"The Showers" [COMPLETE] | CreepyPasta Storytime

every area in all parts of the world has those areas specific urban legends just refused to die whether the stories are about a haunted Asylum on the outskirts of the city or or a creature that lives in the nearby woods over a ghost that haunts a lonely stretch of road outside of town it's always a common thread of human tales no one has ever been to these places seeing the creatures are witness to any hauntings with their own eyes the members of every generation who still proclaim that they know someone whose brother his best friend's sister went to that haunted house with 13 floors that used real blood and spiders and it's so scary that no one has ever made it all the way through those same people will swear by those stories not ever being able to provide a shred of evidence or a name of someone he could provide proof of these claims only because everyone around here knows that it's a true story the storytellers eventually passed the tales on their children who modify them just enough to keep up with the changing time the cycle continues I'm as skeptical as anyone when it comes to these stories seeing as I was like a junkie when I was younger constantly searching for the most terrifying stories and whatever area of the country I was living in at the time made up and I spread stories about haunted pizza parlors in New York my cousin my cousins encounter with the Jersey Devil or how my grandfather encountered a feral human-like demon creature in the woods of Colorado I even broke the one rule with these stories by putting myself in mr. guts in hindsight because I had to make sure that I always told them the same way and surprisingly no one ever called my bluff and I like to think that I have had some wonderful contributions to various urban legends around the Midwest and northeastern states I moved around a lot there's always a surge of joy whenever I would wander the hills school and here one of my classmates retelling my stories through another one of their friends I think little bits here and there like I like a massive game of telephone I knew of course the stories were complete fiction but I stood my ground whenever someone asked me about them I would even managed to act a little bit speaking with shaky voice we're looking scared when I would recount a situation that I supposedly experienced myself I suppose this aspect of my childhood was what led me to my current predicament which I will recount in full for the Internet to take from it what they will have laid this little introduction out as a sort of disclaimer and particularly at those who will call my story into question then like the boy who cried wolf for years but I asked you with every ounce of honesty and integrity that I have at this time a wolf is real [Music] from my introduction it's probably apparent that I moved around the country quite a bit in my middle and high school years see neither of my parents had anything to do with any branch of the Armed Forces they simply you can tend to hang around and he'd given place for too long I suppose it had some sort of effect on me but I wasn't hurt by it or anything of the sort crying up I was a complete ham I made friends very easily that's often the class clown and because of that as often disliked by my teachers again this was never an issue that was usually in another state by the time the next semester rolled around the friendships were often fleeting as were any positive relationships that I've ever had with my teachers because of the events that followed my memory of one teacher in particular we're slightly skewed but I will attempt to give the least biased version of our friendship that I can mr. Mayes was one of my social studies teachers back in the early years of my high school experience being older now I can understand how horrible children are to deal with around that age and I respect him the no end for the way that he was able to connect with his students he seemed like one of us he talked like one of us made pop culture references that were current listen to cool music and sometimes sometimes he would even say hell or damned while he was giving a passionate lecture about Native American history or something like that a teacher that swore even a little bit and that was the epitome of cool to a freshman in high school my memory of mr. Mays mostly stems from the way that he really got into anything that he was doing the instance that is still very vivid in my mind was of course around Halloween at my sophomore year mr. Mays was the kind of teacher that would do those typical decorations around the classroom smiling jack-o'-lanterns black cat cartoons typical and boring in the mind of the egotistical high school students however on the 31st of Halloween when most other teachers were rolling their eyes at the fact that peen Agers still took dressing up in costumes on Halloween seriously mr. Mays took the whole cool teacher thing to a new level so he walked into the classroom and were surprised to find the blinds drawn sheets over the smaller windows candles lighting the room a single frowning jack-o'-lantern sitting in a stool in front of the desks mr. Mays said his desk he just watched the students come into the class take their seats you didn't have to ask anyone to be quiet because at the moment everyone walked into the room they were either too excited to care about petty conversations or too confused to bother with them the students took their seats as mr. Mays began his lecture he spoke quietly to set the mood and he took a seat on a chair right next to the jack-o'-lantern in the center of the room it's a day it was probably my favorite day of the year class he said this monotonously said Halloween is my favorite holiday and I want to share with you exactly why I love it so much one girl raised her hand with a concerned look on her face I'm pushing the due date for your papers to next Tuesday mr. Mays without bothering the look at the girl who slowly put her hand down looking around at the other students with a hint of embarrassment the class erupted in with quiet cheer and mr. Mays waited for the inevitable silence he began his story immediately after the class that calm down I'll attempt to recreate the amazing story that mr. Mays had told the class that day and the way in which he told the story that rendered the horror junkies speechless and the rest of the class terrified the same girl that I raised her hand they asked about the paper was holding her knees to her chest by the end of it a look of terror on her face the important thing to know was where the story was about see the specific slipped my mind now and they aren't too relevant I'll try to recount the part of the story that matter the most but don't hold me to it basically mr. Mays and his friends set out on a road trip around the country after they had graduated college they took a truck loaded it with camping gear and set out sightsee for the entire summer the group went from New Jersey down the coast of Florida New Orleans California and up to Washington from there they went to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and then back home to New York there's concept of the freedom to travel anywhere had the entire class hooked in an instant mr. maze was the coolest teacher ever in my eyes by being adventurous college kids the group didn't bring a map there were no time constraints so they just kind of drove in the general direction that they wanted to go and eventually they found the town to stay in or someplace that looked interesting he told us that after spending a week in Colorado he and his friends had to travel through miles and miles of corn lanes and more corn you assume that they were in either Nebraska or Kansas and they decided to pull the extra cash and stay in a hotel for the night they settled into a motel in some town that mr. maze could barely remember the name of when one of his friends realized they were somewhere near his grandfather's farm it wasn't entirely sure where it was but being adventurous college kids they decided to get a quick refund from the motel and try to contact the friends grandpa they were unable to get a hold of the grandpa on the phone - the group figured that it would be fun to just show up mr. Mays his friend was adamant that his grandparents would take them in lead them about a moment of hesitation so the group set out with an hour of sunlight and seeking salvation on a comfortable house - Stan in Kansas or Nebraska wherever it may have been there aren't a whole lot of natural markers that can guide lost travelers any directions given to someone who didn't live around the area basically amounted to go up a couple miles to the corn and take a right down on a dirt road one to the other corn and there should be some wheat on your right so so has his most cases and scary stories the group got lost never wanting to admit defeat they drove into the night meaning wrong turns every five minutes until they found themselves in a wooded Road mister mazes friend was certain that his grandparents lived off Oh mr. maze described the road is basically a dark path to hell and I wasn't entirely sure how true this was because he got very excited a bit ridiculous with his explanation of the trees that almost tried to grab the car and the red eyes of countless animals looking at them from the darkness regardless the typical horror tropes worked in at least most of the class everyone was terrified so the group of guys drove on this dark road for about 15 minutes before they came to a clearing and a small building with lights on seemed to be a silo they figured that at the very least the people who lived here would be able to help him find where the guys grande Paulette the whole idea everyone knows everyone in these hick parts of the country fueled his hopes they pulled up a car near the building realizing when they were out of the car that appeared to be the kind of place where one would store a whole bunch of chickens not a home still the lights were on so they figured that they would give it a try they approached the building as a group working in the semi opened the sliding door to find a big empty room hanging fluorescent lights lit the room like it was daytime we couldn't see a soul there were no cars but one of mr. Mays his friends was convinced he'd seen someone as they pulled up so they decided to go inside and see if there was an office or something where someone might still be working or why else would they help this huge place lit up like this there were no doors on the inside of the building again it was just a giant empty hall so the group roamed around the property and over towards the silo and as I got closer they noticed what appeared to be a cellar door now at this point I remember mr. May is telling the entire class to learn from his idiocy he told us that he hadn't seen many horror movies before that time and didn't think twice about approaching a creepy cellar door in the middle of a dark scary foreign place he said that approaching the door was one of his biggest regrets mr. Mays let the whole class know that he was going to tell us as much as he deemed appropriate about the experience he felt that we were mature enough to handle it but advised anyone that was squeamish to leave the class early though several students quickly gathered their things and walked out the door couple them being stoners who saw this as an opportunity to go smoke behind a school before the next class I didn't even give the announcement a second thought and like I said I was and I am a sucker for this kind of stuff and mr. Mays was telling a story better than anything I've ever conjured up I wanted to learn from this guy even though I didn't believe much of the story after the class had thinned a bit mr. Mays continued the story he told the remaining few that he and his friends opened that cellar door they see and smell that he only described as the most putrid thing my senses have ever experienced the group was no longer concerned with finding the owners of the property but was now set on finding the source of that smell they went down the steps into the cellar which was lit by a single bulb spaced sporadically along the ceiling through its long hallway no one ever spoke things had gotten too strange the walls were lined with metal sheeting similar to the roofing on farms the hallway itself was crooked the ceilings constantly lowered in rows like a tunnel that had been hastily dug and I never touched up there were sections were the boys that almost crouched in order to pass the worst part mr. Mayes told us was that the light bulbs continuously flickered sometimes acting like a strobe light making it very difficult to move through the winding and unstable hallways in hindsight he was certain that his mind was playing tricks on him but he remembered seeing flashes of things that couldn't be there he said that when you're that focused on something or if you have that nervous mind you can do that there you can simply revolt doing new things or people that aren't there he he continued to describe the hallway and I was on the edge of my seat the halls were windy it seemed to go on forever mr. Mayes guessed that they were somewhere under the creepy forest they had driven through when they found the door he couldn't be sure he said that they came upon a door after walking for what felt like a mile it was simple and wooden but it looked like it had belonged outside of a of a suburban home it had a nice design it seemed to be freshly painted red and had a very nice knob and knocker on it it was a door that belonged to the entrance to a nice house not one that was sitting in a dirt tunnel in the middle of nowhere friends walked towards the door moving carefully because the flashlights and there the bulbs increasingly uncertain about the stability the surrounding walls he turned to the group the rest of which were nervous at the very least and he attempted to lighten the mood to the laugh before he said I should probably knock first mr. Mays his friend grabbed the steel knocker and hit it against the door several times quietly uttered anyone home the group waited about 30 seconds before their attention broke the guy next to the door shrugged his shoulders they went to walk back to his friends but as he did the lightbulb between them surged and exploded boy shield their eyes and look back to their lone friend by the door as he loaded his hands one of the metal sheets of the makeshift fruit flopped the edge of the sheet fell directly on the boys forehead slicing it open and sending a wave of blood down his face the impact apparently knocked him out and he felt back against the Nora knocking it open in the process the entirety of the group rushed through the dim light to his friend barely noticing the seemingly pitch-black room that now lay before them mr. Mays was the first to make it to his friends side he lifted the guy's head onto his shoulders and immediately taking off his jacket and putting it over his forehead doing it in this attempt to stop the bleeding once the group had calmed down mr. Mays noticed that the arm that had been bracing his friend's head was soaking wet he was confused about this he was attempting to sort it out when one of his friends started talking he said something about the lines of the lights and that would they had to go when mr. Mays took notice you know when you turn off a light he told the class and everything is almost pitch black except the light of the bulb dyeing cooling down it was like that there was so many of them he's 20 light bulbs had lit the room and seconds ago and now only look like little stars in darkness that was definitely terrifying but that wasn't the scariest thing it was still a very dim light coming from the Holly behind them no it was weak it lit the room just enough to see the 10 people standing less than 10 feet in front of them mr. Mays his friend went to say something else as one of the balls to their right flickered to life now let me let me interrupt this at this point to say that mr. Mays was a generally playful guy he had that tone of voice that makes you makes you want to respond you know basically he could say let's go jump off a cliff guys and you would want to respond with alright mr. may show us the way and that's a ridiculous statement but it gets to the point across you know he was a charismatic guy the whole story up to this point had been like a campfire story yeah the voice inflections is someone attempting to be mysterious and scary what's worked well noticeable and this is pointing in his tail I could recall the change completely he was no longer attempting to spook anyone I could tell that this section was difficult for him and he was a very good actor it was it was really a terrifying memory for him to relive he told us that the light bulb came to life and illuminated the group of people in front of him in the dim light he could see children at least 20 of them in just just the visible light they're all dressed in nightgowns that looked to be tattered and torn stained dark with something the hair was long every single one of them looked like they had not had a haircut since birth some of the children were almost completely obscured by length of it every single one of them it didn't appear to have seen a shower or nice bath in their entire life mr. Mays told us that the most terrifying part of the whole thing was that none of the children were moving they're all standing staring most of them visible from the faint light reflecting off their eyes his whole group was paralyzed with fear several seconds when they heard what sounded like an animal and the distance yelping the way it was described was like the sound of a dog crying multiplied by ten spurred the group to life and just as the children began to step forward his friends grabbed the injured one and lifted him up out of the room and into the hallway in an instant mr. Mays took another second to move and had difficulty finding his bearings he reached to his left in an attempt to find a wall to lean against it ended up finding a handle then he pulled hard never losing his vision on children he bolted for the door right as he noticed what he had grabbed onto a shower hand protruding from a cement wall reaching maybe a foot into the room there was something leaking from it but it was too dim to tell what it was he realized it had been leaking onto but he didn't care there was now children stammering towards him as he animal cried in the distance and his friends were seriously injured he left the room and he made a point to emphasize that he couldn't make out