Meadow Woods

Prologue

In its day in the early1950s, the Hotel Virginia was considered a pretty nice place to stay. Budget rooms, but with a beautiful lobby located in the heart of the busy Meadow Woods Lane, offered its patrons convenient access to all the wonders of the big city. Unfortunately, throughout the years, odd coincidences and unruly guests seemed to rule the day at the Hotel Virginia.

A series of bizarre deaths and murders tarnished the place’s reputation, and its fate was sealed when not one but two serial killers chose to make the Hotel Virginia their hunting grounds. The hotel had become a locus for prostitution, drug activity, murder, and numerous other crimes. After the city demanded the closing of the Hotel Virginia It sat dormant for 30 years. It became a haven for runaways and the homeless; and a sanctuary for Satanist and fiends. Bodies, both animal and human alike, in various states of decay, were exhumed from the abandoned Hotel Virginia over the years. Drug overdoses and murders seemed to be the culprit of many of the gruesome incidences, but some just simply couldn’t be explained away. Bodies that had been completely drained of blood, ripped apart, and mutilated were some of the ghastlier unsolved deaths. This caused the local homeless population to avoid the abandoned hotel like the plague.

Years’ worth of dust lined the forgotten halls and corridors until the early 1990s when a couple from South Carolina, Amie and Lorenzo Brown, decided to purchase the Hotel Virginia. Having knowledge of its less intriguing history, the

young couple decided that not only renaming the Hotel Virginia, but also remodeling the hotel would somewhat separate it from its heinous past and give it a more optimistic view. Two years, four months, and five days later; The Browns had their ribbon cutting ceremony announcing the opening of Meadow Woods Lane Apartments. The young couple made apartment A-1 their permanent residence as Mrs. Brown managed the apartment building and Mr. Brown became the building’s superintendent.

The rentals filled quickly to the young couple’s delight. Tenants of various backgrounds, races, and religions traced through the halls. Moving Trucks frequented the entrance as everyone settled into their new dwellings. By the end of the week, the building had resumed its placidity. This was a dream come true for the young couple, or so It would seem.

Having managed various properties over the years, The Browns were accustomed to the usual complaints and maintenance issues that arose, but as time passed on, the complaints grew from complacent to far more sinister. It began innocent enough with electrical issues throughout the building. Power outages limited to only certain floors or areas of the building, reports of strange animals and knocking on doors when no one’s there were also a few of the reported occurrences. Tenants then began to complain of noises and scratching inside the walls. The laundry center, which was in the building’s basement, wasn’t immune to the

uncanny accusations. Tenants reported having the feeling of being watched and followed. One tenant even reported being chased throughout the basement by something he couldn’t describe, but his fear was made apparent by the sheer look of terror on his face. He would be the first to vacate his apartment, but certainly not the last.

More and more tenants began to follow suit. As quickly as they moved in, more inevitably moved out. It had seemed that all hell had broken loose and Meadow Woods Lane Apartments were the epicenter. What would look like a streak of pure bad luck for the couple, however, was only the beginning. While the complaints had not fallen upon deaf ears, there wasn’t much of anything Mrs. and Mr. brown could do to console their tenants, after all, they hadn’t experienced any of the phenomena for themselves.

As more time passed the list of eerie complaints grew. The couple thought that maybe installing a security system in the public areas of the building would make their remaining tenants feel a bit safer. And for some time, it had. The activity at 1300 Meadow Woods Lane had begun to slowly subside, that is until the strange disappearances and deaths began to plague its residents.

Apartment P2

Tray turned up the music playing through the headphones over his head and rode his bike a little faster. It was the last pizza delivery he’d need to make for the night before riding home. After successfully handing over the pizza, he pedaled home making it just as the sun started to set.

He chained up his bike in front of his apartment building and typed in the code to open the door. Inside, he got on the elevator and went to the sixteenth floor. His neighbor Tracy was just arriving home as well. She was busy talking on her cellphone and fumbling through her keys, so Tray decided to just nod and continue down the hall.

He carried a pizza that he’d purchased for himself before his final delivery and his backpack. He managed to unlock his own door before his neighbor and entered his apartment. Turning on the lights and throwing his headphones onto his couch, he went straight to his desk where his laptop rested.

“Come to life, my friend,” he said to his computer as he pressed the power button and the screen and keyboard lit up.

Once his computer was on, he opened his emails and sighed when he saw the message from one of his professors adding more homework to his already full list. He took an energy drink out of his fridge, popped the top open, and then placed his pepperoni pizza next to him.

A glance at the clock revealed that it was nine PM. He thought about skipping the homework for the night, but then he also reminded himself that the school semester neared its end.

