I wrote this short story about three years ago, and yes, it's true. I thought I would re-post it here.
(Preface)
I don't know why I'm deciding to write this all down, now that eleven years have passed. I've only ever told the tale in pieces, and never written it down. Hopefully memory doesn't fail me, and I can recall the events that occurred with some efficiency.
1.
It was spring- May to be exact, and Peggy Weir's husband had just died. Nasty electrical accident of some kind. I wasn't sure of the details.
Lee was a quiet man with a gentle demeanor. I always thought the two were an odd pair because Peg was vivacious and sometimes a bit rowdy, but it didn't seem to bother him, so who am I to judge? When I found out he had died I was shocked and saddened and vowed I would attend the services.
The wake was a nice enough affair for that sort of thing, though when it was my turn to go kneel before his casket like the other faithful, I was distressed to discover that the glue holding one of his eyelids shut had started to come loose, exposing some sort of plastic prosthetic where his eye had been. I hastened away from the casket, and it was later explained to me that when a body is embalmed, the eyes are usually removed due to the fact that the soft tissue deteriorates too quickly, leaving a rather unattractive sunken pit behind the eyelids. Another person suggested that due to the violent nature of electrocution, perhaps the tissues had stiffened and they couldn't keep his eyes shut so they had to glue them down. Lovely, but I'm straying from the point here.
Not long after the services Peggy announced she would be "grieving" in Florida for two weeks. She had two cats and a dog, and tapped Carmina (my best friend at the time) to house sit for her. Carmina didn't want to be there all alone, so she asked Peg if it was alright if I stayed there too. Peg didn't have a problem with that.
When we arrived the first day, I was thrilled. This house was beautiful. It was situated in the mountains across the street from a dairy farm, and there were huge lilac trees in the front of the house that did a good job of overpowering the smell of cow shit. In the back was a deep creek bed, carved over ten feet deep into the earth by millions of years of rushing water. There were cobblestone steps leading down into the creek, which was only a couple of inches deep. The interior was full of antiques and all things rustic, and had the faintest scent of wet dog. The house wasn't very big, but it looked just like something out of a Thomas Kincaid painting. I immediately fell in love with her Border Collie, Josh. Brilliant dog. Loved people, loved to play Frisbee...he even had his own whistle, so that if he was outside quite a distance from home, all you had to do was stick your head out the door and do the whistle and he would come running.
I was so excited to be spending two weeks there. Before she left Peggy gave us a rundown on what to do and what not to do, and it didn't seem too difficult. Right before she left, Peggy left us with the parting words that scared the hell out of Carmina but only led me to believe she was blowing smoke up our asses:
"Girls, sometimes strange things...happen. I think Lee might still be here. Don't worry about it."
2.
The first few days passed without incident. We enjoyed playing with Josh, lounging about outside, watching TV, etc. Carmina slept in Peggy's bed while I slept on the couch. One day, my curiosity got the best of me.
"Lee was cremated, right?" I asked Carmina.
"Yep, so I heard."
"So where are his ashes?"
We pondered the different things that could have been done with his remains, and then began looking around the house for an urn. It had occurred to me that we were being disrespectful, but Lee was such a sweet guy, and I didn't think he would mind. Shortly afterward, we came across a small inconspicuous brown box on the nightstand between the couch and the wall.
"Do you think he's in there?" Carmina asked.
"Well, let's take a look and find out."
We opened the box. Inside the box was a cylindrical, plain brass-looking tin. The suspense was killing me.
"I think that's it," Carmina said almost in a whisper.
"Well if it is," I said, "It isn't very ceremonial. It doesn't look anything like what I would expect an urn to look like. And why is it tucked away over here, almost as if she's hiding it?"
"Maybe keeping it in view is too painful for her."
"Maybe it's just candy or something."
We went back and forth on this for a while, but I had to know for sure. I started to open the tin.
"My god, don't do that!" Carmina hissed at me.
"Sshhh...I'm sure Lee won't mind. I wouldn't."
