A Night at the Inwell House

A smile covers my face as I look up to see Emily looking down at me as I awake from my nap. I never really took work seriously, something she always got after me for, but waking up to see her beautiful golden silky hair, her bright blue eyes resembling the waters of the Maldives, and well her figure wasn’t anything to scoff at either. This was enough to make me not care about napping on the job.

“What is it this time honey?” I ask with a smirk

She rolled her eyes before pulling me up from the chair “Come on it’s getting pretty busy now. I know we come in early but you are leaving me and Mathew with all the bagging and scanning.”

I sigh and stand up. We live in a relatively small town where, for the most part, everyone knows each other. We work in a local supermarket with the lovely name of Super Emporium. Although there isn’t anything super about it. It’s a small dingy store known for its relatively low prices of meat and fish. The size of the store is small and Emily, Mathew, and I are the only ones who work here during the day.

I walk over to the checkout counter following behind Emily giving her small glances and checking her out. Ever since I met her she’s been the joy of my life. We have been going strong for 3 years now and I’ve been saving up for a ring.

I see Mathew bagging a few items for the current customer checking out. Emily gives me a little shove towards the checkout as I ring them up. Mathew, a bit of an older man, finished bagging sending the customer on their way home, and walked over to me.

“Hey Cole”

I could smell the nicotine coming from his breath. He had a smoking addiction he could never really overcome sneaking a few during work in the break room. How the smoke detector has never gone off is beyond me but, me and Emily suspect he took out the batteries. Not like it matters, it is his business after all a family-owned store he inherited after the passing of his father. He looks at me with a small smile. Ever since his divorce, he’s been different, he seems less motivated, and I can’t help but feel pity that we are the last thing he has. His only friends.

“What’s up Mathew? Sorry about sleeping in but you know how it goes.”

“Oh don’t sweat it Cole.” He gives me a sad smile. “Emily was being a bit dramatic. It isn’t that busy like usual.”

Emily looks over at us overhearing Mathew’s comment with a look of annoyance as she shoots us a middle finger before going back to her duties. I then stand there awkwardly with Mathew before I excuse myself to go back to helping a few customers waiting at the checkout.

A few hours pass and I finish work. Emily gets in my car as usual and I drop her off at her place before going to my home. It’s a nice house big enough to fit 5 people and still have a room to spare. I live with one of my good friends Gary. I’ve known him since we were children. He loves hunting in the local woods and owns a small jerky shop in a nearby plaza.

I enter the home greeted by the scent of manly musk as I see Gary shirtless on the couch eating ice cream from the tub and watching TV.

“Bro really? You smell like ass I can smell you from here” I grumble as I take off my jacket and hang it on the rack near the door.

“Mello out man. It’s not a big deal.” He gives me that stupid grin he does when he knows he is annoying “And besides who gives a shit it’s just us anyways”

I roll my eyes and head upstairs to change out of my work uniform and put on some pajama pants and a t-shirt before heading back down to watch some TV with Gary. We sat there in silence only breaking it to crack jokes and make fun of the show we were watching before calling it a night.

I head upstairs and give Emily a call. She quickly answers and she already sounds tired. I can’t blame her. It’s late and we have to wake up early.

“Hey babe,” I say into the phone. “Sorry for calling late I lost track of time watching TV with Gary”

“It’s fine” She mumbles into the phone before letting out a long yawn. “I am so tired I don’t wanna stay on the phone that long, Cole.”

“I understand honey, don’t worry we will see each other tomorrow ok?”

“Yeah,” she said again in a tired voice. “Good night Cole I love you, hope you dream about me.” she says in a joking manner yet still I know a part of her meant it.

“Ha yea, you know I always do. Good night Emily, love you too” I waited for her to hang up the phone before letting out a sigh and jumping on the bed. It’s gonna be a long night I think to myself as I close my eyes. A calming feeling washes over me as I remember the scent of Emily as I drift off to bed. Roses and vanilla fill my nostrils as I see her in my dream. I can see the perfect picture of us. Me and her together with a small child in her arms as we both look down at it with proud looks on our faces. Oh, how it would be amazing.