several more shower heads on the wall near the single dim light bulb this is why I called him the showers mr. Mays told the class I was transferred sitting as far forward as my desk would allow bracing for more I slammed the door right behind me he said and I ran through the hallway faster than I could have ever run before or since I made it back to the car we drove out and out of there like a bat out of hell and a couple students snickered at the use of the word hell so when you're trick-or-treating tonight make sure that you know exactly where you're headed and don't go out to any abandoned farmhouses I mean there aren't many houses here but you're all smart kids Jerry the class laughed and the mood lightened as the bell rang for passing period mr. Mays turned the light on reminding them about the paper due next week and told us to have a safe and happy Halloween students all around me were abuzz with theories about the story that they had just heard I bet it's some kind of crazy Nazi hideout so one girl I think it's all ghost babies that were killed by a dog said another I couldn't theorize in the slightest I was still caught up in the moment the way that mr. Mays had told the story and the detail that he included it it left me feeling like we didn't get the whole story a couple days later staying after class and asking him about how it really ended and what happened to his friends he laughed said that his friend was fine that it was honestly he would spread this part probably due to some of the drugs they were on at the time mr. Mays wheat at me as if to say don't tell anybody about the drugs bit kid and I smiled and I left I lived in that town for another couple of months and then we rapidly moved halfway across the country to Milwaukee Wisconsin twisted the story around there told it around the campfire as I got older and it was always a hit but I always changed the ending writing the friend died of blood loss or being dragged away by the children it wasn't until college that I got a chance to talk to mr. Mays again I went to college in northern New York not for any reason associated with a story College was fun you know I I continued being the same ham that I'd always been I wasn't he wasn't until sometime around junior year that I ran into mr. Mays at a bar that I frequented initially I couldn't be sure that the person I saw a laying with his head buried in his arms the bar was mr. Mane's the only treat that grabbed my attention was a sweater that he used to wear on his birthday during class the shirts simply read I'm the birthday boy I told my group of friends to grab a table and I joined them in a second and I walked over to a man with a bar mr. Mays is that and the man looked up men took a second look at my face before he smiled but a hand on my shoulder and said hey there son how've you been I can smell some strong whiskey on his breath his sheets were flushed looking at eyes told me that he was three sheets in the wind but I had no idea who I was hey mr. Mays it's me Jack I was uh I was a student of yours a couple of semesters about six or so years ago his face changed a bit and a genuine look of recognition set in he took a calmer tone and smiled he said how have you been John we talked probably solid 20 minutes I told him what I've been doing for the last several years he told me and apparently he was still teaching the same school doing the same old shtick as he called him I asked him if everything was all right he said they were as good as they were ever gonna be in their ever bet me a while to realize that I was an adult that was having a conversation with another adult every time I had spoken to mr. Mayes previously I had been and the student-teacher relationship and now I was like I was a guy having a drink with a friend of the bar my friends eventually left I continued to drink at mr. Mayes he told me all all about his divorce his kids things that I never would have cared about previously but now I cared he was a real person to me not just some idle anymore this was a this is a guy who had real problems not the infallible teacher that I once thought he was if it several hours before I even brought up his story about the showers I told him about my history with urban legend scary stories and he just laughed when I mentioned the story that he had told us years ago he almost seemed uncomfortable he finished his whiskey signals for another and then then he turned to me and he got very serious listen Jack I don't know why I kept telling that story year after year his words were slurred a my hearing was messed up but we multiple sufficiently blitzed at this point that was what my therapist told me to do when I was younger I had to tell people it come up with the way they get to grips with it or some [ __ ] you did a big swig from his drink he just therapist he said mr. Mays laughed heartily and he looked at me a coarse Jack you think something like that wouldn't [ __ ] a person up I was confused by a smile nonetheless things had gotten very strange but I mean you said sure all all you're on drugs or something right no one was too terribly hurt you're all okay right you got almost cartoonish with the sadness in the next several seconds of course we didn't jack why do you think I'm here right now the host puzzle quickly filled with a thousand questions that I wanted to ask him but I let him carry on Tim [ __ ] he didn't make it Jack you'll add his last term suddenly the tears [ __ ] took him he did I don't even know cops told us that he they were just drunk that he wandered off got taken by wildlife he didn't know he didn't see it now it's absolutely stone faced at this point mr. Mays was carrying along like I I knew the actual story but I didn't his friends disappeared I didn't know I wish I wish they found his body though then we could have shown them inside it's a bad place jack I don't know anything else to say it's a bad place carried on for a few minutes was friend of fun that they had before they went on that trip and I let him talk it was it's only a few minutes later but it's phone ring Oh sweetheart did you spoken to the phone I'll be out in a few seconds I'm gagging well if you baby person on the other end of the phone hung up and mr. Mane's gotta believe it's been nice seeing you Jackie got a good head on your shoulders make sure you use it again to walk into the bar mr. Mays I yelled after him yeah Jack you didn't back towards me would you say all that showers business took place where well didn't I mention it it's somewhere outside a broken bone Nebraska [ __ ] hell on earth if you asked me mr. Mays walked out of the bar after waving to me running into the wall before eventually finding the door though the last time I would ever see him I never been able to tell him the impact that he had in my life rather the impact that his story had on me he'd never know about the trip we took after graduation almost mimicking the one that he and his friends had made he'd never know the things he saw at that place were real know why mm-hmm maybe he he died about a month later his liver failed on him it's all right though his his family was with him in the hospital room he got the dye around people who cared about him and that that's all I can ask for a man like that I experienced that place too several years later it's where my story turns the following is a story of how I came to find the showers and why I'll never ever go anywhere near Nebraska ever again I'll finish the story when I'm sober remembering it's clear enough I'm awake now so my sober and ready to finish this up for you guys the internet and whoever else cares I guess I didn't find out that mr. Maeda passed away until a couple months after the funeral service initially I was going to seek out his family in order to send my condolences but it wasn't as if mr. amazing I was best friends or anything like that so I refrained I continued through my college career and graduated a year or so after a bar meeting graduating with English as my major wasn't a mistake it wasn't exactly no wasn't exactly something that landed me in a sort of immediate job after college now I had saved a pretty solid amount of money while I was in school and decided that I deserved a bit of a vacation if you will I took my spare cash not together with a college buddy Steve backed up and hit the road waiting for somewhere in the Rocky Mountains I had lived in Littleton Colorado when I was younger and remembered loving the area so this destination was as good as any what trip was a success we made around Estes Park Colorado and found a cheap cabin that he rented for about a month the days were filled with lounging hiking didn't leave things that involve little to no work on our parts after our rental was through we packed up again and headed on our way back east know some time during this trip we had met up with a couple Estes Park natives and one of the local bars we never typically hung out with them anything like that we had just had conversations now and then over drinks and food but one night these guys were paying their tab and packing up to leave awfully early and they were usually there until the wee hours of the morning when we questioned them about it they told us that they had headed to a little get-together with some friends of theirs they invited us having nothing else to do we hopped in the car and followed by me to the party the party itself is very low-key and ultimately very inconsequential to the story however the important thing about it was that at some point in the night we're all sitting on the fire and swapping ghost stories this point in my life I wasn't very much of a ham as I was in my younger years but with a little bit of encouragement I started on a couple of the stories that I remember telling in my youth eventually I made it to mr. lazer story about the showers every time that I had told it after hearing it from mr. Mays I'd spice it up a little bit but some sort of subconscious respect for my former teacher I went straight into the version that he told my class in my sophomore year of high school the group enjoyed my stories for the most part the shower is being the mutual favorite amongst the partygoers Steve and I left for the cabin about would be 5:00 in the morning and he asked me about the story on the drive home I told him all about mr. Mays and the class and my love for everything horror related and whatnot and he suggested that we try to find a place on our return trip to New York initially I was reluctant simply because I didn't feel like aimlessly wandering through Nebraska for days looking for some old farm building that was probably demolished at that point but and a couple of days before we left Colorado I told Steve that it sounded like fun we weren't going to be able to do another trip like this for a long time so I figured that we might as well make the best of it so I'm we're in the back of my mind I thought of it as a little tribute to mr. Mayes the guy that in retrospect helped me realize that I wanted to be a writer we left Colorado and we made a long boring and barren drive to Broken Bow Nebraska or hell on earth as mr. Mays had put it we found a motel in town we hung around for a couple of days venturing out 100 miles or so in any given direction each day I remembered that mr. Mays telling us that it was somewhere outside of Broken Bow but I don't think he got any more specific than that we tried asking the town's folks if they had any information about the showers we were usually met with blank stares or I rolling when we told them what exactly this place was the only person who seemed to know anything about it was an elderly woman who worked at this gas station on the outskirts of town I don't recall her name this woman was just one of those cheerful people very helpful generally interested in what anybody had to say to her Steve had started talking to her at checkout and she asked about our license plate commenting that we were very far from home we had nowhere in particular to be so Steve and I ended up talking this woman for about 15 minutes which fluently brought up a hunt for this place known as the showers initially the name didn't ring any bells which made sense seeing as mr. Mays had just given it the name after his experience there but when I began to describe the details ones are limited from the story the friendly old woman interrupted me the tone was not scornful or mean in any way but she became very very terse deliberate with her words from that point on people don't deal with anything related to that sort of business around here anymore she told us that was all a long time ago following our statements she attempted to be cheerful again excusing herself to the restroom wishing us the best on a return trip to New York Steve and I returned to the car without a word both of us were thinking about what the lady had said again she didn't seem to be angry at all she just didn't want to hear another word about it yeah well you're driving back to the hotel before Steve said anything I mean if I had to live in a place associated with an urban legend or anything like that I would totally mess with anyone who asked about it he said I mean eventually you just get tired of people asking about it and so you just try to scare them to get them to shut up wouldn't you I agreed with Steve and I kept driving the whole experience wasn't sitting right with me this was some sort of well-known legend in the area why didn't no one else in the town seem to know anything about it but I managed to shrug it off my view neither of us were scared of finding the showers there's a little excursion on our road trip was more like a scavenger hunt cap off to an overall relaxing vacation Steve and I were basically like tourists the hunting for the site at which a famous movie was filmed or something like that it went into the whole situation with little to no expectation and a fleeting hope that we would be able to find this place we spent another day in Broken Bow before we took our next trip out to find the showers Nebraska isn't as terrible of a place as people make it out to be but it really isn't all that exciting we found a bar who spent some time there and that was just about the extent of our activity on our day off when we did get back on the road we decided that we would attempt to stay off the main road for as much of the day as we could Manny that was no way that this place was going to be off the highway and I remembered some detail about a dirt road and mr. mazes story so we went looking for those this is a fairly fuel advert see most of Nebraska is just dirt roads it was seven in the morning when we came upon a small but thick forest I used this term lightly but for Nebraska this place was like an oasis the trees were full and thick shrouding most of its insides and darkness the Sun was setting and even though we had run into a few of those random crops of trees we agreed that this one showed more promise than any of the others it wasn't really a road but they were it looked to be a path where a dirt road might have been at some point so he drove along that if the car was able to handle the Rocky Mountains I'm like a dirt path and Nebraska would be no trouble we moved slowly and carefully along this trail making sure to clear any fallen trees in the road or rocks that would render the car useless in the Sun finished setting it was pretty darkened place during the day when the night came that was something else entirely I had an inkling at this point that we had found the right place but I don't want to jinx it so we continued onward I didn't realize it at the time but the little bits of light that managed to penetrate the canopy and this miniature forest actually did make it look as if the tree's branches were trying to grab the car just like mr. Mays had mentioned in the story I'm still convinced that he made up that part about the animal eyes though the most aggressive creature in the woods that we saw was a dead rabbit on the side of the trail it didn't have any obvious signs of death it just just looked like it simply laid down and never bothered to get up they drove around in the darkness for quite a while before we found a clearing he had to move several smaller clusters of branches out of the way before right in front of our exit was a giant dead my own sister of a tree there's no way that we're moving this one so he got out turned on the bright headlights in hopes of maybe illuminating the area in front of us and there was this feeling of excitement makes strangely with fear and I saw what laid fifty feet beyond the clearing there lit partially by the headlights of the car and a little bit of light from the crescent moon was what appeared to be an old barn house this wasn't a typical farm house it was larger than the barns that I had seen in films and didn't have any sort of crest it it basically looked like a small warehouse I wasn't entirely sure at this point that this was the place we were looking for but this was definitely the closest that we had come and went through the brush until I was roughly 20 feet from the entrance at which point all the growth seemed to stop I don't know if the owners had done something to the soil but though whole structure had a border around it it was clear of any sort of plant life I approached the entrance of the building a large sliding door as Steve came up behind me with two flashlights in hand they just gonna run off of the place in the dark laughs I give a half-hearted chuckle and grab one of the lights from his hand mine was a little but pretty bright flashlight it was the kind that hikers would most likely fasten their backpacks just in case they were stranded at night it worked well enough I grabbed the metal door with both hands holding the flashlight with my mouth and gave it a tug move slightly creaked a little bit but there was no way I was doing this by myself Steve came up behind me and said his flashlight on the ground he grabbed the door and said one two three he pulled the door with all we could muster once you had managed to move it a couple of inches it must have latched back onto its track because it slid very easily stopping hard and loud echoing thud when it completely opened Steve picked up his flashlight and walked behind me I already moved inside the inside of the structure was exceptionally bear almost troublingly so I wasn't entirely sure how far we were from the nearest homer or small town but there wasn't exactly now it wasn't entirely sure how far we were from the nearest home or small town but there there wasn't even the slightest bit of evidence that anyone had been in this building