I opened the tin. Inside the tin was a clear plastic bag containing the cremated remains of Lee. We stared silently at it for a moment. It definitely didn't look like what I had imagined the ashes of a cremated person to look like. I always thought it would look like...well, ashes. It didn't. It closely resembled gravel, and I could see little bits of bone as if someone had smashed up what was left with some sort of hammer. I immediately felt uneasy and replaced the lid, all the while thinking, Jeepers Lee...I'm sure sorry about that. Hope you don't mind, but you know how teenagers are. We didn't talk about it much after that and went about our business, but I had the very unsettling realization that I had been sleeping with my head no more than six inches away from Lee's remains.
3.
The following day it was raining, so Carmina and I spent most of the day inside watching TV. I can't remember what we were watching, but somewhere around 8pm, the TV turned off.
"Did you lean on the remote?" I asked.
"No, it's on the coffee table."
Hmmm... I thought to myself. Then Peggy's voice echoed in my mind. Sometimes strange things...happen. I shrugged it off.
We turned the TV back on and continued watching. About ten minutes later it switched to snow, then turned off again.
"What the hell..." We said in unison.
Suddenly Josh the dog lifted his head and stared into the kitchen, a low growl emitting from his throat.
"Okay, that's freaky," I said.
"Go look and see what it is," Carmina said with wide eyes.
"No frickin way- you go."
"No. Let's call someone. Preferably a male."
All feminist thoughts of independence had vanished. We quickly dialed our friend Jason, who told us our imaginations were running wild and we just had to calm down. He chatted with us for a while and nothing further happened, so we hung up and sat there for a moment. A few more hours passed without anything odd happening, and we began to talk of turning in. I realized that I didn't want Carmina to go sleep in the bedroom, and that I didn't want to keep sleeping on the couch next to Lee. Suck it up and deal woman, I thought to myself, and we turned in.
The night passed quietly, though sleep was difficult to find. I tossed and turned, and what little sleep I did achieve was filled with strange and somewhat frightening dreams. One dream that stands out in my mind consisted of me waking to go to the bathroom. As I passed the room that used to be Lee's office, I saw him. He was jogging on his treadmill whistling a happy tune, but he wasn't alive. He was burned black, his one eye staring at me, and his mouth was twisted into a horrible grin. For a fleeting moment I wondered how he could whistle with no lips, and then I screamed. I was glad when morning came.
4.
The next day we spent the majority of it out of the house. We drove around and visited some friends, and grabbed a bite to eat at MyPlace & Co., a local diner. I think we were avoiding the house, but neither one of us would admit it. When we finally did return, we entered the house trepidaciously, as if something was going to jump out at us. We were greeted by Josh, wagging his tail and seeming very thrilled by our presence, which was comforting. We found fixings for s'mores in the kitchen, and built a fire in the pit in the backyard. As we sat at the crackling fire, my eyes were frequently drawn to the house, as if I would see someone walk past the window or worse- a face grinning back at me. Damn me and my imagination. After a couple of hours the fire began to die out, and it was getting chilly. We knew we had to go in, but we took our time gathering up all of our things and trash. As we entered the house from the back door into the kitchen we spotted Josh, sitting in the living room at the doorway to the kitchen. It was the first time he hadn't greeted us at the door.
"Hey Josh! C'mere Josh!" I called. He wouldn't come. He didn't growl, he didn't cower, he just stared and wouldn't move.
"That is not like him at all," Carmina said.
"I know." We continued calling to the dog, and after no success Carmina actually walked over to him. She gently took his collar into her hand and pulled, speaking to him in a soothing voice, but he resisted. He kept looking at us as if he wanted to come because he was a good boy, but his attention was always drawn back to something else. Something past us, past the kitchen- towards the end of the house that contained the bathroom and Lee's office. My mind was frantically trying to determine what would cause this sweet and intelligent dog to refuse to enter a room in his own house, and I got scared.
"Josh! COME!" I yelled.
I regretted shouting at the dog the moment I did it because just as I did, Josh lowered his head and practically crawled into the kitchen to my side where he stood with his tail between his legs- whimpering. I felt sorry for him.