The dream continues as it’s me and her playing with our child. We look proud seeing its first steps before looking into each other’s eyes. Our faces get closer and closer our lips pursed as I lay a hand on her cheek pulling her into a- KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! I open my eyes confused by the sound. My room was pitch black nothing but the silent buzz of the TV in my room. Am I imagining things? I ask myself as I look around. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! There it was again a frantic knocking sound. This wasn’t in my head. I stand up from the bed looking at the door. The only person in this house is Gary so who else could it be?

“Gary? Everything alright?”

No response instead greeted with another loud knocking on my door. I stand up from my bed stumbling in the darkness of my room as I head toward the thee. I reach my hand for the sleek metallic door knob before hearing another loud knock startling me as I fall backward.

“Shit! Hello? Who is it? Your starting to creep me out Gary this shit isn’t funny”

No response again. I stand up ready to open the door before I hear a soft voice coming from the other end.

“Cole you there?”

It was Emily, her voice as charming and melodic as ever to my ears. “Y- yea, hey Emily.” I chuckle nervously. “Jeez, were you trying to scare me babe? Cause well it worked” I began laughing at her little prank. I gave Emily the keys to the house a few weeks ago although she never really did much with them. I guess tonight she missed me too much or something. I rationalize to myself for her weird behavior as I open the door.

“I guess you need daddy to scratch that itch again huh babe…” My voice drops as I twist the door open greeted by nothing on the other end. Darkness nothing but darkness in the hall. She wasn’t there.

“Emily?” I call out for her yet no response. “Emily! I know you’re here, come on it’s late, no need to try to scare me, let’s just go to bed huh?” I say in an annoyed tone due to her antics.

I hear her voice from downstairs “Come honey let’s eat breakfast”

Breakfast? I think to myself. Breakfast this late? Has she lost her mind? I began heading down stairs when I asked.

“Emily is everything alright why are just wandering in the house in darkness anyway” I turn on the lights in the kitchen. Nothing. It was empty. My heart sank as I got a weird feeling in my stomach. She was here. She knocked on my door and I heard her voice clearly. What the hell was going on?

Gary walks down a few minutes later. “What’s up with all the racket Cole? Can you like not make so much noise at fucking 4 am?” He sounded pissed and the look on his face confirmed that thought.

“Did you hear her?” I ask “Did you hear Emily?”

“What? No? What the fuck are you on about dude? Go to sleep Jesus don’t do that weird shit again man I know you wanna marry the woman but fucking hell I am trying to sleep and you are over here screaming ‘Emily ahhhh come to daddy’” He mocks me before heading back to his room in a grumble saying obscenities to me.

At any other moment, I probably would have been upset with his attitude, but something was wrong. He didn’t hear Emily. How is that possible her voice was clear and there was no way I could just imagine something like that right?

I head back into my room paranoid and head back to sleep waking up the next morning. The day went slow and I went through work as if nothing happened until I couldn’t hold it in anymore and confronted Emily about it in the break room.

“Hey, Emily did you um… come over to my place last night?” I ask, unsure about the question myself.

“No?” she said, confused. “Why do you ask?”

“Nothing I just thought I heard you last night but I never saw you and Gary said he didn’t hear anything either, but I swear I heard you knocking on my bedroom door and talking to me.” I say a little worried now. The events of last night felt too real to be fake. I noticed that Mathew overheard our conversation as he walked over to us.

“You thought you heard her, you say? But Gary said he didn’t?” I nod to his comment and respond “Yeah.”

Mathew shakes his head. Emily pays attention to his words as well. I feel her hand on my shoulder as she rubs it, noticing the distress on my face trying to comfort me. “Well call me crazy, but I am a big believer in the supernatural.” He said quietly. “Look Cole I know you probably won’t believe me, but I think you might have a mimic on your hands.”

I scoffed in disbelief, but a part of me wanted to believe him. What happened last night felt too real for it to just be in my head. What if he is right? “You’re joking right?” I say in shock at his proposition.

He shakes his head “Look Cole you have two options either you are crazy or it’s a mimic. You have all the signs it’s one as well. The perfect sound of someone you know but no clear source knocks on your door. I mean come on, is it really that crazy?” He chuckles as if he was talking to an idiot.

