The Megaphone Demon

I like reading scary stories. I think they're fun and time consuming and keep me entertained. But I only read them during the day, more specifically mornings and early afternoon.

Why?

Because I'm afraid of anything spooky, and with living alone in a second floor apartment facing a wooded area with ground access, I have a tendency to work myself into anxiety attacks.

But that's only partially relevant.

Anyways there I was, sitting on my chair and reading stories. Gwen was happily chirping to the birds outside and hopping around the living room doing bird things. Like I said before, anyone could walk right up to the sliding glass door on my balcony because of the stairs. My balcony is also connected to my neighbors.

We've never had issues with privacy and everyone here keeps to themselves.

So it did catch my attention when I heard voices that sounded to be somewhere in my backyard. I didn't pay too much attention, assuming it was just someone outside on their phone (although looking back, it was cold and snowing, and they were out there for a while...) so I went back to reading.

The voice eventually died off so I forgot about it.

Fast forward to six pm, the sun has been down for around an hour now.

Usually if I look out the back door at night I can see the outline of the trees behind the building but not tonight. Tonight it was pitch black. I even cupped my hands and face to the window to try to see out, but it was just a void.

That's not scary to me. That's just dark, so whatever. I had just made brownies so I was far more concerned with that.

Then the voice started again. At first it crept up, very softly and gradually increased in volume. It sounded both close and far away, making me think it might be on the other side of the trees.

Let me try to explain how it sounded:

Imagine a megaphone, it sounds hollow and echoed, right? Or a police intercom, the kind they use to project their voice over the speakers outside their vehicles. Now, we live next to a fire station, so I thought maybe it was someone parked in their driveway or their intercom system, but we're actually quite a ways away, on the opposite side of the complex from the station.

That's what I thought it was though, maybe someone talking over a radio in the backyard or something. I just listened for a while, and tried to pick out actual words, but it was just a mangled mess of sounds.

Curiosity was nagging at me so I walked quietly to the door. At this point, all the stories I had read that day were sneaking into my brain, stories of ghosts and monsters and psycho killers, so I was a little on edge, especially knowing how dark it was.

I hesitated for a second, but the voice was in full swing and I decided I was just too curious. So I flipped the lock and cracked the door about an inch.

Now I'm not kidding when I say it stopped immediately. I listened hard and didn't make any noise, thinking if it was someone on the phone is the yard or something they'd start talking again in a moment. I only stayed there for about three minutes before I slid the door closed and locked it, this time making sure to put the security bar across the door as well.

My rational brain says it was coincidental that whatever I was hearing stopped when I opened the door, but my anxiety brain was screaming "YOU LET IT IN! YOU OPENED THE DOOR FOR IT AND LET IT IN! NOW WE'RE HAUNTED AND WE'RE GOING TO BE EATEN BY A DEMON GOOD WORK"

I tried my best to brush it off and went to bed a few hours later, listening intently for the voice again and telling myself if it started up again I would spring to the door and open it to listen.

It never did come back.

The next morning I was opening the blinds so Gwen could look out and saw someone walking through the trees. We recently got a lot of snow and there are buildings on both sides of this wooded area, so there would be no reason to walk through the trees in the first place. I watched closely waiting to see it move again but it had disappeared.

Rational brain says "Just someone in a black coat walking, who cares"

Anxiety brain says "I knew it. We're going to die"

So far I haven't been possessed or anything, though I have been more keen on closing the blinds and locking the doors. The demon does come back later on though, and I think he's in cahoots with my neighbors.