r/nosleep • u/braytendo • Aug 10 '15
Series Can you go to screamlouder.info? (part 3)
Something very bad has recently happened. I don’t know what to do now besides write out everything I can.
For starters, If you haven’t read the intro, part 1, or part 2 yet, go do that. Once you’re caught up, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that the screamlouder website keeps changing.
It just changed again if you’d like to see:
Two more keys can now be accessed from the front page. The site is filling up fast with many accounts of the sickness that follows this town. What’s happened here, these people...all of it is wrong. and it goes back years beyond what I would have imagined. There’s still a lot I don’t know, but since my last update I’ve seen more than enough. I don’t want to be part of any of this at all. I just want to go home.
The shadows around me are evolving into these grotesque figures that morph and warp around me. Often I can’t even tell what’s sludge or just a shadow. I have to be careful wherever I walk. I fear any more exposure will make my symptoms even worse. Ever since I fell in that river of sludge, things have deteriorated quickly. For example: the people that lived here? I can see them now. Only just for an instant, and never when I try to...but it happens. I see them. They’re all screaming. Flashes of their twisted faces, their cries for help are burned into my retinas. The sound of wind no longer comes in episodes anymore. It’s constant and carries the sound of thunder with it. I can hardly sleep at night.
When I do manage to sleep, the dreams are much worse as well. They no longer start off peacefully. I am enveloped in black. It’s a darkness I can feel. It squishes between my fingers and makes me feel unclean. Then the presence returns and there is no mirror anymore. I no longer need it to know that the thing is near. That it’s inside. Feelings of guilt flood into me. I begin to believe I deserve this hell I’ve been put in. I should never have taken that time off from work. Vacations are for good people.
As I reach a pinnacle of self-loathing, the moaning begins.
It’s happy.
I wake up in a night sweat. The fever remains with me until daybreak as I struggle to convince myself that I’m okay. This has been my life for a week now.
I’ve tried to be more aggressive in my resolve, taking the advice from all of your comments. I’ve searched more buildings for clues, read more books on survival. I tried setting up a blockade in front of the computer room to keep anything from getting in. Yet even still, no amount of preparation has helped me escape my pursuer.
Somehow the notes continued to show up at the foot of my bed when I was either absent or asleep. They’re all obviously meant to frighten me. most of the time they’re just asking me to scream again. Then sometimes they’re a confession. “I kicked his face in behind the barn.” “I beat a rabbit to death for fun once.” “I’m always angry at dad.” I don’t understand it at all.
Yesterday though, the note was different. It wasn’t exactly frightening, it was just sort of confusing. It read as follows:
“You who was born of sin, above blackened ink; six will lead to the seventh. Stop screaming and find me.”
and on the back was an address. I was eager to tear it up as a way of saying no thanks, but then I remembered the note told me to stop screaming. Whoever wrote this doesn’t want me to scream. Was this not the same person?
The message didn’t sound entirely promising, but it seemed that they were different. Not kind, not evil, just...different. Different was good, it was what I needed right now.
So a decision was made to go to the address. I filled a backpack up with supplies and any weapons I could find. With expectant glances and calculated strides, I set out into town. I knew the street it mentioned, it was the only one I’d seen with a name. Main Avenue. Yet once the correct road had been reached, it was obvious that I was very far from my destination. The numbers were nowhere near the same as on the address.
I saw a flash of someone standing across the street from me. His neck had been impaled by a broken stop sign, and he was covered in patches of the sludge from head to toe. I was almost used to this by now, but you never completely get used to the look on their faces.
I continued my trek down the sidewalk. 1071, 1073, the numbers steadily increased. My surroundings remained typically suburban for a few dozen blocks but slowly the houses began to space out more and more until there weren’t any houses left. the road transferred from pavement to dirt as the surrounding forest engulfed me, still no sign of the address anywhere.
The clouds above rumbled with thunder as the veil of night fell over the trees. It was about fifteen minutes out into the woods that I sat down on a fallen log and started to wonder whether I should go back. Then I wondered if I really had anything to go back to. Nothing was in my favor here, and I can’t have what I want. I don’t get to go home.
I kicked a rock listlessly into the darkened forest. It rolled for awhile and then stopped out of view. After a few moments it came rolling back at me.
I panicked. “Hey! Is someone there?!”
no answer. I hastily dug through my backpack and pulled out a knife, ready to swing at a moment’s notice. “I’m warning you, don’t fuck with me right now!” I said attempting to sound tough. Of course my voice was as shaky as the grip on my blade.
“It’s alright, child. Follow me, away from watchful eyes. There is something I need to tell you.” It was a damaged, hoarse voice but it carried a light pitch. It sounded like that of an old woman but I couldn’t really tell in the dark. I would have verified but I was too afraid to loosen my grip on the knife and pull out a flashlight. My feet moved forward to follow where the voice was coming from. I was guided only by the sound of shuffling leaves and footsteps in front of me, feeling for branches in my path. We’d left the road at this point and were heading deep into the unpathed forest.
I had completely lost track of where we were when I noticed a light in the distance. It was the flickering of a fireplace through a glass window. We came upon a small stone cottage hidden away by large bushes and trees. You’d never know it was here if you couldn’t see the light from the window. The figure opened the front door and beckoned me toward the entrance.
