I'd like to preface this with a memory, or rather a few, to attribute some clarity to this recollection. When I was younger, I'd hang around with my two best friends, Sean and Mac. It was usually about Friday that we'd get together, and we'd spend the whole weekend, week after week, playing games and "adventuring" off somewhere.
We lived in a rural area, so there were plenty of abandoned houses farther off in the boonies. One of which we seemed to revolve around, for quite some time. When we first discovered this place, the most notable characteristics were a flimsy door, book pages scattered all over the floor, and a massive refrigerator out in the front, front-side-down.
I kicked the door in when we discovered it the first time, which was when we noticed the pages. No covers, no book shelves, just scattered pages with all of the ink bleeding from page to page. We figured it was sort of strange, but easily dismissed it. Once you got a certain way farther out, all of the abandoned houses were pretty trashy. There was no furniture in this house other than the wire frame of a bed, springs still intact. Mac, being a goofball, started jumping on the springs. Sean pointed out the window in what we assumed was a living room and asked for my judgement on something he'd spotted.
It was a crow sitting on a telephone pole. Watching us through the window. I'm not sure what it was, but I had an overwhelming sense of unease as soon as I saw that bird. It never made a sound, never made any sudden movements, it just observed us while we were there. We were all a little uneasy after that, so we decided to head off and kill the rest of the evening with some Halo and other FPS games.
We came back the next day, no crow in sight. Sean decided he wanted to check out what was in the fridge, so we flipped it over as a team. After opening it we discovered a few interesting items. The fridge contained a shattered CD and an old CD case, a lonely and tattered old boot, a shredded-to-pieces cloth doll, blank yellowed note paper, and a pile of stones. We found this a bit creepy too, but dismissed it again as normal trashy abandoned house "etiquette". Being the dumb kids that we were, we took a distance and threw the stones at the windows of the house. Mac Shattered the two in the front. Sean and I each shattered one on the side that faced the road parallel to the house. Sean shattered the rest.
Not too long after, we decided to explore more of the house, but found nothing of interest. We checked out the now broken window once more before we left, and sure enough, the Crow was back and eyeing us. Mutually agreeing not to return the next day, we went back to Sean's house this time, instead of mine.
The following day, Mac stumbled upon some Spray Paint cans Sean had in his garage. They both decided they wanted to "tag up the boonies, man!" I stated I'd hang back and watch, as it wasn't something I'd really found an interest in. We walked miles out, Sean and Mac sprayed every blank signpost they could find, even tagging the dirt here and there in spots, for shits and giggles I assumed. It was starting to get late, so we agreed to turn back. Half way back we heard sirens and saw lights in the distance.
"There's no way we were seen, right?" Mac asked. Sean and I looked at each other in disbelief. "Hell no, we were too far out. What the fuck?" Sean spoke for the both of us.
We ditched the cans in a bush, just to be safe, and continued walking. As we approached the town again, we found that the sirens had been an ambulance responding to an accident in town. Someone had fallen in their shower and been discovered by their grand kid. We decided to check the place out from a distance, which was when Mac noticed a nearby telephone pole.
"Hey, guys," He nudged me. "Is that the same crow?"
Sean and I stood in disbelief, but there was no way of saying for sure. However, that crow stood there in silence, like it did at that abandoned house.
That night, we all agreed to never go back to that house for any reason. If we could avoid passing it at all, we would.
A lot of time had passed, since those days, and I'd go for walks out in the boonies to clear my head now and again. Sean had moved off to California, and Mac decided to finish his schooling abroad in a Slavic country. I'd reminisce about those days when I'd meet the signs they'd tagged, but never once walked down the road to the abandoned house. I'd entertain myself with thoughts of trying, but never actually did until a few years after they'd moved away.
I walked down the road, the same uneasy feeling growing in my stomach. I never reached the house, but I came fairly close to it when I heard the faint sound of rhythmic squeaky springs. I froze, a few feet still on the road, when I was startled by the sudden "CAAAAW!" of a crow. The bird flew from the telephone pole and the springs stopped squeaking.
I bolted back home faster than I'd ever run in my life at that point. Another few years passed, Sean now had a girlfriend in California and things were getting serious. Mac returned home, but soon after vanished again on "personal business," as he put it. I'd made a few new friends at high school, since then, and nearly forgot about that house and all of it's oddities. This is when I got a call from my friend, Nikki. She was having a birthday party at a nearby pool on the edge of the next town. To get to this pool you had to leave in the direction of the boonies, if you wanted the shortest trip, that is. I told her I couldn't stay long, but wanted to drop off a mix CD I'd made her as a gift.
I drove out, passing the house and ignoring it. It was daylight, after all, and I was in a vehicle.
I arrived, hugging her and wishing her a happy birthday, she was ecstatic. I gave her the CD and she thanked me. Her younger sister insisted I stay for cake. I declined and explained that I "needed to get home," I wasn't a fan of parties. The rest of her family managed to persuade me to stay "for just a slice of cake and some friendly conversation, maybe?" So I obliged, not wanting to be any more rude than I already felt. Nikki and I talked late into the evening when I finally got a call from home.
"Hey, are you coming home soon?" my parents were confused.
I responded that I ended up staying and talking and would be home shortly, I hadn't planned on staying but got roped into a social situation.
I told Nikki that I needed to head home, but it was great seeing her again. We hugged once more and I parted ways. I started my truck and drove back the way I'd came. I flicked on my brights after I left the parking lot and never met a single car getting back to the boonies. I began to drive slower around the road parallel to the house, because it was notorious for night time flat tires and accidents. I kept a close eye on the road, making sure there was nothing sharp enough to pop a tire. This is when I noticed a dull, blueish light glowing from within the house.
My brain immediately jumped to "Oh, it's just the reflection of your headlights, nothing to worry about." But my headlights were old, and yellow. This is also the moment that I stopped my vehicle and remembered that Mac and Sean and I had shattered those windows. There was nothing left to reflect anything. I was foolhardy, and made a decision to turn off my lights completely. The blue light shut off almost at that exact moment. Enough delay for me to realize, it was a mimicking of some sort. I turned on my lights, and the blue light flashed to life again. Unnerved, I slowly began to drive off with hundreds of thoughts flowing through my brain. Was it a flashlight? If it was, it was pretty dim and wouldn't have a lot of coverage to see in the dark with. Was it some sort of spectral orb? How would I know? As I drove away, I checked the front of the house in my rear-view mirror. Sure enough, the blue glow was in the window we'd always look out of to see the crow, and it faded from existence as I got farther from the house. I've never been back, nor have I visited the pool again.
I'm still uncertain to this day of what the blue glow could've been, but I am certain of the horrible gut feelings I'd had, and how odd it all was. Even stranger, it's been years (once again) since I'd even thought about the house, but after exchanging strange tales with a friend the other night, I was reminded of it and decided to put it here. As I wrote down the part about Nikki, I heard a loud bang at my window that caused me to jump from my chair. I peeked out from the blinds to find a crow in my front yard, limping across the lawn before taking flight towards that old abandoned house. I feel another unnerving uncertainty growing in my gut.
Submitted June 14, 2015 at 02:12AM by Doppelganchor http://ift.tt/1QvWM4b nosleep
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