Latest / Shallow Nights: Scary Bedtime Stories / Mail Order Bride's Nightmare: Unraveling the Dark Secrets and Terrifying Truth of Mrs. Danforth's Marriage

Transcript

Mail Order Bride's Nightmare: Unraveling the Dark Secrets and Terrifying Truth of Mrs. Danforth's Marriage · Shallow Nights: Scary Bedtime Stories

0:13
I met him, the husband, two years ago.
0:16
I don't want to get sidetracked by the story of how I became, as
0:21
the English call it, a mail order bride.
0:24
That story is harrowing and depressing enough in itself.
0:27
The war left a lot of orphans on both sides of the new border,
0:32
many of similar stories to mine. I don't want to waste however
0:36
long I've got by sharing experiences that differ little
0:39
from any other girl whose childhood died in the war.
0:44
So many of us ended up pressed, ganged by hungry communities
0:47
into going in the Russian men's vans.
0:50
So many ended up here or America or Saudi Arabia to share beds
0:55
with disgusting men so families back home could keep coal in the
0:59
furnace one more winter. A tailor he told 1000 times over
1:05
By every woman that's lived it. They're stories of nothing.
1:08
Mine does not. Where my story differs is the
1:11
ending. None of those other daughters of
1:14
the war ended up with someone like the husband.
1:17
This, I guarantee it, called itself Mr. Danforth.
1:23
The first thing it said to me when I arrived at Heathrow was
1:26
you are called Missus Danforth. It wasn't a question, it was a
1:31
command. Despite what you're thinking,
1:33
this didn't raise suspicion. I did very few conversations
1:38
with men that didn't start with embarking orders.
1:41
My first thoughts of the husband were that he would be a man like
1:44
all those except Father. All I was thinking as he walked
1:49
me to his SUV was. And so I go from the hands of
1:52
one pig into the hands of another.
1:55
How wrong I was. I didn't properly inspect the
1:59
husband until I was in the back seat.
2:02
I hadn't looked at him much in the airport.
2:05
I'd kept my head down, staring at the floor because that's what
2:08
the Russian men told me to do. It took a few hours to reach the
2:12
house, plenty of time for me to stare at the husband in the
2:15
rearview mirror to get a proper look at the man whose bed I'd
2:19
been sold into. That was when alarm bells
2:22
started ringing. As the SUV trundled down
2:26
increasingly less maintained roads, my mind was running
2:29
through possible explanations for my new husband's face.
2:34
It was rigid, stiff. None of the muscles of his wide
2:37
brow or angular jaw twitched, clenched or moved at all for
2:43
three whole hours. His skin was off, too.
2:46
Not literally, but something about it troubled me for reasons
2:50
I couldn't place. I think it was the tone.
2:53
The hues of his face were too uniform, too smooth, almost the
2:58
exact same shade of Gray, almost Peach all over.
3:02
There was no ruddiness to his cheeks, no darkness under his
3:06
eyes or a man I'd been told was in his 40s.
3:09
He had none of the scars, laughter lines, or crow's feet
3:13
I'd expected. His face had almost no crevices
3:16
or creases at all, as eyes created a distrust I had no
3:21
trouble explaining. They remained as still as his
3:24
face throughout our silent journey.
3:27
Even when we turned corners, his gaze remained locked straight
3:30
ahead. I tried coughing once or twice
3:33
to see if I could attract his attention.
3:35
Nothing. Despite the unease this caused,
3:39
I couldn't ignore that there was something to those eyes that is
3:42
undeniably beautiful. Mesmerizing even.
3:46
Part of me wonders if that's why he it had no trouble enticing
3:51
the unfortunate souls in the basement.
3:55
The husband's eyes have a shimmer to them, a majestic
3:58
light. That's the only way I can
4:00
describe it. In my native Serbian, the word
4:03
I'd used is sveti, but even that doesn't feel quite right.
4:08
Everything in those sockets, from the unblemished whites to
4:11
the smooth, perfectly circular pupils, sparkles like the rarest
4:15
of ocean pearls, and any other context that shine would be awe
4:20
inspiring, beautiful, wondrous. In the face of the husband, the
4:26
man that doesn't blink, the enticing gleam has new
4:29
undertones in that face. The twinkling feels licks like
4:34
gazing at stars and distinct galaxies, and more like
4:38
realizing the light you followed through murky waters is attached
4:42
to a deep sea monstrosity. For three hours we sat in
4:47
silence. I actually jumped a little when
4:50
the wheels ground to a halt. The husband didn't say anything,
4:54
not until he'd left the car and opened the passenger side door.
4:59
This is Mr. and Missus Danforth's building, Follow now.
5:04
The Russian men were safely a plane journey behind me.
5:08
I allowed myself to pay more attention to the husband's
5:10
words. I recognized immediately what
5:14
I'd been too shell shocked to notice before.
5:17
He was speaking fluent Serbian. I mean fluent too.
