Estimated reading time — 14 minutes

I am going to die soon. My name is Ed. I am eighty-one years old, living in the Bright Shades Nursing Home. I have three kids, two sons and a daughter, and seven grandchildren. I love them, and they love me. But they don’t believe me when I tell them that we’re all in trouble here at Bright Shades. In fact, none of our families do. They think we are going senile. That our mental states are declining or some shit. But I am not crazy. None of us are. Well, at least most of us aren’t crazy.

I have been sharp as a tack for my entire old age, and I am telling you this with a clear mind: There is something in the nursing home, preying on all of us. Ever since I moved in, it’s been here. My first week moving in, I became friends with a woman named Margaret. She told me to lay still at night. Because it comes by to feed at night. I asked her what it was, but she wouldn’t say. On my third night, I awoke to the sound of footsteps down the hallway. The floorboards creaked, and it sounded as if the person wasn’t even trying to hide. I followed Margaret’s advice, and I laid still, eyes closed. The footsteps stopped further down the hallway, and they went into another room.

The next day, I told Margaret about what happened. She told me that she visited Edith’s room. I asked her again what it was, but she wouldn’t say. I never mentioned it to my family when they came to visit. I thought that maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me, or Margaret was losing her marbles, or something like that. So I tried to ignore it, and just try to enjoy the remainder of my time in this place, since it didn’t look like I was going anywhere.

That night, however, it happened again. I heard footsteps down the hallway, and I heard my next door neighbor, a woman who I hadn’t really met yet, softly crying. The footsteps stopped outside the door, and I heard the knob turned and the door was pushed open. There was no scream, no more crying, but I was still afraid nonetheless. I closed my eyes, hoping they wouldn’t come into my room. But they didn’t. Whoever they were.

When we woke up the next morning, we learned that the woman had died. Natural causes they said. But one look at Margaret told me that she didn’t believe that. I didn’t either. I heard those footsteps going into the room, and I knew that someone or something had gone into her room and killed her. I confronted Margaret again. “What is it?” I asked. Margaret didn’t answer. Annoyed, I pushed my wheelchair up to her seat. “Look, I know I just got here. But since I’m going to be here for the rest of my fucking life I would like to know what the fuck is going on!” I hissed the last part. Margaret looked around then leaned in close.

“You’ll see it. One of these days you will.” I became even more frustrated. “Stop with the riddles! What is it?” I demanded. Margaret looked around again. “We can’t talk about it!” “Well why-!” Margaret cut me off when a nurse walked back around our table. We gave polite nods to her and the nurse smiled back. “Are we doing all right, over here?” she asked, her voice thick with a genuine eagerness. Margaret and I nodded. “We’re all right,” Margaret answered. The nurse smiled again before checking on other people. Margaret looked behind her before leaning in to me again. “We don’t talk about it around the nurses.” “Why not? Shouldn’t we tell them? They’re supposed to help us.”

Margaret shook her head. “They should. But they don’t. I don’t know why. It comes in every night, and the nurses know to stay out of its way. Even that one over there.” Margaret pointed to the young nurse who was making her rounds around the tables talking to everyone. “She hasn’t caught on yet. I’m pretty sure she just got here yesterday. But once she does, she’ll get in line with them really fast.”

I looked at the nurse, then back at Margaret. “How long has this been happening?” Margaret shook her head. “Since before I’ve been here. Rumor has it the nurses replace us once the thing finishes killing us.” “Well why doesn’t it just kill us right then and there?” I asked, looking around as well to see who would hear us. “It’s not after our bodies. It wants our life. Our soul, our energy. Whatever folks want to call it. It just drains it little by little, until it decides that it is time to finish you off. It can take days. Sometimes months. But if you don’t move out of here. You’ll die here. Sooner or later.” “Hey!” a man hissed behind us. I turned around to see an old black fellow shooting us a look. “Come on, Margaret,” he said, “You know better than to talk about it. Especially out here.” Margaret nodded apologetically. “Sorry Bill. Ed here just wanted to know.”

Bill looked at me. “Oh you will find out, don’t worry about that. Word of advice, don’t fight it when it comes. It just makes it worse.” Bill turned back towards the TV and kept watching. This conversation weighed on my mind nearly the whole day. What kind of place did I end up in? This was supposed to be a place for me to live out the rest of my days in peace. Instead I ended up in a hellhole, where some monster, whatever it looked like, would suck my soul dry.

