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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/psycharious on 2024-10-27 17:30:00+00:00.
My mother and I had always had a strained relationship. My father was never really in the picture so we made the best of our situation. She herself was also often gone as she was a state fire department pilot who also conducted search and rescue. One of the few women in her department. She did the best she could for me but there were times when she would be gone for long periods of time, leaving me with my grandparents or aunt. When we were together, she put in her best effort. We would go on trips or outings. As I got older however, I wanted to be more independent. She may have noticed me slowly slipping away. I can tell it bothered her. Through high school, she would always make it a point to ask me tons of questions; where I was going, who I was with, how long I would be. She would freak out if I were even a half hour late coming home. As kids usually do, I came to resent it, with accusations often being followed up with arguments. Then, the snooping began in my late teen years as I was preparing to go to college. One day, she found a glass pipe that I had left out on my nightstand. Normally, I keep it in my sock drawer but I must have left it out and she saw it. This of course led to more questions: who gave it to me, what was I using it for, etc. Even at that time, I didn’t really smoke anything unless any friends offered it. A friend had just given it to me. She was really starting to get on my nerves, so I bought a lock for my door. She didn’t say anything about it or ask me to remove it, Just scoffed. This is when things started to get really weird.
One night, I was awakened by some strange noises coming from the attic right above my room. I laid there in bed just listening to it, trying to figure out what it could be. I’m not sure for how long. It seemed to be a mix of scratching and banging, like some animal was running around on the roof. After a while, it stopped. I figured it was probably just a cat that was killing a bird or something on the roof. At the time, I wasn’t really alarmed by it. So I dozed off to bed.
The next day, when I got back home, I unlocked my door and to my surprise, my room looked like it had been rummaged through. My socks and underwear were scattered about, drawers were left opened, even my secret stash of Oreos and Chee-Its had been compromised. I confronted my mom.
“Mom what the hell?”
”What?” She looked genuinely puzzled looking up from her laptop while on the sofa
“My room!”
”What about your room?’
”You went through my stuff again!”
”What?”
”And you took my Oreos and Cheez-It’s?”
”I don’t even like Cheez-Its”
”How did you get in my room?”
”I didn’t go into your room, how could I? The door was locked.”
”Well evidently, someone had to. My room is torn apart!”
”What?”
I showed her my room. She had a look on her face. It must have been her, I thought. then after a pause, she answered with a ton of uncertainty.
”I have no idea what might have caused this.” She started looking around the room diligently. She checked the closet, under the bed, behind the drawers, she was looking for something it seemed. Then she noticed it. Right above my door, the vent cover had looked like it came loose. The screws seemed like they were pushed out.
“It’s probably raccoons then.”
”Racoons, around here?”
”Yes,” she replied, “I’ve read about them. They’re smart buggers. They can get into peoples homes from under the house or through the attic and damage and destroy property.”
I was about to protest but then I remembered the sounds. “Actually I did hear something last night. Sounded like there was something moving around in the attic.”
”Let’s take a look.”
With that, I grabbed a flashlight and we headed to the attic. We didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
”Whatever it was, it’s gone now,” my mom said, browsing around. I’ll call animal control and see if they can set some traps.” I screwed the vent cover back in and thought nothing more of it.
A couple of nights later as I lay awake at night in my own thoughts, I started hearing the noises again. This time, it sounded like it was coming from in the wall. It sounded like scratching in the ventilation system. Something was moving around in there. The raccoon must have come back. I looked up at the vent and there it was. Two bright eyes staring back at me. The raccoon? I was no animal expert but whatever it was, it wasn’t a raccoon. It stared back at me for some time, then in a flash disappeared. I got up quickly, grabbed a chair from the kitchen, the flashlight from the hall closet, and tried to peak into the vent. I looked at an angle. I grabbed a screw driver and undid the vent again. I placed it on my tv stand, stepped back up on the chair and poked a part of my face in. In hindsight, probably not the best idea. There it was again. Our eyes caught again and just as quickly it vanished behind the bend.