for years they were no broken beer bottles or empty bags of chips there weren't even any animal droppings or Iger plants that managed to grow up here the room was expensive larger than your average farm but not the warehouse size monstrosity that I believed mr. Mayes had described in his story I was sure that it was simply a holding area for for farming equipment or or something similar at some point too disappointed and wandered near the entrance while Steve ventured into the expansive darkness as I was running over the details of the stories in my mind something stuck with me like a like a sack of bricks and mr. mazes story there was a silo near the barn I ran outside my eyes adjusting easily because at the at the very least it was brighter outside I looked at all directions running around the perimeter of the building surely if there was ever a silo near this place there would be some evidence of it somewhere but despite my hopes there was nothing there is nothing but a cluster of thick thick bushes on one side brush dirt everywhere and the forest that would come from I walked back in the building frustrated and tired steve was still excited eagerly running around the inside of the building even if I could just find a shower head or a pipe he said now we'd know that it was true just keep looking with me I didn't want to ruin his excitement told Steve the story several times but obviously he didn't realize that it's just wasn't the place the building was weird yeah it's not a place oddly pristine but it wasn't the location of the showers they let him explore for a little bit before before I called him over this is probably as close as we're going to get man I said but this isn't it one of the silo space went from excitement to disappointment and an instant much like a young child he didn't get the presents he wanted on his birthday I patted him on the shoulder this was pretty cool though I mean he'd still tell people we found it I was referring back to my old habits quickly Steve laughed yeah man I guess I guess we could it's definitely creepy though we should get some pictures as it's proof you know I agreed with him I'm gonna grab the camera real quick he said as he bolted out the entrance of the building I was left alone in the building it was very quiet when I was alone in there he heard the faint sound of Steve running through the brush into the car but once he was far enough away eventually everything was quiet I remember not even hearing wind or chirping of crickets as I walk deeper into the dark flashlight in hand us convinced that there had to be something as I approached the far corner of the room the sound of my feet scraping against the dirt was interrupted by a soft hollow thud I stopped trying to figure out what it was I put my foot down hard against the ground and hurt it again I stopped one more time realizing the floor that I was standing on was covering something Hollow I walked through the wall of the room looking carefully at the floor to try to spot any holes or gaps and as far as I had known it was solid ground this thing sat atop so I was convinced that that I had found a hatch or a basement or something I heard Steve coming back to the brush and I shouted Steve come over here it's it's it's a hole so let's try to say the word hollow I hopped a bit hoping to recreate the sound so that he'd be able to hear it upon entering the door and the second that my feet made contact with the floor it gave way beneath me the memory of the fall is fuzzy but I do recall hearing would splinter I remember I remember seeing the light from Steve's flashlight falling away into complete darkness it wasn't a long fall but I must have fallen into a terrible position because I know that I was I lost consciousness for several seconds at least but I awoke I was staring at a bright light for an instant I thought about approaching the fabled light at the end of the tunnel I was I was angry at myself he died in Nebraska Jack how do you know wow you do know how to [ __ ] up myself depreciation in the afterlife was interrupted by what sounded like Steve's voice Jesus check yeah can you hear me dude wake up please wake up scream master lost my head off the ground just enough for him to celebrate pain in my head was an immense but it was it was outweighed by the pain is shooting to my knee I knew I had a concussion but the pain in my knee oh god it was there was so much more pressing I I looked around until I found my tiny flashlight and sat up and reassured Steve I'm okay I just hurt my knee I bumped my head to really hard thank [ __ ] man I thought you were dead imagine that though dying in [ __ ] Nebraska that'd be awful his words made me laugh a little but I stopped myself slide is shaking hurt my head and made me incredibly dizzy yes rope Steve what asked quietly should I get a rope to get you out of here do you do you see a ladder I looked around the walls that sat in front of me they were smooth cement there's no way that I was climbing out of here yeah I get a rope I told him it's buried under all of our stuff I think it might be in the red climbing bag but I'm not sure Steve nodded that I'm gonna hang on there and that he'd be back in a little bit any men are silence as fall it was uncomfortable after the sound of Steve's feet scraping the floor above me faded I was unable to hear the buzzing that occurs in total silence intertwine with a pulse in my head I pushed myself over to the nearest cement wall and braced myself against it resting and breathing deep in an attempt to calm myself cement was unnaturally cold against my back use it was summer so only had a t-shirt on but it felt like ice even through that again this observation was primarily made after the fact moment just felt good to lean against something i sat there waiting for Steve in this underground basement I began to feel uneasy like an idiot for falling down here I felt about paying for my injuries as well that all seemed to fade into one emotion in an instant when I heard what I could only identify his breathing I think somewhat am I left I convinced myself that if it was my injured mind playing tricks on me for a few moments until my mind decided to rapidly replay mr. mazes story where I had first heard it in the classroom years before I was more impressed than I was scared but now sitting in this dark basement in the middle Nebraska I felt something that I hadn't felt in a long time it couldn't even be summed up in the word fear as I sat there i felt i felt the all-encompassing dread wonder my flashlight to my left the direction from which i thought i heard the sound the light didn't reach the other wall it was it was too far away but i i was comforted to see absolutely nothing there I breathed deeply for a couple more seconds before I heard another noise in the darkness it was very quick I can't be sure that it wasn't my own body moving around with my without me noticing but I thought that I heard scraping sound about ten feet from me it sounded like it sounded like the noise your feet make when you're walking across the dirt covered floor and before I could react I heard the breathing to my left again closer this time there was no way this was real I I hadn't seen so much as a spider web in this building and now I was convincing myself that something was next to me and it was breathing I was angry at myself for getting so worked up I told myself that the human brain is constantly hallucinating I told myself that that while in silence our darkness the brain will still make sounds up to fill the gap to make you think that you see things that aren't there it channeled my inner skeptic in order to calm myself it worked it worked until I saw a flash of something in front of me I can't I can't be entirely sure of what it was but I heard the accompanying sound of feet scraping against the floor I began to swell with dread I I decided that the best course of action was at this point it was to turn off the flashlight assuming that if it couldn't see me they couldn't get to me but whatever they might be turned off my flashlight now I was left in complete darkness the bulb of the flashlight faded and cooled as I put it in my pocket simultaneously pushing back against the cold cement wall and attempt to stand I managed to get up on my feet what I found that I couldn't stand to put any pressure on the injured name I limped to the corner humming to myself trying to break the deafening silence I called for Steve as loud as I could manage but I heard no response he was probably in the back of the car still still hunting for that rope it had to be a letter there had to be a ladder or something somewhere I continued to hum and my heartbeat which had been beating almost out of my chest slowed to a manageable rate I moved along the cement wall keeping my whole body against it and the weight of off of my injured knee I I traveled what I guess to be maybe ten feet I had made contact with something in front of me a tumbled to the ground my Russian must have been amplifying the pain because it was blinding I reached both hands to my forehead when I thought something warm and wet with my fingers I searched for a cut anyone in my forehead but I couldn't find one I desperately searched for my flashlight as I sat up and tried to get back against the wall I grabbed the light in my right hand I braced against the wall with the other turned it on and pointed it into the darkness where I was just routes lying and there the floor was wet the dirt had marred the color of whatever the liquid was I tried to get my eyes to focus on the puddle tried to convinced myself that it was my blood when I saw another drop fall into the puddle words lack the ability to describe the way I felt when I heard the drip noise again I saw yet another tiny ball of liquid fall into the puddle I think I knew even then exactly what the source was but I was endlessly trying to convince myself that I was wrong I left the flashlight up and pointed at the source of liquid what stared back at me was a pipe a pipe that protruded at least a foot out of the cement wall the metal was rusted two cracked little bits of liquid began to seep from them at the end of the pipe was a simple shower head aimed down towards the ground so I feeling when your stomach drops I think mine really did because I vomited immediately I got it all over my shoe but that wasn't least bit important at the time I ignored the pain in my knee and I shuffle along the wall as fast as I possibly could I heard noises but I couldn't be sure if it was just the sound of my own movement or something around me I managed to duck under the next shower head this one was higher up on the wall and seemed to be leaking the same liquid through the other one was I felt like I was moving along something infinite even now then I would I would have to duck or move under another metal bar another showerhead they began to pour some some some more profusely but the liquid was too thick to come out easily the room began to smell I remember I remember immediately the way that mr. Mays had described it I I grabbed my shirt and I put it over my nose I tucked on Lord it didn't stop the smell for an instant it's not like vomit it's smelt like [ __ ] it smelt like like burnt hair it smelt like rot I was still moving against the wall when I I fell onto some sort of outlet I hit the dirt hard adrenaline coursing through my veins the pain still managing to break through my flashlights still in my hand I aimed at my examine our surroundings sitting in front of me was a doorway there was Dorothy Oh looked aged now it had a nice little design on it doorknob a knocker and it looked like a snarling demon red paint was peeling from it flaking off falling to the ground in front of me act clumsily rose and busted through the door narrowly missing a piece of painting sheet metal in front of me I was crawling now there was no way that I could run the walls and ceiling were lined with metal kind you see on the roof of a farm large pieces of wood seemed to brace the sheets holding this makeshift tunnel together I couldn't risk sliding against that possibly cutting myself on the metal or hitting the wood and causing a cave-in so I crawled I pulled myself for what felt like miles running into walls every now and then because the path seemed to curve like a snake I had no idea where I was in relation to the hole that I had fallen through but I told myself that there was an exit at the end of this had I not been crawling I would have surely I hurt myself far worse there were parts of the tunnel in which the ceiling dipped down to maybe three feet above the ground it hadn't caved in because the ceiling still lineman someone had built it like this this again in hindsight I didn't care at the time I kept telling myself there was nothing behind me that's what I heard feet scraping only inches behind my own my jeans would brush against my legs every now and then making him feel like someone was touching and even now I still can't completely convince myself if someone wasn't I crawled and crawled until I reached in an upslope with joy I looked ahead of me there was a cellar door the door was made of wood I knew this because I could see light through them I could I couldn't be sure but I thought I thought it might be the light from a car's headlights beacon this besides all of that I was just so immensely happy if I didn't exit I crawled all the way to the door through my shoulder into it it budged but it didn't open I began to scream my throat seared with pain the most I could manage was a harsh crying noise it sounded like a tiny animal like I collapsed in exhaustion in pain my eyes staring up at the slits of light before me I was so close to being out of here I I could taste it it was that moment of silent defeat that I heard noise that was without question something moving in the tunnel it sounded like something was being dragged along the floor it would move pause for a second move again I had nothing left in my stomach to throw up I began to gag I I gathered myself slightly trying to steady my hand enough to focus on the flashlight in the tunnel what I saw what I saw I I still cannot rationally I know what I saw I can't convince myself it was actually there I can't stop telling myself it was just a hallucination I saw I saw a child yeah how dare he's sleeping down McGowan was stained is something I may talk Brown occasional splashes of deep red the child was shooting the frail at the pictures that people might see a Holocaust victim I can only make out one eye bright reflecting light a flashlight in between huge Tufts of long dirty hair it reached down beyond the fingertips of the child which would take to the dirt the boy the girl er I'm not even entirely sure which moved towards me with difficulty he wasn't breathing hard but seeing that every movement of every muscle took every ounce of strength the child had the thing that froze me though the eye the eye it was only visible because it reflected my flashlight but even in that gloom I could feel and your deep hatred something like it this the point in which the English language really lacks the right words to explain the situation I could I could tell that this child meant me harm whether it was the hallucination or not the thing was was getting closer I started to cry it was getting closer and closer when I heard a voice from behind me the check was for the voice it was Steve I was certain I tried to talk back fully intending to say open this up and get me out right now however given my current state I'm I'm sure it sounded just like a garbled nonsense I clawed at the door pushing against it with everything that I had and finally breaking eye contact with a child as I did this the flashlight rolled down the slope coming to rest somewhere near the child's feet what do you see the voice asked what are you talking about I closed my eyes I remember hearing our apply long lines I've just look at it tell me what you see and my own screams of frustration found that out I was mumbling like a maniac and the voice told me calmly rest for a second I'll get it statement took me a second to settle in at which point I closed my eyes tight Steve just do it please please just just open it please I could just get me out of here louder Steve goddamnit open the [ __ ] wooden door I open my eyes just for a second this is nothing nothing but black hair dangling in front of my face a smile glint out of light hitting in the mess of tangles I slam my eyes shut I screamed with every ounce of energy I had open the [ __ ] door the door behind me gave way and I fell under the dirt taking in a breath of fresh air in my eyes we're still closed first thing I did it was scrambled to find the cellar door and close it and once I had done that I took a deep breath and opened my eyes and I saw the barn in front of me illuminated by the headlights of the car my head was pulsing with pain I was I was covered in dirt and liquids that I didn't even care to know the origin of my my knees were where the very least dislocated but despite all of that I I was out of the tunnel I took a deep breath I buried my head in my hands and I said Steve why didn't you just [ __ ] open the door I waited for a response but none came Steve seriously began I was [ __ ] clawing I was screaming for my life I said I look behind me my stomach must have been on the verge of falling out at me at this point because it shifted again the only thing behind me was the large mass of bushes they had seen while examining the perimeter of the building I was angry Steve this isn't the [ __ ] time come out of the [ __ ] bushes I was getting ready to stand up when I heard a yell from in front of the building a flashlight bobbed up and down in the semi-darkness Steve was running into the open door of the structure yelling my name and telling me not to worry I must have lost consciousness at that point because when I stood up Steve was standing over me desperately trying to wake me up his words were almost incoherent at least to my ears he helped me to my feet began to walk me to the car and as we walked as how my flashlight sitting just outside of the cellar door the light was fading Steve brought me back to the car and drove me to the nearest hospital I fell asleep but he told me that he drove around for an hour before he found a main road I don't I don't think I ever told him the whole story I believe he thinks that I was just injured from the fall he never never really asked me about it we didn't say we didn't bother to stay in contact much longer so much we deliberately parted ways he just sort of stopped hanging out after that trip when