Monsters and Me
I look around. White sheets. It’s cold as f**k in here. Everything is white. Dammit, back in the hospital. Me. I’m a short kid with dirty blonde hair. My eyes scare people. They are some weird green with little black streaks that look like shards of glass. My eyes scare people. But my friends think they’re cool. But I’m at the hospital. That’s what matters.
“Why am I here?” A voice in my head asks. I don’t wonder. I already know.
I’m here because the man told my mom I have some s**tload of conditions and they need me in watch. I tried to tell them my voices watch out for me, but they don’t listen. And now it’s white. I can see the white as if it’s in bright light. Almost glowing. Yet I know it’s night and there are no lights on in the entire building, except for the flashing red help lights. I’ve never been in a hospital before. So how do I know this?
Who cares.
The whole damn room is cold. I know the monsters are coming. My voices can’t help here.
The monsters are too strong.
So I wait.
And they come. Soon enough. I never have to wait long.
“Long time no see.” I shout at the familiar shadows on the wall. I see a ghostly little grin show in one of them. It’s now the only white in the room, it’s so full of the shadows. More of the shadows begin to grin.
“Long time no see,” one echoes in a musing voice, “indeed.”
“You came to kill me, I suppose.” Why do I sound so calm about it?”
“Oh, no. Wouldn’t dream of it. You’re too… interesting to kill.” This time, another shadow replied.
“Thank you for the sentiment,” I shoot back.
“Thank me later,” another shadow whispers.
“He won’t be able to,” another says and snickers. As they say it, I realize that there aren’t multiple shadows. There’s one, big, fatass shadow.
“Are you scared Billy?” It says.
“Are you?” I reply, and the voice laughs, changes to the form of a man. The man.
“Billy. You know me, right?” He asks.
“Nope, haven’t had the pleasure,” I lie. I’ve gotten good at lying.
“Mmm.” The voice hums. “Do you know why you are here Billy?” I tell him no, to humor him. Get him talking. “You are here because I want you to be.” And there is no sound from him again, so I go to sleep. Maybe now, I am safe.
When the nurses come in the next day, I am dead.
Guess I wasn’t safe after all.
Ghosts
I like this house a lot better than our old one. Why? ’Cause the ghosts here are a lot nicer. My folks call me crazy. Who cares? Not me. Hi mom, I’m Crazy. The ghosts at my old house were a little weird, they just wandered around moaning and kept me up all night. These ghosts talk to me, tell me stories. One story they tell me a lot is the story of this one girl, my age. They say she went insane and killed herself in the attic, and it resulted in these ghosts being trapped here. Some of them have memory problems, so they just keep telling it to me like it’s the first time. When I asked them one time why she went insane, they got real quiet.
“Dunno,” they said, but I didn’t buy it. So I did the right thing. I went to the attic.
Up there, it was dark and musty. A rotted rope hung from the ceiling, but there was no body. I looked around. The room was bare. That was okay, but the weirdest part was the absence of dust, as if someone had swept it away. With that thought came a scraping exactly like the sound of a broom. It came closer, and closer, and finally a girl stepped out from the shadows. No broom.
She gave me a curious look.
“Hello,” she said. She said it cautiously, but not as a question.
“Hi,” I said. I couldn’t really think of anything else to say. “Are you dead?” She gave me a weird look.
“Yeah I’m dead. Are you?”
“Don’t think so, yet.” She laughed.
“You think I’m going to kill you?”
“Nah, but weird s**t happens.” At this, she glanced around nervously.
“Do you know why I killed myself?” She asked.
“Um, not really, but the ghosts say you were insane.” I said before realizing that that was a stupid thing to say. She laughed, a dry, mirthless sound.
“Of course they do. They didn’t see what I saw. The monster.” She shuddered. It was clear she believed in what she saw, whatever it was, with absolute conviction. And I believed her. A f**king chain. She looked straight at me, and I realized her pupil was white. The ring around it, her iris, was thin and gold, the whites of the eye were… white. But the black hole of a pupil was white. She caught me looking and smiled. Her hanging rope began swinging wildly, banging around the room. She stared at it, turning her gaze away from me with a look of alarm. I felt cold.