I was freaked out enough to then go find some plywood from the garage and drill it in over the vent. My mom heard me and got up to see what I was doing.
“That thing is back.”
”That thing? What thing?”
”The raccoon or whatever. Didn’t you call animal control?’
”Oh shit, that’s right! No, I forgot. I’ll call them tomorrow morning.”
”Mom, I don’t think it’s a raccoon.”
”What is it then?”
”I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s not a raccoon.”
”Either that or some other scavenging animal. I’m sure it’s more afraid of you than you are of it.”
I didn’t feel like getting into another argument with her. I just shrugged it off and told her I was going back to bed. I found it hard to fall asleep that night though. I must have laid there in my bed for a couple of hours until I just moved to the living room couch. The next day when I came home, my mom told me that animal control came by. They said that they didn’t see anything but did set traps. This didn’t make me feel comforted but the noise stopped for a while after that. Still, I kept the makeshift vent cover on, and it was lucky I did.
About a week and a half later, I woke up to a more aggressive noise. I looked up and saw that something was trying to push through the vent cover. I grabbed the flashlight that I then kept on my nightstand and kept it aimed at the vent. Knocking knocking knocking, until finally it fell to the floor and there they were again; those two big yellow glowing eyes. We again locked gaze for a while. The head came closer. I could make out his head, a bulbous head with what looked like long ears. I slowly got out of bed and came closer. It ran off again. I tried to look in. This time, I ran into the hallway, pulled the release for the attic entrance, took a deep breath and climbed the ladder. In hindsight, I should have taken something hard. I reached to the top, pulled myself in and looked around. There was only enough room to crouch in this attic. It was just a wooden platform floating on a sea of insulation with the fuse box for the heating unit. Then, there standing at the far end of the attic on a beam, was a dark figure. I shined my light on it and there stood a gremlin. It was a golumesque figure, possibly two and a half feet tall, more nimble and human like than a primate. It had dark fur, possibly black or dark brown and long pointy ears. Those large cat like eyes glared at me again, and it made a groaning noise almost like a pur. I stood there in a mixture of confusion and terror. My heart racing, my mind racing through all the various things this creature could be to make sense of it.
The Gremlin jumped to the next beam towards me. It stopped but it kept its gaze on me. I Stepped back, keeping my light on it. It again jumped to the next beam. I backed away slowly towards the ladder. I put one foot down on the first step, keeping my balance. It suddenly darted to the left. I booked it down the ladder, clenching my flashlight. I pancaked and missed a step. I slipped and fell down landing on my side. The wind was knocked out of me a little. I pushed myself back up as hard as I could and took a second, but there was another thud behind me. Whatever it was had dropped right behind me. I ran for the door.
“Hey hey, what are you doing?” My mom called to me. She was just sitting casually on the couch with a single lamplight on, reading. I turned around but there was nothing there. I looked back at her. She could tell the expression of terror on my face.
“I saw it! I I saw what was in the attic!”
”Really? What? Was it a raccoon?”
”No, it was like….uh….like a little monkey bat thing!”
”Wait, we have bats in the attic? Ey.”
”No! It wasn’t a bat, it was way bigger. Like an evil looking lemur.”
”We don’t have Lemurs here.”
“I’m not saying it was! It was….I don’t know.”
Okay, I’m sure it’s just some animal that just found its way back in,” she reassured but uncertain. “But hey, sit down, I want to talk to you.”
I came over to the couch and sat down, still looking towards the dark hallway. “Listen,” she began. “I’m sorry for…snooping around and being nosey. you’re getting older and you deserve a little space and privacy. It’s just, I feel like I’ve missed so much with work and everything. I tried to do the best I could and….”
”Hey look, you’re not a bad mom.” I interrupted. “It’s not like I’m out there gangbanging or anything. Hell, I barely have a social life as it is.”
”I know you’re a good kid. But I’ll always worry about you no matter what I’ll back off but I want you to remember that you can talk to me.” ...
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