"The Mystery of Smokey Terrace"

[teddy564339]

If I had to describe this story in one word, it would be weird. It's kind of like a mystery movie turned into a diaper story, with maybe a touch of horror in it. There's no blood or anything like that, it's just...weird, and from what a few people have told me, creepy. I even gave it a cheesy intro. I haven't gotten many responses about this one...the few I've gotten have been positive, but overall it's one of my least popular stories. But maybe you guys will feel differently. I've always liked it.







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:

Max: A 16 year old who is kind and easy-going, often a leader who tries to offer his concern for those around him.

Jack: Max’s 17 year old friend, who unlike Max, is often arrogant, which accompanies his strong athletic abilities.

Emily: Max’s shy and quiet 15 year old friend, who is nice but often overlooked as she doesn’t stand up for herself and often denies her own personal wants.

Melissa: Max’s 20 year old cousin who is sweet but bossy, and who has developed a strong smoking habit.

Jodi: Max’s 17 year old cousin, a class clown who is quick to pick on everybody, although she rarely means harm.

T.J.- Max’s 14 year old cousin, who is young and sheltered but surprisingly scrappy as well. He tries hard to impress people, but is constantly irritated by his older sisters teasing him and treating him like a child.

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 Emily accepted Max’s offer for them to come with him. The first part of the story is told by Jack…

[teddy564339]

Part 1: Jack

So, I guess this whole thing started with me, my bud Max, and his goofy little friend Emily 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 Emily to go, and when I asked if his cousins were hot, he admitted that they were, so I was immediately hooked…I always go for the hotties.

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 Melissa, Max’s oldest cousin, and Jodi, his middle cousin drone on and on about the different parts of the neighborhood. Yeah, they were really hot, but Melissa was always smoking, which was damn nasty, and Jodi mouthed off to me as soon as she saw me, saying something like, “Whoa there, Romeo, I only date guys NOT on steroids” (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 Emily always acting like everything was such a big deal and being overly concerned with everything (she had a cold and kept bitching about how she could barely breathe because she 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, Jodi 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 Melissa. “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?” Emily asked through her stuffed up nose.

“Well,” said Jodi. “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 Melissa. “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 Jodi. “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 Emily.

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.”

Melissa and Jodi were still eager to talk about everything, although I could tell Emily and TJ were shaken up about the whole thing.

Melissa left the room and came back with a box of old newspapers. After rummaging around to find one in particular, she pulled it out and showed it to us.

“It was actually a really sad story,” she said, lighting up a cigarette. “A long time ago, Mrs. Gremley had a husband and a son. They lived in Smokey Terrace, and there 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 girl. 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 girl 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-daughter 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 girl. 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 Jodi. “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 Melissa, 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 grand-daughter died. Here, look at this picture in the paper of her after it happened.”

Me, Emily 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 Jodi to laugh again. “Wittle TJ is fwightened by the witch lady! Ooooohhhh…” But even though she was laughing, I did notice a small hint of nervousness in her 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.”

Melissa and Jodi looked at TJ nervously, and then Melissa put out her 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 Melissa. “But since you’re so interested, I guess we might as well…”

“Yeah,” said Jodi. “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…”

She gave a shudder. Melissa 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 Emily.

“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 Jodi. “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 Melissa lighting up another cigarette (damn this girl 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 she 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 Melissa as she puffed on her 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 Emily 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 Jodi. “Why don’t YOU go inside Smokey Terrace yourself, hot shot?”

I stopped for a minute. I thought she 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 Melissa. “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 Jodi. “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…” Emily 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 Jodi. “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 Jodi 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 Jodi slowly pushed it open. It looked pretty dark inside, darker than it should be.

But the others just looked at me as Melissa 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 Jodi. “Don’t you think it should be longer than that?”

“I think half an hour is plenty,” said Melissa. “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 Jodi. “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 Jodi…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 Jodi reassured me by saying that she was willing to go back in and return whatever I brought out.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” asked Jodi. “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.

[teddy564339]

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 it’s 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 girl. 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 it’s 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 hold 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, but it looked like a boy’s room, and didn’t they say that the baby she had lost was a girl, her grand-daughter…?

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.

[teddy564339]

Part 2: Jodi


“Jack sure has been in there a long time…” said my cousin Max, shooting a look at the legendary mansion, Smokey Terrace. His cocky, macho friend Jack had gone into Smokey Terrace when we dared him to. I was now standing outside with Max, his friend Emily, my older sister Melissa, and my annoying little brother, TJ.

“Yeah,” said TJ nervously. “Didn’t we say half an hour? I think it’s been about forty-five already.”

