NOBODY HOME

NOBODY HOME

         We got the call from dispatch, and I sighed. “Not again,” I complained. 

         My partner laughed. “Jack, you ALWAYS gripe about going to the Crepe Mansion,” he chuckled as he turned the car around.

         “It should be called the ‘Creep Mansion,’ because it gives me, and everybody else, the creeps.”

         He smiled. “Could be worse. We could have that bike club making noise again.”

         “Mike, to be honest, at least they’re NORMAL people. No ghosts, no cobwebs, no dead people. I like it that way.”

         “Yeah, well, could be worse. Let’s head out there.”

         “Sure, Mike, whatever you say,” I told him as I let dispatch know we were heading there right away. “A noise complaint, of all things,” I muttered. "How the hell can you have noise coming from an old wreck of a house!”

         “We’ll find out when we get there,” he said as we drove through the streets. Soon we were approaching the Crepe Mansion, and saw Mrs. Whillens standing on the street in her dressing gown.

         I sighed. “It’s going to be one of those nights.”

         Mike chucked as he pulled the car over to the curb. “Good evening, Mrs. Whillens! And how are you this fine, warm evening?”

         “Annoyed, that’s how I am! How can anyone sleep with the racket coming from that dilapidated piece of junk they call a mansion!”

         “What racket?” I told her. “I can’t hear a thing coming from there!”

         “Well, there was, just a short while ago! And you’d better put a stop to it, or else! I pay my taxes, and I demand peace at night!”

         “Very well, we’ll check it out,” Mike said to cover my yawn. 

         She harrumphed, turned and stormed back into her home. 

         Mike looked over at me, and sighed. “We might as well check it out, now that we’re here.”

         I took out my flashlight, and indicated he should lead on. I followed him to the so-called mansion, and we entered the front door. It opened easily; in fact, it was barely hanging on to its hinges. We entered, and gazed about. There was no one here, and the place was, indeed, a wreck. Cobwebs were everywhere, and what furniture there was, was smashed into pieces. It was cold and dark, and I didn’t care for either. Broken glass lay scattered everywhere, and what sound there was reached our ears as to be so quiet as to be whispered. We checked everywhere, including upstairs, downstairs, and the basement. There was simply nothing there. The place was deserted. 

         “See anything?” Mike asked me.

         “Yeah, me sitting in a nice bar when this stupid shift is over!”

         Mike laughed out loud, and there seemed to be an echo.  A strange sound came to them, and they looked at each other. “What was that?” Mike asked me.

         I shrugged. “I have no idea! It sounded like the echo of a laugh.”

         We all but ran to the door, and found ourselves outside. We both breathed a sigh of relief, and made our way to the car. We climbed in, but Mrs. Whillens came down from her porch. 

         “Well, did you find out what was making all the racket?” she demanded.

         “No,” I told her, “there is nothing in there making any sound at all! We checked the place in and out, and there is nothing there, and certainly nothing making any noise whatsoever!”

         “So, you think I’m crazy, is that it?”

         Mike sighed. “No, we don’t think any such thing. However, you could have imagined some noise, or perhaps it was coming from another place. The only thing we do know is that there is no noise, or no sound at all, coming from the Crepe Mansion.”

         She turned and walked back into her house without another word. We went back to our patrol. 

         The night was getting on, close to midnight, when another call came in from dispatch. We were ordered back to the Crepe Mansion. “Damn,” I swore as Mike turned us around towards the foul place. We drove up just as Mrs. Whillens came storming down from her porch. “It’s happening again!” she practically screamed. “It just stopped as you pulled up!”

         We climbed out of the car, and as we looked over at the house, we saw a figure entering through the front door! “Hey, who’s that?” I demanded.

         Mike shook his head. “No idea! Do you?”

         Mrs. Whillens shook her head, as well, but said “I have no idea, but I’ve seen him come and go through the front door a few times, always at night.”

         Suddenly there was a huge blast of noise coming from the mansion! “What the hell…” I asked, as the lady in front of us smiled triumphantly.  “I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU! NOW YOU’LL BELIEVE ME!”

         I looked at Mike, and reached into the car for a flashlight. Mike already had his at the ready. Together we made out way to the derelict home. Lights suddenly appeared in every window, and I was really getting scared. What the hell was going on?

         We reached the front steps, and as soon as our feet touched the first one, everything died. No lights, no noise, nothing. We looked at each other, and went in.

         The very same scene as when we entered the first time was visible. No one, nothing else, nothing but deep darkness. There was a slight difference, though. It felt as if there was a presence; as if there was someone there. We looked firmly about, but there was simply no one present. Mike looked at me. “I’ll check the back of the house, you look around here.”

         I nodded as he moved away, and l shone my flashlight everywhere I could. Suddenly there was a man standing before me! 

         “Looking for something?” he asked me mildly.

         I jumped a mile in surprise. “Who the hell are you?” I demanded.

         “Nobody, really. I just exist here. Who are you looking for?”

         “You, assuming you’re the one making all the noise all night long.”

         He smiled. “That might be me, all right. I do get a bit noisy at times.”

         “Well, mister, you’re in a lot of trouble!”

         Mike suddenly came back. “Who’s this?” he demanded.

         “He says he’s nobody,” I told him.

         He looked at me. “Really? You have to be somebody!”

         “Oh, I was, at one time. I am no longer. Can I show you around?”

         “What? Sure!”

         “You go ahead, Jack. I want to check something down here, first.”

         “Okay.” The man led me upstairs, until we came to the front room.  “Here it is,” he said evenly.

         “Here what is?” I asked.

         “The somebody you’re looking for.”

         “What?” I looked, and noticed there was, indeed, a dead body lying amongst the garbage. I went to it, then paled. He had been dead a long time, judging by the level of decomposition. I ran to the stairs. “Hey, Mike, get up here, I found a dead body!”

         He came charging up the stairs, shining his light over everything. “What?” he demanded.

         “A body! There’s a body in this room!” I told him, and showed him the rotting corpse.

         “I told you,” the man said.

         “All right, mister, you’re in a lot of trouble. Who is this?”

         “You mean who was this,” he said with aplomb. 

         “Alright, alright, who was this?”

         “Just somebody who used to live here. Now he’s dead here.”

         I shone my light in his face, and noticed he was slightly transparent. “What is going on here?”

         “Nothing much, really. Well, I better try to pull myself together, if you don’t mind,” he said, and vanished.

Mike and I looked wildly about. “Hey, were did he go?”

         We both heard something, and slowly turned around. The body was there, climbing to its feet. “Hey, how about that, I’m a some-body again! Get it? A some-body,” it said, and started to laugh. It was the most horrible sound I had ever heard in my life, and Mike and I raced for the stairs! We practically flew down them in a panic, and ran out the front door! We raced to the car, and pulled open the doors. We were about to jump in, but we made the mistake of looking back at the upstairs window. The body was there, oozing pus and blood. 

         “Wait,” it called, “don’t you want to arrest some-body?” and it laughed. We roared away in a fever, determined to get as far away as we could. 

         We never did go back, and I quit the police force the next day, and moved to another city, where the dead remained dead.  Oh, God, I prayed, never, ever let me see something like that again.  

THE END