Security Cameras

So, something to disclose before I proceed in telling this story. I live halfway across the country from where my family and the house I was raised in is located. Because of this, I can’t help but get a little homesick from time to time. The only reason I moved this far out was because my friend lived here, and we had been planning on moving in together since we were children before she moved away. It worked out great, since neither of us planned on having children, and living together made paying bills less of a challenge than trying to do it on our own. I still visit my family on Holidays and special occasions, and I love where I live, so overall I’m happy with this lifestyle.
Anyways, shortly before my last visit, my parents had decided to install security cameras in the house. It made sense seeing as they had my two younger siblings to look after, and their grandchild often spent nights with them. My father was always one to look for ways to improve home security, and who could blame him? While I was there he showed me how to access the cameras through my phone using an app. This way, when those feelings of being homesick came back to me, I could check in and make sure everything was all right. I could also talk into the phone and through the camera like an intercom, so it was an ideal way of keeping in touch with my family while I was so many miles away. I mean, obviously I could just call them or video chat with them, but the camera access meant that I could also check in when no one was even home. Now don’t get the wrong idea, I could only see the living room, kitchen, and dining room. I wasn’t peering into their bedrooms or anything.
I spent the entire week of Christmas with them, enjoying the company of the family I missed spending so much time with. I spent a lot of the time with my younger siblings. Mary, who was 15, and Barry, who was 17. I remember when Barry was younger we would give him so much grief for being the only boy. I would tease him and get Mary to join. None of it was meant to cause any real harm, though I admit it occasionally went too far. However, now that we were older, those memories were held fondly and there were no hard feelings. In fact Barry has become more like me than my sister. We both love to talk about gaming, being a bit geekier than Mary, who didn’t enjoy gaming quite as much. We still found things to do that made all three of us happy, but there was no denying that Barry and I had a lot more in common, despite butting heads when we were younger.
After the holidays passed, I had to go back to my home. I hugged my family goodbye, and made plans for my next visit. The trip home was uneventful. Just a quick plane ride back and everything was as it was when I left. About a week later my friend was going out with a man she had formed a relationship with recently. I was left in the house alone and was already thinking about my family. At this time, they would be in bed as their time zone was a couple of hours ahead of us. Still, I got on my phone, opened the app, and accessed the living room camera. All was silent, which was normal considering the time. After watching for somewhere around half a minute, I was about to turn it off when Barry entered the camera’s view. It would have struck me as strange for anyone else, but Barry and I were both night owls, which is one more thing we had in common. I thought about using the intercom to talk to him, but didn’t want to wake anyone up. This is where things take a bit of a turn.
See, with the cameras they have set up, there’s no way to tell when someone is accessing them. No lights, no sounds, nothing. Unless you move the lens with the remote controls, there is no indication whatsoever that anyone is watching through them. Barry, however, seemed to somehow… know. He walked slowly up to the camera, looking straight at it. I thought maybe he was just curiously looking at it, but he wouldn’t stop staring. Even more strange, he looked as if he was... angry at something. I thought about texting his phone to see what was going on, but then his hands started to move slowly to his head. He gripped his mouth by the bottom and top jaws, and started pulling eagerly. His cheeks started to rip, causing his whole head to start opening up as if his mouth had literally grown ear to ear… blood dripped down as he completely removed the top jaw and everything above it, tossing it down. What was left was just the bottom portion of his head, his bottom row of teeth sticking up and his tongue still in place. I started hearing deep, low laughter as blood spurted out of what little head remained, and Barry continued to walk towards the camera, despite not having the top portion of his head to guide him. The entire time there was another noise that was much softer than the others, a faint whispering of the words "leave me alone" and "please stop". I threw my phone. I was shaking on my bed, wondering what on earth I just saw. I was too scared to pick up my phone, so I just let it sit there till morning, staying up the whole night since I was too scared to go to sleep.
When the morning came I eventually had to retrieve the phone. To my surprise, Barry was gone. There was no blood, no body, and no sign he had been there in the first place. I immediately closed the camera’s app and called my mom. I asked her if anything weird had gone on overnight but she said everything seemed normal. Afterwards, I broke out into a sweat as I dialed Barry’s number. I had to talk to him even if the thought of doing so freaked me out after what I had just seen. I got a reply after a few rings, and his tired voice came over the line.
“Hello?”
“Hey Barry… So uh, I think I saw you last night in the camera, you seemed… upset. Is everything okay?” I asked, lying about the reason I called him.
“Um... yeah, I’m fine, but that doesn’t make sense. I went to sleep at eleven, and hadn’t left my room since nine. Are you sure you saw me?” He asked. My heart began pulsing much harder than before.
“Oh okay, must have been your sister or my imagination. I’ll text you later okay?”
“Yeah, sure. See ya then.”
I hung up and went back to the camera. I used a rewind feature to go back… it was real. The thing, whatever it was, was still there in the recording. I went back to the live footage, and froze. I didn’t see anything different, but I heard something. A cry. It was Barry’s cry when he was a child, I remembered hearing it when my teasing would go too far. The crying slowly morphed into the same laugh from the night before, till both sounds were playing at the same time. I closed my phone, feelings of guilt, fear, and sickness overtaking me. The nightmarish memory of what I had seen played out in my head over and over, keeping every bit of detail as the camera had shown.
I’m not so sure about when I’ll come back for another visit...
And Barry, if you see this...I'm so sorry.
Category:Beings
Category:Computers and Internet