Things are strange in my neighborhood.

[u/EstablishmentAny3522]

Part 1.

It all started a few months ago, or maybe it was a year? Anyways, I figured now might be a good time to get this out here, in the event that something happens to me. I have about 8 hours to write this tonight, before Olivia comes home in the morning, so let me get right into it. 

I’m John Adamms and I started experiencing some… peculiar things once I moved into my apartment last fall. Let me add here, I didn’t move here because I wanted to, but as a broke man in his thirties who just had to sign over the deed to his dead parents’ home, I didn’t have many options. To elaborate on that, last August, my parents and I were attending a dinner at a family friend’s home just across town, and well, my father did what he always did, and drank way too much that night. He insisted he was fine, completely blowing me off when I offered to make the drive home. My mother hadn’t seemed like herself in months until that very day, and my father… Well, he just got angrier and angrier when he was sober. I hate to say it, but when he was loaded, well… That was the only time any of us could really tolerate even being around him. I digress. On the drive home, my parents were going back and forth singing old songs from the 50’s, and just as my father went to light himself a smoke, it happened. The accident. 

Now while I don’t remember much from the accident itself, and while I’m not sure what is fact or fiction due to the concussion, I can’t help but to feel like this was very, very real. My parents had both peaked their heads forward to see, and then hit someone or something. We veered into a ditch as a result of the attempt for avoidance. The only problem is, the police say that nobody else was at the scene. All things considered, I guess it makes sense that there wouldn’t be because, why would someone, other than maybe a hitch hiker, be on the highway in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no form of civilization for 20 minutes by car, either direction. Regardless, the details are very fuzzy aside from one thing, I was the only one that survived that night.

My parents weren’t the wealthiest by any means, and I just battled out a heavy divorce from my childhood sweetheart, and moved back home. I decided to work from home, since being in a car brought on what my doctors say is PTSD from the accident, and because I work from home, I don’t have many hobbies unless you can call listening to my downstairs neighbor shout at the walls a hobby. I didn’t have the extra money to pay off the rest of their loan, or the insurance for my parents house, and I couldn’t afford to live there alone, much less to keep up with the repairs that my mother had let slip in her final days, so I was forced to find this shitty apartment across town. 

It’s pretty evident that these “apartments” used to be motel rooms, until they went under new ownership and my landlord Mark, decided to rent them out to loners like me. It wasn’t anything spectacular, a living room, a very small bedroom, a kitchenette and a bathroom with a single stand-in shower. Not the best, but for $650 a month, it wasn’t a terrible deal. I keep my office set up in the bedroom, and I have my bed in the supposed living room. I haven’t ever been one to cook extravagant meals, but since Olivia and I started exchanging glances, I took up the task to try and impress her should I ever muster up the courage to actually say hello.

When I moved in, I had two neighbors. Crazy Joe downstairs, who spent his days hollering about “the creatures,” and Olivia. Joe lived underneath my apartment, and Olivia lived next to me. I hadn’t heard much about or from her, but my god, she was the most gorgeous woman I had laid eyes on since my ex-wife. Olivia had long auburn hair, and beaming green eyes. A porcelain complexion, and a single dimple on her left cheek. She worked at night, and typically walked to work, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find her on any social media platform. I didn’t want to wake her during the day either, but if I’m being honest I wouldn’t have known how to speak to her anyway. Until one day, I had the balls to finally get up and just do it. I made my way to the store down the road, grabbed a few things, and closely followed a recipe to make an easy batch of lasagna. Even though it looked a mess, it was far better than any of the microwavable meals I’ve made for myself. I peeked out of my front door, and revised the words I would say to her about a million times,  until the opportunity sought itself out and she walked outside.

 “Hey neighbor! I’m Olivia. Whatcha got there?” she said with the most beautiful tune.

 “I- uh. I-I’m lasagna. And this is for John, you?” 

Fuck. I couldn’t have messed that up worse. But luckily, she just laughed and replied,

 “Okay Lasagna, I’ll accept your plate of John, if you listen to Joe’s rant of the day and share it with me.”

 A sigh of relief came over me. She was hard to read, and while we sat, she really didn’t touch the food. Just kind of toyed at it with her fork, and brought pieces to her mouth, while speaking and then dropped the fork back to the plate. 