we went our separate ways I've never been able to fully understand what happened that night so many things I can explain away as being hallucination there's still so many things that don't make sense the shower heads we're there they were leaking something door was real the tunnel was real most everything else can be semi rationalized if I can convince myself that I had a very bad concussion a very very bad concussion but the one thing I can I couldn't have imagined was that cellar door was locked it was a lot and it suddenly it wasn't I'm still skeptical as I've ever been but I I believed in what happened to me at the showers I'm not a hermit or social or social [ __ ] because of it I I drink a lot but I'm still functioning I'll never return on abrasca he'll never be able to convince me otherwise I don't watch horror movies absolutely nothing entertaining about being so desperately scared that's it really there's no there's no typical ending in my story I was I was changed by my experience yeah but there was no way to change anything about it or the fight back against it I can't even convince myself that it wasn't just it wasn't just me seeing things believe me I've been trying for years prior to this there was no way to find any information less showers legend didn't stand outside the classroom of mr. Mays when told stories like like this to keep children away from a certain place with a stare just wasn't known yes I guess that's that's really the point of the whole story I I want people to know firsthand what this place is like maybe it's a drunk trash now the kid inside me wanting to spread these kinds of stories again I don't know I don't care but but it's out there now they'll be able to mold and warps to their needs most importantly it's out of my head it's definitely I'm getting another drink Cheers my name is Jack and some of you may have read or heard a story about me by me a few years back I'm writing this from the same shitty laptop that I used to run can we post the showers on reddit a little over five years ago it's spent the better part of two years at the bottom of a box in my bedroom closet I haven't had much use for it recently and honestly it isn't in the best of shape the damn thing takes about 20 minutes to start up properly and dies the instant it's unplugged from its charger some of the keys are missing some of them stick it's been a good amount of time clumsily cleaning sugary soft drinks cut with whiskey out of every nook and cranny but a thing can only take so much abuse before it just goes night I got lucky she managed to boot jest for me and she has one more decent story left in her for better or her worse I don't really remember writing and posting either part of the showers I do however remember feeling simultaneously listless and restless around that time period I was I was tremendously unproductive not working in my chosen field and I had too much free time to spend thinking about those facts I had told the story of some friends at the bar one night and shaken some memories loose which led to that post I woke up one evening and and hopped on my laptop to find that the story thread was left open I had typed it directly into submission box not leaving myself anything to edit I just forced it out of me over a couple of long drunken nights and threw it up in the internet for everyone to see I tried to read it but even outside of the memories that I would have rather avoided each spelling and grammatical error made me want to shoot whiskey chug bleach I went with the former well as far as I could remember never made it through the whole story as it was written it seems pointless to go back and read it even now I've lived through this all enough times in my head I don't need to do it to myself I did read the comments though I may have hated myself but seeing a bit of interest in my work gave my ego a boost if only for a moment I went back every now and then to check on them but for the most part I was forced to continue with my stagnant life while the story spread quietly around the web I worked as a bartender at the time I split my free hours between sleeping and drinking these occasionally overlapped or synced up with work it was a vicious little loop that I had carved for myself I I wasn't a writer like I had hoped to be at that point in my life so so getting to play the part on the internet for a few minutes even now every now and then hope to break up the monotony of reality over the course of the next several months I received several emails and friend requests from other old classmates or strangers who had taken an interest in my story my former classmates messages generally consisted of their memories of mr. Mays and his story asking nothing in return I had guessed that most of them were either married or lost and needed a dose of nostalgia as a pick-me-up and who could blame them though some of them actually wanted to meet up and grab drinks and really get into the past I lived half a continent away from the town where I had attended mr. Mayes his class at this point but that didn't stop me from making empty offers of company to several different people if our paths ever were to actually cross now I did wind up grabbing a beer with one guy who was just passing through on a summer night in Denver but it wasn't what I was expecting I'm 99% sure that he had never met mr. Mayes or myself he dodged specifics when I asked him questions and repeated a lot of my statements back to me in agreement I remember him nodding his head a lot and saying yeah that's right over and over again he was picking up a tab so I didn't notice a lot of this until the next afternoon you know I was also the last time I met up with anyone from the internet I also got a surprising number of requests for the specific coordinates of the showers from a wide variety of personalities there were people offering money transport even what was essentially malicious support if I would take them there like it was some sort of guided tour I turned them down but would be lying if I didn't consider accepting some cash in exchange for the coordinates of a random barn and I could pull up on Google Maps I didn't it's foreign and as surreal as the whole thing was I did take pretty immediate notice of the power it gave me over people it felt like I was back around a campfire with a group of friends hanging out and them listening to my every word with a much larger audience it all started innocently enough I'd be out with a friend looking for some decent conversation or or better delay and my friend would bring up the showers and ask me to tell the story and I would fight him on it for a for a bit before caving or during another round launching into some variation of the bit it didn't work like a charm seemed like every time I went out I ended up with a new friend or a new notch on my belt I hardly had to try I was just drunkenly wandering down memory lane and after a while I had narrowed my sights only bringing out the story for certain people for very specific ends they used it to get laid it's it's as simple as that I would talk to a girl for a little while you have to know where just enough take a guess it's some of her fears and worked them into the climax of the story I faced down ghosts encountered demons even had spiders rained down on me from the showerheads but but I made it out intact every time they have ever so slightly worse for wear I was just damaged enough from the experience that a pretty girl might feel some sympathy for me which I would thank her for while reaching out for her hand or maybe grabbing her leg all roads lead to the same place hers I would stumble back in my barren apartment every afternoon they're all on some different clothes head back out to the bar whether it was for work or play didn't really matter like I said all roads right I don't know how long I spent in this piece of [ __ ] phase but I do know that Karen wrecked me out of it initially she was just the next in a long line of women that I had yet to woo we met at a bar where I told her a story which led her to my place but instead of her passing out after sex we stayed up and we talked it didn't feel like a needless [ __ ] either you I felt like she understood me and I her in reality I think we both just liked getting really messed up swapping stories about our shitty childhoods and mental ailments with someone else so that we wouldn't have to make excuses for being alone he actually did have the mental stuff in common though two different kinds of bipolar disorder we thought that in some strange way it meant that we were perfect for each other I don't need to be told how stupid that sounds Karen also had a degree in political science from Rutgers a wicked right hook and one of the most persuasive and charismatic personalities that I have ever encountered I worry that sort of thing isn't going to come across here because of what this is altum Utley leading to I just don't want to do her a disservice we didn't end up together for a year and a half because we were awful for each other at that point in my life I was both lost and an [ __ ] and I had I had turned her into a concept or an archetype in my head she was the Nancy to my Sid the Bonnie to my Clyde and we were probably headed down the same path as both couples I guess looking back I had fit her into that awful Manic Pixie dream girl trope in my head I was a lost guy looking for a girl with her hair the color of a mood ring to solve the complex problems that was me and any given day she was the love of my life and my partner in crime and the next day she was my antagonist an obstacle to overcome it was all part of the story that I had seen play out in the movies and books so many times before but in the end it was me trying to fit a square peg in a non-existent hole she made me feel good about myself though I'm pretty sure I loved her it's just that I was simultaneously loving and using her without realizing it this wasn't to say that she didn't get use out of me she started coming over to my place after we had spent a couple of nights together and she never really left items of her clothing and her toiletries started showing up around the apartment and I just I just kind of went with it there was one night where I brought up how we had never actually talked about living together before it it had already happened and that night somehow ended with both of us blacking out in tears by the time happy hour rolled around the next evening you're as good as new it wasn't an issue at the time we just sort of started together though I know this probably sounds unhealthy and I mean it was we've gotten off track Karen took a great interest in my stories the showers particularly interest her because she had come across a reading of it on a podcaster a YouTube channel and knew about it before she had ever met me she thought I was messing with her at a bar so I had to take credit for a story someone else had lived but but I was able to convince her and she didn't let it go after that after long nights we would lay in bed together and she would ask me to tell her the story again like some sort of morbid bedtime story and each time I told it to her I would embellish a little more shake loose a new memory pulled from deeper than my imagination that I don't know if she actually believed it or if she if she just wanted to but it became our thing but of course the story eventually wasn't enough she wanted to live it could go there let's go to the showers she wanted us to go together and face them down like some sort of boss fight she consistently told me that it would be good for me to go back there and get get perspective she was convinced it would help me pick up writing again Karen always told me that I had such good ideas that says something held me back from letting them loose she genuinely wanted to help but I couldn't see how this would do that now it seemed obvious I think another aspect of her interest in the showers was just honest fixation we both had a tendency to key in on a particular subject and dig deep into it until there was nothing of interest left to uncover this meant that her attention generally burned intensely before quickly fizzling out my refusal to indulge her one last wish and take her there well that just kept her going she would strategically pick out moments where I was just drunk enough to loosen my lips but not so drunk that I was off in my own world to ask about the place occasionally she would bring up a piece of information that I told her about the showers well blacked out that resonate with me enough to put my arm hair on edge even if I couldn't conjure the memory while sober my body recognized it I knew she was getting closer to to a something me that I didn't want to address but I never stopped her outright I don't know if I even believed my own story anymore I just felt a bit sick when I thought about it she persisted using every method in the book to try to convince me to take her there every new detail real or otherwise would motivate her to push me harder on the subject it was the middle of winter when I cave we were living in Fort Collins Colorado at this time which was only a short drive from Broken Bow Nebraska I I'd still maintain my ground when it came to making a trip there claiming that I didn't remember that we didn't have the time and I had forgotten exactly how to get to the farmhouse which did you're both partially true but like I said she knew when she could get the best of me we were sitting on the couch following a long night of bar-hopping and friend drama luckily we had found ourselves on the same side of this particular situation which meant that night was going to close quietly we were snuggled together under a blanket and watching the Coen brothers that 2013 flick inside Llewyn Davis Karen was watching while I split my time between nodding off and attempting to read a screenplay that a friend of mine had sent to me I had seen the film a half-dozen times at this point in a struggling folk singer loses his way after his partner commits suicide spoilers Karen and I shared a mutual fascination with the subject of suicide so it was only a matter of time before one of us said something I would hate to jump off a bridge I think she said there's a chance you live when you're hitting the water and you'll wind up what paralyzed or something I guess I guess I'd feel like an even bigger waste of space if I couldn't kill myself properly I wasn't sure if she was actually wanting to get into it or not but I'd bet I couldn't jump I said following her closely and closing my eyes that's way too much build-up and pressure too much time to regret it when you're falling well it wasn't a taboo subject with us it was it was difficult to explain to those unfamiliar with us lifelong suicidal ideation but discussing it in blunt and honest terms is comforting when faced with it every single day familiarizing oneself with something typically viewed as morbid we shine the light on it know your enemy or what not even if it was concrete or lava below me I couldn't do it I don't want anything flashy obviously give me a benzo and a couple of pints of tequila I'll go gentle but maybe I would jump Karen thought out loud but I would do it from like a plane I just want that one last rush of adrenaline you could stay alive and get a lot more of that I replied I'm not with those kinds of stakes she had a point I just want to be quiet let me drink myself to death with a book or some relaxing music to play me out you know probably some bright eyes Karen was quiet for a while the character in the film overdosed in a bathroom stall and she spoke up I just don't want to go like that you know at the very least I'd want to be around friends or even family if no one else is available I was nodding off kind of like your teacher I stirred she hadn't brought up the story in a while and when she did she never led into it with mr. Mays I guess I said I fell asleep she'd be forced to leave it for the night let's go Bob she said don't wear no I knew liquor stores closed I grumbled Nebraska it's late next week I'll take off work okay somebody to drive us why would anyone want to drive us in Nebraska Brian seems interested in Nebraska in your story you could write about it it's been a while since you've written I could bring my camera from the way you described it I'm sure that I could get some good pictures I was getting uncomfortable that was offset by my exhaustion I don't want to go I didn't I didn't put up much of a fight please please for me I never go anywhere the apartment gets stuffy and it's my birthday next month okay all right I said trying to appease her so that I could drift off what other cat the next thing I knew we were packed up and leaving the comforts of home for Nebraska I'd said yes to the trip then fallen asleep and by the time I woke up the following afternoon Karen had already secured one of our friends as our chauffeur and was requesting time off of work it fit my schedule she was so happy and I was on quite a bit of xanax but yeah I wanted to keep the good times rolling with our schedules and switching moods happy with something that was hard to come by so I thought about that as we packed up my car I was asleep before he met it out of town I woke up in another dimension a year out of my window was an icy Tundra that hurt my eyes and I hadn't seen that much Sun in months and the ice amplified it my friend Brian was behind the wheel of my shitty 2005 Ford Escape as we flew down the interstate towards Broken Bow everyone called him the responsible one in our group of friends because he wouldn't get behind the wheel after drinking any booze at all what only Karen and I knew was that he would be high as a kite while driving us all home and telling us how he was the only one of us not destined for DUI but he hadn't been in an accident yet so we didn't say a word Karen sat shotgun but a sonic company lot by newer which I did she had poured out three-quarters of her drink and filled the rest of the cup of vodka she noticed after a minute that I had woken up yeah Bob sleep up yes turning around in her seat to face me a vapor of vodka and a hint of cherry limeade flooded my nostrils and burned my eyes Karen refused to travel long distances without what she affectionately called a roadie she had adopted the term from her late father who killed himself when she was 14 he opened his wrists over the sink in the bathroom while Karen was doing homework in her upstairs bedroom when Karen's mom was doing an intern in her office at work her preoccupation with suicide at least came from somewhere logical she had always