By Michael Shimek
Blair burst into tears the moment she stepped into her grandmother’s home. No, it wasn’t her grandmother’s anymore; it was her home now. She was crying in her home. It should have been passed on to her mother next, but that wasn’t meant to be when her parents were killed recklessly in a drunk-driving accident earlier in the year; it was the other driver’s fault, the one who walked away without a single scratch. Now the house belonged to her, and she couldn’t stop bawling her eyes out.
She had always loved the house as a kid, running and playing around by herself in the wide, open rooms. It brought back so many great and wonderful memories, memories of people she would never get to see again, and all of her emotions were too much to handle. It was a good cry, though. Yes it was sad, but it also felt good to get it all out. She had a feeling it would happen often while moving around and rearranging her new home.
A few minutes passed before she was able to stop and collect herself. Then it was time to begin the job at hand.
Blair didn’t know where to start. Having not stepped foot in the house in over ten years, she was amazed by how everything pretty much looked the same, with only a few minor details changed. The first thing she decided to do was go through every room of the average, one-story building and make an inventory of what could stay and what needed to be sold or trashed. She loved her grandmother dearly and everything she had, but they definitely did not have the same taste in style. If she was going to live here, she was going to make it her own.
This was going to take a good amount of time.
And it did.
The entire day slowly crept by. Her grandmother had owned so many different and interesting things; it was hard to determine what she wanted to stay in her new home. Most of it would be gone, though, replacing it with her stuff back at her apartment she would soon be moving out of.
She already had a good amount of furniture, so she definitely didn’t need to keep the tacky pink, green, and white floral pattern that covered most of the living room couches and loveseats. Everything in the master bedroom would be removed, and she had plans to turn it into an extra guest bedroom. There was no way she could ever sleep in that room, feeling weird about residing in the same room her grandmother lived and died in. It was too creepy. There was another room that was a little bigger she would use as her bedroom, the one her grandmother had turned into a sewing room. All of the kitchen equipment could be replaced by what she had, and she was even thinking about purchasing a new refrigerator to swap out the current one that was looking old and untrustworthy.
The basement was a different matter. Blair loved her grandmother’s basement and would likely keep it the way it was until she could figure out something better to do with it. She would deal with it at a later time.
It was late into the evening before she decided to call it quitting time. Another busy day would follow, but at least tomorrow she would have help from the only other living relative she had left on her mother’s side of the family. Her mother’s only sister, Aunt Jane, had passed away from cancer over five years ago, leaving a single child. Trudy, Blair’s cousin, would be coming up to help haul some things away that she wanted to keep for herself. Now, though, it was time to leave.
Then the shakings and rumblings began.
They were slight at first, barely noticeable. She attributed the small tremors to larger vehicles driving by the house, but when she looked out the front window, the street was empty of traffic. It had started to pick up a little bit, with objects around the house shuffling about. She could hear the glasses in the cupboards clanking together. It worried her. She was about to go home, but she didn’t want to leave the house if she thought something was wrong with it. She would just die if she came back the next day to find out her new home had exploded overnight. There was no way it was an earthquake in this small Minnesotan town, but Blair walked outside anyway to see if any of the surrounding neighborhood was affected as well. Feeling nothing out of the ordinary in the cool autumn air, she walked back into the shaking house, which was now trembling almost violently.
The whole ordeal lasted only a few minutes, but it was enough to make her uneasy. She would have to find someone to take a look at the house and make sure it was structurally safe.
Blair waited a few more minutes to see if the shaking would continue. When it didn’t, she went home to get a good night’s rest.
#
The next day was a bright and early one, thanks to Trudy calling at six in the morning.
“Mornin’, cuz!” The voice on the other end was way too peppy for this time of day. “Hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No, it’s fine,” she said in a yawn. “What’s going on?”
“I was just wondering when you wanted to meet up at Grandma’s.”
Blair knew it was going to be a long day and wanted at least one more hour’s worth of sleep. “How about we meet there at eight? That will give me some time to get ready.”
“Sure thing! Can’t wait to see you again, Blair. We didn’t really have time to talk during the funeral, and we really need to catch up.”
“I agree,” she told her cousin. “I’ll see you in a bit.” She hung up without waiting for a goodbye and quickly fell back asleep.
The extra hour of sleep definitely helped; she felt fully awake after waking up for the second time that morning. Washing up, getting ready, and driving over to her new place took the perfect amount of time, reaching the house at exactly eight o’clock.