Emily was looking really worried at this point. I knew that she was younger and she had been pretty freaked out when we had told her, Max and Jack about Smokey Terrace. I have to admit, it is a pretty creepy story, and everybody around our neighborhood had always talked about the story of Mrs. Gremley really seriously. But I guess I had heard it for so long that it didn’t really scare me that much any more.

But Emily looked at us with fright. She was new to the town, pretty young, and besides, she was sick, with a pretty bad stopped up nose. So all that together made this whole thing a little more scary to her. She said, “You…you don’t think anything happened to him, do you? I mean, you know all of those stories that you told us? What if he…”

“Well, I don’t know…” said Melissa as she lit up ANOTHER cigarette. Both me and mom have continuously gotten on her about smoking…she’s done it for so long now. And it grosses me out.

“I mean,” she said. “Maybe he just got a little lost. It is a big place. And I think it’s pretty dark in there.”

“But what if something DID happen?” asked TJ. “You know everything we’ve heard. What if he…he…”

But I had had enough of all of this. “Give me a break!” I said. “Do you honestly think something happened to that idiot? He’s perfectly fine. And I’m sure he didn’t get lost…how hard could it be to walk through a house? You guys are just scaring Emily and Max…”

“But what about all of the stories?” asked Max. “If other people disappeared for a while, how do we know Jack didn’t?”

“Look,” I said. “Those are just stories. Yeah, we told ‘em to you guys just to freak you out a little bit. Sure, everybody in town tells them seriously, but that’s just part of the myth of our town, something to make everything exciting. You know how it is…the original story was probably something like someone snuck in here, stayed a few nights, and then came back and acted like they didn’t remember anything. And over time, to make it more interesting, people changed it to say they disappeared. Like I said, they’re just myths.”

“So what about Jack?” asked Melissa. She always seemed to take all of this more seriously than I did.

“Look, I can almost guarantee that that jackass is just sitting right inside that door, thinking it’s a big joke freaking us out. And if we go in he’ll jump out at us to scare us. NOTHING bad happened. Look, I’ll even prove it to you. I’ll go in and I’ll come right back out as soon as I find him. I’ll probably only be about five minutes.”

“Uh, I don’t know if you should…” began TJ.

“TJ, I know you may be scared and just about to wet your pants over this, but I’m not, ok?”

This seemed to set him off. The truth is I always push TJ’s buttons. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s just because he’s my little brother. But I’ve always gotten satisfaction out of picking on him and making him mad. Deep down I love him, but he’s just such an easy target to pick on…I can’t help myself.

I guess I’ve always joked around with people. Whenever I see the opportunity to make a joke or take a jab at someone, before I think about it, I’ve said something. I really don’t mean to hurt anyone, even though sometimes I guess I do. To be completely honest, I think I do it because I can be a little insecure about myself sometimes, and by picking on other people, it gets their attention off of me and my flaws.

Anyway, maybe the pants-wetting line was a little mean, but it really made TJ mad.

“Fine!” he said. “Why don’t you take your brave self inside Smokey Terrace and get him out! And if anything happens to you, I’m glad! Then you won’t be so brave anymore!”

“Hey, calm down TJ,” said Melissa. “You don’t mean that…”

“No, no, he’s right,” I said. “I’m gonna go in right now and show you guys there’s nothing to be scared of.”

Although they still looked apprehensive, the four of them didn’t stop me. They just kind of waved and told me to be careful. So I opened the door that Jack had gone through and entered a small hallway that led into Smokey Terrace.

This little tunnel was pretty dark, with only the light from the outside doorway there to light it up. I soon found that it branched in two directions, with one pathway going left and the other going right. ‘Great,’ I told myself. ‘I haven’t run into him yet, so how do I figure out which way he went?’ I looked for any signs along either passageway, but I found none…there wasn’t anything on the ground that could leave impressions for footprints, and I noticed no signs anywhere. But that made sense, given there really wasn’t anything here anyway.

I sighed, decided to pick one way and come back if and do the other one if I didn’t find Jack. I chose the right one, hoping that it was the way Jack had gone.

As I took this passageway, the light became dimmer and dimmer. I wasn’t really scared…like I said, I didn’t really believe a lot of the stories about this place. I personally guessed that Mrs. Gremley had died years and years ago, and that people just liked to tell spooky stories about this place. I did have to admit that it felt a little creepy, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Wherever Jack was, I was sure he was just fine.

As I continued to walk, I looked up at the walls, and I saw that there was a number of old-looking paintings. None of them really caught my interest…they just looked like a bunch of old portraits of various people, and I assumed they were all old family members of Mrs. Gremley.