5:22
His pronunciation was so perfect he could have easily landed a
5:25
job as a news reader back home. This was a shock.
5:29
I'd been implicitly told that he wouldn't speak Serbian, that
5:32
almost no English people did. The Russian men love to remind
5:36
us of that. We all knew why.
5:39
It made sure we knew we were alone, that we were isolated,
5:43
that if we tried to flee our new homes, nobody could understand
5:46
enough to help Zabachan. And the language I knew.
5:52
I couldn't think of a more fitting word for my new
5:54
accommodation. The bungalow stood alone for
5:58
miles. In every direction were nothing
6:00
but fields of wilted and rotting vegetables.
6:03
The muted grumble of motorway gridlock could be picked up when
6:06
the wind blew the right way, but only on the absolute edges of my
6:10
hearing. In a few spots on the horizon, I
6:13
could see the amber haze of light pollution reflected on the
6:16
underbellies of rolling clouds pregnant with rain.
6:20
These telltale signs of civilization were distant, so
6:24
distant that I knew if I ran it would be days before I reached
6:27
1. Inside, I found no respite for
6:31
my clenched jaw or shallow breathing.
6:34
There are 4 rooms. The largest are the kitchen,
6:37
dining area, and bedroom. Even they are pokey, though the
6:41
bedroom barely fits the cast iron bed I'm hiding under.
6:45
The bathroom has full working amenities, which is something at
6:48
least. The other room was the first
6:50
item of discussion on the husband's agenda.
6:53
The basement entry is strictly forbidden.
6:56
He made the punishment for transgression clear too.
7:00
Not first. Missus Danforth can find more
7:03
Missus Danforth's. His warning sent a chill down my
7:08
spine. After instructing me to cook us
7:12
both a meal of baked beans, which he didn't eat, he
7:15
commanded me to retire to bed. I didn't sleep at all that
7:18
night. I lay in the dark, tears
7:21
streaming down my face, listening to the creaking
7:24
footsteps from the kitchen every time they'd clump closer to the
7:28
door. My heart skipped a beat, breath
7:31
catching in my throat. That moment I was expecting,
7:34
when I'd feel his weight sagging the mattress, hear the groan of
7:38
the springs that signaled the initiation of the wifely duties
7:41
he'd pay for, never came. This was a small relief, at
7:46
least. In fact, by a week or two, I
7:49
managed to sleep in relative peace for a few hours each
7:51
night. Within a month, I only found I
7:54
couldn't on the nights that well, we'll get to that.
8:00
Here's the thing. Until last night, I played by
8:03
the rules. It's been 2 years and I'm still
8:05
Missus Danforth. There hasn't been a single day
8:08
in that time. The husband hasn't terrified me,
8:12
however, he's never laid a hand on me in any context. 2 years is
8:17
a long time. There have been nights when,
8:20
God, I hate myself for this. I would have let him just for
8:25
something resembling human contact.
8:28
The only bodies I've touched in two years were cold, clammy, and
8:31
covered in loose soil. Other than that, I haven't had
8:35
so much as a handshake. Not speaking to a real person
8:39
for two years drives your mind to dark places, but touch
8:43
starvation is a different madness entirely.
8:46
If I ever make it out from under this bed, if I can make it
8:49
through the rotting vegetables and fine civilization beneath
8:53
those amber clouds, I'm hugging the first person I see and never
8:57
letting go. The first night was the
9:00
blueprint for each that followed.
9:02
My fear never subsided, but it did change with every month.
9:06
It became ever more tinted with hopelessness, A despairing
9:10
melancholy. Tears have been a large part of
9:13
my day. It was about 6 months into my
9:16
marriage that the weight of it all broke me so much I couldn't
9:19
stop them falling. It only took a week to realize I
9:23
didn't need to conceal them from the husband.
9:26
His smooth, motionless face never reacted to sobbing or
9:31
anything else. I've tried screaming at him,
9:34
insulting him, pleading, questioning, talking about inane
9:38
nonsense, even. Nothing.
9:41
I must have retold my life story three dozen times to those
9:44
gazeless, shimmering eyes. Yelled every curse, cracked
9:48
every joke. Nothing aside from commands and
9:52
stunted Serbian like You will wake up now and reading prevents
9:56
mental degradation, You will read.
9:59
He's never said a word to me. Every day has the same routine.
10:04
He has me cook meals that he never eats, do menial cleaning
10:07
tasks, and when he goes in the SUV to one of the patches of
10:11
amber clouds, he instructs me to read.
10:14
It's also my job to answer the door.
10:17
This, I think, is the reason why he why it purchased my hand in
10:21
marriage from the Russian men. Despite our isolation, there
10:27
were many knockings. I was told on the first night
10:30
that Missus Danforth's main role was ensuring that Mister
10:33
Danforth wasn't disturbed. That meant telling the various
10:37
council workers, local political candidates, cold calling
10:41
salesman and preaching religious types that he was away on
10:44
business. Always he'd stand behind the
10:47
door, just out of sight of the visitors, looking down at me
10:51
with that rippling glow as I rattled off the textbook excuse
10:56
and went the same way every time.
