Ineedyou. (Samhain Horror Anthology)

On this Halloween evening, Emily stared into the pitch blackness across from where she lay in her bed that occupied the other half of her bedroom. She was absolutely sure something was there this time…

The previous 364 nights would play out the same way for Emily: it started by laying in her bed with Emily’s anxiety growing like a bathtub filling rapidly with hot water. The prickly black and white ceiling  would start to appear further and further away and then- Emily would wake up in a free flowing white gown. Her dirty blonde hair was neatly tucked behind her left ear with a sunflower sticking out. It was always the same dream.

While she looked like heaven, she was far from it. Emily traveled to a darker, more dangerous, much more insidious place. She heard voices all around her. Many, many voices, or was it whispers? So many! It was impossible to hear what was being uttered. She saw no bodies to go with those voices. She didn’t know how, but she always seemed to be “moving” forward on the dirty, mud-soaked cobbled street. It wasn’t like she would take her own steps. Emily was scared, frightened of this ghastly town. She didn’t know what this place was. The buildings that surrounded her were dimly lit in some; and others were so broken down and pitch black inside, that her heart pumped harder, faster at the thought of her autopilot body steering her towards what certain doom awaited her inside. But like each night, she somehow glided towards him. And like always, she was there with him. Her boyfriend never looked up, only looking down. He was sad, so sad.

“Can you hear me? Can you see me? Come with me. Dominik,” Emily  would plead to him. Then- 

That sound. The crackle of a voice. The cackle of a laugh. She somehow knew that something was skylarking  with her. It felt as if this was all a damning game to show Emily her lost, dead lover’s peril. His eternal agony. 

“Ineedyou.Ineedyou.Ineedyou.Ineedyou.Ineedyou,” Dominik would repeat over and over. Only he wasn’t speaking. Emily could hear his voice, but his mouth wasn’t moving. She could feel his need for her, as if he had grabbed onto her and wouldn’t let her go, but his body was frozen in place as he looked the part of excruciating ruination. 

What was this place?

And like each evening for the past year, Emily woke up and stared into that blackness of her bedroom. She believed she was being watched or expecting her “night guard” to abandon its post and return to the hell Emily was forever summoned to.

————

This night was not like the other nights.

She couldn’t sleep. She could barely breath. Emily just watched the blackness. Something was there. She remembered Halloween two years before, the night Dominik disappeared, and how he stared into the same sort of black void and acted the same way. She remembered when she woke up and watched him watch… what were you watching? What was watching you? He was too scared to talk. Too scared to move. He was locked in. Body so stiff, Emily had to casually put her hand on him to make sure he was still with her. She thought he may have said “mama”, but she didn’t understand, so she fell back asleep and when she awoke, he was gone. His keys hadn’t moved from it’s home spot. She left his place, and saw his  car was still parked. She didn’t understand. Neither did the authorities when she failed to convince them something had happened to Dominik. There was nothing to “assume” foul play, only arousing suspicions around her. They simply chalked it up to him creating an elaborate scheme to rid himself of Emily. Crazy girlfriend angle. How original.

Tonight though, she understood. Every night from the night after he disappeared, she started to understand more. There was something baneful that happened to him, and it was now happening to her. 

She was absolutely sure something was there this time. Emily just… it was so dark. She felt she and whatever it was were staring into each others souls, only Emily was the vulnerable. Something was there. As fast as fear can overwhelm a person or a spider can dart across a room upon revealing its existence, an ear-ringing scratch rung out and a rather large creature hurriedly crawled across the white wall and sat upright in the corner closest to Emily’s bed. It happened so fast, she didn’t have time to react. Emily’s heart suddenly exploded like a nuclear weapon in her chest, and her body jerked backwards across the bed. She reached for her phone to cut on the flashlight-

NO!NO!NO!

It sounded like multiple, distorted voices echoed all around Emily. Familiar sounds like the place she…

The Creature with the Long Nails. Don’t look at it.