Once again I never mentioned it to my family when they came to visit. I also noticed that nobody else did. My middle son and his family came to visit. Caleb decided to follow in my footsteps and joined the US Air Force, and became Pararescue. My oldest son Evan became a cop, and like Caleb could only visit when he could, which wasn’t often. My youngest daughter became some kind of journalist, though I can’t remember what exactly it was. I know she mentioned it, I just can’t remember at the moment. Caleb had a deployment coming up soon, so he wanted to see me before they went out. It was always nice to see my kids and grandchildren. After my wife died it got really lonely without them. It had been a long time since I’d experienced that kind of loneliness, feeling that there was no one to talk to or turn to.

But that feeling was coming back. Sure it never happened to me yet, but knowing that at any point something could come in and kill me and I couldn’t say anything about it to anyone, that was a lonely feeling.

Two weeks passed. Some nights I heard it, other times I didn’t. But every time morning came, we knew it had visited someone. No one had died, but you could just tell. The man who lived in the room next to me was quieter than usual, more tired. Margaret’s neighbor didn’t even get out of bed, she just laid in silence. And just like Margaret said, the nurses didn’t even really seem to notice. They just went about their day. Even the newer nurse, Jillian, lost her usual smile and happiness.

Don’t get me wrong, she was still very polite and did her best, but I could tell that they had gotten to her, just like Margaret said she would. But one night, I finally saw it. I was awoken to the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway again. This time, the footsteps stopped in front of the door. I felt the door knob turn and the door creak open. My eyes were already open, waiting to see what exactly was here to feed.

It was tall, its head touching the top of the doorway. It looked humanoid, its silhouette a thin shadow, which grew closer as it walked through the doorway. I didn’t dare make a sound, nor did I try to fight. Like Billy said, it was best not to. But that didn’t stop me from being afraid as the thing drew closer to me. It loomed over me, its eyes like tiny little lights. I could only see a shadow, but that was enough. It extended its long hands over my face and let out a wheezy, ragged breath as I felt the hand press over my neck.

The sensation that followed was feeling like I was going to throw up, while at the same time being choked. I gagged and grabbed at it, touching its cold, wrinkly skin. But it didn’t budge, and soon I felt all the strength leave my body as the knot in my throat shot out of my mouth, making me dizzy and nauseous. The creature let out a long breath and released its grip on my neck, and I laid back down.

Nausea and fatigue immediately sunk in, and I drifted off into sleep. When I woke up the next morning, I had a bad fever and it felt like I hadn’t gotten any sleep. I kept thinking that maybe it was a dream, that maybe I had just imagined it happening. But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself of that, I knew I was awake. This happened. The thing that came in the room was real. I couldn’t keep quiet anymore. I couldn’t just sit there and let that thing take us all. And the damned nurses weren’t doing anything to help. In fact they may actually have been letting this happen. Once I was feeling better, I grabbed my phone and called the one person I could think of who could help, My son Evan. He didn’t answer the first time, but a few minutes after I left a voicemail, he picked up the phone.

“Hey Dad. What’s up?” he asked, his voice sounding tired and exhausted. “Hey son,” I said, sounding almost just as tired as he was, “Sorry if I’m bothering you.” “No it’s ok. We were actually just wrapping up an interview with a suspect. Is everything ok? Are you enjoying the new place?” I chuckled dryly. “That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you. Listen, do you think you can come by tomorrow? We can go out for lunch.” There was a pause on the other end as I heard Evan talking to someone in the background. After a few minutes, he replied, “Yeah I can make it out there. 12:00?” I smiled. “Sure. That would be good.” “All right, I gotta go. See you Dad.”

I set the phone down and rested my head on the pillow. When night fell again, I was so tired I never even realized I fell asleep. When I woke up again, I felt much better. At breakfast, Margaret sat down at my table, same as always. A family of five came in, visibly distraught as a nurse led them down the hall. “It was Bill,” Margaret said softly, “Goddamn it. It got Bill this time.”

I noticed that Margaret had dark circles around her eyes and she looked tired as well. “You don’t look well,” I said. Margaret smiled solemnly and looked at me. “Neither do you.” It seemed as if the creature visited both of us. “I saw it,” I whispered. Margaret nodded slowly, her eyes looking around for any nurses nearby. Then she leaned in. “You better hope it doesn’t like you.” I frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?” Margaret shrugged. “Some of us have said that if it doesn’t like you for whatever reason, it won’t visit you very often. Only when it really needs to feed.”

I laughed bitterly. “Great,” I mumbled, “Fucking wonderful.” We sat in silence for a bit before Margaret asked, “Why were you moved here?” I shook my head. “My kids wanted me to move to a place where they didn’t have to always watch me. They thought a nursing home would keep me company.” Margaret took a drink of water and coughed a little before clearing her throat. “Yeah. My kids wanted the same thing for me.” “You got kids?” I asked. “Two. Son and a daughter. All grown up. Daughter’s pregnant with their first child.” I sighed and looked out the window, at the mountain view and landscape of trees below. I had to admit, that was one thing I could give this place credit for. The view was incredible, and made me feel at peace, at least until the sun went down and I couldn’t see it anymore.