I looked at him with a scowl on my face as much as I wanted to deny it. His words were scaring me. I was never a firm believer of the supernatural but I always thought maybe… just maybe there are things in this world we can’t understand. “Look, Matthew, I seriously doubt all that. You are speaking out your ass trying to scare me, it was probably just in my head.”

He shrugs “Suit yourself just putting in my input and thoughts if anything else happens let us know alright? We are friends after all.”  He gave me a sincere look before walking out of the break room.

I look over at Emily who just hugs me. “Let me know if anything else happens ok babe?” I believe what you say is true, you have no reason to lie to us.” I nod and kiss her.

The rest of the day goes by fine and I head back home. Gary is doing his usual thing. I hear music blaring from his room and considering he goes to the bar on Fridays I could imagine what’s going on in that room. I head into my room and change into something more comfortable. I head into the kitchen and pop open a cold beer. I sit on the couch and put on the news the music from Gary’s room louder than the TV itself. After about what seemed like an hour the music goes off and sees Gary come downstairs with a girl.

Both of them were sweaty, the girl’s hair was ruffled and plastered on her face meanwhile Gary was drenched. I could smell their shame and musk from the couch as he ushered the girl out of the house.

“Looks like you had a good time huh?”, I take a swig from my beer and offer him the bottle. “Want a swig?”

Gary takes the beer from my hand with a groan and takes a drink and hands it back. “Shut up Cole, I didn’t know you’d be here so early.” He looks at the clock “Take that back I guess I didn’t know it would take so long.”

I laugh and stand up and pat his back “Yeah man” before I head into the kitchen he grabs my shoulder.

“Yo Cole about last night” He had a face of worry “Everything all right bro? You seemed pretty convinced about all that shit, but I didn’t hear nun”

I sigh and nod “Yeah everything is alright Gary I probably was just missing Emily like you said” I didn’t want to tell him about the mimic theory Mathew threw at me. Neither did I want to accept that as a reality.

Gary walks away and heads back into his room and I sit at the kitchen table pondering. I was scared to go back to my room and sleep. It was about to be 11 pm, and I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to risk that happening again. Even though I knew it wasn’t real, a part of me was doubtful.

Fatigue started to get to me. I am overreacting, I think as I stand up and start heading toward my room. It’s late, I got to sleep. This is me being stupid, I walk into my room and lay in bed. I close my eyes and soon I fall into a deep slumber.

I dream about Emily again, well more so a memory of our first date. I sit with her at the pier of the beach as she smiles at me.

“Hey you know this was quite fun.” Her hands moved closer to mine. “We should do this again sometime, I haven’t felt this happy in a while.”

I nod “Y- yeah I agree this was a nice time.” We both look over at the sunset, our hands now touching as we watch the sun go over the horizon.

“So beautiful,” Emily mumbles.

“Not as beautiful as you.” I blush a little embarrassed from my cheesy comment but Emily laughs.

“Aw, how sweet, well you’re not so bad yourself” She jokes as she scoots closer and rests her head on my shoulder.

I stroke her hair as the world around us goes dark, the sun now gone. We stay there in the same position before she stands up. “Come on, we should go now, this was fun.”

I agree and I try to stand up. I couldn’t move. My chest begins to feel heavy as I try to move. I start wheezing as if something is lying on top of me.

I am taken out of my dream the same feeling as if something laying on my chest remains. After a while, my eyes adjust to the darkness, and that’s when I see it. On top of me lay a woman with bruised skin tattered in dirt. Its black hair was matted on its face, Her long dirty nails caressed my chest as she stared at me with her black sunken eyes.

She then spoke. Her voice was so mesmerizing like the singing of birds. It was the voice of the woman I love. “Hello Cole.” it said in Emily’s voice “I’ve missed you.”

The creature then smiled at me, her teeth crooked and black. It was appalling. I wanted to run, but I was stuck there unable to move. No matter what my brain told my body to do, it would not function. The creature, the mimic, then stood up. I noticed her belly grow and grow as if she was pregnant. I watch in horror as I watch this unfold. I see a baby begin to crown and the mimic yells. I still can’t move or run as I watch this creature give birth to a baby with sickly gray skin and pure black eyes. The baby doesn’t cry; it remains silent as tears of this black liquid pour out of its eyes. The mimic brings the baby towards me with a sick smile. “Look Cole, it’s our baby boy.” The mimic seems ecstatic about it and brings the baby to me holding up to my face as I lay on the bed unable to move, unable to scream for help.

