Issue # 167 : Slipping Through
The house wasn’t real.
It was the inexplicable thought he couldn’t shake from his mind. The house had thrilled him, drew him in but also scared him more than anything he’d ever seen.
Kevin pushed the cart down the sidewalk, keeping his head down as he passed it again. He saw proof in his conclusion from the fact that in any other neighborhood as nice as this one, he would have been escorted away by police, long before now. It was like the pervasive sense of wrong was so powerfully exuded by the house that no one in the neighborhood bothered to take note of him. He had been terrified of it from the moment he had seen it but could not stop himself from coming back here, every day.
Each time he passed, he hoped to see anyone who looked like they lived there. The sight of a soccer mom, loading a small squadron of precious brats into a minivan would alleviate his anxieties. Even if was it was a pissed off looking executive, casting a scornful glance at the piece of garbage parading through his neighborhood as he hopped into his Prius.
He never saw anyone.
And yet, there was always the sense of a presence inside the house, peering out at him as he passed. It was as if it was waiting for the day when he would finally break down, enter and discover the truths that lurked behind the heavy oak doors.
He couldn’t articulate any reason why such an immaculate house in this pristine neighborhood could bother him. The twelve windows on the front were perfectly and evenly spaced, the sparkling glass somehow reflecting just enough of the daylight to prevent seeing inside. It always felt colder here than anywhere else on his walk and there always seemed to be a haze in the air, like noise from a distant radio. There were voices in the air, too soft to understand beyond knowing that they were there. As he always did, he scanned the other houses, looking for an open window through which he might have been hearing someone speaking.
As with all the other times before, he saw nothing.
The notion was crazy. He was taking every random sight and sound, and cramming it all together into one unified reason to get himself worked up. There was nothing to it, it was just a house.
Just a house.
And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was seeing a rip in the fabric that let things into the world that were evil and wrong. It was like a thick sludge had been wiped away from his perception and he had been briefly gifted with this curse of sight.
He knew what he had to do, the only solution to this mania and unrest in his soul. He had to address it, even if it meant embarrassing himself in front of some wide-eyed six-year-old, gaping up at him through the front doors.
Kevin released the handle of the cart and turned to stride up the slight hill towards the house. He had to do it now, before his resolve was gone for good. He couldn’t go on letting this house dictate his life and whatever sanity he still clung to.
When he stepped up onto the front porch, he immediately lurched forward, as if the ground itself was about to tilt and spill him down onto his face. It was like standing on the deck of a ship on stormy seas, where any sense of stability was long forgotten.
Kevin knew that everything was fine, the ground didn’t just move or shift. People lose their balance sometimes. Still, he reached out and placed a hand against the aged wood of the house to steady himself.
When the pain began, his scream almost happened reflexively, before he had even consciously acknowledged what was happening.
He felt the searing heat of dozens of needles puncturing his hand. They protruded out from the house and passed through the meat of his palm. That was what he felt, but he actually saw nothing. He tried to pull his hand away but it would not move from the surface of the house. His skin tented upwards, as if something pushed up from underneath, but he could see nothing actually protruding from them.
The surface of his skin was now peppered with tiny red dots. The coloring deepened and blood welled up out of the wounds. Soon his hand and wrist were coated in his own blood as it dripped down from the unseen objects which had impaled his hand.
Without thinking, Kevin lifted up a foot and braced against the wall to push himself free. His voice cracked from the strain of shrieking as new pain, now in his foot came to the forefront. He leaned back, trying to use his own weight to pull himself free, but only ended up hanging in place from his hand and foot, now firmly attached to the house. His strength was fading but as he tried to lower himself down, the pain doubled. He frantically sought purchase with his other foot and stood back up, hopping to try and keep his balance.
He could see the wounds on his foot, could feel the touch of whatever protruded through but could see nothing. The porch spun around him and he realized with a nauseating feeling that he was about to fall. Pressing his hand and foot against the house and gritting his teeth through the intensifying pain, he tried to brace himself and maintain balance. Still, he felt himself slipping.
Frantically, he tried to pull himself free from the wall but before he could make any progress, he fell straight down. He screamed at the sensation of a hundred nails ripping sideways through his hand and foot. The world expanded around him as they cut through flesh and bone and his eyes rolled back, barely recognizing the splash of blood against his face.
After an eternity of darkness, Kevin opened his eyes, now on the porch with his head to the side. He didn’t know how many different places his body had been punctured, just that he was now pinned down, unable to move anything. It felt wet underneath him and he could detect the rusted smell of what was left of him, trickling out below.
The floorboards creaked and in that last moment, he saw a darkened figure step over him, through the door and into the house. From the pitch black hallway, the thing turned back and Kevin saw the blaze in the eyes, the cracking and bleeding skin that made up that horrible visage of a face. It sneered down at him as it reached for the door. A hot breeze of air flowed over him as it slammed shut and the sound of it was all that remained to usher Kevin on into whatever world awaited.
