South Town

-Noizchild-

I had a scary piece in my life.

I was living in London at the time. This was before moving to Japan. I was living in a decent-sized flat on my own. I came to live in a small neighborhood in London. It would take fifteen minutes to get to the heart of London. The details are a little hard to follow. It lasted for about ten weeks at most.

It all started with phone calls.

They all happened at the same time. 10:27 p.m. The landline would ring around that time.

“Hello?” I would ask. A clicking noise would rattle for five seconds before they would hang up. I’d stare at the phone, confused.

“Huh?” I asked. When it happened the second night, I called the repairman. He checked the receiver and the wires.

“Everything looks fine,” he said. “And this isn’t an old phone?”

“No, sir,” I said. The repairman gave the phone one more check before he left. The phone calls didn’t stop. I didn’t know whether to call the police or not. I called the repairman out to check the phone again. He didn’t find anything wrong again. When the calls started up again, I disconnected the landline.

The creepiness didn’t stop there.

The calls moved to my cell phone. I tried blocking the unknown number, but the calls came from another unknown number. It didn’t stop there either.

I heard murmurs around the neighborhood about a strange woman knocking on doors asking for someone named Toby. As far as I knew, there was no Toby in the neighborhood. As soon as the neighbors asked questions, she would just walk away. I hadn’t encountered this girl so far. I hoped that it would stay that way.

But still, there were more strange things.

One night, I was filling out job form online when I heard knocking in the walls. At first, they started off soft. Almost like a tapping. I would take a listen and nothing happened. In two nights, the knocking grew louder. One time, the knocking was so hard that I could feel it against my cheek.

It didn’t take long for it to start following me.

It started on a Friday. I went to the local store to buy some snacks. I stood at the cash register when I felt something or someone breathing down my neck. I whipped around to see no one there.

“Something the matter?” the clerk asked. I quickly shook my head.

“No, nothing,” I said. “I just felt something on the back of my neck. How much did you say again?” I made my payment and left the store. Just like a girl in a horror film, it was dark and that streetlight was iffy at times. That night, it decided to go out. Shivers ran down my spine as a bad feeling came over me. My eyes shifted around for a lit street. Come on… Come on… I spotted a little from across the street. I took in a deep breath and counted down to five.

Five… Four… Three… Two…

One!

I ran across the street. I didn’t stop running until I made it back to my flat. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was still being watched. That night, I locked every door in the flat and went to bed.

The next day, I heard my doorbell ringing when I was in the kitchen.

“Hello?” I asked. I tilted my head when there was no response. Against my better judgement, I walked up to the door. When I looked out the peep hole, there was no one there. The smart thing to do would’ve been to walk away from the door and call the police. I even had my phone in my hand. But, I opened the door a crack.

No one outside, but there was a brown cardboard box wrapped in a white string. At that point, I called the police.

“999, what is your emergency?” the operator asked.

“Somebody left a suspicious package at my door,” I said. “I think I am being stalked.”

“Where are you now?”

“My flat.”

“Are you alone?”

“I’m not sure.” I quickly looked around my flat. “Should I go and hide somewhere?”

“Yes and carry a weapon with you. We will send the police over to your place.”

“Thank you!” I said. “Could you say on the phone with me until they arrive?”

“Sure, ma’am,” the operator said. I took a deep breath.

“Thank you,” I said again. I walked into a hall closet and shut door. I stayed there until the police arrived. They didn’t find anyone around the premises. One of the main cops talked to me while his boys searched my apartment.

“How long has this been going on?” he asked. I did a count as far as I could remember.

“About five or six weeks,” I said. “It started with strange phone calls. They would happen about 10:27 at night. I’d hear a rattling noise for five seconds before they hung up. Sometimes, I would hear banging in my wall. Last night, I thought someone was following me.” The cop wrote down all of my words.

“Do you have any enemies?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“Anyone pissed off at you?”

“No.”

“Do you have anywhere else to stay?”

“Not at the moment, but I will call up some mates of mine to see if they can let me stay with them.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Boss!” one of the other cops said. “The box is clear.” The main officer and I walked over to the box. We all crowded around it as the second cop pulled out a pocket knife. A confused look came over my face when I looked inside.

“Huh?” I asked. Inside the box were three VHS tapes. The main cop put on a pair of rubber gloves and took out a tape. He turned it from side to side before he turned to me.

“Do you have a VCR?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“I see,” he said. “It looks like we’ll have to watch them at the station. Could we have your number to contact you?”

“Sure,” I said. I gave the cops my number and they took the box with them. Once they were gone, I called up Alexis and her family.

----------

Three weeks later, the police called me back on my cell phone.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Miss Johnson,” the cop said in grim voice. “You’ll want to come down and see this.” It didn’t take long for me to come down to the police station. The cop and a lab technician waited for me at the doorway.

“Thank you for letting me know,” I said.

“Come with us,” the lab technician said. We walked into the police station and walked into one of the lab rooms.

“We watched all of the tapes,” the lab tech said. “Can you stay sitting?”

“Yes,” I said without blinking. The lab tech pressed play. When I saw the video, I covered my mouth in shock. This video showed me sounded asleep in bed with a blackened creature standing over me. It turned the camera on itself and broke into a huge grin of pearly white teeth.