idolized Randy her dad and hadn't spoken to her mother in a decade she told me the story often frequently reinforcing the idea that any of her idiosyncrasies read bad habits that related to Randy were exempt from criticism I made my only sensible move in the situation extra cup is for you my dear half-and-half she winked and handed me the Styrofoam cup of cure-all I needed it my jaw throbbed I've always had a problem with grinding my teeth my sleep it was so bad growing up that my canines actually grew outward like vampire teeth it hadn't been an issue in some time I figured that a previous night of partying alongside the anxiety about the road trip had just taken a toll and took a sip of the drink and winced but one quarter lie made three quarters cheap vodka and Burnett's I groaned I guess it fits the scenery Karen laughed nothing except the frost covered remains of last season's harvest and frozen dirt surrounded us for miles I stared out over the miles of repetitious backdrops for a couple of hours there on earth occasionally gave way to Tufts of schon trees that reached feudal ii towards the grey heavens above seemingly ignored they now resembled petrified roots that have aggressively snuffed out any hint of life that had once inhabited the numbers every now and then I was able to spot the rusted remnants of a vehicle or a crumbling shed hidden amongst the branches surely soon to be overtaken by thee than thicket of woodland the three of us passed the time by fiddling with a barely functioning tape to auxilary cord converter that we had been able to play music off of our phones with but unfortunately even when we had gotten it to work it was still a crapshoot thanks to a spotty g4 connection on the plains Karen and I changed smoked camel menthol cigarettes much to Brian's dismay he smoked too but would only touch the baby blue packs of American spirits which were all natural and earned for an eternity smoking anything else he believed was just asking for cancer the drive was familiar had me wandering through foggy memories of my last trip to Broken Bow I was frustrated getting a bit uncomfortable because of the haze so I had to drink about it my own head was keeping me in the dark Brian and Karen despite having heard the story the showers tens of times by this point when we prodded me for new details once we had crossed the state line in Nebraska I managed to dodge that inquisitions by telling them how it was a violation of tradition listen to a band while on the way of the concert this eased the pressure a bit but my teeth were grinding and my jaw was a key and this place was bringing something out in leaving me anxious and reflexively defensive Brian had grown up in New Jersey and despite the relative emptiness of that two-lane highway he was driving like he was still there they have no problem with sweeping across lanes without a signal speeding or rapidly jerking left and right exit the interstate on any regular day as uncomfortable as it might have been to avoid the eye contact of an angry truck driver that Brian had cut off we always got to our destinations significantly faster than GPS estimated however for today his Highway practices were making me queasy the honking of several angry passers-by got to be too much for me and I threw in my headphones and put my beanie over my eyes in an attempt to to give me sensory deprivation I ended up drifting off after a bit I had a dream that felt vaguely familiar but I hadn't remembered my dreams and years so I couldn't be sure I was back at the bar frequented during college the same place where I had last met mr. Mays decade ago the voices of the faceless patrons around the two of us were muted i sat next to my deceased former teacher who was who was sporting a sweater that read I'm the birthday boy mr. Mays looked up at me from a drink eyes bloodshot from holding his booze and holding back tears he didn't say anything I slowly recalled the conversation between the two of us from years ago which rang through my head loud enough to fill the silence I remembered his friend when they lost mr. maze looked away from me and into his drink he didn't look back I heard a noise like dripping water that echoed around the bar looking in front of me I found a highball glass that was filled to the brim with what I would I had guessed to be whiskey not a second thought I threw it back didn't sit well I I pushed my lips I sat back on the table as the lights around the bar began to dim from the outside and I rubbed my eyes and I breathed deep to quell the nausea but it wasn't working the room continued to dim as the dripping noise rang out around me once again my I looked at the glass before me to find it filled again the liquid still rippling from the recent pour another drop fell from above breaking the surface tension and spilling the drink all over the bar top I looked up to see a shower headed hanging just beyond the light dripping liquid the sound of violently shaking pipes echoed around me and the showerhead began to shake it began to erupt just as I was pulling back to reality with a jolt I panicked and I thrashed about for a moment my knee and arm cracked as I moved about adjusting once again to the real world well buffs easy now said care another chuckle we had parked at a rest stop Ryan must have pulled in too quickly and hit the curb which was what I woke me up I tasted cherry limeade crawling up the back of my throat and I felt my stomach Rumble outside of Hastings I don't know how far I use the restroom now or forever hold your peace say Karin they opened the door and the icy wind pushed it up against me setting my foot in the door I pushed my back and rushed against a lot to the surprisingly bustling area I did my business wash my hands attempted to ignore the leaking showerheads in the stalls at the back of the room and I uh I felt every drop in my chest I hadn't had anxiety like this in ages the nausea had come with me from the dream and I gagged slightly at the sink closed my eyes and breathe deeply and hold a blast for my jacket pocket looked around me to gauge the judgment that I was about to receive the trucker's around me didn't take a second look but a father who was changing his infant at the station next to the door he shot me look maybe he didn't I'm not sure why I cared I it wasn't going to stop me one of the showers in the back turned on full-blast eyes I took a pull from the flask and unlike my dream my stomach relaxed and the gagging cease cleared my throat of whatever had built up prior to the the nip of whiskey and I spit in the sink it was a bright sheet of red I didn't panic I just needed to eat at some point I pushed back through the line of people that had gathered at the restroom door and jogged out back to the car karen was sitting inside with the window cracked holding a dying cigarette halfway out the window when she saw me she flicked it out rolled the window up gestured for me to hurry up I hopped inside and we were back on the interstate within seconds don't fall asleep on us again Bob we're gonna need you to steer us from here I think Karen said just get us to Broken Bow I said staring out over some of the harvested fields that looked like they had been burnt how guide us from there I guess I did detours we continued down the interstate for a while while Brian and Karen sung songs and I sat in the backseat working trying to ground myself we're gonna need some gas if we're gonna be hunting for this place out in the boonies said Brian you broke my concentration well there's only about ten gas stations around the entire state so exit where you can I said I caught the tail end of a sign that read broken about but I didn't catch the other information within minutes Brian was exiting the highway and pulling into what appeared to be a gas station I had the pumps out front in a small convenience store but behind it was a rickety single-story house the design was Victorian but it was faded and chips all to hell some of the windows appeared to be busted in the holes stuffed with assorted cloths and rags I felt a sense of recognition as I stepped out of the car and and the pump gas karen was running inside to grab snacks as Brian shouted after her I get me sunflower seeds yo she was already inside Brian looked to me jack sunflower seeds please and thanks man he closed the door behind him before I was able to tell him that I wasn't going inside I grumbled as I walked into the old station Brian was driving us so I couldn't get too upset with him barking orders I was just irritable and all over the place the building had a familiar musty smell to it much to my surprise starting to help clear away some of the fog that had been bugging me I was pretty sure that I had been to this particular gas station before I figured that was pretty likely considering where we were and they have for mentioned lack of stops in the area he was a neat coincidence at least that's what I told myself Karen was up at the counter cheerily chatting with a young girl who couldn't have been much older than 18 about something or other the girl was talking to Karen but stared daggers at me the entire time she wasn't even subtle about it I figured I looked nervous and sweaty so I didn't blame her for keeping an eye on me but it still made me uncomfortable I found myself grinding my teeth I was attempting to work the pain out of my jaw muscles with my knuckle while aimlessly wandering the aisles Karen asked a young lady at the counter point-blank do you know about the showers the woman didn't miss a beat people don't deal with anything relating that sort of business around here anymore she said my legs locked up and I turned my head towards her she was staring directly at me despite Karen being directly in front of her I was all a long time ago her eyes remained locked on mine I felt the pain in my jaw pulse and my stomach lurched this was not possible consciously and unconsciously I was rejecting the overwhelming feeling of deja vu I I raced for the small hallway in the back of the store I held my stomach and refused to look up at the woman but I could I could feel her gaze on me still as karen pressed her unsuccessfully for more information and managed to get through the door and locked it behind me before falling to my knees and onto the toilet that's at only a few feet in front of me I could feel my stomach clenching tightly over and over again but nothing was coming out I was violently dry heaving and struggling to breathe the pressure behind my eyes and sand sculpting I forced a finger down my throat I thought that if I could if I could get whatever this was out of me I would feel so much better I was choking on my own finger and seeing stars eyes on the verge of bursting before I gave up I didn't need to pass out in the gas station bathroom that sounded too close to rock-bottom for comfort I sat back my body lightly glazed with sweat and concentrated hard on a number of deep breaths in an effort to get my vision stabilized it was the half-assed version of a grounding technique for anxiety that I picked up at some point I could feel the pressure release as I wiped away the torrent tears that had wet my face my eyes finally focused on being picture frame next to the mirror above the sink picture frame read you can't choose him he just got to love him and featured what appeared to be three generations of women laughing while posing outside of a large green farmhouse the youngest of the three I recognized as the woman at the counter just outside next to her was what I guess to be her mother next to the mother was someone familiar it was a sweet old woman in a sundress the same dress that she had been wearing when I when I had ventured into this shop with my friend Steve many years ago the three of us had a nice conversation about the town and I post-college trip until my motives for staying and Broken Bow were made clear when she found out that we were in search of the showers her demeanor changed she'd given us a very stern measured answer people don't deal with anything relating to that sort of business anymore around here that was all a long time ago I got to my feet my head spinning and splashing some water on my face I had burst a capillary in my right eye it was blood-red and diluted raining tears it looked like a mess but I didn't care after spitting up a bit of red into the sink I walked out into the hallway shooting one last glance of the picture just to make sure that I wasn't losing my mind it was still the same old woman I was definitely losing my mind I quickly made my way towards the front door knocking bags of sunflower seeds and sticks of jerky onto the floor karen was still talking about the girl of the counter the girl was no longer looking at me was she ever if I didn't know Karen I would have assumed that she was hitting on the girl it's just how she was she had a way with people I feel okay Karen looked me up and down with a concentrated look on her face the girl at the counter stared at her she get sick I love you Karen the girl Karen again no towards the car and back at Karen no see even something bad I said glanced up at her bad stomach medications she looked at me and calmly nodded understanding she seemed to sense that something else was going on but I didn't care thanks have a good day I said bolted out the door and the bell above me rang I could feel it in my jaw Karen followed after giving the girls some sort of excuse for my behavior hey hey Karen caught up with me before I dropped the car what's up with you I'm just tired I said she saw through it I took a nip that went down the wrong pipe he got a little sick it happens just wanted to avoid her judgey eyes i gestured back towards the door I mean this is Jesus country I feel like she would try to walk me through a pamphlet or something Karen appeared to buy it and continue towards the car I'm not looking to get saved anytime soon who needs Jesus we have me as your guardian angel Karen said with an exaggerated smile in a wink I faked a gag you're gonna make me sick again I said she kissed me on the cheek hopped in the passenger seat of the car and Brian I put on a dandy warhol album and was jamming by himself let's bounce good Karen putting her sunglasses on and lighting a cigarette I tried not to look back as we drove away from the gas station [Music] we spent another hour and a half aimless Li driving around the outskirts of Broken Bow I was giving directions to nowhere in particular well Alston thought about the girl from the gas station it's entirely possible the whole thing was in my imagination getting away from me my mind is filling in gaps in my memory with the worst possible reality deep down I knew it was the truth I felt a little oasis on the horizon before Karen and Brian my stomach went into a freefall and my vision became a tunnel must have steered us there without knowing it and that had to be it maybe you had to get lost to find the place maybe it sought me out didn't really matter yet quiet feeling lightheaded I said nothing you just drive right by and let it fade from our lives forever Brian turn the wheel towards the trees without a word of guidance from me this was the first point when I realized how desperately I didn't want to return to that place I was sweating through layers of clothing and trying to keep my composure hey maybe we just call it a night and try again some other time and actually say words fell at my mouth blurred in robotic sounding what's the best I could do I must ride that ominous-looking patch of trees over there but then I'm down for whatever you guys want to do said Brian I fixed in on the tree line as we slowly worked our way across the undisturbed field near the Polo farmhouse the tunnels their weight dragging us toward them the trees appeared to shimmer in the Setting Sun light a branch is extended outward as if they were reaching for the car beckoning us [ __ ] but that is pretty awful looking Aaron said ring any bells that's the place the words went through my mind and out of my mouth less than a second I hardly even tried to stop them Karen and Brian celebrate I chewed my fingernails I told myself countless times that I would never step foot near broken Bell but here at once I'd be lying if I said I never imagined it though running to the scene of my personal Horror Show to somehow get some answers there cast a light on what exactly the showers were I spent a long time forming my own personal theories about the place but eventually the effort seemed pointless the truth behind them didn't matter in the end anyway part of them exists only within the confines of my story but I post it on the Internet and she was to show the world be anything anyone with just the account from a meeting place to a violent ritualistic cult or to a site for experiments performed by the KKK or or deeply rooted Nazis post war war - I'm not dense I know that the real fear lies in the unknown horror was my bread and butter I believe that that was why the story connected with some people and left others disappointed the showers in my story are filled mostly with whatever you bring to them for me the showers were more complex they they existed outside of rational thought and comprehension because my experience with them robbed me of those attributes in part as we push through the brush tree branches reached out and scraped against the cars exterior forging new grooves and playing a metal like a warped record the sharp grinding noises split my already aching head into I put in my earbuds to meet the noise music I think Brian apologized about the car while Karen looked at our surroundings like a kid who just stepped foot into an amusement park that place meant something to me that I hadn't considered prior to that moment and still haven't pieced together in its entirety I just knew that as we begun to near the clearing I felt that I never had a choice in making this trip I was always going to end up back here one way or another every time I told my story mr. mazes story I dug the hole a little deeper every drink I took to forget them every girl I slept with to distract from them and every fake fact I made up to distract myself from the real story just further solidified the fact that one day I would return I was free to leave go home and have all the booze and non-committal sex my body can handle I could do these things because the showers are patient they have time all of my actions were simply futile attempts at prolonging the inevitable I know how it sounds but I'm looking back on it now and telling you the simple truth I was always going to return to the showers because they were waiting for me Brian stopped the