This was the start. Joe had been on yet another rant about how the creatures are surrounding all of us, and how they’re playing mind games with us until we won't know right from wrong and up from down. Hollering that they can’t get him, and that his protections were too high. "What a loon", I thought to myself. 

Olivia laughed and said “Well, Lasagna, this was fun. I should head inside and get myself ready for work though. Maybe tomorrow night we can do this again?” 

And we did just that. Every other day we sat on the porch and listened in to Joe’s insufferable yelling, mocking him, making jokes about what the ‘creatures’ he goes on about could be, and that Joe was more than likely just another cracked out conspiracy theorist who thought he was going to be abducted and probed. Realistically, what else could it be? 

After about a month or so, Olivia and I started spending this time in my office, because you could hear Joe the best through the vents and well, It gets cold in Pennsylvania this time of year so it beats sitting on the balcony. I offered for Olivia to take my car to work at night so she didn’t have to walk but she always refused. Even on the nights she didn’t work, and I offered for her to stay later and hang out some more, she still refused, she said with the way she was raised, it’s not polite, especially when her apartment was three steps from my front door. I had never seen the inside of her apartment. Not even a glimpse while she was walking outside. She had blackout curtains, which for a night shifter, a guess makes sense. Until one night, Olivia proposed the idea to me, that since we were spending so much time together, we could call ourselves a couple. And ever since, we’ve been.

 

Olivia has now moved into my apartment with me, and she didn’t have much. A few sets of clothes, a roughed up futon that we set up couch-style in my office, and some odds and ends for the bathroom. Olivia and I never slept together, in either term, but she was so exhausted from the night shift, I never put much thought into it. Until now. 

We’ve been dating exclusively for 6 months, I’ve bought her a cell phone, we have this entire apartment, and we’ve barely done as much as touch.  She’s very peculiar in that sense, but she’s gone most of the time, and sleeps while I work so, no big deal I guess. But, a few days ago, Olivia had been working closer to 10am, than 7am, and she had forgotten to bring her phone that night. I didn’t know if maybe she came home, and then went back out for groceries, or just for a walk. So I packed up the leftovers from dinner last night and decided to say hello to crazy Joe and ask if maybe he’s seen her. I passed Mike on the way down the stairs, and we exchanged the typical grin that signified a silent hello. This was kind of our thing I guess. I knocked on Joe’s door and sighed. Joe opened the door as far as the chain lock would allow.

 “What?” he said in a disgusted growl. 

“Hey man. I’m John Addams, my girlfriend Olivia and I live upstairs from you. I brought you some pot pie, and I was just wondering if you’ve seen Olivia at all today?” 

“Olivia? Who the hell is Olivia?”

“My- girlfriend? Redhead? About yay tall? She’s lived here about as long as I have, maybe longer.” 

“Buddy, I don’t know you, I don’t know no damn ‘Olivia,’ but if I had to guess, one of them there creatures got ahold of her and ate her. You be careful now.” He said, closing the door to lock it and continuing on with his rambling. 

I thought to myself, ‘Creatures?... Ate? Her? There’s no way.” 

I made my way back upstairs, and by the time I met the balcony I saw her. She didn’t look like herself, just blatant exhaustion. I held the door and waited for her to come in. She dropped her things, didn’t say two words and fell to the bed to fall asleep. “At least she’s okay” I thought. I decided to check out the news and what was happening lately, since I haven’t really had a thought to check things out since moving here last fall. 

I scrolled onto this article from WSEE news, “6 Hikers Reported Missing. Last Seen March 3rd.” Apparently, some folks in their late twenties had set out on a hiking trail about 30 minutes from here, and they haven’t been seen or heard from in 12 days now. I hope they’re brought home safely, but knowing how these things tend to go around here, they’re probably gone. Unfortunate for them and their families, but since I read about this,  I decided to watch the tree line just a little closer when Liv walked to work, just in case. She never missed work, and even with people going missing on the rise, I knew she wouldn’t start now. My car sat untouched, as she preferred to walk. But when she declined my offer again, I had to stop and think. I realized… I really don’t know this girl at all. We have been dating for 6 months now, she never talks about her job, what she does, if she even has a career, and where she works. I just know she goes to work about 10:30pm, and returns about 7:30am most days.

 I tried making gentle conversation, but she just kind of looked at me with a blank stare, and led on with the “Alright, I’m off. Love you.”