We could hear crying down the halls, as the families mourned Bill. I watched as two of the nurses began talking to each other and one called for an ambulance. I began to feel angry as I watched these nurses walk around and treat this like an unfortunate death when everyone knew that he was killed. Slowly drained day by day until the last of his strength and energy was sucked out of him. Just like he would do with me. With Margaret. With all the rest of us.

Evan came by half an hour later, earlier than expected. I waved at him, and Evan spotted me and waved back. He approached me and I shook his hand and gave him a hug. “Hey Dad. Sorry I know I’m early.” I shook my head. “No worries. I’m glad you’re here.” Evan waved at Margaret and a few minutes later we were outside ready to head into the city for lunch.

“Everything all right, son?” I asked, noticing his weary look on his face. Evan nodded and waved it off. “Yeah yeah. I’m good. It’s just this case we’ve been working on. It’s the number one priority right now, so we’ve been pulling all our resources for this one.” He looked at me. “You look a little tired yourself. You’ve been sleeping all right in there?” “That’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about. I need your help with something.”

Evan frowned. “Uh, all right. What is it?” I told him everything, from the nurses, to the couple deaths in the home, to the footsteps, to the visitor that came to my room. When I was done, I saw Evan’s face was twisted into that of both intrigue and skepticism. “So, what do you want me to look into?” he asked. “When you guys were looking into homes for me, did anything strange come up when you found this place?” Evan looked at me sheepishly before he turned back to the road. “I’m gonna be honest. I didn’t really help with that. It was mostly Chelsea, Caleb’s wife, and mine that helped with that.” “Oh I see. Well did they say anything?”

Evan took a moment to think, then shook his head hesitantly. “No, not that I know of. The most I remember them saying was that it was a pretty nice place, with good nurses and quality care.” Evan turned to look at me. “Dad, they’re not mistreating you, are they?” I shook my head. “Not really. But something is fucked up there and they know about it.” “So you want me to look into…” “Just the place. Everything about it. Even if it’s just a small complaint.” Evan looked at me skeptically but then shrugged. “All right. I’ll try and do some digging on the side.” That gave me some comfort, knowing that there was someone on the outside looking into this.

Besides, it was good to get out of there. Even without that fear, the nursing home was just a gloomy experience. To be surrounded by people as old as me or even older than me only reminded me of my mortality. We talked about how things had been going for Evan. Besides his cases, his marriage had taken a hit. They were still together, but he felt like he and his wife had grown distant from each other. Months before they were talking about having kids, and now they barely speak. I told him to repair it, just like I did with my wife when my work as a cop consumed me. It was a good day. It made me forget for a little while about my troubles back at Bright Shades.

But that trouble, of course, did not forget about me. That same night it came back again. I was awoken by the creaking of the floorboards again, and it stopped at my door. I closed my eyes and turned my head away as I heard it walk towards me again. I heard its ragged wheezy breathing as it crept closer and closer to my bedside. I began silently praying for protection. That it would change its mind or do anything other than feed on me. But there was no answer to my prayer as I felt its wrinkly, bony hand wrap around my neck. It turned my head back towards it, forcing me to look at its dark, shadowy form, gazing into its two small lights for eyes. I trembled with fear as I felt that same feeling of throwing up and being unable to breathe again.

This time I was sick for a little over two days. Jillian came in to check on me and make sure I was okay, but never once did she ask what happened, or if I needed a hospital. I played dumb and told her that it must’ve been the flu or something, but I could tell that Jillian didn’t believe it and knew exactly what had happened. But I didn’t tell her, just laid there in defeat. Evan didn’t get back to me during that time. Luckily during that time it didn’t visit. But it visited the man across the hall.

Evan called me again at the end of the week. “Hey sorry. I was finally able to look into Bright Shades like you asked.” “What did it say?” I asked, sitting up in anticipation and making sure no one else was near my room when he spoke. “Well, I don’t know if this helps or not, but I wasn’t able to find anything. There’s nothing regarding any mysterious deaths, accidents. Like it seems spotless.” Disappointment and confusion sunk in. How was that possible? What I was seeing was real, I know it was. Everyone here knows the truth. “Nothing? At all?”