Emily’s jaw widened to scream, but it was muffled. It was dried out, but loud enough for her ears only. The creature seemed taller now. It just stood in the darkness so silent. She knew it was looking at her. She could make out had the creature had long black hair, a round grotesque stomach, but tall and slender in the legs and arms. The creature broke the dark silence by stretching it’s long arms outward and the sound of bones breaking fill the room as its arms bend inwards, and those long nails stabbed the walls and lifted the creature and carried it back across the wall and into the comfort of its blackness it emerged. Emily saw the creature’s torso and legs remained frozen, but the arms, the nails..

Come. 

Emily sensed the creature wouldn’t hurt her. Is The Creature with the Long Nails guiding me? she thought. She crawled slowly across the bed. Emily lowered one leg onto the floor, and then the other. She stood up and as she took one step forward, a hand grabbed her ankle and held onto her with such force. Emily lunged forward and tried to scream, but it was if her voice was purposely muted. The hand only tightened around her ankle and the darting pain.. She heard the sound of The Creature with the Long Nails crawling, but where? Emily searched and suddenly she peered upwards and the creature was bolted on her ceiling perfectly still. It’s hair flung down and many inches from her. Emily knew she was looking into its eyes. 

It’s not for you.

The hand let Emily go suddenly and she toppled forward smacking into the wall. Emily jumped back up as quickly as she fell and the creature was on the move again. She exited her bedroom and hurried to through the living room. She saw her front door slightly opened.

Quick!

That voice commanded her to move forward. Emily left her apartment entered the scanty spaced hallway. On this night the hallway glowed red like it matched the impending danger Emily was chasing and being chased by. Jeremy, her neighbor, costumed in a black Metallica shirt, noticed Emily from outside his apartment. Emily could see that he was having a small Halloween party in his apartment and apparently the whole floor. Jeremy broke away from some friends and approached Emily. She watched as two costumed women, took quick alcohol shots and kissed against the hallway wall.

“Don’t mind them. That’s just Mei and Masa. They are lovers who purge happiness and whose love transcends an entire universe and time. Do you want a drink? I created a witches brew from an online recipe,” Jeremy said in a fast, monotonous voice. “I’m sorry. I tend to get nervous and talk fast around pretty girls I like and I’m really drunk. You’re a pretty girl,” Jeremy further said. 

“Did you see anything come out of my apartment, Jeremy? It had this shape and long hair and nails,” Emily asked frantically. She looked into Jeremy’s face and quickly deduced he had no interest in Emily’s concerns. Emily continued onward, but Jeremy stalked her path. 

“No. That’s scary cool thing Halloween. You don’t scare me, Emily. The scared girl in her pajamas running from something. I do like it,” Jeremy stated back to Emily, with no emotion. She looked past Jeremy’s friends and she saw the long nails disappear at the end of the hallway. Emily broke out into a run, sprinting past Mei and Masa as they moved for Emily, fascinated by her. 

“Emily,” Jeremy said in his humdrum voice, from down the hall. And then the creature was gone. Emily turned and turned, but where had it gone? Emily went left and continued running down the hall. She reached the end of the hallway and pushed open the rusted door and bolted down the metal steps that led to the parking garage. Just as she reached the bottom step, something grabbed her ankle again and yanked it backward. Emily smashed her face against the concrete floor. 

Emily stayed still on the ground. Her eyes wide shut. Her mind racing. What is going on? Emily wake up, please? EMILY WAKE UP, PLEASE! It’s just another dream. She breathed in and out. In and out. In and out. Her eyes finally loosened and then opened. She wasn’t laying on cold, hard concrete.  This wasn’t her parking garage or her apartment building. She was on a mat… a welcome mat. This was her boyfriend’s home.

————

Dominik’s front door opened and he walks out.

“Hey! Right on time,” Dominik said, sounding mildly surprised. Emily’s jaw was ajar. She was back on her feet. Wearing her favorite skinny, washed jeans. She looked around and it was light outside suddenly. Light outside like a mid afternoon. This mid afternoon was an October Sunday two years ago. She remembered. What came next was-

“Would you prefer I be more like you and start getting ready at the time we’re supposed to meet?” Emily shot back, just as she remembered saying. She seemed stunned yet her entire being was in complete consciousness of the moment. She recognized this to be a memory, but to her it felt as if it was happening. Again. It was all too real.

