Andrew

I have changed all names, except for my own, to keep everyone anonymous.

The year was probably 2012 when this started? I’m not totally sure I guess. Before I start this, I will say that I never really remember what was said in conversations. I normally just remember what happened, and that sorta thing.

So, my brother Hank and I were in fifth and ninth grade, respectively. I had started writing stories and making short films with him and some friends. We really did a LOT of random things to try and pass time. We had to share a room anyway, so we could normally drag each other into doing whatever we felt like doing. We were both very art-oriented, and we were also very good at, like, anything art-based. Which included drawing, and making music, too. But, anyway!

By the way, my name is Andrew, but my brothers and older friends call me Drew. So, anytime that you hear those two, they are probably talking about me.

My brother had found this website that was all based on spells, curses, and other things that I saw as fairly creepy to be honest. It looked sketchy as all hell, too. There were gifs playing on the sidebars, and the color scheme was a little too vibrant. Ya’ know, how websites can seem like unofficial if it is too colorful? But he was my brother, best friend, and role model. So, I went along with all his ideas and schemes and such. We lived in Ohio at the time, and it was around late fall/early winter. Now this website had a list of various types of spells. And when he was showing it to me, I saw that there was a tab that said something along the lines of ‘Weather Spells’. Now I thought this sounded interesting, so I took the bait. I opened it and sure enough, one tab said ‘Spell for heavy snow’. Let me tell you, it is every Ohioan’s – I don’t think that is a word, but I mean someone from Ohio. – dream to get out of school for a snowday. Up until recently when they started giving out blizzard packets. But anyway, I tried saying the spell.

Flash forward about a couple of days. The spell hadn’t worked, and we had received zero ounces of snow. But before bed, Hank approached me with a new ‘Spell’ from the site. And it was about creating a mental creature. This sounded very cool to me at the moment. So, I did all the steps and made this monster.

Now, when I was four or five I had a nightmare about this thing, that came at me in slow motion. In the dream, I was standing in my hallway. All the bedroom doors were open, and instead of seeing the room, there was just a black void inside. But, something emerged from the last door on the left. And, I couldn’t scream, or move. Which happens in my dreams a LOT, too. I watched this terrifying thing come at me. I totally had the feeling like it wanted to KILL me though. And the dream was completely silent, too. Which totally added to the eerie-ness.

I also around this time developed a fear of… well, steps. And I still have this fear to this day. I had a nightmare that I was in my basement. And, I heard this noise from the opposite side. But it was dark, so I couldn’t really tell what it was. When I turned and ran up the steps, I heard something running up the steps behind me, and I could tell that it was moving faster than I was. At this point, I woke up. I feel like it makes it worse that you can’t stop to turn around and see what IT is, ya’ know? To this day, walking up steps in the dark absolutely TERRIFIES me, because I don’t know if something is suddenly gonna run up behind me, and grab me or something. So, I pretty much have developed a habit of sprinting up steps whenever it is night.

ANYWAY, I had made this, sort of, monster. And Hank told me that I had to feed it everyday, using my own energy now. I definitely wasn’t buying it though, honestly. Then, Hank asked me what it looked like. I looked up at him for a second, and INSTANTLY, I felt as if that thing from my nightmare was behind Hank, and it was staring at me. I got the biggest chills of my whole entire life at that moment. And it felt SO REAL, like I could’ve sworn I could actually see it behind him. Like, it was staring at me. I can’t explain how much I could actually feel its presence though. And then I just instantly looked at Hank and said, “How do I kill it?”. I think Hank pretty much just said that you rip up the paper you had used to create it. At the time, Hank and I both had these loft beds, that were pretty much just these big metal stands that hold your bed in the air. That way, we could put dressers beneath our beds. But, that night, I had the feeling like this thing was still alive, or like it was just hidden away? Like, tucked into the back of my mind? I swear though, I could feel it moving around on the floor beneath me or something.

Flash forward a year or so. We had moved into a new house, at a cemetery. Many nights were spent alone for me, Hank had found a new group of friends. And he spent more time away from home, unfortunately for me. Hank had now discovered something called ‘astral projection.’ And the way he explained it was that it is just, like, getting your spirit to leave your body? This sounded VERY interesting to me at the time, and we were both very eager to try it. And, we still shared a room too. So, we layed on our beds and got ready to try it. What Hank told me was to try and get up, spiritually. It’s a little hard to explain. You can look it up if it interests you. But anyway, I layed there for maybe… 15 or so minutes, before I hear Hank say my name. I said, “What?”.