car just short of the clearing in front of a tree that had fallen in the path before us but I could probably get us over this but I've already scratched the [ __ ] out of your car and this might do a number on her undercarriage he said we can walk Karen said putting on our coat you guys could walk I have some smoking to do said Brian we came all this way and you're not gonna even look around with us Karen wasn't happy Brian didn't seem to care it's the journey not the destination Karen he said besides somebody has to keep the car warm neither of them moved for a few silent seconds Ryan grabbed his ziplock wrapped grinder from the center console without another word Karen had been more upset with him about less before he knew it would pass make the decisions left sitting up the music and turning on the headlights here and exited the club without another word I gathered myself and followed shooting an annoyed but understanding look at Brian as I went Karen was already up the path in front of me while stating off the panic attack but I ran forward to keep up so what do you think I asked trying to get her talking but not dwelling on Brian she looked up and around pulling a small bottle of vodka for my jacket when I even on the ride yet seeker and half-heartedly she took a long pull from the bottle the Setting Sun caught the plastic just right an array of light momentarily blinded me my head was still throbbing she put the bottle down and I was able to see the clearing behind her here it was her rather wasn't the massive farmhouse that her once occupied the clearing was nowhere to be found there was nothing there but the same untouched dirt that made up the fields around us here and took notice as we stepped out from the trees seems a bit empty she said disappointed are you sure this is the place I was sure my brain was still trying to tackle the absence structure and yeah definitely I stuttered this is this is what happened to me last time I walked the perimeter of the clearing sipping from my flask my eyes were drawn to the empty space where I was certain that a massive farmhouse had once stood he shouldn't have been strange in hindsight old buildings get torn down all the time but who had done it when did this mean it wasn't abandon when I had been there before even wrap my mind around the situation at the very least there should have been some remnant of the farmhouse or evidence that the tunnels had been filled there should have been a path in the trees carved out for the equipment they would have undoubtedly needed to clear the structure out but everything looked undisturbed it looked too clean but this was the place I was sure of that I could feel it the glow or the frosted ground was just a just a front he was putting on a nice face to hide itself from me I took another sip there were no bugs no rodents no birds no deer and not not as much as a spider across the treeline it was winter but surely it should have been something living in that space there was no tracks or scat just undisturbed land it would have been picturesque it wasn't so oppressively ominous I felt like I was losing my mind so where's the giant X asked Karen I'm not here I guess I responded with a fake say ideas appointment I wanted to get out of there before it could reveal itself I felt like the pressure in the clearing was building like I was standing in front of a giant jack-in-the-box I don't know innit it's been over a decade come on there has to be something here if the place was as big as you said there has to be something left around so Karen would think I'm not sure how big it actually was thinking back on it I said I don't like when you go back to your old elementary school after years and you touch the ceiling I was working my way towards the car at this point directly across the clearing Karin circled me broadly running around and kicking at the ground with her eyes peeled wine the tunnels though she said the cellar door it's a big space I struck my shoulders cheese could have overgrown it or they could have been filled they weren't the most stable things in the first place he Renaud is where I was heading we going Bob I'm gonna go get warm I told her if it's gone it's gone it's probably for the best anyway oh come on we've come all this way we aren't leaving after 10 minutes she pleaded it was a nice little road trip but I'm tired and it's getting late babe my hands on my coat and continue towards the car where Brian sat he was ripping a ball in the backseat well that's the [ __ ] he's ever behind me turn around to face her she was powering through the vodka that she had opened only minutes ago with a flourish she finished the bottle and whipped it over my head into the trees I didn't hear it hit the growing pain in my gut flared it was surely just something to do with the stress but you can't breathe your way through an ulcer I fell down to Annie the ice on the ground had thinned beneath me I was just frost and a hardened earth my chest tightened I think we should go I think I think I need to go to an urgent care [ __ ] convenient she said you're not getting your way and so suddenly you pull the trump card okay jack I'll take you to an urgent care in the middle of Kansas Nebraska who said she shot me I looked like a bullet her body language shifted dramatically oh I'm sorry she said sarcastically moving towards me it's just that your story changes so [ __ ] often that I don't know what the truth is and what you're bullshitting she picked up a rock and whipped it into the trees it wasn't thrown at me but it was close enough that I considered it I didn't hear it land a job popped let's go to Urgent Care Jack they can give you something and tell you it's a panic attack again but then we were coming back here she was flipping when you're in a relationship with someone with rapid mood fluctuations you learn the signs on how to respond calmly to make the whole situation easier for everyone involved I knew her inside and out what [ __ ] dick dude I said you also learn which buttons to push pain was getting to me she stepped towards me with purpose what the [ __ ] did you just it was a dull hollow thump wouldn't her boot she froze I froze we both looked down to find a large set of wooden cellar doors that have been hidden by dirt debris and ice but at that moment it seemed impossible that we had missed them a malicious grin crawled across Karin's face as she looked up at me let's just go carrot I said she clear off the doors with her feet please please let's just go what's down she's that trailing off you gotta go please what's down there know what's down there did you repeat it again her gaze jumping between me and the door what's down there what's down there her voice was getting louder make something up Hemingway he was yelling what do you call a writer that doesn't write jack oh my god not like it was bursting I was frustrated and kind of drunk and stuck in a fog and thinking about the girl at the gas station and how Brian was being a rude and Karen was trying to hurt me she was just baiting me at that point I I did hard [ __ ] you who made me do this I never I never wanted to come back here you made me come back you know you're you know chastise me because it doesn't live up to your expectations I feel unexpected tears falling down my cheeks it's just a [ __ ] story Karen the horror story or as an afraid in a story as in you weren't [ __ ] there so you don't [ __ ] know you don't know what happened I could have made it all up I did for you and every other girl I told it to so angry a bowl of fear was growing inside of me I wouldn't you made me come here and I would never make you go back to I saw myself I felt guilty I had drawn a line and crossed it within only half a slurred sentence Garin shoulders dropped at her gaze shifted to the dirt at her feet she then walked forward filling the gap between us in an instant in one swift motion she punched me in the face I felt very little tell me what you're so afraid of you lied cut she breathe through gritted teeth staring a hole through my chest I said nothing it was my only course of action big bad here on your stories facing down anything that comes in your way I'm standing right here so tell me what are you so afraid of that you blow us up to avoid it I had nothing I don't know I heard under my breath I could feel myself beginning to wobble it wasn't the booze it felt like my body was confused like my brain was playing catch-up and had left everything else on standby it was the truth I had no idea what was waiting for us in that tunnel I couldn't muster a name or even a vague description because I couldn't remember I'd spent so much time embellishing and lying about it to reach certain ends that I had never really processed what had happened to me there I never thought about how it changed my perception of myself let alone my perception of reality I never had to think about it I just turned it into a story and I spread the story I was doing the same thing mr. Mays Adam just on a larger scale lie I distanced myself enough from the reality of the situation because it was easier to swallow and most importantly it was under control but hero was now being forced to face it again I had no control it's a dark dirt [ __ ] pit in the middle of [ __ ] Nebraska Jack she taunted taking a single step down into the darkness swaying the whole time I'm going in without you [ __ ] it please don't back to screaming I was lost in the depths of a panic attack at that point but I I couldn't figure out the exact reason why it was happening it's like I knew the reality of what waited in the darkness but wasn't able to articulate it clearly what do you see Jack I remember the voice in the fear but not the answer here into a couple of steps down where darkness swallowed her up to her hips don't wake up she smiled mocking me and disappeared into the cellar she let the heavy door fall above her it landed with a muted thud and a puff of dust it clearing around me fell silent I could hear bits of the frost covered ground crackling quietly around me as my body heat escaped I've stood up and looked at my car's headlights glowing bright in the distance where I was likely passed out in the backseat by this point wrapped their sleeping bag I couldn't bring him with me anyway I don't think I was allowed I stared at the cellar door I could hear no sound coming from below there was no pressing needed to go down there at all if I waited quietly right here I I had no doubt that Karin would emerge no worse for wear she would give me [ __ ] about being a coward we would all sleep it off in the car then drive off towards our regular life once more maybe maybe this was close enough I'd come back to the showers once again despite my fears and maybe now I could finally let it go jaren had seen the birthplace of the story she obsessed over and I'd confronted whatever it was and I needed to confront there nothing more needed to be done after all the farmhouse was gone the land had frozen over and it seemed like the place had been completely abandoned it would never take anyone again it would it would never hurt anyone again all I had to do was stay right there on the ground and wait within seconds I was staring into the beckoning darkness of the cellar the moonlight hardly seemed to pierce the black veil as I made one hesitant step downward followed by another the door was heavier than I remembered what did I know my memory was terrible i inched my way down the icy ramp i watch my feet disappear beneath me swallowed by the darkness took my legs next I was helping it along even through thick pants and boots the darkness felt a great deal colder than it should have my legs felt like they had been submerged in ice water I was up to my knees when I felt a familiar shooting pain in my right leg one that I thought I hadn't felt in years I knew it was psychosomatic because it it had to be but it ran up my legs so quickly that I grabbed at it on reflex alone has shifted all of my weight onto my left leg which had tried to route itself to a thin patch of ice of course it death I tumbled downward into the abyss the heavy cellar door fell behind me with a crash all traces of light from the outside had been snuffed out with that door but fall seemed to last longer than it should have but maybe I was just panicked and unable to properly gauge the passage of time I landed hard on my shoulder which took most of the impact my head was set in place my shoulder hit my neck whipped in my hand bounced hard on the ground I think I lost consciousness but it was difficult to tell my waking environment was already silent pitch-black and freezing cold so there was little difference between consciousness and unconsciousness at that point I don't know how long they laid there but I know I wanted to stay put as I felt the pain and shooting across my skull I rolled onto my back groaning loudly but unable to hear it well it sure as hell sounds like I was underwater I reached my bare hands in my pocket and grab my phone now in hindsight I don't know what I was doing trying to walk down there without a light I haven't been thinking clearly I removed my phone from my pocket he pressed the home button to find a web of broken glass covering a picture of Karen and I my phone's wallpaper it was a selfie that she had taken of the two of us and what could have been any one of the numerous local breweries we frequented her eyes were closed and she was smirking while kissing me on the cheek I was half smiling my hair a greasy mess my eyes were tinted red I wasn't subtle I didn't remember that night the screen flashed a message about a corrupt SD card followed by one about low battery I had done a number on it in the fall I swiped my thumb across the screen to turn on the flashlight and I could find tiny pieces of fractured glass grinding against my thumb just get me through this not buy you a new screen I whispered to my inanimate companion I had to fill the silence with something instill my own voice on the distant muted I opened my jaw wide to alleviate the pain in my head it cracked four times in rapid succession like bubble wrap painting persistent the light from my phone flickered to life illuminating my surroundings it wasn't as bright as I would have expected either my phone light was dying are those tunnels were eating alight keeping it from showing me more and then it wanted me to see what I could see enough little details came rushing back to me instantaneously gaps in my memory were filling so quickly that it made me dizzy they really gaps them no they they had just been pushed to the side overlooked my leg began to throb like it had when I fell through the floor of the now demolished farmhouse so many years ago I wondered if the hole was still there holding onto a piece of denim that it stole from my Jean I heard feet shuffling behind me in front of me all around me every step I took was slow and careful and deliberate but still there was a brief delay and another step directly following my own I told myself that it was just the echo that place had an echo but it shouldn't have the familiar putrid stench burned my nostrils it burned my eyes had made my now surely decaying stomach crunch in an attempt to force me to vomit much to my dismay I just gagged it violently we lit up parts of my memory that I couldn't properly verbalize like the like the smell a home-cooked meal or your child's at home but instead of feeling comfort I felt anger I hadn't thought about that awful stench in years but I couldn't grasp how I could have possibly forgotten it had always been right there I would I'd let it get away from me and then I saw her the child in the stained robe with a black hair she was twitching in the distance just on the border of my peripheral vision her skin was pale her hair ran like veins down to her knees her gown was just as tattered as the last time we met she was gone with a bling returned away I I had seen her she she had been in my nightmares waiting for me it was coming back to me I just just wake up and I move on with my day afterwards how could I I turned back she was directly in front of me I could feel her breath warm against my face her breath it smelled like death or did it her her hair hung over my face only her eyes were visible as it reflected the light of might was no no no girl couldn't be it was pitch black I felt for a wall and my hand brushed against cold metal sheets the time that might be used as the roofing on a barn it was rusted and brittle it grounded myself smell remained all of my lies all half truths made-up details about this place they were they were shipped away there was no more hiding from it no more deflecting the truth I was back in the place I had sworn to never a visit but was always heading back towards and I had the laugh I probably sounded like I was losing it years of sleeping on couches and subletting rooms and I had never gotten comfortable with any way with any of them but somehow in this godforsaken place I found at the very least some familiarity it's like a [ __ ] up home because because as much distance as I'd put between us it has stuck with me it was part of me it seemed about right I was walking through a haunted house of my own making in my delirium I began to wonder if that place had really been around before me had I called it into existence was was mr. Mayes just an old kook who had inadvertently put me on a path towards manifesting this place of Filth and evil was was a prison that I had constructed for myself the tomb that I was always meant to die in I revealed myself back in it's like the dark and silent void was calling out for me to fill it so my mind was attempting to do just that by letting letting anything and everything fly forth but it was too much space to fill it would be be way too easy to get lost there that's how people lose their minds isn't it I told myself that I was going to get back on medication when I got out of there oh I'm gonna need some xanax at the very least my light went out I heard the familiar cry of an animal in the distance it was coming from right in front of me not no it was a it was a voice was an animal again the dying doubt he was whaling me so loud it was in pain I was in pain the whaling was coming from within might which in my head the light flickered back to life for a moment I took in the nothing that stood before me I needed the light when I lost it I immediately began to lose myself I was likely to spread out across the place in an instant and the light was the only thing that kept me there can find but safe I was in the realm of the known anything outside of that was with a real horror