True Horror Story: Petrichor

There was a new girl at the group home. I didn’t see her, but I could hear her talking to Denny outside my room. She sounded annoying, like everyone else who lived here. There were four of us, five now I guess. We were all in our early twenties and got kicked out once we turned eighteen. And we all had some “severe” mental health diagnosis. It was bullshit, at least in my case. My parents just couldn’t deal with me and meds never did shit. So now I lived with crazy people who liked to wake up the whole house in the middle of the night.

I heard the new girl walking away and Denny knocked on my closed door. “Can I come in, Jack?”

“I don’t know, do you still smell like shit?”

“You think everything smells like shit.”

“That’s because it does.”

He sighed loud enough for me to hear it through the door. “Can I just come in?”

“Fine.”

He opened the door. With him came the scent of sour milk. My whole body scrunched up in my bed. It didn’t make a difference to plug my nose. The disgusting smells couldn’t be escaped.

“You have to come down for dinner,” Denny said, leaning against the doorframe.

“I’ll throw up,” I responded.

“I get that. But we have a new resident and I want to introduce her to everyone. Even you.”

I rolled my eyes. “What’s her deal, then?”

“You can ask her yourself.”

Even though he smelled awful (like everyone else) Denny was a genuinely good guy. He had a sincere passion for helping people. He was an alcoholic who started the group home after getting his shit together. He told us once that his parents kicked him out at fifteen and he wanted to make a place for folks like him to go. I think he got money from the government or something for housing us. It’s a big old house that he bought for cheap, fixed it up, and filled it with outcasts. We are all supposed to get jobs and do chores and all that shit. I haven’t been able to work but I do laundry for the house. It’s the only chore that doesn’t make me completely sick.

I tossed my pillow to the other side of the bed. “If I throw up on her it’s your fault.”

“Sure, man. See you downstairs in twenty.” He closed the door when he left.

After he was gone I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn’t joking about everything smelling terrible. When I was seventeen people started stinking. I went to doctors and no one could figure out why I smelled such disgusting things 24/7. Everything smells bad but people were the worst. Everyone had a unique amount of stench. My parents smelled like vomit. The scent wafted from them into my nose and mouth. It obviously made me nauseous and angry. No one believed me. They thought I was being difficult. My parents took me to therapists and psychiatrists. They gave me some bullshit diagnoses and meds. When nothing got better they said I just needed to live with it.

How the fuck can you live in a world that smells like rotting flesh?

My parents got rid of me as soon as they could. They couldn’t handle me holed up in my room – angry, isolated, discarded. They refused to accept this version of their son. Denny doesn’t really understand what I’m dealing with but at least he believes me. It’s an upgrade, I guess.

I combed my hair and took some nausea meds before heading downstairs. Lauren, Guy, and Arnoldo were already down there. Guy was making the food, which meant I wouldn’t be able to eat it. The stench was heavy and I gagged.

“Vomit boy has decided to grace us with his presence.” Lauren was a girl who smelled like day-old garbage. She had something against me half the time. The other half she was crying. I didn’t get her. I didn’t get most people.

“Give him a break,” Arnoldo responded. “You don’t know what olfactory hallucinations are like.”

“I’m not hallucinating,” I whispered angrily.

“Oh yeah, totally man. Sorry.”

I felt like a dick.

Arnoldo was nice. We had the same diagnosis so I think he wanted to be friends. But he smelled like a fish market and I couldn’t spend time near him.

Denny brought in some plates and set the table. I sat on the side of the table opposite the other two. I swallowed my disgust and pulled my hoodie over my face. Just had to get through dinner, meet the new girl, and then go back to my room. Thirty minutes. I could do thirty minutes.

I heard her walk in before I saw her. She looked about as much as I expected her to. She had thick black hair that hung about her ears. Her bangs were straight and severe – a sharp contrast to her soft face. Her shirt had an anime girl on it. If anyone saw her on the street I doubt they would be surprised to find her at this group home.

But I barely noticed her appearance.

It was her smell.

She didn’t stink.

Not just that, but she smelled good. She smelled like freshly fallen rain. I hadn’t smelled such an amazing scent since I was a teenager. My jaw dropped. I stared at her in shock as she moved into the room, taking the seat next to me. She didn’t meet my gaze.

