“The Mystery of Smokey Terrace”
By: Ron564339
E-mail: [email protected]
What you are about to read is a tale of fear and mystery. Although you will most likely not believe that any of it is possible or true, know that the six people who make up the story would not have believed it to be true either…until it actually happened to them. They are:
Each of them offers their own part of the story and these six pieces come together to form this tale of magic and wonder…evil lurks behind each corner and you, like the six story-tellers, will not quite understand what is truly happening or know what will happen next. But as the confusion and mystery unravels you will see the sinister plot that is taking place, and if and how it can be stopped. So read on if you dare…
Our tale begins when Max is visiting his three cousins in their suburban neighborhood in Maryland, and Jack and Kevin accepted Max’s offer for them to come with him. The first part of the story is told by Jack…
Part 1:
So, I guess this whole thing started with me, my bud Max, and his goofy little friend Kevin visiting Max’s cousins in their little one-horse suburban town. It was such a boring place, and there were no other kids our age anywhere. It was a place for old people who don’t have anything better to do than play golf and sit around all day.
We had been there two days already and we had done jack shit. And the third day was no different…the six of us were left just wandering around the tiny little town. Max’s cousins had offered to give us a tour, and Max agreed with a smile…he sure is happy a lot of the time. But it’s not like there was anything to see in this little town, so even though I agreed to go with them, I was beginning to regret ever coming here. The only reason I agreed in the first place was that Max really wanted me and Kevin to go, and when I asked if his cousins were cool, he said that they were, so I decided it could be a fun trip.
But now it was really annoying. The summer sun was beating down on us as we walked along the little streets, and I had to listen to Mitch, Max’s oldest cousin, and Jason, his middle cousin drone on and on about the different parts of the neighborhood. Yeah, they were ok guys, but Mitch was always smoking, which was damn nasty, and Jason mouthed off to me as soon as he saw me, saying something like, “Whoa there, Hulk, how many steroids are you on?” (like I would ever use that crap, I’m 100% natural hunk, baby!). And I was getting real annoyed with their little bratty brother, TJ, fighting with them all the time, and Kevin always acting like everything was such a big deal and being overly concerned with everything (he had a cold and kept bitching about how he could barely breathe because he was stopped up so bad).
So we were just walking along, with Max listening with interest to his cousins and me trying to keep my mouth shut about how much this sucked. But then a little further in the distance, on top of a tall hill, we saw it: A great big stone mansion that looked as though it had been deserted for years. Although I couldn’t see it too clearly, I could see that it looked very run-down, with the stone’s crumbling and vines growing all over it. There was a small little cottage on the grounds surrounding this huge house, and it looked like someone still lived in it.
“Whoa,” said Max. “What is that?” he asked pointing to the mansion.
Almost automatically, TJ shuddered nervously. “Th…that’s Smokey Terrace!”
Immediately, Jason laughed and said, “Aww…is wittle baby TJ scared of the big bad house?”
“Shut up!” responded TJ. “That place is way creepy!”
“Actually,” said Mitch. “There are a lot of things people in this town say about it. It’s really a big mystery more than anything else. You see, there used to be an old woman who lived there. Her name was Mrs. Rose Gremley. They say she died about ten years ago.”
“So why is it such a mystery?” Kevin asked through her stuffed-up nose.
“Well,” said Jason. “They never found her body. She just sort of…disappeared. Some people say she’s still living there, but no one’s seen her in ten years. Not that many people ever saw the crazy old bat while she was alive, anyway.”
“So who owns it now, if the old crazy woman is supposedly dead?” I asked.
“Well, they sold it a while back,” said Mitch. “To some rich guy who lives far away. He never even comes here, from what I hear.”
“What about that little shack?” asked Max.
“Oh, that creepy guy, Rufus, lives there,” said Jason. “He keeps the grounds clean and takes care of them, and the rich guy still pays him. But he never talks to anybody. He used to work for Mrs. Gremley, but ever since she disappeared, he’s too scared to even step foot in the house.”
“Wow…that’s quite a story,” said Kevin.
That was all we had to say about the place. For the rest of the afternoon. But later that night, the six of us were chillin’ in the living room and the topic came up again. Max was always really interested in ghost stories and stuff like that, and I could tell he had been thinking about the whole thing.
“So,” he said. “Tell me more about this ‘Smokey Terrace’ place, and Mrs. Gremley and everything.”