10:58
Well, almost every time. Sometimes, such as with the
11:03
third visitor, the husband would intervene.
11:07
I'm sure with that. By this point you have wondered,
11:09
are you telling me that for two years you've never tried to
11:12
escape or stand up to him even though he's never laid a hand on
11:15
you? This question I understand and
11:18
it is one I can answer. As I said, the husband never
11:22
laid a hand on me. The same can't be said for
11:25
visitors to the house. I don't know what criteria it
11:29
had for deciding which visitors became victims.
11:32
All I know is that the third visitor, my poor boy barely out
11:36
of his teenage years, raising money for some cause or other,
11:40
tick the right boxes. Mr. Danforth isn't on a business
11:44
trip. The husband's words rang out
11:47
from the shadows behind the open door.
11:49
You speaking in English now? Accent as clipped and precise in
11:53
the British tongue as it had been in Serbian, he stepped out
11:58
into the light, standing just behind me at the threshold of
12:01
the shack. I'd barely been married to him a
12:04
week, but already I knew him enough for this sudden change in
12:07
behavior to sound alarm bells. Missus Danforth was confused.
12:12
The husband said. Please excuse her, she is not
12:16
well. I gulped.
12:18
So did the young man on the porch.
12:21
He was trembling in his father's suit, a bead of sweat trickling
12:24
down his forehead to pull at the crease of his brow.
12:27
Right, right, yes, well, Mr. Danforth, the lad stammered,
12:33
fumbling with his clipboard and pen.
12:36
I'm here. I'm here to talk about you.
12:42
Will come inside Mr. Danforth's house.
12:45
It wasn't a question. I stood in the doorway, trying
12:48
my best to ignore prickling chill of the husband's breath on
12:52
the back of my neck. For a few drawn out moments, I
12:56
watched the boy's face twist into visible discomfort.
13:00
In the end, his vulnerable mind couldn't win.
13:04
I stood aside to let him slouch into the kitchen, wincing as the
13:08
husband slammed the door behind him.
13:11
Missus Danforth will go to sleep again.
13:13
The husband's words weren't an inquiry.
13:16
It was obvious they were addressed at me, if for no other
13:19
reason than because he'd effortlessly switched back to
13:22
Serbian. But it's 2:30.
13:26
The second set of Serbian words I heard come from my own lips.
13:30
I blinked at the husband, perplexed at my own outburst,
13:34
but none the less suddenly inspired.
13:37
The mixture of confusion and defiance had me rooted to the
13:39
spot. I said nothing further, but
13:42
still didn't move. Behind the husband, The
13:46
trembling boy took a seat at the kitchen table.
13:49
There were tears streaming down his face.
13:52
I could tell that somewhere beyond those watering eyes was a
13:55
voice. A voice screaming at the boy to
13:57
get out of that chair and run. The boy's body wasn't listening.
14:02
It had stopped listening the moment Mr. Danforth addressed
14:04
it. All that body could do now was
14:07
obey in a way that I found myself, for the first time, not
14:11
doing. The reason it took two years to
14:15
work up the courage to be under this bed is because of how the
14:18
husband reacted to my first and only flirtation with
14:22
disobedience. I was expecting him to raise his
14:26
fists, to fly across the room in a fit of fury, to beat me back
14:30
into submissiveness. The moment never came.
14:34
As I said, he's never laid a hand on me.
14:37
He doesn't have to. I felt a sharp stab at the base
14:41
of my skull the instant his eyes narrowed.
14:44
Before I had time to fully register its existence, the pain
14:48
had spread across my entire head, drowning every nerve and
14:52
acidic, burning agony. My nails were digging into my
14:56
scalp around the moment I noticed I was screaming.
14:59
Through the white and black spots peppering my vision, I
15:02
could see the husband standing over me.
15:05
The change in perspective was the only reason I knew I
15:07
collapsed. For the first time since meeting
15:10
him, his expression had changed. He wasn't staring blankly ahead
15:14
anymore. He was glaring.
15:18
His eyes were thin slits, allowing only slithers of their
15:21
intense, otherworldly iridescence through.
15:25
The beams weren't pointing directly ahead, but down at the
15:29
floor, down at me. Lips that had only so far moved
15:34
to form words were crunched into a scowl.
15:37
The muscles in his jaw bulged so much that I'm amazed his near
15:41
perfect teeth didn't crack under the pressure.
15:45
That was the moment I first understood the depth of my true
15:48
fear of this man, this thing. It was when I was writhing in
15:53
unexplainable agony, seeing him towering over me in his ironed
15:58
polo shirt and jeans. Seeing him notice me for the
16:02
first time. It's that fear which has kept me
16:05
docile and trembling for two long years.
