Within The Walls

Edgar listened to the noises coming from the walls. They started out as tiny scratchings and scrapings, traveling along the baseboards. No one believed they were real. Those who humored his belief  tried to convince him it was just a very active rodent. The house had been closed up for quite some time, so it was natural for rats and mice to take up residency within the walls, they explained.

Edgar wasn’t falling for that excuse though. He knew better. Rats scurry around at night, and this is happening at all hours. If it was a rat, it must never take time off to sleep, since it appeared to be on a mission to drive him crazy. If that was its plan, it was working.

His imagination went into overdrive, causing his mind to bend and twist into something close to madness. He tried to drown out the noises with other sounds. He played his stereo and television at full blast. He tried using ear plugs, but nothing seemed to work. In the back of his mind he could still hear the faint noises.

He never slept anymore and seldom ate. He just sat in his chair facing the wall, listening. It soon began to whisper. He couldn’t understand the words, but yes, it was whispering about something. He scooted his chair closer to the wall, trying to make out the words. Are they plotting against me? I need to hear what they're saying. He leaned forward, straining his ears to listen.

His eyes were starting to close and lose focus, the whispers lulling him to sleep. He could feel his head giving in to the force of gravity with his body following close behind. At the moment when he felt about to topple out of his chair, a series of loud booms shook the room. The noise jarred him from his trance, making him jump from the chair. In his unbalanced state, he fell head first onto the hard floor.

While assessing the damage to his head, he heard another series of booms. He tried to focus. The noise sounded familiar, but he couldn’t remember what it was. In his sleep deprived mind, the rats had planned their revenge and were now about to put it into action. He crawled across the floor like a dog, turning his head first one way and then the other, trying to pick up the sound again. He needed to know where they were.

To his right he heard the loud booms again, filling his mind with thoughts of a hammer hitting wood. That must be where they are, plotting, scheming, and waiting for me to make the mistake of opening the door. I'll show them. I'll just stay right here and wait. They'll come for me soon enough.

He stared at the door from his position on the floor. His eyes started to hurt, along with the rest of his body. Everything started to go black when a loud boom followed by a bang caused him to scream. The door swung open so hard it hit the wall and bounced back, almost closing his view of what was on the other side. He watched, his whole body filling with terror, as a foot came around the door.

A head came into view, the eyes scanning the room before they came to rest on Edgar's trembling body. He let out the breath that he'd been holding and dropped his head to the floor in relief.

“Edgar? Are you alright? What are you doing on the floor?”

“They’re coming for me.”

“Who’s coming for you?"

“The rats in the walls.”

“Edgar, you really must get yourself together. Your imagination is running wild.”

“For the last time, Richard, it's not my imagination. There is something in the wall. It has begun to whisper. I know they are plotting something against me. Listen for yourself.”

Richard stood for a moment, trying to hear the noises. He tip-toed closer to the wall, careful not to make a sound, and put his ear to the wall.

“Oh, Edgar, I don’t hear a thing. Let’s get you up and then we can go into the kitchen, and I will fix you something to eat. You look like you haven’t eaten in days.”

“We can’t go in there. That's where they're waiting for me. I’ve heard them scurrying back and forth across the counters and floor.”

“You must get a hold of yourself. Give me your hand.”

Edgar resigned himself to his fate and allowed Richard to help him up.

“Just follow me, Edgar. With something in your stomach, you will start to feel better in no time, and all of this foolishness will be forgotten.”

Edgar had his doubts, but decided it was pointless to voice them now. Richard couldn’t hear the whispering. Richard hadn’t heard all of the noises he'd endured over the last few days. Has it been only days? It feels more like years. He would keep his eyes and ears open just in case.

Richard set Edgar down at the table and began looking around for the coffee maker. He found it tucked away in a box under the cabinet. He took it out and set it to brew while he searched for something to feed him.

Edgar studied every detail of the room waiting for the little monsters to show themselves. He looked for signs of their planning and preparations. The room appeared just as he remembered it from the last time he'd been in it. Everything looked neat and in order. If they are using this room, they are very good at hiding the signs. He let out a shaky breath and begun to relax.

Richard was his oldest and dearest friend. If he said there was nothing here, than Edgar had no choice but to believe him. He never lied to him. He had been his rock through all of life’s little trials, and the many hardships that he'd gone through. He couldn’t ask for a better friend.

He was so deep in thought when he heard the crack of the egg shells, he nearly jumped out of his chair. He could tell from the look Richard gave him that he felt sorry for him. Hell, he felt sorry for himself. He hated what he was becoming - a scared old man in a young man’s body. He felt like he'd aged fifty years in just a little under a week.

Richard’s arrival couldn’t have come at a better time. He needed someone to draw him back into reality. Edgar watched with envy as Richard moved through the kitchen hunting for this, searching for that, and preparing him a feast fit for a king. His appetite started to return, and he felt like he could eat a cow. He noted the changes taking place inside his body and mind.

He felt the tension leaving his body as the fog lifted from his mind. Everything became calm, and a giggle escaped his lips at the thought of what he'd put himself through. Richard heard the sound and turned to face him.

“What is so funny?”

“Oh, nothing, Richard.”

“That didn’t sound like nothing. What is going through that brain of yours?”