He typed away at his computer into the late hours while finishing his energy drink and eating his entire pizza. The energy drink hadn’t helped much. As the time neared midnight his progress slowed drastically. With a glance at the clock, Tray closed his computer, grabbed his phone to set an alarm, and then meandered his way to his bed.

That night Tray had a vivid dream of a woman in his bedroom. That which was always a welcomed experience, quickly turned into something far more sinister than he intended. This dream was much darker than any other. Her face was a blur and there was something slightly off about her. She stood at the foot of his bed as she called his name, but the sound of her voice seemed to surround him as if it was coming from the room itself. She teasingly raised her white silk nightgown as she climbed slowly on top of the bed. She crawled up his body in a seducing manner until she rested on top of him. She began to touch and caress his chest as he leaned forward to help her remove his shirt. As he laid back down on his pillow, he stared into what should have been her eyes, face, any face, but instead a gaping black void. What was there was a deep darkness that held only anguish and despair. Underneath what had now become an unsurmountable heaviness left him with the feelings of hopelessness and desperation. He struggled against her but was unable to move. He tried to cry out, but there was nothing, no sound, no words, no hope.

When Tray woke the next morning, he felt completely drained and had a massive headache. It reminded him of one of those mornings waking up in his dorm after a long night of partying and drinking. The same type of partying and drinking that got him kicked out of his dorm and in Meadow Woods Apartments to begin with. He tried to shield his eyes from the imposingly bright sunlight shining through his curtains only to realize he was late for class.

“Fuck, he screamed as he jumped out of bed, what use is a damn alarm if it’s not going to work.”

As he got dressed, he notices a large bruise on his right and left upper arms. He vaguely began to remember the woman in his dream. He assumed he'd gotten the bruise at work and just had somehow incorporated it into his dream.

“Note to self, he said, no more energy drinks right before bed”

He laughed it off, then raced off to class for the day.

After finishing up all his classes, Tray rode straight to work and began his shift delivering pizzas. Hours of peddling and listening to music helped his work seem to pass by quickly.

With the final pizza delivered he returned home and continued his cycle of homework, pepperoni pizza, and a round of energy drinks.

He completed his assignments by one AM and made his way to bed.

Tray was up and out the door early the next morning. He had an eight am class before his scheduled shift at the Pizzeria. The two-hour physics lab seemed to meander by slowly. The professor began to wrap it up and not a minute too soon.

As tray began to gather his books and place them in his bag, something outside the window caught his attention. There in the middle of the courtyard stood a woman who looked very familiar yet oddly out of place. She wore what appeared to be a white nightgown of some sort. It seemed not only strange that no one else seemed to notice this half naked woman standing out in the open, but that she seemed to be staring directly up at him in the third story window.

Tray finished packing up his books and headed towards the stair well. He exited the stairs near the entrance that leads to the courtyard, hoping to get a better look at the mysterious woman. He scanned the courtyard from side to side, but she was nowhere in sight.

“It only took me about 30 seconds to make it to the courtyard, how could she have disappeared so quickly”, he asked himself.

Slightly puzzled, he shook his head and returned to the building for his next class.

Tray made it successfully through the school day and returned home with another stack of assignments. He locked his bike up in its usual place and made his way to his apartment. With a “thud” he dropped his backpack onto his table and headed towards the kitchen. He opened the fridge to see what leftovers he may have to survive on until his next payday. He closed the fridge with a sigh.

“I guess its ramen again!” disappointedly he said to himself.

Tray settled onto the couch with a freshly microwaved bowl of Ramen, glanced over at his bag with the stack of homework waiting inside, and decided to put it off until the next morning. It was such a long day of classes he couldn’t bring himself to open another book. Soon the sleepless night and early morning began to catch up with him as the energy drink began to wear off. He struggled for some time to keep his eyes open, finally giving in he drifted off to sleep.

As the sun began to beam through the sheer white curtains, Tray awoke with a jolt realizing he was still in his living room. His alarm hadn’t gone off. He frantically began feeling around the couch for his phone to check the time.

“This can’t be happening, He said to himself. I can’t be late again.”

For a moment, he couldn’t find it, then noticed it on the floor halfway under the couch.

“Must have knocked it off the couch in my sleep.” he thought to himself.

He picked up the phone checking the time and quickly noticed that it was on three percent.

“At least I’m not running late again, he murmured.”