“Touché,” Dominik said with a wisp of a smile, seemingly unaware of Emily’s inner shock and confusion. He stepped out of his doorway and grabbed Emily, softly, yet held her firmly. “I missed you,” he spoke gently, almost like a whisper in Emily’s ear. 

“We’ve been together all weekend. I thought you’d tire of me by now,” Emily said as her voice lowered. She was hoping he’d counter her. She wanted them to be together at all times. Being apart never felt right to her. Emily looked down and she was now standing on leaf littered grass on a small green hill, that served as the entrance to the woods. She looked around, even more confused. We weren’t here until later, she assured herself.

“Being apart from you just doesn’t feel right,” Dominik said and his lips brushed Emily’s and his kiss brought her attention back to the moment. She smile and he bit her upper lip before kissing her passionately.

“You know my heart,” Emily said as they lovingly looked into the depth’s of each other’s eyes.. into the other’s soul.

————

Emily, brought back to the dark and cold Halloween night, could see that the door in front of her was closed. This much she was sure. She needed him. She knew he needed her. Ineedyou.Ineedyou.Ineedyou. His voice.. his fear.. his pull.. she heard and felt him. Emily reached for the doorknob and twisted and pressed inward until she was standing in that familiar living room again. 

Emily closed the door behind her and turned to face the house. She had no idea what she was doing. Standing in the dark of her boyfriend’s living room, she vaguely made out the shapes: couch in the middle, T.V. off to the right, fireplace on the opposite wall, chair and bookshelf next to the windows in the corner, a doll against the wall behind the T.V. As frightened of The Creature with the Long Nails as she was, she hoped for it to appear and lead the way. Emily took one step forward and another and another.

She knew she would have to start where she last saw Dominik: the bedroom.  

Emily carefully treaded forward. The creaks in her step made her heart want would burst in her chest. She had just reached the dining room when she heard what sounded like crying. She turned around and it was quiet again. She looked around once more in the dark hoping to see something, but there was nothing obvious that stood out to her. Emily stayed still for a moment longer and turned back to the dining room to reach the bedroom.

Mymommy.Mymommy.Mymommy.

Emily stopped again. This time she knew what she heard. Emily slowly turned her head to the right and stared at what looked to be a small lump sitting in the middle of the couch. It was silent again. Emily stopped breathing. Deep breathes. She’d stop again. Swallowed. Deep breathes.

It inanimately crawled towards Emily, and the closer it got, it looked to be a… baby. It looked wretched, tortured calling for its mother, as it flailed its little arms.

Mymommy.Mymommy.IWANTMYMOMMY.

It’s pale face appeared so young, but had many wrinkles. It’s mouth was agape and the hands were clasped together as if it was to begging. Those eyes, or no eyes. Where eyes would be were black holes with a red piercing stare. Patches of hair missing and bits of skull exposed. The child.. toddler, monster.. whatever it was, picked up what looked to be a mask and covered its face; the baby looked like a baby doll. Emily was frightened. The way the baby just stared at her behind that mask with those red pointed eyes. It crawled past Emily fast and she watched it enter the dining room and go right into her boyfriend’s bedroom. It’s okay. You’re fine. You asked for a sign. She needed to calm herself. She would tell herself anything to keep from not running out of this house. Running for as far as her legs would take her from this dreadful night, this nightmare. 

Emily stood at the doorway of the bedroom. She examined all four corners and the entirety of the wall, and got a good look thanks to the neighbors driveway lights. Nothing. She entered the room and that feeling was just as she remembered. Though her boyfriend had been gone for two years now, everything was still in place as she remembered. The bed not made. The desk littered with papers and books. A Marilyn Monroe picture hanging on the wall. A painting- a painting she’d never seen before. Emily moved closer to the bed and the painting was a large white canvas with a man that looked like her boyfriend. Emily could see that the canvas was absent of color, except the darkness that loomed over her boyfriend. His head drooped low and he was shrouded in despair. He was sad, so sad. And alone. She’d seen this. Emily dreamed this every night. She’d get close to him, beseeched to touch him, hold him. She could never. Ineedyou.Ineedyou.Ineedyou. She could hear that voice in her head as if he was standing next to her whispering it rapidly into her ear. Emily took steps backward to take it in. She was taken by the incredible moment captured. She continued taking more steps backward. It looked real, felt real. It was missing something. She stumbled into the closet and some thing flung off the ceiling and knocked Emily backwards and she fell. Only her fall didn’t break.