“The bones of our fathers.” I heard a voice.
“The bones of our fathers.” Louder now.
“The bones of our fathers.” Split, like multiple voices.
“The bones of our fathers.” Perfect unison.
“The bones of our fathers.” Quiet.
“THE BONES OF OUR FATHERS!” Now, a scream. The girl was gone. I screamed, banged on the door for someone, now no longer feeling like I was stuck in time. By the time my parents made it up the stairs, blood stained my vison. The rotting Suicide rope was hooked around my own neck. My parents opened the door. Me, I was screaming thrashing, yelling.
“Putmedown!” I yelled in one fast breath, one word. The rope tightened, choking me off. I could no longer see with the spots dancing in my eyes.
“Do you know why I killed myself? I heard the girl’s voice in my head.
“I didn’t. They did.” Her answer rang through my mind.
The Body
Sylvia Wineguard walked into the deep part of her woods. The townspeople had rumours, stories about this part of town, even long before Sylvia had moved in. Stories like that were bound to induce a few rebellious teenagers to wander far back into these woods. Sylvia was one such girl. She walked, and came to the famed clearing. Everyone talked about this part of town - the part of town where the murders happened. The clearing was relatively circle, with lines dug into the ground crossing paths every once and a while - seemingly at random. But if Sylvia could rise above her post the ground and look down at the scene below, the crisscrossing lines would form a star, with arcane symbols filling the spaces. Even all these factors were not what caught Sylvia’s attention. Her attention was grabbed by a lump in the center of the circle. Sylvia’s curiosity was piqued. Had she done a good enough job? In answer, she jogged up to the mound for a closer look. Upon her close inspection, it was a girl. A girl wearing all black, with inky markings on her arm - the same symbols scrawled around the circle. Her long white-blonde hair shone and fluttered across her face. She had been placed strategically in the dead center of the circle, lining into the center of the star. Her bare, marked arms stretched wide, with her hands brushing the corners of the pentagram. This was mirrored by the other arm, and both legs. The markings were smudged a bit, but they would have to do. The short sleeve shirt she wore was loose, black, and low, revealing the bottom edge of her bra - way below school dress code requirements. She wore black leggings - ripped, of course, and black combat boots. What Sylvia - and the others investigating similar deaths - interesting about this girl, however, was that even under Sylvia’s scrutiny, there were no external wounds. Sylvia was proud of her handiwork. She had done her job well with this one - Satan would be pleased. And another name would be added to the list of strange, unsolved murders, the murders that were reported as suicides motivated by some strange cult, the list that began its collection 3 years ago, when Sylvia had first moved in and began her project.
The Beast
Lynn closed her eyes. Even though she was tired, she could not sleep. She froze in her bed as her father opened the door, pretending to be asleep. She heard his whisper:
“Good night.” Soon after he spoke, the outside light switched off, and she heard her door click shut. Her room was plunged into darkness, and she reopened her eyes. It was so dark that for a second, Lynn wondered if she had actually opened her eyes, or if she was still sleeping. But then her eyes adjusted, and she could see her surroundings a little better. The furniture of her room was outlined slightly darker than the walls. After all, it wasn’t pitch dark. The glow of her alarm clock seemed to illuminate the whole room in the darkness.
The hours ticked by, and before Lynn knew it, it was 3 am. That was around the time a a faint scritch scritch coming from her closet. It scared her, but Lynn had never been afraid of the dark - or what hides in it, and she wasn’t about to start. But every second she tried to ignore it, the scratching got louder. Eventually, Lynn felt like clawing her ears off - she was so sick of the repetitive noises. She dragged herself out of bed and stopped on the outside of the closed closet door. In her head, she counted down from 3. 3… 2… 1…. Then, cursing herself for being so stupid, she flung open the door.
Nothing happened.
