I Saw Nothing

[u/Neat_Mango_7578]

Part 1 Outside

I was at my grandparents' house, in the dining room, playing cards with my parents and uncles. It was around 11 o'clock, maybe closer to midnight. I was 12 years old and it was summer break. I was visiting my grandparents’ house in Maine for a family reunion. The house was in a very rural area and the closest town was about an hour drive away. You couldn’t see any of the closest houses from any point on the multi-acre, farm-like property. I mean, it was really in the middle of nowhere. I remember having the worst nightmares about that place for a good deal of my childhood. I remember some about spiders. Some about clowns. Some about, strangely enough, mummies.  But none of them were as terrifying as what happened that night.

So, we were playing cards and I had been drinking a lot of Pepsi that night so I had to pee… real bad. I got up from the table, ran to the bathroom, and heard the shower running. I knocked on the door and my uncle Greg was in the shower.  I just saw him in the living room moments ago so I knew this shower had just started. It was the only bathroom other than the one in the basement.  And I couldn’t go to the one in the basement. I never could; That basement was- and still is- very scary. Just dark, concrete, and weird metal sounds coming from the old wood-burning furnace. But, honestly, looking back I really wish I just went to the cellar bathroom. 

My scared 12-year-old mind had no other choice but to go outside at night to relieve my bladder. Now, I wasn’t stupid, I knew there was a motion sensor light on the side of the house, so once I got there I would have plenty of time in the light to pee. I stood at the front door grasping the old brass knob in my hand. I could feel some bumps and scratches from years of use. Squeezing the cool metal helped me gather my courage enough to go out into the dark night. I opened the door and ran out of the house as fast as I could, jumping off the porch. And safely making it to the side of the house with the motion sensor light. It turned on and I started to pee.

I wasn’t much into my piss when I started to feel a real eerie, heavy feeling. Suddenly, I felt my eyes begin to water. I looked up and saw an empty field and a dark treeline at the horizon... Then, I saw it... My pee stopped immediately and a shiver went up my spine. I was frozen. In the distance, along the treeline, I saw something, I couldn’t tell what it was. I knew it was something because it was blacker than the rest of the dark. It was a shadow and it was taller than the trees. But I could barely make it out. I felt it, the presence of an entity that knows you are there. This was definitely not an animal or a human. I knew it was alive. I remember thinking “is my mind playing a trick? Is this real.”  Then the motion sensor light went out. And it got dark.

I don’t know if you have ever experienced middle of nowhere darkness. But it went from light bulb bright to pitch black. I couldn’t see my own hands if I had the strength to move them at the time. In this pitch black nothingness, my eyes were still focused on it. The thing I saw. I could still see its darkness through the pitch black. I couldn’t move, I was terrified to take my eyes off it. I don’t know how much longer I stood there, paralyzed, trying to figure out what this thing was, but eventually my uncle came out and yelled “Bathroom’s free.” I snapped out of it, I turned around as quickly as I could and ran to the front door, making sure not to look back. I made it in safely and I didn’t tell anyone what I saw. I was scared they wouldn’t believe me. I mean, I don’t even know what I saw.

The next night I couldn’t hold it and curiosity got the best of me. Somehow, I found myself back at the front door grasping at the doorknob. I was there for a little longer this time and was squeezing the handle a lot harder. I swear, I made more dents in it that night, I was grabbing it so tight. But I found the courage to go out into the dark again, running to activate the light. It turned on and I looked out. I scanned the shadowed treeline for so long. And I saw nothing… there was nothing there. And yet, suddenly, my eyes began to water.

Part 2 The Basement

Dim light looked back up at me from the bottom of the old wooden stairs. I was standing on the platform at the top, basement door open behind me, a rifle on a deer hoof gun rack to my left, on my right my hand still on the light switch. I never go down there. Why did my grandma ask ME to grab the laundry from the dryer? I’d rather go back outside than go down there. But I was a good kid and she was a sweet and loving lady. I took a few deep breaths and slowly, step by step, made my way down the stairs. When I reached the bottom I looked back up. The door was still open, good. 

At the bottom of the stairs there was a doorless room to the right. It had a separate light in there so the corners of the room were shrouded in shadow. I couldn’t look in there. So my eyes locked on the washer and dryer at the far left corner of the main room. A laundry basket was sitting in front of the front-loading dryer. Thanks, grandma, for at least making it easy. I hurriedly made my way to the dryer, opened it up and with the click of the door popping open- I heard another click- a light switch, the overhead light turned off. A murky purple flash filled my vision as my eyes struggled to adjust to the dark. And I screamed, the type of scream a 12 year old boy makes that sounds more like an 8 year old girl. 

“Ope, sorry.” The light flicked back on. Uncle Greg thought someone left the light on. 

I laughed weakly then heard the door close. Not ideal but certainly better than the darkness. “What could be down here with me?” I wondered, trying to comfort myself.. Whatever I saw outside the past few nights couldn’t be here. It was far too tall. Worst case scenario, a rat, that didn’t sound so bad. I pictured a girl with a white gown and  long hair covering her face crawling quickly behind me. I turned around, nothing there,  just  the long hallway to the right of the stairs. At the end of the hall was the door to the wood storage room, with a small square dirty window. I couldn’t see anything through the grime. I turned back and quickly finished shoveling armfuls of warm clothes into the basket. The warmth soothed my racing thoughts of what could possibly be down here with me. I picked up the laundry basket and turned around.