Trudy was already in the driveway. Her hand was waving enthusiastically in the air while a huge smile took up half of her face.
Blair hadn’t seen her relative in over three years and the young woman looked exactly the same. Her blonde hair was still parted down the middle and tied into pigtails, she still had that hipster fashion look to her, and she obviously still had that vivacious attitude she radiated as a kid.
“Blair!” Trudy didn’t even give Blair time to fully get out of her car before running up and hugging her.
“Hey, Trudy,” Blair said, stepping back from the overly long hug. “Ready for a big day of cleaning?”
“You bet! I’ve been going over in my head what I want to take back home with me. Don’t worry, though; I’m not going to be taking much if you’re worried I might want something you want as well.”
“I went through the place yesterday,” she told Trudy. “I didn’t really see anything I wanted to keep for myself.”
“Nothing?”
“Well, I am getting to keep the house. I feel it’s only fair you are able to pick and choose whatever you want from it.”
“That’s really nice of you. Thanks.” Trudy’s smile brightened even more. “You are so lucky to have this house, by the way. If I were only four years older, it would have been mine.”
“You and Dale don’t need another house,” Blair said as she rolled her eyes. “Besides, the one you have now is way bigger than this one.”
“True, but I have so many great memories from this place.” Both of them paused to look at the house from the outside, reveling in the great memories it had produced. Trudy then turned back to Blair. “Speaking of Dale, he said he would swing by later in the afternoon with his trailer to help haul some things away.”
“Sounds good to me,” she replied to her cousin. “You ready to do this then?”
“Uh huh,” said the giddy girl. “Let’s do it.”
The following hours were spent reminiscing, crying, cleaning up their grandmother’s belongings, more crying, and picking out things Trudy wanted to keep. There wasn’t much her cousin wanted from the house. She picked out a few mugs from their grandfather’s old bar in the basement, a few trinkets that were displayed throughout the house, and the sewing machine that had made many off-color blankets and sweaters they both still admitted to using. Blair was more than okay with the objects she chose to take from the house. The day was going by smoothly, and the thoughts of a shaking house were all but gone; then they broke for a late lunch.
While sitting at the dining room table, both eating ham and cheese sandwiches Trudy had made for them, a small vibration caught them off guard.
“What’s that?” questioned a startled Trudy. “Why is the house shaking?”
“I don’t know,” Blair told her, looking just as startled. “It happened yesterday, though, too. It only lasted for a few minutes, but it got pretty crazy.”
The house mimicked exactly what it did the previous day. After about three-minutes, and the tremors rising in force, they suddenly stopped.
Confused and terrified, the women quickly walked outside in fear of being buried alive under an old, aging house.
“That was scary!” cried Trudy. “What the hell was that?”
“I’m not sure, but I was going to call someone today to have it looked at as soon as possible. I don’t want my new home collapsing on me.”
“I bet Dale knows someone who could do it for cheap. Oh, and speak of the devil.”
Seen driving down the street was Dale’s pickup truck, pulling a decent sized trailer behind it. Parking on the street, the short and stocky man hopped out of the vehicle to greet them.
“Hey, girls.” He strolled up to them and came in for a hug and kiss from his wife. “How are you doing, sweetie? Hi, Blair.”
Blair nodded a hello back. “Hey, Dale. It’s good to see you.”
“Dale, something is wrong with the house,” Trudy cut in.
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked.
“Right before you showed up it was shaking violently. It almost came down on us!”
“Oh, Trudy,” Blair said, rolling her eyes. “Stop overreacting.” She turned back to Dale. “It didn’t almost come down on us, but it was shaking something fierce. It did it yesterday, too.”
“Hmm,” he said rubbing his chin. “I think I might know a buddy who could take a look around for you. It’s probably just some old pipes or something easy to fix.”
“That would be great. Thanks, Dale.”
“Yeah,” Trudy said, hugging and kissing her husband again. “You’re the best.”
“Well, duh,” he replied jokingly. “Now, how about we start hauling some stuff?”
The trailer was only half-full when they were done several hours later. Trudy really didn’t want much, and most of what filled the trailer was stuff being given to goodwill or thrown in the garbage. Dale and Trudy offered to come back the next day and help Blair move some of her larger belongings into her new home, to which she happily accepted. As the day neared its end and everyone was beginning to head home, Blair witnessed something she was hoping wouldn’t happen.
