Welcome to Doorway to Darkness, horror stories by Casey Burrin, narrated by the Night Creeper.
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The world is full of mysteries, some of them dark and sinister. And when those mysteries collide with the supernatural, the consequences can be truly terrifying.
Meet Chance, a 19-year-old supernatural expert who has been born with a gift of vision to the world beyond this one, and his business associate, Tyler, a paranormal private investigator.
When Dr. Pedersen, a former college professor with a dark secret, summons them to his secluded cabin in the woods, they couldn’t have known the evil that waited for them inside.
But when Chance brings along a bag of mysterious powder to show Dr Pedersen, who’s an expert in Mongolian folklore, they soon realize that some secrets are better left unknown.
Won’t you join me, The Night Creeper, your host and narrator, for horror writer Casey Burrin’s story night called Eye in the Hand.
Come with us to uncover the dark secrets lurking in the shadows as we enter the Doorway to Darkness.
I pulled the velvet bag of death out of my coat pocket to ensure it remained safe within my grasp.
As I opened the pouch, a wave of what smelled like rotten corn chips flooded my nostrils. I’d traveled 5,000 miles to retrieve this talisman against evil – not that I knew it at the time.
My parents and I had spent six months communing on the Mongolian rolling plateau as they were going through an existential phase at the time. As I’d said my goodbyes, an old priest stuffed this bag into my hands.
“You will need this,” he said. “You will know.”
“Know what?” I said, just a boy of 12.
“Bag of death,” he said. “I created it just for you to protect you when you need it. When that time comes, you will know.”
For the last seven years, I’d kept this bag in my top desk drawer until today.
On this day, I had set out to find an archeologist named Dr. Pedersen, who needed my help. I didn’t know much more than that.
My business partner, Tyler, a former police detective, handled all the clients and drives us to our destinations as she found herself doing just that.
We sped down a barren highway, rimmed with pine trees with no end in sight. I should’ve known that opening the bag of death with its pungent smell would set Tyler off.
“Ew, Chance! What is that?” Tyler said as she drove the car. “It stinks!”
“You said the man we are meeting today is an archeologist, right?” I said. “He recently came back from Mongolian about a year ago?”
“A year isn’t recent, but that seems to be the last port of call,” Tyler said with both hands on the steering wheel. “Our client today is Dr. Gerard James Pedersen III, who’s won a bunch of awards or something like that.”
“He’s very well published,” I said. “I enjoyed his paper on the search for Genghis Khan’s tomb when I read it last night to prepare for this assignment.”
“Seriously, what is that junk?” Tyler said.
“As you know, I’ve traveled all over the world with my parents. I’ve been to all seven continents and 126 of the planet’s nearly 200 countries. When I was in Mongolia, a priest we were staying with, gave it to me as a present.”
“Kid, that crap in the bag smells like that guy gave you vomit in a cup?” Tyler said. “Are you sure that priest liked you?”
“He called it bag of death,” I said. “Judging by its smell, its mineral salts mixed in with pulverized bone of ancient priests. It’s supposed to ward off some kind of evil. He said when to use it, I’d know.
“All I know is it smells like a baby’s poo on a stick at a mortuary on a hot day,” Tyler said.
“I want to show Dr. Pedersen, who we’re seeing today,” I said. “He’s an expert on Asian history and culture, especially Mongolian folklore. Maybe he can tell me more about it. Also, I thought he’d appreciate it – unlike some people.”
“Pines, nothing but pines,” Tyler said, stretching her hands across the expanse of the car’s windshield. “Dr. Pedersen is making us drive all this way into the country, so he doesn’t want to be found for reasons known only to him. Something’s up with him. That’s why you’re here.”
“He doesn’t know I’m coming?” I said.
“Seriously, you got to put that junk away,” Tyler said. “I’m going to hurl all over the dash.”
I closed the velvet baggy and shoved it back into my coat.
“Usually, you don’t meet the clients until I know what’s going on,” Tyler said. “Is he haunted, possessed, in league with the dark side? Don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me over the phone. Paid double the rate. No questions asked. I didn’t get a bad vibe off him. Seems solid. Story seems to add.”
“What is his story? I said. “You never told me.”
“He left his teaching position about a month ago. Leave of absence, I guess,” Tyler said. “He’s renting this home out in the woods for a few weeks now.”
“I work with the spirits, but this sounds out of my depth,” I said. “We really don’t know what this man’s problem is.”
“Kid, sometimes you just got to take a leap of faith,” Tyler said. “This man needs our help. What we can’t do for him, we’ll find someone who can. This man’s good people. I get vibes about people, and this one’s all good.”
Tyler pointed to a fork in the road that led up to a cabin that I could see far down the road.
“Where are we?” I said, staring at the gaggle of pine trees that seemed to go on forever.
