Almost three years had passed since Blake and Lisa Cook bought their first home after being wed in Camden, Arkansas. It was a pleasant home, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and 5 acres of forest for a backyard. The house was at least 100 years old, but no one really knew when it was built for sure.
It was rumored that it was built in the late 1880’s by a man named Karl McCormick. He and his wife lived there for the duration of their marriage until they both died about a year apart. They had only had one child, Mary, who inherited the house and spent the duration of her life there. Some said that it seemed as thought she was afraid to leave, they thought it was an emotional attachment Mary had to the home. She never married or had any children, but she worked at the local convenience store a few miles down the street. She mostly kept to herself and her books inside the house. Mary McCormick died at the age of 67 due to reasons unknown, only to leave the house vacant for many years. The Olsen’s knew it was a fixer-upper, but they couldn’t pass up such a charming house for the price and were up for the challenge.
The Cook’s had been trying for months to have a child when they first moved into their new home. Doctors couldn’t explain the reason for their failure, but they were committed to successfully having at least one offspring to call their own. Four unsuccessful months had passed, but then they hit the money shot early in October, 1995.
Lisa was pregnant.
The following months were busy, but enjoyable. With the new house still being worked on, and Blake and Lisa getting ready for the new little life to join their family, they didn’t have much time for anything else. Blake worked full time as a realtor in town, and a new neighborhood was being built which caused much excitement around the office. There were lots of new families and older couples looking for a nice place to retire to. Lisa was a stay-at-home soon to be mom and spent her time working on the house decorating and writing, which she loved.
February, 1996:
Blake and Lisa awoke to a strange sound coming from the cellar. It was windy outside and raining, the trees were swaying violently.
“Did you hear that?” Lisa said with a raspy, tired voice, not lifting her head from the pillow.
“Yes” Blake said, he was already sitting up in his bed looking at the door.
The noise was heard again, louder, reverberating throughout the house.
“I think it’s coming from the basement”, Lisa said, more awake this time.
“Stay here” Blake said as he silently got up and threw on the robe hanging on the door.
Blake reached for the light switch in the hall, but decided to leave it off. His eyes were adjusted to the darkness, and he wouldn’t want anyone to know that he was up if there was an intruder in the house.
Blake cautiously walked down the stairs, skipping the steps that creaked. He didn’t want to make any noise. After what seemed like an eternity he reached the bottom of the stairs, turned right and swiftly yet cautiously he made his way to the doorway leading downstairs to the cellar. It was cracked open. He remembered closing it that night, but thought nothing of it as he opened it wider and peered down the stairs into the basement.
The noise was heard again, this time it sounded like it was directly below him. It was a large thud, like a heavy bag of soil hitting the ground. Then he heard what sounded like the bag being drug across the cement ground and to the other side of the basement. A warm gust of air crawled up the stairs.
Blake looked at the light switch and reached for it to illuminate the pitch black basement. Just then he saw an orange glow in the corner of his eye coming from the hallway behind him.
“BLAKE!” Lisa screamed at the top of her lungs from the bedroom one floor up.
Blake immediately spun around and ran up towards her. Before he knew it he was standing in the doorway peering at his pregnant wife, she was standing next to the bed, holding her stomach. Blake flipped on the light switch and looked back at her.
“The baby…it… it kicked!” She said with a tremble in her voice, tears of excitement in her eyes.
“Already?!” He exclaimed.
“Yes! Come feel!” as reached toward him.
Blake tripped over to her and grabbed her hand. She placed his hand on her stomach and they both waited.
Minutes which seemed like hours passed. A bump was felt in her abdomen. They jumped, took a deep breath and began laughing.
“Honey” Blake said with a huge grin on his face, “I love you!”
They embraced for almost a minute, but Blake’s mind wandered back to what was in the basement.
“Lisa, I need to go back downstairs, I think I heard something. Stay here” he said in a more serious tone.
“Alright honey, be safe” she said… worried.
Blake again went downstairs, flipping on every light switch on the way. If anyone was in the house they would know the residents were up by now. He reached the bottom step and his bare foot touched the cold, dirty cement floor of the basement. He looked around, not noticing anything unusual. Dirty wallpaper, tools, water heater, furnace, canned food, everything seemed normal.
Blake turned to go back upstairs to his wife, but something caught his eye. He looked to the left and saw a small puddle of water over by the wall. He walked over, got down on his knees and looked closely on the floor where the wallpaper and cement met. It seemed as though the water was coming from behind the wallpaper. He gently inserted his index finger between the moist paper and wall. It easily came off. He stood up, reached down and pulled up on the paper. Just when he started pulling the whole wall of paper slid off, as thought it was glued on using butter. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, there was large, cryptic lettering on the wall. It was burned into the wood, with extreme precision. It read:
THAT WHICH IS CREATED HERE…
STAYS HERE
Blake walked forward and touched the wall. It was soaking wet.
“Well that explains the puddle” he said under his breath.