While the front door was wide open, a large black, stray cat darted inside.
“Oh, shoot,” said Blair.
“What?” asked Trudy, who was busy talking to her husband and missed it.
“I just saw a cat run into the house,” she told her.
“Oh, geez. You mean, like when Grandma would always take in stray cats?”
“Yeah. Remember how she always had a different one?”
“I do. I always thought that was weird. She sure loved to take care of those things.”
“And you’ll never guess what I have to do in order to keep the house.”
Her cousin thought about it for a few seconds but gave up. “I don’t know, what?”
“The will stipulates that if a cat should ever venture into the home, I have to take care of it until it leaves on its own doing.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” replied her cousin, looking just as amazed when Blair first heard the odd rule as well.
In order to keep the house, Blair was told by the lawyer that whenever a stray cat came by and resided in the home, she would have to feed it and let it stay. Money would automatically be put into her account once a month to help foot the extra bills she would have to pay. To make sure she wasn’t going back on her word, she would have to keep and produce receipts of cat food, litter, and other cat products as proof. The whole thing didn’t really bother her, at least not too much. Sure it was a little more of a responsibility, but she liked cats. The will even said she could have no more than two stray cats in her home at once, so it wasn’t like she was going to become the crazy cat lady in the neighborhood.
“Guess I’m going to have to buy some cat food and set out some water before I head home.”
“It’ll be your new housewarming present! How cute!”
“Right. Well, thanks again for coming by today. Why don’t you two swing by my place at eight in the morning?”
“Sure,” they both said. Then, only Trudy. “Later, cuz. Can’t wait to hang again tomorrow!”
Only minutes after Trudy and Dale drove off, Blair shut and locked the front door to the house and left to get some food from the store. Her grandmother usually had a litter box and some cat bowls laying around in the basement, but she couldn’t find any while looking around the house, which meant she would have to buy new ones. Having never purchased anything for a living animal, it took her longer than expected to figure out what kind of food to get. After choosing a brand she saw on commercials, the one that always had those catchy jingles, she also bought two small bowls and a tiny little bed for her new furry, little friend. Arriving back at the house, she placed everything down on the linoleum next to the back door. Forgetting to buy a litter box, she grabbed a small kitchen pan to use as a substitute until she bought one.
There wasn’t any sign of the cat.
“Meow, meow,” Blair said, trying out her best cat noise. A soft, faint meowing returned the chatter, but the animal didn’t make an appearance. “Well, here’s some food for you if you get hungry. Don’t go peeing or pooping in my new house, kitty.”
She was a little worried about leaving the cat alone in the house, but she was too beat to fully care. Blair figured the cat could take care of itself for one night alone. Finally leaving to go back to her apartment at around nine, she took a quick shower before slumping into her bed. She quickly fell asleep to what would unknowingly be the last good night’s rest she would have for months.
#
It was seven in the morning when her alarm went off, waking Blair up from a deep sleep. It had to have been really deep, too, because she was wide-awake as soon as her eyes opened. That only ever happened when she slept well, and that didn’t happen very often.
By the time she was done eating breakfast and getting ready, Trudy called her on her cellphone to say that they were down in the parking lot. She buzzed them up to her place on the second floor, and as soon as they arrived, they began their busy day of moving Blair into her new home.
The whole day was an exhausting one, with most of it taken up by packing Blair’s belongings into the trailer and then storing them in the living room of her new house until she figured out where she wanted to put it all. She was very grateful to have some help.
“Thanks so much again for your help,” Blair told Trudy and Dale when they were finally done. “The day went off without a hitch.”
“No problem, cuz, and the house didn’t even fall down on us!” Trudy joked.
“Speaking of,” piped in Dale. “One of my buddies said he could make it down here to look at the house sometime in the next week or so. Said he’d do it for only fifty bucks.”
“Awesome! Thanks for doing that, Dale.”
“No problem,” he said. He gave her a small hug and then went to wait in the truck for Trudy.
“Don’t be a stranger, now,” Trudy said, coming in for a big hug from her cousin. “We definitely need to hang out more.”
“I totally agree,” replied Blair. She had enjoyed the last two days hanging out with Trudy and wouldn’t mind seeing her again in the near future. “Maybe later in the month we could get together for lunch or a girls’ night out?”
“Great! Have fun in your new home, and enjoy your new kitty! Oh, hey, I never saw that cat while we were moving you in. You think it was just using your place as a motel for the night?”
