(originally written on November 30th, 2021)
At first, everything seemed okay to me- normal even.
Like any other day, I just looked out the window. The sun hung in the orange sky littered with pinkish clouds. It was a pretty background for this cul-de-sac. The neighborhood itself was fairly average overall and had an array of people who went about their paths in life. It was like watching an ant colony from my window. So many people coming and going. It wasn’t anything spectacular but I’m okay with that.
On this day, I saw a black car drive up to the only empty house left in the neighborhood. A man, a woman, and a little girl hopped out with various bags and boxes in their arms. They must have been a new family moving in. This family seems like a nice, ordinary bunch. They'd blend in well with the others. It’s a shame they’re going to be staying in that house- it's falling apart and has always made me uneasy. That house was a real eyesore, people rarely came by.
Once they got settled in, I met their daughter Susie not too long after. We became friends almost instantly. I think that had to with Susie telling me I looked really “interesting”. From her, I will take that as a compliment. She was a small, curious chatterbox, but didn’t seem to mind that I never spoke. Likewise, I didn’t mind that she talked a lot of the time. She was really good at breaking the silence. Namely with bursting into songs at random and making up adventures from her imagination.
The next couple of days, Susie brought me over for dinner with her mom and dad. Her parents didn’t seem to mind me being at dinner with them and weren’t bothered that I didn’t speak. The most her mom said about me was that “my eyes looked like they were staring into her soul”. That was kind of weird thing to say. The couple of family dinners I went to always seemed relaxed and I liked that a lot. The Mom’s cooking was mouth-watering without fail. Susie would talk a lot about school. At the table, the Dadusually kept mentioning how this house was a real fixer-upper as well as the many repairs he’d have to do soon.
I wish I could tell him how much I hated this house, but I couldn’t.
Some days after that, things fell into an ideal routine for me- I hung out with Susie after school and then had dinner with her and her folks. It’s been a while since I felt so happy. Of course, this was all just too good to last. That is because Susie was a curious person. Too curious for her own good in fact. Before dinner, she wanted to go and explore the rest of the house and brought me along. We should have just gone to dinner when it was ready.
I wish I could tell her to stay away from the attic. To not disturb that.. Thing like I had, but I couldn’t.
I watched in silence as Susie grabbed a large stool nearby. “There’s a whole new world to explore,” was the last thing she said to me. Silence was her only reply as per-usual. Standing on top of the stool, Susie took a deep breath before yanking down on the attic door’s string. That action will be why her world will fall apart and there’s nothing I could have done about it.
The look of excitement on her small face quickly turned into cold-blooded terror. Instead of a ladder dropping down, several soot-colored hands reached for Susie with several beady red eyes peering from the darkness. Everything was happening so fast. In one swift moment, Susie was held in the air- she looked like a fly caught in a spider’s web. She was too scared and shocked to say anything. When half of her body was pulled up through the attic door, there was a loud crunchsound followed by a blood curdling scream. I never heard Susie make that sound before.
I could hear Susie’s parents rushing out from downstairs. Sets of feet were pounding up the steps conjoined with screams of, “Susie??!! Susie honey what’s wrong??!!” I know they weren’t expecting to see this. I know this is a situation they would never be able to handle. How could they? They were just buying house to live in.
I wish I could tell them to just turn around and get as far away from the house as they can, but I couldn’t.
As soon as the parents made it to the top of the stairs, it was all over for them. More gnarled hands with patches of hair shot out from the attic space. It was too late when the parents tried to run back down the stairs. Seeing them caught in the creature’s many grasps was like seeing more flies stuck in a web. Screams were let out even before the hands started ripping them into pieces as small as Susie. Amongst the recurring carnage, all I could do is sit in the corner Susie had left me in. With glass eyes I watched blood splatter onto everything in the surrounding area. With a vacant doll face, I listened to the sounds of screams and crunching bones fill the air. It’s been a while since I’ve last heard the Orchestra of Pain, as I call it from many years ago. This was messier than usual.
All I could do is sit there during the slaughter and think.
Why couldn’t we just go to dinner?
I hope Susie’s soul is still intact and that she can find a vessel like I did.
I wonder if the same will happen to her parents.
Would Susie be upset if only she made it back?
I wonder how long it’ll be before a new family moves in.
I hope Susie will like them, too.
I wish I was still at the window.