Mitch and Jason were still eager to talk about everything, although I could tell Kevin and TJ were shaken up about the whole thing.
Mitch left the room and came back with a box of old newspapers. After rummaging around to find one in particular, he pulled it out and showed it to us.
“It was actually a really sad story,” he said, lighting up a cigarette. “A long time ago, Mrs. Gremley had a husband and a son. They lived in Smokey Terrace, and their lives were happy. But soon after her son grew up and moved away, Mr. Gremley died, and Mrs. Gremley was awfully lonely. She missed the days when she still had her husband, and especially her little boy. But now they were both gone.
“Her son got married, and he and his wife had a baby boy. Unfortunately, they both died soon after she was born, and since Mrs. Gremley still had plenty of money left over from Mr. Gremley, the baby boy was left in Mrs. Gremley’s care. Although Mrs. Gremley was saddened by the death of her son, she was overjoyed not to be alone in the house anymore…and she loved her grand-son with all of her heart.
“But then something terrible happened…the little baby got terribly sick, and eventually died. Mrs. Gremley was left with a lot of anger towards the town, especially its doctors, because they couldn’t save the little boy. But she was filled even more with grief, and she never came out of her mansion any more.
“And then she just disappeared. Some say she died…too much heartbreak in her life. Some say she just moved to a new town where she didn’t hate the people. Some say she’s still there, waiting for the right time to cast a curse on our entire town.”
I couldn’t help listening to this whole thing and just think it was really stupid. Some old crazy woman died and now they have all of these stupid mysteries about what happened to her?
“Wait a sec,” I said. “Didn’t the police find anything?”
“No,” said TJ. “They searched and searched the whole place, but it was just empty, like no one had been living there for years. They assumed she was dead, and the house was sold to that rich fatcat.”
“Hmm…” said Max. “And there are no clues to what REALLY happened?”
“Not really,” said Jason. “Some people in this town claim that they’ve heard her voice at night, crying and wailing, wishing for another baby to replace the one she lost. But I think they just make it up to scare people.”
“I don’t know,” said Mitch, blowing out a smoke circle. “The whole thing is really spooky, especially because Mrs. Gremley turned into a scary, evil old lady soon after her grandson died. Here, look at this picture in the paper of her after it happened.”
Me, Kevin and Max all looked at the picture of the old woman. I have to admit, I’m scared of very little, but my first glance at the woman spooked me a little. She looked just like a witch…ugly face, a long nose, a few warts, wrinkles, and short, thin white hair that was tied back tightly. And her eyes…they looked like they were staring right into your soul. I definitely wouldn’t want to have come across her on a dark night.
By this time, it was really dark in the room, and I could tell TJ was getting pretty jittery about the whole thing.
“Ok,” he said. “How about we just stop talking about all of this, and we put that picture away, and…”
This immediately caused Jason to laugh again. “Wittle TJ is fwightened by the witch lady! Ooooohhhh…” But even though he was laughing, I did notice a small hint of nervousness in his voice. This caused me to say,
“I still think this is all a load of bull. I mean, so the old lady’s gone and no one can trace her. So what? It’s probably just a ghost story that’s been blown out of proportion, just like everything else. Anyone who’s scared of it needs to get a reality check.”
But then TJ looked right at me, with a deep glare that surprised me. “That’s easy for you to say,” he said. “Because we haven’t told you the REALLY creep part yet.”
Part 2:
Mitch and Jason looked at TJ nervously, and then Mitch put out his cigarette and hissed at TJ, “I THOUGHT we agreed we weren’t going to tell them about that, little brother. The last thing we want is our cousin and his friends to have nightmares about the place.”
But this
really intrigued Max, and he said with an interested smile, “Oh, come on, tell
us! This is really cool!”
“You won’t say that when we tell you this,” said Mitch. “But since you’re so interested, I guess we might as well…”
“Yeah,” said Jason. “Ok, well, here’s the deal. Ever since Mrs. Gremley disappeared, rumors have started around town that she was really was a witch, and that she put a curse on Smokey Terrace. Over the years, different people have been intrigued by the mansion and the curse, so they’ve broken into Smokey Terrace one way or another. Some of them have come out shortly after, unharmed with little else to say. But others…”
He gave a shudder. Mitch finished the sentence, “Others…weren’t so lucky. It doesn’t make any sense, but here’s what’s happened. People, even teens, go in, and…they stay gone. They just…disappear. The police come later, and they search the whole place through and through, but they don’t find them. And then…after a period of time…sometimes weeks…sometimes months…sometimes even years…they reappear. They just show up back in town, like they’ve never been gone.”
