The Residents

7/31/2019 The Residents

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THE RESIDENTS

The rain started pouring by the time Jerry McGraw and Brian Wright were ready to leave

the Brownstone house. Drops of cold rain pelted the windows, filling the quiet house with noise

that sounded like applause. The two men were aggravated because they had just put on their suit

jackets and neither of them had an umbrella.

Michael Brooks, their roommate, along with their girlfriends Sarah and Kate, had taken the

only two umbrellas them since the forecast had called for rain. Even though it hadn’t started

raining when they left, they feared they would get caught in an inevitable down pour. Since Jerry

and Brian were driving the girls figured the guys wouldn’t need umbrellas.

The car was parked in front of the house under a tree, but the walkway to the curb was

exposed to the rain. In the walkway a small river flowed to the sidewalk.

Brian and Jerry stood in the vestibule staring at the car.

“Well this doesn’t look like it’s going to let up soon,” Jerry said while looking up at the

grey sky.

“Best just to run for it,” Brian said.

“We’re going to get drenched.”

Brian pressed the button on the car remote. The headlights flashed twice as the doors

unlocked.

“If we hurry we’ll just get a little wet,” he said.

“Okay,” Jerry said apprehensively.



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Jerry locked the front door, then they ran as fast as they could to the car. The rain was cold.

It pelted them hard, but they didn’t stop moving.

After they got into the car, Brian immediately turned the car over to start the heat. As they

shook off the cold water the windshield fogged up immediately. Jerry was about to wipe it clear,

but Brian grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t do that. You’ll leave streaks on the glass. The heat will clear it up in a few,” he said

as he looked back at the house. “Hey genius, you forgot to turn the light out in your room.”

“No I didn’t,” Jerry said.

Brian pointed to the upstairs window. Jerry lowered his head to look. The lamp on a night

table in his room was on, glowing bright.

“I could have sworn I shut it off.” Jerry scratched his neck in bewilderment. “I was sure I

shut that off.”

“Well, you have to go and shut it off. We don’t want to run up the bill,” Brian said.

“Seriously? The girls leave the lights on all the time.”

“And did you see the last electric bill because of that? We’re on a budget, man.”

“Awe c’mon, I just ran through that cold rain. It’s one light,” Jerry said.

“I’m not moving until you go back and turn it off.”

“Man, c’mon for Pete’s. . . . Uh! Fine, I’ll be right back.”



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Annoyed, Jerry flung the car door open, stepped out and slammed it hard. The car shook.

Brian rolled the window down and yelled to him.

“Don’t slam my door so hard!”

Jerry ignored him as he ran to the house while he dug the house keys out his pocket.

“Get’s me sick with his frugal ass,” Jerry mumbled. “Where are you?” he said as he

fumbled with the keys.

When Jerry found the key, he opened the door quickly and ran inside up the stairs. The

wooden steps cried under his feet as he stomped his way up to his room on the second floor. His

room was at the far end of the hall toward the front of the house. He opened the door and saw the

lamp on the nightstand was on.

Jerry thought back to what he had done before he went down to meet Brian. He

remembered checking himself in the mirror, grabbing his suit jacket, then finally turning the light

out. Jerry was positive that was the last thing he had done.

He reached under the lampshade and turned the little knob. There was a click and the light

went out. Jerry paused for a moment and stared at the lamp in the dark. Maybe there was a glitch in

the switch that made it come back on. So he waited to see while the silence.

Back in the car, Brian turned the radio on to the all news station and listened for an update

on street and weather conditions. The meteorologist was calling for a flash flood warning of the

area.



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“That’s great,” he said aloud. He looked back at the house and saw the upstairs light go

out. A few moments later, Jerry emerged from the house and ran to the car.

“Man!” he said as he got in. “I said it before, this rain is cold. How are the roads?”

“There’s a flash flood warning in effect. So I’m going to stay off the side streets. Ready?”

Brian put the car in gear and started to slowly pull away from the curb. “We’re going have a

packed car on the way–” Brian slammed on the breaks and the car lurched to a stop as he looked

out the window.

“What’s wrong?”

“Look.” Brian pointed to Jerry’s window.

Jerry followed Brian’s finger and looked up at his room. The light was back on again.

“I just shut that off,” Jerry said.

“I know. I saw it when you turned it off.” He looked at Jerry. “It just came back on.”

“You know, maybe there’s a glitch in that switch.”

“You think?” Brian asked.

“Uhh! Okay I’ll be back,” Jerry said. “I know how to fix this.”

Jerry bolted from the car and went back into the house again. Brian watched as the light

went out again, then Jerry came running back out to the car. He was halfway to the car when Brian

saw the light come back on. He immediately got out of the car.

“Stop!”



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“What?”

“Look! It’s back on again,” he yelled through the rain.

Jerry turned around and looked up at the window. The light was burning bright. He turned

to Brian.

“That’s not a glitch!”

Brian slammed the car door and joined him in the walkway.

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“How positive?”

Jerry looked at him. “I pulled the lamp out the socket. That light isn’t plugged in.”

They stood there in the cold rain looking at one another. There was fear on their faces.

