Grueberfest 06: What the Night Hides (562 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 18 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (View user info) at 2006-10-02 11:08:48 EDT
It was the stench, that wafting aroma that made bile rise in Michael Thurgood's throat and his eyes begin to water. It was the stench that had haunted him for decades.
Michael took his beer out of the fridge and rummaged around in the cutlery drawer for a bottle opener, paying no attention to the smell. His wife would be home soon from the local elementary school where she was helping with a bake sale, she would be home soon. She would be home soon.
The microwave clock glared 10:14 PM at him, but why should he be afraid of that? Nighttime is nothing to fear, it's just when the sunlight disappears. It's not as if there is anything there that wasn't there in the light.
Except.... That hidden fear that Michael refused to acknowledge.
Stupid little kids and their stupid little stories. He almost laughed out loud at himself that this little fear still haunted him. The boogeyman of all things! The stories people told around the campfire that inevitably ends up with the boogeyman being an escapee from a near by insane asylum. Never mind that insane asylums don't really exist anymore, he just did and you're supposed to fear him.
Except that wasn't how the boogeyman tale was told to Michael.
As a six year old boy there was an older kid on his street, maybe eight or nine. That was the boy who had told him the boogeyman story. That the boogeyman doesn't just come out of the night and take you, he feeds on your fear. He needs you to acknowledge him and your fear of him before he makes you disappear. He waits at night time to take you away, never to be seen again.
Michael had heard all these things before, but a new aspect to a story made him truly afraid. The curse aspect of it. That older boy must have been a great story teller because he sure spun a yarn! That the boogeyman is a curse who goes from person to person and hunts that one victim until they are dead. Then he moves to the next person. Normally by some sort of relation, personal or blood, just like the nine year old said that he 'got' the boogeyman from his cousin. And the boogeyman only existed to that one person, that single victim who he haunted. But he was no less real or deadly.
Michael laughed a little to himself, laughing at the stench as well. Little kids and their stories that are aimed at freaking each other out and seeing who is the bravest. Except that Michael always was troubled by the fact that the older boy disappeared before that year was over.
And that was when it started. That's when his nights laying in bed began to become horrifying. When his room would begin to fill with a foul smell, he would hide under the covers and refuse to acknowledge his fear. He hid away like a coward and would not face the dark corners of his room where the boogeyman MUST be standing!
Hiding had worked, for six more years he hid every night, falling asleep crying into his pillow out of fear. His parents never suspected that he woke up tired because he was being watched every night by a ghoul.
A ghoul of his imagination, Michael thought correcting himself.
The imagination it must have been, because as Michael became a teenager the nights of fear and horror went away. The nights of a man standing in his room watching him sleep disappeared. Teenage Michael knew no fear. He knew no terror. There was nothing in the world he couldn't face and defeat, and with no fear and a new understanding the boogeyman went away.
And thus the boogeyman disappeared and went into memory as one of his foolish antics in childhood.
But Michael couldn't help but be reminded of it a few nights ago when a horrible smell began permeating the house. His wife couldn't smell it, but Michael knew it was there. Probably a dead animal under the foundation or a busted sewer line near by. What a horrible smell! What an awful thing to breathe while he slept at night!
Michael finished his beer over the sink and threw the empty can away deciding to go watch television. When all else fails, television is the great distracter of the modern world.
But as he walked into his TV room Michael paled. Sitting on his couch ever so patiently was a grotesque example of a man, a horrible, awful, terrifying smell wafting from his person.
Michael immediately turned away and stumbled forward toward the empty spot on the couch facing his TV. Heart pounding, adrenaline racing, and tears beginning to well up in his eyes, Michael sat down next to the man, picked up the remote and tried to turn the TV on refusing to acknowledge his existence.
Nothing.
Frantically, he began pushing the 'On' button harder and harder as his breathes became sobs and the pricks of moisture in his eyes began rolling down his face in a stream as he realized the man beside him was watching him, panting with anticipation.