“Probably. I saw that some of the food and water were gone, and it also left me a nice present in my makeshift litter box before leaving.”
“Ha! Well, try not to become the cat lady with that strange inheritance rule hanging over your head.”
“Don’t you worry, I won’t”
Blair waved at Trudy and Dale as they left her new home. She then hurried inside to escape the cooling weather caused by the setting sun. Collapsing onto her sheet-less mattress that had been thrown into the living room for the time being, she napped until a soft meowing woke her up thirty-minutes later.
Yawning as she got up, she thought that maybe the cat from earlier was now up and about. The noise was coming from outside her front door, though. Groggily getting up, she hoped this wasn’t going to be a pain keeping stray cats as she walked to the door and opened it.
A small, skinny, orange and white cat sat on its butt, pointing its cute and needy face up at Blair as it meowed. Even if she didn’t have to follow her grandmother’s will, she would have sheltered the poor little fellow anyways. “Come on in, little guy.” And, as if understanding her invitation, the stray animal walked into the home, rubbed its body up against her ankles a few times, and then strolled its way towards the food and water near the rear of the house. “Enjoy,” she called after it.
Now it was time to sort out some of her things that littered the living room and properly start to put her home together. She would start with her new bedroom, which still looked like a sewing room minus the sewing machine and table it was stationed on. It took her roughly twenty-minutes to put her bed together, clean sheets and all. Having a comfortable place to sleep was the most important thing to have in a new place. She liked the dresser that was in the room, which stored several of her grandmother’s quilts and blankets, and would probably keep it where it was to store her clothes. There was also a large intricate blanket hanging from the wall that she liked, with a pretty and colorful flower design. It surprised her that Trudy hadn’t taken it. But, instead of a decoration, she wanted to use it to help keep her warm at night. Reaching up and taking down the blanket, Blair screamed at what she saw behind it.
Staring back at her was a single eyeball the size of a small beach ball. A large black pupil, encircled by a striking dark emerald color, floated in a sea of white sclera. Red veins of licorice cracked the sides of the round, protruding feature on the wall. And it was moving! Following her with every movement. It wasn’t until it blinked that she was able to unfreeze and run out of the house, screaming in hysteria.
She couldn’t understand what she just saw, but it sure scared the hell out of her. Was that real? No, it couldn’t have been. There’s no way an eye was on her wall! She must be seeing things or still be tired from moving all day. It was the only logical explanation. That, or she was going crazy.
Blair took a few minutes to collect herself out on the driveway. She looked around the five-house neighborhood to see if anyone had seen her running and screaming out of the house, but the street was dead of life. Staring at the house, she was hesitant to go back in, but she knew she had to.
Besides, it was only her mind playing tricks on her. Wasn’t it?
Ever so slowly, with her cautious mind alert to anything dangerous, she walked back into the house. The first thing she did was go straight into her kitchen to grab one of the largest knives she could find. Creeping down the now seemingly endless hallway, goose bumps crawled up her flesh as Blair entered her new bedroom. The one with the giant eye.
Except, now there was no eye. With the blanket no longer hanging, only a blank wall stared back at her. The large eyeball was gone, with no trace of the queer anomaly.
A sigh of relief escaped her lips. She had just been imagining things. The stress of moving was taking its toll on her, and the depression of the recent death of her grandmother still lingered. Sleep would cure her hallucinations.
Grabbing a clean blanket that was still folded and packed up from the move over, she plopped herself down on one of the couches in the living room. It could be a while before being comfortable in her new bedroom. With the lights still on, she shut her eyes and tried to force her fears from her head.
A large meow and screech yanked Blair from her sleepy mind. It was the stray cat. Recent fears and terror quickly reemerged. The sound came again, like something was skinning the animal and it was screaming for its life. It was awful. It was bone chilling. And it had come from the basement.
Her hand darted to the handle of the knife she had set down on the coffee table next to her. Clutching the weapon to her chest, she waited a moment to see if anything else would happen. When silence was the only response, her shaking body slowly rose and walked through the kitchen and dining room until she was standing at the top of the stairwell.