Brian’s teeth began to chatter and he wasn’t sure if it was from the weather or from fear.

“If you pulled it out then how is it back on?” Brian asked.

Jerry looked back at the window and then the light went out. They both jumped.

“Okay you saw that right?” Jerry asked.

“I saw it. I just don’t know what to think about it.”

“I think someone is in the house.”



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“There are bars on the windows in the back of the house so I can’t see how anyone could

get in. You didn’t hear anyone in there when you went back in did you?” Brian asked.

“No.”

“I really doubt someone is in the house,” Brian said.

Jerry looked back up at the window. The light came back on. Then the curtain moved a

little before the light went back out again.

“Oh wait,” Jerry said as he pointed to his window. “The curtain just moved. Someone is up

there.”

Brian looked at the window. “I don’t see–”

“How much you wanna bet Michael is in there playing around with us,” Jerry said.

“Michael is with the girls,” Brian said.

“He left with the girls, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t come back here,” Jerry replied. “Bet he

doubled back and slipped back in while we were getting dressed.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Why do you think? A dark and stormy night? The old house,” Jerry said. “He’s been

trying to scare us with this whole haunted house theory ever since we moved in here. Remember

last week when we found the kitchen chairs stacked on top of one another in the kitchen? He told

us poltergeists did it. You know he did that himself.”

“I don’t think he would come all the way back here to play a prank on us,” Brian said.



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“Oh yes he would. It’s him, I bet you. Come on. Time to give him a taste of his own

medicine,” Jerry said.

Before Brian could protest, Jerry was on his way back into the house. Brian grumbled,

went to get the key out the ignition and followed Jerry inside.

*

The house was dark. The street lamp outside provided just enough light to cause shadows

from the furniture in the living room to their left. Against the far wall, the shadow of tree branches

scratched the wallpaper like skeletal fingers. Brian started to turn the light on in the vestibule, but

Jerry stopped him and placed a single finger over his lips. He pointed up and touched his ear.

On the second floor they heard a pair of footsteps walking down the hall toward Jerry’s

room, then his door creaked open. Jerry and Brian looked up at the stairs and saw the hall fill with

light briefly from Jerry’s lamp, then the door closed and the hall went dark. There was shuffling

around in Jerry’s room then the door opened and closed again. The footsteps started to move

toward the top of the stairs, but when Jerry moved toward the steps, the footsteps stopped.

“I think he knows we’re in the house,” Brian whispered.

The stairs went straight up, then wound to the left at the second floor landing. The landing

was part of a long hallway that stretched from Jerry’s room in the front to the girls’ and Michael’s

rooms and finally the bathroom at the back of the house. Across from Jerry’s room was another set

of stairs that continued up to the third floor. The landing light was off, plunging it into darkness.

Jerry crept to the first step and looked up at the landing. He tried to look and see if he could

see Michael, but his eyes hadn’t gotten completely acclimated to the dark. He waited for a moment



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until he could make out shapes in the dark, then he motioned with his hand for Brian to follow

him.

The stairs cried despite the fact that they walked softly and slowly. They stuck close to the

wall so they could see through the banister at the top of the landing. They reached the middle of

the staircase when the footsteps ran back to Jerry’s room. Jerry and Brian froze as Jerry’s bedroom

door creaked closed.

“See,” Jerry whispered. “It’s Michael. He’s messing with us.”

“This isn’t funny,” Brian whispered. “Michael, this isn’t funny!” Brian screamed.

“Shh!” Jerry said. “Don’t ruin it. C’mon,” Jerry said and they started to walk again.

They approached the top of the stairs and the top step creaked. The light in the room

immediately came on and the lock clicked.

“Oh he’s funny,” Jerry said. “Lemme think for a minute.”

Brian took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He turned and looked back down the stairs

and considered going back.

“Let’s just go. We’re late already,” Brian said.

“Oh no. I’m going to fix him,” Jerry said and he took one more step and stood on the

landing.

Brian started to turn to join him when he though he saw someone standing at the bottom of

the stairs. He turned quickly and stared at what appeared to be the silhouette of a person. He

couldn’t make out any facial features, but it did look like a person. A lump grew in his throat as he



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started to shiver and goose bumps rose on his arms. He turned to Jerry and started to say something

when he heard the stair creek. He turned quickly to look. No one was there. “C’mon,”

Jerry said as he slowly made his way to his bedroom door.

Brian looked at him then back down the stairs. Whatever it was he thought he saw was

gone. He chalked it up to his mind playing tricks on him.

Jerry and Brian crossed the landing and walked with their backs along the wall. They could

hear the rain beginning to come down harder as it pelted the window at the end of the hall.

Thunder rolled and the street light outside flickered before going out. The light under Jerry’s door

burned bright.

“Why don’t we put the lights on?” Brian asked.

“And completely spoil everything?” Jerry asked.

“What exactly are you going to do?”

“Oh I have something special planned,” Jerry replied.

“Someone’s going to get hurt in the dark like this,” Brian said.

Jerry didn’t respond. He reached out and carefully placed his hand on the doorknob. As he

tightened his grip they heard footsteps moving around in the room. Jerry turned the knob, but it

wouldn’t turn all the way. It clicked against the lock. The footsteps stopped.