“Told you so,” she whispered aloud to the night, but as she said it, she felt something brush past her leg. The scratching had stopped. By instinct, Lynn reached down to her leg. She caught a snatch of something small and furry before the beast darted away. Lynn was terrified. She crawled back into her bed and pulled the covers to her chin. She felt the beastly paws step on her legs, and they were making their way up to her head. A low growling sound formed in its throat as it approached. Unable to tolerate it anymore, Lynn leaped out of her bed and flicked on the light, to the annoyance of the creature, who was flung away. She sighed as the light illuminated the ball of fur.
It was only Waldo, her cat. He must have been trapped in her closet. The growling was him purring, and the scratching was him scratching at the door. She had been overreacting - probably from binging on scary movies the day before. She felt so stupid for her fear, and she slid back into her bed after turning the light back off, pulling a protesting Waldo closer.
“Good night Waldo,” she said, and she finally fell asleep to the hum of Waldo’s purring.
Harmless Prank
Before I say anything, you need to hear this. I am a normal kid. Looks, acts, feels. All of it. Even smells. (Ugh). I’m not insane. Why is it that whenever someone says that you automatically DON’T believe them. But this time I’m not joking. I wish I was joking. But I’m not, and nobody can believe me. Why would they? I joke around a lot. I’m a prankster, what can I say?
Last week, I played a harmless little joke. Like, what kids do to their annoying siblings all the time. I took my little sister’s journal. Harmless, see? I even had an excuse. She had been acting weird all weekend, and I couldn’t figure out why. So I read her journal. She had spent a lot of time on the thing. She had made it herself, and wrote pages and pages in a day. So I opened it, starting from the beginning of this week.
Billy is back again. Billy wants to play. I don’t want to play with Billy, but Billy doesn’t care. Billy won’t help me. He said he would help me. Billy why are you acting weird? Billy leave me alone. Billy Billy Billy.
The whole rest of the entry was spent repeating “Billy Billy Billy” over and over again.
The next page ended the same way, but the start was different… sort of. It was almost exactly the same, but the words were in a different order.
I flipped through the rest at an almost frantic pace, trying to find an entry that was not about “Billy.” I found one, yesterday’s date. She had written in just before I stole it.
Lucy is my new friend. She is an it. She says she is a boy, but her name is Lucy, so she is an it. She told me her name was something long and weird, like Lucifer or something, but oh well. She tells me to do things. I do them. They are only little things, like stealing mommy’s knives and giving them to her. Or one time she told me to put a circle with a little star on the basement floor.
That worried me, and when I went down to the basement there was a star on the floor. I flipped back open the journal and opened it again. She must have been writing in it this morning.
Get out of my journal or Lucy and I are going to kill you.
I sat back, horrified, and as I watched, more words appeared.
Lucy doesn’t like you.
It says you are evil
YOU ARE EVIL
Lucy is coming.
Lucy is here.
I warned you.
Now you die.
And i felt something thunk into the back of my skull. I reached back and felt sticky blood.
I heard childish laughter before I blacked out. I blacked out, so I didn’t see the new writing.
I hope mommy and daddy don’t miss both their children.
Forest
Let me tell you a story. It is the story of a family. They were doing great, the father had a nice job.. This is what happened to them.
The father, who’s name was Zackary (yep spelled that way), had a wife named Valerie, and a daughter named Meghan who was five and knew how to ride a horse better than anyone in the family. They always called her Meg, and she was the light of their lives. They lived on a farm. Meg always like playing with the horses that they kept in a stable. They had one black one, one white one, and one that had specks of every horse color you could ever imagine. Meg especially like that one, who she named Forest. Forest was a good horse, he always listened to Meghan and her family, and never, ever kicked. Meghan was his favorite.
One night, the father had just put Meghan to sleep and crawled back to his wife and gotten in bed, when he heard a thud. And another. And another. The thuds weren’t too loud, but they were annoying the farmer.
