Last Entry

Sandra is a bright student fascinated with history so she decided that she will pay a visit to the archives in the dusty basement of the local library, the smell of old paper and must hanging in the air as she slowly made her way down the steps. There were many rows of shelves lined with boxes and at the far end there sat a large wooden desk, a single lamp and a chair. She browsed the shelves looking for something that might pique her interest and she settled on an unsolved case from 1970. The box was not overly heavy so she carried it with ease to the table and set it down. She took a cloth out of her small backpack that she always carried with her and wiped off the build up of dust on the lid before she opened it. Reaching inside she pulled out what looked like someone's diary which was closed but the lock on it had been broken. Sitting down on the chair she set the book down in front of her and slowly opened it. The first few pages seem like normal things someone might write about- a trip to the salon, a special trip to the store for a sweet treat, lamenting about a bad day at work, nothing out of the ordinary. The last page however caught her attention because it had one single entry at the top of it. It simply said’ I don’t know what that noise is, I keep hearing." Then the ink trails off and it smudges as if the book had been suddenly moved while the person was in the middle of wanting to write more.

This is peculiar, she thought to herself, wondering if the person had just been in a hurry and did not have time to finish their train of thought. She shrugged and reached back into the box, this time pulling out an old newspaper clipping that had yellowed due to aging and attached to it was a handful of photos. Setting the pictures aside, she started reading the article first.

Disappearance at Hartford Mansion 1970

The police were called to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Arthur Hartford at 143 Bellwood Drive in October after a call came in from a neighbor about hearing screams and a loud crash. When the police arrived, the front door was wide open and there was no sign of Mr. Hartford anywhere. Everyone was questioned but no one can explain what happened and right now it remains unsolved.

“Wow” she muttered to herself as she turned her attention to the photos that had been attached, studying them one at a time. The first one showed the front door of the mansion with yellow police tape across it, the second one was taken inside the house, the living room to be exact and there was broken furniture everywhere, claw marks on the floor and the final picture was of the living room window which had been smashed from the inside out. She is startled as she hears a clicking sound and realizes by looking at her phone that the library was closing and they must have forgotten she was still in the basement but she did not want to leave this mystery because she wanted to learn more. That would soon turn out to be her biggest mistake because some things are meant to be left alone. She returns her attention to the photos spread out on the desk when she hears it-a faint rustling of papers in one of the rows near the back of the room, where she had retrieved the box she was now going through and her breath caught in her throat. Maybe it was just a draft because the room was old but that was soon dispelled when she heard heavy footsteps, slow and deliberate walking down the aisle in her direction. Usually her first instinct would be to run to the stairs and get out of there but she would have to head in the direction of the sound and she did not know who or what was in the room with her so she did the second best thing she could think of -she hid.

She grabbed her phone and backpack, quickly and quietly sliding out of the chair and crawling on the floor behind the desk, crouching down as small as she could make herself and bit her lip, doing her best to not exhale too loudly. The footsteps got louder until they stopped in front of the desk where she had been sitting only moments before, a shadow looming over the desk from what she could see, a long  hand reaching out to touch the photos and the diary, fingers tapping as a deep voice almost growling said “Finally” That is when her phone decided to buzz with a notification and she felt her heart leap into her throat as she shoved her hand into her pocket and silenced it hoping that whatever was in front of her did not notice it. At that moment the entity stopped but not because it had heard the phone, it was focused on the open box and she could hear the cardboard scraping against the top of the desk as it was pulled closer to the edge and a dark hand stretched out and into the box, pulling out a key, a small one with a ribbon attached to it and the voice spoke again” They thought they could hide it down here forever” Fingers tapped against the diary and she could hear the pages as they were being turned, a sinister laugh filling the silence of the room” You really thought that you could simply get rid of me, you foolish old man”

The footsteps heavy as the entity turns, slowly walking towards the back wall of the room, tossing the heavy shelf aside as if it were nothing more than a feather, exposing a door that had been hidden from view. The familiar click of the key in the lock filled the atmosphere as it popped open the door creaking as it was pulled open, the entity squeezing through the small entrance and disappearing inside. Sandra seizes the opportunity and rushes down the row to the door and slams it shut using the key to lock the door, securing whatever it was behind the door. She heard a shriek followed by loud banging and for a moment she thought it was going to break down the door. She ran as fast as she could, stopping long enough to grab the diary and her backpack before bolting up the stairs and into the library, slamming the basement door shut behind her. She could still hear whatever it was rattling the door down below and she knew she could not escape the library so she needed to hide and wait till morning so that the librarian would let her out. She chose the front desk as what she thought would be the perfect place, huddling beneath one of its shelves and closing her eyes as she listened and waited.

After what felt like hours, she pulls out the diary and slowly opens it, being careful not to touch the actual pages of it, just the edges still not quite sure why she brought it with her because there was nothing in it that could be of help to her. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and with a trembling hand she shines the phone light onto the very last page which seemed to start this entire nightmare and expected to see nothing but there was another message written below that had not been there before. The handwriting was very different, much darker ink that almost seemed to leap out of the page at her. It simply stated “you cannot stop what is now set free.” The insistent banging of the entity suddenly went silent and she thought that maybe it would soon be morning and this hellish nightmare would be over. She almost exhales then she hears scratching but it is coming from the floor beneath her. It is quiet at first then it gets louder and louder, like claws against the hard wood, floor in front of her cracking as it begins to break and fingers begin to appear through the hole.

The next morning right at 9 am, the bell chimes on the front door as it is unlocked and pushed open, the librarian stepping in to start yet another day of work but pauses as she sees nothing but a destroyed room in front of her. The main desk has been destroyed, there is a hole in the floor and next to it lays an open book with an ID tag placed beside it but no one can be found. The ID belongs to Sandra and now she has gone missing.