“So what do they say?” asked Kevin.
“That’s the weird part,” said TJ. “They don’t remember ANYTHING. They remember going into the mansion, but that’s it. It’s like they don’t remember being gone at all, and that it’s the same day as they went in.”
“And there’s more…” said Jason. “Thankfully, they’ve all come back. No one has disappeared completely from Smokey Terrace like Mrs. Gremley did. But the ones who do come back…for the most part, they’re completely normal. But their friends and family will notice little things every now and then. Tiny, subtle differences that only occur occasionally.”
“What sort of differences?” I asked.
“Ok, this is going to sound really weird,” said Mitch lighting up another cigarette (damn this dude smoked a lot). “But…they do…childish, or babyish things. Like, they’ll start sucking their thumbs for a few minutes, and they won’t even notice until someone tells them. Or they’ll say a couple of sentences in baby talk, and they won’t have any idea until someone tells them what they just did. And then they won’t even remember doing it! And sometimes…they’ll either wet their pants or their bed. Or sometimes they’ll…”
But he was cut off by me bursting into laughter. I couldn’t help it…what they were saying was just stupid!
“Ok, ok, I had to admit, you guys had me fooled, but now this is getting ridiculous,” I said. “I mean, it sounded pretty good for a while. The whole spooky house, old witch lady disappearing, and even the part about people being gone and then reappearing was pretty good…nice touch to a neat little story. But now it’s just getting stupid. People wetting their pants? Come on, you guys should have stopped while it was still good!”
I expected the three of them to just laugh along with me and say “Ha ha ha…yeah, you’re right, we were just messin’ with you.” But instead, the three of them just looked at me coldly, not saying a word.
“Jack, this isn’t a joke, or a spooky ghost story,” said Mitch as he puffed on his cigarette again. “We’re not making this up.”
“Oh come on,” I said. “Stop it, the gig’s up, I know you guys just wanted to try to scare poor little Kevin here, and…”
“No, we’re not,” said TJ, with a look of both fear and anger in his eyes. “We’d never joke around about something like this. You don’t live here, we do, and we’re not messing around.”
I stopped laughing. “So…so…you’re not kidding?”
“If you think we’re kidding,” said Jason. “Why don’t YOU go inside Smokey Terrace yourself, hot shot?”
I stopped for a minute. I thought he was just saying that to say it. “Come on,” I said. “There’s no way I can get in, first of all…”
But they were serious. “People have gotten in many times before,” said Mitch. “I’m sure we can find a way. If nothing else, we can ask Rufus to let us in, I know he has a key…”
“Come on, I’m not going to break into some old lady’s old house…”
“Well, it sounds to me like someone else is scared of the big curse and the old witch,” said TJ.
“Now wait, I am NOT scared of this place…”
“Then prove it,” said Jason. “Go in and tell us yourself what you find. And maybe you won’t be laughing so much if when you come back out you find yourself needing a teddy bear and a bedtime story to go to sleep…”
“Ok, that’s it, I’m goin’ in there!” I said angrily. I wasn’t going to have Max’s punk cousins show me up. I was going to show them that there stupid little curse wasn’t for real after all and that they were just a bunch of punks.
“Hey, Jack, I don’t know…” Kevin said nervously. “Maybe you shouldn’t. What if you DO disappear?”
“Hell, I don’t believe that shit,” I said. “I bet I’ll go in and find nothing but an old building with nothing in it. And then you guys will see how scared I am of your little story.”
“Ok, then, let’s do it tomorrow,” said Jason. “We’ll take you up to the house, and we’ll even help you find a way in.”
“Fine,” I said. “Tomorrow, then.”
With that,
we all decided to go to sleep. I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep…I
wasn’t scared at all. Well, ok, maybe I was a LITTLE bit scared. But not much.
The next day was sunny and warm, so it made me feel good as the six of us walked up the trail to the huge mansion. There was no sign of the caretaker anywhere, so we weren’t bothered as we approached Smokey Terrace.
