John's Lawn

Well, I keep thinking that I’m done writing about my life, but it seems I just can’t escape the paranormal life. I wOnDeR wHy. But seriously, things just keep coming up, and not having human friends who understand what I’m dealing with makes it kind of difficult for people to sympathize with me. Sure it sounds like I’m being pissy about being around amazing things on a daily basis, but that’s not exactly it.

When I came in to work for my Monday night shift, I saw the ghostly manager guy again. Except, the knife he had jutting out of his chest before was now in his hand. He was standing right at the entrance like he was expecting something to show up. Since the guy I was taking over for was at the register, I tried to act as normal as possible. The ghost guy just stood there as I passed him, he didn’t even pay me a second glance. After taking over for the other employee, he left without mentioning anything unusual. Unfortunately, this night didn’t go as smoothly as I was expecting. For the first couple of hours, it was normal, but that’s when my average night of boring routine ended. Remember when I said nothing paranormal ever happens at my job? Well, at around 2:00 am, the man who had been standing at the entrance since I came in moved for the first time. He adjusted his stance as if to prepare for battle using the chef’s knife. I just shrugged it off and figured he was re-experiencing what he did before he died or something like that. I mean ghosts probably do that, right? About five minutes later however, I learned that I was completely wrong in my assumption as something suddenly bashed against the doors with the might of Zeus. I only nearly pissed myself as I turned to the glass doors that somehow hadn’t shattered. Something I had never seen before was bashing against the side of the building. It was like a 30-foot long worm, about the width of your average car and teeth only comparable to that of a Megalodon’s. Like some kind of oversized dildo with teeth. It was repeatedly bashing the length of its body against the store yet somehow not damaging it in the slightest. Then, I noticed the ghost with a knife in his hand, there appeared to be some kind of blue energy coming from his knife. After about 5 minutes of this, the giant worm-like thing slithered surprisingly fast into the distance. Then, the man opened the door and left.

My shift ended around eight and I was only slightly traumatized from the whole ordeal. As I came home, all I wanted was a normal rest of my day. Unfortunately, fate had different plans, it seemed to like to mess with me like that. When I opened the door, it appeared that my good pal slendy had had another party that night and was passed out drunk yet again. Except, no one else was home. I went to the bathroom not expecting to see anyone since the door was wide open. But there was yet another thing I had never seen before, like some kind of abyss creature thing. Pitch black with no discernable features aside from a sort of humanoid shape. “Yeah nope, I don’t know why everyone is always in this bathroom, and I definitely don’t want to deal with you right now.”

“WAIT!” It’s voice was… strange, sort of throaty. “Are you the human that Terry spoke of?”

“Most likely. Why?” I asked with slight irritation.

“Well, it seems you are a rather intriguing specimen. Would you like to come with me? I would love t-” I cut him off.

“Look man, I’m pretty sure I just looked death in the face not even yesterday, and then I had to go through a full shift at work with the thing my head. If you wanna take me somewhere you’re gonna have to use force. I’m out.” I said, turning around.

He started again, “WAIT! I know things that you would find too valuable to pass up on.”

I bit, I really didn’t want to but my curiosity was piqued, “Well, what do you know about me? AlL sEeInG mAn.” I mocked.

His tone became what I assumed to be sinister, but it was only a slight difference, “I know of your true love. I know, of Jane.”

The mention of her name from this… thing, sent chills down my spine. “What do you know of her huh? I don’t want to talk about her with a therapist. Do you think I wanna talk about her with you? Some guy in all black that I just met a minute ago?” I said, tears beginning to well up in my eyes.

He continued, “I understand your suffering-”

I stopped him again, anger catching in my throat and tears falling down my face, “What do you know of having someone you love with all your heart being ripped away from you!? You probably just want to kill me? Why else would you call me a specimen? Why else would you want me to come with you? I have no idea who you even are. ” This guy was really starting to piss me off.

Just then Terry came over, “DAMNIT SHAHTO I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE BEFORE EIGHT!”

The thing apparently named Shahto replied, “Hold on, I have an explanation seriously.” Terry listened, “After you explained your roommate it sounded as though he was upset. Saddened by something, I wanted to he-”

Terry cut him off this time, “Yeah no shit. But that doesn’t give you the right to see what was going on in his mind! Now get out before you regret staying!” Shahto then solemnly left the bathroom and exited the apartment. Then Terry spoke up, “Look man, I heard him bring up a name, heard you start getting emotional and decided to step in. I know you probably don’t want to talk about it, but I’m not just a child murderer, I care about those I know. I suspect you moving in here had something to do with whatever got you so worked up. Whatever it was, you can talk to me when you feel ready.”