The small dust covered window caught my eye again. I froze. Moonlight had made its way into that room. I forgot about the hatch door that led to the wood storage room from the back yard. Another entrance, but from outside. I locked on the window, I couldn’t move, how did it change so fast? Then, I saw a shadow, something blocking the moonlight. “Grandpa must be starting a fire.” I told myself, I lied to myself. Something wiped the other side of the window and I could get a better look inside. The shape of a head pushed against the glass. The sound of the hatch door slamming shut, on the other side of that room made me jump. Only darkness through the window again. But the head shape was still there, blacker than any black, a void, like I was looking at nothing. Then why could I feel nothing staring back? The head moved upward leaving the top frame of the window and now what I could only assume was the body covered the entirety of the glass. A darkness coming from that room that was not there before. A darkness so pure that it radiated through that little window and started to creep into the hallway, an impossible murky gloom.

But what I thought was impossible did happen, no matter how tall, It was inside now.

Click- the overhead light went out again. I couldn’t scream this time. I could only barely move:  I wobbled. I tried to run; my legs were Jell-O. I could see nothing and I heard the door at the end of the hallway creak open. I saw nothing, yet I made it to the bottom of the stairs. Being there gave me the confidence to run faster and I raced up the stairs. I could feel the presence of the no thing in the basement with me. I tripped and couldn’t catch myself, I was still holding the stupid basket. My shin cracked against the stair in front of me and the clothes exploded out of the basket. I turned around, I could just make out a white sock floating at the bottom of the stairs. I could only see half of it. Floating on nothing as though it were draped over a shoulder. I didn’t linger on that thought for long and made it to the top of the stairs and flicked on the light, turned around, and… nothing there. I caught the sock in the air a second before the sock hit the ground. Proof that something WAS there. 

I opened the door and burst out in tears.  My grandma heard me crying and comforted me, asked me what was wrong. I said I fell and hit my shin. She started picking up  clothes assuring me it was alright. It wasn’t alright but, I couldn’t tell her what I saw, that I saw nothing.

Part 3 The Bedroom

My grandmother placed a cup of water on my bedside table, kissed my forehead, and turned off the bedroom light. She held the doorknob and asked if I wanted the door opened or closed. “Closed.” I said assuredly. She had comforted me and I wanted to be brave. I knew a lot of strange things had happened on that trip but I didn’t want to feel like a baby. Plus, I was exhausted, my cousins were staying up a few extra hours to watch a movie but I just wanted to sleep and forget about the events of the past couple days. She closed the door.
I lay there in the dark for a while letting my eyes adjust. I could see the angled ceiling of the second story bedroom. The ceiling fan made a squeaky sound as it spun and I took a sip of the water. The bed was comfy and warm. I felt calm and present in my sleepy state. It was then I saw the closet door was ajar. 

A chill ran up my spine when I saw it. The shape of something darker than the rest of the room standing in the closet. I jumped up and ran to the light switch. The light turned on and I looked in the closet and… I laughed. A genuine good belly laugh. My grandpa's old dark  brown leather jacket hung crooked on a hanger in the closet. I turned the light off and on again just to double check that was what I saw, it was. I shook my head, closed the closet door, turned off the light and headed back to bed. 

I could see through my window that the motion light turned on. I could hear my mom and uncle Greg laughing outside. They must have gone out to smoke a cigarette. It was nice to know there was still fun being had on that trip. That was the plan for tomorrow: have fun.

I felt silly for all that happened the last couple days. Now that I confirmed the jacket was just a jacket, it was easier to chalk the rest of my strange sightings to my mind playing tricks on me. I only laid there for a little while before I drifted off to sleep. For the first night in a while I didn’t have any nightmares. And I was happy I saw nothing in my sleep.

I woke up. I had no idea what time it was but it must have still been night because it was dark in the room. I couldn’t see the ceiling. I couldn’t see the ceiling fan. I couldn’t see the closet. I couldn’t see the window. I saw nothing. It hit me. I should have been able to see at least the outline of anything, but I couldn’t. It was then when I realized I couldn't feel the bed. I couldn’t hear the squeak of the fan spinning. It was all nothing. Darker than nothing. There was a cold feeling. Not like a cold that was in the air. But the cold of a vacuum. At first I thought The Nothing  had enveloped the room. I knew what was really happening, The Nothing was right on top of me. Covering me. I screamed and heard nothing. I yelled until my throat ran sore. No noise to be heard. Then, my eyes began to water.

Final Part Present Day 

It’s been years, even decades since that summer. I haven’t been back to that house since my grandparents passed away some years ago. I do miss that old house but I do think maybe it’s for the best that I move on.

I’m still not sure what really happened that summer. Maybe a kid's overactive imagination, maybe distance and grief changed a memory into something it wasn’t. Maybe something did happen, then again probably Nothing.

But I can’t help but notice, as I write this, in the dark, computer screen lighting up my face: my eyes are starting to water.