Now that we were a little closer, I got a better look at the place. It looked like it was mostly made of some white stone material, and I couldn’t tell how many rooms were in it. I did see that it looked like there were two main stories, as well as one section of a third one and two towers. There were about five chimneys, and a lot of windows. The whole building looked old and dirty, and there were vines and vegetation all over the outside walls.
It was definitely a lot creepier now that we were up close and I started getting second thoughts about going in. But the previous night’s conversation kept popping back up in my head, and I knew there was no way I could get out of it without looking like a wuss. So I swallowed any fear that I had as we got closer to the place.
We soon found that the front door was locked, which was no surprise to me.
“Ha,” I said. “I bet we won’t even be able to get in.” I tried to make it sound like I was disappointed, even though part of me was hoping that I could find an excuse not to go in.
But Jason said, “Well, let’s check all of the doors and windows…we don’t want you to have to go away disappointed.”
As we went around the building, to our surprise we eventually found a small door on the side that was open. The large wooden door creaked as Jason slowly pushed it open. It looked pretty dark inside, darker than it should be.
But the others just looked at me as Mitch said, “Well, there you are, tough guy. Your entrance into Smokey Terrace. I think you should have to stay in there half an hour before coming back out.”
“Only half an hour?” asked Jason. “Don’t you think it should be longer than that?”
“I think half an hour is plenty,” said Mitch. “After all, who knows what could happen…”
“Yeah, sounds fine with me,” I said, still trying to push away the fear that was remaining in me. I began to regret ever making such stupid comments the previous night as I stared at the dark doorway. “But wait, if I’m not back in half an hour for whatever reason, someone has to come in after me, ok?
“Ok, fine,” said Jason. “But wait, we have to make sure that you don’t just walk in and stay right on the inside of the door the whole time. So…you have to take something from the house to let us know that you really went inside and actually looked around.”
I felt like punching Jason…that would have been the easy way out. But everyone seemed to agree, so I knew it was no use arguing, even though technically they were asking me to steal something. I brought this up, but Jason reassured me by saying that he was willing to go back in and return whatever I brought out.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” asked Jason. “Not getting chicken, are you?”
“Of course not!” I said with more courage than I really had. But my pride was greater than my fear, so I confidently added, “See you in half an hour,” as I swallowed all of my fear and walked through the doorway.
“Be careful,” Max said as I walked in.
Part 3:
They left the door open, so I had plenty of light as I walked through the door. I realized that it was actually a dark hallway, almost like a tunnel…which was odd, considering I was on the first floor. It kept going for about fifteen feet, and then it branched in two directions. I took the left one as the outside doorway disappeared from view. But there was still enough light to see, so I kept on going, using the courage that I had.
I ended up in a room that looked a little like a living room, but also kind of like an entry room. It had wooden walls, with a staircase leading to an upstairs hallway, a fireplace with a mantle, and another door leading into another room. There was an old rug on the floor and the whole room looked really old. It was kind of hard to figure out if anyone had been here in a while…it seemed decently well kept…nothing was falling apart…but it was also pretty dirty, covered in cobwebs and dust. I saw no signs of any electric devices, and so the room was pretty dark. The only light in the room came from a window that had its shades down, so there was a small yellow tint to the room.
I noticed a bunch of small picture frames set up on the mantle of the fireplace, so my curiosity took over my fear and I went to go look at them. Grabbing one, I looked at it. It was Mrs. Gremley, smiling and holding in her arms what looked like to be a baby boy. But it was interesting… the old woman looked different than she did in the picture that I had seen in the paper. She was happy and looked like a nice little old lady. Interesting…
I put the picture down and picked up the next. It was a picture of a fat guy in shabby clothes. He had dirty brown hair and wore a blank face. At first I wondered if it was Mrs. Gremley’s old husband or even her son, but then I realized he was holding a rake. It seemed like this had to be Rufus, the caretaker. He looked pretty mean…I didn’t think that I would want to talk to him.
I put it down and grabbed another one. The one was a picture of a young looking woman in a French maid’s outfit. She was really hot and had a nice figure. She had pale skin and blonde hair. She was smiling, but she looked nervous and jumpy, as if she was scared of something. Weird…
I put down the picture and grabbed the next one. It was pretty dusty, so I blew on it first, which resulted in the dust hitting me smack in the face. Coughing and using my hand to wave it away, I said out loud, “This stupid old dump! With its old ass pictures…” I was still holding the picture so I wiped it off with my other hand and then looked at it.
