The Strange Guest

So awhile back when I was scrolling through Word Press, someone posted a sentence and wanted others to tell what happened next. I am usually not good at creating stories "on the spot" like that but I thought I would challenge myself. Well I came up with one. After posting it and reading it a few times, I realized I should have added a few more things. So here I will post what I wrote with the changes.

Daily Prompt: Unexplained Guest – “You walk into your home to find a couple you don’t know sitting in your living room, eating a slice of cake. Tell us what happens next.”

What a long day and it barely started. I had an early morning photography meet-up at a lake and couldn’t wait to get back home even though I had fun. It was 11am as I was walking up to my house. I was so ready for a shower and a nap.

As I started to turn the key to unlock my door, I heard weird noises coming from inside. I carefully opened the door and there I saw two strange people sitting on the couch eating a slice of red velvet cake.

I looked around to make sure I had the right house. Since I did just unlock the door, it would make sense that I had the right house. I slowly stepped in holding my tripod over my head with the pointy feet facing out, ready to stab and beat someone.

“Who the hell are you? Why are you in my house? And how did you even get in?”

The frightened couple  looked up at me with red and white stuff all over their faces. Hey, why are they scared? They are the ones that are in my house eating my cake.

As I stared at them, I noticed something really odd about the strangers. Their skin was a pale blue with tiny like scales all over, their hair was almost white, their eyes were round and pink and they seemed to be thin but not boney.

“*^#@x?A%~” said the short-haired one in some weird language.

“Please don’t harm us. We are not here to hurt you. We are visitors and just want to experiment your kind’s lifestyle.” said the long-haired one.

Their voices had a synthesized tone to it. It was kinda cool and creepy at the same time.

“Um, okay. Visitors?”

“Yes, we’re from the planet Zuna. We find Earth interesting and want to try out things here on your planet.” said the short-haired one.

Even though I was still freaked, I lowered my tripod and sat my other things down on the coffee table.

“You know, you shouldn’t just enter people’s homes and start eating their food. It’s rude and you’re likely to get hurt if caught by the wrong people.”

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to be rude. On our planet, everyone is like family and we don’t have those customs. My name is Dezmia and this is my husband Zurkla.” the long-haired one said.

“How did you get into the house since it was locked?”

Zurkla said, “We can teleport. It’s how we get around most places.”

I gave them some milk to wash down the cake. They thought both the cake and milk was interesting. When I explained to them what milk was and where it came from, they got a weird look on their face.

Dezmia stared at her milk and said “So, you squeeze white stuff out of an animal and drink it? How very interesting.”

They asked about my gear and I explained about the concept of pictures and showed them what I took. They thought our planet was very pretty and explained what theirs looked like.

Their planet was what we would know to be very cold, like below zero temperatures. Their structures were like ice buildings. They also spent a lot of time in the water but could also breath out of it. Their food was what they would find in the waters. They could talk with just their minds, move things without touching them and their hearing was like sonar. They were a peace-loving species.

When I asked them how can they be on earth with our warmer climate, they told me that they are able to adjust to the temperatures in their surrounding area. They also told me even though they have sonic hearing, sometimes they can still get distracted and not hear something right away. It's how I startled them when I walked in.

I then told them a little about our culture. They were sadden to hear that we are not so peaceful and fight over the smallest things. I also explained to them about movies, tv shows and music. I played some 60′s-today’s music, told them about the people I liked and why and we also danced. Their way of dancing is so weird-looking. It looked more like they were having seizures. It was funny to watch and come to think of it, some of our dances are not much better, hahaha.

I gave them a list of tv shows and movies that they should watch. We did end up watching ‘Star Wars’ (they picked it, not me). I had to remind them that it wasn’t real. They did tell me that something similar did actual happen in their galaxy between two other worlds. How freaky is that?

It was getting late and they had to get back home. They thanked me for having them and I thanked them for not killing me.  I think I actually might miss them. I was able to take my shower but it was too late to take my nap. I just wrote about my experience and turned in early thinking about my very weird day.

