These events occurred in the summer of 2004, when I was 16 years old.
A friend and I were riding bikes around our neighborhood when he suggested that I spend the night at his house. I had spent nights at his place a couple of times before and always had a good time. A night chock full of video games and junk food was appealing to a teenaged me.
I don't want to give my friend's real name out, so for privacy reasons, I'll call him John. John lived in a very well-maintained, middle-class house. He had all the typical accommodations, like a refrigerator, microwave, air conditioning, cable television, internet, etc. All of this was maintained by his mother, who I'll call Sue. Sue was a very sweet, attractive and hard-working middle-aged woman who didn't seem to have much of a social life outside of her job (she worked in an office). For the year or so I knew John, I always thought he lived alone with his mother. That night I would discover otherwise.
We arrived at John's house at around 9:00 PM. We grabbed some chips and soda and headed to his room, where he had his PS2 and PC. His room was adjacent to his mother's room. The few times prior I had been at his house, I had never seen inside Sue's room, as the door was always shut. On this particular night, the door was open, and as we passed, I got a quick glimpse inside. I saw Sue lounging on her bed, watching television. Beside her, though, was a man, who appeared to be sleeping on his side, covered with a blanket. John and I waved to his mother -- she waved back -- and continued to his room. We entered his room and began our night of gorging ourselves and playing Madden.
As the night went on, I told John of the man in his mother's bed. "That's my dad," John replied, as he mashed the buttons on his Playstation controller. "Your dad?!" I said, with a confused look on my face. "I thought you lived only with your mom." John went on to tell me that his father always stayed in his room, due to a severe illness, and that Sue spent the majority of her nights looking after her husband, who I'll call Stephen. I didn't ask John for any specifics regarding Stephen, as I didn't want to seem intrusive. I offered my condolences to John, and we carried on playing Playstation. We eventually called it a night at around 2:00 AM.
I was woken by John at around 11:00 AM, telling me to get up and have some breakfast. I got up, got dressed and headed to the kitchen with John to have some Pop-Tarts. It was a Saturday morning, and John's mother was still in her room. We ate and headed to the local park on our bikes to shoot some hoops. We ended up spending the whole day at the park, riding bikes and playing basketball with a group of John's friends whom we met up with. During our playing, John suggested that I spend the night again. I called my mother on my old flip phone to get her approval. She approved without hesitation, and John and I continued our activities.
We arrived at John's house at around 7:00 PM that afternoon. As we entered the house and headed for the kitchen, I saw a very tall and lanky man standing near the sink. "Dad, what are you doing up?" John says to the man. I was stunned, as this was the first time I got to meet John's father Stephen, whom I only found out about the night before. Stephen said absolutely nothing in reply to John, and was just standing there motionless. I got a good look at Stephen, and he was sporting an unkempt beard and really bloodshot eyes. It was quite an unsettling scene, as Stephen had an absolutely blank and clueless look on his face, as he stood still like a vegetable. "Stephen, come sit down on the couch," I heard from a distance. It was Sue, sitting on the couch in the living room, watching the Orioles play baseball. I helped John gather some snacks, and as we walked out of the kitchen towards his room, I saw Stephen looking at me, with the most menacing glare on his face. I gave a nervous smile to Stephen as I headed to John's room.
After we sat down and got comfortable in front of the television, I asked John what was wrong with his father. He told me in no uncertain terms that his father wasn't right in the head. He had been institutionalized a couple months prior and was on loads of medication. I told John that his father looked me in the eyes with a frightening expression on his face. John replied with, "Don't worry about it. He's loopy but harmless." I quickly forgot about the bizarre incident and began playing video games with John.
That night I fell asleep at around midnight. I had had quite a few cans of ginger ale, and woke up at around 2:00 AM desperately needing to use the bathroom. I quietly got up and headed to the restroom, which was located on the same corridor as John and his parents' bedrooms. After taking the piss of all pisses, I headed to the kitchen to get a cup of water. John's kitchen held a water cooler, which dispensed delicious cold water. As I entered the kitchen, I saw Stephen, sitting at the kitchen counter. I flinched with surprise, as I wasn't expecting him to be there. "Oh, hey there," I said nervously as I walked towards the water cooler. "I'm just getting myself a drink of water. Would you like me to get you one?" He said nothing, but looked me right in the eyes with that same menacing stare he gave earlier. I got my cup of water, drank it, threw the plastic cup in the recycle and quickly headed out of the kitchen. "H-h-have a good night," I stuttered nervously to Stephen. Right as I was about to exit the kitchen, I heard "Stop," in a very deep voice. I stopped, and looked in the direction of the voice. It was Stephen, and he was staring at me with this sadistic-looking grin on his face.
As I stood there frozen in stunned disbelief, I said "Yes, sir?" to Stephen. He stood up and said something like, "Have you ever wondered what it's like to be dissected alive?" At this point, I was paralyzed with fear. "Um, I beg your pardon?" I timidly replied. "Sometimes I wonder what it's like to operate on a person," he said calmly. I looked at him right in the eyes and said, "Why are you telling me this?" At this point, he begins walking towards me, and says, "I'd like to get to know you." I said with a very frightened tone, "Well, isn't it a little late for that?" as I slowly walked backwards away from him. "It's never too late to embrace," he said. "Let's get to know each other." All of a sudden, Stephen lunged at me, and I jumped away, screaming "HELP!" as loud as I could. A quick chase ensued, with me barely avoiding his grasp. Sue ran out of the master bedroom in her pajamas and shouted at Stephen to "STOP!" with a stern voice. Stephen stopped dead in his tracks, with a look of absolute catatonia on his face. Sue tells me to go back to John's room, and as I quickly walk away, I hear Sue say to her husband, "Damn it, I forgot to give you your pills. Have a seat, dear." I enter John's room and close the door.
John was sitting on his bed with a confused look on his face. "Dude, what was all that commotion?" he asked concerningly. "Your dad said some morbid shit to me, and then chased after me!" I replied, with a hint of anger in my voice. "What the hell is wrong with your father, man?" John told me that his father suffered from severe schizophrenia, and would occasionally have periodic bouts of psychosis, especially when he wasn't medicated. I asked John why his father was living at home and not in a mental hospital. John told me that prior to his mental illness, Stephen was a great father and husband, and his schizophrenia came out of nowhere and halted their family life. John then said that he had already given up hope that his father would recover, but his mother Sue, who was deeply in love with Stephen, was trying desperately to get him out his funk.
That was the last time I ever stepped foot in John's house. He tried several times to get me to come to his house, but I turned him down every time. He stayed at my place several times afterwards, though. We remained good friends until they moved away a year later. I recently reconnected with him via social media, and asked him how his father was doing. He told me Sue eventually gave up trying to "fix" Stephen, and had him committed to an institution where he remains to this day. It's very sad to hear of the mental collapse of a kind, loving man, but I'll never forget the scariest moment of my life when I was chased around a kitchen by an unstable man.
Submitted April 07, 2016 at 04:58AM by clinikillz http://ift.tt/1SR7eBe nosleep
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