Friendly Neighbors

Hi, my name is Candy and just recently, my family and I moved into a new neighborhood on Cranberry Street.

The people who were living here last just disappeared and we thought it was a nice looking house, so we decided to take the real estate agent up on her offer. The first day I told my son George to go introduce himself to the neighbors while me and my husband Lenny unpacked everything. When he came back, his face was really pale. Me and Lenny dropped the boxes of kitchen supplies we were unloading and ran to him. We started asking him questions like "What's wrong?" and "What happened?" And to all the questions he just replied, "I can't say."

We were worried, but we couldn't get it out of him so we just decided to leave it be for now and told him to go to his room and rest.

We stayed on the couch for at least five minutes wondering what happened when Lenny said "Let's go ask the neighbors, they might have seen what happened!"

So we went to our right side neighbors first and knocked. When they answered the door a young looking woman wearing a diamond decorated sweater vest answered. She looked at us both and said "What can I help you fine folks with?"

To which we replied, "Hello we're the new neighbors."

She said, "Oh someone finally bought the old Carlson house huh? Well I'm sure you guys will make a fine addition to the neighborhood!"

Then we asked, "Did you happen to see anything that would've scared our son?" She replied "Good heavens no! I hope he's alright."

We said, "Yeah, he will be fine, just making sure our little boy is safe."

She said, "Yeah, I can understand your worry. The world is a dangerous place...But he will be safe here! We have each others' backs here!"

We said thank you and went back to our house.

The next day we finally finished unpacking into our new home. After resting and watching television for a little bit I said, "Why don't I make a pie for our new neighbors to thank them for their hospitality?"

My husband agreed and I went to work. About an hour later I said I was going over to give them the gift and then left for their house. When I got there and knocked the same woman answered the door but she looked a little antsy as if she was a drug addict and had not done it in a couple days. I asked her what was wrong and she said not to worry about it.

I handed her the pie and she said, "Aww you shouldn't have! You're just trying to ruin my appetite for the party on Friday so you can get more for yourself aren't you?"

To which I replied, "What party are you talking about?"

She said, "Oh that's right, huh, you guys are new here! Well every Friday we get together and have a party at my house! You guys should come, you would have a swell time!"

I said, "Sure sounds like fun!" And left.

When Friday came me and my husband spent the whole day getting ready for the party. Once we got there it looked like any other non-alcoholic adult party. Music going on in the background played off of a radio. A snack table that has trail mix and store bought fruit punch. We were greeted by the lady again, we exchanged hellos and we went on to the party. Everyone was the same way the host was. Antsy, as if all of them were waiting for there drug fixes.

We started a conversation with one of our other neighbors and through the whole conversation they kept looking at the host as if they were waiting for her to tell them something. Finally after about a half an hour of talking to the guests the host said, "Okay guys!  It's time!" And everyone started shuffling towards the basement.

We followed blindly with the crowd, I exchanged glances with my husband and then with my son who looked as pale as a ghost. Also he looked scared as if he wanted to tell me something but he couldn't. We finally made it to the basement and everyone was crowded around something in a circle. We got George on Lenny's shoulders so he could see what was in the center of the mob.

He gasped, then fainted and fell off of Lenny's shoulders. Lenny caught him then handed his limp body to me and shoved his way through the crowd. When he got to the middle his whole body got cold and he gasped. What he saw was a shrine with the body of a young woman on it. He looked back at the host and she looked different. Instead of the friendly neighbor we saw earlier she looked hungrily at the corpse in the center of the room.

I shouted at her, "What is this about?!" And she replied, "Our neighborhood needs to feed on corpses in order to stay sane! That's why we brought you here! You're next."

I tried to turn around and run but the rest of our "friendly neighbors" blocked our path.

They all looked hungrily at us. Lenny and I ran through the crowd with all our might. We made it out with nothing but a couple scratches but then we looked around and George was nowhere to be seen. We ran home, gathered what little we could and drove as far away as possible. We still can't believe that our little George is gone and we've contemplated going back there to get him every day since then. But we know it's too late.

Never ever go to the house for sale on Cranberry Street, because if you do, you are the next victim.