"There's a Demon Living in My Grandmother's House" by RespectLimp1381 | CLANCYPASTA

[00:00:04] I found it during a stormy afternoon. It was a Sunday in August, and my cousins and I had been trapped inside our grandmother's old colonial house for what seemed like weeks, though in retrospect it could not have surpassed a week. It had rained every single day since

[00:00:26] our arrival. It felt as though we were cursed, and in our childish brains time stretched on incessantly as we quickly became bored of the few amusements we were able to find within the old creaking house. Yet, the rain carried on. Each droplet that landed on the

[00:00:47] massive French windows was a mocking reminder of our confinement within the old dusty walls of our grandmother's house. Away from any parental attention and affection, and with only the strict gaze of our aging grandmother and her disinterested maid to chaperone us,

[00:01:09] we children quickly fell into a unanimous depression as the melancholy spirit of both the house and weather overtook us. As kids do, however, we found little ways to ease our boredom, the most recent of which was Hide and Seek, a game that could go on for

[00:01:31] a good while due to the vastness of the house. With each game we discovered new hiding spots, doors that lead to old storage rooms gone untouched for decades, crawl spaces filled with spiders and bugs alike, forgotten guest rooms, and once even a kitchenette tucked

[00:01:52] away in a room on the second floor. The halls alone to us children seemed a stretch or mile, it wasn't unusual to find us hidden behind the curtains of one of the many windows desperately

[00:02:07] trying to hide our protruding feet. It was during such a game of Hide and Seek that I discovered a door at the end of a hallway on the first floor. I found it quite strange,

[00:02:25] as I believed that we had covered the entirety of the area, and that there was simply nothing left to discover. I had hesitated at first, there was something incredibly wrong about the peeling black paint and rusted brass doorknob that seemed to beckon me from six feet away.

[00:02:47] It seemed out of place amongst the faded pink flowery wallpaper, as though someone had crudely forced it into the wall despite the obvious mismatch. It was unlike the other doors inside the home, as they were all a dull sandy brown, nothing about them ever stood out. This one

[00:03:09] did however, because it was simply not meant to be there. I had not felt myself walking towards it, my body had moved of its own accord, and before I had registered what I was doing,

[00:03:28] my hand was upon the doorknob, the coolness of the brass sending an electric feeling up my spine. My heart began to pound in my ears, and my breath caught in my throat. Something

[00:03:42] in my head told me there was something behind the door, and I became incredibly unsure of whether I wanted to know what it was. A cold air began to consume the hallway, the longer

[00:03:58] I stood contemplating. Reason told me to run, and something else compelled me to stay. I could hear my cousin's footsteps drawing nearer to my spot as I waited for my mind to break

[00:04:16] the reins of indecision. In the end, it was the thought of losing that broke me. The thought of my cousin Rodney's mocking face once he found me cowering in a hallway angered my nine year old mind beyond comprehension, so I twisted the knob and swung the door open.

[00:04:41] Air blasted through the house, the lightbulb in the hallway went out. The terrified screams of my cousins rang throughout the house and came echoing back to me as ghostly howls while I remained frozen in my spot. In the hallway, a strange stench wafted through the now open

[00:05:07] doorway like moldy leaves and damp earth. I cringed as the cold dry air grew stronger, forcing its way through my nostrils and drying my mouth as the stench of mold overtook the hallway. Beyond the darkness of the doorway, something clattered. Every movement in my body ceased,

[00:05:36] hairs upon the back of my neck rose into firm, terrified little spikes and my fingers gripped the doorknob so tightly my knuckles glowed white. Then came the footsteps, not of children running to find cover from the dark, but something slow, purposeful, and heavy. The sound filled my ears

[00:06:03] as they drew nearer and were soon accompanied by hollow, raspy, deep breaths that came in mortifyingly long intervals, each one closer sounding than the last. Soon, I could tell that whatever it was stood mere feet away from me. Unable to see or still, unable to move,

[00:06:31] I prayed to God that it would not cross the threshold. The stench of mold was inescapable. It became the air. I could taste it in every breath, dry yet clammy. If it weren't for my sudden paralysis, I would have gagged. The thing took another step. Another smash

[00:06:57] of thunder bombarded the house, accompanied by a strike of lightning. The fiery, angry blue light illuminated every corner of the hall, including the form of the godforsaken creature that stood

[00:07:13] in the doorway. It stood six feet tall on hoofed feet. Red burning orbs had glared back at me from an emaciated face devoid of any features save for a mouth forged from holes torn crudely into the

[00:07:32] shape of a smile in its mold-covered flesh. Two horns had protruded from its forehead, twisted and ugly, the monstrosity they stood upon. The rest of its form was near skeletal, and its flesh as black as the night sky. Moldy spores of orange, red, and yellow mold grew on

[00:08:00] every inch of its body save for the ends of its bony fingers. There it grew nails as sharp as talons, glinting as though they thirsted for blood. The second our gaze met, the burning fire in its eyes

[00:08:21] blazed into an inferno. It shot an emaciated arm from the darkness, another strike of lightning illuminating its path and heaved itself into the doorway. The carved slits on its face stretched impossibly to form a mock smile. At this, I felt a warm liquid run down my trouser pants

[00:08:50] as my bladder gave way. It rasped, and from the carved slits in its face came a raspy, impossibly deep voice in a childish sing-song tune. Found you, I slammed the door shut and ran. I heard a loud bang as it slammed itself onto the door.

[00:09:18] I didn't dare look back. I ran down the hallway, up the staircase, into the room I shared with my cousins. They had all been there, staring at me as though I'd gone mad, and in the bright orange

[00:09:34] glow of our room, no longer subject to the gaze of that hideous creature. I felt as if I had. I could not tell them what happened, no matter how many prying questions were shot at me.

[00:09:52] I could not speak. I simply slumped into the bathroom, showered, and headed to bed. I had no explanation for what had occurred, despite how desperately my nine-year-old mind had tried to rationalize. I'd been unable to sleep that night,

[00:10:14] haunted by the thought of that creature coming to steal me away. Yet, nothing happened. The next morning, we were greeted by birdsong and a bright morning sky. The rain had stopped. All thoughts of the day before soon fled from my mind as we all raced

[00:10:42] outside to play. The rest of my stay went by in a blur, a memory of that day blocked from my mind. I'd chalked it up to temporary insanity, though I truly had no idea what it meant.

[00:10:58] But as long as it allowed me to pretend what I'd seen was not real, I did not care. My parents and I moved away soon after. Thus, going to stay in my grandmother's home during

[00:11:16] summer was no longer possible. As time went on, memories of my grandmother's house began to fade, until they were no more than a blur in the collection of memories that made up my childhood. The beast and the door were forgotten, and those eyes ceased to plague my nightmares.

[00:11:42] That was, until today, however, when it all came rushing back. My grandmother passed away last week, you see. As such, the entire family has flown out to her house for the funeral, including myself. While wandering around on the first floor,

[00:12:11] I found that same hallway from all those years ago. That stench of mold still dominated the air as though it were sealed within the walls, making my stomach churn. I found the door, too.

[00:12:31] The black paint was just as crude, its peeling flakes littering the brown carpet beneath it. The brass doorknob glinted just as brightly as it had on that fateful day. Yes, I found the door, all right. Only this time, it was ajar.