As it starts crawling back towards him, he takes out a strange looking knife from his bag and stabs it multiple times until it goes limp. His eyes wander to the kitchen, where black smoke is now pouring out at a torrid rate. His eyes widen with fear. He calls out. Something along the lines of:
“Honey, we can’t do this anymore. Something went wrong.”
At this point, he begins crying.
“I can’t fix it. We shouldn’t have done this. I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”
He takes the knife and slits his own throat with it. As he falls to the floor, a creature that seems to be made out of the smoke quickly crawls over to him and drags him into the kitchen.
KITCHEN – (6:15 PM)
The smoke is still obscuring the camera, but something wet is audible. It’s hard to say what it is.
BASEMENT – (6:15 PM – 7:20 PM)
Again, we missed about ten minutes in the basement. Brian now seems to have been blended into the creature that had been standing in front of him. His head sticks out of the creature’s torso and his arms and legs are twisted, coming out at various angles through the creature’s chest and ribs. Despite this, he’s still praying. The creature walks off-screen for a second, before bringing out somebody who’s bound and gagged to a chair. It’s Phil. At this point, both Ricky and I looked at the Phil with us. He still wasn't moving, but he also wasn't expressionless anymore. A literal ear-to-ear grin suddenly materialized across his face. Slowly, Ricky walked backwards, while I kept my eyes on whatever that thing was in front of us was. Ricky quietly picked up my hockey stick and charged towards it. The thing reacted quickly and turned around just in time to bite the stick in half and knock Ricky down. While they wrestled on the ground, I reached underneath my bed and pulled out my Colt. As I struggled to load the weapon, I heard Ricky call out and say that he’d got it it under control. I looked over to see the fake Phil lying on the ground, with a piece of hockey stick lodged into its eye. Ricky had a large bite mark on his forearm, but he said that he was fine and sat back down in front of the monitors. I didn’t know what else to do, so I sat down as well.
At this point, we’ve probably missed about fifteen more minutes of the basement footage. When we checked back, the real Phil was lying on the floor with a big gash on his neck. The creature is now gone as well.
KITCHEN – (7:20 PM)
We’ve lost signal to this camera. Not sure why, but it's gone.
LIVING ROOM – (7:20 PM – 7:25 PM)
Jake and the mom are now lying on the floor with their limbs twisted beyond belief. About five or six of these large half-spider/half-infant looking things are now picking at their corpses. I have no idea where they came from.
UPSTAIRS HALLWAY – (7:25 PM – 8:07 PM)
The creature that merged with Brian is now pounding erratically on the guest room door.
GUEST ROOM – (7:25 PM – 8:07 PM)
The twins are playing paddy-cake while the closet shakes violently. This goes on for about 45 minutes before the creature finally busts down the door. The twins scoot backwards in horror as the creature approaches them. As it gets to about two meters away, the closet door suddenly swings open and the camera starts picking up a bunch of static. We see something large dash across the room and hear an inhuman roar before we lose signal.
LIVING ROOM – (8:07 PM – 8:15 PM)
The spider creatures are now gone and everything is still. We wait for about a minute before one of the twins drags herself into view, sporting a mangled leg. She maneuvers herself onto the couch and rests for a second before picking up the box left by her mother on the coffee table. She puts it in her pocket. We observe as she sighs loudly, while looking around the room. Eventually, we hear frantic knocking at the front door and a man’s voice asking if everybody is okay. The girl just ignores it. As she keeps wandering her gaze around, she meets the camera and stops. She squints for a second before flashing a bloody grin at us.
It was at that point where we killed the feed, packed up the monitors, drove out to the scrapyard and dumped them. When we got back, Phil’s copy seemed to be dissolving, leaving behind a thick, black liquid. Surprisingly though, it didn’t even stain the carpet when I tried to clean it. After that, we barged into the washroom, where Cal was lying on the floor, shaking.
We consoled him for about two hours before he finally came to his senses. After that, we just sat there for a while. Nobody said a word and nobody had to. We’d all made a silent agreement to never mention this shit ever again. Ricky went home and Cal slept on a spare mattress of mine. Well… he didn’t really sleep. I didn’t either.
In the morning I decided to drive out to the house again. I’m not sure why… I guess I was just trying to get some kind of closure. I was hoping that I’d go there and nothing would be wrong. There would be a happy family playing in the front yard and I could write this whole thing off as a horrific, vivid nightmare.
Unfortunately though… things don’t work like that. As I drove by, I caught a glimpse of the place. It was burned down. A bunch of cops surrounded it and they were talking to these guys in suits. I was about to turn my head back to the road, hoping to just forget this shit forever when I saw her.
The surviving twin, wrapped up in a blanket, sitting on the front steps. She was looking at me. And smiling.
---
Credits
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