A Nightmare In One Week Chapter 4

It was Darlene's last full day at the hell house. She spent it sleeping off and on and making sure all her stuff was together. She wanted to be out of there as fast as possible. She also cleaned everything to make sure things were prefect.

As night started to come, Darlene started to get nervous again. After dinner and cleaning up the kitchen, she talked to one of her friends for awhile. By the time she got off the phone, it was 11:30 pm. Maybe nothing will happen since everything has been quiet. She decided to sleep on the couch. She kept the light on, curled up and started to fall asleep.

Darlene was now in a very light sleep when the lighs started to flicker then finally shut off. This made her wake up, sit straight up and grabbed the knife she still carried with her. She then started to hear the familiar sounds from the previous nights. She noticed a silhouette of the creature right out the window. It started to rattle the window then it did a creepy laugh.

Darlene sat there frozen in terror. The creature disappeared from the window and tried to open the front door but it was locked. It started scratching frantically and banging on the door.

"You can't hide in there for long" it hissed.

Darlene didn't respond but she started crying hysterically. She had no idea if there was a flashlight or where one might be. He continued to torture her by going around outside the house making noises. Sometimes things would go quiet for awhile only to have them start again with the shaking and banging on the windows and doors making her jump and cry even more.

When things went quiet again, she couldn't remember if she locked the back door earlier. Shit! Darlene made her way though the dark to the back door and saw that it was wide open!

She ran back into the front -room, grabbed her keys from the coffee table and ran out the door to her car. Darlene had to get out of there. In the morning she would return to meet the guy and get her stuff.

After fumbling with her keys, Darlene finally got into her car and tried o start it. Her fear came true when the car wouldn't start. It didn't even make a noise. "oh no, this can't be happening." She knew the car was in good shape and couldn't understand why it was dead. No matter how often she turned the key, it just wouldn't start.

"Dammit!" She got out of the car and looked under the hood and that's when she saw the cords and tubes were sliced everywhere. She was now in complete fear for her life.

She couldn't run into the woods because that would be more unsafe than the house. Staying inside the car wasn't a choice either because she would be completely trapped. She couldn't stay outside either because there was nowhere to go or nothing to help protect herself. The only option Darlene felt she had was to go back inside the house.

She ran back in the dark house and picked up the knife. She wish she knew if the guy had an axe or something. She didn't feel safe looking for one because the creature could easily sneak up on her while she tried looking in the shed. She could do damage with the knife, it just would take longer.

As she heard the floor above her creek, she hid in the closet locking it. Darlene hoped that the creature would just go away if it didn't see her. She decided to call the cops. After all, they had guns. Now if she just could stay hidden until they got there.

Darlene told the dispatcher there was an armed intruder, that she was in the closet hiding, the address and that the lights weren't working. The guy told her it woud take them anywhere between 10-15 minutes and to try and hang on. She didn't like waiting that long but she understood.

The dispatcher stayed with her on the phone to try and keep her cal and to relay information to the cops when needed. The thing started to go down the stairs looking for his prey. It made some kind of howl noise as it was looking for her. Darlene started crying silently and covered her mouth.

The creature was now standing in front of the closet. She could hear it sniffing for her scent. Darlene gasped and held her breath. She knew this wasn't good.

"I can smell yooooou and you smell taaassty" it hissed with a laugh.

It turned abruptly towards the closet door and started banging and clawing at it. Darlene now started screaming. This terrified the dispatcher. He tried to find out what was going on but had no clue. He told the cops what he was hearing. This stressed the cops out because they could go only so fast. Even going top speed wouldn't get them there fast enough. They felt helpless and was frustrated that the house was so far away.

It was a struggle but the creature managed to break open the door. There stood the seven foot monster right before her eyes. The claws, teeth and red eyes looked even more menacing up close. Darlene let out a blood curdling scream and tried to run past it.

Darlene almost made it past him but the monster whipped around, grabbed her, pulled her down to the floor and dragged her away fro the front door. She dropped the phone with the guy yelling at the other end trying to ask if she was okay. She did mange to grab the knife, stab the creature a few times and kicked him off of her.