Finally, he decided to check out what was going on. When he came to the door of the stables that it was coming from, he opened them. Inside, the good horse, Forest, was kicking frantically at the door to his stall. All over the walls of his stall were black hoof marks. Zackary raced over to the horse and saw that it’s pupils had almost filled his eye, way past his irises. So the eyes were an eerie shade of black. The man was creeped out, but he decided to calm down the horse before it broke anything. After a minute or so, all was quiet again. He reached his bedroom and headed into sleep with his wife, this time hoping for no more interruptions. Just as he was getting comfortable, he hears a sound next to his bed. He turns, and there is his daughter. She doesn’t say anything, but moves in a circle around a spot on his floor.
“Meg?” He asked. No answer. He decided not to push it, because he doesn’t want to wake up his wife. Meg sleepwalked a lot, so he decided to just turn around and go back to sleep. The next day, he was awoken by his wife.
“Honey, was anyone in our room last night?” She asked, shaking him.
“Yeah, Val, Meg was, but why?” She motioned him out of the bed. On the floor was a red circle. It was strangely accurate for a five year old. He sighed.
“Just leave it, we have enough work to do today cleaning the stables. She gave him a puzzled look. “Forest was kicking up a storm last night, his pupils were all big and black hoof marks covered the stall. Val looked shocked.
“But he-“
“-Never kicks!” Meg finished in her five year old voice. It was obvious she had heard the conversation. She looked at the circle on the ground.
“Mommy, why there a circle?” She asked.
“You drew it when you sleepwalked last night honey.” Meg got very still and quiet.
“Mommy what time?” Val turned to her husband.
“Ah… maybe around 9 o’clock?” He offered. Meg got still and quiet again.
“Meg?” He asked after a moment.
“Mommy I didnent sleepwalk last night at 9. I was awake listenening to you sing. At nine you sang to me.” She mispronounced some of the words.
“Honey that was in your dream while you sleepwalked.” Her mom said, “I never sang to you.” Five year old Meg looked confused, then she laughed.
“Stop being silly mommy. You sang to me.” Val gave Zackary a scared look.
“Honey What was I singing?” Val asked.
“You said bla eeck aw moo chew.” And then you said you loved me and went back to bed.” Val looked even more confused.
“That was all in your dream.” She told her. Now Meg looked angry.
“No mommy I was awake! Because after that happened I put that drink on your nightstand and left.” Zackary and Val both looked to their respective dressers. Val’s had the cup. She looked down at it.
“A dream,” she repeated in a murmur.
“Come on Meg, we are going to see Forest today.”
“Yay, Forest!” Meg said, and clapped. We all headed down to the stables. Yesterday, the milky white horse, had chewed a hole through his stall and was munching away at the hay in Reaper’s stall, the black horse. Forest’s eyes were back to normal. No black hooves were on his stall walls. Meg’s father was flustered. But Meg scrunched up her face, walked up to the big horses stall, and said:
“Why are there hoofs on the stall?” She said hooves wrong. Then she turned to Forest. “You aren’t Forest, silly. Go away and bring him back.” The horse looked at her with Forest’s eyes and snorted in her face. “That tickles,” she said and giggled. Then she leaned close into his ear.
“If you are Forest, do the secret handshake.” The horse stood still. She looked at him. “Gimmie back Forest!” She yelled at the animal. It moved its head down. Now Val, standing behind Meg, could see the horns protruding out of the head. Before anyone else could react, the father, Zack, shot the horse between the eyes as he moved to see the horned head. Demon Forest lay dead. Meg whirled on him.
“Now he can’t give me Forest Daddy!! Meanie-head!” She shouted.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Meg forgot about Forest. That night, she sleepwalked again. Same spot. But the farmer and his wife both had fallen asleep. So they didn’t hear the singing coming from Meg’s room.
“Bla eeck aw moo chew. Bla eeck aw moo chew,” it repeated the chant. They didn’t see the corpse of the demon Forest get up and trot away.
No one was awake when their throats were slit by an unknown force.
The police never found the killer.