One did catch my eye, however. I looked up and saw a young looking maid, who was smiling nervously in the picture. At first I thought it must have been a really old picture, but I read a small caption underneath it, which said, “Rita Miles, maid of Mrs. Rose Gremley”. ‘That’s weird,’ I thought. ‘Either there was another Rose Gremley other than the latest Mrs. Gremley, or she must have had a maid that I never heard about.’

As I continued to look at the paintings, I saw one of Rufus, which looked a little spooky in the candlelight that provided the only light for this tunnel.

And then I saw one of Mrs. Gremley. It looked kind of recent, and the old woman was wearing a stone-cold look on her face. She seemed to have no life in her. “Stupid old bat,” I said to the picture. “You don’t look so scary, just ugly.”

Continuing down the passage way, I came up to another door, and I opened it. As I walked through it, I took a look at the room I had entered. It was a quaint little entry hall. A grandfather clock stood against one wall, and a glass case full of some weird little statues. A thick rug was on the floor, and I saw two doors, one straight ahead and one to the right. There were also a few more of those old portraits in here, but I wasn’t close enough to see who they were of. Other than that, it looked kinda dumpy…I saw cobwebs around the place, and I could clearly see the dust piling up on the walls and floor. The walls looked like they were crumbling away.

“Yeah,” I told myself. “There is no way anyone has lived here for a long time.”

I stepped forward and called out, “Hey, Jack! You moron! Where are you? I know you’re here, just waiting to jump out and scare me, but the others are worried about you!”

I waited for a response and got none. “Ugh,” I told myself. “Now I’m going to have to hunt that idiot down.” I took a few more steps forward, but then I heard a little scratching sound on the floor. I looked down and saw a mouse running across the room, straight in my direction.

Now, I’ve never really been afraid of mice, but the old house was a little spooky, so I guess I was kind of jumpy. Because I quickly took a few steps back, and I accidentally bumped into the door. This caused it to shut close, and it slammed into place with a loud bang (it was a pretty heavy door). This caused me to jump again and I turned around to look at what made the noise. I turned right around into a cloud of dust. I coughed as I batted it away. But then I looked down and saw that it had gotten all over my sweater. I irritatingly tried to wipe it off of my face and clothes. “Damn you, Jack!” I said. “And damn this old dump!”

I turned back around to see where the mouse had gone, and I saw it right there on the rug, staring straight up at me. I found that really weird…I had never seen a mouse do that before. I kept on looking at it…it felt like it was trying to tell me something…this was really weird…

Then, I started to feel funny. I staggered slightly as I felt my head spinning a little bit and I got dizzy. This caused me to fall to my knees. This caused the mouse to break its trance and scurry off.

Thankfully, soon after that, I went back to normal. As I shook myself back into it, I said, “Ok, that was weird. But I’m not gonna let a little thing like that scare me. I’m going to find Jack and get the hell out of here.”

I called for him again, but to no surprise, there was no answer. So, I decided to take the doorway to the left.

As I did, I walked into a small dining room. There were some old cabinets up against the walls, and a somewhat elegant dining table in the middle of the room surrounded by some matching chairs. There were also a couple of other doorways (this place was big… I began to wonder how I would ever find Jack). As I began to examine the table, I called out for Jack again. I was startled by the sound of one of the doors opening and someone coming through.

Looking up, I expected it to be Jack. But instead, to my surprise, it was the maid in the picture I had seen! I think I startled her much more than she did me, though, because she let out a small scream as I came through.

As we both regained our composure, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry! You scared me! I heard someone calling out something, but I thought I was just hearing things. I wasn’t aware Mrs. Gremley was having a guest today.”

This was crazy! So Mrs. Gremley never died at all! And she had a maid! Funnily enough, the first thing that entered my mind was, ‘Wait until Melissa and TJ hear this!”

I was a little too shocked to say anything, so the maid kept going. “My name is Rita and I’m Mrs. Gremley’s maid. I’m sure she would want her guests to have something to eat, so you just take a seat right there while I go fetch you a snack.”

Before I could say anything else, Rita left the room out of the door that I had come in. My head was swimming a little bit from this new information…I had been so sure that Mrs. Gremley had died and that people just made up scary stories about this place. But no, she must have been alive and well…Rita talked about her like any other person.

My initial reaction was to get up and follow her. But she said that she would be back, so I decided to wait, get my thoughts together, and then I could ask her some questions about everything.