Darlene tried to fight by going after him to stab him some more. She wanted to kill it or seriously injure it, mostly kill it. It was working or so she thought. She got him pretty good a few times. Unfortunately she couldn't get him in the important areas, he was putting up a good fight. It pretended to be unconscious as she headed for the front door. Just as she was about to run out of the house , the creature jumped up, pulled her face first onto the floor and dragged her again. She lost her knife in the battle.

Darlene screamed for her life as the monster ripped into her, slamming her head several times on the floor and biting her. The cops got there,  found the victim sprawled on the floor and torn to shreds with parts of her eaten. It was the most horrific thing the cops ever seen in their life.

The next day when Hedley came home, he found out what happened. He had to stay away from his home while the detectives did their investigation. The town had mixed emotions about what happened. Some thought it was a demon and some thought it was Hedley himself. Others figured it was just a wild animal that accidentally got in the house. 

A few days after the detectives were done and a hazmat team cleaned up the place, Hedley returned to his home. He stood there in his front-room shocked and just shook his head. He took a couple of newspaper clippings from his coat pocket, one about Darlene and another about another girl that was found in the woods torn up and went up to the locked room.

As he stepped in th secret room and turned on the light, he looked at all the other newspaper clippings of other people that were found torn up in the woods. He had pinned them all over the walls. He added the other two to his collection while taking a deep breath.

"They never listen. I warned her. Others are warned about the woods. They just don't listen."

He turned off the light and walked out locking the door behind him. That night the creature in the woods howled. Hedley was safe for now. After all, he made a pact with the creature. They each lived in their own space and once in awhile Hedley let the creature feed on bad people or ones he hated and other animals, sometimes leading people into the woods to feed the creature. He knew someday the monster would come for him. But until then, in some sick way, they looked out for each other and needed each other. He hated when nice people got caught b the creature but there was nothing he could do if he wanted to keep his own life. So in some way, some of the towns people were right, it was Hedley who killed those innocent people.

Chapter 1: Click Here

Chapter 2: Click Here

Chapter 3: Click Here

A Nightmare In One Week Chapter 3

At around 10:00 pm, Darlene started reading her second book. She got pretty far into it, about half way through, when she started to dose off. The words started to get blurry and mushed together. She jolted awake to a tapping noise at the back door. She closed her book and just sat there listening. She shrugged it off thinking it was just her imagination.

Darlene decided to head off to bed. When she stopped in the kitchen to get a glass of water, she felt like she was being watched. She turned to look out the backdoor window when she could have sworn she saw a black figure disappear into the night. It had red glowing eyes. Or did it? Was it even really there? It did look like the figure from before. She must be more tired than she thought.

Darlene had a hard time falling asleep. She thought she kept hearing noises of footsteps, knocking and scraping noises coming from outside just below her window. She was to scared to look outside. Eventually she was so tired that even the creepy noises couldn't keep her awake.

The next day she was still a little shaken from last night. Darlene managed to get through the day by cleaning, exercising and reading the rest of her book. She even chatted on-line with some friends. She didn't bring up the creepy things that were going on because she didn't want to sound crazy. Plus she didn't even know if everything was just all in her head.  

After her dinner, she cleaned up and curled up on the couch to watch a movie on HBO. Half way into the movie, she heard what sounded like claws scraping along the house. Oh no, not again she thought. It had to be the wind or wild animals. Yeah that's it, wild animals.

This went on for the rest of the movie. It would stop then start again. She did her best to ignore it until it was time for bed. When she went to the bathroom, the window started to rattle. Now that had to be the wind but it still scared her shitless. She ran upstairs to her room and curled up under the blankets.

This time Darlene kept the bedroom light on because being in the dark was too much for her. Just when things seemed to be calmed down, from below her window, she heard hissing noises. Not like a snake but more like from an animal. What the hell is going on? Then came more of the claws against the house and now deep growling. No matter what she told herself, she knew something weird was going on.

Eventually everything stopped and she was able to fall asleep but it was a restless sleep. The next day, she was so tired from the lack of sleep she was getting. She was now on edge and jumped at every noise even during the day.

