Bogleech.com's 2016 Horror Write-off:

Senses Of Evil

Submitted by JoE cOoL

I always thought of myself as kind of a perceptual nihilist; I did not think of there being anything beyond every day perception. I did not believe in god because I could not see or hear him. I did not believe in aliens because I did not see or hear them. I did not believe in anything I could not see for myself. Hell, it is luck that I believed in bacteria. I thought life was simpler, easier that way. Maybe that was why I chose this kind of non-belief.


I just wish I could not care too much to let others feel differently. I wish I could just take caution against something I never even encountered. Maybe then, everything would be still okay.


I remember this crack-pot librarian who was always worried about himself, or anyone for that matter, discovering the secrets of a book he would actively try to keep others from checking out because apparently it kept in itself a secret: some spell to summon some kind of demons, or something asinine like that. I heard about this and apparently found out that he never even tried it himself and, yet he was still AFRAID of a GOD-DAMN BOOK. I was amazed people like that even existed. I was anxious to check the book out just to prove that the weirdo was scared over nothing. After all, if demons did exist, how come no one ever found any proof of them?


That night I decided to perform the ritual. It was a ritual that got me going "are you serious!?" It was just so damn STUPID; Listen to this: Draw a penta-star into fresh pavement, using five different colors of lead paint for each line. I bet you're anxious to try this yourself, so I am going to leave the exact paint colors required a secret. Then, you put little thematic parts in each outer triangle of the star: saliva in one space, mucus & nose hairs in another, earwax in one space, fingernail skin in another, and eye tears in the last space. It requires a fairly large amount of each other from the same source... so this took me a while to do. Then in the inner-pentagon space, a more negotiable amount of blood.


I cannot believe I went this far. I could not believe I was THIS willing to do anything to prove someone a fool.


The last part was MUCH easier though; I then just had to chant a specific set of words from this list hidden in the book's index. I will definitely not say exactly what "words" needed to be spoken out loud for it to work, but I can say this: they seemed to have all been anagram forms of a specific set of Latin words. DON'T ask how I know that. I just do.


Well. The delivery was made and the words were spoken. I waited a few seconds and no demon. I was foolish to come off as victorious about being right. I was foolish to think it could just happen like that. The thing is; the thing to be summoned can only appear when no one is perceiving it. It needs to be hidden to come out. I did not know this; and I was punished for it. However, I do remember seeing something as I walked home; maybe a little purple blob, or something. I brushed it off as seeing things and that is where everyone suffered for it.


The next day, I hear around the community about two things happening last night after I left the ritual:

One. The witness of something making unworldly noises in the neighborhood.

Two. The disappearance of Elmer Dubois, a senior citizen who was claimed to have sharp senses for someone his age.


I will admit I was a little intrigued about it, but I was not ready to accept right away that it was MY fault. At least, not until the next few days to week, where a few more disappear. I was starting to get worried then. I even began secluding myself because I was afraid might find out It was I who performed that ritual and they'd lynch me for it. Maybe I deserved it, but I could not prove it yet. But that was until I discovered something rummaging through trash scattered through my near-deserted neighborhood. I thought it was someone I could protect from my sins; maybe some hobo.


It was not another human. It was not like any kind of animal I ever saw.


It had some kind of gnarled form of a body that looked like an ape with long hands. It's head looked blank, save for a red-orange nose, bigger than any I could see on another human. I saw it when it stopped going through trash and turned to face me. It must have discriminated my scent among the filth. I honestly did think I had to run until it started opening mouths all over its body. Mouths that filled with sharp teeth and growl. However, its most damning feature was that It was purple.


THEN I ran; and oh how I ran. I sprinted so fast I went momentarily blind. I wish I could still see where I was going, because that was when I stumbled across more of those things. They were definitely my doing.


Some of them had only eyes, a more worm-like one had whiskers with fingertip-like marks (touch?), and another had a swollen-ass tongue. One last beast had ears to hear the others growl as they took some poor bastard and rend him of his flesh only to replace it with some more of that purple crap. They made sure to keep his face and hands unharmed.

 

I had just found out where those things came from and I took it harshly.

 

I wanted to throw up, so I went behind an alley to do so. It was then I was grabbed by the shoulder and seriously prepared to freak out, only to find out it was another human; A young girl to be exact. She whispered sternly to me to keep the hell down or those things with the ears would catch us. She took me to this underground cellar, where many more humans stayed inside to keep safe. I found relief at last, but it was not to last, as I discovered among this group... the librarian I checked that freaking book from.

 

We made eye contact, and while his stare filled with the hellfire of contempt, mine filled with ice-cold anxiety. He suddenly broke the quiet mingling among the crowd to turn their direction to me and asked me what I know about this "situation". That son of a bitch just did that to me and you know? I deserved it. I broke out in tears and confessed that I was the inconsiderate motherfucker who summoned those inky bastards, all because I personally thought it was some bullshit.

 

It was at that point that everyone showed a glare almost as bad as the old man and started closing in on me, when suddenly someone reminded us of the "situation" still happening and told them to deal with me later. It was then that someone told that they could be vanquished by incapacitating their sense organs. We all got stocked and ready to raise some hell back on those soulless little shits. We fought long and hard against them and rid our home of them. I am pretty sure we got most of them, but I still have a feeling some of them are still out there, trying to rebuild their colony...


Well, that is my story. I am actually glad I got to tell the whole thing. It feels good to make sure I get the whole thing off my chest. I know you will all do better than I do when presented with a similar scenario. I know you have all learned something from my own mistakes: not to dismiss something as bullshit just because you personally do not believe it. Just one more thing? I really am sorry. I am so damn sorry, especially to Elmer and the guy I saw getting processed. That was especially hard for me. Okay, now...


 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's get this hanging over with. I do deserve it.