Upon looking at it I felt a wave of fear go over me…it was of Mrs. Gremley, but this picture was not like the one with her and the baby…it was like the one in the newspaper, but worse. She looked like she was full of hatred, and the look on her face was really sour. Her hair looked all stringy, like straw on a broomstick, and her skin looked wrinkly and nasty. She had warts and moles on her face, and her nose was long and pointy. But it was her eyes that were really frightening…it looked like she was staring directly at me through the picture, it felt like she was burning a hole right through me.
It was really weird…part of me wanted to put down the picture, but another part of me was forcing me to hold on to it…it was like the woman in the picture was casting a spell on me. I stared into her eyes for about a minute, but then it was like I had caught myself, and I dropped the picture like it was hot.
I took a step back and it felt like my head was spinning…for some reason everything felt funny, and I had trouble standing up. But after a few seconds I shook myself out of it and felt back to normal. Lightly grabbing the picture, I put it back on the mantle.
Part of me wanted to leave right then…but then I looked at the mantle and saw another picture. It was weird; I could have sworn that there had only been four. This intrigued me enough to take a look at the last one, even though I was on guard after the one I had just looked at.
Grabbing the last picture, I took a look at it, and I almost dropped it in shock. It wasn’t of Mrs. Gremley, or the maid, or Rufus…it was of ME. It was one of my baby pictures…I had seen it in one of my mom’s old photo albums. It was me, about two years old, sitting in only a diaper and smiling as I played with some toy cars. I did a double take and looked at it again…it had to be some other kid who just LOOKED like it was me. But I kept looking at it and analyzing it, and no…it was exactly the same as the one my mom had shown me a few times. It was definitely me. But how in the world could a picture of me be in this strange house? It just didn’t make sense…
My impulse was to take the picture back out to everyone outside and show them that I had proof that I had been inside, and I wondered what they would make of it. But as I grabbed it and started walking back to the door that I had come in, I realized that it couldn’t have been half an hour yet. And then I realized that none of them had seen this picture before…they would think that it was just some random baby and that I was making it up just to have an excuse to leave this place as fast as I could.
So, I stopped and put the picture back on the mantle after taking one final look at it. But now I was determined to find out what was going on in this strange house…
I decided to walk through the door that I had seen earlier, and as I did I came into another short hallway. As I walked down the hallway, I passed a full length mirror, and I stopped to take a look at my reflection.
There I was, just my same old self, staring right back at me. But after I looked at myself in the mirror for a few seconds, something crazy happened. Slowly, a wet spot appeared and began to spread right on the crotch of my reflection! I continued to stare in disbelief at my reflection as I saw urine drip to the floor, onto a light blue carpet and form a puddle there, and then I saw myself in the mirror looking extremely embarrassed as my reflection’s face went red and the me in the mirror tried to cover up his crotch and hide the wet spot.
I tore my eyes away from the mirror and looked down at my own crotch. But to my shock and relief, there was no wet spot! I felt my crotch and found it to be completely dry. I quickly looked back up at the mirror, and I found my reflection to be doing the same thing as me now…feeling the dry spot on my pants.
After staring at the mirror for a few more seconds, I realized that once again it was reflecting the real me. I must have just imagined it…I guessed the creepy old house could make your mind play tricks on you. I laughed the whole thing off as I walked down the hall, telling myself I was stupid for tricking myself.
I came upon a door and then opened it. I was now in a small living room, with a carpet on the floor and two easy chairs and a couch. But before I could notice much more, the door across from me opened.
This startled me so much that I almost yelled. Because at that moment in walked in the maid woman that I had seen in the old picture! I must have startled her as well, because she jumped in surprise and said, “Oh!” as soon as she saw me.
“Oh, my,” she said. “You certainly did scare me! For a second there I thought you were a ghost. Mrs. Gremley didn’t tell me she was expecting a guest today.”
Staring at the maid in disbelief, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing or hearing…Mrs. Gremley still did live here after all! And her maid was still working for her! The first thought that came into my mind was that the other guys wouldn’t believe this!
At the moment, all that I could think to say was, “Uh…uh…who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Mrs. Gremley’s maid, Rita,” she replied, still looking a bit shook up. “I’m sorry for scaring you, it’s just that I get so into my cleaning and I’m used to it being only Mrs. Gremley and me in this big house.”