“I was just thinking about how ridiculous I've been. I can’t imagine what I must have been thinking. Everyone must think me a fool.”

“No one thinks that. We are all just worried about you. No one has seen you in days, and that is so unlike you.”

“I need to get myself together. There must have been some kind of shock to my system thats caused me to act in this way, even though I don’t know what it could have been. Please forgive me for the worry I have put you and my dear sweet sister through.”

“There is nothing  to forgive Edgar, we only want for you to be safe and happy. Oh, did I tell you the wonderful news?"

“No, I don’t believe you have. Tell me, what's been happening since I became a recluse?”

“Your sister and I just found out yesterday that you will become an uncle. That is what I came over to tell you. Sarah is positively radiant. I don’t believe that I have ever seen her so happy.”

“Congratulations to you both. That is wonderful news. Maybe I can tear myself away from these scheming rats long enough to take you both out to celebrate.”

They both laughed. Richard poured them a cup of coffee, and returned to the stove to collect Edgar’s plate, which he slid in front of him. The smell was intoxicating, and his stomach let out a loud growl of approval.

“Take it easy, Edgar, are you trying to choke yourself?” he kidded.

Edgar lowered his fork and tried to chew at a normal pace. It took all of his will not to swallow it by the forkfuls.

“I’m sorry, Richard, it just seems like so long since I had a decent meal, and this is delicious.”

They made idle chit-chat while Edgar finished his meal and coffee. Richard caught him up on all that had been going on since his disappearance. By the end of the meal, Edgar felt completely relaxed, and the terror of the last few days abandoned his tired mind. He stifled a yawn.

“Oh, Edgar, how tired you must be. I will leave you to rest, and we shall be by around 8:30 to pick you up for dinner.”

“Thank you for all that you've done for me, and a little nap will do wonders for me. I will see you then.”

Edgar walked Richard to the door and returned to the kitchen to clean up the mess before collapsing in his bed. His sleep was troubled and full of nightmares. He woke several times, looked at the clock, and closed his eyes again. Sometime later he woke to find himself sitting back in his chair in front of the wall. His legs and arms were tied, making escape impossible. He tugged at the ropes, testing their strength. They wouldn’t budge. Panic returned when he once again heard the whispering coming from the walls. The room filled with his terrified screams.

A couple of weeks later, a neighbor passed by his house while walking his dog. The smell coming from it was overpowering, like something long dead and decaying. He went straight home and called the police. With lights flashing, and siren wailing, law enforcement pulled into the driveway of 2109 Clover Street. By the time they reached the porch, they were holding their noses and nearly gagging. Officer Scrag pounded on the door.

“Police! Anyone in there?”

No answer came from inside. He knocked again, then sent a younger officer around to look through the windows. He returned within a few minutes and told Scrag he saw what appeared to be a person sitting in a chair, facing the opposite wall. Scrag motioned for another officer to break down the door, and they poured through, guns raised. They scattered, yelling 'clear' from each room until the whole house was searched before they focused their attention on the body in the chair.

Officer Scrag walked over to the lifeless body. Rope tied his hands behind his back and his legs to the wooden rungs of the chair. The body appeared to have been there for several weeks. Other officers spread out to search for any identification, or clues to help them piece together the events leading to the scene in front of them.

Scrag stepped between the body and the wall, taking in the horrific scene. The face, forever frozen into a mask of horror, stared back at him. His eyes, traveling from Edgar's face, down to his feet, caught the small gleam of the nail heads driven through the chair legs and into the floor to keep it from falling over. The coroner arrived a few minutes later. He checked the body before untying the ropes.

“Officer Scrag, come take a look at this. These ropes appear to have been tied by the deceased. Notice how loosely they are tied, and the simple knot. He’s still holding the end of one rope in his clutched hand.”

“I think you are right, Doctor. The way the rope is tied around his legs and body looks more like he tied himself rather than someone else doing it. What could he have possibly been thinking?”

“It’s hard to say. Obviously, it had something to do with this wall. He’s been dead for close to two weeks from the look of him.”

Another officer called from below them. “Down here in the basement. There’s two more.” Officer Scrag, followed by the coroner, made his way down the steps into the basement. Propped among the empty moving boxes at the bottom of the stairs, leaned the remains of a male and female. When they checked their identification, they found it was Richard and Sarah Holloway. The coroner determined the time of death to be at least as long as the man upstairs.

Once the bodies were removed and the autopsies performed, it was determined that the couple in the basement were killed by blunt force trauma to the head, and Edgar died of a heart attack brought on by stress due to the physical deterioration of his body. The hammer on the kitchen table matched the blows to the couple’s head, and the fingerprints on the handle belonged to Edgar. The police began to put the pieces together and soon discovered that Edgar murdered his sister and her husband before tying himself to the chair. Upon questioning friends and family, they learned that in the weeks prier to his death, Edgar had become increasingly delusional and harbored the fear that something was in his walls.

He'd been released a month earlier from Gregor Mental Hospital where they locked him away after the disappearance of his wife. It is still unknown as to what happened to her. Her body has never been found, and no one has stepped forward with any new information. It's has become a cold case file, collecting dust in a dark room, just waiting for that one tiny break that will solve the case, and put her soul to rest.