I remember the following very vividly. Everything suddenly looked much colder, and had a more desaturated, blue tint. The walls of my room were very smooth, and they really glowed. It was also a tad darker though. I just kind of looked around for a second, and noticed that there was an incredible amount of dust suspended in the air. I looked at Hank, who was standing in the middle of the room. I looked at him and said, “Wha-what the hell is this?”. I also then noticed that behind him was the window, which showed nothing but an empty, black void. There was no where to go. He just looked around for a second, and then said, “I don’t know how to get back”. I stood up and looked at the bed that I had been laying on, and saw that the sheets were still sunken in like I was still there. “I don’t know what to do-”

I stopped short, because I thought I had heard some, like, creaking sort of noise in the distance.

I remember, back when we first found that website of spells and such. I told my mom, and she really threw a fit. She thought it was evil, I think? And the idea of astral projection was even worse to her. I never really understood why she said that? I realize now, that she may have had a reason to say that. Maybe she had an encounter, like me? She really never tells me much about her past. I will never know I suppose. I can’t even imagine bringing it up to her though…

I looked at him, “Did you hear that?”. He said he heard nothing. I stood there, silent. Then I heard it again. He looked at me and said, “I, uh… I heard it that time”.

I said “It sounds so far away, but there is, like, nothing out there”. He suddenly looked very, very pale.. I could feel my face warming up, which is something that happens when I get stressed, or anxious, even to this day. We then heard the sound again, only this time it lasted a bit longer. The volume wasn’t changing, so we didn’t think it was getting closer. Hank thought for a moment… and then opened up his laptop.

The screen was black. He tried turning it on, and plugging it in, but it was was so obvious that electricity didn’t exist, wherever we were at anyway.

“I-I have no idea what to do, Drew. I don’t know how to get back…”, Hank said. “Maybe mom will come wake us up, and that will pull us out, or something. You think?”, I said back to him. I really didn’t think that would work, I just wanted him to be calm. The noise had died off and stopped for a little while.

Maybe, ten minutes passed of brainstorming ways to get out of the place. We thought, maybe we jumped out the window? But we might just simply be lost to the void. Needless to say, neither of us had the courage to try.

Suddenly, we heard that same damn noise…. and, this one sounded much, much louder. It was at this very moment that I also realized, that it wasn’t creaking… it was screaming. Like, maybe a hundred feet away? I opened my nightstand and saw my pocket knife. I pulled it out and quietly shut my drawer. I put it in my front pocket and caught Hank staring at me. I looked at him, and I was totally displaying all my fears on my face. “Just, uh.. just in case…”, I said. Just then we heard another scream. It still sounded like it was at least somewhat distant. But this scream… this scream was a little higher pitched. And to our horror, the scream lasted about ten extra seconds, before turning into a LAUGH. I looked at Hank, and almost immediately, my vision began swirling. I had to hold onto a dresser to keep myself upright.

Tears were building in both of our eyes at this point.

We were far too scared to go down to the first floor of our house. We shut our bedroom door, and slid a dresser in front of it, in order to keep whatever that thing was out. I thought I heard some sort of pitter-patter, or like, rustling. I walked over to the window, and looked out. There it was. It was a dog.

It had… it had no eyes, and it had no ears. It had very greasy and matted brown hair. Its face was pointed at me though. And it was smiling. It had the teeth, and mouth, of a human sort of. Dogs can’t smile, I know that. But this dog had the biggest grin on its face, and there was blood and skin dangling from its teeth. I then watched, in pure shock and horror, as it opened its mouth and said, “…hello Andrew. Can you let me in…?”. It had the voice of a human, but it was very raspy and incredibly damaged. “Andrew, what have I ever done to you buddy?”, it said. I literally, like, shook and like, got chills from this. I backed away from the window so it couldn’t see me. I wasn’t gonna let it in. After a few moments of silence… the dog then began to chuckle. Which then turned into an all out laugh. But the laugh had a sorta vibrato/bounce it in it…

I hadn’t been able to remember what the monster in my dream was. And I couldn’t really tell what the monster I created with Hank looked like. But after seeing that dog…

Tears were streaming down my face by this point. Hank had been behind me the whole time. I turned and slid under my bed, trying to hide. Hank did the same. It was silent for about 5 minutes. There was no sign of the dog. I could see out the window from under my bed, and saw nothing. I then looked at Hank under his bed, who was trying to suppress his crying. I pulled out my pocket knife, and flipped it open, ready to try and use it.

