YOULL NEVER BE ALONE.
By
Updated 3 years ago,September 23, 2022
Drip.
The journey would be difficult, but necessary.
God & Man
I had to get some sleep.
The hard tile of the kitchen was freezing on my bare feet.
That warm thought was a welcome distraction from the reality of the situation I was in at the moment.
It was three a.m. Before I felt haunted.
Before I felt dead.
I cranked the nobs of the sink off as hard as I could.
God & Man
It seems like the dripping stopped.
I wish I hadnt.
I walked over to the door which led out the kitchen and into the backyard and opened it up.
I felt a deeper chill come over me.
Colder than the thick snow which was piling up on the ground.
It made every bone in my body feel numb.
It knocked me backwards off my feet.
I later figured out it was from the meds.
You could see the life drained out of my dads face.
Too many layoffs, too many night shifts and too many whiskey waters took a toll.
I could never make it through that tape.
And thats just what happened.
My dad isnt in the next tape.
My mom puts on 20 more pounds.
I reached that point and crawled out of bed to manually hit stop on the VCR.
I pushed STOP, but nothing happened.
The video just kept playing.
I saw my five-year-old self staring at a lit-up cake with a group of kids singing.
I was sucked into the footage wasnt sure if I had ever actually watched it before.
I hit STOP again.
The video just kept playing.
I hit it over and over and over again, but nothing.
The video just kept playing.
I figured the tape was eating itself (thankfully) and coming to an end.
I heard the faint sound of crying coming from the blown speakers of the box TV.
I cranked the volume as high as it would go.
I didnt remember the moment at all.Was I just too young?
The tape cut out and ejected itself.
It had not been eaten by the VCR, it was fine.
I pushed it back in and rewound it a bit hit PLAY.
The video no longer showed my five-year-old self in the closet crying.
The sound of a door slamming behind me made me jump.
I screamed out and twisted around in the direction of the noise.
I saw the sliding doors of my bedroom closet shaking back and forth just barely enough to notice.
No answer from the closet.
I tiptoed in the direction of the closet.
I was just a few steps in when the bedroom door slammed shut, sealing me in the room.
The TV went out.
The only light in the room was gone.
I was in a complete blackout.
I screamed and started to pat my own skin, ready for something to grab me.
I heard the closet door slide open.
Whatever it was made it through my fence of swats.
I felt a quick little poke on my elbow then I felt a presence run away from me.
Little feet scampering across the carpet.
My entire body became a puddle of loose bones, blood and organs cased in sloppy skin.
I collapsed to the ground and closed my eyes.
I woke up on the floor groggy and pained.
My brain was numb.
I couldnt think about what day it was.
Forgot where I was for a moment.
I flicked on the light once inside the tile-lined little room and screamed again.
I blinked hard at the mirror and I was gone.
The lights started to flicker in the room.
I kept my eyes on the doorway, but saw no sign of the second version of myself.
I splashed some warm water on my face and walked out.
It was pretty simple until an unmarked VHS tape caught my eye.
I wasted no time in popping the tape into the VCR.
This footage was clearly around from when the other set of tapes were made.Why had I never seen it?
The sound of heavy sobbing rang out of an open hospital room door.
Freezing the shot in its tracks for a few moments…but then it pressed on.
The camera panned into a hospital room for a few seconds.
There was no doubt that the woman was my mom.The baby?
Me, I assumed.
Was my mom crying tears of joy?Her sobs didnt sound happy, they sounded painful.
A quick burst of crying erupted from right behind me.
I screamed and whipped around.
There was nothing behind me.
Just the cold, empty air of the room.
I may have stood there forever had I not heard a crash come from downstairs.
I almost couldnt bear to walk down those stairs and confront whatever was lurking down there.
I almost wished whatever had stalked me from behind in the room had just killed me.
It felt as if my blood was bruised with terror and dread.
A loud shuffle made me jump just as I conquered the final stair.
I grabbed my chest and looked in the direction of the sound.
It was an old-fashioned table drawer which sat in the airy foyer of the house.
I rarely thought of the ancient thing.
It only existed as a stale decoration I think was once told came from my great-grandmother.
The movement stopped shortly after I saw it.
The room went quiet.
I gave the table a few seconds and then walked up to it.
The thing only had one thin drawer at the top.
I tried to open it.
I couldnt tell if it was locked, or just stuck.
I tried with all my might, but couldnt get the thing to move a millimeter.
The thing must have been locked.
I gave it one last tug and decided to give up.
It wasnt quite a zombie version of myself, but it was close.
The image was gone in a flash.
I was alone in the room again.
I gave myself an ultimatum.
One more weird incident and I was gone.
I figured I would distract myself by researching the companies I would be interviewing with online.
All was going fine until about 30 minutes in when I received a Skype notification.
I didnt even realize I had Skype on my computer anymore.
A little notification popped up at the bottom of my screen.
I bit hard on my tongue.
A Skype screen popped up and displayed the head silhouette of a womans head completely obscured by shadows.
It looked like one of those anonymous sources interviews you might see on Dateline.
I recoiled from the screen.
Unknown moved her head back and forth, her hair drifted a bit in her own wind.
A few more looks showed that Unknown looked exactly me.
Secrets take up space, Unknown whispered with a raspy voice.
