The Dark Figure & the Foul Stench of Death

From: Mushmouth (thelickofmyspoon@hotmail.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Source: Form Submission
Date submitted: Sun May 20 01:09:53 2007

Following the first couple of 'Blood Room' incidents, my apartment became a hotbed of curious teenagers all hoping to catch a glimpse of the strange presence that inhabited the now disused bedroom. Young people would always be showing up with beer or movies or something, anything that could be passed off as an excuse to stay a while, snoop around and ask repetitive questions we didn't have answers for.

Nothing new had actively occurred with the exception of sometimes feeling what can only be described as an icy finger being jabbed into your back when sit on the sofa. Myself, my brother and at least three other houseguests had independently reported getting this sensation late at night in the lounge. We would joke about what kind of person would you have be in real life to come back as a spirit walking around with a freezing cold finger to jab people with. We all thought it was funny anyway.

One particular night, I remember it was a friday, there were about a half-dozen uninvited guests sitting in the lounge, I was on the computer downloading music. It started getting cold, really cold. My brother and I were wondering if someone had opened a window or something. Opening windows is never allowed at our place just because we have cats and are afraid they will try and escape. We asked around but nobody claimed to have budged for several minutes and no one admitted to opening any of the windows. All the windows were closed and it was a lot colder inside than it was out. I put on a coat and went back into the den to continue surfing the internet.

A few minutes later I could hear someone talking to me from the other room but I ignored them, a few minutes more passed and they were enquiring about why I was just standing there in the hall adjoining the two rooms and didn't sit down in the lounge. Since I was sitting at a desk around the corner I thought this a little strange. I called out and asked who they were talking to and they went silent. Someone asked, "Is that you?...Hey man, can you walk in here, please?" I got up a little frustrated and hurried into the lounge to see everybody staring at me with their jaws dropped. One guy was shaking like a leaf, pointing at me and quietly whispered, "Behind You." As I turned around I could see only a foot away from me what looked like the outline of a large man, stocky and about seven feet tall, entirely black and terrifying to behold. With a unanimous scream the entire population of the apartment got up and bolted out the front door, kicking over the sofa and the coffee table in the process. We didn't stop running until we were safe at the convenience store across the street.

After gathering our bearings and a disposable camera we returned cautiously to the apartment, I remember it being even colder inside than when we left. We did a quick check of everything, including the Blood Room but the figure was nowhere to be seen, we figured it had to be real since everybody saw the same thing.

About ten minutes later we all started to feel really sick, we thought it must be all the excitement getting to us, like little kids on Christmas day. A couple of guests decided to leave saying they had enough excitement for one night. I sat in an armchair opposite the sofa and we all decided to watch a movie and relax. After about an hour one of the guys on the sofa asked if anyone was hallucinating, we all said 'no' and the guy asked me to sit still and not move for a minute. Everyone was suddenly asking me not move because they wanted to take my picture with the camera. Someone did and then with a smile on their face asked me how I was feeling. I remember feeling hazy when I tried to answer but instead of being able to speak I let out a huge belch unlike any I'd ever let out before. There's no way to describe it except that it stunk like Death, the guy opposite me actually went cross-eyed and dropped to his knees. My eyes began to roll back and I recall asking whoever was around me to help me up. Instead of assisting me everyone just got up slowly and started walking backwards. I asked again for help but someone just replied, "Its over your head, man." As I leaned back I could see it, a big black cloud over my head. Someone else spontaniously belched as well, the stench was abominable, people started gasping for air inside their shirts, from the fridge, even under the sofa cushions. Within seconds it became an epidemic of people of belching the most foul smell imaginable, something like rotting corpses and we couldn't stop.

We all started to scramble for the door, belching and falling over, there are no words to effectively describe this scene. The dark cloud was still hovering over my head but was even wider now. First one person got out and then another, soon we had dragged everyone out of the apartment, the cats included. My landlord came down a minute or so later to complain about the horrendous smell that was suddenly in the hallway. My buddy just looked up at him and belched. My landlord just kept saying, "Christ...Oh Jesus Christ!...Oh my Lord...Oh God in Heaven!" After he had stopped speaking and was trying to get fresh air in his lungs I asked him to look after my cats for a little while, saying we needed to take a brisk walk.

After getting about a block away from the building we all felt 100% better instantly. We all stayed the night at another friend's house but didn't explain why we had all suddenly showed up unexpectedly. The next day my brother and I returned home, everything was back to normal, it was even warm inside. None of those particular houseguests ever returned to the apartment or have ever spoken to either of us since the incident.