I apologized to him and we made our way into the living room, and he followed without protest. Too nervous to go right to bed after the event that had just occurred, we turned on the TV. Sure enough, after a few minutes it shut off.
"Maybe the TV is old, and there's something wrong with the wiring," Carmina said, though she seemed unconvinced.
"But how do you explain the rest of the weirdness?"
"Dunno. Maybe Jason's right and we're nuts."
The events that followed are hard to explain in text. They're pretty hard to explain at all, actually.
As we sat there, a white flash shot past the window.
"Did you see that?" I asked.
"Yep."
"Probably a white moth reflecting the light from the porch light." I said.
"Yep. Big moth."
"Big moth. Hey- the porch is on the other side of the house."
"Shush."
We sat and stared at the windows for a while. It happened again.
"What the hell is that??" Carmina said, beginning to sound panicked.
"Big white moth, remember?"
"Right. Big white moth."
At that moment, the banging began- right behind our heads on the wall against the sofa we were sitting on. Three distinctive raps, as if someone was pounding with their fist. Thump, thump, thump.
Carmina screamed and I pulled a blanket over my head. The dog barked. It happened again, but it was louder, as if someone or something was pounding really hard. Bang bang bang! Josh barked again, but he wouldn't go investigate as one would expect a dog to do. He was scared. So were we.
"What's on the other side of that wall?" I asked.
"The bedroom...." Carmina was shaking.
"We'll go together to see what it is."
"Are you crazy?!?"
"We have to see if someone is messing with us. What if someone broke in?"
"Fine. Grab the dog."
As we slowly made our way off the couch and towards the kitchen (which the bedroom was off of on the left), we attempted to summon the dog, who would have none of it.
"Forget Josh, he's not coming," Carmina said.
As we neared the bedroom door we heard the next sound. I don't know what it was. It sounded almost like a tea kettle going off to signify the water is boiling, only it wasn't constant. It fluctuated, almost like a person rubbing their finger across a freshly washed window. A sort-of squealing squeaking sound. But it was loud, and it was in the room with us.
We both screamed and forgot the bedroom, and instead ran towards the bathroom. As we ran past Lee's study I remembered my dream, but I wouldn't look. The bathroom was at the far end of the house, directly across the hall from the front door. As we neared the bathroom I glanced at the front door, and then a bolt of terror shot up my spine to my scalp, almost paralyzing me.
The front door was wide open.
5.
Carmina was clever enough to grab the cordless phone before our flight to the other end of the house, and we locked ourselves in the bathroom.
"The front door is open! Holy hell the front door is open!" I stammered.
"What?!?" Well...we have to close it!"
"I'm not leaving this room!"
"Neither am I!"
We called Jason again. Carmina dialed while I professed my repentance (out loud) to Lee for poking at his ashes. As usual, Jason was not impressed. He said we were just being silly girls and we needed to knock it off. Needless to say, we hung up on Jason. Carmina called her brother, who was much more appropriately concerned and agreed to come right over, but he lived twenty minutes away. So we waited.
Nothing seemed to happen while we were in the bathroom. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, there was a knock on the bathroom door. Carmina screamed.
"It's just me," Sal muffled voice proclaimed from the other side of the door, and Carmina flung it open and practically strangled him with a huge hug.
"You crazy people left the front door wide open," he said. "You shouldn't do that."
For the remainder of the week we took care of the feeding and watering duties by arriving solely to do so, and then leaving as soon as we were done. No more nights in that damn place. We told Peg about it, and she said that that behavior didn't seem like Lee. Maybe he was just trying to get our attention for some reason. We've all heard that people who die sudden deaths often feel unfulfilled. Perhaps he needed something- who knows. Maybe it wasn't Lee at all, but something more malicious. I shudder to think of it.
(Epilogue)
Six months later, Peggy dreamed of Lee. In the dream Lee was standing on a beach waving to Peggy. She tried to run to him, but no matter how much she ran she couldn't catch up with him. She then realized that Lee wasn't trying to greet her, but was saying goodbye. He then turned and walked away from her, while Peggy stood and watched. She never dreamed of him again.
A short while later the house burned down. Still- nobody knows why.
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