I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls (I Found Horror)

by Ben Farthing

Brought to you by the letter O.

O no

The first night I slept in my missing grandpa’s apartment, a puppet came out of the wall and stood over my bed.

Strong start

weird building: renovated from an old kid’s TV studio into apartments.

...why

My cat let out a wet sigh.

What

The light and shadows of the bedroom gave a patch of the plaster an almost furry texture.

Mythos leavs this guy alone

One pingpong ball eye stared directly at me. The other pointed lopsided at my cat.

Because that was Grandpa’s puppet. And the way it moved sparked hope in me that he was still alive.

Ghost puppet

Smart money said Grandpa had a heart attack cutting through an alley somewhere. That’s what I believed when I showed up to clean out the apartment. But that had changed now. Because I recognized that puppet last night. Its name was Swoomie.

Swoomie was a large puppet. He required two puppeteers. Last night, only Grandpa’s parts had moved.

Fairy Jane, Pam the Pilot Princess, Hoptop the giant tree frog, King Sing the prankster musician, Reddo the babyish puppet who’d been the show’s last hurrah, and of course, Swoomie.

My love life was a series of short-term disasters wherein I got too serious too quickly, wanting to

Except for the darker internet rumors about why the show was canceled.

“Oh wow, I remember that.” Brittany patted my hand. Her fingers were soft and warm. “One time you were convinced the Grinch was under your bed.”

“He was looming over the bed, just watching me. It was creepy as hell. Maybe it was sleep paralysis, because I was terrified. You know how it sets off your brain to be scared even if you don’t hallucinate? Otherwise you’re right—Swoomie shouldn’t have been scary.” I didn’t believe that last part, but she’d given me an out to change my mind about being scared of a puppet we’d both loved as kids. I felt obligated to take it. “I never woke up, is the weirdest thing. Swoomie left, I heard you go to the bathroom, and then I was still sitting there.”

Wtf

My imagination ran wild. I saw a furry arm dart out of the darkness, grip my throat, and yank me through the plaster.

Damnit mythos

I missed the relationship we’d had as adults, but what really ate at me was my time with him as a young child, before my parents turned out to be terrible at parenting. Before the world stopped feeling safe. I wanted my grandpa back, and I wanted it to feel like when I was a kid.

Aw

What if Grandpa hadn’t gone anywhere at all? What if he was behind the walls?

It was the sound of Velcro ripping apart.

There was too much space behind the wall. Where there should have been only a few inches between this side of the wall and the wall of the room opposite, instead there was a full two feet.

Very tardis

I played with the flap of plaster that pulled back like a curtain. It just hung there, refusing to crumble like plaster should. I gave it a sharp tug but it still didn’t break.

The puppet from millions of childhoods felt more like a predator.

Alien vs Swoomie

What could be more exciting than the chance at finding an original R-City Street puppet?

Inside, the air felt heavy. It buzzed with potential energy. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, exactly. Like the atmosphere itself was holding me down. I wondered if this was similar to what people with bad knees felt before a storm.

She was still approaching this as if we might find an inanimate antique, but to me, it felt like we were spelunking into a predator’s den.

Between the walls where I was too fat to fit, the dancing glow of Brittany’s flashlight vanished.

Fatshamed

I turned back to the most loving mother I had as a child, a woman who’d never met me until today. “Will you come with us?”

Lucio

Lucio oh!

But we had to go deeper to find Grandpa.

Swoomie stood inches from my face. My flashlight at my side made shadows with his bottom jaw, leaving his lidless eyes in near darkness.

We’d stepped onto the set of R-City Street.

For starters, the streetlamps which kept back the darkness didn’t reach the ceiling. When I pointed my flashlight upward, I could barely make out floor joists and copper pipes. That was at least fifty feet up. We hadn’t walked down that many flights of stairs. The ceiling should be—at most—twenty feet above.

Fairy Jane

420blazeit

A ring of mangy flesh that I’d already seen down the deep tunnel of Swoomie’s throat.

“Mike Percy called upon a power he shouldn't have. And for the dumbest reason: to get himself more attention on a television show. His performances certainly improved. When he was puppeteering the letter O, he put more expression on that puppet’s face than I'd ever seen before. But when that little boy got too close to that puppet…" Grandpa trailed off. He closed his eyes. "I hate remembering that."

Lolwut

Reddo had arrived.

I hated Reddo.

None of it was fair. You spend your adulthood trying to craft a life that feels as safe as early childhood, but the world yanks you farther and farther away.