I watch as the baby turns its head to me and in a deep demonic voice, it says “Papa” Suddenly the baby begins to vomit the same black fluid leaking from its eyes onto my face. I feel a burning pain as this corrosive fluid lands on me. I try to move, I try to cry, but I just can’t. The baby then stops, and the mimic then throws it to the side of the room as it splats onto the wall. It didn’t care for its life almost as if it was some sort of tool for it to use.

The mimic grabs me by my hair and drags me to the mirror.

“Look Cole,” It said in a demented way. The same voice the baby had. No longer hiding its true nature, and hiding behind Emily’s voice. “You are as beautiful as me.”

I see my face in the mirror and the skin on my face flayed. I could see the muscles of my face parts of the muscle were completely gone revealing the bone underneath. The mimic brushes its nails against my face and pierces my eyes. The pain was unbearable yet I could not scream. I could feel my blood run down my body. I wanted to cry. I wanted this nightmare to be over. I just wanted my life to be normal again.

The rest of what happens is a bit fuzzy. Since I was blinded I did not know what other torture the mimic made me go through. All I was able to do was feel it, but eventually my brain just shut itself off.

I awoke in the morning back in my bed. I look around, touch my face, and notice my vision is back. I look around the blood stain of the baby now gone. It was as if nothing happened. I head over to the bathroom and look in the mirror. My body was untouched. I looked around for any sign of what happened last night but there was nothing to show for it.

I head downstairs to see Gray who immediately shoots me a weird look.

“God damn bro, looks like you’ve seen a ghost.” He says with a little bit of a worried look.

“Yea well, I guess that’s one way to put it.” I reply as I grab the coffee pot and serve myself a cup. I look back at him, seeing his worried face. I want to tell him but I am scared he will think I am crazy.

“It was just a bad dream, that’s all”, I lied trying to give him some closure about me “Besides, I don’t look that bad just lost a little sleep that’s all.” I grin and walk out of the kitchen before he could respond, not wanting to talk about it. I walk out of the house mug in hand and get in my car. I start driving not knowing where I am going. I begin to break down in tears. I can’t figure out what’s happening to me. This thing… it won’t leave me alone. I haven’t said this but I see it in the corner of my eye now watching. As I drive I can see it in the rearview mirror sitting in the back seat.

I can’t escape it no matter what I try. It stays with me idle waiting for me to sleep and… and…

“AHHHHH” I hear a yell and my tires screech to a halt as I feel my car go over a bump. I get out of my car and see a woman holding her child on the floor. I can’t wrap my head around it as I look back at my car noticing the street streaked with red tire marks on the floor. The baby’s head looked abnormally flat with blood littering the floor like some kind of horror movie set. I keep looking back and forth barely able to hear the gurgles of the dying mother. All the creature did was smile. Why was it following me? What does it want from me? Why won’t it just kill me?

I look back at the mother and baby and am left with no other option. I get in my car and drive away. I keep driving my mind blank, unable to believe what I just did. I didn’t dare look at my rearview mirror anymore. I knew it was there. I didn’t have to look. It was breathing down my neck.

After a long drive, I arrived back home not even bothering to say hi to Gary. I run into the bathroom and lock myself in as I begin to vomit disgusted with myself. How could I just leave those two to die? Jesus, I killed a child and its mother in a hit-and-run! I thought to myself as I continued to vomit. I look up at the mirror to see it behind me. The same being pretending to be the girl I love except this time it was slightly different. It no longer looked like her but instead, a decaying corpse to run down to even figure out how she looked prior.

I turned around to face it as it stood there idle. It was missing an eye, its flesh rotten and filled with maggots and worms wriggling under the gray paper paper-thin flesh. Its face bore a smile too wide for any human to manage; there were no teeth, just gums. I look away from it as I vomit again from its putrid appearance. And I feel it touch me as it whispers to me in Emily’s voice.

“You did good there Cole. You did exactly what I wanted.”

