After we got married, we built our house to our exact likings. It wasn’t a mansion or anything, but it was exactly what we wanted. Kimmy had her art studio, I had my office/man cave. It was our palace. It was just outside the middle of nowhere, close enough to other civilization that we didn’t feel all alone in the world. When I have the chance, I will have that exact same house built again, and hopefully it won’t end the same way it did this time.

I was sitting in the basement, which was essentially my temple. I was sitting there writing; Kimmy was visiting her parents and stay at their house for the night. I was typing away on my laptop when I heard something upstairs. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but we have 4 cats, so I wasn’t worried about it. A few minutes went by, and I heard a different noise. This one sounded like shuffling. The kind of shuffling no cat could make.

Being so close to the middle of nowhere meant that our house could be a prime location for burglary if both me and Kimmy were gone, as there is  essentially no wandering eyes around to catch a would-be thief in the act of robbing an empty house. My thought was that since Kimmy had taken her car to her parents, and mine was currently parked in the garage, and all the lights in the house were off, since I was in the basement, someone might have thought the house was unoccupied.

I listened again, and the shuffling sound moved around the upstairs, from the kitchen down the hall, back to the kitchen, into the art studio, to the living room, then back down the hall to the kitchen again. Part of me believed it could just be cats running around, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

I grabbed my cell phone and dialed in 911, ready to connect the call once I could confirm someone was in the house. In my other hand, I picked up the nearest thing I could find, which happened to be a loose hammer I’d forgotten to put back in the garage a few days prior. That’s when I heard the shuffling again, this time, it was unmistakably footsteps, rapid ones at that.

Our stairs were brand new and carpeted, so I walked up them in near perfect silence, making my way into the kitchen, where I saw nothing. I turned the corner into the main hallway of the house, looking for whoever thought they could enter my house without my knowledge. I looked into Kimmy’s studio, empty. It was when I turned my head and looked into the living room, which was also in its natural state, when I heard footsteps ascending the stairs to the second floor of the house.

I quickly turned my head back and looked over the banister up the stairs and saw nothing. I stopped for a moment, wondering if I was just being paranoid. It was more than likely the cats, after all. But I had to be sure. I wasn’t gonna call the cops until I was absolutely sure it was a burglar, and even so, I wasn’t about to wait the probably 15 minutes it would take for them to get here if I did in fact need them. One way or the other, I was going to figure out what or who it was.

I made it to the top of the steps and looked down the hall. There were two doors on each side of the hall. I sneakily made my way to the first door and poked my head around to look inside. It was nothing, just our first guest room, empty. I went across the hall and did the same thing to the next room, which was basically a room full of crap we didn’t have any other place to put. Empty. I crossed the hall again and looked into the guest bathroom, which was as quiet as it had been since we moved in. Finally, I looked in our bedroom, going so far as to walk into the master bath to make sure no one was there.

I had just about given up when I once again heard the shuffling sound of the quick footsteps above me. Above me. There was no third floor to our house besides the attic, and there was no way that an intruder had pulled down the stairset, climbed up, and pulled the stairs back up in the time it took me to ascend the stairs. At this point, I was more curious than anything.

I walked over to where the stairs to the attic were flush with the ceiling, brought them down, and cautiously climbed up them. Once my head was in the attic, I did a full 360 around the area, and didn’t see anything out of place. Then behind me, I heard the quick steps.

“St st st st st st”, like someone was intentionally letting their toes hit the floor first. Even still, these sounded much too quick to be a person. I peered in the direction of the sound, using my still illuminated phone to assist my view. Now, looking back, I swear I saw something in the corner, but at the time, I dismissed it as my mind playing tricks on me, as it really wasn’t anything noteworthy.

Whatever this was was making its way up the floors of my house inexplicably. With my hammer still in hand, I climbed the rest of the way up into the attic, trying to find what was more than likely and animal of some sort, with the intention of somehow trapping then releasing it. I scoured the entire attic but found nothing. I was taken aback when I heard that ever-familiar shuffling sound. It took me a moment to comprehend what was going on, but the sound was once again coming from above me. The only place that could be was the roof.

I certainly wasn’t going to climb on the roof to see what it was, so I considered the situation to be over. Whatever was in here, wasn’t anymore. Sure, I was curious how whatever it was was so fast, and seemingly got between floors inexplicably, but I wasn’t going to stress about it. I went downstairs and turned off the lights in the basement, where for a split second I thought I saw something on the other end, in the darkness. For a fraction of a moment, I could’ve sworn I saw a pair of green eyes. I blinked and they were gone.

I walked upstairs, a little bit freaked out because of what I thought I’d seen, and when I reached halfway up the stairs, I heard the shuffling. Frustrated, I ran up the stairs and turned the corner into the hallway where I was met by…something. It stopped me in my tracks. It was roughly my height, and so dark that it blended in with the darkness behind it. It was a jet black, oily looking being with sharp, bright green eyes.

Whatever it was, it was breathing, heavily. I stood there, entranced in its eyes for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a few seconds. Then, I blinked. When my eyes opened, all I could see was the green eyes at the end of the dark hall. Then, and it happened so fast, I didn’t have time to react, the eyes moved closer to me, with the familiar sound of shuffling feet accompanying it. At the very last moment, the thing’s mouth opened, revealing a hideous collection of jagged, cracked, and broken teeth,  much longer than any human person’s.

Then I woke up. I looked around and found myself laying in my bed, drenched in sweat. After collecting myself and getting my bearings, I looked around the room and saw nothing was amiss. I got up and walked downstairs to the kitchen, got something to drink and thought back on the terrible nightmare I had just endured. That’s when I came down to type it up.

I’ve been sitting here for about a half hour now. I was finally calmed down about the nightmare, but about 10 seconds ago, I heard something directly above me on the first floor of the house, sounding like it was heading towards the stairs that lead down here.

“St st st st st st”