Closet
By Jeff McDargh
Copyright 2013 Jeff McDargh
My thanks to Sherry Donacy, Michael Carter and
Jonathan Antony Strickland
Whose works can also be found at
Jeannie woke to the sound of the alarm. Morning like autumn had come too early.
Looking out the window at the gray sky, she let out a small sigh and scooted a little further down in the covers. The thought of the day's tasks were depressing enough without adding in the cold and gray of the day.
Putting off her first task of getting the kids up and dressed, for just a few more minutes. She started to stretch out her aching body, but reflexively jerked her hand back. She had touched Jim’s spot or at least the spot that had been his up until two months ago.
Which reminded her of the other part of the crappy day, job-hunting. Since Jim left that meant there wasn't enough money to make ends meet.
Another day of endless job-hunting for a job she was never going to get. She wasn't sure what was worse the apologetic eyes followed with the “we’re so sorry" or the condescending eyes with the “and why haven't you worked in three years" tongue lashes.
Determinedly she pushed Jim and the rest of her day aside and pulled herself out of bed and shut off the alarm before it could go off again. She pulled her worn robe over her sweater and T-shirt she wore to bed in order to stay warm and keep the heating bill down, the one she already couldn't pay, and left the room.
She shuffled down the hall pulling the rope around her stopping the knock on the boy's door " Jimmy, Andy come on Boys hustle your butts downstairs so you can eat before the bus comes" before making her way downstairs.
“First things first" she announced to no one as she stepped into the kitchen and started the coffee. The two boys came bounding down the stairs about five minutes later. Jimmy Junior ten pushed his eight-year-old brother Andy through the kitchen doorway as they came rushing into the room. “Boys knock it off, come on sit down".
She got the boys both a bowl of cereal and poured herself a cup of coffee. Jimmy looked up across the table at his brother and Andy gave him a look back that said” not me you do it.” Jimmy sighed to himself. He felt bad telling her and it showed on his expressive and sheepish face.” Umm… Mom I think the milk is bad." Jeannie picked up the milk jug and sniffed it" fuck" she cursed under her breath and poured the rest of the milk down the drain. She ran the water in the sink a little longer than needed to wash the milk down in order to gather her composure." Okay so how about toast" she said with a smile she didn't feel.
The kids finished their toast with jelly, Andy taking more time to finish as always." Okay boys upstairs let's finish getting ready." As the boys trudged up the stairs she poured herself another cup of coffee and sat in one of the chairs sipping the hot brew.
She sat staring out at the ugly slate colored day outside lost in thought for a few minutes before pulling herself back to the present and looking around the kitchen. Something seemed wrong.
The room was worn and last night's dishes still needed to be done but that was the same as always. She made a mental note to do them before going out. She paused to listen. Maybe it was something she heard that had caught her attention.
The boys were quiet, which was never a good sign. “Hurry Up boys". She took a few more sips of coffee, set the cup on the table, and let her mind wander again. Away from the cold kitchen, away from the dishes, away from all of it.
Half consciously she reached for her coffee cup. That's when the dark erratic movement around the cup snapped her back fully and reflexively she jerked her hand back. The cup was covered in spider webs. The spider crawled up the side and into the center of the cup. She could see the cup was empty and that the table had a silvery shine.
She surveyed the rest of the room it was covered in cobwebs and all the surfaces were covered in dust. Cold moonlight streamed through the windows now giving the room fluorescent look. Dark shadows clung to corners and crevices refusing to be shut out. The old house creaked making her jump.
She looked towards the stairs, towards the noise, nothing. She sat listening, no sound, no sound of a settling house no wind and worse no sound of life. No sounds of the boys. She knew without a doubt that she was alone that she was the only living thing in the house. Well her and the spider.
Silently the tears started streaming down her face. When the scratching sounds started in the floor under her chair she didn't jump this time. The scratching sound was followed by a ticking and what reminded her of the sound of snapping twigs. The sound got slightly louder, but moved about 2 feet further away. More scratching, more ticking and more snapping twigs.
With unsteady legs she rose and took a step towards the noise. The sound moved a little further away and grew a little louder. She followed it out of the room and up the stairs. The sound got louder and her tears came harder.
She found herself standing in front of the open closet door in the boy’s room. She knew something waited for her inside. What was waiting for her was nothing but nothing wasn't nothing it was a something. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew.
She started to step towards a closet, but then stepped back. She could hear the voices inside whispering. Fear jitters in her chest like the spider in the coffee mug. One voice came to her through the whispers low and calm.
“Come to me… come to me...” she took a step forward. The voice came again “its ok… you’re done here… “She took another step forward and the dark embraced her.
Detective Jennings walked past the officers on the front porch and through the front door of the old house on Maple drive. The two boys sat on the couch in the living room with the social worker; he turned and made his way to the kitchen. Detective Colter looked up from the kitchen table where he was seated” Hay Mike welcome to the party, we missed you.”
“Hay Colt so what’s the deal here.”
“Missing person.”
“Yeah, that’s the call I got from dispatch, they said it is but it’s not and that you were already on scene, so what’s going on Colt.”
“The kid’s mother is missing “Colt gestured to toward the living room.
“Ok, so any clues as to where she is or if something happened to her.”