It was weird though…why was this place such a dump if Mrs. Gremley still lived here? And it was dirty too…Rita must not have been very good. This whole thing was really strange…

‘What am I thinking?’ I asked myself suddenly. ‘Here I am wondering why Mrs. Gremley’s house is dirty when I should be thinking about finding Jack! I’ll have to ask Rita when she gets back…surely either she or Mrs. Gremley must have seen him. But come to think about it, maybe we shouldn’t be in such a hurry to leave…it might be interesting to sit down and talk with the old woman and see what she has to say. I bet she’s a really nice old lady who people told stories about, just to be mean. Poor woman even lost a grandchild…’

My thoughts were cut short by Rita re-entering the room, carrying a tray. I saw that it had a pitcher of milk on it along with what looked to be apple slices.

Now this probably sounds stupid, but the first thought that entered my head was “Yuck!” It’s just that those were the absolute worst two things that could have been on that tray…for some reason I absolutely couldn’t stand milk, and I hated apples too (I actually didn’t really like any kind of fruit, really, I know that’s a little weird, but that’s the way I am). So I eyed the tray with a little disgust as Rita set it down on the table, smiled and said, “There you go. Eat up!”

I definitely didn’t want to eat any of it, but that didn’t matter anyway…I was mainly interested in talking to Rita. So I then said, “Uh, excuse me, but uh…Rita? Does Mrs. Gremley really still live here?”

“Why, of course she does! Why wouldn’t she?”

“Well, it’s just that there have been rumors all around town that she died many years ago, and…”

Rita nervously laughed and said, “Why, people sure can be cruel! Making fun of poor Mrs. Gremley. That’s a horrible thing to say, that she’s dead! Now, come on, eat your apple slices! Here, let me pour you a nice glass of milk…”

I ignored her request and then said, “But why is this place so dirty and run down, then? If she’s lived here for years…”

“Now young lady, I know you’re a guest here but that doesn’t mean you can insult Mrs. Gremley by talking about her house like that, not to mention insult my work. Now don’t you worry about such things.

“What’s important is that you drink your milk and eat your apple slices,” she said with a bit more nervousness I noticed. “Mrs. Gremley would be AWFULLY upset if you didn’t eat up…”

There was no way I was eating that nasty crap, though. And something wasn’t right here…

Brushing aside Rita’s request, I asked, “Uh, ok then…I have another question. One of my friends…his name is Jack…he came in here about maybe an hour ago, and I’m looking for him. He’s about seventeen, kind of big, talks a lot…”

“Why, of course not! You’re the only one who’s been in this house all day! I certainly would have noticed if Mrs. Gremley had any other guests arrive. Now, please, young lady, you must eat…”

“No!” I said maybe a little louder than I had meant to. “Listen, lady, I’m not eating this stuff…I hate it!” I didn’t mean to come off so rude, but I was getting pretty fed up with this maid and how she didn’t answer my questions and couldn’t shut up about the food.

To my surprise, she didn’t get angry at me, but she began to cry. She buried her hands in her face and sobbed. I felt horrible…I didn’t mean to sound so rude to make her cry.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to sound so rude…”

“It’s not that!” she said looking up at me through her tears. “It’s just that if you don’t eat, Mrs. Gremley will be awfully angry, and she will take it out on you! You might even end up like the other boy who came in here a little while ago…”

“So Jack DID come in here!” I said. “I knew it! Please, tell me where he is!”

“I…c…can’t!” she blubbered. And with that, before I could do anything else, she ran out of the room through the door I had come in, still crying.

“Wait!” I said, as I got up to go after her. I ran through the door, but as I entered the main entrance room again, there was no sign of her. How could I have missed her? She was just here!

I began to make my way through the other door in the room, but as I walked over to it, I took a glance at the portraits that I had ignored earlier. At first I quickly glanced at them with the intention of walking right by, but what I saw captured my attention.

I couldn’t believe it; these were pictures of various men and women, but they all had one thing in common…they were dressed up as…babies. And they were doing baby things. It was really weird. One full-grown woman was wearing a frilly pink dress with white socks and black little shoes. It looked like the outfit of a three year old. And she was smiling gleefully as she drug a baby doll behind her. I then saw this man wearing a footed baby sleeper, sucking his thumb and clutching a blanket. Another woman was sitting in a high chair wearing a bib, with some glop smeared all over her face. Another guy was in a crib, holding a baby bottle with both hands and drinking it. Another woman was crawling on her hands and knees wearing a little baby gown with a look of childlike curiosity on her face. Probably the second most disturbing one was a man wearing nothing but a diaper (though later I realized they probably all were wearing diapers underneath their clothes) and lying on the floor crying and shaking a baby rattle.