His camera was still on. He assumed that it must have happened during the fall as well. He glanced at the thumbnail photo on the phone screen and didn’t recognize the picture. He clicked on the pic only to be completely horrified by what he saw. He sat there in a state of shock and utter confusion. The photo was of himself asleep on his couch. Same clothes, same throw blanket he fashioned as a pillow, and same empty bowl of ramen noodles resting beside him on the end table. This had to have been some type of prank he thought, but none of his friends have been able to make it over the past couple of weeks, everyone’s been prepping for finals. Besides, he’s certain to never leave his door unlocked. Looking towards his front door, he could see that it remained locked just as he had left it.

After some mental clarity, the thought hit him, someone may still be in the apartment. He slowly rose from the couch and made his way to the small storage closet near the living room door. He slid the creaking door open just far enough to reach his hand in and pull out an old golf club given to him by his father. Hoping this wouldn’t be the first time he would have a chance to swing it, he began to search his apartment room by room. He checked from under his bed and in the closets to the smallest of spaces under his kitchen sink and cabinets. After a thorough search of his entire apartment, he was satisfied that whoever had taken the picture, was now gone. Tray quickly got himself dressed for work and made his way down the elevator to the landlord’s apartment. He tried explaining to them what had happened, but their expressions of disbelief weren’t too comforting even after they promise to change his locks. Tray agreed and tried to put the incident out of his mind as he carried on with his workday.

Before returning home, He decided he would stop by an electronics store to purchase a motion detecting camera for his laptop. Once he locked up his bike and checked his mail, he stopped by the landlord’s apartment to pick up his new set of keys. Tray finished his homework for the evening then set up the motion-detecting camera on his computer. He positioned his laptop so that he would have a clear shot from the living room, down the hall towards his bedroom, and to the right side of his bed.

It took him a while to fall asleep that night. He kept glancing down the dark hall at his computer to see if it was recording anything, but there wasn’t a blinking light. With the sun shining through his bedroom window, Tray stood and rubbed at his eyes, stretched his arms towards the ceiling just in time for his alarm to sound. He was pleasantly surprised that he had managed to fall asleep and get some much-needed rest.

He began to walk towards the bathroom door when he noticed the blinking light on the camera. His heart felt as if it had stopped as a wave of fear rushed through him. Cautiously he walked over to his computer, glancing into the rooms as he walked by. His heart began to pound loudly when he saw the recorded mp3 file. Tray began to play the file even more terrified now of what he might see on the video. In the beginning, all he could see was himself, deep asleep with his arm hanging off the side of the bed. From inside his bedroom what appeared to be a woman walked over and stood to the side of him. She had long dark hair, pale skin, and wore a white gown that came just below her knees. The figure just stood there in the dark for hours staring down at him. Before walking out of frame,

the woman-like figure quickly jerked its head around to look directly into the camera. Startled, Tray jumped back from the laptop screen as it had just dawned on him what he was really seeing. It was the same woman from the courtyard, the same woman from his nightmare.

Tray quickly dressed, grabbed his things, and headed down the elevator. He biked as fast as he could away from the apartment building. After class Tray called his parents and asked if he could stay there for a few weeks. Since his lease neared its end, he would just spend the next couple of weeks looking for a new place. He didn’t want to have to explain over the phone everything that had happened, so he told them there was mold growing all over his apartment. Without question or hesitation, they happily agreed.

After dropping off the last of his deliveries, which ran later into the evening than he expected, he raced home and began to pack his things. Trying to keep the it together, he focused on the task at hand. Once he finished, he glanced at the time on his cell phone, it was after midnight and much too late to be showing up at his parent’s house. He decided to stay for one more night, but instead of sleeping, he’d just try to catch up on his studies.

After getting in some study time, he played a few games on his computer, updated his social media, and then decided to watch some TV. The night carried on slowly. His eyes became heavy and he drifted off into a deep sleep.

Bang, Bang, Bang!

Tray was suddenly awakened in a daze by the sound of loud banging at his front door.

Quickly he jumped up and yelled, “Who’s there?”

The banging continued. He was a bit aggravated and terrified at the same time. Glancing around the living room, he didn’t see his phone. His first instinct was to call the police. Instead he gathered the nerve to walk over to his front door. The banging stopped. His hands shook uncontrollably as he reached for the doorknob. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to calm himself. He then opened them, turned the doorknob, and snatched open the front door. There was no one there. He stepped out into the hallway expecting to see someone running away, but there was nothing. He stood quietly for a moment, listening to see if he could hear footsteps, a door closing, or anything that would explain what just happened. Still there was nothing. He let out a deep sigh as he walked back into his apartment. He closed the door behind himself and made sure it was deadbolted. As he turned to walk away,

Bang, Bang, Bang!

The banging was so forceful the building seemed to shake beneath his feet. He ran into his kitchen now terrified and shaking.