“Do you think it’s gone?”, I said to him. He just stared back at me. He shook his head no.

Then, like thunder, I heard rapid paws going up steps. I heard this heart-stopping maniacal laughter too. It was very loud, and shaking my floor. “You could’ve stopped this Andrew! You could have let me in!”, the dog screamed. It crashed in through the door and wood splinters flew everywhere. My dresser flipped over. The dog then stood in the middle of the room, and chuckled. I layed there, only able to see its paws and lower legs., “You made me do this Andrew! This was ALL you!”, it then screamed. And then, I watched in horror as it bit into Hank’s foot, dragging him out from under the bed. Hank let out this terrible scream, and he reached out for me. I tried to grab his hand… but I couldn’t move. I was stuck. The dog then put its paws on Hank, and began digging into his chest, as if it were digging a hole in the dirt. Hank was screaming, and yelling, telling the dog to stop. Blood and skin was being thrown backwards, sticking on the wall behind it. And the the dog bit into Hank’s throat and yanked back, pulling muscle free. Something vital was hit, and my face was splattered with blood. At this point, Hank could make no noises. Blood was rocketing out of Hank’s neck, and steadily gushing from the gaping hole in his chest. The dog then bit into him, and pulled backwards, tearing his flesh from his bones and eating it.

After what seemed like hours, only a mere carcass was left. Blood and flesh was caked onto the walls, and the floor had soaked up all the blood it could. The room smelled of iron. The dog’s head was also soaked in blood. The dog shook its body to try and dry off, flinging more blood onto the walls. The dog then sighed and trotted over to my bed, and layed down to look at me.

“Let me just… I wanna start this off by saying this, man: I didn’t want to do this to your brother. I actually had a brother, believe it or not. Listen, I… I didn’t have to kill anybody. I just wanted to exist in your world, and not this damn Hell. Well, your world is kinda Hell-ish sometimes, but not as bad as this. I just… I needed enough energy to be able to survive in your world. When you dreamed of me so long ago, I was created. And I wasn’t gonna do a damn thing to hurt you. You were so innocent… I never scared you, on purpose, did I? Yet, you… you just, wrote me off due to my looks? When you decided to bring me into your world, you thought I was ‘too scary’ or something ridiculous, and you sent me back here. This is NOT a life, Andrew! This never was. And, uh… it never will be. So, either you let me live, or..”

I paused for a moment…

“Or what?”, I said back.

“Or… or I can wait for you to have a nightmare about me, and I will tear you the hell open, so I can gain enough energy… to, ya’ know… live in YOUR world. I will have to tear you up worse than your, uh, brother, too”, it said. I looked at Hank, who was lifeless on the ground.

“How the hell could you do this to me?”, I said. I was crying by this point. “Look at me, I’m just a kid.”

“Yeah? And, uh, how the hell could you do this to me?”, it said.

It slowly started to grin, revealing these brown and red teeth, with my brother’s skin still caught between them. I thought… and then said, “How do I get out of here?”

There are some monsters that thrive in our own heads. Everyone has that fear, ya’ know? But you can’t kill them, no matter what. You just have to learn to live with your monsters, and keep them in check…

I miss Hank with every piece of my heart. I miss spending all day hanging out, and just doing random things, ya’ know? I can’t explain how much I miss you. Not a single day, or hour even goes by without me thinking about him. Having a big brother is much more important than you could ever imagine. I long to go back to the days of making movies, songs, and drawings with him with all our friends. He will be missed for my whole life. If you can hear me Hank, I love you. Sometimes life isn’t fair, ya’ know? I hope it isn’t too long before we can meet up again bub. I love you.

The dog isn’t really around anymore, but without giving too much detail about the deal, it let me live, and I had to let it exist in our world.

Credit: Andrew Theller

[fvplayer src=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRm1_YLKn_8” splash=“https://www.creepypasta.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/BehindTheShadows.jpg”]