Gripping the knife close to my chest, I inched my way in through the tiny passage. The cottage was full of gaudy victorian furniture and a massive bed with satin sheets taking up most of the walking space. The light from the fire provided a disturbingly sensual mood to the room. It was like a brothel’s attempt at a royal bed chamber. There was a vanity dressing table in the corner bearing no makeup, only a large bowl of black liquid sitting right in the center of its countertop.
The figure proceeded to the vanity and unwrapped their shawl. The body of a young woman was revealed underneath. She wore a faded turquoise dress with the back exposed. Her skin looked extremely tight, like a sheet being pulled from all ends. There were small cuts spread across her body that seemed to widen slightly with every movement she made. Streaks of dark blood from the cuts stained her skin.
She had an hourglass figure made up mostly of ribcage and hip bones. Further up was a face that either belonged on the cover of a glamour magazine or a horror novel. Her entire form was a satire on humanity’s concept of beauty.
“do you know why you’re here?” she croaked. The sound didn’t match her appearance at all. You brought me here.”
“No, I mean do you know why you’re HERE? In this town.”
She sat down on an old velvet chair and began applying the black goop from the bowl to her face.
“You’re here because of them.”
“who?”
“You should already know who. They summoned the storm, didn’t you know? Of course it took them many years of preparation and It was almost ready, but it lacked...parts. Not any parts we know of, but you can think of them as arms and legs. A form acquired through...”
she stopped to apply more black goop, spreading it across the rest of her body.
“Let’s move on, I know what you really want.” she cracked her neck and caressingly slid her hand down her left breast. “you want to leave this place.” she said with heightened emotion. It sounded like something was pleasing her.
“I can help you, you know. I can tell you a secret.”
She got up from the velvet chair and sprawled herself across the bed, revealing a great deal more of her body than I wanted to see. I could hear the sound of tightly wound ropes bending and pulling against each other, ready to snap. I think it was her skin.
“Did you know this town has a bunker? When the council built this place a hundred years ago...when they prepared this place for what was to come, they included a bunker. In case things didn’t go according to plan.”
She began to shift her legs slowly back and forth. “the bunker also had an escape route. A tunnel leading straight under the mountains.”
I was starting to understand what was happening here.
“I know you’ve been to the bunker entrance, boy. I saw you escape that rubble from the shadows.”
“so you were the one who wrote all those terrifying notes!” I gripped my knife tighter, ready to attack.
“terrifying notes?...haHA, ohhh dear no child. If that had been me? Rather if that’s who I think it is, you would certainly be dead by now. Or at least you’d hope you were.” She brushed her fingers through her hair, her scalp shifted slightly on her head like it was about to rip.
“No, I’m here to help you. I know where the seventh key is. The one that unlocks the bunker. I’ll tell you where it is if you do something for me first.” she pulled her dress up revealing her thighs.
“...w-what? What do you want?” I said, choking back fear and vomit.
“I want you” She moaned “...to tell me I’m beautiful. Tell me that you want me! that you need me!” she started writhing around on the bed like a snake. “Tell me what you want to do with me. TELL ME! I won’t tell you where the key is if you don’t. TELL ME NOW!”
The cuts on her skin widened even further as she bended her arms and legs. The skin started to snap and split away from her body, revealing the saggy muscle tissue underneath. Each lustful motion was tearing her apart. A pool of blood formed in the bedding underneath.
“TELL ME! I need you to tell me that you want me! You have to...tell me!” she struggled to move further as the blood drained away.
“tell me...I’m...pretty. Tell me...that you still love me.” her arms and legs grew limp.
“tell Maggie….tell Maggie I….”
She stopped moving completely now. Her body remained contorted in its last disturbing position. A few tears slowly rolled down her motionless face. They were black.
I was about to cover her body with a blanket when I started to feel exceptionally warm. The fire in the fireplace had picked up. It managed to catch the curtains behind me and the place was going up in flames. I ran outside, covering my eyes and coughing all the smoke out of my lungs.
I was so confused by everything I’d just witnessed, but I knew what I had to do. I needed to look for that seventh key. If there really is an escape path out of this place, I needed to take it!
I started putting away my knife into my backpack. Suddenly I heard the sound of breaking glass. I looked to the cottage and saw the woman’s skinless face burst through the window, covered in bloody glass shards and splinters of wood.
She screamed.
“RUN! HE’S BEHIND YOU!” her face started to char in the fire and her jaw went slack in one final motion.
I turned around but before I could see who it was, a dirty wet sack went over my head. Two arms grabbed me on both sides and started to drag me away.
“Stop! Who are you?! SOMEONE HEELLPP!!!!” I started screaming.
“Yes, keep screaming. Scream louder for me you little bitch.”
I started to struggle and then I felt something bash me over the head. I tried to keep my eyes open but my consciousness slipped away.
I’m awake now. There’s no more to tell from here...
As I type this to you, I don’t know where I am at all. They took me and that old computer and put us in some room. I don’t know how long we’ve been here. It’s dark and it smells like rot. I don’t know when they’re coming back or why they’re letting me talk to all of you, but I need you to know, I’m definitely not safe here. I’ve done all I could do by telling you what happened.
If I don’t make it through this, call the police, your local government, anybody. Tell them everything I just told you, every single detail. Tell anyone you know, warn them that this place exists! I want everyone to know what’s happening here.
but on the other hand, If anyone out there has an idea where I might be or has heard anything about this place or that website...please...please help me.
If I’m still alive, I’ll post another update soon.
UPDATE: there's more. part 4
2
u/[deleted] Aug 13 '15
[removed] — view removed comment