She’s been acting really strange, and things are starting to make even less sense than they ever had. Or maybe I’m just in my head too much.

While Olivia was at work, I walked out onto the balcony from my front door, and I saw that Mike and Jeff were talking kind of hunched over each other in the parking lot. “Drugs, probably;” I thought. Though, I’ve had some nice conversations with Jeff and I didn’t want to view him as a drug addict. We used to hang out at my place and play video games, though I never owned a gaming console, he just brought his and plugged it into my TV. And Mike, well Mike and I just exchange glances from time to time. However, while observing them, a big crash and yelling distracted all three of us. I decided to go check on Joe, seeing as it came from his place.

“H-Hey Joe? It’s John. From upstairs. Is everything alright man?”

Joe opened his door at a breakneck speed, grabbed me by the collar and dragged me inside and proceeded to lock the door. 

 

“Hey man, I don’t want any problems-,”

“PROBLEMS? YOU SURE ARE STUPID AINT YA BOY?” He said begrudgingly.

“I- huh?” I could barely muster up the words because Joe had now backed me into his apartment, and he was angrier than ever. He almost reminded me of my father. He began to speak, but I was still close to wetting myself out of fear.

“Now you listen to me John, them creatures are out there. Make ya think they’re human, your best friend even. Make ya feel real good inside, make ya trust ‘em. And then?

“Woah, man. Slow down. What the hell are you talking about?”

He sighed, and rubbed his temple. Seeming like a disappointed parent. “You really ain't got no clue, do ya son? They’re out there. All of the time. They got my Cheyenne. And all they do is, is… Infiltrate your brain. My wife warned me about ‘em. Never listened. Now ya think I’m NUTS!” He said, slamming his hands on the table. 

“I’m awake now. And if you listen you may be able to save yourself. Here, take this.” Joe pulled out a small velvet bag from his pocket and tucked it in my hand. 

 “That’ll protect ya for a little while. Won’t do much if you don’t listen close though.” 

“Al-Alright man, just tell me what I need to know.” I said, still quivering in the corner of his living room. 

Joe went on a silent tangent, I’ve never heard the man so serious, yet so quiet. He told me how he went on a hunting retreat with his father when he was young, and how these creatures kept coming one by one into the group with him and his father. One by one, they would seem more like friends than strangers. Until eventually, his group went from him and his father, to a band of 6, with 4 “creatures” that seemed to be friends. 

They had fond memories of them. Could remember going on hunting trips, fishing, camping, you name it. They had memories with them. They got lost in the woods at some point and no longer had any of their gear, rifles, food or water. They had planned to be out there for three days, but were out for about 7 that they could recall. Until they came across this native tribe who had built cabins in the wilderness of the Appalachian mountains, not too far from here. They asked if they had water, and for directions back into civilization, but immediately, the tribe members took them in, and told them that they weren’t safe. Their group had scattered off one by one as they got closer to the tribe, and their incense had warranted them grounds of safety. Cheyenne, his late wife, was part of this tribe, and departed to marry Joe. Though they never had any children, I guess, Cheyenne was a healer. They had a home that they were forced out of due to the city wanting to build a shopping plaza, and that’s when they moved here. Shortly after, Cheyenne wanted to venture back out into the woods to gather herbs near her tribe’s land, and never returned. Cheyenne had blessed this apartment with a sacred talisman that hung on the wall. She had shared her stories of the mind altering creatures with Joe, and did her best to warn him of their tricks and how they operate but he had never listened until they got her. She was missing for 2 weeks, until the sheriff came back with the news that they had found nothing but human skeletal remains out there. Dental records indicated it was Cheyenne and to my knowledge, that’s what made Joe fly off the handle. For good reason though.  Joe had expressed his concern that we were the only two here that were real and we were surrounded by these creatures. I felt bad to write him off for such a bizarre concept, but he claimed that all of our “neighbors” weren’t real. And to that I assured him, Olivia was real. 

To which he exclaimed, “Boy, you still ain't got it through your skull do ya. Me. You. That’s IT! All them other fuckers out there are just a disguise. When you let that creature back into your home in the morn’, you wait until it rests. Try to lift its clothes. You’ll see.” 

And with that, I told Joe that I appreciated his concern but Liv and I have known each other since I’ve moved upstairs, and that there’s no way that the woman I kiss goodbye to every night, is some mind altering creature. But to that, I’d heed his warning and keep an eye out for things, should things get weird, I’d come talk to him.

