“Ryan, that sounds like the wind! How can you not hear that?”
“You’re so quick to debunk, I bet you didn’t even listen to it!”
To avoid more bickering, Shane rolled his eyes and with a huff put on his headphones giving the “sound” another listen. This was not some of the most “credible” “evidence” that Ryan had ever posed to him. It was obvious that there was some interference, of what he was not certain. Shane shrugged and gave a bemused expression.
“Every time you do that, I take it as a win,” Ryan replied full of pride.
Shane gave a small chuckle, letting his friend have this one. Sometimes it was fun to play along with Ryan as he chased whatever “monster” it was that week. Fortunately for Ryan, he had no idea what horrors lurk in the darkness -- and how they can mask themselves as your best friend.
“Let’s go back inside and explore the second floor, I heard there’s some good activity up there.”
For a moment Shane had gotten lost in his thoughts, he mentally shook himself like an old school etch-a-sketch. With a clear head, he was ready to follow Ryan into whatever darkness he dragged them into.
“Right behind you!” Shane called back, adding some enthusiasm.
The duo walked upstairs and were met with a long, dark, forsaken hallway that could make most horror movie sets look like playgrounds. With doors on either side, it reminded Shane of a typical chase scene from Scooby-Doo. He chuckled at this thought, which startled Ryan who jumped in front of him.
“Dude, don’t do that!” He spoke between breaths. “This is the worst time to be giggling like a kid.” Ryan’s camera shone brightly in his face and Shane instinctively moved his arm to block his eyes. This was not the first time this would happen, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. “Roger that. No more giggles.” Ryan pointed his camera at the floor which now lit up the area between them. “Let’s just keep moving, there’s a lot of ground to cover here.”
Ryan began to tell the story of a family that met an unfortunate end at the hands of a crazed ax murderer. The police never caught the perpetrator and there have been several theories as to who it could have possibly committed the act. After reading off a lengthy list of characters, each with their own incriminating backgrounds, Ryan concluded with his own theory.
“I’m just saying, it’s totally possible that it could have been the Men in Black. The family had some shady history of their own. You never know who they were involved with.”
“So you’re saying. . . That Will Smith showed up to this families house. . . and murdered them?”
Ryan let out a wheeze of a laugh. Even he had to admit it sounded crazy, but it all made sense in the grand scheme of things. Shane joined him in laughing, Ryan believed in such wild theories that it was comical.
“I’m just imagining Will Smith, [wheeze], breaking in. . .wait what year was this?”
“It was 1923,” Ryan replied between spurts of laughter.
“Oh, even better! So roaring 20’s era Will Smith breaks in and. . .”
A sharp, high pitched metallic noise pierced the air and stopped the duo in their tracks. Ryan’s expression was that of absolute terror. “What the hell was that?!” he yelled, waving his camera around him. They were still in the middle of the hallway, so it was a guess as to where it could’ve come from. Shane laughed lightly, these kinds of situations happened often. When they did, he was there to add some comedic relief and to possibly prevent Ryan from scaring himself half to death.
“Maybe it was Will Smith?”
“Dude, this is not the time! That was really freaky.”
“It was probably just an animal scurrying in the vents, or maybe a noise outside.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, dude!”
“Fine, let’s go, I’ll show you it was nothing. Maybe we’ll even find the cute little animals making the noise too.”
Shane walked past Ryan and started to investigate. He prided himself on debunking these little noises that frightened his friend so much. Ryan caught up to Shane just as he entered the first room through a door on the right side of the hallway.
“I almost couldn’t catch up, you walk two steps and you’re there!” Ryan joked in an attempt to ease himself. “I would laugh at that, but you told me no more giggling,” Shane replied wittily. This caused Ryan to roll his eyes with annoyance, but a grin reached his lips. “Let’s see what’s here.”
Their lights shone around the room, illuminating parts of the past. Wallpaper covered most of the walls, some was torn off or in the process of detaching itself. A once ornate desk sat in the middle of the room, papers scattered amongst the top. It was clear this room had not seen life in quite some time.
“That’s a creepy picture,” Ryan said, pointing to one framed piece hung in the center of the far wall. It was an old painting depicting a war. “Huh, nothing more inviting than an illustration of war and death,” Shane spoke. The lanky man moved throughout the room, still hot on the pursuit of that strange sound. After searching high and low, the two moved to the room across the hall.