waited a flash of bright red appeared in my peripheral vision of course how can I forgotten that I turned to face the red door it wouldn't have looked out of place at a model home and watch suburbia yet here it was out of its element just like me at the door faded and my light died once again it was for good this time I calmly told myself over and over again that when deprived of sight or sound the brain will hallucinate populating the glaring gaps with whatever it can none of this was real I was in a hole in the ground in the middle of Nebraska and I was I was not going to lose myself there I was wandering blindly through the darkness I heard Mr mesas voice it was not the joyful and the calming one from his classroom but the dejected and drunken one from the bar that's a bad place jack I could smell the liquor on his breath like he was sitting in front of me once again hops wrong shaken by a wild life you could hear him slurring his words I punched the wall in front of me I heard only a muffled thud with a brittle and rusted metal sidings they covered the interior of the tunnel fractured it shaved the skin off my knuckles I wish they'd have found the body though when we could have shown them it felt nothing but the warm blood ran down my fingers this place was taunting me I'm sure I'm pretty sure I screamed out I couldn't tell I just needed a drink to rain my thoughts back into my own control my my memories were populating the seemingly infinite empty space around me and the only thing I wanted was for them to quiet down so I could hear myself think I fell to my knees and this is this is what it wanted this place even though it it couldn't want no I did this to myself I wrote this ending for myself when I went chasing the infamous showers and posted about it on the Internet I built this extension of myself that was now eating me I truly it truly was just a hole on the ground and [ __ ] Nebraska that I used to dump my own fears into nothing more I was going to end up like mr. Mays Karen was right the room began to quiet and I could feel it shrinking it's [ __ ] hell on earth if you ask me it was him again but this time I was more acutely aware of the sadness uncertainty and fear in his voice I closed my eyes not that it mattered much I told myself the truth mr. Mays was just a tired old man I couldn't tell if I was speaking out loud or not he had a horrific experience in his younger years and because of it he lost a friend the situation was as simple as that maybe they found his friend's body and maybe they didn't it didn't really matter mr. Mays just couldn't cope with emotional trauma so grandiose that he drank himself stupid to shrink it down into a manageable size something small enough to hide away and check in on really bad nights every now and again but it was always the driving force behind everything he did I didn't realize what I was actually doing at the time but if you just replace his name of mine it might make some sense I felt something creak from above me and I felt that probably got my shoulder but my attention was quickly stolen by something else jack my voice cut to the cylons with a knife and I perked out my heart was back to a hundred beats per minute my brain on fire so it took me a second to process what was happening karen is a person caring as my girlfriend Karen Karen went into the tunnel I went after Karen we were both in the tunnel now Karen just spoke Karen Karen come closer to me come up you were talking to yourself she said your voice was soft and she sounded concerned she were talking to yourself like you were sleeping just now why wouldn't you bring me here this was the venue in which I finally had a real conversation my girlfriend was up ground-living nightmare in the pitch black as a disembodied voice I don't know I replied she was autoplay upset after everything I've given up for you you're still gonna feed me that [ __ ] I mean it I don't know I told her I don't know what this place is or what happened to me here I can't explain any of this can you get me can you it was a bead I was pleading with her but didn't didn't know what my goal was I was just letting everything out so I don't know what this place is or what it did to me except that I wasn't the same after it I'm just [ __ ] up and I don't know why I can't do anything about it and would never want to put you through this ever I was afraid I look at this place i gestured to all around me neither of Assad I could have helped you I notice the past tons like it he hurry and they're moving towards me or resting against the wall how we could have shared it I heard the tears in her voice I didn't know what to say well we are now the walls were groaning around us the noise concentrated above me what is that a scarran it sounds like something's going to excite cold water rain down onto me from above instantly soaking me from head to toe I gasped hard taking in a deep breath and some of the liquid along with it while my every muscle tensed up from the shock and the cold had to taste rust maybe iron before I could think about it for too long my body acted without me coughing and sputtering to rid my lungs of the tainted water I felt once again to my knees I know exactly what hung a couple of feet above my head despite the complete lack of light but I didn't care I wanted nothing more than to be out of that place but I didn't move from underneath the showerhead I looked up and I let the freezing rain pour directly onto my face and let it swallow me if some cold water was all this place held for me then I really did have nothing much to fear I heard a loud and deep Rumble that seemed to emanate from within the walls around me and Karen screamed I heard water pour onto the ground with my left and my right that in front of me than behind me still i sat there with my hands pruned feeling my breath turn into ice they left my lungs despite the extremity of this situation I began to feel the calm from within me and slowly spread my arms out of my science the showers rained down around me a symphony of crystal-clear noise from the creaking pipes to the dolls spatter of each droplet of liquid as it hit the ground and fell over me every sound was clear and full now the sound itself was so full that it almost illuminated the room carving out every last nook took it all in I accepted it this place wanted me he could have me I had made a pilgrimage to that place that birthed the subhuman thing that I had become over the last several years they wanted me back gonna put up a fight I could hear Karen screaming my name and telling me that we needed to get the [ __ ] out of here the showers grew louder drowning around this is more important my body began to numb and my skin began to sting with every drop of water that hit me a sense of instability strangely like vertigo began to overtake me I opened my eyes still seeing only darkness but feeling something else I was mr. Mays back in his classroom my classroom recounting a story of this this place to my students I was in the tunnels carrying my friend Steve the man who first ventured to this place with me years ago away from an approaching darkness beyond us he was leading from a head wound I was reaching upward in bed sweating soaking my sheets and crying I was in a bar telling me my mr. Mays story struggling to find the right words while I ordered another but dull wet thought rang out a few feet ahead to my left snapping me back to my body karen had fallen and screamed my name which now rang out loudly above the noise of the showers jock what's going on she screamed as I heard what I could only assume to be her body dragged across the muddy floor away from me I could feel again I was freezing cold my injured hand could hardly move I began to crawl forward as fast as I could towards the sound of her screams they were going to find her body so that we could show them no I wasn't thinking straight there wasn't going to be a body we were going to get out of the darkness no one was going to be lost here I threw my body in the vague direction of her scream reaching out as far as I could of my arm despite being unable to feel much of it there was some stroke of good fortune my arm slapped against her shoulder she immediately grabbed for me I could I could close my hand as tightly as I could around part of her denim Jack and I pulled her close and wrap my legs around her she wrapped her arms around me and buried her head in my chest her screams are only slightly muffled and I let her have that I didn't know what else to do I just held her as tightly as I could and looked out into the darkness I don't know what I was looking for her screams eventually turned into loud sobbing as the water pressure from the our heads audibly died down eventually stopping completely we lay there together in the freezing mud for a few quiet minutes eventually Karen sobs quieted we'd stand up okay it started frozen they loosen the vise grip I had on her and I stumbled to my feet I didn't let myself lose contact with her for a moment she rose to meet me and we as close together as possible certainly had no idea where we were in the relation to anything down there and I'm sure she didn't either she just got we've got to find a wall they locked my arms with hers and moved to my right which was as good a place to start as any after about 10 long shuffles I bumped into a solid cement wall I couldn't tell if it was covered in ice or if I was just so numb that I couldn't feel the coarse cement it was likely a bit of both Karen kept her head against my shoulder I started to feel the emotional angry she had forced me to come back to this place like the anger bled into sadness she was going to have to carry this with her I should have never let this happen I should have stopped her or told her that I I made it all up I was muttering to myself under my breath the rusty pipes creaked around us but each noise I felt my stomach heave despite the numbness my jaw throbbed in pain I wanted to give up I I was so tired and so afraid I wasn't strong enough and I knew it that was it the person who was going to save his girlfriend and come out of his a hero you can even think we were going to get out of this at all I was lost in thought putting most of my weight against the wall as I moved us along I wasn't expecting a sharp corner I felt my shoulder push into sudden empty space I managed to get one hand onto the corner of the wall as I as I fell but I did nothing when my feet gave way in the mud beneath me it fell hard my head bouncing off the ground with a thud I was instantly sure I'd broken some fingers on my right hand the angles seemed completely wrong when I dropped them against my cheek I screamed mostly out of frustration which caused Karen now alone somewhere in the darkness above me to scream back they're yelling at each other after a time we were too exhausted not a breath to continue I focused on my breathing trying to bring myself back sat up pushing my left hand through the icy mud to ease myself to my feet I felt something on the ground it was it was smooth but not like cement like like metal we're small I gripped it in my hand as best as I could as I stood up my legs weren't going to hold out for long I was getting this the spins but I couldn't tell if it was from the booze the possible concussion or the the disorienting darkness karen was quickly at my side she grabbed my hands and pulled herself close to me I'm sorry we shouldn't have come here I didn't believe you cried in a quick successive breaths I didn't care I didn't want the apology I I wanted to scream at her and spoon her at the same time I I wanted to be fighting with her about something stupid in my apartment the space above us filled with a mess of conflicting emotions shelter shrink I was brought suddenly back when Karen broke the silence yes I had managed to hold on to the object we both felt around there desperately trying to get a sense of what it was it could have been a piece of one of the shower heads for all we knew but for a second there was hope that it was our solution it's kind of cylindrical it was mostly metal it had a little cap on it they rolled it around in my hand careful not to let it go I recognized it it was it was a little flashlight the kind hikers fastened to their backpacks flashlight I stuttered my fingers could feel the button but couldn't quite press it hard enough push the switch like it was hardly blinding both Karen and I prepared to shield our eyes but were surprised by the weakness of the light the outside of the main beam did little to help our situation once our eyes had adjusted slightly you could see the showerhead surrounding us in a when I run down in filthy room that seemed to have no exit it looked and smelled like a pigsty mud and dirt covered the floor and walls she wrapped her arms around me and I held her head against my chest close your eyes just keep them closed I told her the loud wailing of a doe started at my left and quickly enveloped us like it was coming from him surround sound speakers that we couldn't see Karen covered her ears with her frozen hands the tip of her fingers were bright red maybe even purple it was hard to tell from a weak light of a flashlight but I kept the beam santur on us as much as I could I didn't care that whatever was out there could see us the light gave us some sort of warmth were the very least a sense of solidity the noise began to die down until we were left once again in silence we moved back to the tunnel you have to help me find it I said Karen nodded tearing her face away from my chest her tears had frozen her cheeks to my sweater I could see a rim of ice around the red marks on her cheek back that way I think she said pointing to the left light didn't do much to penetrate the darkness but I trusted her so he began to shuffle through the mud which was now the consistency of a of a slushy it had seeped into my boots but it didn't really matter every inch of me was covered in rusty water and frost and a little more cold couldn't hurt the Revue steps the flashlight would dim or flicker you'll Karen tense up every time I was forced to give it a shake rolling a dice on how long it would continue to help us at one point it went out completely she dug her fingers into my side I shook it nothing happened I hit it with the palm of my hands several times nothing happened he's please I muttered under my breath as I hit the switch off and on several times in rapid succession I couldn't let it go it was all we had down in those tunnels the only thing keeping us there maybe just maybe just me from losing myself to the darkness and after a few more attempts it was light the light was across the room an exposed bulb maybe 40 feet across from us came to life it was dim but it was enough to light up a significant portion of space in front of us about 10 feet in front of the bulb and 30 feet from us stood the unmistakable silhouette of a buck head bent down towards the ground I had a large set of antlers 12 points if I had to guess unable to grasp what I was seeing I left I let the dead flashlight fall from my hands ground the metal slept against the cement and this small bit of glass cracked like a stick snapping under a boot in the forest the buck tensed up the quickly rose to attention his antlers scraping hard against the low ceiling some of the points were grinding against it while others cracked and broke off the animal didn't seem to notice where the very least didn't seem to care as it turns its attention toward our general direction Karen began to tug hard on my sweater we have to keep she she cried quietly they continued down the path before us while the stag began weakly bleeding adult of pain shot to my temples the noise went on continuously one long wine this should have been interrupted by a breath at some point which just kept going it was an echo I looked behind us as we shuffled through the dark I could see the glint of light reflecting off the eyes of the Beast it was looking at me it was tracking me he turned my head and I heard several other bulbs come to life on the far side of the room but I dared not look back door I came into view in front of us the paint was stripped the wood was aged and cracked from years of weathering even still I was able to get a sense of the the brilliant red that used to cover the door the NACA was missing a screw and it hung limply off-center the knob still had some shine to it I could see the reflection of the light behind us in it as we moved closer I went to reach my hand to grasp the knob but Karen had already beaten me to it she grabbed it and twisted the internal metal mechanism shifted loudly quieting the bleeding of the Buckman things we do a cracked in creaked even as Karen healed her hand on the icy cold metal the wood began a split the cracks in rapidly outward from the knob crawling across the wood until they reached the hinges the door shifted and began to tip outward it was going to fall on us if I didn't have the strength to stop it we got the tilt and I raised my hand up and I shielded Karen's head while trying to move us out of the way finally the door caught on the old screws in the middle and lower hinges and it swung around to the left right in front of us and I thought the rush of cold air as it brushed within an inch of my face and slammed awkwardly into the wall it fell onto the ground with a resounding crash through the doorway I could make out familiar winding tunnels the ceiling rose and sank like a rollercoaster this seemed to be a part of some twisted design in some places you can find more than three feet of clearance from top to bottom but right now that was moment the metal sheeting that held the earth at bay had given away this couldn't be how he gotten in certainly wasn't how we were getting out of it watch I screamed exhausted my muds burned my mind was still on fire every motion I made was out of instinct because I couldn't probably process what was happening around me neither of us turned around he stood in farmed the doorway staring at the caved-in tunnel that seemed to seal our fate Karen tried to cry but had nothing left in her didn't blame her I grabbed her hand and I held onto it tightly as more lights flickered to life behind us surely if we turned around we'd be able to at least see another exit but the uncertainty of what else we might see stopped us I heard the hard clapping of a set of hooves on the ground somewhere behind us then another and another I saw shadows of what were unmistakably humans growing smaller as they move towards us it was the children I was sure of it even amidst the already overwhelming stench I could smell them pennies and