I wanted to say that she must not be a very good maid since the place was so dusty, but I held my tongue.
“But I can’t believe she didn’t tell me she was having company! I would have prepared a snack and a drink for you! Mrs. Gremley always wants her guests to feel welcome. So you just wait right here, and I’ll go get you something.”
With that she walked right back through the door and was gone. I wanted to ask her more questions, like where Mrs. Gremley was. And part of me wanted to tell her I certainly wasn’t a guest of Mrs. Gremley and that she didn’t need to bother with the snack.
I walked over to the door and went through it. But then I noticed two things that were really weird…firstly; Rita was nowhere to be found. But even weirder, I was back in the first room that I had walked into, the one with the fireplace and the pictures! I was really confused for a second…how did that happen? But then I told myself the hallway must have circled around and I didn’t notice because I was so busy with the mirror. So I walked back to the door that led to the hallway and decided to make sure that this was the case.
But as I re-entered the hallway, I found it was just a small, straight little hallway, like I had originally noticed. Still feeling really confused, I walked back down it, hoping to see it curve. As I did I took another glance in the mirror.
And what I saw this time almost made me faint. Because I didn’t even see my reflection at all…there was a baby in the mirror! A baby boy sitting in a diaper on the floor, playing with…toy cars. With a shot of disbelief and fear I realized something…it was the same baby in the picture I saw! That meant…it was…ME.
Still staring into the mirror, I watched as the baby made little car sounds and intently crashed the cars into one another. He did this for a while, but then, as if he noticed me, he looked up right at me. He looked confused for a second, but he then smiled and said, “Ga ga?”
I felt my body go weak from shock and I lost my footing for a second. Holding my head in one hand, I steadied myself and regained control. But as I looked in the mirror again, just like before, the reflection had changed…once again, it showed the true reflection, the reflection of the 17 year old me clutching his head in his hand.
I felt like I was going insane…what in the world was going on in this strange house? I didn’t know if I was beginning to believe the stories that the others told me, but suddenly I got extremely scared and decided that I wanted to get out of this place right now. Once I got outside into the fresh air I’d tell the others what I saw and say that there was something screwy going on in here.
I went back down the hall into the original room with the fireplace. My plan was to make an immediate break for the doorway leading out, but as soon as I walked in, I noticed up on the upstairs balcony, the maid, Rita was standing looking at me with extreme fear.
Shaking, she pointed a finger at me and said, “You…you’re not a guest of Mrs. Gremley, are you?”
I don’t know why I told the truth, but I did. “No…I’m not…” I said nervously.
I thought maybe Rita was going to be really mad at me, but instead, she began to cry and said, “That means…you must be…trapped here! Just like me!” She then burst into tears and turned around and ran through a door upstairs.
This just kept getting weirder and weirder. Part of me wanted to leave, but I got caught up in the moment, and my curiosity got the better of me. “Wait!” I shouted as I ran up the stairs. “Come back, tell me what you’re talking about!”
I got to the top of the staircase, ran down the hall into the room that she had run into, but once again, she was nowhere to be found. I walked into the center of the room, and I noticed, to my surprise, that I was actually in a baby’s room, a nursery! I was standing on a soft, light blue rug, and I saw a crib, one of those tables you change diapers on, a rocking chair, a baby dresser, and even toy box. My natural reaction was that it belonged to Mrs. Gremley’s baby who had died, because it looked like a boy’s room.
While I continued to stand there confused, I looked around the room. When I looked back to the doorway I had entered, I once again almost screamed in shock; there was an old woman in an old black dress, looking right at me and smiling. She leaned onto an old walking stick as she stood there looking at me. I realized that it was none other than Mrs. Gremley, and that Rita had been telling the truth! She never had died!
She smiled at me sweetly, even though since she was so ugly that was hardly comforting. But she definitely didn’t look like the same hatred filled old woman that had been so scary in the pictures I had seen…she looked almost friendly.
“My my my,” she said I continued to gape at her in disbelief. Her voice was raspy and slow, although it sounded kind of nice, like my grandma. “What a fine, handsome young man we have here. I haven’t had a guest in the longest of times…it reminds me back when my son, Tommy, was still here. As a matter of fact, you are the spitting image of him, do you know that?”