“Are we going to check every room? There’s gotta be like. .100 doors in this one hall alone.” Shane spoke hyperbolically, he didn’t mind looking, however, it was simply quite tedious.
“I just want to know what that noise was, that’s all.”
“Then I think we’ll cover more ground if we split up.”
“Oh no, none of that Scooby-Doo shit. It never works for them, why would it work here?” Ryan retorted.
Shane couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Ryan never liked being alone in places like this and sometimes Shane couldn’t blame him. These places gave off a major “creep factor”, but it was his job to be skeptical. Skeptics didn’t get creeped out or scared because they know there’s some scientific reason behind everything. Or maybe being an actual demon alludes to that reason as well.
“You’ll be fine, I’ll just be in next room over.”
Shane left before Ryan could continue his protest. He knew he had to find something to explain the noise. Anything that would prevent Ryan from blindly approaching something supernatural. The room he walked into was blasé, it was the typical “scary, dated looking room” in almost any horror movie. Shane made a displeased huffing noise as he scanned around in a lazy attempt at a search. His eyes landed on the corner of the room farthest from him; his camera light illuminated the area and he was met with a dark figure. He was certain it was not his own shadow even though the dimensions matched up perfectly. The figure turned around, suddenly filling out its features. The figure took shape of what appeared to be an older gentleman. While this would scare practically anyone else, it was not unusual for Shane to meet another of his kind. Shane broke the silence with the goal of sending this demon off.
“Alright, buddy. I’m going to give you the quick low-down. . .”
The older gentleman guffawed, cutting off the beginning of Shane’s speech. The man opposite of Shane rubbed his belly in a way that reminded Shane of a TV show Santa Clause. However, the eyes that met Shane’s were dark and hollow. Okay, Shane game face. .Let’s be serious now, he thought to himself.
“Was something I said funny? I don’t remember dropping a punch-line.” Shane edged on taunting as situations like this grew more accustomed. “Watch your mouth, boy. Yer speaking to an elder.” The old man's speech was more of a growl than anything else. Instead of a quick comeback, Shane decided rather on dropping his point and then closing out this conversation.
“Okay then old-timer, what I need you to do is bippity-boppity-back the fuck up to wherever you came from.”
The man was furious at this commandment, but even more so since it was derived from Shane. He jolted himself forward, arms forward ready to strike. Before the man could even come close to bridging the gap between the two of them, Shane raised his hand up and muttered a few words. He watched as the old figure dissipated with ease. Shane ran his hand through his hair as he berated himself silently for not doing that from the beginning. These encounters with others like him were getting slowly more serious. It wasn’t just the sight of his dark being that scared others away anymore. He was having to fight them more often now. He was thankful most of them were on verbal playing fields instead of physical ones.
“Dude, did you find anything? The other room’s clear.”
Ryan’s voice dragged Shane out of his thoughts and back into reality. The shorter man was staring up at Shane with a half-smile0 draped across his face. Ryan made Shane feel more human, he felt like he could be comfortable around him. He felt like he could be himself, even if that self-was a demon.
“Uh, yeah I think there’s a cat living here,” he pointed to a group of boxes and newspaper that littered a corner of the room, “that must be what we were hearing. It must’ve gotten into something it shouldn’t.” Shane added a shrug to end the sentence off.
“A cat. . .”
“Yup.”
“You’re something else, Shane Madej.”
Ryan laughed, turned on his heel, and left the room. Shane watched as his friend’s flashlight bounced along the wall in the hallway, distance growing between them. Ryan had completely disappeared from his view.
“Hey! I think I found something!” Ryan’s voice reverberated through the hall and into his room.
For your sake, bud, I hope not.
“Alright, I’m on my way!”
As he left the room, Shane felt a pressure building in his chest. A tension that he was only able to attribute to one factor. It was getting increasingly more difficult to protect Ryan.
My newest obsession is Shane and Ryan from Buzzfeed Unsolved! I love their videos. They’re so adorable and amazing. So I thought why not make an edit out of the trailers for their videos. at 11 at night! So enjoy.