vinegar the robes dragged across the mud their hair covered them having grown down past their knees and Karen gripped my hand back two shadows moved along the walls then 510 and I lost count more bulbs came to life the frost that had built up on the cement walls began to melt each new light source caused the shadows to fade more they seem to be antlers atop the heads of some of the children before they were drowned out completely by more light the room was warming one of them flickered just a couple of feet to my left on my right Karen's head turned upward their protruding several feet from the wall was a shower head it was old rusty caked with frost it was fragile with their free hand she reached up grabbed ahold of the pipe and pulled downward squeezing on my hand as if she was using me for leverage it broke off with surprising ease and Caron pulled back onto my shoulder as water sprayed into the room behind us I could hear feet skittering through the mud and away from the jet of ice Karen turned to face me her eyes mostly closed as she buried her face in my chest and she offered me the showerhead the weapon I took the rusted metal pipe in my hand for the first time in ages I felt like I had a little bit of control a choice to make the footsteps around us grew closer picking up speed I [ __ ] hate this place I said as I swung the pipe through the air to my left it smashed through the ball with ease shattered glass ran into the mud as to my surprise the other lights in the room began to extinguish one by one the room fell back in the darkness and I didn't know if it was better to die in the light or in the dark but at least I got to break something this way I heard the familiar bleeding once again alongside the dying cry of the DOE the footsteps were very very close now only feet away and I hugged Karen as tightly as I could when the light bulb went out there was literally stood in the darkness once more surrounded only by screams of creatures that we couldn't see and I finally turned to in my head to face the room still holding on the Karen the bulbs have died but the filaments still had a slight glow to them it looked like the glow that followed a camera flash as my eyes adjusted I could still make out the silhouettes of children some of them were were no more than an arm's length away these were there was a familiar anger in the air around them they hated me as much as I feared them and maybe maybe it was for the same reason I couldn't even guess what was going to happen once they got a hold of us but I hoped that I would at the very least not be afraid anymore the filaments in the bulbs cooled completely and the darkness settled when I close my eyes I'm sorry I spoken to the top of Karen's head the children right honest I just feel a warm breath on the back of my neck and I snapped my eyes shut without warning the moisture on my neck began to cool feet flew through the mud away from us they will flee the bleeding and crying the animals stopped abruptly and in seconds the room had settled into a deathly silence I slowly opened one eye and I looked upwards about ten feet in front of us was a ray of bright light it was powerful it was cutting through the dark and shining straight onto Karen and I it made the frost on her bright red hair twinkle I had no idea what I was looking at and briefly considered that I was wrong about religion before I heard that familiar growl but car engine my eyes adjusted and I could see that the light was coming from a hole in the ceiling with the wooden boards had collapsed long ago and I could [ __ ] believe it I didn't say a word as a car door slam then Brian's voice echoed down into the hall hey down there his voice rang out filling the room Karen looked up and broke away from me there was a sense of relief in her eyes that her face didn't show she moved quickly Brian her voice croaked Brian you get Assad his [ __ ] ball right now I'll buy you a whole goddamn grow house you promise left I assumed they could see each other now ken was looking up at the hole with a glare she was bathed in lightning I stood there slowly began to move toward her my knee pops my joints ache I was dizzy and I was confused this felt real tangible okay but it's not gonna be easy yelled Brian this rope is kind of icy but I don't I don't really have another option I'm still a little high so I'm gonna have to make you work but how the hell did you guys get down there Karen didn't answer Brian dropped down an old purple climbers robe she grabbed it and began to ascend her life dependent on it Brian was grunting from above and jokingly commenting and how she'd gained weight she was up and out of the hole within seconds and I was left alone in the room I looked around me his face was smaller than it seemed just minutes ago the walls were cracked the mud had mostly frozen solid the showers were empty hey you coming jack yes Brian as I finally made it under the hole I grabbed the Rope tightly and looked behind me towards the decrepit red door that now lay on the ground and the tunnel behind it I could make out the shape of a person standing just beyond the reach of the light I turned my back to them with some help from Brian I pulled myself out of the hole and onto the frozen ground outside I breathed the fresh air into my lungs I was free of the stench of that place but my stomach was still in knots the moon was reflecting off the snow and ice lighting up the clearing around this my could see Karen pacing near the car she was staying in front of the headlights she stopped and fixed her vision on the edge of the trees began to sink in that she was she's now gonna have to live with the same terror that I lived with for the rest of my life it was always gonna be my fault I was on the verge of tears when Brian helped me to my feet I still hadn't decompressed my jaw was clenched shut and I was sure that I had I chipped a tooth every part of me was not my clothes were frozen to my skin Karen began to scream it's there it's right there she yelled and pointed towards the trees as Brian dropped me and ran to her I slumped down and I stared to the ground there was nothing to be done and if there was I didn't know what it was that was as much of a mess as she was her cry started to blend into the background as my mind wandered back to mr. Mays I wondered what he would have done in this situation but I remembered that he had been in this same kind of scenario and his solution was to drink himself stupid it didn't seem like a bad idea for the time being I just needed a sip I reach into my jacket pocket I pulled out the flask opened it and took a sniff and is my surprise burn my nostrils like gasoline made me nauseous closed it and I looked back the hole in the ground I tossed the flask down into the dark I didn't hear it hit the bottom Cheers I stood up and I walked towards Karen whose cries were now sporadic she was jumping at her own shadow as it confused and stoned Brian tried to help her man what's going on make sure the cars all ready to go I told him as I passed by without making eye contact Karen saw me and froze I took her hands and I held them in my own Jack how was it like that how would they like that I was well I was any of that she rambled I'm sure of what she'd seen and what she wanted to ask eventually she broke down doesn't make any [ __ ] sense I didn't I didn't know I didn't I didn't know she bone and I just held her there it was all I could do she hit me out of frustration a few times but still I just let her go I didn't know how to help her but I could listen and be her punching bag I he strove to the car and sat her in the backseat wrapping her in as many blankets as I could and buckling her in as I walked around to the other side of the car I looked back at the hole in the ground one last time and I heard voices they're probably just in my head Brian drove through the trees as quickly as he could several times he seemed to begin question what stopped himself he told us how he'd been in the car when he saw a light coming out of the ground what he thought was one of us waving him over 'we didn't react there was a weight hanging over karen and i that he didn't want to disturb questions could wait I don't even know if he ever got around to them Karen wasn't asleep but her eyes were closed tightly I was buzzing as we drove away it wasn't until we crossed the threshold of the tree line that I was able to loosen the vise grip that I held on the door handle the electricity faded as the tops of the trees that surrounded the showers was taken over by stars I felt my insides begin to relax the dam that had been holding something inside me back finally burst I asked Brian to pull over he obliged almost immediately without a word I stumbled out of the car and began throwing up on the side of the road the only thing that poured out of me was a thick yellowish bile that hung in the back of my throat before slowly dripping down and out of my body this was what I deserved i gagged and thought my eyes bulge as I purged and clawed at my stomach so from my continuous heaving i clenched my fist and I hit the ground causing the wounds and my knuckles to open I only now had taken the look in my hand my middle and ring finger were broken looked like someone had taken a bottle opener to my nail my first knuckle shouldn't have left them that way I didn't get much for free before had about again this was the tail end of an exorcism it felt like years worth of stress lies and fear violently erupting from within me until my lips numb dense my stomach slowly relaxed in my ears loudly popped immediately relieving some of the pressure on the inside of my skull I felt like I was floating I was crying and I knew why but I couldn't quite isolate the thought everything was foreign everything in my brain was misfiring I was rebooting I had made it out i sat in the dirt long enough that the vomit turned to slush on the ground in front of me Brian stayed in the car and looked in the other direction I think I even felt Karen's hand on my back at one point when I finished she was in the car staring anywhere else but me I collapsed into the vehicle shaking and soaking wet Brian started to drive off before I even shut the door I saw Karen's lips tremble several times but she didn't say a word and I didn't know how she managed that I felt like I needed to talk about everything I caught her looking at me once on the drive back as we passed by the exit for broken bone we forgave each other for everything that happened though neither of us actually said it out loud we didn't talk about the shower as much at all we'd fill that place with what we had brought their pain and truth about ourselves that we were using each other to hide from the horror that we experienced in that place was a dose of she would put it so many times before perspective he woke us up we both realized painfully sobering up over the next six hour car ride back home that the two of us looking straight out the windshield without seeing we were better off apart similar to the way that she had moved into my place we never really discussed her moving out the things just started disappearing we repeated the old mantra about staying friends for the next week or so we could practically hear it echo every time the soft kiss on my cheek on a Thursday afternoon she was gone Karen and I couldn't work because we fit too well together we were too uniquely fucked-up individuals with a with a penchant for slipping on a dime it's easy to look back and long for those nights cuddling watching movies together on the couch it's a lot harder to remember reality the nightly watch Lu and Davis and she convinced me to return to the showers for example is not as serene as I implied I remembered that I had gotten extremely irritated and she had picked out that movie because we watched it the month before I felt a deep resentment toward her that almost pushed me to apathy oh this because of a [ __ ] movie before that Karen had called me a stupid [ __ ] because I I hadn't cleaned the cat's litter box that was every night a perfect couple and a perpetual potential domestic dispute rolled into one our solution was to rinse it all down and repeat who are our own perfect enablers and we were always heading towards the ending we got broken boat did nothing but illuminate what was already in front of us I really hope she's doing better now as for me I couldn't continue to live how I lived after Nebraska I was so covered in dirt and blood that I was able to have one of those hard look at yourselves in the mirror moments in front of an actual mirror and realize how far I had let myself spiral down I wasn't just drunk or high but I was both of those things because I was broken and needed something to fill the cracks I couldn't use that place as an excuse anymore I couldn't keep trying to change the story if that sounds like it came from them the mouth of a buck of a quack therapist because it did I started going to therapy once every week initially for the drinking but eventually for everything else I'm not a religious convert or a friend of Bill but I respect the journey and anyone willing to take it no matter the method that needed to make it through I wish mr. Mayes found a way to fight his demons before he left because there are demons really I'll keep them for us boat was going to carry the showers with me they're part of who I am but I don't have to let them kill me anymore the most important concept that I've learned in these therapy sessions is that you can't get better if you keep covering up symptoms while ignoring the real source of your unhappiness lowering your brain out every night with substances just puts off the inevitable confrontation you have to treat it like a wart like it cut it all the way down to the root and tear it out get rid of it kill it you have to get every last piece that's why I came back here it's account this story so many others out there who listen to mr. mesas campfire story throughout the years and then moved on like normal people I've fixated and spread it because I just couldn't resist I can't I can't unright my original stories so my next play is to obfuscate I fully understand writing this defeats that purpose hopefully that won't matter because there is a point to this the story is yours now I don't want it I don't want it anymore take the showers mold them to your needs tell the story around a campfire embellish what you'd like put yourself in a story or a friend or a friend of a friend and then use it to get laid take your wildest theories about the place and create a story all your own make a movie or a book of it turn it into a local urban legend in your own town drown my story with uncertainty in fact go there don't find them ask every citizen and broken bone abrasca about them until they run you out of town get lost on a dirt road a few miles east of the city until you stumble upon a place resembling the one that I've described and then tear it apart bring your friends take pictures explore the tunnels light a bonfire get drunk and throw a party and then post about it on the Internet cover the walls in graffiti and the floors of cigarette butts broken bottles and condom wrappers tell everyone you know about it and smother it flood the internet with so much speculation and rampant [ __ ] about this place that no one will ever point back to mr. Mays or to me as a source drown us in the noise and let us fade away in peace go there yourself and burn at all just just don't forget to tell everyone you know about how you did it afterwards [ __ ] okay I'm sorry I let this go on for so long and this wasn't my intention old habits and I've been pulling from a dusty flask of whiskey that is next laptop in the box I guess else aged now I'm not really on any wagon and after the years of [ __ ] up at my body through a few more nips I'm going to hearted thing it's just one more for the road I'm gonna log out of this I'm gonna post this log out of my account tear up the old sticky note I save my password written on shut down this laptop for what but I hope to be the last time and bury it back under all the junk in my closet alongside this flask tomorrow I'm gonna go into my classroom in the community college where I teach a creative writing course and I'm going to tell my students one of the many versions of the showers that I have told over the years no it's not Halloween maybe I'll dim the lights light a candle or two for atmosphere mr. Mays would be proud the story I tell them is not going to be my story anymore no I'm telling him the story of what happened to my best friend my best friend's brother's ex-girlfriend in some ritual part of Pennsylvania a few years back I swear it's the truth I can't take back what I did when I posted the story for the world to see my next best move take a page from my younger self spread the story like I'm playing a massive game of telephone that I intentionally went to disrupt and distort I wasn't at the heart of it this could even be fun maybe maybe it still will be I gave you a story in some dark night five years ago and the only thing I'm asking in return is for you to take it from me make it into something scarier more violent more cerebral more personal give it a twist ending but hope is that one day someone will tell me a version of my story having claimed it as their own with new facts and faces and I won't even recognize it until I hear the name that now haunts others instead of myself the showers you you hey there everyone who's listening on YouTube or those of you who are listening on the podcast it's me mr. creepypasta and before you head out for the night I just wanted to let you know about a couple of things without you the show doesn't take place so if you guys would like to support the show or if you guys would like to get your hands on a couple of cool little things whenever new things come out check out patreon.com/crashcourse you guys show I really appreciate everyone who's already donated to the patreon I really appreciate it you guys are amazing thank you so much for that if you guys are looking for more creepypasta story time there's a new video that's uploaded to this channel or uploaded to the podcast every Tuesday Thursday Saturday and Sunday now you can be able to get more from me at facebook.com slash mr. creepypasta we're on twitter at mr. Kibby pasta and then the number zero thanks so much for listening kids and for your support I'm sweet to me [Music]

Channel: MrCreepyPasta

Views: 1,031,481

Keywords: mrcreepypasta, Psychological, Terror, creepypasta, narration, horror

Id: HHL2UOGCscU

Length: 164min 16sec (9856 seconds)

Published: Tue May 22 2018