Demon house across the way

Demon house across the way
“Oh dear.” Misgiving colored my slowly spoken words. Having followed Vi here instead of looking at a map, I hadn’t really thought about the location.

“What? This house is perfect! Don’t you dare ruin it!” Vi had her hands on her hips.

“There is nothing wrong with this house.” I confirmed. Bracing myself I felt compelled to add. “The neighborhood across the street is a different story. No way in hell I’d live anywhere near it.”

Vi frantically looked over at the stately looking brick houses. They were all lovely, manicured lawns, perfect fences. Nothing that the average person would object to or be smothered in dread from seeing a for sale sign in front of. I pointed at the red brick two story a street over. Vi looked but didn’t shudder like I did at the sight of the dark brown front door. Probably because she hadn’t been thrown out of it.

“That’s the Swallow house.” Vi’s mouth dropped open. I had recanted the story to her when it happened. Her face mirrored the horror I was sure was on my own.

Three years ago, Jesse’s company had been called in to assess the Swallow house. They complained of the smell of rotting meat. Particularly in the room in the garage that housed the water heater and fuse box. Despite a thorough inspection by the pest company, they couldn’t find any rodents in the walls to account for the scratching on the walls. They kept firing their housekeep because of all the dead flies. The family of four were constantly sick despite the doctors being unable to find anything wrong with them. After the third time someone beat on their door at two am, they put up security cameras. At first, they were just outside. I still shivered from the videos Jesse showed me.

The first video he showed me was the camera mounted over the garage. During the night everything was as silent as these neighborhoods get. Then suddenly the motion light came on. As soon as it flooded the empty space, there was a growling noise. The shadows seemed to ooze away from the light. Then the second feed came on. This was the front door camera. At first nothing was there, but it had been action activated. Slowly a humanoid shape formed in front of the door. It was solid black, no details just one big shadow of someone the size of the Rock wearing a cloak. Again, the growling noise. I leaned in to see if I could make out any details. BOOM BOOM BOOM. My loving husband laughed way too hard when I jumped out of my skin. The entity hit the door so hard you could see it flex with each strike of the not totally corporeal fist.

The next two cameras showed it rattling the windows of the backyard. Then the view from the back door showed the same thing that had happened at the front. BOOM BOOM BOOM. Then it was eerily quiet until the camera was triggered at daybreak by a bird flying by the garage.

Bizarrely to me, the Swallow family couldn’t see the shadow figure. Only hear the growl faintly and see the door flinch from the beating it was taking. Jesse confirmed that he couldn’t see it either. Unfortunately, auras weren’t captured on video. One of the few times I got to give my husband a smug look and describe what was actually happening.

Not understanding what they were dealing with, they added more cameras. Both inside and out. The outside continued to show the shadow knocking at two in the morning multiple times. The inside ones footage were spine chilling. After it finished knocking, it would walk through the house.  At one point it was recorded in the infant daughter's room. Standing over the crib. I could tell it was looking down at the helpless child. As a mother and a medium I was terrified for her safety. Faintly a dog barking could be heard. It reached a black smoky hand down into the crib. From the angle I couldn’t tell what it was doing but the child started screaming as if her life depended on it. With a sickening chuckle the shadow disappeared when the lights were flipped on. The mother could be seen trying to soothe her baby while barely awake. What she failed to notice was the dolls all lined up on the shelf turned to watch her. Their eyes moving in bizarre and creepy as hell fashion.

There were move videos of the shadow standing at the foot of the parents bed, watching them sleep. The growling was again heard. Another one showed it standing over their older child. This time I heard more of a chanting than a growling. Some videos were of empty rooms, but things were moving around. The vacuum cleaner chased the family dog that was barking frantically at it in one of them.

After watching videos that were sure to give me nightmares, Jesse brought up pictures that had been taken. He could make out some of the auras in these but inquired what I could see in them. They made me nauseous. Most were just pictures of a family living their lives. Mom and infant floating in the pool. Never mind that shadow person lurking just over her shoulder. Baby in her highchair eating mac and cheese. Creepy ass hand with long fingernails was on her throat. A video of their five-year-old boy reciting the alphabet that had snarling and a shadow person zipping in and out of frame. One video had been taken from inside the shower. The wife had decided to take a shower while home alone. She had taken her phone in with her to listen to music while doing a treatment on her hair. While she was rinsing her hair, the shower door had started to move like it was being hit. Freaked out she started to film. Judging by the view she was sliding down the corner of the shower screaming as the door was visibly flexing in response to fierce strikes against it. The video was less than a minute long but had most likely felt like a lifetime to the poor woman. I could make a faint deep raspy voice that I knew wasn’t human on it.

I replayed the footage with the shadow figure. Took screenshots to compare because I really hoped I was wrong. With the homeowners’ blessing, I sent them to my mother. She would be able to see them and confirm my theory. My heart dropped when she responded. Thanking her for her quick response I told Jesse the devastating news. There were at least three different shadow beings. Most likely demons based on complaints made by the family.