“Stop staring, pervert,” Lauren hissed at me.

Denny cleared his throat loudly. “Hey folks, this is Arah. She will be staying here.”

Arah smiled slightly and nodded. I couldn’t look away. Why did she smell good?

Guy peeked out from the kitchen. “What brings you here?”

She shuffled her fingers in lap. “I needed a place to stay.”

“Duh,” Lauren said, rolling her eyes. “We want to know what’s fucked up about you. Why are you at a house with a bunch of losers?”

Denny opened his mouth to interrupt but Arah beat him to it. “I don’t think of myself as fucked up. Some people might, I don’t really care. Do you think of yourself that way?”

Lauren looked offended. “Not me. But the boys are for sure.”

Arah shrugged. “I’m not picky about my housemates.”

“Neither are we,” Guy said as he brought out the food. Burgers, by the looks of it.

Normally I would be holding in my vomit but something about Arah’s smell kept the nausea away. I might have even felt a little hungry.

She still hadn’t looked at me.

Denny helped pass out the food. “Arah works nights, so we won’t see her that much. She needs to sleep during the day so we’ll all be as quiet as possible.”

“I’m a heavy sleeper,” she said with a smile. “You won’t wake me.” She hadn’t touched her food. Neither had I.

The night passed as many of them do. The others laughed, made fun of each other, and ate. I was silent. But this time my eyes were glued to the new girl. She seemed to get along well enough. Lauren was the only one who didn’t welcome her and Lauren never liked anyone. When they were done with the meal Denny released us to our rooms.

I couldn’t get up, even after everyone had left. Something in my chest hurt.

“You like her,” Arnoldo called from the kitchen. He was on dishes tonight.

I didn’t respond.

“It’s okay,” he continued. “She seems nice. A little weird, but aren’t we all.”

“She’s different.”

“How so?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

He sighed. “Why do you have to pretend to be this mysterious dude all the time? Can’t you lighten up? You like her. It’s fine. It’s normal. It’s-”

I had already left the table and headed up to my room.

I went right to my bed, pulling the blankets up to my chin. I needed to get Arah out of my head. It was a fluke – tomorrow she would smell awful like everyone else. Or…was I getting better? Was that even possible?

My light was out. I was staring at the ceiling, something that felt like hope rising and falling in my chest.

I didn’t even hear her open the door.

“So what’s your deal, then?”

I shot straight up. I hadn’t even noticed the sweet smell entering the room. My hand went for the light.

She stood against the far wall, fingers running through her short hair. She was smiling. I don’t know if she was actually beautiful or if her scent made her so. There was an air of calm around her.

“Um…why are you…”

“In your room?” She grinned. “I don’t really believe in knocking.”

“Uh…” What do you say to a stranger who could change your whole life?

“That’s it? I thought you’d be more interesting.” She tilted her head. “Why were you staring at me at dinner?”

I took a deep breath. “You won’t get it.”

“Try me.” She took two steps towards me. My entire body seized up.

“Well, I have this thing. It’s…weird. I don’t know. You know we’re all fucked up here. My thing is that…fuck. They smell bad.”

She took another step. “So?”

“So! So life is fucking horrible. I can’t enjoy anything. Food is disgusting. People are disgusting. I smell it even in my sleep.”

Another step. “And what’s that to do with me?”

“You…” I sighed. “You smell good.”

She sat on the edge of my bed. Every nerve in my body lit up. She leaned over to whisper in my ear. “What do I smell like?”

“Rain.”

She didn’t move away from my cheek. “I always liked the rain.”

As she spoke a realization washed over me. Her mouth was inches away from mine, but there was no breath. I turned to look at her in the eyes and she flashed a smile, small fangs appearing beneath her upper lip.

She laughed quietly. “I thought maybe you knew who I was and that’s why you were staring at me.”

“Knew who you were?”

“It happens sometimes. I don’t mind. Makes me feel famous, I guess.”

Something was wrong. Arah was not what she seemed.

“Arah, are you-”

“Want to see something?” She didn’t wait for my answer.