Emily was freefalling down a well, a tunnel, a slide- she didn’t know. Her mind screamed, she couldn’t breath. The Creature with the Long Nails knocked her backwards towards a certain death, Emily was sure of. The creature got close to her with such ease and was only inches away. It latched onto both of Emily’s arms and its nails pierced her ribcage like a needle easily pierces skin. She fought against it, withering and violently shaking, but the creature had all the control. Emily’s eyes rolled to the back of her head, but before she passed out, she witnessed a mistake with black hair many feet long and blown out like static. The Creature with the Long Nails had a pale, yellow-brownish skinned face with no room for eyes or a nose, except a mouth that looked to have been forcibly sliced into the face at an awkward angle. It was evil in its smile and malicious as the creature’s deformed thrice-slit tongue stretched from its hostile host and licked Emily’s face- she exhaustedly blacked out. 

—————-

Emily awoke on a dense, concrete floor. Her ribs were stiff and she lay as if she had properly, strategically been placed in this position: legs long, arms to the side, head front and center.

I died. Is this my casket? What is this place? Emily thought.

There was a familiarity in the sharp air and steely quietness. She rose to her feet and the moment flooded her, she had just fallen through her boyfriend’s closet floor and was killed by The Creature with the Long Nails. She looked at the ceiling, but like her evening, everything was dark and nearly pitch black. The ceiling looked like a ceiling. Except, a faint red glow that seemed to be a distance away. She couldn’t tell where it was coming from, only that it must be that she follow. As Emily followed the glow, a rapid movement could be heard from behind her. She stopped and turned, but could see nothing. She was learning that if something seems strange, chances are it is. Emily ignored whatever it was and followed the red glow.

Emily saw that this was a hallway in a building. There weren’t enough doors and from the little she could see in the dark, it didn’t feel like her apartment building. Emily turned left and then back right to open a door that led to a staircase. Unlike before, Emily possessed a tic more confidence in her assurance of what was happening around her. Before she fell into the hole, she was lost and frightened, ringing in her ear came and go. But now, Emily was curious and itching to get to where she needed next. This was the safe part of this mysterious, yet heart stopping vile journey.  She made it down one flight of stairs and walked down another. She saw that there were another set of stairs, but a gate blocked her entrance. It was ok. The red glow was off to her right side anyway. She opened the door, walked forward, and quickly turned right and stopped. She was now at the approach of the red glow.

Am I closer to the end or the beginning? Emily wondered. It was hard to tell. It seemed this journey of hers had begun so long ago. She stood and replayed the memory of the evening in her head on loop, not much had really happened. Though for Emily, her journey started on the one year anniversary of Dominik’s disappearance. Her dreams of her missing boyfriend and the absolute horrendous place he called home was nearly a second home for her. She started to fathom were the dreams offering me clues? Were they even dreams at all? Emily was beginning to recognize that she wasn’t dreaming. No! She was going to this… place, this whatever it is. How and why? Was it you? Are you responsible for this? Ineedyou.Ineedyou. Emily was out of sorts. She knew she needed to find out what was going on. She knew that much. Emily was starting to enter the haven of this red glow, a familiar and eerie voice called out to her.

Dontleaveme.Dontleaveme.IWANTMYMOMMY.

Emily turned around and it was the baby on the floor from her boyfriend’s apartment. Only it wasn’t moving, not that she could see. She knew this must have been what she heard upstairs. She had heard it’s voice and its movement, only it was frozen. The baby, with no eyes, but with that red piercing stare, had its armed reached out as if it were attempting to grab onto Emily’s ankle for life support. It’s legs, bent and one in front of the other. It’s body felt as if it had been beaten and broken, bones she could feel. Yet it didn’t move. 

