(WIP) Things That Go "BRAP" In The Night

	Devon knew a lot would change after he finally got that promotion, yet only now was the full scope becoming obvious to him. Moving to the other side of the country was certainly a new experience. The palms trees of California were missing in Maine. Even the multicolored leaves of fall drifting across the dark suburban street in his headlights were new to him. Once he parked his car along the curb of the narrow road, he spotted the most unexpected portion of this new chapter in his life. The small ancient house he had recently started to call his own.

	Apartments were scarce around here, so when he found the suspiciously cheap listing for the building he was overjoyed. He may have only lived there a few days, but he was already starting to learn why it was so affordable. Even though the house stood firm despite the many years it had weathered, the neighbors were quick to fill him in on the vast collection of rumors and stories surrounding the place. They varied greatly in the fine details, but they all spoke of horrendous atrocities or strange coincidences that supposedly took place there. At first he scoffed, but after only a couple nights he found himself repeating small details in the back of his head.

	One told of a settler woman’s ghost that haunted the house. Supposedly she had the horrifying face of a demon, and she could be seen staring blankly out the windows late at night, her sharp white smile and wicked eyes floating in the darkness. Now, he knew this house, let alone this neighborhood, wasn’t around in the 1700’s, but it stuck with him. Brushing his teeth in the antique mirror of the bathroom yesterday, he swore he spotted a flash of white moving eerily through the shadows. Of course that was nothing, just a blur in the corner of his vision… but it wasn’t the only concerning coincidence.

	Another rumor was that one of the many people to move in and then quickly out of the building was a deranged psychopath. They supposedly killed several people, and buried them underneath the floorboards. The tale was oddly specific that you could still smell the rotting bodies to this day… and that’s what worried him. Sometimes when he was trying to sleep, he caught a whiff of something terrible wafting past his nose. The smell like burning garbage… though he told himself the smell was just that, a neighbor’s overfilled garbage. That or maybe the building was old enough to have septic issues.

	No, that wasn’t all. The third tidbit that seemed to be substantiated ever so slightly revolved around strange noises. The voices of the dead, for what reason was never specified in this particular legend, were said to be heard at random intervals during the day within the house. Now he was getting more suspicious, so when he heard a faint, muffled buzzing, he investigated. It seemed to come from nowhere specific, just emanating around the room. However, when he pressed an ear against the wall, he could faintly make out what sounded like garbled whispers. Even worse as he leaned in to hear this, the abrupt sound of movement startled him. The noise was gone after that. Maybe rats? It was an old building after all.

	Bringing his newly acquired groceries up the faded steps of his new home, he found himself looking around him as if something might happen. “You’re being superstitious, paranoid, stupid…” His mind kept the list of comforting adjectives up, but as he opened the door his heart sank. Just for a moment, less than a second, a shadow shifted past the corner. As much as he wanted to believe he was above ghost stories, he had to take a few seconds before entering his own home. Once again his mind stumbled for an excuse, “Maybe it was the shadow of the door moving?” Frantically he repeated his movement of the door… yet the shadow it cast didn’t go far enough to reach the hallway corner.

	With footsteps more jittery than they had been a moment ago, Devon quickly stockpiled his refrigerator. He just wanted to go to bed as quickly as possible. If he wasn’t so tired maybe the old place would stop freaking him out. Stuffing a few slices of deli meat into his mouth, he left the kitchen and slowly made his down the creaky hallway to bed. Once he turned off the lights and shut his door… The other occupant of the house returned.

	Her silhouette was nearly indistinguishable from the shadows, skin as black as obsidian. Slowly she pulled herself through a crack in the wall, her joints inhumanely flexible. She pulled her form into the hallway without making a noise, a skill learned after many years residing in this same abode. Her body was unnaturally thin, with the only exception being her dark thighs that flared out to the sides. Unusually tall and gaunt, she might be mistaken for a creeping shadow. The only thing that might giver her way bobbed at the top of her body, her peculiar face.

	While her surface may have blended into the darkness of the night, her teeth did not. Each razor fang was obscenely large and densely packed into her maw. Even if she closed her mouth, a strip of serrated brightness appeared below her eyes. Oh, those eyes. Just as bright as her glistening teeth with only a hint of yellow. Her face seemed to glow in the dark as she silently prowled down the hallway, making her way closer to the kitchen.