I turned around screaming trying to push it away but it was gone as if it was never there. I began to cry. I couldn’t take it anymore. This thing made me a murderer. It’s as if it’s living in my mind.

After a while, I leave the bathroom with my brain in shambles as I just walk into my bedroom and lie down. I was nothing but a vegetable for the rest of the day. I didn’t pay much attention, but managed to hear Gary telling me he was going to stay over at a friend’s house. I didn’t see the creature for the rest of the day.

Later that night I got a call from my girlfriend. I answered waiting for her to speak first.

“Hey Cole is everything alright? I am worried about you Babe, you missed work today. You want me to come over?” she said in her sweet voice, but for me, it was nothing but haunting as my heart sped up hearing it. I couldn’t tell if it was her or that mimic, creature, demon, whatever it was. I took a deep breath and finally responded after a long pause.

“Yes Emily, I would like you to come over. I’ve been having issues with the mimic or whatever. Maybe it is all in my head and having you over might help put me at ease.” I rationalize with myself. After talking to her for a little longer I hung up the phone. She agreed to stop by around 8 PM leaving me with about 2 hours to prepare for her visit. I lay on my bed contemplating everything. How did my life go to hell because of this? I am a murderer! I don’t know what to do. I just… I hope maybe if I can see Emily this might all blow over sure I killed someone, but if no one knows did it really happen? Jesus look at me with these terrible thoughts! It wasn’t like I did it! The Mimic… The thing made me!

I leave my room and head downstairs and decide to start cooking. Since she will be coming here late, I thought I’d treat her with a nice dinner. I wasn’t an amazing cook, but I managed through some video tutorials and a messy kitchen. I finally finished making the lasagna. I set it so it can cool as I waited for Emily, The Mimic nowhere in sight.

Finally, I hear a knock on the door and go open to be greeted by an angel. I look at her in awe. She pulled me into a kiss and smiled at me causing my heart to flutter as I doted on her, Touching her hair and pulling her into a hug. I couldn’t believe it was actually her. After being tormented by this thing pretending to be her, here she was, in my arms, smiling.

I let her inside and we walked to the kitchen as she sat. I serve us both a piece of the lasagna. I could see her physically cringe after taking a bite, but she powered through it knowing I took time and tried at least to make her dinner.

“Wow Cole this was really nice of you to do” She smiles “Well I am all full Babe thanks so much again, but next time I think we should order food so you don’t have to do so much work, ok honey?” She takes the plate and places it into the sink before coming back to me wrapping her arms around me as I finish eating.

“You are so cute you know that? You do so much to try to make me happy it’s only right I fair I make you happy darling. Come on once you finish eating let’s watch that one show you were telling me about. Breaking Bad or something? I know you wanted to watch it with me” She walked away and headed toward the living room.

Once I finished eating and cleaning the dishes after incessantly refusing Emily’s pleas to let her do it so I could relax, I headed toward the living room plopping myself onto the couch as she held me in her arms stroking my hair.

“So we are gonna watch it or not?” She asked sweetly, her voice felt like ecstasy in my ears.

“Yes, hun we are.” I respond as I put on the show.

We sat and watched Breaking Bad hooked on it. Every time we said “last one” we would start another wanting to know what would happen. Eventually, we both agreed it was too late so we headed to bed.

I held her in my arms while lying on the bed touching her hair and kissing her. The movements of her hips as she grinded on me made us heated as we both knew what we wanted to do. We made love that night despite us doing it almost weekly. It was different this time. Instead of the usual lustful pleasure, it was more pure, and I must say it was probably the best session that we ever had. We really did love each other and tonight we expressed it the best we could have in private just me and her and no one else.

Afterward we talked, and she explained to me that she was going to go help her mom tomorrow at the homeless shelter like she did every other week, but she said she was also volunteering at a hospital. I asked if I could join her, but she said all the positions were filled and she would ask to see if it was still possible and let me know as soon as possible.

Finally, we both drifted off to sleep. I had forgotten all about what happened. I no longer cared about The Mimic or the people I ran over. I had no worries at all now that the one thing that kept me going was here in my bed sleeping with me.