16:08
And I was there on those freshly scrubbed tiles that I cowered
16:12
before it for the first time. When the husband spoke again, it
16:17
was through clenched teeth. Missus Danforth will go to
16:21
sleep. Yes.
16:24
Once more, I heard words leave my lips.
16:27
The instant they did, my head was released from the invisible
16:30
barrage of fire. The husband relaxed back into
16:34
his usual blank slate state. I couldn't bring myself to look
16:38
over my shoulder as I crawled to the bedroom door.
16:42
I caught a quick glance while I pulled myself up to my trembling
16:45
feet using the handle, though brief, accidental, but enough to
16:49
paint a clear picture for the darkest places my wandering mind
16:53
can go in the quiet hours. The husband had turned his back
16:57
to me. He was facing the kitchen table,
16:59
standing above the acne scarred young man.
17:03
The boy hadn't said a word throughout my ordeal.
17:06
One look at his face told me why he was as terrified as I was.
17:11
Enough tears had fallen from his cheeks that a small puddle
17:15
formed on the table top. He was doing his best to stare
17:18
straight ahead, but every so often he'd been unable to stop,
17:22
his gaze flickering to meet the husband.
17:25
Whenever their eyes met, he let out a soft whimper.
17:29
One of his legs broke out into violent judders as I closed the
17:32
door behind me. I curled up under the threadbare
17:35
duvet, willing myself to forget the nauseating thought that the
17:39
spasms were from a trapped mind resisting induced paralysis.
17:46
Lying awake with tears in my eyes was the norm that night.
17:50
The reason I had to bite down on my hand to muffle my cries was
17:53
new, though. The sounds that snaked in rise
17:56
through the cracks around that door were, what's the best way
18:00
to convey it? Haunting.
18:03
Yes, haunting. I can't think of a better word,
18:07
actually. They lived on as ear worms for
18:10
many months after, spectres that teased explanations for the
18:14
thuds and scrapes in the nights that followed.
18:17
From the worst depths of my imagination, the scream started
18:22
as soon as the bed clothes were over my head.
18:25
High pitched, ragged screams I knew all too well from hiding in
18:29
my parents closets during the war, feeling relieved that the
18:33
men with their AK-40 Sevens had chosen the family next door.
18:38
There was no relief hearing screams like that now.
18:41
Even worse when they changed to the other kind of screaming I
18:45
recognized. The kind I'd also heard in my
18:47
parents closet. The kind my father did when the
18:50
men with AK-40 Sevens hadn't chosen a family next door or
18:57
down the street. The kind he'd made when they'd
19:00
beaten them senseless, tied them to a chair, and taken out their
19:05
box of DIY tools. Hearing a barely grown man's
19:10
howls of torment is harrowing enough.
19:13
Where IA lucky woman? That would have been all I
19:16
heard. Such as it is.
19:18
Luck has never been in my favor. The wet slurps of flesh tearing
19:22
muted snaps as bones cracked, the tightening of eardrums when
19:26
the drill whirred into life. None of the sounds I associated
19:31
with screams like that were present.
19:33
Instead, there were noises that nothing in my memory could
19:36
reconcile. It started with clicking, a
19:40
prolonged barrage of ever faster skittering, like ball bearings
19:44
bouncing off of windshield. The boy was babbling something
19:48
when they ended, but his words were muffled by the thick wood
19:51
of the door. His terror wasn't.
19:55
Once the clicks fell silent, the second unexplained noise
19:59
started. This was humming.
20:01
A deep, electronic, unwavering thrum that even through the door
20:06
I could tell came from machinery.
20:09
Within 20 seconds it ceased abruptly and without indication.
20:13
The exact moment the lads wailing grew from panic induced
20:17
to pained. The unexplained noises, the ones
20:22
coming from whatever it was the husband was doing but also
20:25
taking a turn. There was AI don't know what to
20:29
call it, like a whistling, A shrill continuous note, Breathy
20:34
but definitely not organic. It was far too monotonous and
20:38
unbending for that. There was a metallic tint to it
20:42
too, something I can't quite put into words, but nevertheless
20:46
conjured visions of rusted pipes and creaking gears.
20:50
This continued for a full 15 minutes, long after the
20:53
screaming from the young man fell silent.
20:56
My teeth were clamped on my hand with such pressure that I tasted
21:00
blood by the time it ended. I waited at least an hour until
21:05
the thump, thump, thump of something heavy being dragged
21:09
down to the basement had ceased. I fell asleep shaking as I
21:13
always did, although harder than I had since the war.
21:19
The husband said nothing of the previous nights when he woke me
21:22
to cook a breakfast he once again didn't eat.
21:25
My instruction for that day was simple.
21:28
Missus Danforth will clean. I could see why as soon as I
21:31
left the bedroom, the young man's chair sat at the epicenter
21:35
of an explosion of dark red stains.