I should know. It was me. The monster under your bed. Did you know this is where they used to live? You live here now… want me to introduce you to the family? They are dying to meet you!
Kuchisake-onna
Every night, I have the same dream.
A hissing sound, like water leaking out of pipes. Wet, slapping footsteps. And then she appears, the slit across her mouth an endless, twisting, smile.
“Am I pretty?” she asks, “Am I pretty?”
I wake up, panting. I manage a worried glance at my sister, who sleeps next to me most nights because of her own nightmares.
“What’s wong bruvvy?” she asks, showing the gaps in her teeth. She’s five, but the worry I can see in her innocent face sometimes scares me.
“Nothing, Ann. Go back to sleep, okay?” But then my mom calls “Jonathan” from downstairs, and I know she won’t go back to sleep. She always follows me downstairs in the morning. I sighed and clunked my way down the stairs.
“Coming, mom!” Even now, I couldn’t shake the haunting words of the woman in my dream. Am I pretty? Like something from a horror movie. I grabbed a bagel and ate it without getting a plate. After I ate, I headed out to get on the public transport bus for school. I sat in a seat near the back and stared out the window, watching the monotonous scenery melt by. The bus shuddered to a grinding halt to let a passenger on. I looked up. I’m not a stalker or anything, but I liked seeing the kinds of people that got on the bus with me. The person getting on was a woman, and she had long, flowing hair that fell to her waist. It shone a beautiful black. She squeezes past every empty seat on the bus to sit next to me.
“Uh… hi.” I stammered. She turned to me. Something in her deep brown eyes seemed familiar, familiar and evil.
“Am I pretty?” She asked in a sickly sweet voice. As I looked into those devilish eyes, I realized where I had seen her before. I let out a startled cry that dissolved into a strangled gasp.
“Who are you?”
“Kuchisake-onna,” was the reply, but her lips didn’t move. The rest of the bus melted away, leaving me in a grey expanse like an endless slab of concrete. I had plenty of time to think as I ran off in one direction. I heard Kuchisake-onna laugh in my ear, but I didn’t waste time turning around to see how far behind she was. I knew I had heard her name before, in some urban legend before. The only problem was, I couldn’t remember the important details - like how to get rid of her. She appeared next to me as if by teleportation and I stumbled back.
“Am I pretty?” she demanded.
“N-no! No, you aren’t you scare me and-” I saw her pull out a knife as I jolted up. I was back in my bus seat, and Kuchisake was gone. I breathed a sigh of relief as I slumped in my seat. I got of the bus with my backpack slung over my shoulder, and made it to the double doors of the school before I felt my stomach clench in pain.
“Ah- ahh…” I panted.
“Somebody help him!” I heard someone shout as I collapsed to the ground. A crowd of people formed around me. I looked up, and my eyes swiveled around the ground, trying to find a face without a slit across it. Every person stared down at me. Their eyes were dark and evil, their mouths were slits, and everyone’s hair - if not that way already - was becoming long and dark.
“No,” I sobbed quietly. An ambulance drove up and Kuchisake-onna faced doctors dragged me inside.
“You can’t hide from me,” Kuchisake’s voice rang in my head. I looked around, trying to see where the words came from, but with dozens of look-alikes darting around me, I couldn’t tell. A doctor injected me with something that must have been a sedative, and the world blinked out into nothingness.
When I forced my eyes awake, going from the black of my eyelids to the blinding white room I was in, I knew I was in a hospital. My mom and sister stood over me, their worried faces not slit. No one’s was, in fact. Had I imagined it all? No. Not possible. Miss Slit-Face must have done something to me. Made me like this.
“Are you okay?” my mom asked, seeing my eyes open.
“Yeah. Can I go home?”
“Of course.” Ann practically dragged me into the car, and I instantly retreated to the safe haven of my room. I lay on my bed, exhausted. When would this day end? I was about to fall asleep when a loud thud sounded from the kitchen. I rushed downstairs to help my mom with whatever it was. I froze as I reached the bottom of the steps. My mother’s body was laying over the counter, blood pooling around her and dripping onto the floor. She was dead. As I looked on in horror, out of the corner of my eye I could see Kuchisake-onna.
