“You shouldn’t have talked to her,” Mandy said before I could get a word out.

“So you got my message?”

“You shouldn’t have talked to her,” Mandy repeated.

Mandy waved me into the darkness inside her home and shut the door behind me.

The house was as cold as it was dark. I shivered through my winter coat when I followed Mandy into the candle-lit living room. I took a seat on the dewy couch in front of a coffee table littered with dirty dishes and dirty laundry.

“Jesus Christ it’s freezing in here,” I muttered through clenched teeth.

I looked across the room to see Mandy offering me a cigarette from her seat in a stained easy chair.

“No thanks,” I said with a shake of the head and took the VHS tape out of my jacket pocket.

“So about Barbara Daniels…

“You shouldn’t have talked to her,” Mandy cut me off and eyed the tape I had slipped out into my lap. “And I’ve seen that tape too. Or, well, I have my own copy of at least something like it.”

“At Barbara’s house? The lights going on and off, us flying around the room and talking about horrible things that happen later in life?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“What the hell is that?” I asked.

Mandy lit up another cigarette.

“You know that thing Barbara told you about us always talking about monsters? That was the monsters on that tape. She told me something where we had to stay the night there and they noticed we had night terrors and these poltergeist abilities and they recorded it to try and get us on some nineties paranormal show where some experts would try to help us, but they ended up never sending in the tapes. I eventually told her to get lost, but regardless, we’re both fucked, because I think talking about it, made the monsters come back.”

One of Mandy’s cigarettes started to sound really good after that piece of information.

“I couldn’t really remember the monsters or ever really thought about them until I ran into fucking Barbara at the deli, but now, I think they’re back. I think they are probably coming back for you too. They terrorized us as kids. I keep seeing this horrible, dead-looking man all around the house…and I’m not talking about Mike. He took off to fucking Tulsa,” Mandy explained.

“What are they? The monsters? I asked.