Then, I saw a middle-aged man who I determined was Dr. Pederson. He stood at attention on the home’s porch as if he’d been waiting there for hours.
Tyler pulled the car near the front, but Dr. Pederson continued staring down the road as if he was still looking for us.
We got out of the car and headed for him. As I got closer, I noticed his right hand looked bandaged around his palm with bright red flecks of blood in the gauze.
“Dr. Pederson?” Tyler said, just about six feet away.
He seemingly snapped out of a trance as Dr. Pederson’s blank expression broke into a broad-faced smile that I immediately trusted.
“You must be Tyler!” he said. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“I bought my business associate, Chance,” Tyler said. “He works with me.”
“I thought you were coming alone,” he said. “I don’t know if I like that.”
He stared at me frozen, like he wasn’t looking at me at all, but rather through me. As soon as I turned to Tyler, he snapped out of it.
“That’s wonderful that you brought Chance,” he said, completely changing his previously sour demeanor like he’d ping-ponged from anger to delight. “I used to teach college kids just like you. Around your age. How old are you?”
“Nineteen, but I’ll be 20 in a few months,” I said.
“Just as I thought,” he said. “You’re just like my college kids that I taught.”
“Aren’t you still at the university?” Tyler said. “You’re just taking a leave of absence?
“I’ve totally left,” he said. “I’ll never go back there. Not at all.”
“That’s too bad,” I said. “A great loss for the university.”
“Oh, I’ll be back. Just taking a break,” he said. “Come in. Please. Thank you so much for coming.”
Tyler didn’t follow him, so I didn’t either. Catching the subtle nonverbal cue, I knew she wanted a confab with me.
“Thoughts?” Tyler said to me.
“Nice guy, but it seems strange that he contradicted himself twice in the first five minutes of meeting him,” I said.
“Right, like he’s two people,” Tyler said. “Did you notice his bloody hand?”
I nodded that I did, not wanting Dr. Pedersen to hear our conversation for the sake of good manners, something which I’ve tried to set an exemplary example for Tyler, who didn’t experience such advantages in her youth.
“I’m getting a bad vibe, kid,” Tyler said. “Be on the ready.”
Tyler motioned to her hip, where I knew she kept her gun, which she called her ‘girl.’
After she walked ahead, I pulled out my bag to check that the powder was still safe. When I opened the bag, its stench wafted under my nose before I stuffed it back into my jacket pocket.
I walked into the home’s main room with a small kitchen and living room attached. The round oak table sat as the room’s centerpiece, but I couldn’t see much of it as it was littered with open jars of mustard, catsup, soy sauce, meat sauces and mayonnaise. Fast food wrappers and discarded napkins littered the floor, as did empty plastic bread bags. Instead of one man, it looked like a party of seven had dined there recently.
Dr. Pedersen pushed the plastic wrappers and other forms of garbage from the chairs by spilling them on the floor.
“Please sit down,” Dr. Pederson motioned to the chair. “I’m sorry, I’m out of sorts today."
“You seem perfectly fine to us,” Tyler said. “Right, Chance?”
“Absolutely, Dr. Pederson,” I said. “We didn’t notice anything strange about you. Not at all. Seems perfectly normal to me. I can’t see one odd thing about you. You’re like the salt of the earth.”
“Chance,” Tyler muttered under her breath. “Cut it.”
“No, please, don’t be upset with the boy,” Dr. Pedersen said. “Overexplaining deflects the truth, but it’s only the truth. I am troubled, as you can plainly see. No need to sugarcoat it on my account, but I appreciate the gesture. Please let me make you lunch.”
“I’m not hungry, but thank you,” Tyler said.
I shook my head as well that I was not hungry either.
Never one to mince, Tyler asked Dr. Pederson about this bloody hand wrapped in gauze.
Dr. Pederson sat back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling for a moment, seemingly contemplating his next words.
“I probably should show you,” he said. “Since it’s the reason why I brought you here.”
He unwound the wrappings, facing Tyler. I looked away because I’m not one for carnage. I saw the bloody gauze thrown to the side. Dr. Pedersen cupped his hand so Tyler could see it.
Tyler moved in to get a closer look, like she was inspecting a precious diamond.
“Dr. Pedersen, there’s nothing there,” Tyler said finally.
“I know, no one sees it,” Dr. Pedersen said. “I’ve shown it to everyone, but no one can see what I see.”
“What do you see?” I said.
Dr. Pedersen turned to me, and in so doing, exposed his right palm. I expected to see what Tyler saw – nothing. But I wasn’t so lucky.
I lurched back in my chair, trying to get as far away from it as I could.
My hands shook uncontrollably as I peered at it inches from my face. A wave of nausea came over me as I couldn’t stop looking at it.
I clapped my hand over my mouth as I stared at it, and it stared back at me – one perfectly round eyeball embedded in his hand as if it had been there always. It blinked a few times before glaring at me with its eyelid narrowing as it zeroed in on my face.
