My next-door neighbor was an eldritch otherworldly nightmare who made a good meatloaf. I think they are some old gods or nightmare monsters. But my family was ok and no one around us went mad so I guess it was fine. Well, except me of course.

Sighing looking over at the strange clean white house I thought from my room watching the eldest daughter through my window. Normally this would be the case for me being a pervert but after seeing her unfold her hair turned into multiple jaws and teeth that snapped biting into the food on her plate that seemed to twist into some strange beast. Still, I did at least feel bad about it. 

Homework consumed her, her warily needle-thin fingers writing an essay about some novel in the class. I should do that too but the nightmare creatures took my time. That and my manuals .” toys” and other projects. “Toys” were mostly things I found on manuals online and other cool things. I glanced into my binoculars hung over my window staring forward into the monster that would be her younger brother. 

Unlike his sister who held a normal humanoid form, her brother was bigger. With a horse mantle and what looked to be a dog head for a face, he hunched over in a vaguely humanoid shape and mutilated hands. I could only see three hands but I knew from previous viewing he had at least thirteen hands. He was reading his favorite form of media, a comic, mainly a joke book. After making my notes of that day I went to get my second cup of coffee. 

Ever since noticing my neighbors my dreams were a mess of nightmares, dark thoughts, and macabre images. So to the disapproval of my parents and my teacher's dismay, I reduced my sleeping schedule. At this point, I only sleep about four hours at most. Tonight was busy as the family was having a meeting about something.

I may have been spying on them but I could not tell their language. It had traces of Latin, a bit of Greek, and fragments of a dozen other languages. I learned this annoying fact after feeding it into a translator app online. Brewing my coffee while I watched through the camera on my phone, ‘tsking’ in annoyance. The camera was harder to view and worse the camera died far too fast. Still, I had to know what they were doing. Sipping my coffee I realized my homework lay undone, and I needed to get that done. School was getting harder, and I needed to do this at least.

Turning away from my surveillance I got to it. First English and science leaving math for last. But as I worked something came from the shadows of my room. A deep brine scent spiraled out from the shadows. It was a setting like looking at the corpse of a loved one. It would always appear once I looked away from the family. But I knew it well, it was my face.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A deep gurgling voice came from it as I struggled with physics. It muttered an incomparable mess of noises as my focus frilled like rope, my eyes locked on the paper in front of me. The dumb question solving for some motion of a moving car huh I mused in my mind as it spoke an unearthly undertone. 

I sighed, readying myself for the assault on my mind. The first time it happened was brutal and borrowed deep into my mind. The mental wounds had me screaming for hours, then cackling like an evil hag. I was like a manic mess for at least three hours. It took painkillers, energy drinks and nasal spray to staple my mind back together. However, it was strangely friendly like the hard enemy you defeat in a video game. Usually, it took a minute to warm up and make sense.

"Why?" It bemoaned, like a call beyond the grave.

This annoyed me. At first, it screams, muttering dark words and unholy truths. Then it raged screaming in agony and hate. But at least back then it scared the shit out of me but I despite the questions.

"Why what? You got chatty out of nowhere." I spat annoyedly tilting my head back to stare in the face of madness.

"Why are you watching? Your eyes shatter and your mind sits on a single thread." It spoke in its twisted mockery of my voice.

"Dumb question, I shouldn’t even bother to answer but someone has to. They should be recorded and stored. After all, at any moment, the earth could be wiped out so maybe what comes next could get a guide to these things." I replied absentmindedly. “But I could just be crazy and this could be an excellent film for every poor therapist who will have to deal with me.” 

With those words that slipped out my mouth, ‘my face’ for the first time stopped, the tone spoke whisper less than the sledgehammer that it usually was. 

“Leave this” It spoke with a quiet moment. “Are you sure it is real ?”

That stumped me. What the hell is this? 

My mouth quivered as I struggled momentarily, desperately vacuuming breath trying to keep calm. With a crushing snap, I destroyed my pen and ink spilled over my desk and work. I could not ignore it any longer.

"I can't. No, I wouldn't, it is real and I can see it. I can smell it. If it were fake if it were a lie, then all this I have done would be pointless." I growled.

I shoved myself off the table pissed off by this nightmare. The nightmares I had, the moments huddling a ball with crushing terror, the cuts the wounds the damage I had to do to keep sane, it would be worthless, or worst just some twisted dream.No I can see it know it is real, and now I would prove it, no matter the cost. 

I swallowed my coffee with a cruel efficiency, homework was for later. Once again I observed the nightmares that were across the road.