Ryan Kim

                Hello. I apologize Dr. Luke, if I sound crazy, or mystified or something. Hopefully this whole journal thing can bring some peace of mind to all this chaos happening as of late. I hope to write about this entire ordeal and how it’s been gnawing and mangling away at my life ever since it began. Something very strange has occurred to my family. I don’t know what it is, but it’s there and I can feel it and frankly, I’m terrified. Two weeks ago, in the dead of night, I had noticed it. A faint creak of the floorboards in the hallway, as if someone were dragging their legs across the wood, and the slight tang of metallic that hung in the air, both effects originating just outside my bedroom door. My wife, god help her, who should be sleeping next to me, was nowhere to be found. Of course, at the time I just chalked it up to a trip to the bathroom or something, but quickly realized that the bathroom lights across the hall weren’t even turned on. She had a slight phobia of the dark, so it was unusual for it not to be turned on. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, maybe she just mustered up some courage. I went back to sleep. I wasn’t afraid at that moment, but I knew I should have.

                It was only a month ago that my wife, our four-year old daughter, and I moved into an old dilapidated house in Elwood, Wyoming. This god-awful town, rundown and empty everywhere, save for the flapping of crows occasionally, is where we live. We were a bit strapped on cash, but my wife and I agreed that our daughter deserved to be raised in an actual house as opposed to an apartment. It wasn’t the nicest place to live in, but it was cheap and after starting my job and her job, we figured we could renovate it into something better. The house itself is a two-story building with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, kitchen, living room, and a basement. The outside was plated with dark rosewood in an old Victorian style. Trees larger than the house casted a deep shadow over its roof. When we first arrived and stepped foot into the living room, we saw how much of a dump this place was. The couches were toppled over and the furnishings were just scattered everywhere, with a heavy brown dust that choked the air. Not the ideal conditions to be starting a family in. At first, I was excited about the idea of fixing up this ragged place, making it our own, and coming up with new ideas for interior design. Yes, at first. Things were going well, Dr. Luke, until we began renovations on the basement.

                The very same day my wife went missing from our bed was the very same day we had begun renovations on the basement. The stairwell leading down there was located next to the staircase leading up to the master bedroom. The room across was where my daughter slept. Descending took at least thirty steps. Walking down, I was met with pitch-dark blackness, and because the electricity wasn’t on in the basement, I was forced to use a flashlight to navigate. The state of the area was well… empty, but not completely. This haggard brown dust seemed to engulf the air, and with it came this repugnant smell. Something mixed with something else. Not to alarm you or anything, but it did smell like blood mixed with rotten eggs. The smell seemed to originate somewhere farther in the basement. Following that logic led me to the other side, and to my surprise was this… door. A door that seemingly led to nowhere. I tried opening it to the best of my abilities, but it wouldn’t budge. So, I gave up and decided that smelling iron and this blanket darkness were too much to handle without the proper tools, and went back to the first floor. I told my wife what happened, door and all. She just laughed, like she didn’t believe me and told me she would help me later when the electricity would be on.

                In the morning after, I found my wife soundly asleep in bed. When she woke up, I questioned her whereabouts last night, but was puzzled after she said she was in bed the whole time. I told her about the dragging noise and the metallic smell. She had no knowledge of anything. I thought maybe it was a bad dream. Maybe I hallucinated everything.

                I went to work that day. I was more tired than usual, given the circumstances of before. Sitting in my cubicle, I realized something strange was happening. Something very strange, Dr. Luke. That repugnant smell in the basement? It was in the office now. The whole office wafted with blood and it went to my eyes. I thought I was going crazy, how could it follow me all the way here? I noticed that my nose was suddenly bleeding. I went to the bathroom and to different floors and it still lingered, that nauseating smell. Not only could I smell it, I could taste it now. The iron blood invaded my taste buds. I asked a fellow worker here if they sniffed anything unusual. Nothing. I went outside and it was gone but inside it punctured my lungs and my senses until I couldn’t take it anymore. I went home early, to escape from it all.

                Once I arrived home, I immediately looked for my wife to tell her why I was back so soon. I looked. But she was gone. I called her phone, but it just rang on the nightstand next to our bed. After looking through every room in the house, running up and down the street, I went back home. What I hadn’t anticipated was where I’d find her.

                She was there. Standing in the darkness. Staring at that door.

                I called out to her. No response. I tried to make her look at me. She wouldn’t budge. I went in front of her to see her face. Her nose was bleeding. Her eyes were… completely red. She didn’t blink once.

                And suddenly, my flashlight went out.

                In complete darkness, I heard dragging.

                …

                I woke up next to my wife in our bed the next day. Her face wasn’t full of blood, it was normally how it was. I asked her about what happened in the basement the day before. Her eyebrows scrunched and her face distorted in anger, Dr. Luke. She was afraid of the dark, so what reason did she have to be down there? I didn’t know how to answer her.

                The following weeks became a living hell. Sleeping has become dangerously ineffective. I wake up in the dead of night, to a wife that isn’t there.

                Yesterday, at 2am, I heard my daughter crying. Normally, I would hear it from her room across the hallway. This time, I heard it coming from downstairs. To be honest, Dr. Luke, I didn’t want to leave my bedroom at all. I was terrified of having to go anywhere near that basement. I couldn’t tell my wife to go check on her because she was gone again. My daughter’s crying became even louder. I mustered what little courage I had and headed downstairs, into the basement.

                My wife was there. Standing in the darkness. Staring at that door that was opened. My daughter could be heard from inside.

                My flashlight went out. My spare wasn’t working. My phone was dead.

                I felt something breathe down my neck. Then a sharpness through my chest. I thought my wife was in front of me.

                 Yet still, I have awakened to this bed, my wife and my daughter sound asleep.