21:38
Stains that sprayed out from a specific point.
21:41
When I realized that point was roughly where the boy's head
21:44
would have been, I couldn't stop myself from breaking down into
21:48
uncontrolled sobs. These continued throughout
21:51
cooking the requested porridge and through the silent meal.
21:55
The memory of what happened when he, when it stared at me, when
22:00
it started boiling my brain with nothing but a glare, was the
22:03
only reason I could finish the meal as instructed.
22:07
Every mouthful took willpower to prevent returning when
22:10
swallowed. This has been perhaps one of the
22:12
hardest conditions of my situation to endure.
22:16
There are only two places at the kitchen table, and the one the
22:19
husband chooses for his guests isn't the one he sits at to not
22:24
eat. I'm not instructed to clean
22:26
until after breakfast. The husband does this, and
22:29
deliberately. I think the message is clear.
22:33
Look at the blood you sit in. There were other Misses
22:36
Danforth's. These nights happen at least
22:41
once every two weeks, although it can sometimes be more.
22:45
Highest frequency was for in as many days.
22:49
After a while, I couldn't help but start asking questions.
22:53
I did try fielding them directly to him, which received the same
22:57
response as every other interaction I've tried to
22:59
initiate since. That got me nowhere.
23:02
I was left to muse, hypothesize, and when I could stomach it,
23:06
listen. After two years of this, I still
23:10
had no clue what he was doing or why he was doing it.
23:13
The why I can still only guess. I found out the what last night,
23:18
but we'll cover that. I've got to tell you about the
23:21
phone in the basement first. It was yesterday and one of
23:26
those mornings that I sat in a six foot scab.
23:29
The husband had not long ventured out to one of the
23:32
distant amber hazes to purchase food he would never eat.
23:36
I was scrubbing the red stains left by an unfortunate
23:39
fundraiser for endangered pandas.
23:41
When dangling almost out of earshot, I heard it.
23:45
It was coming from the basement, oozing up through the cracks
23:48
beneath the sponge and soap suds.
23:51
I thought it was a bell at first, or a wind chime.
23:54
Then the buzzing started. It had been so long since I
23:57
heard one that I almost didn't recognize it was a phone
24:01
ringing. My heart skipped several beats.
24:05
I had to manually restart my breaths refusing to believe what
24:08
my ears were telling me. A quick glance at the window was
24:11
all the reassurance I needed. The husband had only just left.
24:16
He was always gone for at least two hours.
24:18
I had time. Hands shaking, I put down the
24:22
sponge, checking the moldy fields one last time, The memory
24:26
of that mind stab glare still fresh despite 2 years passing.
24:31
I gulped. Every step took more willpower
24:34
than I think you'd ever believe, but I stopped following my
24:37
instructions. Instead, I walked toward the
24:40
basement door. It amazes me still that it
24:43
wasn't locked this entire time. I guess he doesn't care about
24:46
any Missus Danforth discovering his secrets.
24:50
Although why would he if he can just replace us?
24:53
The smell hit me first. It rolled out the doorway the
24:56
second I cracked it. A jar.
24:58
Pungent, acrid, heavy, and with a sweetness that brings no
25:02
comfort. Once more, in my mind, I was a
25:06
little girl in the war, finally daring to leave my home after
25:09
three days, staring at my father's glassy, unmoving eyes
25:14
through the gap in the closet door in the basement.
25:17
I was fortunate enough that the angle of the sun through the
25:20
kitchen window hit the doorway just enough to provide some
25:23
light, enough to see that there'd been dozens of air
25:27
fresheners of every conceivable shape, scent, and size nailed to
25:31
the ceiling. This at least explained why the
25:34
cloying stench of human decay hadn't reached the kitchen.
25:39
There was a small vent in one corner, but I knew this alone
25:42
wouldn't have been enough to mask the smell of all those
25:45
corpses. There were dozens of them, a
25:50
mass of bodies heaped in the far corner that spread almost to the
25:53
stairs. I recognized all of them,
25:57
despite the varying stages of decay.
26:00
Every single one, from the near skeletal postman through to the
26:04
bloated, purifying lost hiker that picked the wrong place to
26:08
ask for directions. This, I expect, is no surprise,
26:12
though it wasn't to me. Recognizing those bodies wasn't
26:17
why I collapsed into a wailing mess at the foot of the basement
26:20
stairs. It was the machine down here
26:23
with them. In the opposite corner,
26:25
underneath the feeble ventilation shaft, was an oven,
26:30
not a small one like the pathetic thing in the kitchen.
26:33
This was an industrial unit, the kind of furnace found in morgues
26:38
and crematoriums. It was the implication more than
26:43
anything. The oven had clearly been there
26:45
a while, judging by the rust and soot.
26:48
He hadn't been bluffing about the other Missus Danforth's.
26:51
The presence of that furnace confirmed two things.