“That’s the thing, no clues, but….”Colter rubbed his brow a few times before looking up again. After working with Colt for six years he knew something was defiantly up. He had never seen him this way before; Colter was always a rock in the storm kind of guy. He was thirty four, only two years older than him, but he always seemed older and Jennings always looked up to him. Not quite in a fatherly way, but defiantly as say, an uncle.
“Ok, Colt out with it what’s the deal.”
“The kids say they had gone upstairs to get their stuff for school after breakfast and that’s when the whole house started shaking.”
“But that can’t be…” Colt held up a hand to stop him.
“I know, just listen ok?” Jennings nodded agreement and colt continued. “The kids said they got scared and ran downstairs and then it stopped but no Mom to be found, so they called 911 and went back upstairs to hide.”
“Ok, so if the house was shaking like the kids say, which I doubt, maybe she ran outside, to the neighbors or something.”
“Door was locked the first officers on the scene had to break it down, the deadbolt was locked.”
“So she locked it behind her or the kids did.”
“No, no I don’t think so.” Now Jennings was the one exasperatedly rubbing his head.
“Ok, so what is it that makes you believe them, I don’t get it, I don’t get why you, you of all people believe them.”
“Because”
“Because why?”
“Because it’s not the first time.” Jennings stared at him in dumbfounded silence until Colt abruptly stood up and walked out the sliding glass door to the back yard. Jennings quickly followed and slid the door closed behind them. Colter took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, then offer one to Jennings. They stood in the silence except for the wind coming in gusts of biting cold. Jennings waited, knowing Colter would continue when he was ready.
Colter took a deep drag and exhaled a long plume of smoke. “It’s happened before. When I was a kid they used to say this place was haunted. The people who lived here, a couple a girl and boy, where strange and every one said they practice black magic.”
“Colt that’s just small town gossip. There’s a house in every town or neighborhood that the kids think is haunted. You know that.”
“I know, but when I was a kid, one morning as everyone was leaving for work and pushing their kids out the door for school the boy, Jacob, wandered out the front door into the yard, covered in blood. When the police showed up the parents were gone and the girl was dead. They found her in one of the bedrooms upstairs cut up all to hell, blood everywhere.”
“That’s one time Colt. One fucked up event a long time ago.”
“Not one, five.”
“Five?”
“Yeah four others after that, spread out over the years. One night they’re there the next morning they’re gone.”
“None of the people ever showed back up?”
“Nope, not a one.”
“What happened to the boy?”
“No one knows for sure, they say he was in shock. They sent him to the head shirkers one town over, then foster care, but no one ever seen the boy again.”
Three hours later as Jennings left the scene and crossed the street to the car, the wind swirling leaves around his feet, he knew that he’d be back tonight. Something didn’t sit right, every instinct as a cop and otherwise told him something was wrong here. He wanted to walk through the house alone and be able to think without all the hustle and bustle and noise. It wasn’t just Colts reaction, but the odd lack of enthusiasm from the other men on the scene. It had the feel like they were just going through the motions.
At eleven o’clock that night Jennings pulled up to the old house on maple drive. He stared at the house see something that made this place different. The windows were dark like most of the houses on the street, hell it looked like most of the houses on the street. ”Fuck it.” He grabbed his flashlight and made his way around the back of the house. It didn’t take much to jimmy the old sliding glass door.
He waited until he was inside to switch on the flashlight. The kitchen looked just as it had earlier. He walked the rest of the rooms on the first floor, letting the flashlight and his mind wander over the rooms and their contents trying to get a feel of the place. “Nothing.”
He made his way up to the second story and just like the first floor, nothing. He stood in the middle of the boy’s room and switched off the flashlight. He listened to the wind blow outside and the slight protests of the house but still no nothing, no gut feeling to pull him in one way or the other.
Maybe his instincts were off and if so then he had just committed a breaking and entering and possibly compromised crime scene. Something still bothered him, nagging at the back of his brain. He slowly made his way back down the stairs back through the kitchen and out the back door. Just as he slid the glass door shut a movement inside caught his eye. “What the fuck.”
He opened the door and stepped back in hesitating before closing the door behind him. The coffee cup on the table was steaming like it had just been poured he could even smell the hint of coffee in the air. He walked back around the table and instinctively reached out to see if the cup was hot. The moment his finger touched the edge of the cup the whole house started to shake. He jumped back as if creating distance between him and the object would make it stop, it didn’t. It wasn’t just the house shaking; he could feel the vibrations moving through him as well. When the scratching started under the floor, he pulled his gun, hands shaking slightly’ and kept it trained on the sound as it moved farther away. He had the mental image of a giant crab moving along the underside of the floor. Holy fuck…. Ok, get it together. “ He stood frozen in place for what seemed like an eternity, should he leave this place and put as much distance between him and this place as possible or, or what exactly? He took a step toward the scratching sound and it moved further away. There was a snapping sound like the weight of the imagery crab was too much for the old floor trusses to handle.
He followed the sounds up the stairs with his gun out in front of him; he even managed to fire off a couple of shots as the dark pulled him into the closet. As the last of the dark retreated Colt slowly closed the closet door. He leaned his forehead against the door like a man in a confessional.” I’m so sorry Jennings but I’ve waited so long, just one more sacrifice and this fucking thing will give me my parents back.” Marion Jacob Colter started to cry.” I know it will.”