I nodded and headed to my room, I woke up hours later with my arm feeling like a thousand fire ants were biting into it. I saw Terry sitting on the couch watching… Highschool DxD. “Of course he would be into that of all things.” I thought. “Hey T-man, you mind if I spill my guts to you about what was bugging me earlier?”

Terry responded with, “What do you mean?”

“You know, the guy in the bathroom started talking to me and I started crying?”

Terry seemed surprised and paused his show, “I have no idea what you’re talking about man, when you got home you just had a glazed look in your eye and headed straight to your room. You didn’t even pay me any mind which I thought was a bit strange. About an hour later I heard you crying in your room so I turned my show up.”

I responded a little confused, “What about Shahto and the mind reading thing?”

“I don’t know anyone named Shahto and I only know one thing that can read people’s minds.” He remarked, a little concerned. “Hey, how does your arm feel?”

“What, this one?” I raised my bandaged arm, “I mean, it feels like it’s perpetually in the flames of hell but aside from that-”

He cut me off, “Oh boy, that’s not a good sign. You likely hallucinated a scenario after you came home while you were deep in your subconscious. Then when you fell asleep it must’ve continued to fill in the gaps. I’ll explain more after I get you some help.” After saying that he threw me over his shoulder and took me to my car, pulling my keys from my pocket and starting the car. Even after pushing the seat back all the way his knees nearly touched the steering wheel. 

“Where are we going?” I asked, beginning to feel… weird, all over my body.

“You’re slurring your words. I’m assuming you’re wondering where we’re going?” He asked with a tinge of worry in his voice. “We’re going to some guy I know, he can fix what happened… hopefully.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, I didn’t think I was slurring my words. It sounded normal to me. “Y-yeah thas rit.” Yeah, I definitely heard it that time.

“Look just focus on your breathing, you’ll probably start hallucinating again shortly, just remember, breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.” As if on cue, I began to think I was at work, I started remembering, or maybe hallucinating? What I experienced at work that day, in exact replay, it felt like I was there just like before. I won’t go into it again since I already explained what happened, but after the experience, I remembered. “Breath in, breathe out” and I did just that. Afterward, I flooded back to consciousness. I was laying on my bed.

“Wait, what? Where am I?” It felt like a fever dream.

Terry responded in a calm voice, “There’s no need to worry, everything’s okay. I think you just had a nightmare man. You’re still at the apartment. Where else would you be?”

I replied in a panicked daze, “What about going to fix my arm?”

“What? Is something wrong with your arm?”

I thought about it and looked at my bandaged arm, “It felt like it was on fire, then you took me to the car-” I trailed off.

“Well that must’ve been one hell of a lucid dream you had, I haven’t heard you say anything about your arm lately.”

I contemplated what he said, “So my arm is fine then?”

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. Wanna play something before you go to work? I’m kinda bored.”

“Yeah, sure,” I responded, still feeling the effects of whatever dream I’d just had. “What time is it?”

“It’s w̴̟͎͚̻̓̀q̵̭͓͆̈́̆͠f̵̧͇̝̽̅͠h̵͇̪͔͈̃̈̓̅̃5̸̣̙̏̓7̶̧̦͑͐t̷̡̥͈̜̣͘g̴̱̤͘d̷̰͔͍̓́́̑͌  .” he said without hesitating.

“Wh-?”

“I said it’s 10 pm.” He didn’t even wait for me to finish my question like he knew I was gonna ask the question.

“Yeah… sure let’s play something. You got a game in mind?”

“I was thinking either some Halo or CoD.”

“Oh come on, you always whoop my ass at those.” Just after saying that, there was a muffled voice seemingly coming from the ceiling.

“Are you still in there?” It asked.

“Terry? Is that you?” I questioned both the Terry next to me along with ceiling Terry. “How are you doing that with your voice?”

Ceiling Terry responded, “Remember, breathe in, breathe out.” As he said that I realized something, something important. I had yet to take a single breath since I woke up. How is that possible? I had been talking to apartment Terry but I hadn’t taken a single breath. Unless? I took a breath and awoke again. This time, however, everything felt normal, it felt right. I sat up, feeling a slightly less aggressive burning in my left arm. I looked around, it looked like a hospital room that hadn’t seen a patient in ages. Then, to my right, I saw Terry, and to my left… the same guy I had seen in the bathroom in the hallucination after work.

“THAT’S THE GUY, THAT’S SHAHTO FROM MY HALLUCINATION!” I blurted out, with no control over my voice.

Shahto laughed “Is that the name your subconscious gave me? The human brain truly is a curiosity to behold.”

Terry spoke up, “His name isn’t Shahto, it’s Jacob.”

I nearly pissed myself hearing that name, “T-the skinwalker, Jacob?” Suddenly, shadows dropped from around him and I immediately recognized him. “W-why hello there Jacob. Good to see you again.”