26:54
The husband had been at this since long before I arrived, and
26:58
that he's had to make no effort to conceal his activities.
27:01
Either nobody's tried to stop him, or nobody can.
27:05
I'm praying it's the former. The phone restarting its Jingle
27:10
snapped me out of my despair. My stomach dropped when I
27:13
pinpointed the source. No, I thought, no, no, no,
27:18
please, anything but this. It only took one blink for the
27:23
basement to vanish. I was back in the war, reaching
27:27
for the keys in my father's pocket so I could leave our flat
27:30
and find food. Screaming as this cold, stiff
27:33
form fell on top of me from the bed, wailing for help that
27:37
wasn't there as I struggled to free myself from underneath the
27:40
dead weight of a man 4 times my size.
27:44
No, snap out of it. I swallowed, deciding to obey
27:50
the inner defiance, finding encouragement and yet another
27:53
buzzing tinkle from within the pile.
27:55
I had to beat back the intrusive memories every second my arm was
27:59
in that heap of decaying flesh. I was only feeling my way
28:03
through clammy limbs and blood crusted fabric for about 30
28:06
seconds, but my perception managed to stretch them to
28:10
decades. The feeling of slick, waxy skin
28:13
on my arm, the noxious Tang of rotting human meat mere inches
28:18
from my nostrils, the moist groans and creaks as I disturbed
28:23
built up gases and fluids inside bloated organs.
28:27
All of it merged into a sensory overload.
28:29
I'm still amazed I managed to push through when my hand
28:34
wrapped around something hard, plastic and vibrating.
28:37
I couldn't pull it out fast enough.
28:41
I didn't stop to look at my prize until I was certain I was
28:44
back in the bedroom and not having some kind of fever dream.
28:48
The phone. This phone and 50% charge
28:51
remaining. I turned it off immediately, not
28:54
wanting to waste one second of precious battery life.
28:58
But where to hide it? The solution seems so stupid I
29:01
caught myself laughing for the first time and well long enough
29:07
that I'm getting tearful trying to work it out a while.
29:12
The one place in the house the husband has never been, aside
29:16
from the bathroom, which offered no hiding spaces.
29:21
I heard the crunch of tires on dirt at the same time I finished
29:25
rearranging the pillow to make Tripoli sure there was no
29:28
indication of the treasure stuffed inside.
29:31
I'm quite impressed with my quick thinking for this next
29:33
part. Obviously, I'd not done the
29:36
cleaning as instructed. I needed an excuse, something
29:40
that wouldn't arouse suspicion. So what did I do?
29:44
I lay on the ground in the unwashed blood and claimed I'd
29:48
passed out. The husband queried and I fed it
29:51
an old yarn about collapsing on the floor and having no idea how
29:56
much time has passed. It worked.
30:00
He instructed me to cook and consume chicken soup and then
30:04
continue with the cleaning as instructed.
30:07
The day became one of the longest of my two year hell.
30:11
For the first time I had to force crying moroseness defeat.
30:16
I couldn't remember when I'd last had a reason to smile, and
30:19
now I was willing my lips not to curl upward.
30:22
All I could think about was this phone, this message.
30:26
I can barely speak any English. Phoning the police is pointless.
30:30
I can't explain where I am, let alone what's happening.
30:33
Writing it, though, I've had two years with no mental stimulation
30:37
besides reading classic literature with the assistance
30:40
of an English Serbian dictionary.
30:43
I was mentally planning this message all yesterday afternoon.
30:46
I didn't anticipate writing it so soon, but a lot's changed
30:50
since I found this phone. Last night was one of those
30:54
nights. You see, this one was a woman,
30:58
older than me by several decades, meeting constituents on
31:02
behalf of some local politician. The scene played out the same as
31:06
it always did. Missus Danforth would go to
31:09
sleep. I didn't protest, the woman was
31:13
doing the standard paralysis panic dance when I shut the door
31:17
behind me. As usual, I did my best to avoid
31:20
her face, to spare myself the mental image of the terrified,
31:24
pleading look they always had in their eyes.
31:28
Once more I was lying under the bed clothes.
31:30
I could feel the coolness of the phone in my palm when the
31:33
whimpers and screams started. The perfect cover to start
31:37
writing, right? I wish I'd thought so.
31:41
Instead, for some reason, the remainder of my successful
31:45
venture into the basement emboldened me.
31:49
I found myself not hurriedly sending out an SOS to anyone on
31:52
the Internet that could help, but instead creeping back toward
31:56
the door. I needed to know, you see, I'd
31:59
never be able to put this behind me if I didn't know, Idiot.
32:05
Once more the pressure of teeth on my palm drew blood through
32:08
the crack in the door. I saw.
32:11
I saw everything immediately and regretted my decision.
32:16
But so powerful was the morbid curiosity cultivated over 2 long
32:20
years that I couldn't look away. By last night, I already had
32:24
incredibly strong suspicions about the husband that he was
32:29
probably better referred to as it.