“You!” I yelled in fury. I could see my sister’s body behind her, also dead.
“I told you I would find you,” she shrieked. “I always find you!” I doubled over with pain as she advanced on me with a knife.
By the time she reached me, I was glad to be dead.
Haunted House
Blood. There was blood spattered everywhere as I ran through the hallway. A mutated spider dropped in front of me and I screamed. Spiders had always been my trigger, why would my friends leave me in here? A ghost clanked behind me, dragging its chains.
“Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” a skeleton chattered as I ran past. So much blood. The exit was up ahead, spilling light into the otherwise dark space. A lady with sunken eyes stood in front of the door.
“Come here, my dearie,” she cackled.
“Not a chance, I yelled back, and darting into the outside. I panted, looked behind me, and laughed.
“Whooh!” I cheered. The sunken eyed lady came out and pulled off her mask. It was my best friend, Anna.
“Jaime, your scream when you saw that spider was amazing! I caught it on tape so we could use it as a part of the soundtrack. This is the one thing we were needing!” another one of my friends, Sarah, said as she jogged up to me.
“Yeah, man, it was great!” said Anna. Sarah was the master of special effects, like making the skeleton laugh on cue, or make you feel as though a chained ghost was following you. Anna was in charge of dressing up as a creepy lady and buying the spiders and skeletons. Me? I had the important job of being the guinea pig. I would be welcoming kids into the house as soon as we had perfected everything. Except for my glorious scream, it was done.
“I’m going to run in and put this tape where it needs to be,” said Sarah. Me and Anna watched her run off to work her SFX magic. We waited a few minutes for her to come back. A shrill scream that wasn’t mine came ringing out from the decrypt house. We rushed past skeletons and ghosts to find Sarah staring blankly at the wall across from her.
“Sarah? Are you okay?” Anna asked tentatively. Sarah turned towards us in a slow, unnatural motion.
“Sarah is dead,” she rasped, “There is only me.”
“Okay Sarah, tricks over,” I laughed. Sarah wasn’t much of a prankster, but this totally felt like a prank. Sarah didn’t move.
“Only me,” she repeated in the same raspy monotone.
“J-Jaime?” Anna stuttered, “I don’t think that is fake.” Sarah’s eyes still looked empty, hollow, as if someone had killed her and inhabited her body. Sarah wasn’t that good of an actor, either. She must be possessed.
“Snap out of it,” I yelled at Sarah. She turned towards me. I looked back at her in fear. Slowly, she grinned.
“Man, I had you fooled!” she exclaimed. Anna let out a nervous laugh. Sarah’s eyes still looked hollow.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she answered. We left and put out a sign declaring the house open. Kids began flooding in. Almost instantly, sounds of screams rang through the night. Kids ran and stumbled out the other side.
“It’s a hit,” Sarah told me, smiling. I smiled too. I had basically forgotten about Sarah’s prank when a kid came running up to us, looking panicked.
“My brother’s in there. He’s staring at the wall and won’t move!” The kid practically dragged us to the same spot Sarah had been earlier.
“Hey, kid, you’re blocking the way!” Sarah told the boy. Anna was giving me a meaningful glare. This was the same wall Sarah had gone into a trance. A tense moment passed and the kid shook his brother.
“Snap out of it,” he yelled at the kid. The brother looked at his sibling and grinned.
“Man, I had you guys fooled!”
The haunted house was closed for the rest of the night, and Anna and I never told anyone what we saw.