I say the last one was the second most disturbing because then I caught sight of one that almost made me faint. It was of JACK. He was sitting on the floor in a small T-shirt and a DIAPER, playing happily with some toy cars. If the circumstances had been a little different, I would have surely found the picture to be hilarious, and maybe even a little cute. But given that he was somewhere in this house and I had just had that weird conversation with Rita, this picture really bothered me.

For the first time in the house, I was truly spooked. I decided it would be best to go out, tell the other guys about what I saw, and convince at least one of them to come in here, take a look at this, and then help me find Jack. There was no way I was gonna do it on my own.

I raced over to the door leading to the tunnel I had taken to get into the house. I grabbed the doorknob, turned it and pulled, but the door wouldn’t budge. I pulled again, but got the same result. I frantically tugged at the door and tried turning the knob in all directions, but still, it didn’t move. I couldn’t help but feel like now I was trapped in this place.

For a second I panicked and felt like I was going to have a fit. At the moment I didn’t want to be here, and the fact that I was trapped really scared me. But after a second, I regained my cool, took a deep breath and calmed down. “It’s ok,” I said to myself. “That’s fine. I’ll just find a window and get out that way. Then we can figure out how to get back in.”

Realizing that my choices were limited, I decided to take the other door that was in this room. As I walked through it, I found myself in a kitchen. It had yellow tiles and yellow wallpaper, and there was a counter with a sink, an old stove, and an old refrigerator up against the walls. There was also a small table with two regular chairs, and also a high chair (which if I wasn’t in such a frazzled mood I probably would have realized was big enough to fit me…).

But what struck me the most was that there were no windows in this room, and even more surprising, no doors. I stepped further into the room to make sure that this was the case, but I found no doors anywhere. ‘Now that doesn’t make any sense,’ I thought. ‘Rita had to have come through this door…there was no other way. But there’s no way she could have gotten out. Unless…maybe she went through door leading outside and then made it where it wouldn’t move! But how could she have done that so fast?’

I was frustrated enough that I yelled out, “Damn it! I hate this stupid fucking house!”

“I would appreciate it if you would watch your mouth while you are a guest in my house, young lady,” I heard a decrepit old voice say from behind me.

[teddy564339]

Turning around in surprise, I saw myself staring right at Mrs. Gremley herself, who was leaning on an old, gnarled walking stick and standing right in the doorway. She was smiling, but I could tell immediately that it wasn’t the type of smile that made me feel like she was a nice little old lady.

“Mrs. Gremley!” I said. “You’re alive!”

“Alive and quite disturbed to hear a pretty little girl such as yourself uttering such filthy language. Why, I would have raised my poor little granddaughter to not even think of saying such nasty words.”

I don’t know if it was because I was so distraught over my situation, or if I was irritated by Mrs. Gremley calling me a “pretty little girl”, especially with her annoying little old lady voice. Either way, before I could stop myself, I said, “Look, lady, I don’t care about you or your little house rules. What have you done with Jack?!”

I knew immediately that I had struck a nerve. Mrs. Gremley’s smile immediately changed to that look of stone cold seriousness that I had seen in the portrait.

“Never you mind about him. He’ll be along, I’m sure. I’m more concerned with you. You were a naughty little girl…you didn’t accept my gracious offer of apples and milk.”

“Yeah, because I hate them! There’s no way I would ever eat it!”

“My my my,” she said. “You poor girl…it is obvious that you have been making poor decisions about your nutrition. I doubt your parents raised you correctly in making these choices. So I believe I will have to assist you in sitting down and having a nice, nutritious snack.”

“Don’t you say anything about my parents!” I yelled. “And I’m getting out of here right now! If you think I’m going to stop and sit down to eat your crap, you’re crazy.”

“Ah, but my dear, you are ALREADY sitting,” she said with a devious smile.

I was puzzled at first, but then I looked down. I couldn’t believe it…she was right! I was sitting in one the chairs with the table right in front of me. My attention had been completely on Mrs. Gremley, so I didn’t notice how I got in the chair. How did she do that?! How could I have not noticed walking over here and sitting down?

But as she continued to look at me and smile, I didn’t get up. It was like she was casting a spell on me…I felt like I could move freely, but that the thought of getting up out the chair never even entered my mind, like it was something that was as crazy as me sprouting wings and flying.

Mrs. Gremley continued to smile as she said, “Now, since you have behaved like a child in your eating habits, I think it is appropriate that you drink your milk like a child.”

I could do nothing but watch as Mrs. Gremley made it over to the refrigerator and pulled out a sippy cup (like little kids drink out of) that was filled with milk out of the refrigerator.

“Now, sweetie, drink up the whole thing like a good girl,” she said as she set it down on the table in front of me.