“Dear God!” Dr. Pedersen said, grabbing me up with both hands. “You see it! Tell me you see it too!”
“What do you see?” Tyler said to me.
“I thought I was the only one who could see it,” he said. “What a relief! I’ve shown it to everyone, but no one sees it. I’ve tried cutting it out of my hand, but I can’t. It never works. Please, please, you must help me.”
As he waved his hand around, it glared at me, following me around with its one eyeball. I whirled around, turning my back completely on Dr. Pedersen, so I wouldn’t make eye contact with it.
“Tell me. What is it?” Dr. Pedersen said. “Are you a seer? A mystic? Visionary? What are you?”
“One might say Chance is a ghost whisperer of sorts,” Tyler said. “He sees what others can’t.”
“Please, let me show you,” he said. “Stay right here!”
Dr. Pedersen ran into his upstairs bedroom and disappeared.
Tyler stared at the bedroom door for a moment before turning to me.
“What the hell did you see, kid?” Tyler said.
“Let’s go,” I said, not even looking at her. “I don’t want to see the lion eat the baby zebra.”
“Stop talking in tongues,” she said. “Plain English. Tell me, what’s going on?”
“Let’s leave while he’s upstairs,” I said. “We’ll call him from the road. He’s beyond help at this point.”
“We’re staying right here unless you give me a good reason to leave,” Tyler said. “We came to help and that’s what we’re going to do.”
“Eye in the hand,” I said.
“What?”
“You heard me,” I said.
“What the hell is even that?” Tyler said. “Eye in the what?”
“Shh,” I said right before jumping out of my chair. “Don’t say it out loud.”
I headed for the door, but Tyler ran in front of me and blocked my path.
“Oh, not that again,” Tyler said. “I can’t say this. I can’t say that. We are way past niceties. You start talking right now, Chance.”
“Eye in the hand,” I whispered. “It’s usually a good omen. But not his. We can’t help him.”
“We came all this way to help this man,” Tyler said. “A curse can be removed. We can do this. He’s good people.”
“I don’t know who cursed him, and I don’t know why, but he’s vexed,” I said.
“Let’s talk to him and find out more information, so we can get him the help he needs,” Tyler said. “If not from us, then someone else who’s an expert in this area. He just needs a break.”
“Tyler, I don’t think you understand me,” I said. “When I said eye in the hand, I didn’t mean it’s just the name of the curse. I meant it exactly and precisely - an eye fixed firmly in the palm of Dr. Pedersen’s hand.”
“So, you’re telling me there’s literally an eyeball rolling around in that man’s hand?” Tyler said.
“And it’s no friend of me. I can feel its anger coming off it like a stench peeling off a dead body. It’s got attitude – none of it good.”
Tyler glanced around the cabin, trying to grasp what I’d just told her.
“We need to depart now,” I said. “The curse – it’s close. Too close now. I don’t know more than that. It’s wicked beyond words.”
“I think we should gather more intel,” Tyler said. “I’m not willing to give up on this man.”
She stood up straight and folded her arms, a clear sign that I’d been outranked in the decision-making process.
“Listen, kid, we ain’t quitters,” Tyler said. “We’re not cursed. He is. Now buck up, and let’s get to the bottom of this.”
Dr. Pedersen ran back into the main room with a map. He dumped a pile of what looked like maps of caves on the table.
“You have no idea the relief I feel right now. This thing looking at me, day in and day out,” he said. “But no one can see it, so no one believed me. I’ve gone to everyone – mystics, necromancers, psychics – but no one – no one, but you, Chance. You can see it. I finally have hope after all these months.”
As Dr. Pedersen rambled on, I caught a glimpse of it again as it glared at me when it caught sight of me. Whatever it was, we’d never be fast friends.
I felt the bag of death in my coat pocket as we locked eyeballs.
“We were excavating in the Khentii Aimag province in Mongolia, looking for the lost grave of Genghis Khan, when I first saw it – only for a second the first time,” Dr. Pedersen said. “I thought I was hallucinating, but I saw it again, however, this time for longer, but still just for seconds. Then, I saw it more and more until I couldn’t see it. It’s always there, looking at me. Staring at me. Staking me. For so long, I thought I was going crazy because only I can see it.”
As Dr. Pedersen rambled on about where he’d been and what he had been doing in Mongolia, I felt a wave of nausea wash over me. As I turned toward him, I caught his right hand to see a perfectly barren palm.
“It’s gone!” I said. “The curse is broken!”
Dr. Pedersen looked down at his hand. “My God! You’re right! It’s gone!”
He grabbed me with both arms and held me there.” I can’t believe it! The curse is gone!”
Dr. Pedersen hugged me, nearly pulling me off the ground as I was locked in his arms.