“Uh there was a small complaint about the nurses maybe a year ago, but that’s about all I can find.” “What about the nurses?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low. “Uh well there was a complaint that the nurses were ignoring illness, but nothing ever came of it.” “That’s it?” “That’s it.” I leaned back in my upright bed, disappointed and defeated. “Are you sure you didn’t imagine this happening?” Evan asked. “No,” I insisted, “It is very real. I am sure of it. I saw it!” “I’m not denying that, I’m just considering all the options here.” I sighed. “Evan, I know its real. It’s out there and the nurses aren’t doing anything about it.”

There was a pause on the other end. “Okay look I’ll keep looking. But would you want to see a doctor? To check everything out?” “No, I don’t need a doctor, I want answers. I need to figure out what’s happening here.” “All right. Well again I’ll keep digging. See you later.” He didn’t believe me. I could hear the skepticism in his voice. I didn’t completely blame him, still don’t. It sounds crazy, I know. But I know what I saw. I know that everyone else is seeing the same thing. As I set my phone down, I saw a shadow step away from my door.

At dinner, Margaret could tell I did something. “What did you do?” she whispered fearfully. I leaned in close. “I called my son to look into this. He’s a detective.” Margaret’s eyes went wide. “Are you insane?” “Margaret, someone needs to put a stop to this. If we can’t, then someone has to.” “There is no stopping it, Ed,” Margaret whispered back, almost trembling, “If it knows someone in there is trying to talk, then it will get angry.” I felt frustrated, no, angry. All my life I had been used to fighting. To be able to handle my problems one way or another, whether it was with my gun or my mind. But now I have none. No weapons, no ideas, no strength.

All I could hope for was Evan to pull through and find something. Or, as harsh as it sounded, to get my family to get me the hell out of here. But that didn’t happen. Caleb was deploying, Evan, while trying to help, was busy with his own cases, and Chelsea had moved away not long after she visited. They were moving forward, and I was going nowhere. What was worse was that I don’t think they believed me. I could tell Evan was skeptical. The one time I tried to ask my daughter about it she had the same skepticism.

About a week later, Margaret didn’t wake up again. It got her. My one friend in this goddamn place and the bastard took her. With no one to turn to, I told myself that I would fight back. If it was going to kill me, then at the very least it would have a hard fucking time doing it. The night after Margaret died I moved my wheelchair in front of the door, and tried to push the shelf in the way as well. There were no locks on the door, so I couldn’t shut myself inside. I had the lamp ready, hoping I could get a look at it. I tried to muster whatever young strength my old body had left, and I waited. Sure enough, the footsteps came down the hall, a little faster than usual.

The creature stopped in front of the door, and I grinned a little as I saw the door struggle to push open.It pushed through the wheelchair. Only for it to get stuck again. I heard it grunt in frustration as it pushed the wheelchair out of the way, and knocked the shelf down. It stormed over to my bedside and loomed over me. It wanted to tear me apart right there. I knew it did. But it held back. Instead the creature let out the same wheezy breathing and grabbed my neck, draining me again. It was more painful this time, and I let out a noiseless scream as I struggled to grab at the creature’s flesh, hoping to tear it, scratch it, or do something, even if it was small.

But again, I’m a weak old man now. I’m not Technical Sergeant Ed Grayson of the US Air Force Combat Control Team, nor was I Officer Ed Grayson of the Los Angeles Police Department. I was just Ed Grayson, elderly resident of Bright Shades Nursing Home. Just an old man. Easy prey. I let go just as the creature released its grip. I felt even weaker than before. I could barely move, breathing was a struggle, and my vision and hearing were spotty. I heard it let out a series of noises that sounded like laughing, before it patted my cheek, and walked away, closing the door behind it.

I’ve been waiting ever since for it to kill me. I knew it would. I was one of its favorite targets now. It would come back, and it would finish the job. I am writing this as a final message. I am hoping that whoever finds this will send this out. Jillian, if you get this, then I hope you will give this to my family. They need to know the truth. I know you are different, I’ve seen the guilt. You want to help, but you’re not sure what to do. So if you find this, I’m telling you to send this out. Tell no one else you found this. To my kids, I love you all. You have every right to doubt. I would too if I were you. But this is real. There is something in this place, roaming around and feeding on us every night, torturing us. And the nurses know. They are covering it up, I just know they are. I don’t know why, I don’t know what they get out of letting that thing feed, but I know they know. And they can go to Hell, same as it. It’s coming around again. I can hear it walking back towards my room. I’m not going to fight it this time. Whatever happens, happens. But I hope whoever finds this letter does. Sincerely, Ed.

Credit: GhostShogun28

Please note the author of this Creepypasta does NOT give permission for it to be reproduced in any other medium