READERS TALES
The Whatever
The story of one of my encounters with a demonic presence began many years
ago when I was just a child. I was living with my great grandmother from the
time I was 4 months old in the winter of 1980 and sporadically through the years
until her death in November of 1988. I can’t remember the exact month it began
since dates and times are washed out of my memory from so long ago. But I know
that I remember it as early as 4 years old, in 1984. The details are very
familiar in my mind and I remember very vividly because they happened so
frequently. There were several different incidents, but the one that I remember
the best, the one that sends chills down my body even to this day is
this one. I might take several breaks from writing this just so I can relax and keep
from being too frightened.
All of the events lead to the same conclusion and the same feelings. The
feeling of being scared to paralysis, the feeling of wondering if this thing can
see you, why you can’t see it.
Most of the incidents, as I call them, happened while I laying beside my
sleeping grandma, awake in the dark. Before I tell you what happened I need to
tell you a little about my grandma’s house.
My grandma’s house was pretty old, build long before the 1950’s when Yuma
Arizona was just a bump and a stop sign. She’d moved there with her husband, had
4 children, 3 boys and a girl, and lived there until she died. Her husband had
died long ago in the 1970’s. Grandma’s house resembled the style of the early
century, hard wood floors in the front where the living room, dining room, front
bedroom and main bathroom were. And the back of the house lowered down steps
into the kitchen, my uncle Ed’s room, my grandma’s room which was directly
behind the kitchen and the laundry room. All of this had hard concrete floors
which had been added in later from the original house. There was a straight line
from the front door, through the living/dining room, down into the kitchen and
into my grandma’s room. So now that you have the image, let me continue on.
The Incident always started out the same way when I was in
Grandma’s room. I would hear what sounded like shuffled foot steps, very faint
on the wood floor of the living room and walk slowly towards the back of the
house where I was. I could hear it getting closer as the footsteps continued
past the front room and through the living room. Then the, whatever it was,
would stop at the steps that let into the kitchen for just a moment. Then I
would hear it step down, letting whatever weight it had fall on the wood. Then
it would be on the concrete of the kitchen and start again. The footsteps would
sound different of course because the concrete made a different sound than the
wood. By then I would be trembling. I knew it was coming to me and I could not
move, only listen. When it made its way out of the kitchen and into the room I
would hear the footsteps come to whatever side I was on and growl. It was a
unique growl and I have never been able to replicate it. Only it wasn’t like a
dog, or even like a cat. It was somewhere in-between. I couldn’t see it, but I
knew it was there.
The first reaction of any kid once they break the paralysis
is to pull the covers over their head. So that’s exactly what I did. As soon as
I did the growls stopped. I waited under there for a long time then slowly took
the covers off my head. As soon as I did it would growl at me. By then my heart
would panic and I would usually scream and wake my
grandma up who would turn on the light and tell me it was my imagination. This
incident happened many many times through the years and before long, I started
to believe it was a nightmare that felt real. Many people have nightmares that
are so real they can’t tell that they were asleep, so I dismissed them. But I
soon got a rude reality check when it happened while I was fully awake, in the
middle of the day and playing in my grandma’s rocking
chair. Only this time I didn’t stick around, I bolted and luckily it didn’t
follow me. But all of these events might make me skeptical now if not for one
time when I wasn’t the only one to hear it.
My mom had come home to visit me from the army where she spent most of her
younger life. We were having fun in her front bedroom, talking about the
interesting people she knew, her new boyfriend and I was showing her a rubber
ducky I’d found somewhere, when from outside her closed door she told me to be
quiet. Just then I knew what she was hearing. It was the shoosh, shoosh of The
Whatever coming. We could hear it draw closer and mom made me get on the bed
with her. I told her that the door was closed so it wouldn’t be able to get
inside but I was wrong. Suddenly it was in. We heard its footsteps coming to my
side of the bed. Mom instantly picked me up and put me on the other side. The
Whatever changed direction and started for that side instead. As it was coming
around mom put me on the other side again. And again it changed direction. Mom
told me to get out of the room as fast as possible and close the door, then go
over to my friends house next door. Before The Whatever could get to my side I
did as told and ran as fast as I could to my friend’s house. They were happy to
see me of course, but I was almost in tears as the day drew on.
The last incident that I remember ever encountering
it was when my mom got
married and sent for me to live with her on the military base in 1986. I lived
there until 1988, a few months before my grandma died. I was a typical child who
grew too fast and though embarrassed to share this, I had wet the bed. Instead
of waking my mom and step dad up to have them help, I took care of
it myself then
laid some clean bedclothes on the floor and slept there. I remember waking up
the next morning to a very bright and sunny day. I laid awake for a long time,
thinking about different things when I heard The Whatever again. This time it
started in the hallway and shooshed its way to the outside of my bedroom door
where it stopped and growled. I was terrified of course, but some strange thing
happened. I grew a backbone. Instantly I got up and opened the door. I still
couldn’t see it, but I heard it as it growled at me. I looked down at where I
thought the sound was coming from and told it to leave me alone, I was tired of
it. Suddenly there was silence and to this day there’s not been another
incident.
Well, at least not with The Whatever...
-Rachel Green.