“ Hello?” A voice of a child called out from the other side.

“They are in the house. Don’t go near the door.” A deep and breathy voice whispered.



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Jerry and Brian looked at one another. The blood left Brian’s face and fear crept down his

back.

“Who is that in there?” Brian whispered. “That doesn’t sound like Michael.”

“I know.”

“That sounded like a kid. And the other voice–”

“Okay Michael!” Jerry called out aloud. “Stop the games!”

They listened but there was no response. Jerry turned the knob despite it being locked.

Thunder rolled outside. As it died down they heard footsteps, slow but heavy, coming up

the stairs. The stairs creaked.

Jerry moved to the banister and looked over it. There was no one on the stairs. Suddenly

the footsteps stopped. When he turned back to Brian, all the blood left Jerry’s face.

Standing next to Brian was the ghostly figure of a girl with wet matted hair looking at him.

Her skin, deathly pale, was luminescent in the dark and she shivered as her clothes dripped water

onto the floor.

“Who’s Michael ?” she said.

Brian looked at her and screamed from fright. The girl screamed back and backed away

from him. Jerry rushed to Brian’s side as she stepped back to the top step and stared at them. When

Brian stopped screaming, so did she.



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“ I have to dry off now,” she said, then she walked to the bathroom at the end of the hall and

straight through the closed door.

The lock on Jerry’s door clicked and the door slowly creaked open. Brian gripped Jerry’s

shoulder and started to pull him.

“Let’s get the hell outta here,” Brian said.

The door opened wider and a bone chilling shrill came from inside the room. Jerry froze as

he felt icy chills serge through his body that kept him from running. Fear overtook him and he fell

backward on the floor. Brian ran and flipped the hall light switch. The hallway lit up.

Brian looked down and saw wet footprints going down the hall toward the bathroom. He

turned to Jerry and watched him get up off the floor.

Suddenly Jerry’s room door swung open and Jerry was violently pulled into the room by an

invisible force. The room door slammed shut and the bulb in the hallway ceiling exploded,

plunging Brian into darkness.

From inside the room, Brian could hear Jerry’s blood curdling screams for help.

Fear turned into confusion. Brian wasn’t sure if he should run or try to open the bedroom

door. He turned toward the door, but something pushed him violently into the banister. As he

started to lose his footing, he was pushed toward the stairs. He slipped on the wet area the ghostly

girl had left behind. His feet gave out from under him and his whole world turned upside down as

he tumbled down the stairs into the dark.

Brian hit the bottom hard. All the air left his body as he lay still on the floor. His ears

started ringing. He could hear Jerry’s muffled screaming from inside his room.



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“Help me! Oh my God! Help me!”

“Jerry! I’m hurt!” Brian screamed back to him. “I don’t think I can move.”

“Brian! Help me!”

Brian’s lower back was numb from pain. For a moment, he couldn’t feel his legs. He lifted

his arm and made a fist with his hand. Relieved he wasn’t paralyzed he placed his hand on the

lower step and started to push himself to his feet.

A flash of lightening lit up the living room across from him and he saw the figure of a large

man in coveralls standing by the sofa looking at him. Brian froze. His mouth went dry. When

everything went dark a pair of red eyes stared back at him, then slowly disappeared.

From upstairs, Jerry let out a blood curdling scream. There was a loud thud followed by the

shuffling of feet. Jerry’s room door flung open.

Brian looked up and saw Jerry running down the stairs toward him. He ran past Brian and

ran for the front door. Jerry frantically pulled on the door knob. The door wouldn’t open. He was

crying so bad that he was shaking.

“Open damn it! Open!” he screamed.

“Jerry, wait for me. I think I hurt my leg,” Brian said.

Brian pulled himself to his feet and stabled himself. Lightning flashed again and Jerry

stopped moving. He stood very still, his hand still on the doorknob.

“Brian?”



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“Huh?”

“Something is breathing on me.”

They both grew quiet. Brian could hear heavy breathing directly behind Jerry, but there

was no one standing there. Brian got up the courage to move toward him and reached for the

vestibule light switch. He quickly flipped it up and a bright white light filled the vestibule. The

breathing stopped immediately. Jerry turned around. He had a large bruise under his eye and his

bottom lip was bleeding. His neck was covered with black and blue fingerprints

“Jerry. My God, your face,” Brian said.

Jerry didn’t answer. He closed his eyes, wobbled, then fainted. Brian dropped down to tend

to him. When he did the front door opened by itself. Brian stared at the door. The vestibule light

went out and the heavy breathing started up again.

“GO!” a raspy voice said.

Brian grabbed Jerry’s collar and dragged him out into the rain.

The cold water woke Jerry up and he started screaming. He tried to get up and run, but

Brian grabbed hold of him and did his best to calm him down. Jerry pushed him aside and ran for

the car.

Brian stood in the rain staring at the front door of the house. A child’s voice call out to him.

“ Bye-Bye.”

Then the front door swung closed.



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©Copyright Marc L Abbott 2012



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The Residents