32:32
The nightmare playing out in front of me confirmed every
32:35
single one of them. Both the husband and the woman
32:38
were sitting at the kitchen table exactly as he and I did
32:42
for every meal he didn't eat. She was still ensnared by
32:45
whatever kept his victims docile and obedient.
32:49
She'd managed to wrestle back just enough control to start
32:52
screaming for one of her hands to occasionally spasm and flap
32:56
on the laminate tabletop, but that's it.
32:59
For his part, the husband was moving the most he ever had in
33:03
our two year marriage. I now knew what the clicking
33:07
sounds were already. The urge to scream was so much I
33:10
felt light headed and he it. They were only just getting
33:16
warmed up. There were hundreds of them,
33:20
miniature clockwork men of varying proportions and sizes,
33:24
the largest of which stood barely over 2 inches tall.
33:27
They were pouring out of the husband's slack open jaw.
33:30
Some rappelled down on ropes made of string and twine, others
33:34
opted to free fall. The clicking I'd heard on every
33:37
one of those nights. It was the sound of them hitting
33:40
the table of uncountable pairs of tiny breast feet scurrying
33:44
around on the laminate. They moved fast, so fast that
33:49
some were barely a blur. The larger ones pointed and
33:52
directed the runs of the horde, ushering them to their assigned
33:56
tasks with cracks of spark tipped prods no longer than a
34:00
toothpick. Each knew their role.
34:03
It took them almost no time at all to set up the shoe box sized
34:06
machine they dragged out of the husband's open chest cavity.
34:11
The husband's response to all of this the same as his response to
34:15
everything else. There was no reaction to the sea
34:18
of copper and bronze cascading from his wide maw.
34:21
Eden flinched when some of them clambered up his shirt to
34:24
unbutton it, when they pulled that seams on his hairless chest
34:28
to peel back that rubbery skin as his innards were revealed
34:32
inch by inch. He didn't even blink.
34:35
Why? Because he didn't exist it.
34:39
The husband was just a shell, a vessel for this mass of clanking
34:44
mechanical activity to travel amongst us undetected.
34:49
His iron rib cage held no organs.
34:51
There was no beating heart, no rising and falling lungs, no
34:55
gurgling stomach. Behind it lay nothing, save for
34:59
a large, peerless and blue steel box.
35:02
As I watched, eyes dwelling with tears, some of the clockwork men
35:06
started pulling levers and crank handles set into the husband's
35:10
spine. There was a faint whoosh of
35:12
unseen steam valves as the miniature locking mechanisms
35:16
holding the blue steel box in place released.
35:19
It landed with a heavy thud where the writhing heap of cogs
35:22
and gears was thickest. To my amazement, none of the
35:26
rusted figures were crushed. Instead, there was a flurry of
35:30
skittering metallic limbs. Then, much like a dead tarantula
35:34
carried by ravenous ants, the box glided toward their
35:38
trembling woman. That's when I learned the source
35:42
of the second sound, the unwavering motor.
35:44
Like humming, it came from the array of Pistons, gears, and
35:48
other pneumatic components hidden behind the husband's
35:51
face. While some of the clockwork
35:53
throng got to adjusting the knobs and dials of the blue
35:57
steel box, the husband's head was opening.
36:00
A great split ran vertically along its center, rising from
36:03
his chin like he was being unzipped from within.
36:07
The whirring started when the segments started rising up and
36:10
outward on the arrangement of intricate pneumatic extenders.
36:14
Those eyes that barely moved? They were lenses.
36:17
Thick one way Lenses so that the things sitting within the source
36:21
of that mesmerizing, paralysis inducing glow could view the
36:25
outside world. I've never seen something be so
36:28
ugly and beautiful at once. The body was grotesque, an
36:33
aberration that went against everything sane and decent.
36:37
It was barely 12 inches long and most of its mass lay in its
36:40
bulbous body. The quivering yellowish belly
36:44
pulsated in a small metal chair that emerged from the husband's
36:47
open throat. Around it was dozens of wheels,
36:51
switches, levers and valves. The aberration manipulated these
36:55
within its seven wiry arms. These thin appendages worm their
37:00
way from the creature's neck, moving and flicking like
37:03
reptilian tongues around the maddeningly complex interface.
37:08
Above the ring of purplish tendrils were two gnarled horns
37:12
protruding from behind its tiny collarbone.
37:16
These were thicker than the tentacle arms and half as short.
37:19
They weren't mobile either. The darker flesh of their
37:22
surface seems scarred, burned open source.
37:26
On its surface swept A whitish liquid.
37:29
I can smell as soon as the face segments drifted apart.
37:33
A rancid smell. A smell far too close to the
37:36
cloying miasma in the basement. Between those sore crusted
37:40
stumps, though, what hover between them was sweaty.
37:46
Holy. There's no other word.
