Delusions of Danger

It was a fall night just like any other; the air had recently turned crisp and cool as the leaves began changing colors outside. As such, we had retired the air conditioner for the year in favor of warm sweatshirts. Tonight we were playing Super Smash Bros, a household favorite.

“Back air!” Joe yelled at an unacceptable volume as he slashed Hudson’s character in the air, killing him instantly. “Hah!” He touted, like a jerk.

“Dammit…” Hudson grumbled as he waited for his character to respawn.

“Don’t worry Hudson, I shall avenge you!” I declared as I dove into the fray and pounded Joe’s character into the air with a heavy attack, leaving him at the mercy of my aerial combo. I was just about to land the finishing move when I saw something out of the corner of my eye and shot a glance to the other side of the room. For just an instant, I could have sworn that I saw a pair of eyes peering through the crack in the doorframe, which led into the spacious closet where we kept our dumbbells and workout equipment. “Yo, did anyone see that?” I asked, mildly concerned.

“I just saw you get wrecked, bozo,” Joe offered arrogantly. I glanced at the screen and discovered that I had in fact died. Hudson was leaning hard towards the television in full concentration mode, hitting buttons rapidly on his controller.

“No seriously, you guys didn’t see that?”

“See what man? There is nothing there,” stated Joe with a hint of impatience. He had not looked up from the screen at any point. “You’re probably just tweaking again.” This was in reference to my current mental state. For the past few months, I had been working ludicrous hours on the night shift for the postal service. I was working twelve to eighteen hour days, six days a week. I would come home delirious, go to bed, then wake up and go back to work. Due to my constant lack of quality sleep, I was always in REM rebound. This meant that anytime I fell asleep, I found myself inside of a very vivid dream. These dreams were so realistic that I frequently confused them with real life, confusing things that never actually happened for reality and things that did actually happen for dreams. Anyhow, I decided to let the matter go, however I found that I could not overcome the feeling that someone was watching me.

That night, after Hudson had gone home, I lay awake in bed. I heard noises coming from the ceiling above me. Anytime that I convinced myself that I was just being paranoid, the sounds would start back up. By the end of the night, I was sure that I was hearing footsteps in the attic.

The next morning when I went downstairs, Joe was at the kitchen table eating cereal.

“Did you hear those noises last night from the attic?” I asked him.

“Dude yeah, what was that? It sounded like footsteps,” he responded. I was surprised by this.

“Damn, you actually heard it too? I keep thinking about what it could be, but it really sounded too much like footsteps to be anything else.” Joe thought about it for a minute.

“I don’t know… I mean it sounded like footsteps, but it obviously couldn’t have been. Maybe there is a rodent or something living up there.”

“No way man. What rodent sounds like a human when it walks?”

Joe shrugged, “Hudson?”

Later that day, we picked up Hudson and went to the gas station for a snack run. In the car we were talking, and I said “We should really go play laser tag again soon. That was so much fun.” The others went quiet.

“Dude, what are you talking about? When did we play laser tag?” Joe interrogated skeptically.

“Like last week or something, I don’t know. We just went, you don’t remember? Hudson destroyed us, I don’t know how it happened.”

Joe shook his head. “It didn’t.”

I was very confused at this point, so I glanced at Hudson.

“Yeah man… it sounds fun, but I don’t know what you are talking about. We never played laser tag,” Hudson said apologetically.

“Oh… huh. My bad then… must have been a dream I guess,” my voice lowered a bit, “too bad. It was really fun.”

That night we were in the attic watching Kung Fu Panda 2. In the middle of the movie, I felt a presence behind me and turned around. I let out a sharp yell when I discovered a man looming over me. I fell off the futon. This shocked Joe and Hudson into looking up.

“Whoa! What the hell!” Joe hollered. Meanwhile, Hudson shot off the futon and ran to the other side of the room, cowering.

“You guys see him too? I asked, out of breath.

“Yes! He’s right there!” Joe was frantic. We all sprinted downstairs and fled to Hudson’s house.

I don’t remember when or where I fell asleep, but the next thing I knew I was awake and the sun was up. I heard clanging outside and knew that Joe must be out at the forge. He had recently built a forge outside, determined to become a masterful blacksmith. This may sound like a wild endeavor to some, but it was hardly out of the ordinary for us. Joe and I had both always been fascinated with weaponry. My collection, for instance, consisted of a ceremonial dagger (which I slept with), a katana, a short sword, three tomahawks, a shuriken, a bow and arrows, a slingshot, and a variety more. Anyways, I ran outside to the forge, where Joe was teaching Hudson how to weld.

“Dude, what the hell happened to the guy from last night?” I should have known the answer from their faces.

“What guy?” Hudson asked.

“The dude from the attic! Last night!” I was practically hollering.

Joe shook his head.

“No dude. Nothing happened last night.”

I was sure he was wrong.

“You’re certain?”

“Yep.”

I looked at Hudson. He shrugged.

“Huh… well… if you’re sure… I guess…” I made my way back to the house, rubbing my forehead. I was starting to develop a horrific headache.

That night I heard footsteps again. Lately, I had been hearing them every night. I stared at the ceiling and tried to convince myself that I was making it up. I was sweating profusely.