Mymommy.Mymommy.Imscared.

The voice cried out to Emily. This baby was talking to her, but how? Nevertheless, Emily picked up the baby and turned around to walk into the red glow. I’ll take you home. Once inside, Emily could not see where the red glow emitted from. It appeared that the glow was just. It was a white tiled room with three sinks and three mirrors. In the far back of the room, there was an inescapable dark place. Like all else was red, but the black hole in the back of this room sucked in whatever light was once there. The first mirror had a glow of light and a hand pressed against. The second mirror looked normal, but Emily knew better. The third mirror was too close to the darkness, which appeared to be some sort of a thick mist upon a closer view. Emily stood paused at the second mirror. Holding the baby, who really looked like a deformed baby doll, Emily looked at her reflection. She was tired, scared, fear drenched. Hair out of sorts and her eyeballs lined with red lines.

Let’s go home.

The Creature with the Long Nails stepped to the left of Emily, revealing itself. Emily wasn’t frightened, not anymore. What more could you do to me that you haven’t already? I’m dead. The creature grabbed Emily’s head. It looked to the black hole, or mist, and next slammed Emily’s head into the mirror, shattering the glass. Emily didn’t wince, she didn’t feel. She stood. Behind the broken glass was the place she was searching for all night. She knew what came next.

————

Emily was back. Back to the place she had visited in her dreams night after night after night, after night.

Before, this place was still. Filled with a mist. Neither hot or cold. Mysterious, yet not vacant. Whispers that couldn’t be understood. Now, the fog drifted closer to the sky. The lone, winding cobbled street was wet and imprinted with footsteps. It was raining, only the rain didn’t pound the street. She wasn’t hit by the rain. The rain was perfectly still. This time she wasn’t alone.

The buildings, once dimly lit, were now full of light. They were made of stone, cobbled like the street. There were wooden fixtures laid broken about. They looked like homes, like this was a real town. Where she saw light, she saw shadows- albeit those shadows didn’t move. As Emily walked the streets, she could see things were inside the buildings, but they looked like mannequins by how still they were. Just like the baby. At the crossover, the baby vanished from Emily’s arms. She brought it home. To its mother.

Emily drifted forward, the whispers came about. Emily could understand them, finally.

“It’s the night visitor“

“Don’t look at it”

“What’s its name”

“I want it”

“It’s not our toy, it’s for him”

“It’s not for you”

“I want it”

“Don’t look at it”

“It brought back my baby. Leave it”

“I touched it”

“Don’t go near it”

Emily spun in circles trying to find where the voices came from. They were intense. They growled. They were more punishing, louder the more they spoke. She saw a bar that stood out to her Row & Oak. The light was bright. It was a scary sight, with all the faces pressed against the glass, but eyes closed and heads slightly bent in directions as if to avoid Emily- yet they stay paused. One spot was vacant.. Emily turned and standing in her path was one of these things. It was hideous upon sight. But it was still. It stood and froze Emily in her spot. It looked like it maybe once human, a little man with hair missing from its top head, but a white bush that covered the sides. There were warts on its face, with nose hair that stuck out. Those eyes, were enormous and black and menacing. It’s fixation on Emily was of concern. They lurked and stared into her eyes. This creature existed beyond curiosity, like being around someone you suspect a killer. This creatures hands extended out as if to latch onto Emily’s arms. Those hands, Emily’s stomach turned at the sight of those hands.

“I warned you. I said don’t look at it. I said don’t go near it”

“I was in your room. I touched you. I want you. I want you. He doesn’t deserve you. What gives him the right to you. I touched you. Oh, the warmth of blood. Of soul. You have no soul. Not now. I was in your room. I touched you-“

It’s not our toy. It’s for him”

The witch can have you. Take his eyes”

Emily saw the thick mist, the murk, suddenly hoover behind the little man. She was met with a soothing, motherly voice, yet chilling, icy and all the more disturbing.

