nosleep

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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Suffocated-Soul on 2024-09-16 00:38:06+00:00.

Hey everyone, you may know me from this post, this is short but there's not much for me to say. I know I left my last post without much explanation but there honestly isn't much to give. I tried commenting to give a little context but I've lived in the middle of nowhere all my life so please forgive me for not really knowing how this stuff works. But I had wanted to make another post anyway to give some context that would be too much for a comment. I had tried asking my grandmother about the creek incident a few times but she could never give me an answer that wasn't vague and cryptic, but I was able to get her to say more about it later on.

My mom was understandably angry with my grandmother for that incident, she thought that my grandmother had kicked me out of the house or was just negligent in keeping an eye on me, at least that’s what I assumed she thought. My mother and I never really got along so I never asked her much, she’s always had a short fuse that missed my grandmother and I.

My grandmother passed not long ago, before I could get any concrete answers, but I'm staying in her house now and it's bringing up a lot of old memories. Most of my memories from this house are happy, so being the only one here is kind of a surreal feeling. Now that I'm the only one here the sounds of the house settling seem a lot louder. Every time the floorboards make a noise I have to remind myself that she's gone, and that it's not her I'm hearing. It can be a bit creepy from time to time, sometimes I’ll think I see something out of the corner of my eye, or hear what sounds like footsteps on the upstairs floor. I think there's rats or mice in the attic, but I haven't called anyone to take care of it yet. My grandmother always told me not to go up there, I think that's because she knew I would chase any rodent I found.

My grandmother took a bad fall at one point, she said she had been getting something from her attic and slipped on the ladder coming down. She had fallen a couple times in the past and always recovered fast, but I think the combination of old age and the surgery was just too much for her to handle. Her health declined fast, every time I saw her she looked worse.

I was in my first year of college when she fell and had to have surgery. I came to visit her when she was released and able to go back home, luckily my professors were understanding and emailed me the lectures and any work I was missing. She actually accepted using a wheelchair for once, so I moved the majority of her things from her bedroom upstairs to the spare room on the ground floor. The box she had been getting from the attic was still dumped on the floor from her fall, it was full of books. The majority of them were bound in leather.

After getting my grandmother something to eat and making sure that she had everything she needed while she was in bed, I took it upon myself to clean up that box. The attic was still open, the ladder still pulled down. I wanted to look through the books. Some of the things my grandmother had collected were nonsense that was only interesting to her, but other things were a genuine marvel to look at. I wouldn't know what category those books fell under until I read them though.

I had just finished putting everything back into the box when I decided I could spare a moment to read the last one I was putting in. The leather binding was soft like silk, when I opened the book I was surprised to find that the pages were also made of the same leather. I couldn't make sense of anything in the book, the writing was illegible to me but frankly I didn't have much time to look. A heavy thump from the attic made me almost drop the book I was holding. 

I couldn't see anything from where I was, but knowing that it was probably just some rodent made me feel a bit better. I put the book into it’s box, it was a bit of a struggle to carry the box up the ladder but after some adjusting I managed to get into the attic. 

I put the box near the entrance, but I took a moment to look around. It was surprisingly empty. There were maybe ten boxes in all including the one I had put back. I couldn't see any mice, and I didn't see anything that looked to be recently knocked over despite distinctively hearing something heavy fall a moment before. 

I wanted to find a light, it was too dark for me to see anything except the silhouette of things. I was running my hands along the walls to feel for a switch. Another thud made me immediately stop, it was close, in the attic. But I couldn't see anything moving. I didn't hear any scurrying or any sort of rodent noises, and whatever it was sounded far too large to be a rat or mouse.

I’ll be honest, I got out of the attic as quick as I could. I know that's probably not what people want to hear but come on, every person who decides to investigate in a horror movie immediately dies! I have plans for my future so I wasn't too keen on dying to some thirty pound rat.

I found my grandmother still laying in her bed. She hadn't touched the food I had made her, but I expected that. She was never hungry at that point, that probably contributed to her condition.

I didn't want to mention the attic to my grandmother but I probably should have, I think some part of me just didn't want her to get mad at me for going up there. Instead I decided to try and ask my grandmother about the night I woke up at the creek. She was much more willing to talk about things after her surgery, but she still wasn't very long winded.

"No, no... Don't worry yourself over things like that." She croaked the words as if she hadn't spoken in a long time.

"How can I not worry? All of it was so weird. From waking up by the creek to that guy showing up, it feels like it was all a dream."

"That man... That man."

I could tell she was upset, but any anger in her voice was covered up by her wheezing, which only got worse as she continued.

"That man is the devil himself. He is great and beautiful but he is not kind. He is not just and he is not fair! He is malicious and hateful like the rest of mankind. No matter what he says, he is the same as every other."

I could tell she was getting more upset by the second, and with her already fragile state I didn't want her to have any unneeded stress.

"Just- Okay calm down. I understand."

"No! You don't understand, I didn’t either! He will not harm you but he will harm others, your mother would not hear me but you will. Your father was his doing, and the father of your child will be his doing as well. Do not speak to him and do not ask for him."

I was quiet for a moment, it was always a bit hard for me to make sense of how my grandmother spoke. But I was especially confused about what she had said about my father. I had never met him, but my mom told me he had died before I was born.

"Mom said that dad shot himself on a hunting trip?"

"His death wasn't his own doing. He was made to be a spectacle, hung from a tree in a ceremony to honor your birth. Just as the mayor said it would be."

"Is that what happened to grandpa?"

I immediately regretted asking that. She never talked about my grandfather, only saying that he was a good person the few times I was able to get a response out of her.

She didn't want to talk anymore after that, only nodding as a confirmation to my question.

Later that week I got a call from her neighbor that she had passed. He had gone to check on her and found her seemingly sleeping on the back porch. He called me before he called the police, and called my mom. I helped my mother arrange a funeral in the days after.

My grandmother left me her house, luckily I was able to transfer colleges to one closer, but not all of my credits transferred over so I'm hoping I won't have to repeat a semester if I take some extra classes.

I have the house to myself now, it's creepier now that I'm alone and I still haven't gone in the attic again, but it still feels like home. I'm planning to go through some of my grandmother's old things to clear out any clutter. I'll give myself a little time to grow a pair and get the boxes out of the attic first, then I’ll move onto the rest of the house so I can put some things up there. 

I left that green jacket that she always sat in hanging next to the door, it feels too important to get rid of. Every time I see it hanging by the back door I regret not having it buried with her. I might take it to the cemetery and leave it at her grave, but I'm a bit worried about someone stealing it.