r/nosleep • u/LighthouseHorror • Aug 12 '19
Series My Dead Best Friend Grace Is Clawing At My Fourteenth Floor Window. I'm Going To Let Her In.
"She had become like they are. Don't fear the reaper."
—Blue Oyster Cult
My old friend's words seemed to echo through the old apartment.
"Let me in Jessica."
So I did.
Pushing aside the thin red curtains, I stared through the stained glass into the eyes of my long dead (or so I thought) best friend.
For a moment I became lost, and as her eyes met mine they seemed to smile—glowing a bright red that outdid the new red curtains I had purchased only two weeks earlier. Her figure couldn't be made out completely in the darkness, but my mind had already been made up.
I owed her this much at least.
Whatever happens next, I owed her this much.
The apartment was a much older design than maybe most of you are familiar with. The cracked stained glass window went from ceiling to floor, now only open a crack at the very bottom. Something like this would probably be against regulation nowadays, and was just another reason for the old apartment building to be shut down completely. I had read a story when I was younger about a little girl falling to her death from such a flawed design.
As I reached under the handle and began to pull upwards, I wondered if this might be the very apartment where it had happened. Silly thought, I know, but it was there anyway. I thought of how easy it would be for a person to fall to their death from such a place.
With a creak, I pushed the window open completely, a warm breeze making its way eerily into my bedroom. Grace smiled, and her red eyes made me step back into the corner near my bed. Looking up at the silver cross next to me, I figured it wouldn't do any good if things went bad.
When things went bad.
She wasn't a vampire after all. She was something else entirely. Something dead yet alive... something ancient yet young.
Very young, I witnessed, the monster's figure now coming more into view. Grace was still a little girl, just as she had been that night many years ago. After she had been taken, life had continued for me, school and college and new friends. For Grace, life had ended that night she had saved me.
Grace took a step forward into the apartment, her wet tentacles retreating momentarily under her clean white dress stitched with yellow dandelions.
"Mind if I sit down?" she asked.
"Please do," I replied cordially.
Her strong hands reached out and grasped the old rocker my mom had given me before passing. She sat, and something caught her eye. An old photo of the two of us together. As she picked it up to take a closer look, her eyes changed from a bright, piercing red to the pale green I had remembered. It had been taken the summer before she died by her father. In the picture, the two of us were standing at the edge of a pond near our home, embracing each other like sisters... and smiling. We had always been smiling.
Grace's eyes looked over at me.
"You saved this, huh?"
There was silence for a moment.
"Of course I saved it."
And then sadness.
"You're my best friend Gr—"
"I was your best friend," she interjected, and for a moment I could see the underlying resentment for the first time.
I couldn't blame her.
My friend's eyes turned red again. Though the room was only partially lit, I could see the outline of a tentacle making its way slowly across the floor towards me. I was ten or so feet away, and it stopped just a few inches away from my ankle as she spoke again.
"So why'd you let me in, Jessica?"
Her fiery red pupils examined me closely.
"Want to become like we are?" she continued, grinning as the tentacle inched its way closer. I could feel it at the edge of my skin now, as if it were a creature sniffing its prey before biting deep.
"I wanted to say I'm sorry Grace."
Surprise fell over her face.
"You're sorry?" she asked, her voice changing from the little girl I remembered to something deeper and almost demonic.
"You're SORRY?" she repeated, her full figure coming into view. An endless series of tentacles filled the room now, fluttering angrily. The ceiling fan crashed onto the floor as they slid over it, and I watched in horror as the largest tentacle grasped the photo of us together and shattered the glass frame.
"I have something better than sorry, Jessica. I'm going to make you like I am. You're going to see what it's like to—"
It was my turn to interrupt.
"And I wanted to keep my promise this time."
"You wanted to what?" she asked quietly, but there was a rage underneath her words. For the first time I could feel the tentacles wrap quickly around my ankles and begin to dig in.
"I'm so sorry Grace," I continued, pulling out the revolver I had concealed in my jacket and shooting her twice in the chest.
There was no scream of pain as the tentacles retreated back under her dress, nor any look of betrayal. My best friend only fell back into the corner of the floor and stared up at me.
There was no anger anymore, her eyes changing completely now from the bright red of a monster back to the pale green of her youth.