She went into the backyard and stared at the woods. That's when everything started, when she went in them. She figured someone was out there messing with her. It gave her the chills because she didn't know how far this person would go or what they were capable of.

The rest of the day she was restless and was was worse when night came. Each night was getting worse and she just wanted it to stop. Darlene knew the police wouldn't come unless they were really needed since it would take them at least ten minutes to get there. Luckily there was only two nights left before Hedley came home.

Darlene grabbed the biggest knife she could find in the kitchen and took it wherever she went. Everything seemed okay, except for her nerves, until around midnight. There was knocking on the front door but when she looked outside, nobody was there. Tapping and nails being dragged on the window was making her cringe with fear. Then it sounded like someone or something was on the roof of the house, trying to claw their way through.

At one point it even sounded like it was in the walls or at least outside along the walls. She peaked outside and thought she saw the back of a creature. It looked to be dark gray, skinny and bony. The fingers were like claws, thin strands of hair coming from the head and pointy ears. What the hell was she looking at; was she seeing things? Before it turned the corner, it looked back at her with a big creepy grin. It had really sharp teeth, a long face and big red eyes. Darlene quickly stepped back, terrified at what she just saw.

Darlene sat on her bed with her knees up to her chest, rocking back and forth trying to loose the image in her head. The creature crawled it's way up to her window and started scraping and tapping. It hissed out the words "I seeee you".

Finally it jumped down in the backyard and ran into the woods. She knew she had to get out of there but there was still one night left. If she could just get through it, she will never have to go back to that place again. Just then, in the distance, she thought she heard a blood curdling scream coming from the woods. After several minutes, everything was quiet again. She didn't fall asleep until the sun started to come up.

Chapter 1: Click Here

Chapter 2: Click Here

Chapter 4: Click Here

A Nightmare In One Week Chapter 2

In the first three days and nights she was there, she finished one of her books and did some knitting while watching her movies. She was going through everything faster than she thought she would. By the fourth day, she was starting to get bored.

She stepped out into the backyard and stared at the woods. She knew she was warned about them but she still didn't understand why. The woods can be dangerous with lions, tigers and bears oh my. She chuckled at her own little joke. On a more serious note, the dangers that the woods can bring wasn't enough for the guy to be so stern about them and for her to just ignore them.

Darlene figured what the hell. She had her pepper spray that she could take with her. She also grabbed some paper, a marker and some stick pins that she could take so she could mark her way through the trail. The last thing she needed was to get lost.

The trail was pretty easy to find. As she made her way through, every few feet she pined a paper with a number on it to a soft spot in a tree. She started from 1 counting up at each stop so all she had to do was count backwards on her way back.

She finally reached the creek. It was gorgeous and peaceful. There were small cascades over rocks and some bigger rocks that she sat on. She took some photos from her phone and just took everything in. She then heard some branches crack behind her. She whipped around but nothing was there. Probably just an animal but she didn't want to stick around to see what it could be so she got up and continued down the trail.

About five minutes later, she finally reached the lake. It was smaller then she expected but it was still a sight to see. She could see all the way around the lake and the trees surrounding it. Some areas of the lake had huge boulders to sit or lay on. Some where placed where you could walk out onto the lake.

She went to one of the boulders, stripped to her under clothes and dove off the giant rock. The water felt so refreshing. She started to get tired so she got back onto the giant rock and laid there. When she started to doze off, she knew it was time to head back.

The walk back didn't feel so relaxing. Darlene couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. It really started to make her feel nervous. When she reached the creek, she heard someone or something following her. She picked up the pace and kept looking around to see if she saw anything. At first she didn't but then she did see something. She stopped for a moment but it was gone almost as fast as she saw it. Did she really see a big black thing watching her? It had to be her imagination. I mean Hedley being creepy about it could be making her paranoid. She then started to jog back to the house tearing down each number as she came across it.

When she got to the house and inside, she locked the door behind her. After catching her breath, she took a long hot shower. After dinner, she checked her facebook page and found some stuff on Netflix to watch hoping that it would help her get her mind off the creepy walk back. Little did she know that her nights would no longer be peaceful.