I woke up later that night. I reached over Emily to grab my water, touching gently before recoiling back. I get off the bed as my eyes adjust to the darkness and I notice my hands covered in maggots. I yell, wiping them off and turning on the lights to see The Mimic in the spot where Emily had been sleeping. It stared at me, its eyes burning into my soul as it stood up with that smile. It looked like it did when I first met it, a woman with her skin covered in dirt and bruised, her deep black sunken eyes, and long dirty nails.

“What did you do with Emily!”, I yelled in fear and anger. It just stared at me silently before opening its mouth and speaking in Emily’s voice

“Cole, are you ok? It’s me Emily.”, it said as it walked closer to me reaching its long dirt hand towards me.

I slap it away before punching it in the nose. I was no longer afraid of it. I was enraged. I don’t know what it did to Emily,  but I have had enough of its shit. I ran toward the kitchen as I heard the mimic call for my name as it chased me still using Emily’s voice.

I rummage through the drawers looking for any weapon before finding a large combat knife from the junk drawer that Gary probably left in there. I confront the mimic as it stares at me.

“Cole is everything all-” I cut off the mimic when I sliced the knife toward it leaving a gashing wound on its arm. Blood spills on the floor as I watch it writhe in pain holding its arm.

“Cole, what the hell is wrong with you!” The mimic yells in her voice. It was trying to trick me; it still thought it could trap me, but that just left it open for another strike. I slice at it with the knife again as it lifts up its hands to protect its face causing me to cut through her wrists and arms as I berate it with slashes from the knife. Its yells in Emily’s voice pained me to my core, but I knew I couldn’t stop. This was my only chance to finally dispose of this demon.

I eventually cut its arms and wrists to the point they give away as it can no longer hold them up. For the first time, it had a look of fear in its eyes.

“Cole please stop, you’re gonna kill me! Please stop, we can talk!” It yelled in her voice, but I wasn’t having it. I tackle it to the floor and get on top of it as I bring down my knife into its chest over and over and over again. Its blood splatters all over me as I continue to jab the blade into its torso. I get off of her thinking it’s finally dead as I look down at its body twitching and groaning. The floor is littered with both dried and fresh blood, the room smelt like iron. I look at the knife covered in blood, my clothes drenched in the same red fluid. I look at it as it moves again trying to drag itself.

I grab it by the hair pulling its head up and press the knife against its neck. This was it. Finally, the horror will be over. I slowly pull the knife across its neck savoring the sound of the flesh and muscle getting sliced watching the blood spill out like an overflowing pool. I finish dragging the blade across a massive gash now through its neck. I drop it as I hear it gurgling while watching its last few moments alive. It was finally over. It was dead.

Patient name: Cole Inwell

Occupation: Store Clerk

Reason for hospitalization: Murder, untreated schizophrenia

Case: Murdered Emily Sherman due to a psychotic episode of untreated schizophrenia. Cole believed Emily was a hallucination he calls The Mimic. He was found by Gary Warner drenched in blood standing over Emily’s body. The cops were called and Cole was soon arrested where he pleaded insanity. He was tested and put into the Sulken Mental Institute where he currently remains. Biopsy later reported that Emily died of excessive blood loss and organ failure. Her body was found with 46 stab wounds and a slit throat. Her family was given all the details except for one that the Police department agreed to keep classified. During the biopsy, a 3-week-old fetus was found in her womb. She died pregnant.

I drop the file on my desk and sigh as I grab my lab coat and head toward room 132 where Cole Inwell resides. I open the door and enter and see Cole sitting on his bed with a smile on his face.

“Hello Dr. Henderson” Cole replies looking me dead in the eyes. “Is it time for my meds?”

I nod and hand him a small paper cup with different medication and hand him a glass of water. He seemed more happy than usual. I left him in his room shortly after to go fill in some paperwork. The day went on relatively quickly. When I finally headed home I was greeted by my dog and wife. Before I could set anything down I received a message on my pager. Cole had taken his own life. I lay down on my couch contemplating. I had heard his story. It was tragic. If he just had the proper treatment it all could have been prevented. But in the back of my mind, I always had a nagging feeling that what if… what if his story wasn’t a lie? What if The Mimic was real? I hear my Wife call me from the kitchen. She died 3 years ago.