Having a cosy wooden cabin to retreat to every spring break was great, amazing even, what wasn’t quite as amazing was having to clean up about a year’s worth of dust each and every time I arrived.
It wasn’t dauntingly large, about 400 square meters, that was the cabin itself, the land itself was... a few acres, I forget how large exactly, it’s not like my name’s on the deed, the cabin’s my grandparents’, but as it’s rather a hassle for them to drive the many dozens of miles between their home and this barren shithole now that they’re in their 90s, I’ve become the only person who spends any time here, I can hardly recall the last time anyone even visited, I believe my cousin visited 2 years ago, but it could be possible that someone has visited since, in my absence.
I had the routine practically figured out by now, get the cleaning stuff from the kitchen, start with the floors, ignore the extra rooms I don’t use, don’t even try to clean the outside, and everything should be done within a couple hours.
Thank all Gods and Goddesses that the TV was, somehow, still operational, slow, painfully slow, but operational, as long as you were patient enough, and with my charcuterie board and 6 pack of beer, I had no problem with its’ delays.
When I was little, I had this terrible, crippling fear of the dark, I don’t recall how it began, I don’t suppose I need to, children fearing the dark is about as expected as the fork being in the kitchen, though I think it had something to do with the boogeyman, the one from the ghostbusters cartoon series, in any case, I had long since moved on from that phobia, I am more than able to sleep in a dark room now, despite that, when I am scared, it’s as if the terror from my childhood creeps back up to the surface, and compounds how I feel.
It was an old cabin, in an isolated area, in the middle of thick woods, half the rooms closed off, not locked, but I had no idea what was within them, and as it was now dark, and of course, the hallway light did not work, I was not going to be opening them just to check for monsters, the scenario was simply perfect for the good old heebie jeebies, I was on edge, my poor eyesight opened the road to many doubts of whether this or that was a mundane item in the distance, or a demon, of course, after every analysis, the testing for demons would come back negative.
Sleeping while constantly afraid of the demons in your closet and beneath your bed, despite how many times you had already checked, was a difficult task, could you imagine how much harder it is when you can hear some fucking latch, connected to god knows which old engine, click click clicking every few seconds, I’m a lazy prick, and I don’t enjoy getting out of bed in the morning, much less in the middle of the night, to go investigate some mechanical issue, but the sound was so persistently annoying that I was simply forced to get my ass out of bed, grab my flash light, and go fix it.
I left from the kitchen door, leaving it open but making sure to have the keys on me in case the wind shuts it, I make my way around the house to the wall outside my bedroom, the area that the noise was coming from, and I don’t see any machinery, after a glance I notice that there’s a crack in the side of the house, and the hole created by it was more than big enough for me to get in, it seemed intentional, maybe made to go repair whatever is producing that noise.
I kneel down and shine the light into it, and I quickly diagnose the problem, it seemed that there was a bipedal creature, its’ body positioned much like that of a lemur, it was all black, quite scaly, its’ eyes, all 6 of them, were like a jumping spider’s, and its’ teeth were harsh, between them some bones it was crushing up, it had, of course, stopped when I shined my bright light right into its’ face, it growled loudly.
I panicked, and retreated, it continued growling from beneath, but did not move towards me, as one would expect a demonic thing to do.
If I am ever asked, I will claim that the only reason I did not call the police was because there was no service, and though there was indeed no service, I would not have acted differently if I could have called anyone, I crouched once more and shone my light at the thing, it growled louder but still did not move, and I saw it, one of its’ legs was stuck.
This was no animal, I was certain of that, but as if it were, I reached a flat palm out, offering it to the creature to try and calm it, but it did not cease its’ writhing and screaming, I try to move my arm forth, and it bites, I manage to pull away in time, god knows what diseases those teeth could carry.
I crawl back out and hurry into the kitchen, before the poor beast could catch his breath, I was back, this time with a mitten on my hand, once more I offered my hand to it, and once more it bit in, I felt the pressure but thankfully its’ teeth could not break through the thick material, I look at its’ hands, clawless, fortunately, with its’ mouth occupied, I manage to reach behind to the wooden crack in which its’ foot was stuck, it was rather easy for me to push the wood in, widening the gap and letting the animal release itself, it immediately let go of my mitten and backed off, I stepped away, getting up and retreating from its’ space until I saw it peek its’ head out.
Insane as it sounds, the little thing was rather cute, strange looking, certainly, but its’ eyes were big, it was rather small, perhaps 20 kilos on an upper estimate, and not more than 60cm in length and 10 in width. And right now, it was acting... incredibly docile, just quietly looking at me.
“Hey” I said in a friendly tone, it wouldn’t be the strangest thing if this thing could speak, sadly, it could not, and it simply kept looking at me, I quickly got up, but when I did, it retreated, I stood still until it popped its’ head back out, and only then did I begin to slowly step away.
I come carefully towards it, having stepped into the kitchen and now come back with the bones of the rotisserie chicken I had eaten, but the instant it smells it, it runs towards me like it is not at all afraid, this scares me, and I drop the food on the ground, thankfully, it stops once it gets to the bones, it begins grinding them down in its’ mouth, I wasn’t sure if it could only eat bones, but that’s all I’d seen it eat thus far, and it’s not like I could google its’ diet.
The sound of it grinding bones is no longer as agitating as it was, not that the sound itself changed, but seeing how excited the little thing was, I couldn’t help but view the terrible noise more positively.
I’m gonna call her Vuu.