Even though it seemed impossible for me to get up, I still had my temper and I was going to give this crazy old witch a piece of my mind. “I told you, I hate milk! And even if I liked it, there’s no way I would drink it out of a damn baby cup! I’m almost a grown woman.”

But to my fright, as I said these words, I noticed that my hand had already grabbed the cup and it pushing the opening of it towards my mouth. Again, it wasn’t as though I was trying to resist doing so and trying to push it back down to the table, it was more like my arm was moving on its own accord and that it was someone else’s arm that I didn’t have any control over.

Likewise, almost as if it was natural, my hand pushed the cup to my mouth and I began to drink the disgusting dairy drink. It still tasted nasty, and part of me felt like gagging, but again, I kept on drinking. And to make things worse, my other hand was now gripping the cup, and I felt a huge loss of dignity as I realized I was guzzling down milk exactly like a two-year old.

“Yes, that’s right,” said Mrs. Gremley in her horrible old voice. “Drink up the whole thing, sweetie.”

I don’t know if it was this statement, the nastiness of the milk, or my overall anger at how childlike I was feeling, what with drinking from a sippy cup and having Mrs. Gremley constantly talk to me that way, but all of a sudden, I felt like everything was back to normal, and with a quick action of rage, I pulled the cup out of my mouth and threw the stupid sippy cup across the room, causing the remaining milk to spill all over the floor.

I then got up and said, “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, BITCH, but I am out of here!”

I began to walk to the door, but then all of a sudden, my body froze. This was unlike the other time…now I honestly did feel paralyzed, like I was stuck and physically couldn’t move. I tried to, but it was of no use…I felt like I was forcibly pinned in place.

“Why you foolish little girl,” said Mrs. Gremley from behind me. “I thought that we were going to fix this problem the easy way. But since you had to throw a little tantrum, it looks as though we’ll have to do it the hard way. I was mistaken…you’re not a little girl who can’t make the right choices about what she eats…you are a little BABY girl who needs someone else to feed her for her.”

I don’t know which was scarier: the fact that I couldn’t move, or Mrs. Gremley’s words. But I was completely helpless as I felt my body walk over to the high chair next to the table. Now I did notice that it was big enough to fit me, and I pushed as hard as I could to keep myself from going over and sitting in it. But of course it was of no use…I soon found myself sitting in it with Mrs. Gremley standing right in front of me.

She smiled at me and lowered the little table part of the high chair. I noticed that this pinned my arms firmly to my sides. Then, with a sigh of relief, I found that I was once again in control of my body. But my happiness soon disappeared as I realized that I was trapped in this horrible high chair…I couldn’t move my arms, my body was trapped by the table, and it wouldn’t budge from the floor. All I could do was helpless kick my legs out, which to my annoyance I had to admit looked a lot like a little baby squirming in its high chair.

I began to yell out as I turned my head and noticed that Mrs. Gremley was getting some kind of jars out of a cupboard in an upper corner of the room. “HELP!” I yelled. “Somebody! Get me out of here!” I continued to frantically struggle as I continued to yell, and I began to freak out a little.

Through my yells, Mrs. Gremley turned around carrying a few small jars, a spoon, and a cloth like material. “Be quiet, you foolish girl!” she said. “You’re giving me a mighty headache. You are reminding me more and more of a little baby girl with your childish squeals.”

But this didn’t stop me. I continued to scream for help. What did stop me was the shock I got when I opened my mouth to scream and out came a high pitched, actual baby scream! It sounded just like those annoying sound effects you hear on the radio and see on TV.

If I could have moved my hands I would have covered my mouth out of shock and embarrassment. Mrs. Gremley simply shot me another evil smile as she set down the jars, the spoon, and the cloth onto the table. “Now then, now you truly DO sound like a little baby girl squealing, my dear.”

I tried talking again, saying, “What did you do to me, you witch?” I was very relieved to find out that my voice still sounded normal.

“I did nothing. I just allowed you to see what you truly sound like when your voice reaches a certain volume.”

As Mrs. Gremley opened one of the jars, I noticed that they were, to no surprise, filled with baby food. And the one she opened looked like it was filled with…yuck…APPLESAUCE.

I tried to yell again but like before, it was that horrible baby screech. I found that I was almost crying at my situation. This was worsened when I saw that Mrs. Gremley pick up the cloth and unfold it in front of me.

“Now, I know the little baby will only make a mess on her nice clothes if we forget to put her bib on her!”

