The Beast In the Basement Part 2 (869 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesLabels: the_beast_in_the_basement
Rating: 1.89 on 25 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Anansie (View user info) at 2004-01-24 03:51:40 EST
Part 1: http://www.ubersite.com/m/23801
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The following nights were uneventful, and the dead summer heat of July kept Annie inside her comfortably air conditioned house during the next few days. Her maternally protective subconscious kept her from remembering just how disturbing the sounds she had heard that night had been, and she concluded that it had all been nothing but "settling" noises and her overactive imagination. Her daddy didn't need to know about it. As a writer, he encouraged an imagination in his daughter, even an overactive one, but he also encouraged sensibility, and she did not want him to know how silly she had been, and now felt. Besides, Daddy was too busy to worry about her childish concerns. Day and night she could hear his fingertips dancing on the keys of his word processor, and she listened admirably. He was a WRITER. He had explained to her his occupation. He had also explained what it was to be PUBLISHED, and she knew that he was working hard to meet DEADLINES. He'd explained those to her, too. She realized that Daddy had to finish his book by the DEADLINE so that it could be PUBLISHED, and rarely disturbed him.
She was a lonely child. And in the first few days in the new house she became lonelier. The house was the physical manifestation of her loneliness. Room after empty room peered at her from tomb-like quiet of the hallways. The windows and doorways gaped at her like vacant eyes that lacked the maternal understanding of her old house. The old house had been her mother's. Her scent had been in every room. Every piece of furniture, every painting on the wall, everything down to the forks, knives and spoons with which they ate the meals she had cooked . . . all of it had been saturated with her presence, even more so after her death. But then, shortly after the Denning family's adventures in cancer ward B, Daddy had sold almost everything and brought Annie here. To this place. To this house. Yes, the old house had been her mother's. This house, though bought and paid for by her father, belonged to no one.
She wandered the halls of it; to an adult this house was merely large. To Annie, it was immense, vast, mysterious. In the past, her playmates had told her horror stories of old, haunted houses. A city girl, she had always had trouble conceiving of such places. That was no longer a problem. But the house did not really frighten her. Not the house itself. But there was something unnerving, a feeling that she had sensed but could not put her finger on. Something secret. And on this day, the day after the noises, that feeling was stronger than ever.
Her wandering brought her to her bay window, the one facing the Donnell house. She had considered going over and introducing herself to some of the kids there. But when she looked out the window, the spectacle before her quickly pushed these thoughts from her mind. Instead she ran upstairs to her father.
"Daddy!"
The faint sound of typing floated through the crack in the doorway.
"Daddy!"
The typing stopped. A heavy sigh issued forth from the study. Annie could see in her mind her father taking off his glasses and rubbing his temples in exasperation.
"Yes, pumpkin?"
"Daddy, the blue men are across the street! They have the lights flashing and everything! Did they do something bad?"
Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial tone.
"Did they forget to pay a speedy ticket?"
Ed Denning appeared in the doorway. Annie grabbed his hand and dragged her reluctant father down the hallway to the spare room facing the street. This window was higher than the one downstairs and Annie had to stand on tiptoe just to see the roof of the Donnel house. She could no longer see the flashing cars or the uniformed officers.
"Do you see them, Daddy?"
Annie felt her father's grip on her hand slacken, and saw his face go a blanched white, not unlike one of those scary corpses from that tv show she wasn't supposed to watch (but always did).
"Annie, go into the study and close the door. Daddy's got to go across the street for a minute."
"But Da-"
"Now, Annie."
Something in her father's tone silenced her. She let go of his hand did as she was told. A few minutes passed. She wandered around the room picking up various objects and trying to be interested in them. Still, her thoughts kept wandering back to the commotion across the street. Finally, curiosity outweighed reason, and she could stand it no longer. Grabbing a small footstool from beside the bookshelf, Annie headed back to the window. She set the footstool down, and clambered on top of it.
Her father stood just by the Donnell's mailbox, rubbing his eyes and talking to an officer. Officers walked to and fro from the woods that bordered the two houses. Now the ambulance guys were here, too. The folks on the porch were doing something. It was all too far away for Annie to tell what was going on. She ran back to the study and grabbed her father's binoculars from the bureau, and ran back to the window, tripping and nearly busting her nose on the stool in the process.
Ah, this was much better. A man and a woman stood on the porch. The woman's head rested on the man's chest, and her hands covered her face. The man stood stock-still, arms around the woman. His face betrayed no emotion, save for his eyes.
