Yet another horror story
by
BlackMetalGhost
August 4, 2014 at 4:08 PM UTC
So this is something I worked on for a while. It's a little story based on something my grandmother told me XD. I saw EnderPearlReaper posting some horror stories on the forums, and I thought I'd post this.
Hide and SeekMoving into new apartments had always
stressed me out. There were so many factors to take into account- the new
neighbors, the possibility of unforeseen mechanical issues (such as leaky
faucets), odd smells coming from the walls, etc. As a result, I always
thoroughly checked out my lodgings before I decided to move in. As it so
happened, I’d recently been fired, and had found an apartment which was far
closer to my favorite food market than my current one- and it was cheaper. So I
went to check it out.
The apartment in question was D4, on the
fourth floor of the building it was located in. The previous tenant had left
some time ago and the building’s manager was showing me around. It certainly
wasn’t anything too fancy- it had a kitchen, a bathroom, single bedroom, blah
blah blah. It was pretty much the same as my old one, only slightly smaller. I
guess that explained the reduced rent- although it was still lower than it
should have been. I checked the walls, the faucets, the gas- everything was in
fine working order. There didn’t seem to be any particular reason for the lower
rent. But I didn’t really worry too much- it might have been low, but it wasn’t
cheap. In hindsight, I guess I should have questioned the manager more closely
than I did about the apartment’s history.
So I moved in. And for the first few weeks,
everything was fine. There were noises which came through the walls- sounds of
cooking in the apartment to the left of mine, a child’s happy little voice from
the unit above, and sounds of people talking through the wall of the apartment
on the right. My old building had similar noises- I could hear the television
in the next room, I could hear the shower from below, etc. All in all, this was
a pretty regular apartment building. The first sign of trouble was when my
neighbors threw me a housewarming party to welcome me to the building. That in
itself wasn’t the problem- they were all nice people, and their food was
absolutely delicious.
The problem started when we began making
small talk. As it turned out, the people living in the apartments to the right
and left of mine were married couples, all of whom held jobs, meaning they were
out during the day. The apartments above and under mine were both vacant. When
I asked them about the noises I could hear- the cooking, the voices, and the
child, they gave me odd looks. There was no child living in any of the
apartments close to mine. And nobody was in them during the day, so the voices
couldn’t be real either. What made it worse was when one of the men laughed and
said, “The old tenant used to say similar things, didn’t he? Always going on
about hearing a child somewhere.”
Alarm bells went off in my head. This was
not something to take lightly. I held in my worries till the end of the party,
then started my research into my own apartment. My first stop was the old
library a couple blocks away. As it turned out, that was the perfect place to
go. I met the librarian, an ancient lady who looked as though she could have
been Caesar’s grandmother, and she perked up considerably when I mentioned
apartment D4. “Ah, D4 did you say? Well, you might wanna sit down, sunny. I got
a grand old tale to tell you ‘bout that place.”
I sat down in a comfortable armchair and
waited.
The old woman began. “T’was the summer of 1985. The apartment building
you’re currently living in was being built at the time, and it was being built
under a very tight schedule. None of the workers could afford to waste any time
on the job, and they rushed their work a bit. At the same time, a little girl
named Ruby Ellis used to play in the empty lot where the site of the building
is now.” The old woman pulled out a tattered photograph, which showed a very
young girl, about six or seven years old. She was wearing a dress, and laughing
at the camera. It was a bit creepy, to be honest.
“Ruby used to play hide-and-seek in the
tall grass where the building is now. Of course, that was when the lot was
empty and unused. When the construction workers showed up, Ruby kept on going
to the site and playing by herself. Her friends wouldn’t go near the place with
all the people there, and the workers were always so rushed that they barely
noticed her. And so, one day, the inevitable happened. The workers were filling
in a room on the fourth floor with cement, and they heard a *glub glub* sound
that shouldn’t have been there. When they eventually realized what had
happened, it was far, far too late to do anything about it. They had so little
time in their schedule, they couldn’t even do proper funeral rites for Ruby,
and her family never got her body. Of course, its been a long time since then,
and there can’t be much left of her corpse now. Physically, that is.”
I looked at the woman. I knew what she was
getting at. “Some say that Ruby Ellis is still in that building, in the general
area of room D4. You’re not the first to report weird noises in that room, you
know.” I thanked the old woman for her story, and told her I needed to be
getting back. She handed me the picture of the girl, and told me to keep it. I
obliged, and hurried back to my apartment. Ghosts. What a load of baloney! The
story had been interesting, which is why I’d listened, but I didn’t believe a
word of it. Too far-fetched. Although……I stared at the walls of my apartment.
There were always weird noises in buildings, particularly ones as old as this,
but the noises I heard were so distinct, there was no way they weren’t real. I
grew restless. Hah! Ghost. No way, there was no way, no fricking way……right?
I had to be sure. There was one way I could
try. Looking back, I guess it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but listening to
the old lady’s story had kind of freaked me out a bit. I could hide in the
bathroom at night. If the girl was still playing hide and seek, she’d come out
at night. I’d just have to wait for her, and she’d show up. Of course, that
wouldn’t happen, because everyone knows that ghosts aren’t real. So I did it.
I
hid in the bathroom, at night, with the lights off. It was the most unnerving
feeling I have ever experienced in my life. At first I could hear the sounds of
the couple next door laughing with each other. But then came the time for
everyone to go to bed. As the noises faded, one by one, all I could hear were
the clock in the living room and the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen. The night dragged on, and nothing was
happening. My eyes began to droop, and my mind was feeling a little fuzzy.
Then, from outside the bathroom door, came the unmistakable sounds of a child
running through the room. There were the footfalls, and the soft laughter that
only little girls can pull off. I was sure I’d locked all the entrances to the
apartment, but the sound continued. I gulped. No way, there was no way…….I
inched open the bathroom door carefully. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I rubbed
them, and blinked hard. But they were seeing clearly. I’d found the girl from
the picture. But in doing so, I’d completely forgotten the most important rule
of hide and seek………once you find somebody………it’s their turn to find you.
Hope you liked it. If you didn't, I'd appreciate if you post why :D
_WittLowry_
August 4, 2014 at 9:08 PM UTC
Wow nice story
garsdef
August 4, 2014 at 10:08 PM UTC
2spooky4me
Klondichael
August 6, 2014 at 4:08 AM UTC
Sweg
TortouseMincer
August 6, 2014 at 3:08 PM UTC
Amazing :o
Gave me goosebumps.. xD