I just continued to stare at her, and I stammered. “Uh…hmm…yeah… interesting…” Maybe it was everything that had happened since I had been there, or maybe it was just the presence of the old woman, but I found I couldn’t really think or speak very clearly at the moment.
“How old are you, dear?”
“Uh…seven…teen…”
“Well isn’t that nice? My my, you really do remind me of my Tommy…bless his soul…”
There was then an awkward silence as we continued to stare at each other. A big part of me wanted to race out the door and once again leave this place and this crazy old woman, but it was like my legs weren’t working…I didn’t feel paralyzed or anything, I just couldn’t seem to make myself leave…
It was then I felt a warm sensation in the lower half of my body. Looking down curiously, I couldn’t believe what I saw…I was wetting my pants! Without any control from me, piss continued to flow out, soaking my entire crotch! I could even see it dripping onto the carpet below me and forming a small puddle.
Feeling myself go completely red, I tried to cover up the wet spot on my pants as I looked back up at Mrs. Gremley with shame.
But she just continued to smile sweetly at me and said, “Uh oh…looks like someone had an accident! And look at you, you’ve just made a mess on my nice carpet…shame on you…”
“I’m s…I’m sorry!” I stammered again, not being able to say anything else out of the shock of wetting myself and the humiliation of it. Once again, I felt like running out and not looking back, but it was as if my body was trapped by Mrs. Gremley’s stare, and I had to sit there and face her words.
“Why, you don’t have to apologize, little boy. You know, I hate to sound like a broken record, but you really do remind me of my Tommy. I remember back when he was about five years old, he used to have wetting problems too. He tried to tell me on his first day of school that he was a big boy, and that he had out grown it. But he came home that day with a wet spot on his pants, crying and saying that he had wet himself and that the other children had laughed at him. And I told him that he wasn’t ready yet. And do you know what I did? I put him back into diapers. Not as a punishment, but for his own sake…he just wasn’t ready for big boy pants yet.”
I had no idea why she was telling me this, but it made me feel even more uncomfortable and embarrassed by the situation. Did she honestly think telling me about her pants-wetting son would make me feel better?
Because of course it didn’t make me feel any better. In fact, as I listened to her talk, something, and I couldn’t figure out what exactly, truly disturbed me…
“And do you know what? I think you’re just like my little Tommy. You try to act tough and big like a big boy, but big boys don’t have accidents. Just like Tommy, you think you’re ready to be a big boy, but I know better. You’re not ready to grow up yet. So I think it’s best that you just let Mrs. Gremley take care of everything.”
What the fuck was this crazy old woman talking about? How dare she insult me like that? Talking to me like I’m fucking five years old! But even though what she was saying pissed me off and I thought she was insane, it also made me feel even more embarrassed that I had just wet my pants like a little baby!
But what she said didn’t just anger me. Because I suddenly realized with a jolt why what she was saying was bothering me so much. It brought back a really bad memory, something I had never told anybody and I thought I had forgotten. On my first day of school, I had been really nervous, and accidentally I had wet myself. All the other kids had laughed at me and I felt humiliated, and I went home crying that day. To prevent the same thing from happening again, my mom decided I should wear a diaper the next few days, just in case. Even though I was embarrassed, it was far better than the other kids seeing me wet myself again…
But I didn’t. Turned out there was no need for the diaper, and I didn’t ever wear it again. And I had completely forgotten about that first day of school until now. I hadn’t even told anybody about it. But Mrs. Gremley talking about Tommy brought back those bad memories, and it seemed like she was reading my mind! And that really started to scare me.
As I thought about all of this, I started to feel like I was going crazy again. Because Mrs. Gremley slowly started to get bigger! I blinked a few times, telling myself I must be hallucinating, but no, there she was, now twice my size, and getting even bigger.
But as I looked around the room, I realized that it wasn’t just Mrs. Gremley…the whole room was growing! And on top of that, my clothes were starting to get really loose and baggy! I was actually shrinking!
I slipped on my baggy clothes and landed on my butt. I noticed my hands and feet looked pudgy and out of proportion. I felt my cheeks and found them to be chubbier than normal. I felt my head and found I didn’t have as much hair as normal. I couldn’t believe it! I was…a…”
“Baby,” said Mrs. Gremley. “You’re not a big boy after all, you’re just a small, weak, scared little baby. And that’s why you act so tough and mean all of the time, because on the inside, you’re nothing more than a baby who wants to grow up too fast. But don’t you worry, Mrs. Gremley will fix you up just fine.”