A knife sat in his sink. He grabbed it and stood there ready to defend himself.

Each bang seemed to grow louder and louder. He Knew that whatever it was, would break in at any moment. He considered jumping from his window, but the sixteenth floor was far too high, and he wasn’t a skilled enough climber to get down.

He shouted for help a few times hoping that it would be enough to get one of the neighbors to call the police, but nothing seemed to come of it. Then as suddenly as it had begun, the banging stopped again only this time Tray decided not to open the door, but to peep out instead. He inched towards the door as quietly as possible with the knife still gripped tightly in his hand, ready to use if necessary. He cautiously leaned his head towards the peephole. He could see there was someone there. He could see the outline of what looked like a woman. Her long dark hair covered her face making it almost impossible to see who she was. Her skin appeared to be pale and thin. He could see the outline of her bones beneath the skin covering her shoulders. Her posture was slouched over as if she was barely able to stand. Tray stepped closer to the door to get a better look at this figure as it just continued to stand there motionless.

Against his better judgement, he said in a shaky voice, “Hello, what do you want?”

The figure snatched its head back revealing not a face, but a deep dark void. Tray backed away from the door in a state of confusion and terror. He recognized the creature.

“Am I dreaming?” he muttered to himself, “why can’t I wake up, I need to wake up. This can’t be real; I just want to wake up.”

The pounding now seemed to surround his as it grew louder and louder. He dropped the knife as he knelt to the floor and covered his ears. The ringing was uncontrollable.

“what the fuck is happening, why is no one else hearing this?” he screamed.

The door shook on its hinges as it burst open. The creature had pushed its way inside Tray’s apartment.

It lunged for him as he tried to reach for the knife, but it was too fast and landed on top of him within a fraction of a second. The sickening smell of rancid flesh overcame his senses as he struggled to get this thing off him. Its pale thin flesh felt gelatinous in Tray’s hands as he fought against the creature. The weight of this creature was unimaginable. He screamed as the void seemed to inhale his lifeforce. He could feel himself being pulled deeper and deeper into an abyss. He struggled against the inevitable. It was as if the creature was saying to him “let me in, let me in.”

There was no escaping it. Tray could feel himself begin to weaken. There was nothing he could do. The creature wrapped its long slender pale fingers around Tray’s neck as it pulled his face closer to its void. Tray’s arms fell to his sides as the creature drained him. His soul would be forever trapped in the void. Tray’s body went completely limp. It was over. He no longer had the strength to fight the creature off. Knowing that Tray couldn’t fight back, the creature then began to devour Trays body as he laid there in a catatonic state. Its gaping black void began to widen as it started to eat its way up Tray’s body. He could see himself slowly disappearing into the darkness. It shook Tray’s body from side to side like a wild animal trying to rip the flesh of its prey away. From his feet, to his knees, to his chest. Tray could feel what could only be described as his flesh slowly being digested, melting away from his bones. He couldn’t scream, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t fight. The creature made its way up his body consuming every inch of him until there was nothing left.

Both Rita and Harold, Tray’s parents, attempted to call him several times since he had failed to show up at their home. They left numerous messages throughout the day but hadn’t receive any responses. They decided to contact his workplace to see if he had been there. They spoke with the manager, Angela, who informed them that he hadn’t been in all day. After contacting the university and receiving a similar response, Tray’s parents contacted the police and rushed over to his apartment to meet them.

The two officers that had arrived searched Tray’s apartment, not finding anything that would lead them to believe a crime had been committed, they decided to view the security camera’s footage. While viewing the video there seemed to be nothing unusual or out of place. Tenants were coming and going as usual throughout the building. Nearing the end of the video, around 4:30Am, the officers noticed what appeared to be an intoxicated man entering the elevator on the sixteenth floor. Harold, Tray’s father, pointed and said,

“That’s tray, that’s our son”, with a sound of concern in his voice.

Tray stumbled out of the elevator towards the building’s exit

when he reappeared on the camera of the main floor. His posture seemed abnormally slouched over. His body seemed to jerk and twitch as he walked. He continued this strange behavior as he made his way towards the exit. Before walking out, he turned to look up at the camera as if he knew he was being watched. His eyes were dark, and his face appeared gaunt and wearing a twisted grin, he was barely recognizable on the security footage.

The officer told Rita and Harold that they would check out a few other local cameras, but since he had left the building on his own accord, they wouldn’t be able to file a missing person’s report without some proof of foul play. The police eventually made their rounds, checking all the cameras in the area, but Tray hadn’t appeared on any single one of them. This was however very strange to them as well since he also didn’t appear on the building’s camera directly across the street that should have captured him leaving the building.