The next night, after a quick workout, we were playing Injustice 2. As it got late, we said our goodnights. Hudson’s parents were away for a few days and he was staying with us for the weekend. We had made up the futon for him. I was a bit uneasy about leaving him in the attic, but the other two insisted that there was nothing wrong. Not wanting to freak him out, I asked Hudson if he needed anything before going to bed myself.

Later, I heard footsteps again. This time it was different, however. It could be Hudson. Maybe he was restless up there. I sent him a text, inviting him to play GamePigeon 8 ball. He didn’t answer right away, which was out of character, so I decided that he must be asleep after all. Because of this, I was quite alarmed when the footsteps started back up. Step… step… step.. Step. step. Step. STEP. STEP. STEP. STEP. The steps got louder and louder all of the sudden. I sat up, staring at the ceiling. BANG. There was a loud crash upstairs. Terrified, I jumped.

“What the hell? What the hell? Oh shit, oh shit…” I was freaking out. I took a deep breath, grabbed the ceremonial dagger that I kept at my bedside, and went out into the hallway. I slowly crept towards the attic stairs. I went up one at a time, my eyes up and my dagger forward. I was trembling. As I got to the top of the stairs, I looked over towards the futon. It was empty, the blanket on the floor. “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God,” my teeth began to chatter. Just then, I heard a clutter in the closet. My heart jumped so hard that I thought it would shoot straight through my brain. “Chill,” I told myself, “Hudson could be getting a late night pump in. Be cool.” I continued on. I found myself level footed in front of the closet door. I took a deep breath, held my dagger up, and put my hand on the door handle. I swung it open quickly and darted my eyes around the room rapidly. I didn’t see anything. Not at first. There was a lump on the floor in the far corner. “H-Hud…?” I tried to call for Hudson, but couldn’t muster it. My heart started jumping rope when I noticed the thick substance surrounding him in a pool on the floor. My mind was racing at unfathomable speeds. I looked up again at the last second. A flash of pale skin and yellow teeth darted towards me and knocked me back. Before I knew what was happening, It was on top of me. “Agh!” I let out a deep yell as I grappled with the creature. It was a man, as far as I could tell, but one that hadn’t seen sunlight or a bath in ages. He breathed raggedly, his warm, foul breath moist on my face. He went in to bite my throat and I met him with a hard headbutt. He reeled back for half a second, just long enough for me to gather myself. My arm flew up and the dagger struck him in between his ribs. He shrieked and backed off. I scooted backwards and got to my feet. I charged him, slamming him against the wall and pushing the dagger in deeper. He screamed, then threw his head forward and clamped his jaw down around my ear. He whipped his head back, ripping the ear right off. Pain spread through my whole body and I felt blood rushing out of my head. I stumbled back and saw that he was pulling the dagger out. He got it out just as I turned and ran downstairs. I slammed the door behind me and ran into Joe.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, alert.

“He’s real! He got my dagger! Hudson’s hurt! I think he’s dead!”

“Shit!”

We turned and fled into the kitchen, footsteps close behind us. We got to the door and I bolted out, turning my head a few steps later to see that Joe wasn’t behind me. Through the window I saw them grappling.

“Go get help! Hudson might be alive!”

My mind hesitated, but my body did not. I hopped in my car and accelerated out onto the road. I wheeled into the police station and ran inside.

“Help! Intruder in my house! My friends are in danger! I need help now!” I yelled out my address and a number of officers responded. As I heard the sirens fading, a detective introduced himself. Next thing I knew, doctors were swarming me and I was being questioned.

Later, the officers returned. There was a lot of hushed talk before the detective came and sat down.

“Son,” he began, “the responders have returned. They report that there is no incident at the household. Your brother answered the door. He was in good health and ensured us that there were no problems at the household. We did an investigation even so, but nothing was out of place. This may come as a shock, but I assure you we were thorough. I suggest you get some rest and something to eat.”

I was very confused, but relief overwhelmed my confusion. I thanked the detective and the officers, apologized for the trouble, and left. As I pulled into my driveway, I felt warm blood trickling down the side of my head. I got out of my car and walked up to the front door. I opened it and walked in. Immediately my stomach was knotted. There was blood all over the floor.

I walked slowly, trying to get a grip on the situation. At the base of the staircase was Joe, unmoving. His head was not facing the correct direction. I sensed movement behind me and instinctually, I threw my elbow back and caught the intruder in the chin. I got a good look at him. He looked like shit. I deduced that Joe had beat the hell out of him before he was pushed down the stairs and broke his neck. My head was flooding. He charged at me again. I caught him by his shoulders and threw him first into the wall, then over the back of the couch. I moved to the other room quickly and reached behind the bookcase, sliding my katana out of its sheath. Sword readied, I emerged. The intruder fled as I came down on the small of his back with the tip of my katana. He turned his head, coughing up blood, and I promptly sliced it off. It skipped across the floor, leaving bloodstains on the hardwood.

Later I learned that I had run into the police station, passed out, then stood up and left all in less than a minute. I had a hard time dealing with the fact that my sorry physical state, a result of working too much, caused such a pitiful outcome. I wanted to quit. Unfortunately, after two lovely funerals, I was out of money. So I went back to work, taking overtime whenever it was offered. It was terrible. Also I had no ear.