I struggled and yelled some more at the sound of this (which still sounded like a baby), and I continued to do so as I was helpless to stop Mrs. Gremley from tightly tying the wretched baby bib around my neck. I had seen that it had a babyish design of pink teddy bears on it, and it would have been cute on a little baby girl. On me I found it disgusting.

“Now,” she said as she got a spoonful of the apple sauce. “It’s time for the baby girl to have her yummy applesauce.”

There was no way I could stop the spoon from going to my mouth, so I tried to close my lips tightly to keep it from coming in. But I don’t know whether it was her physical strength and spoon feeding ability, my lack of ability to resist it, or another spell she was casting on me, but I found that the spoon made it past my lips and when she pulled it out, there was applesauce in my mouth.

It was a weird sensation…like with the milk, it tasted utterly disgusting (and even worse since being spoonfed something makes it taste even worse, in my opinion). But part of me was trying to swallow it and another part was trying to spit it out. As a result, some of it went down my throat, but some dribbled back out of my mouth. But Mrs. Gremley must not have cared, because she took another spoonful and shoved it into my mouth, seemingly happy. The same thing happened again, and I could feel the nasty gunk oozing down my chin. But she kept on going. It tasted so horrible that I actually began to cry, with tears streaming down my cheeks. I also thrashed wildly in the high chair and continued to yell through the nasty spoonfuls of applesauce, losing all sense of dignity. But the applesauce kept coming, and as a result of my struggling, it not only ended up on my chin, but all over my cheeks, the bib I was wearing, and the table part of the high chair.

And Mrs. Gremley’s comments made the whole thing even worse. She kept spitting out baby talk to me, telling me to be a good girl and eat my applesauce, and making comments about how much of a messy eater I was. As this horrible situation continued, I honestly felt I would have died if anyone I knew could have seen me…me, a seventeen year old girl, sitting in a highchair wearing a baby bib, being spoon-fed baby applesauce by a woman who kept chiding me with baby talk, with the applesauce smeared all over my face and bib while I let out actual baby screams and kicked my legs out like an extremely upset little baby.

Thankfully, the jar was finally empty, and Mrs. Gremley was satisfied. “Now, my little pretty,” she said as she wiped my face off with the bib. “I hope you’ve realized how important it is to eat right. Little babies like yourself don’t know what they need to eat, so you must be fed properly by grown-ups like me who know what is best for you. I’ll give you some time to think this over now.”

She untied the bib, carried the baby food, spoon and bib over to the sink and put them in it. She then made her way back across the room using her walking stick for support and then left through the door.

I sat there crying uncontrollably for a few minutes. It did feel good to have my face clean (though it was still kind of sticky), but I had just been scared and humiliated out of my wits. I wanted nothing more than to be out of this horrible mansion this instant.

That’s why I was filled with a sudden hope as I realized that the highchair table was now loose, and as I struggled, I found that it lifted up with only the slightest push from me. I frantically climbed out the horrible chair and ran straight across the room as fast as I could. I yanked open the door, ran into the entrance hall room, and ran straight to the door leading to the exit tunnel.

But as soon as I yanked on the doorknob, I found that the door still wouldn’t move the slightest bit. I once again burst into tears as I pulled and tugged as hard as I could. Realizing that it would do no good, I simply collapsed on the floor in a small heap, still crying.

I continued to do so for a few minutes, not knowing what else to do. I was completely scared and distraught, wanting only to escape this place.

That’s why once again I jumped with surprise when I heard a voice say, “Jodi? Is that you?”

I looked up suddenly and to my extreme shock I saw none other that Jack standing in the doorway leading to the dining room.

A smile instantly crossed my face as I yelled, “Jack! It’s you!” Before I knew it, I stood up and ran straight to him. I ran right into him and threw my arms around him, which must have caught him off guard because I knocked him back onto his butt and against the wall. But I didn’t care…I buried my face in his shoulder and cried into it with my arms around him as we both lay there on the floor up against the wall. It was a true sign of how much of a wreck that I was…that’s the only way I’d want to get that close to JACK. But I didn’t care one bit at the time…after what I had been through, I was so happy just to see a friendly face.

He just put his arms around me and held me tightly, saying sweetly, “Hey, calm down now. It’s ok. It’s all ok. I’m here, and you’re safe now.”

I still continued to cry, even though I felt so safe in his arms as I listened to him say those comforting words. Through a muffled voice, I managed to say, “Jack, I’m so happy to see you. It was awful! So awful!”

He sounded puzzled when he said, “What was awful? What happened to you?”

