Reddit Collection (Fresh-Short #9) by DeYtH Banger (ebook reader with highlight function .txt) 📕

had lost my keys, I decided to retrace my steps so I could leave for town early in the morning.

The sun was beginning to set, a dull orange peaking over the horizon, so I decided to check the barn before it became to dark to see. I brought a flashlight just in case it did become too dark. I couldn't find my keys, however I did find a few cigarette butts in the corner which I had apparently missed from earlier. I set down the flashlight and scooped them up and threw them away. After an unsuccessful search, I glanced up towards the loft and noticed there was a doll propped up against the wall. I could have sworn the doll was in the attic yesterday, so against my better judgment I climbed the rickety ladder to the loft. There was nothing up here aside from from an old hammer, the doll and a pile of hay. I picked up the doll and climbed down and walked towards my house. When I entered the front door I noticed my keys on the ground, only the car ignition key was mangled and bent.

Annoyed that I somehow must have stepped on the key to bend it, I decided to go to bed and walk to town in the morning. Before going to sleep I cracked open my mothers old diary to read. She was surprisingly articulate for a 7 year old, and I became so entranced by the story that the old house's creaking no longer bothered me.

 

 

The diary's entries became disturbing however. "James" began cutting himself in front of the family and starting fires, the story was becoming very morbid for a 7 year old's imagination. The most disturbing entry, James had tried to kill my grandfather with a knife and ran off into the woods after stabbing him, my mother bearing witness to the entire scene. After returning from the hospital, James had not returned. Dead animals started appearing outside the front door and messages were being written on the house with blood. She wrote how her grandparents have been whispering among themselves for a week now and no longer allowing her out of the house alone. She also frequently wrote how much she missed James. The diary ended here, with no mention of when or why they moved, it just stopped.

 

 

My heart was racing, my pupils dilated and my heavy breathing silent. I didn't want to stay here anymore, true or not the diary chilled me to the bone. I was aware of everything due to my adrenaline rush, the wind blowing outside and every little creak the house made. Wait, the house was no longer creaking, it was dead silent. I pushed my bed against the door barricading myself in the room. I moved my dresser in front of the window, knocking over my lamp and only light source. The blanket of darkness covered the room, the only source of light coming from the tiny keyhole in the door. Determined to stay awake until sunrise, I sat with my back against the wall next to the bed. The floor began creaking down the hallway, stopping right outside my door and then stopping. The light seeping in through the keyhole went dark, I tried to listen over the deafening sound of air entering and exiting my lungs, what was worse was my the constant thumping of blood entering and leaving my heart. A few minutes after soul crushing fear, light returned through the keyhole followed by more creaking. I refused to look through the keyhole to confirm my worst fear.

 

 

After what seemed like days, morning finally came. When light creeped around my dresser blocking the window, I moved it and waited until sunlight saturated the whole forest. Cautiously I moved my bed and bolted down the stairs outside. I didn't need a car, I was going to run to town. I ran into the barn to quickly grab my heavy mag flashlight as a blunt weapon if I needed it. I plucked it from the pile of cigarettes it was hiding under and ran down the dirt path into town. I called my parents to come and pick me up from a greasy spoon diner, making sure to sit in a booth which was against a wall and not a window.

 

 

Aftermath: I did call the police who insisted they found nothing out of the ordinary and both my mother and grandparents deny any existence of a family member named James. I returned to the house, with several friends and my parents mind you, to retrieve my belongings, I was not living in this damned house. There were blank pages from the diary stacked nicely on the nightstand, however we couldn't find the diary no matter how much we searched. My mother vehemently denied ever having one and scolded me for smoking in the barn and littering the ground with cigarette butts and having such an "active imagination".

-Thunderegg

By the Light of the Firefly

 by An Anonymous 

 

When I was a boy, I lived with my mother in an old house in Georgia. It was small, and most parts of it were fairly worn, but the asking price was cheap and we needed a home. It wasn't all bad though, the place had a pretty large backyard and acres of woodland behind it.

 

On one particularly hot summer day, I was sitting inside playing with my dog, Marley, as my mother was leaving for work and discussing the usual guidelines to the babysitter.