Chapter 1: Click Here

A Nightmare In One Week Chapter 1

Darlene was in college studying to be a nurse. During her time in school, she worked in the schools's office for money. Now that it was summer break, she needed some money so she didn't have to live at home. Not there was anything bad living at home, she just wanted to do her best to make it on her own. She would rather try and find a good paying odd jobs because she hated to start and end a decent job within a few months.

One day she went to the lake to try and clear her mind and see if she could come up with some ideas. A gentleman in his early fifties sat down next to her. He introduced himself as Hedley and they started talking. During the conversation, she mentioned she was looking for odd jobs that pay well.

"This may be a little weird but I need someone to house sit for me for about a week. I've tried asking my friends but they already have plans. The job is yours if you want it. I will make sure you have all the food you need. All you have to do is clean and check the mail every day. I will pay you $500."

Darlene thought it was odd that he would ask her since they just met but hell why not? She needed the money and he needed someone to house sit. It did make her a little nervous but she had pepper spray and she knew self defense.

"Okay, I will take it."

"Great. Here is the address and my number. Be there by Sunday. I will be back the following weekend. If there is any kind of food that you want or don't like etc., just let me know and I'll get it. Just let me know as soon as you can. Oh and if something comes up and you can't house sit for me, please let me know by Wednesday so I can try to find someone else. I have only one rule, no parties."

"Will do and no worries about the party thing, I'm not much of a party person."

     They talked for a little longer about her staying there and she went ahead and told him the foods she liked. She was looking forward to this little getaway. She needed it after a long and hard semester.

There was now only a few days left before she had to leave for her house sitting job. When she told her roommate and her family what she was doing, her family wasn't happy and tried to talk her out of it. She re-assured them and gave them all the information including the guy's name and number.

Darlene started packing and trying to figure out what she wanted to take to keep her busy while she was there. She decided to grab a couple of books, her laptop, some movies and some knitting stuff. Knitting is what she loved to do on her down time especially if it was something for other people.

The day for her to leave finally arrived. She had to get up early so she could be there by 10:00 am. She thought the house was between a medium size and a big size. The nearest neighbor was five to six blocks away. The plot of land that the house sat on was huge. The front yard was big and had a gravel drive way that led up to the house. 

The house was tan with a brown trim and had two stories. It had a covered porch with a porch swing. That would be a perfect place to read and knit she thought. While taking everything in, she knocked on the door.

Hedley answered pretty quickly. For some reason, he seemed kinda out of it and was nervous. Darlene figured it was because they barley knew each other so everything was kinda weird.

"Hi Darlene, come in. Did you find the place okay?"

"Yeah. Luckily google maps was pretty accurate."

"Yeah. Sometimes that thing gets weird. Here let me take your bags and show you around."

"Thanks."

Inside was pretty big but a closed concept so it looked kinda small at the same time. It was also gloomy and dark. It looked like it was built n the 60's or 70's. There were updates but it mixed with the old. Upstairs were two bedrooms and a small bathroom.

"Here is the spare room where you can stay. It isn't much but it's comfortable."

"That's okay. I don't need much anyways. Thank you."

At the end of the hall was another set of small stairs that led to a closed door.

"There is the attic. It's locked and no one is allowed in. I have the key on me at all times." Hedley said in a creepy warning tone.

The last thing he showed her was the backyard. It was pretty big. It didn't have much going on though which was a shame. There was enough room for a nice sitting area with a nice BBQ grill, a pool, hot tub and more. He just had a few outdoor chairs with a table. There were some woods surrounding he back.

"Just through the woods and off to the right is a trail that leads to a creek and a lake. I must warn you, stay away from those woods even to go to the lake. There are things in there....just don't go in there, understood?"

"Um, yeah sure. Stay out of the woods."

This kinda crept her out but mostly how he was acting and talking. What was the big deal about the woods she thought. They finished up the tour and he went on his way. 

Chapter 2: Click Here

Chapter 3: Click Here

Chapter 4: Click Here