But per usual, Tyler stated the obvious.
“Huh, that doesn’t make any sense,” Tyler said. “Why would it just be gone for no reason?”
I shook my head from side to side, so confused I’d lost my voice.
“What the hell is that?” Tyler pointed to a prominent bulge under Dr. Pedersen’s long-sleeved shirt. He ripped the cotton to reveal a fleshy bulge coming out of his forearm that appeared to be growing like a balloon pumped with helium.
When it reached the size of a baseball, two welts formed and rolled around like something was inside of them. We watched in horror as it pulsated, protruded and protracted until it happened – two eyes popped out of the fleshy protrusion like he had a mini head bulging out of his forearm.
“Sweet baby Jesus,” Tyler yelled. “That’s a whole human head.”
“You can see it too now?” Dr. Pedersen said.
“A little head with two beady eyes staring back at me,” Tyler said. “I wish I didn’t see it, but I see it plain as day.”
Dr. Pedersen ran into the kitchen, leaving us both at the table.
“Why can I see it now and I couldn’t before?” Tyler said.
“It doesn’t need to hide anymore,” I said.
“What do you mean it?” Tyler said.
“It can’t hide from me because I can see what others can’t,” I said. “He can see it because he’s the one that’s cursed. But it’s not hiding anymore from anyone. It’s ready to be seen – a remarkably dreadful sign for all of us.”
Dr. Pedersen returned with a meat cleaver and a new-found purpose.
“I can’t let it win,” he said, lifting the clever above the mini head perched on his right arm.
“Stop, don’t do that!” Tyler yelled.
I watched as Dr. Pedersen chopped that little head off as blood spurted out in all directions. The fleshy mass dropped onto the floor and splattered into pieces.
Tyler slapped a wad of paper towels over his arm to stem the bleeding.
“Here, sit down,” she said.
“I had to do it,” Dr. Pedersen said. “I had to cut out the curse.”
“We got to get you to a doctor,” Tyler said. “You need stitches. Where’s the nearest hospital?”
But then another fleshy nodule sprouted out from under his shirt, but this time it formed further up on his forearm. It bulged out faster this time, growing to the size of a softball, with two eyes emerging, a hint of a nose and the unmistakable slit of a mouth.
Dr. Pedersen tore off his shirt and reached for the cleaver, but Tyler whisked it away.
“You’re going to kill yourself,” Tyler said. “We have to get you some help.”
Instead of staying that size, it inflated as the face became more pronounced. Then it started to travel up its arm to the shoulder. It inflated like one of those hydrogen balloons as the eyes, nose and mouth started to take shape as the head of another man. Hair sprouted out at the top, growing at record speed.
The head continued to oscillate and grow, moving closer to his head until it reached his neck.
The head grew twice the size of Dr. Pedersen’s head, revealing a row of razor-sharp teeth.
Dr. Pedersen stood with two heads – one his own and the other a monster that only resembled a man. Its eyes were more like holes and its mouth was rimmed with multiple rows of razor-sharp piranha teeth that spanned nearly ear to ear.
The head turned toward Dr. Pedersen before whispering something into his ear.
“Help me, please,” Dr. Pedersen cried to us, but what could we do?
The head reared up and maneuvered its stalk in such a way that it clamped its teethed on Dr. Pedersen’s head, all the way down to his neck. Then, its teeth bit off Dr. Pedersen’s head. I heard the crunch of bone and blood dripped from its mouth as if it had just eaten a juicy watermelon whole.
BANG! BANG!
Tyler fired her gun into the side of what used to be Dr. Pedersen. It appeared to have no effect other than making it crackle with joy at our horror. The head kept maneuvering as if it had taken its rightful place on top of Dr. Pedersen’s body.
It licked its lips as it gazed upon Tyler and me as if it determined to devour her too.
Just then, I recalled the bag of death in my coat jacket, realizing it was our only hope. As it gazed at Tyler with its mouth half agape, I opened the pouch and flung my entire stock. Its entire face and mouth appeared encased in the putrid dust that stunk so bad, that my eyes watered.
It sputtered, coughed and gagged as it clutched its throat. It whipped itself around the room, thrashing against the lamp, coffee table, until it crashed onto the breakfast table.
It convulsed on the floor until it stopped entirely. Tyler moved in first, standing above it, gazing down at the dead creature. Its head began to deflate until it existed no more. The headless body of Dr. Pedersen laid before us. She stood there, staring at the corpse for many moments until she spoke.
“Kid, I’m so glad I brought you,” Tyler said.
I said: “Tyler, with the exception of saving your life, I’m not.”
Thank you for joining us at Doorway to Darkness, horror stories by Casey Burrin, narrated by the Night Creeper.
Please follow or subscribe to Doorway to Darkness on your podcast app of choice.
Until next time, stay alive, if you can.