 

"I'll be back around eleven," I remember her saying, "make sure he's in bed by ten." The babysitter nodded and smiled as my mother called goodbye to me and shut the door. Now it was just me, Marley, and the babysitter from down the street.

 

"I'm going to run a couple of errands," said the babysitter, to which I nodded without looking up. I suppose here is where I mention this babysitter was an asshole. After my mother would leave for work she would politely excuse herself from the house, returning just in time to collect her pay. I never complained however, I wasn't ever afraid of being alone and what kid doesn't like having no rules for a while?

I spent most of the day playing Gameboy or chasing Marley around the house. When the sun fell, it came time for my favorite summer activity: catching fireflies. I couldn't tell you why, but I was just so fascinated by fireflies and liked to keep them as pets.

 

I grabbed an old mason jar from under the sink and left through the squeaky screen door to the back porch, Marley following at my heels. I was greeted by the overwhelming sound of insects buzzing all around the backyard. I walked down the wooden steps of the deck and began my search for fireflies. I looked for the faint glowing lights for what felt like hours, shuffling through the grass in the warm night air.

 

Suddenly, I saw it; the biggest firefly I had ever seen, blinking around the old rusted chain-link fence in the very back. With jar in hand I whipped after it, Marley barking after me. I had soon made it to the fence when the firefly began to retreat into the woods. I wasn't about to go back empty handed so I climbed over the fence with a bit of a struggle and into the woods.

 

Marley whined on the other side as I walked past old, mossy trunks, leaves crunching under my feet as I went, following the glowing yellow light.

 

The woods felt like I had stepped into another world, the trees were enormously tall and the leaves atop shrouded any moonlight from entering.

 

Just as I was beginning to feel I had gone too far, I looked back to find the shining porch lights of my house but I could not see any trace of them; I had been engulfed by the woods. I couldn't hear the buzzing of insects anymore, it was silent now. I looked forward again to find the firefly drawing closer. I needed to catch it now, if only to use it as a light to find my way back.

 

I swooped at it with my jar and caught air. Startled, the firefly began to float upwards, blinking its yellow light as it went. It kept going higher and higher out of my reach and I followed it with my eyes. It drifted up the high timbers and suddenly I saw, I saw everything. Bodies, hundreds of twisted bodies; men and women, boys and girls, strung up like puppets in the branches, illuminated only by the light of the firefly.

I couldn't move, paralyzed by fear. I could hear everything; the creaking of the ropes, the moaning of the old trees, and the footsteps close by.

I ducked behind a tree, trying to quiet my harsh gasping. I had gone too far, I thought, and now I was going to live up there as another puppet. I didn't know what to do, whether to run or wait, but the footsteps were growing closer. It knows I'm here, I thought, there was no way it couldn't have heard me coming.

 

Mustering all my courage, I shoved off from the tree and bolted towards the direction I came, whipping up leaves as I went. I could hear it giving chase behind me, its feet pounding the earth rhythmically as it went. I ran faster than I ever had in my life, I couldn't stop the tears from streaming as the wind slapped against my face. I hadn't even said goodbye to my mother when she left.

 

As I had hoped, the lights of the back porch were shining through the dark ahead of me. I could hear Marley barking and I knew I would soon meet the old rusty fence. I remember thinking that climbing the fence would slow me down but it was the only way. The trembling earth was growing closer and the tip of my shoe caught a root and I slipped, landing on my stomach.

 

I fumbled over onto my back and began kicking away from the faint outline getting closer. I gripped my mason jar and threw it as hard as I could into the black wood. I heard a thud and got to my feet.

I met the fence and vaulted into my backyard. I screamed for my dog and we both dashed up the deck and inside, locking the door as we rushed through. I sprinted upstairs to my room and took Marley with me, locking the door and pushing a chair against it. I collapsed onto my bed with the lights on, my mind racing. I checked the clock; 10:33. Relief washed over me, I was safe now, and soon mom would be home.

 

Perhaps it was the adrenaline leaving my body because I suddenly grew very tired. I didn't want to sleep but I couldn't fight it. I passed out on my bed with the lights on and Marley by my side.

 

I awoke suddenly in the night to a pitch black room. The covers were over me so I had guessed mom had gotten back and checked in on me. I was sweating under the warm comforter and turned on my other side. That was