Arah reached her hand up to her hair and began to pull. Her scalp came free from her skull like she was unwrapping a present. It sounded like tissue paper tearing. I tried to scream but nothing came out. Her skin crumpled in her fist. Beneath it was a fleshy mound, eyeballs rolling in their sockets. She had no blood or veins. Just gray viscera with streaks of green and yellow.

Her voice came out the same as it did before despite her lips being gone. “Are you scared, Jack?”

I nodded slowly. But it wasn’t just fear. Did she know?

The more skin she pulled off the better she smelled.

The better everything smelled.

“Are you going to kill me?” I asked quietly. I had never known fear like I did then. But I also reveled in the petrichor that her gore created.

She stopped for a moment, her glee paused. “Where’s the fun in that?” She straightened herself. The skin in her hands disappeared and reappeared on her head. She looked normal again. The smell of rain began to dissipate.

I started to panic. “Please,” I whispered, unsure of what I was begging for. To be saved? To be left alone? For this nightmare to end?

No.

I was begging for the smell to come back.

She stood up. “Don’t you want to know what I am? What I’m doing here? Anything like that?” She was disappointed in me. I was too scared to care.

“The smell…”

“Ah.” She beckoned towards me. “I think you’ll find what you’re looking for downstairs.”

I hesitated. She was a monster, clearly. But she brought me relief as well fear. My body shook without my permission.

“Come on. I want to show you my night job.” She turned her back on me and went to the door, opening it without looking back.

I crawled out of bed slowly. My bare feet looked vulnerable on the floor. I felt small. Desperate. Terror traveled down my body with each step. I was afraid of what I would find outside my door.

The lights in the hall were on. Everyone’s doors were open, but I couldn’t hear anyone. I also couldn’t smell anything awful, which was frighteningly exciting. I could hear Arah walking down the stairs, humming something to herself. I followed after. I was a terrified puppy, scared to be left alone yet scared to be with her.

“In the dining room,” she called to me in a singsong voice.

As I walked closer, the smell grew. It was fresh. Floral, almost. It grew and grew as I got downstairs. I was overcome. I wanted to cry. Was Arah a demon or an angel? She was saving me from the infliction I’d been living with for years. But I couldn’t move away from the image of her without skin, flesh pulsating like the breath she didn’t have.

I wondered if maybe she had already killed me and the smell of rain was heaven. It was a smell I was denied in life.

The scent was all around me as I walked towards the dining room. It bloomed in the air. I breathed it in as deeply as possible.

I was going to be okay.

I was going to be okay.

I was-

The dining room was bathed in blood. The table and chairs had been thrown against the walls and lay broken on the floor. A pile of bodies occupied the center of the room. Arnoldo, with his throat ripped out. Lauren without eyes or lips. Guy bent backwards with his spine shattered. Denny, hands over his face, fingers missing and intestines falling onto the carpet. Arah danced around them wistfully.

“What did you do?” I choked.

“You don’t like it?” She approached me, hands behind her back.

“Those were my friends.” I felt the tears as they soaked my face. My legs gave out and I joined my dead friends on the floor.

They weren’t really my friends. But they were the closest thing I had ever had to it.

“But Jack, don’t they smell divine?”

I sobbed. Arah stood over me. I watched as her fingernails began to grow through her skin, turning into claws. Bits of her flesh fell onto the floor next to me.

“Answer me, Jack,” she growled.

I put my head in my hands. Horrified, I whispered, “They smell amazing.”

“Like fresh rain,” she mocked, going back to the pile of bodies. “I do love the rain.” She proceeded to feast on the corpses, crunching their bones and splattering her face with fluids.

I couldn’t move. I should have run or screamed. Anything.

She turned to me, wiping blood from her face. “Go on, your turn.”

Reluctantly, I crept closer to her. I was disgusted by the tangle of bones and flesh. But it smelled so good. It was how I remember feeling when smelling bread baking. Warm. Comforted.

Arah pointed to Denny’s mangled hand. “Try it.”

My arm shook as I reached out and touched him. He was still warm. I lifted the hand to my mouth and smelled deeply.

Rain. Nature. Peace.

I bit down and tore away some skin.

Arah was grinning. “How is it?”

I started to sob. With Denny’s flesh still in my mouth I responded, “Delicious.”