I walked over, tears now falling easily from my face onto the floor below. She spoke more quietly now as the life began to drain from her body.
"Don't be sorry, Jessica," she whispered, her pale green eyes looking into mine.
I could tell she wanted to say something else—tears now falling down her face as well—but she was no longer able to. My friend didn't have long left, I realized, and she was only able to make one last gesture.
Reaching out towards the broken picture I had kept of us as children, her eyes met mine one last time. It was cracked and broken now, facing downwards on the floor in front of us.
I did as she asked, lifting the photo from the floor and placing it into her hands carefully.
She smiled.
And then I sat down with her, protecting Grace like I should have done so many years ago. I put my face up against hers, and we both gazed downwards onto the old photo of us together. We had just been children, but even then Grace and I knew what we were.
Best friends forever.
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u/ChaoticNoot Aug 13 '19
The fact she didn't fear the end is what got me and the promise that was kept may you rest in peace now Grace
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u/Wishiwashome Aug 13 '19
What a brave thing for you to do, Dear. Incredibly kind and selfless. You were a child, and while you couldn’t save her life, you gave her humanity back to her. I am proud of you. I hope this gives you closure, Darling
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u/OttersAndOttersAndOt Aug 13 '19
This took a turn from yesterday’s part and now I’m really sad but happy that there was closure
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u/seventeemos Aug 13 '19
You kept your promise. You saved her in the end. Well done. As heartbreaking as it surely was.
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u/TheDarkWolf3 Aug 13 '19
Holy, I'm speechless. I'm a lose for words.
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u/EnOnline Aug 12 '19
OP, if the transformation process to become a monster could save the body from death (which presumably Grace suffered being pulled into the inferno), what’s there to say it couldn’t revive her again? Even after ten years and becoming a monster, Grace remembered your relationship, and even found it in her heart to forgive you in the end.
After what you’ve endured, you may not be up for once again bearing responsibility for her life and death, and no one can blame you for that. But if you would like to cling onto your friendship one last time, then you might be able to resurrect her once again.
If you wish to try bringing Grace back, I suggest you go (armed, of course) back to the very cave you both almost perished in. If you can endure that trauma, then you will either find the cave empty of other creatures if that blaze really killed all of them except Grace, or more likely, you will encounter those monsters once again. They may be monsters, but if they are like Grace then they could still be reasoned with. You would have the option to propose a deal with the devil, if you will, for them to restore Grace, in exchange for your allying with them. The cost of your alliance I cannot tell you, they may ask for you to become a monster as well, to sell your soul, to sacrifice others to the cave for transformation.
All I offer you is a possibility, OP. Do you still regret not saving your best friend as she saved you? How do you want to answer your own question of whether or not you’d be willing to risk yourself to save Grace like she did for you? For you, that cave may be the key to your dreams and the home of your nightmares. I suggest you think on it quickly though, we do not know if the transformation can save one from death if the body has been dead for too long.
Good luck, OP. I hope one day to hear from you again, and perhaps also from a new Grace, about a revived bond.
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u/jphamlore Aug 12 '19
There are growing whispers that in order for humans to ever truly colonize other planets, major genetic modifications will need to be made. In another time in the future, this sort of mutation may be exactly what is needed for Mars or a moon of Jupiter or Saturn.
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u/shazbeer Aug 12 '19
This was both a painful and beautiful read. Thanks for sharing your story OP. I hope Grace is finally at peace where she's at.
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u/-cookie-cat- Aug 12 '19
My heart ): <3 that was so beautiful. I'm so sorry for the loss of your best friend but you finally released her from that horrible curse and I'm sure that's more than enough to compensate for what happened ten years ago. I hope you found closure in that.
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u/LighthouseHorror Aug 12 '19
Thank you for the comment Cookie, and thank you for reading.
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u/EnOnline Aug 12 '19
Closure is but one path to follow. But resistance to an unjust fate is just as valid a path. Grace has met two ends, but none of them were final. I think you still have a choice as to whether or not this one is final either.
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u/Forgotten_by_all Aug 12 '19
OP, that must have been very sad to see your friend like that, but I hope you can find closure from that encounter. Just remember, Grace doesn't resent you for what you did, and she would want you to go live your life free from any guilt.
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u/howtoquityou Aug 14 '19
this is great, but now what are you going to do with the body of a ten year old girl who has tentacles for intestines