	Her already frighteningly large eyes widened at the sight of the fridge. One of the few perks of having someone living with her was fresh food. Creeping stealthily to the appliance, she stopped abruptly when a gurgle sounded from her famished stomach. In contrast to her appearance, she shook like a frightened schoolgirl as she twisted to watch the hallway. After a few tense moments without any noise from the bedroom, she worked up the nerve to keep moving. Stooping down to the old refrigerator’s door, she slinked her thin tail around the handle and opened the delicious container silently.

	As the light enveloped her she marveled at the treasures inside. The box of popsicles tempted her, and the fresh vegetables wooed her, but the block of cheddar cheese ultimately won her choice. Deftly she plucked the orange rectangle from inside and took a deep inhale of the freshness. She knew cheese was generally considered better when it was aged, but she doubted they were talking about aging in trash cans. Peeling back the plastic gingerly she turned around and motioned to close the door behind her. Only, she froze in place. The silhouette of someone else was visible in the hallway.

	Devon was just as frozen in fear as the figure before him. Only from his perspective, he couldn’t make out what was silhouetted against the light of his open fridge. At the same time his brain pieced together something other than himself was inside the house, the door slammed shut, leaving him in darkness. Searching for a lightswitch he repeatedly whispered to himself for sanity. “Ghosts are not real, ghosts are not real, GHOSTS ARE NOT REAL!”

	While the human stumbled in the dark the mysterious woman scampered towards her secret crack in the hallway. Her quick thinking had worked! Even if it made her heart race in fear, she still had to make it past the human stumbling in the dark to make her escape. Sprinting quickly through the pitch black space, Devon would have had a heart attack if he could see the figure approaching him. Fortunately for the both of them, he had no idea where the light switch was, and fumbled blindly in the total wrong direction.

	With the block of cheap cheese held closely to her chest, she bent her unnaturally flexible joints around the confused man and made a beeline for her secret passage. Lifting the wood paneling just slowly enough to not make a noise, she rapidly shoved herself through the crack. Only, in her struggle to get away as fast as possible, she opened it so narrowly she really had to squeeze herself through. While her upper half made it through fine, her thick rear caught in place. Panic overwhelming her she didn’t feel the restless churning of her stomach shift something down her bowels.

	Devon was still trying to make his way in the dark when he unwittingly brought his face close to the wedged woman’s behind. Before he could accidentally make contact, something else reached his face. A silent gust of sweltering fumes pushed past his face for several seconds. His previously deprived senses were suddenly overwhelmed by a steamy rotten funk, much like the one he caught whiffs of late at night, only a thousand times more intense. As he coughed to clear his lungs of the foul intruder, the dark woman finally popped her wide posterior through the crack, sealing her seamlessly hidden entrance behind her. She sighed deeply in relief for multiple reasons, now feeling safe in the forgotten space between the walls.

	In an accidental movement of his arm to fan the air, Devon abruptly hit the switched and flooded the hallway with light. Only as his eyes adjusted to the flash of brightness, he saw nothing. The fridge was closed like it always was, and there was nothing strange around him to have created such a wretched smell. He rubbed his eyes. “It was a long day at work, I’m just seeing things…” Trying to forget the shape he saw in front of his fridge he slowly made his way back to his bedroom. Obviously he was the only one in this house… but he’d lock the bedroom door tonight just for his nerves.

	At the same time the unusual woman made her way through the narrow spaces and down the tiny wall offed stair well, something no one but her knew existed at this point. Descending into the small dungeon-like basement she fully unwrapped her dairy treasure. She knew her stomach would complain, but the taste would be worth it. Fortunately she didn’t have to be silent down here, the floor above her was thick enough to muffle any noise. Seemingly testing this notion she squatted down to hungrily eye the cheddar, only for a much louder fart to bubble out of her and stir the dust beneath her.

	Savoring her hard fought luxury, she ignored her own fumes swirling around her and delicately brought out a tiny worn plastic radio. Something she had found thrown away years ago. Content in her safe space away from any scary humans, she lightly turned the knob up for some soft music and let any of her anxiety gas puff out of her as she pleased. Little did she know though, that there was one way she was giving herself away to the current human of the house. Any intestinal smog that left her drifted upward, and seeped through the floorboards of the bedroom. So faintly as Devon slept, he became more familiar with her aroma.