The TV refused to turn on, leaving him alone in the room with the.... The....
Michael turned his head towards the man. Towards the man who had haunted him for nearly his entire life and finally put a face to a fear. The man was pale white, his face was sweating and scarred, his black hair was matted to his forehead and his tattered clothes hung loosely revealing blackened skin and bloody marks up and down his forearms. His eyes were wild and open to their widest extent with murderous glee.
The boogeyman continued to stare at him for a moment before his parched lips cracked open into a smile revealing a set of grizzled and rotted teeth. From his open mouth the horrible stench emanated and Michael saw fear. He saw death.
He saw the boogeyman.
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"I don't know what to tell you Mrs. Thurgood. Michael doesn't seem the type to just run off without a word. He's a good guy." Sergeant Kates said looking around the outside of the house. Susan Thurgood had called him early in the morning when her husband wasn't home. She claimed to have been out till 11 or so at a school bake sale and didn't see her husband when she returned.
"I know he wouldn't run off! That is why I called you! Please help me find my husband!" She said frantically. She looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep and was worried. Kates didn't think there was any foul play by her part, they were a quaint newly wed couple and seemed to get along fine.
Kates readjusted his belt and looked around again as though Michael would be hiding around the corner some where.
"Well look. I know Michael, he and I used to play pool together down at the hall. I know he wouldn't run off. Probably just got lost somewhere and is having a hard time getting home. I'll find him for you." Kates said tipping his hat to the worried woman and starting to walk back to his cruiser which was parked in the driveway.
After a few steps he stopped, sniffed the air and turned around to Susan.
"Mrs. Thurgood, do you smell something? Something bad smelling?" He asked.
She frowned and sniffed the air.
"No I don't. Why?" She asked in return.
"Oh," Sergeant Kates said walking back to his cruiser. "I guess it's nothing."
User Reviews
Submitted by UnderOathMeal (user info) at 2006-10-05 13:17:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-10-04 23:11:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well hell I saved you guys for last and I almost lost track of time.
This is gooood, HV. It had an old-school ghost story feel, but still had a good original element to it. Orgasmatron's was excellent as well, and hit on a bit of a personal note for me, but I can't bring myself to rate these differently based on that. Nice work.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2006-10-04 15:24:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Viva la competition.
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-10-04 14:06:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Best so far. Easily.
Submitted by Anansie (user info) at 2006-10-03 21:28:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-10-03 16:57:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
was good. at least ppl are reading urs.
Submitted by SilentRenegade (user info) at 2006-10-03 11:40:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm going to +2 this for two reasons....one I would hate to kill your pure rating.....and two because the Cops name is totally kickass...but know this mister power surge....you are a close PERSONAL friend of mine and when I get taken away....you will smell something foul.
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2006-10-03 04:39:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ColchesterDr (user info) at 2006-10-03 03:59:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2006-10-02 21:32:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
good
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2006-10-02 16:47:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by MouthSore (user info) at 2006-10-02 13:57:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2006-10-02 13:18:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2006-10-02 12:13:02 (#)
Ranking: 2
Who is it, Smithers? Frankenstein? The Boogerman?.....Bad corpse! Bad corpse! Stop... scaring... Smithers!
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"Oh, Smithers, I was wrong to play God. Life is precious, not a thing to be toyed with. Now take out that brain and flush it down the toilet!"
Submitted by icarus1987 (user info) at 2006-10-02 12:30:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
w00t is the same in all languages.
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2006-10-02 12:13:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Who is it, Smithers? Frankenstein? The Boogerman?.....Bad corpse! Bad corpse! Stop... scaring... Smithers!
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2006-10-02 11:49:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Not bad, not bad at all. All the grueberfest entries have been enjoyable in one form or another. Think there may be a fair number of forfeits though.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2006-10-02 11:33:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fantastico!
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2006-10-02 11:09:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes, this was good.