He laughed again, “Hello there, don’t worry, Terry brought me here to help.”

“Like, you’re going to eat me now so I no longer have to suffer kind of help?”

“Sadly, no. He wanted me to tell you something.”

“Well, what did he want you to tell me?”

“Remember, in through the nose, out through the mouth.” Just then, I remembered to breathe. But wait, did I really need to? I mean, this felt real, so what if this is just the hallucination trying to get me to fall victim to it again? “Do you know why Terry chose me for this job?”

I responded, “No. Why?”

“Simply put, you fear me more than anything else. More than Terry, more than Jeff, more than any other paranormal thing you have run into. Because of this fear, he was sure I would do what was necessary when you began to question reality itself. So I will give you two options, you stay here and I rip the skin from your flesh as us skinwalkers do. Or, you can just breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth and everything will be solved. I’ll give you a little push towards one of those options, if you choose to stay, I won’t kill you before taking your skin.” I made my decision almost immediately and took a breath. Afterward, I hesitated as I woke up in the same room as before. I took a breath again to test the waters. Nothing changed, my arm had a normal pain in it now. To my right, again, Terry. To my left, I saw void Jacob. At this point though, I wasn’t sure if that was just my subconscious doing it again or not. Then I heard a voice behind me.

“Would you look at that, it appears the presence of Jacob was enough to do it.” Some guy with a British accent said. But the voice wasn’t quite normal, it sounded like it was played multiple times over itself and out of sync. Like he wasn’t quite sure how to sound like a normal person.

“And who exactly are you?” I asked, tired of introductions from the last few weeks.

“I’ll let erm..” he trailed off, “You’re going with Terry now right?” Terry nodded, “Okay, I’ll let Terry explain since he was so worried about you.”

Terry did a motion with his head like he was rolling his eyes at the suggestion. “Yeah yeah, whatever. Anyway, I was going to explain this to you before, but you just went delirious saying a bunch of weird stuff I didn’t understand.” As this explanation began, Jacob decided none of this was worth his time and left the room. “I had removed all of the rake’s teeth and figured it couldn’t injure even a human with its bite. When I saw all that blood when I got home, I figured it had just scratched up your left arm pretty bad. I mean hell, I wasn’t expecting its gums to be sharp enough to pierce human skin. A rake’s saliva has venomous properties that slowly lure its prey back to it if it manages to escape. The venom directly attacks the brain and causes hallucinations. It only slowly kills humans and gives them strange… well you get the idea. The only way to completely save someone from a rake bite is to use the antivenom. Then comes in the mental stabilization, after the antivenom has begun to neutralize the venom, it begins to eat away faster. The only way to survive after that is to mentally stabilize the person so their immune system can work with the antivenom.” He apparently finished.

I responded in a state of exhaustion, “Man you’re such a nerd. So how do I know this isn’t a hallucination?”

“Do you really think your brain could’ve come up with a solution like that?”

“Touché. So can we leave now?”

The voice from behind spoke up again, “As your doctor, I can’t yet allow you to leave. You must get some more rest, the venom has yet to be fully neutralized and may still have some residual effects.”

“Alright doc, what should I call you my good sir?” I asked sarcastically. Apparently, he didn’t catch the obviously rhetorical question.

“You may call me Doctor, nothing else.”

“Well then Doc, how-” he cut me off.

“It’s DOCTOR not Doc.”

“Well then DOCTOR, how long will I have to stay here?” I asked with enough sass to probably get me killed on the spot had Terry not been there.

“If you keep giving me attitude I could just kick you out right now.” I considered it. Then I looked to Terry who just shook his head “no.” 

“Alright, sorry. How long will I have to stay here, Doctor?” I asked with sincerity this time.

“Just a few more hours should do it.”

“Wait, what day is it? Also, what’s the time?”

Terry responded this time, “It’s Wednesday my dude, and 10 pm, I already called your boss and told him you were sick and needed a couple of days off.” We talked back and forth for the next few hours while Doc was doing other things. Probably other projects or something, it wouldn’t be surprising for a paranormal doctor. Something was bugging me for those few hours though, his appearance. He looked so familiar but I couldn’t tell where from. He was wearing a bird-like mask, an all-black cloak, and a leather-like black skinsuit, but not quite a skinsuit. I still can’t quite place where I recognized the attire from. He looked like a medieval plague doctor of course, but that’s not what it was. He looked like an entity I couldn’t place my finger on. Anyway, after I was finally sent home, we got into my car and Terry drove us home. I thanked him as we pulled into a parking spot, then I headed straight to my room. His door was wide open, but at the time I didn’t even think to look into it. I was too tired and just wanted to sleep. I will try to keep you guys updated whenever something happens.