What was it about his eyes?
Annie suddenly felt dirty, as if she was peeping in on some private moment she was never meant to see. She did not understand why. It was something about the man's eyes. She looked back at the men coming out of the woods.
They were carrying something.
It took two men to carry it. As the men emerged further, she was able to identify it more clearly. It was some sort of flat bed-thingie. Tabitha had seen this thing in the movies and on tv. She wasn't sure what it was called. A stetcher, or something like that. The shape of a person was clearly outlined beneath a gray-blue cloth. The cloth covered the head, as well as the body. Annie suddenly felt a little dizzy. This wasn't a movie. She knew what was under that cloth.
Mesmerized, her eyes tracked the men as they carried the body to the ambulance. The gaze of the binoculars flitted to her father and to the couple on the porch a few times, but her gaze was drawn again and again back to the body as the men heaved it across the Donnel's yard. Suddenly, dog darted out from under the porch and ran pell mell towards the men.
Annie would look back on this moment as the defining moment of her life. Time seemed to slow just for these few seconds. It was less than a minute, but it to Annie, it lasted forever:
The dog lurches forward, and bites one of the men on the back of the ankle. The man jerks, his fingers slip and he loses his grip on the stetcher (stretcher, she would think a few years later while watching one of those boring hospital shows, they carried her on a stretcher). He tumbles backward, now, the momentum of the other man pushing the stretcher on top of him. And now here it is, it is happening. The cloth falls softly to the ground and something hideous follows it.
The body, which was once a young woman, tumbles to the ground. Her once blond hair is now a garish and unnatural shade of red. A piece of flesh with hair still attached flaps in the wind, exposing the skull beneath. Her body is covered with zigzagging red gashes in various unrecognizable shapes and patterns. She rolls a little and stops, facing Annie.
She has no eyes.
User Reviews
Submitted by orph (user info) at 2007-02-09 11:35:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-06-02 13:20:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2006-06-02 10:58:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Anansie (user info) at 2005-11-04 12:42:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
NOOOO!!!! Don't read it. I'll have to finish it and post it if you do!!!!
Submitted by Average_Dan (user info) at 2005-11-04 12:40:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Hmm...
Ok, you got me hooked here.
Submitted by Rads_wife (user info) at 2005-06-13 23:10:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.ubersite.com/m/68315
WINNER!!! WINNER!!!!
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-01-03 18:52:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JohnGalt (user info) at 2004-04-07 22:46:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Deisangua (user info) at 2004-04-07 17:02:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by lordofthepost (user info) at 2004-03-03 02:03:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
absolutely awesome
Submitted by fell-8-me (user info) at 2004-02-25 13:17:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Scott_James (user info) at 2004-02-24 23:59:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Okay, now that's some creepy ass shit.
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2004-02-05 13:24:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
why did i wait so long to read this series.
creepy.
Submitted by Can_Always_Trust_A_Liar (user info) at 2004-02-03 01:28:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
good, good
Submitted by SpikeGoddess (user info) at 2004-02-02 01:13:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I can't help but think of Annie as a little girl version of TaK's Ceyanne.
I'm obsessed with UberFiction. Off to read more!
SpikeGoddess
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2004-01-26 11:43:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Misread a section of that, thought youd written that the dog had "farted under the sofa"
Submitted by Herpes (user info) at 2004-01-26 11:31:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Is it just me, or does squattail's opinion not matter anymore?
Submitted by Yes at 2004-01-24 11:52:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
fucking yeah.
Submitted by Anansie (user info) at 2004-01-24 11:23:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Yay! My first -2! I'm so excited.
Submitted by TaK (user info) at 2004-01-24 10:55:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
*scene*
Submitted by TaK (user info) at 2004-01-24 10:35:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
haHA! Success! Loving it, loving it.
The ripped up body reminds me of a scen in "Devils Advocate"...
Submitted by MadJesterVince (user info) at 2004-01-24 08:39:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow, this is great, its so creepy.
Submitted by Ainkara (user info) at 2004-01-24 07:47:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow..... is it cold in here right now?
Submitted by Marx740 (user info) at 2004-01-24 04:51:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Woah creepy..Good post
Submitted by squattail (user info) at 2004-01-24 04:19:01 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Considering you are a fucking kid, I wouldn't think it would be too difficult
ZINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG
Submitted by Anansie (user info) at 2004-01-24 03:52:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Hope this isn't too bad. It's harder than I thought it would be to write from a kid's point of view.