37:49
It was the light, an orb of it floating between the Bony horns.
37:55
I can't tell you what color it was, because it was all of them.
37:59
Not in the way that white is all colors of light, either.
38:03
Your brain registers white light as white.
38:05
My brain was registering the orb as white.
38:09
Black, red, yellow, green, purple.
38:12
Every color I can name simultaneously, and even some
38:16
that I can't, exposed to the world that was bright, almost
38:20
blindingly so. If I hadn't spent my nights
38:24
under blankets facing the wall, I'd have noticed it flashing
38:27
through the cracks between floor and door.
38:30
The orb was no larger than a chicken's egg.
38:32
Somehow, the moment I saw it, I knew its truths.
38:36
That it was sentient, Aware that it and the phlegm coated blight
38:40
beneath were one. The instantaneous awareness of
38:43
the power of the thing was overwhelming.
38:46
My tears flowed more freely than they ever had, even during the
38:49
war. I was only in its presence a few
38:52
minutes, but during that time all cognitive freedom left me.
38:56
My sense of time, place, self, all gone.
39:00
There was nothing except the light.
39:03
The woman's screech snapped me out of my awe.
39:05
A wave of nausea welled up to my throat.
39:08
It was obvious why she was screaming, and it took
39:11
everything in my power not to scream too.
39:13
The brass army had finished setting up the blue steel box.
39:17
The woman was screaming because 2 sharp needles, each about a
39:20
foot and a half long, had launched themselves from the
39:23
machine on the table. They'd found the corners of her
39:26
eyes. She wasn't crying tears now, but
39:29
rivers of dark red. The Chrome needles drilled
39:32
through her tear ducts deep into her sockets, tearing through
39:36
bone and optical nerve. I knew exactly what they were
39:40
trying to find. I'd read enough classics with
39:43
medical protagonists to recognize lobotomies.
39:47
What I'd never read about were the apparitions.
39:50
The whistling sound was, well, I don't know what it was.
39:56
All I know is that it started the moment those needles began
39:59
to glow red hot. A small crystal had risen from a
40:02
port at the box's center. It too shone with Crimson heat.
40:07
Above the fist sized rock was the constantly shifting horde of
40:11
spectral figures. Only one of them I recognized,
40:15
the woman in the chair, the one whose eyes were rolling back in
40:18
her skull. It didn't take me long to put
40:22
the pieces together. I was seeing her life, a montage
40:26
of ghostly scenes from her past pulled from her brain to be
40:30
displayed and dissected by the aberration in the husband's
40:33
head. He was leaning forward in its
40:36
chair, the seven worm arms quivering excitedly.
40:40
I could tell it was searching for something, that there was
40:43
some vision the glowing orb was hoping to witness.
40:47
I had no idea what, and still don't.
40:51
I don't want to find out either. Whatever it was, the glowing orb
40:56
didn't find it in this particular set of memories.
40:59
I could sense the frustration ebbing from it when the
41:02
husband's face began to retract. I almost tore a ligament in my
41:06
hand. When the needles retracted, they
41:08
left the woman's head with a snap.
41:11
Such force was there that her head wrenched back with an
41:14
audible crack as vertebrae in her neck split.
41:18
A wide cone of blood and cranial fluid sprayed from the wounds
41:22
covering the table while the last beats of life twitched out
41:25
of her body. So yeah, that was last night.
41:30
The night I found out he it, they didn't notice me watching
41:37
the orb headed aberration or as clockwork minions.
41:42
This morning was the same as all the others.
41:44
That is until they left to get the food they had no reason to
41:47
consume. Right now they're grabbing the
41:49
keys to the SUV to drive after me.
41:52
They think I've run off into the woods, fields and bushes in
41:56
front of the house. That's because I spent half an
41:59
hour running in said direction. But you see, I then spent
42:03
another half hour running backward.
42:05
By the time they figured it out, I'll have run off into the
42:09
fields behind the house, the ones with the brightest amber in
42:12
the clouds, where the roar of motorway life comes loudest.
42:18
I deliberately left the door open and did everything I could
42:21
to make it look like I'd already run.
42:23
Thank God it worked. While I was writing this, they
42:26
were in a rage, tearing about the kitchen and smashing
42:30
everything they could find. Thanks for providing enough
42:33
distraction to keep my breathing steady and quiet.
42:36
Whatever they are, they don't understand people enough to
42:39
check under a bed. They're driving off now, so I've
42:44
got to give it 2 minutes, then run as fast as I damn can toward
42:47
those clouds. I'm turning this phone off 20%
42:51
battery. I may need it.
42:54
I'll send an update when. Who am I kidding if I make it?
42:59
In the meantime, if the place I'm describing seems familiar,
43:03
my warning is this. Stay the hell away.
43:06
Whatever they are, they don't have to be shy.
43:09
They want you to come looking. I've never had a choice in where
43:13
life takes me. You do.
43:16
Don't waste it.