I noticed that as she spoke these words, her face and her tone slowly changed from a sweet little old grandma lady to a fierce, mean old woman…the one who had scared me in the pictures.
Scared out of my wits, I began to throw my big baggy clothes off of me. But before I could do much else, I felt myself being lifted off of the ground by my armpits, and before I knew it, I found myself lying down on a soft surface.
“That’s right, Rita,” said Mrs. Gremley. “This little baby needs to be kept under close care. And since he can’t seem to keep from having accidents, I think he needs some ‘protection’.”
I noticed that the person who had picked me up was Rita, the maid, and she was now strapping my tiny, baby body to the table I was lying on. As I looked into Rita’s face, I was surprised. She was crying and looked like doing this to me was the last thing on earth that she wanted to do. But that didn’t stop her. And at this point I realized that I had been put on the changing table in the room. And that must have meant…
I struggled violently as I lay there. But my chest and arms were strapped into place and Rita was in complete control of my legs. She lifted legs and butt up, and I saw her slip a white cloth underneath me as I was lowered back down.
“Wait,” I said in a remarkably high, panicked voice. “You can’t do this to me! Just let me go! I don’t want…”
I noticed that Mrs. Gremley had walked over, and that she was staring at me angrily. “It doesn’t matter what you want!” she said. “You are only a little baby, and you can’t make decisions for yourself! You made a mess all over my carpet, and to fix the problem, you are going to be put into DIAPERS!”
Struggling franticly, I tried to fight as Rita took a cold, wet tissue and began to wipe down my crotch and butt. I noticed she was crying and sobbing as she did so. For whatever reason, I began to cry too.
“No…me not need diapa…me big boy…” I said. What was happening to me? It was like I couldn’t speak right, like my mouth wasn’t working right. And it became harder to control my body too…my struggling began to look more and more like the spastic movements of a baby getting changed…
“Stop crying, Rita!” said Mrs. Gremley. “And powder his little bottom! I want the new baby to smell nice and clean in my house!”
Rita reluctantly shook some baby powder onto my crotch and butt. The sweet smell of it hit my nose and made me sneeze a little. I couldn’t believe what was happening…I was actually a baby being powdered.
I was now having trouble struggling or moving at all, and when I tried to yell out again, all that came out was a high pitched baby squeal.
“That’s right,” said Mrs. Gremley, smiling again and appearing to be happy. “Cry, my little baby, because you are helpless and need to be taken care of.”
I felt a thick, soft material being pulled over my crotch, and I saw Rita take a safety pin and tightly fasten the diaper on one side of my hip. She then did the same with the other, and I was now, to my utter grief, a baby who had just been diapered.
I continued to cry weakly as Rita fitted a small shirt over my head. Mrs. Gremley, on the other hand, seemed to be much happier now, and now she was back to the same old sweet lady. “There now!” she said happily. “Now my precious little boy is all snug in his diaper, and now he can play like a happy baby!” For some reason, this new sweet tone was even more frightening than the angry, hate filled one I had heard seconds before.
Rita reluctantly un-strapped me, picked me up, and set me down on the floor. I whined weakly, as my mind seemed to have been reduced, like I couldn’t completely understand what was going on. I sat down on the floor, not really knowing how do move my body.
I faintly heard Mrs. Gremley say, “Now I’m sure the little baby will have fun playing with some CARS…”
That word stood out, as if it was the only one I understood. I suddenly noticed that Rita had put some toy cars on the floor, and almost out of instinct I grabbed them. Not knowing what else to do, I started banging them together. I made crashing noises as I did it. This gave me an immense joy, and I felt like there was nothing that could make me happier in life than banging the cars together and making these noises to signify it, over and over and over and over…
As I did this, I was aware of the two women standing directly over me. For a second, I was really scared, not really understanding what was going on, only that I was a weak, helpless being, and that I didn’t understand anything. But as I looked up at the two women, I got a small sense of euphoria, knowing that I had protection. The soft material between my legs, I didn’t know what it was, but it felt very secure. And as I filled with happiness knowing that I had two, big, comforting figures to take care of me, I smiled not knowing why, and having nothing else in my mind, I spoke, saying, “Ga ga?”
And it was right about then that everything went completely blurry and I lost consciousness. And I remember nothing after that.