The Glimpse
Leslie had seen the night that Charlie had destroyed the carport door. He had seemed drunk and had completely splintered the door frame where the latch sits. As she crouched there staring, she knew that was her way in. Charlie and his wife had moved in next door over a week ago and it seemed to Leslie that they had been more concerned with her comings and goings than your average neighbor. She had seen that nosy bitch watching her like six times. She had no idea what the lady's name was, but she had seen enough to know that she was nosy. Charlie's wife was a curtain peeker and it annoyed her to no end. So, she had decided she was going to find out what was going on with these creeps once and for all. Leslie forced her way in with her trusty screwdriver, but was stopped dead in her tracks by what she saw. There wasn’t a single piece of furniture. She stood in the center of a kitchen that appeared as if it had never been used. The dining room had no table, and there weren't even lightbulbs in the fake hanging chandeliers. “What the?” she said to herself. She knew they had been living here for almost ten days, but suddenly her memory brought to her attention that she had never seen a single light from the house. Things were getting weirder, and weirder. The house was completely silent and to Leslie. It smelled of freshly peeled boiled eggs. She moved to what should have been the living room area, but it was also totally empty except for four silver storage boxes roughly the size of coffee tables. Leslie's short investigation revealed that the boxes were locked from inside. “How is that even possible?” she asked herself. “These things don’t lock from inside.” A hollow clang suddenly caught her attention, and she noticed the basement door was open. “Fuck my life, of course it came from down there,” she said, trying to contain her panic. As she descended the stairs, Leslie's increasing feeling of this all being a bad idea was becoming more and more dominant as she tried to push her fear away. The closer she got to the bottom, the stronger the smell of old piss and what could only be something dead became. As she shined her phone light into the bare bones room, she noticed that there was only a dirt floor. Not the smooth and flat floor you would expect in a regular basement, but a series of mounds like graves and a general stench of spoiled meat. The room was much too big to be confined to the plans of the house. Charlie and his wife seemed to have dug their way into the basements of four other houses, but for what she couldn’t imagine. The further in she walked, the more prevalent the stink of old death and rotted meat became. Suddenly two of the mounds began to move and Leslie saw a dirty clawed hand reach out before dropping her phone in fear. In a panic and trying to grab her only source of light, she heard whispering. “Who’s there?” she asked, terrified. “Leslie?” said an unfamiliar voice “Who’s there!” Leslie said. “What the fuck is going on?” “So good of you to finally come,” said the voice. “We have been expecting you.” “Oh yeah? Who is we exactly?” Leslie asked. She was only thinking of the way she came in and the quickest way to get out. “We have always been here, since the beginning,” said the voice. “We have no desire to harm you.” “What do you want then?” Leslie asked. “Why have you been watching me?” “Charlie has become too volatile and unpredictable. He has taken great care of us, but he is getting older and has become a liability,” the voice said. “We need you, Leslie.” “Need me? Need me for what!?” Leslie asked. “What could you possibly need from me?” “We need your young, Leslie,” the voice said in a sing song tone. “In order to survive, we need fresh lives and your children possess the most precious.” Horrified, Leslie remembered the storage boxes upstairs. Those were children up there! A gut-wrenching nausea struck her and almost sent her to her knees. “Why would you do this?” she asked. “Why?” “It is our right. We have lived for millions of years and have survived the same way. It is the way of your world for the strong to use the weak is it not?” asked the voice. “We created your civilization to serve us and it has faithfully, but these times are much more difficult,” the voice said. “Your kind has forgotten us, and we are forced to live like animals. For now.” Leslie felt her phone, but before she could raise it to shine light on her conversationalist, it was knocked from her hand. She felt something slimy and strong climbing its way up her arm. It slowly wrapped itself around her like a snake. The tip searched her face. The thing acted as if it were looking for a way inside. She was horrified as she heard the voice inside her head. She felt herself falling into a deep chasm, where only the voice could be heard. “We need you Leslie,” the voice crooned. “We need you to bring us life, for we must survive. We are not your enemy. We are your salvation,” the voice whispered. Leslie Hall was no more. Leslie Hall was something new.
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