Instinct told me to carefully pass the crucifix on the floor of the foyer and carefully climb the damp semi-rotten steps of the small staircase leading to the second floor as to both to feed my curious hunger to explore, and to find somewhere to rest for the night.

The hallway on the second floor looked rather narrow, two bedrooms to the left of me and another bedroom and a bathroom to the right. At the end of the hallway was the master bedroom complete with dirty old soiled mattress and an old solid wooden side dresser. Not much, but at least it was something and the window that looked out into the backyard was at the very least still in tact and secure. I placed my duffel bag on the floor and began to unpack and make my bed as best as possible with a plastic sheet to cover the mattress and a sleeping bag. I tried to fit some clothing into the dresser drawer but it appeared to be locked.

So with lack of things to do for the rest of that evening there was nothing else left to do but sleep.

The night started as I had expected, I couldn't sleep - the house creaked and groaned as if it were a living thing, inhaling and exhaling. To be honest, I think I would have had a much quieter night sleeping outside. From what I could gather it was still silent out there, with not even as little as a cricket chirping.

And then it started - a low mumbled grunt, like a cross between a fat middle aged man with bad indigestion trying to clear his throat, coming from the corner of the room. I could see movement but the moonlight streaming through the window didn't offer any assistance to help clarify the mystery and without power in the house, switching on a light wouldn't have been an option. Not that I had the courage to move at that moment anyway. I had to let my eyes adjust. I could make out something in the corner on its haunches about the size of a large cat busily working away at something. A wild animal attending to its nest perhaps?
My hands searched by my side for something to throw in its direction to scare it away. Amongst my pile of clothes I found one of my shoes and flung it across the room like a knife thrower throwing a dagger, except my aim was a little of and it hit the wall just beside the creature. It flinched and turned its head to look over its shoulder in my direction. Its eyes glowing an unnatural yellow cutting through the darkness like two bright headlights. And then It stood up, like a human. This was no wood ling creature, it was more ape than anything else I had ever seen. Its grunt turned to a gurgled screech and it hastily left the room, thumping heavy footed down the hallway.
Part of me wanted to chase after it, but the rest of me wasn't feeling as brave. What was it that I had just seen? were my eyes playing tricks on me? had I really seen what I thought I had seen?

I sat up, awake for the rest of the night, praying for the first light of morning. The inhale and exhale of the house being more prominent than ever. Looking out the window, despite the silence outside it felt like a thousand eyes were staring back at me.

Morning eventually came and the sun painted the room a bright golden orange. I don't know if I've ever felt so happy to see morning this way in my life before. I got out of my makeshift bed with a new found confidence now that I felt I had the safety of sunlight. I walked to the corner of the room to study the area in hopes that there may have been any clue to what I had seen overnight. The corner of the room was damp and again there was the strong smell of urine, there were various scratch left on the wall, some resembling the same symbols that I had seen in the foyer, however I was uncertain as to whether these were there to begin with or not.

As per usual nature called so I made my way down the hall to the bathroom. It could have been my mind playing tricks on me but I could have sworn that the hallway was even narrower now than what it was yesterday, however, I shrugged it off and carefully made my way across the floor boards to the bathroom.


To be continued........

Next Issue: Water Water Everywhere