“Close your eyes, child”

Emily closed her eyes. She squeezed them shut. She wanted no part of what she wasn’t meant to witness. A moment went by. Another. And another. Emily opened her eyes and she saw the little man gone. She looked at Row & Oak, and the faces were gone from the glass window and back inside the bar not minding Emily. She turned toward her path and parked in the sky were a flock of black birds, but hanging was the little man’s body. It’s body was near naked, with its ripped pants still attached. Its arms were hung from chains, with hooks that pierced the skin. The chains were attached to a metal rod, attached to a wooden plank that extended from a house. Emily progressed forward and looked back at the little man. He had no eyes. There are no eyes. But it remained still. Didn’t bristle, nor sway.

“The Creature with the Long Nails. Come back I’ll tell you the story. I want you. I want you.”

————

Emily’s journey continued.

In her dreams, Dominik was always right there. She entered the town and moments later, she was in front of him. Maybe she got lost in the trance or she didn’t truly get how far she traveled when she would visit. She had to admit to herself that it felt different. She wasn’t scared or frightened by the enigma of where was was. She didn’t seem bothered. Emily could see house for house, shadow for shadow, and whispers for whispers that restricted them all to stay away from her and let her stay on her journey. She understood their peculiar obsession to want to know who and what she was. She wasn’t afraid. She felt she belonged. She felt there was a place for her here. This wasn’t a typical town or place anyone could just visit. She half thought am I in hell?

And then. Straight ahead. Where the town seemingly ends, and the darkness, the black hole begins. There was Dominik. There he stood, in the black of the eternal night this place was conditioned to, with what looked to be an orb of light or even a moon behind him to light his shadowy presence and give light to the town.

“Dominik,” Emily said as she nearly collapsed. Emily quickened her pace and stood before him. It’d had been two years since she’d seen Dominik in the flesh. She was called crazy. She was subjected to rumors and gossip. She was ostracized. Yet, he stood right in front of her.

“Em,” Dominik pushed out.

“I’ve missed you so much. Nobody would believe me that something happened to you. Where are we?” Emily asked over tears, seemingly out of breath. She was in disbelief.

“This is the town of Samhein. It’s home to all of the fears the world has ever known. This place is the creation of Halloween- not what we know, but hundreds and hundreds of years ago. My mother, The Witch, overlooks Samhein,” Dominik said.

“The night you disappeared- you called out for your mother,” Emily stated empathetically.

“We all have to go through it Emily. To be here. No one here just comes. My mother always knew they would come for her. Then she came for me. Protected me. But, I needed you here, with me. I’m sorry. I didn’t ask what you wanted,” Dominik stated as he dropped his head dropped.

“No, no. What we have is out of this world. Literally!” Emily pointedly said, laughing. This was the first time she had laughed in so long. It was weird, she felt comfortable. “I died to be here with you, Dominik. Everyone lives, tries to make sense of their existence, and then dies. Who can say they were scared to death and get to spend eternity with their lover?” Emily asked. She raised her arm and cuddled Dominik’s face. Dominik looked up and returned Emily’s smile. Her dirty blonde hair was neatly tucked behind her left ear with a sunflower sticking out. Just as it always had been in Samhein.

Then, that sound. The crepitate voice. The guffaw of a laugh. Emily looked off onto her left and again- saw the moving murk, so thick of a fog, it must of consumed all that came into it’s path, inching closer towards them. An indistinct face was starting to form out of the black fog. To its side was its protector and loyal shield, and Emily’s guide, night watcher, and killer; The Creature with the Long Nails.

“Mother, no. Emily’s the most beautiful creature here. Look,” Dominik said, pointing above Emily. She looked upward and saw that she was surrounded in beautiful colors, serene. Emily was peace.

“Quite the paradox. A place so dark and filled with monsters, I’m the shining light,” stated Emily as her energy burst with light and color.

————

Back in Dominik’s bedroom, the painting that caught Emily’s attention; the one she knew was connected to him somehow, was now complete. Dominik’s darkness was touched by Emily’s light. He wasn’t alone anymore.