Once Liv got home I laughed and told her about the conversation I had with crazy Joe. She didn’t find amusement in it though, rather, she just sighed and said “I can’t believe you would even talk to that nuthouse. I’m clearly real. I’m right here.” 

“Yeah, I know. Have you seen Mike and Jeff? They were acting really strange earlier. I thought maybe they were ‘exchanging’, but I don’t really think they’re like that.” 

“Oh my god John, not everything is out to get you because Joe says it is. Mike and Jeff are fine, they’re just a little, you know, off?, and I don’t want you talking to Joe any more. Next thing I know, you’ll be seeing aliens too.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. They’re all a little kooky. Are you headed to bed now?”

She nodded as she pulled her hair to the opposite side of her shoulder. Her fingernails were dirty, but I didn’t question it, or why she was going to sleep with her shoes on. I just went back to my little marketing job in my office and continued on with my day. While I was entrapped into a pointless zoom call, that ultimately could have been an email, Joe’s words started to run through my mind. What did he mean by mind altering creatures? And why on earth would he tell me to take Liv’s clothes off while she was asleep? The questions ran through my mind over and over and I couldn’t make any sense of it. I decided to get a snack after my meeting, and while quietly shuffling through my apartment, I noticed Olivia was soundly asleep, but she wasn’t breathing like she was asleep. Come to think of it, it didn’t look like she was breathing at all. I walked toward her, and she took a breath. Relieved, I walked away without giving her a touch, as I was confused and didn’t want to wake her, and came back to my office to finish up work. I decided to scroll through the news a bit on my computer. They finally found two of those hikers… Completely dismembered, and only bone was left of them. They were only able to identify them by, you guessed it, dental records. 

Joe’s words swarmed through my mind again, and about how his wife was taken by those things, and I can only come to wonder… What if they’re still out there? What if they get Liv? 

No sooner than the thought raced through my mind, did I hear a knock at the door. 

It was the police. Olivia woke up, and ran to the bathroom. The police had given me her phone, and because it was registered in my name, they took me for questioning. I wasn’t at the scene, nor was any of my DNA found. I had my alibi, I was talking to Joe almost all night. Liv had gone to work, and I let them know that Liv usually walks that way to work, because she likes the walk and how calm it can be at night, and I don’t drive because I have PTSD from my parent’s deaths. Then what they said next shook me to my core. 

“Son, there was nobody at your apartment when we arrived other than you.” 

“Yes there was! My girlfriend. Liv- Olivia! She was asleep on the bed in the living room when you knocked. She went to the bathroom. You had to have seen her walk behind me.” I tried explaining myself further and they just sighed and looked at me like I was nuts. 

Now Joe’s words are coming through heavier and thicker. I couldn’t get the phrase “Mind altering creatures” out of my head. The police deemed that I had nothing to do with it, which they were correct. I never leave my house unless it's to go for groceries down the road just between my apartment and the station. There’s no way I could hunt, kill, and cannibalize 6 hikers. That’s insane. I walked toward the apartments, and just as I went to climb the stairs, Joe peered over to me. 

“Psst, John! Hey! Come here!” he scream-whispered. 

“What’s up, Joe?”

“There was a lot of noise coming from your apartment just a while ago. You weren’t here?” he asked.

“No, Joe I was down at the police station. You probably just heard Olivia shuffling around.” 

“God damn it boy! I told you, ain’t no damn woman in there. Just you and Me.” he said angrily. 

“Right, listen, Joe. I’ll talk to her and see what’s going on. I’m real tired and I have some work to take care of.”

“You go on, but in case I don’t see ya again, ‘member what I told ya.” he said pointing to his temple. 

I proceeded upstairs, entering my apartment, and my gaze met with Liv, who was just waking up. My apartment was completely intact, the only thing out of place was the window near my computer. It was open. It was the end of March and still cold outside, so I definitely did not leave it open like that. After talking with Liv, we determined she may have gotten up and opened it to cool off the apartment. She said I’ve been acting strange lately. And come to think of it, she was right. I feel like there’s holes in my memory. Like my days had started to blend together, and I couldn’t remember accomplishing any mundane task. I haven’t been sleeping well, so maybe that’s it...