Secrets come to life sometimes, Unknown whispered.
What the fuck is this?
Unknown leaned closer to the camera, my own face became much more clear.
I didnt know what to say.Was I dead?
I felt just as stupid asking that as it sounds, but I didnt know what else to say.
Unknown left the space of the webcam and revealed her location, her head no longer blocking it.
She was in the living room downstairs.
The call cut out.
I heard footsteps run up the stairs outside my closed bedroom door.
I sprinted for my door and locked the push lock in the door handle.
I dropped my back against the door and tried to catch my breath.
I heard the footsteps top the stairs and then stop right outside the door.
Then, a knock on the door.
I gave it a few very long, silent seconds.
I was interrupted by something sliding underneath the crack of the door.
It poked me in my backside and caused me to scream.
I scrambled to grab it.
That was the final straw.
I no longer cared about what was outside the door and job interviews.
I just wanted to get away from whatever was doing this.
I shuffled across the room towards my bedroom window.
I could land in the powder and run to my car.
I thankfully had left the keys in the ignition.
I threw on a jacket and headed towards the window.
I threw my moms necklace around my neck and grabbed the side of the window with both hands.
A jolt ran through me.
I almost fell to the ground.
It took all my strength to stay standing as my brain felt as if it left my body.
My eyes were presented with a vision.
I was a child again, probably about five, standing in the foyer of the house.
I had my eyes on the table with the drawer which had been rocking earlier.
I watched myself stumble up to the thing and pull the drawer open with my grubby little hands.
I watched myself pull the drawer open and reveal a thick stack of paper, documentation.
I screamed out crying.
I had never thought of there being a key inside the locket my mother always wore.
I replicated what my mom did as much as I could.
Something told me I needed to know what was in that drawer.
It was more important than any interview or resume update or follow up call.
I went straight for the drawer which had alluded me all these years.
The drawer unlocked with the key.
I was disappointed to find nothing but boring, white paperwork in the thing.
I had done all this for some tax documents?
I yanked them out.
I could go through them.
Maybe there was something in there?
I felt a heavy cold rush into me from my left.
A quick glance in that direction dismissed that notion.
My dismissal wouldnt just be from a visual either.
I slowly felt a slithering cold start to wrap itself around me.
It felt like someone who had just jumped in a frozen lake was hugging me.
I tried to wiggle and shake it off, but no luck.
It clung to me like a wet towel.
That cold started to pull me down to the floor.
I felt it reach around my neck like a noose.
I struggled to pull away, got a few paces towards the door before it officially tackled me.
The papers fell to the floor, right next to my face as I gasped for air.
I felt whatever had me trying to keep me in the house.
I sucked in a deep breath and tried to fight it as much as I could.
I made it out into the snow and started stumbling around blind in the never-ending blizzard.
I couldnt see my car.
I couldnt see three feet in front of me it seemed.
I became so cold I could no longer move.
I fell to a knee and stopped in the front yard.
Ill spare you the sad details of the pathetic life which started to flash before my eyes.
Then I felt a shot of warmth shoot into my body.
It was like the opposite of what I felt back in the house.
I figured it was that.
I woke up in my car.
My clothes bone dry.
I had someone looking out for me.
The long locked-up paperwork included my birth certificate, and a birth certificate for Katelyn Rausch.
Pronounced dead just minutes after she was born.
The paperwork told the story of Katelyn, my twin sister who I was never told about.
It was Katelyn who had taken up haunting me in the past few weeks.
I actually believe that she is the one who carried me to my car.
Kept a secret, her ghost had grown into a woman.
A woman who looked just like me.
I spent the next night warm in my bed.
I aced my next interview.
Received an offer that was enough money for me to turn the heat on.
I snapped to attention and looked to where the movement came from.
I saw a familiar back facing me in the dark.
I would always remember the frail frame my mother possessed on her last days on Earth.
I asked, unsure if this was a dream, or real life, but no longer really scared.
Im sorry, my moms painfully familiar upstate New York accent shone through the dark of the night.
Those early rumblings of pain and doubt turned to heartbreak.
I thought I would never hear that voice again.
My moms tenor played on the stereo of my heart like a sad, sad song.
I heard my mom begin to cry for only about the third time in my entire life.
I watched her back sway back and forth, shudder and shake.
I just never got through the pain.
Not until it was all over.
My mom held up the sobs for a few moments.
I saw her head nod up and down.
I climbed forward on the bed, closer to her.
She got up and stood at the foot of the bed, her back still to me.
Those little morsels of fear fluttered in my stomach.
I got to the foot of the bed and reached for my mom.
She stepped forward and missed my grasp.
I never figured a way to address it myself.
So I sure didnt have a way to address it with you.
Im sorry we kept it as a secret.
I have a feeling my energy in the house kept her spirit… my mom started to break down.
Her spirit, her energy felt she couldnt come to find you, until I passed.
Connecting with my mom one last time was much more important.
NO, I yelled and reached out for my mom.
I myself drifted away to sleep shortly after pinching myself to confirm that all wasnt a dream.
Morning announced itself with a bright sun that I hadnt seen in days.
The blizzard was over.
I was barely awake when I got into my freezing bathroom and flicked on the light.
The first thing I noticed was the open window which let the cold in.
The second thing I noticed was the fog which covered the bathroom mirror.