“Oh, it was so horrible!” I said. “Mrs. Gremley…she’s still alive, and she’s here! She told me I was a little baby girl because I didn’t want to eat apples or drink milk, and she…like…took control of me, and she made me sit in a high chair, and she shoved applesauce down my throat, and I was trapped, and my voice sounded like a baby screaming, and…”

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” he responded. “Don’t worry about it now. Mrs. Gremley’s not going to hurt you now.”

I didn’t even want to say anything else. So I just continued to sob Jack’s shoulder some more. My face was still buried there, so I couldn’t see anything, but I began to sense something a little funny. It seemed like I couldn’t quite get my arms around his body, and it felt like my shoes weren’t on. But I ignored the feelings…I felt so safe and happy that I didn’t want to think about it.

“You see, Jodi,” said Jack. “Mrs. Gremley won’t hurt you now. Because she’s not that kind of person. She would never try to hurt you.”

“What?” I asked, my face still in his shoulder. “Jack, you don’t know the crazy witch! She has horrible powers and made me…”

“Shh, shh,” he said. “Don’t you worry. Mrs. Gremley wasn’t trying to hurt you…she was just trying to help you. You see, she helped me, too, Jodi. She showed me things that I had never felt or seen before…and it was WONDERFUL.”

I was completely puzzled by his statement, and I had no idea what he was talking about. But I was still upset enough not to uncover my face…it just felt so good up against his manly chest and I needed security at the moment. But I also ignored the feeling that my clothes felt kind of loose and my hands were now near the front of his body, not the back…

“Jodi, Mrs. Gremley DOES have amazing powers. And she used them to help me. She showed me things about me, and she made me so happy. And you will be too. Once you realize these things, you’ll be so happy too…”

Jack was really, really starting to freak me out. I couldn’t help but pull my face away from him, and I looked up at his. He was wearing a sly smile. But not only that, but his face looked huge! I then realized that his entire body was huge! In fact, I realized now that my entire body was lying in his LAP.

“There, there now Jodi,” he said with a smile. “It will all be ok. You see, Mrs. Gremley was right…you are really a little baby girl. And now you’ll see how wonderful it will be once you accept this.”

I just laid there in surprised as I realized that my clothes were, much, much too big for me. I was utterly shocked, and terrified. I had shrunk down the size of an actual BABY!

Jack wrapped my sweater around my entire body and cradled me in his big, masculine arms. He held me gently but also tightly, with my head pressed up against his chest and resting on the bend of his elbow.

He began to carry me through various rooms, though it was all a blur to me, partly because I couldn’t believe what was happening, but also because I felt physically disoriented, which I thought was because of my new babyish state. As we walked, he looked down at me and smiled. He took the arm that wasn’t supporting me and pushed a big finger toward me.

“Why, you’re the most adorable little baby girl that I’ve ever seen!” he babyishly cooed me as he softly played with me with his huge finger. “I always did want a little baby sister, but I think you’re even better!”

I don’t know if it was this statement or a sudden realization of what was happening, but once again I screamed out as loud as I could, and out came that same babyish screech.

“Aw, don’t cwy wittle baby,” he said through a smile as he laid me on my back on a soft surface. “I know, I know…you’re upset because you’re not dressed right. I don’t know too much about babies, but I do know that they wear diapers. And until today I didn’t know anything about how to take care of a baby, but now I feel like I’m pretty good with diapers.”

I wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying, but I continued to cry as he removed my oversized clothes from me. I was ashamed to be naked in front of him, but even more ashamed of him dumping baby powder on my privates, which he was now doing.

But as he did so, it was funny…as the sweet smell of the powder hit my nose, the scent seemed to make me…happy. I stopped crying and completely forgot the shame that I had felt of Jack seeing me naked.

“Yes, the little baby does enjoy her baby powder, doesn’t she?” he asked.

I began to giggle slightly as I felt Jack take a big cloth, fold it underneath me, and then start to wrap it around my waist. I immediately got a strong sense of comfort and security as I felt the soft, thick material snugly enclose my waist, butt and private area. I saw Jack take two metal pins and tightly fasten the cloth to me, and for a split second I completely understood that it was a diaper and I needed it to protect everything in case I peed myself.

But that thought soon escaped me as I now only knew the diaper was a soft cloth that was there to make me feel safe and secure. Jack smiled at me and said, “The little baby girl is so cute in her diapy! I just want to eat you all up, baby Jodi!” he added as he once again wrapped me in my huge clothes.

My sense of babyish bliss and security was thrown off when I felt a small pain and emptiness in my stomach. I knew something was wrong, but at the time I didn’t realize that it was called hunger…I just knew it felt bad, and as a result, I started to babyishly wail again.

As I did so, I heard Jack say, “Aww, there there wittle baby girl. I know what you need,” as I felt him sit down with me in