He slid his fingers over the wet wooden panels; his hand moved its way across a burned portion of the wall. He jumped in the realization that it was warm, almost hot, to the touch.
“Honey,” he screamed up to his wife, “…Lisa!”
“Yea?” she yelled back.
“Come take a look at this” he responded in a monotone voice.
She made her way down the hall, down the first flight of stairs, over to the doorway and down the next flight of stairs. Her feet were heavy on the old wooden steps.
“What is it? What did you do?!” she exclaimed as she looked at the pile of wet wallpaper on the floor.
Her jaw dropped. They both stood in silence staring at the wall.
June, 1996:
Four more months has passed and it was just as peaceful as before. The incident on that cold February night was pushed into the back of their minds. Blake got a promotion at the office and Lisa is bigger than ever. She is due any week now.
They were told by their physician to come in for another ultrasound a month before the due date.
“This baby looks healthy as ever!” the doctor proudly stated as she moved the transducer over her stomach, not keeping his eye off the monitor.
Blake and Lisa smiled at each other and looked at the screen.
“I’ve done over two thousand ultrasounds and I have never incorrectly diagnosed any birth defects on one of my precious little patients.” She stated, confidently, “in fact I had one couple who came in and I told them tha…” she abruptly stopped talking and her hand froze on Lisa’s stomach.
The doctor nervously looked at Blake and Lisa, who were lost in each other’s eyes, then back at the monitor.
“What is it, doctor?” Blake asked, concerned.
The doctor moved the transducer around some more and made some adjustments on the ultrasound machine.
“Oh nothing… it was just a glitch with the machine, nothing to worry about!” she said, “Anyway… what was I saying? Ah yes about that patient…”
March, 1998:
Blake walked out of the front door of their newly redone home. Lisa came out behind him, holding in her arms their now almost one year old child. His arm outstretched to the potential buyers.
“Nice to meet you,” he said with a bounce in his step, “This is my Wife, Lisa, and this is our son, Trevor. You must be Richard.”
“Yes we talked on the phone.” Richard said, shaking hands with Blake, “and this is my wife Dora.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dora said politely, “and it’s nice to meet you, Trevor!”
Trevor stared at her then buried his face in his mothers shoulder.
“May I show you the house?” Blake said as he motioned them into the front door.
Blake proceeded showing them the house. They had redone the floors, all new wallpaper, a new fireplace and mantle, kitchen cabinets, top of the line kitchen appliances, a new air conditioning system. They had been busy.
“I really like what you have done with the basement,” Dora said as she slowly walked around, hands behind her back, “I like this wallpaper, is it new?”
Blake and Lisa nervously glanced at each other.
“Yes it is!” Lisa said almost interrupting Dora, “We redid all the wallpaper throughout the home”.
“Lovely,” Dora said quietly.
“Yes very nice,” Richard agreed.
April, 1998:
“Last box!” Blake said as he walked up the ramp and into the large, yellow Ryder moving truck.
Lisa sighed, “This was quite the project,” she said as she stood on the front lawn staring at the house, arms folded.
“And you did a wonderful job! I’m so proud of you,” Blake said reassuringly putting his arm around her, “let’s go.”
Lisa walked over to the front door, locked it, and left.
“Ok Trevor, time to get into your car seat!”
Trevor ran up to his mom as she scooped him up and headed towards the van. She slid the door open and buckled Trevor into his seat.
“Ready to go see our new home?” She asked him.
He didn’t respond. He just stared at the house, sucking his thumb. Lisa went around to the driver’s side, buckled her belt, and started the engine.
Blake walked up to driver’s window as Lisa rolled it down.
“I’ll follow you” he said.
“Ok.”
Lisa pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. Blake followed in the truck.
The two vehicles drove down the road towards the freeway.
“So Trevor are you excited to move into our new house?” Lisa said as she stared forward.
Again he didn’t respond.
“Trevor?” she said as she looked in the rear view mirror at him.
Blake was driving about 50 yards behind his wife in the minivan when all the sudden the van brake lights lit up and it came screeching to a halt.
“That’s odd,” Blake thought to himself. He started rolling down the window as he came closer to the now stopped van. Lisa’s piercing scream grew louder and sent chills throughout Blake’s body.
He slammed on the brakes, opened the door and ran over to his wife in the van. She sat in her seat; neck twisted back looking at her son.
He opened her door, Lisa fell out onto the pavement, still screaming Trevor’s name. Blake looked in through the door at his son.
Trevor’s eyes were glazed over and completely white. Thick pulpy blood was dripping from his nose, ears, and mouth. Blake screamed his son’s name and ran around to the sliding door. He flew it open, almost breaking it off and grabbed his son. He was hot to the touch.
The image of the lettering on the wall in the basement of their house flashed in his mind.
Trevor was dead.
This picture was taken of Trevor one month before they moved:
The doctor who performed the ultrasound said she has seen that face before, in Lisa's womb, next to the baby. It was no glitch.