The thick, red and orange shag carpeted stairs and railing above descended into a pit of darkness. One of Blair’s first memories was of her standing at the top of these stairs, thinking that at any moment a monster was going to reach up from the black abyss and snatch her in its claws. Now she feared it was going to come true. She flipped the light switch to her left. The stairwell lit up, but the basement was still as dark as ever. She had always hated that the switch at the top of the stairs couldn’t turn on any of the basement lights. Mustering up some courage, although not much, she began the walk down. Each step creaked like thunder through the deathly silent house. Her hand reached the light switch on the bottom before she could even set foot on the last step.
The lowest level of her house illuminated with bright light from several 100W light bulbs poking out of the ceiling. The light would definitely help settle her fears a bit. The basement always scared her at first, but after getting used to it, the place was her favorite in the house.
To the right were the washer and dryer, along with an extra room used for storage. To the left was a decent-sized lounge area to hang out in. Her grandfather’s bar, which hadn’t been used since his death over five years ago, was up against one of the walls. Mugs, souvenirs, and old liquor bottles decorated the 70s-styled bar. An old piano was set up against the far wall. The white coating was badly peeling, and several of the keys were missing. A wood-burning fireplace was built into the wall to the left, while a record player and fairly new television was set up against the last wall. The television wasn’t actually new, it was from the 90s, but it was the newest thing in the basement. In the middle of the room was a large wooden coffee table, surrounded by two couches and a love seat, all a hideous brown and orange plaid.
Blair loved how the entire basement had an old-fashioned vibe to it. When she got older, and a little braver, she would always read her teen magazines when visiting. If Trudy was around, they would gossip on the couch while watching MTV. Her grandparents would entertain in the basement as well, and she could remember playing quietly next to the piano, watching her grandfather mix drinks behind his bar for the older grownups; he would always mix her a special virgin Shirley Temple while they drank and she played with her dolls. It was such a neat area, and it held so many great memories.
Now, the place made her tremble with fear.
Still clutching the knife, she went left, where the light was brighter. She paused in the entryway to the lounge area, looking for any sign of the stray cat.
“Kitty?” she whispered. “Come here kitty, kitty.”
At first there was nothing. Then Blair heard the most terrifying, blood curdling sound that had ever passed through her ears. A crunching and grinding, combined with a wet smacking, came from somewhere near the piano. If she was smart, she would have run out of the house and lit it on fire so there would be nothing left but ashes. But, her curiosity got the best of her, and she continued forward.
Her knife clanked to the floor, falling dangerously close to the new addition of the basement floor that had caused her to drop it. A gaping hole twice the size of the eyeball in her bedroom took up the space on the floor next to the piano, the same spot in which she used to play with her dolls as a child. It wasn’t just a hole, though. It was a mouth. A large, horrifying, unnatural mouth. And it grinned up at her, revealing the unfortunate whereabouts of the stray cat. Small clumps of orange and white fur stuck out between several of the red-stained white teeth. She choked back bile forming in her throat as a large, thick and black tongue slid out and licked its lips and teeth. The abomination then closed, followed by a sound like stones grinding against each other as it continued to chew its food.
Blair screamed, and screamed, and screamed some more. She kept on screaming until her mind went fuzzy and she finally passed out.
#
Her eyes opened up to a beautiful, warm light shining through her bedroom window. A light frost could be seen on the outer edges of the glass. Yawning, she realized it was the first night in several months she had actually gotten a good night’s rest. A soft purring was coming from a lump of black fur balled up between her legs, and as she sat up to pet the animal, the sound became louder. The cat got up and stretched, and then she followed suit by craning her neck and stretching her arms behind her back. It was a good sleep indeed.
It had taken a while getting used to her new home. She had found another eye in the living room, an ear in her grandmother’s old bedroom, another ear in the dining room, and a nose on the wall above the piano in the basement. Blair really had to search to find all of these, though; the house could apparently make them disappear within the walls somehow. This feature came in handy when Dale’s friend came by to examine the building; he found nothing wrong. When the facial features did show themselves, it was usually only when the house would shake and rumble. When the house was hungry. As long as the house was fed and happy, the disturbing face stayed hidden, and then she was happy. Her first thoughts were to burn the place down or demolish the house. But that would also be destroying a place that held her first memories, a place she now called home. With a few changes, like keeping the blanket hanging on the wall in her bedroom, she was already feeling more comfortable.
“Well, it was nice knowing you, kitty,” Blair said as the cat darted out of the room and into the hallway, drawn by whatever force the house used to lure the stray animals inside. She never got attached to the cats, for there was always a new one to replace the old one.
Throwing the sheets off her body, Blair smiled as she got up to take a shower in her new home.