AudioFile001.unknownfiletype (transcript)
I I am uh ch charlie a uh and th I I know y you won’t bu buh believe me but I need t to tell s s someone um so it uh it was with my family and oh my god it was so awful it oh god I have to start from the beginning so we were st stay staying a at the e the elm manor a and th the no in the summer so school was out a and w we were on a t trip in Ohio the morning middle o of no no nowhere I was actually really bummed cu cause I wa want ted to h hang wi with a all m my fri frien friends and so we went it was a three hour c car ride ride it was over overnight a and so we got there a and it wuh was so so ordinary looking it was like the wo worst ho hotel r room e ever an and it was all wh white with cra crappy a art work um uh and so we stayed there for a while and it was so boring and normal I was so bummed and I was like why are we even going and my mom told me to stop complaining I should have listened oh god so okay I was bitching about it and my mom starts yelling at me and so soon a man comes up and tells her to shut up too and she yells at him oh my god I was so embarrassed so we got kicked out of the ho hot hotel an and oh god please no I mean wait I’ll keep going so I we ended up going to another ho hotel and thi this one was cooler it um uh looked so uh cool and um well it was like a haunted hotel from a movie it looked so fun so we went in and paid it was super cheap and everyone acted really weird they told us curfew was at ten and lasted until six am and and and and we had to be silent or else well and anyone who broke it would be fined a thousand dollars ma promised we wouldn’t at looked at me I looked back and oh man I was like woah a thousand bucks that is so much and why would they do that it seems so extra but anyway so then we get to our room and it has some really cool paintings of cat castles and it is still boring but I am so glad we are here and not at that other place so then it’s really late so we start getting ready to go to sleep and when I get in bed it is 9:57 and my parents are talking and I am laying in bed staring at the ceiling and then a female voice comes to our door and sa says th that okay so she says tha that cu curfew is n now and so we can’t talk anymore so everyone is quiet but I am still awake and now it doesn’t seem cool anymore ma no no way it it is way way way way t too creepy creepy man too creepy so um well I listen to the click it sounds so loud in the silence and I can’t fall asleep because it is just too too w weird ma man it is so so so so so so so so weird oh man and then oh god oh god oh god anyway so then and then at midnight I hear my mom and dad talking again an and I do don’t kn know wuh why but I feel so scared I want to yell at them to stop don’t you know we need to pay a fine but I don’t I’m too scared but then I hear a knock at the door and my bones freeze in in in in in inside me it’s like so scary man I have such bad goosebumps and I am so scared we’re going to get fined and pay a thousand dollars okay so I know a thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money to adults but it is to me cause I only have a hundred dollars and I’m saving up for a bike and the bike I want is a thousand dollars so if I have to pay money then I I I will end up being broke and in debt but maybe mom and dad will pay it they have jobs and stuff so a thousand dollars is probably o o okay fo for for them to pay but still they are going to get fined at least they aren’t talking anymore they are staring at the lock and I close my eyes and hope they don’t see that I am awake oh god I am so scared I don’t know why it’s just so weird this place is weird so weird I we shouldn’t h ah have cu cu come here becau because there is something evil but the knocking is back and it’s louder and oh god my heart is pounding why did we come oh god we won’t escape well we will be eaten and we will die and no one will miss us and we will be ghosts trapped here forever the person at the door is yelling now trying to get us to come out it’s a guy he is yelling get the fuck out of there and pay your fine mom and dad are scared too they stare at the door with shining eyes their eyes are so wide they are so scared then I hear a horrifying sound the jungle of keys and oh god he’s coming in so I roll over and close my eyes and vow not to move until it is morning when there is light because right now it is dark and my eyes are shut and I am hearing sounds I don’t know what they ar are but I know they will realize I am awake eventually I am staring at the blood spattered wall at some point something came in one one of tho those thi things th that makes the weird noises and then my mom screamed and then my dad made a gurgle sou sound and so then uh um oh oh god oh gu god I can’t okay but I have to yes anyway so then I look and there is this thing this it looked looks like a human but but it’s sk skin is so so so pale and it’s so weird it looks like a walking skeleton covered in plastic wrap oh god any anyway so so so um well then it turns around and I close my eyes and I hear my mom and dad scream more and then I open my eyes back up and my mom and dad are hanging from the ceiling like okay so this one time my dad took me into his butcher shop and it scared me so bad cause there were was all this de dead meat hanging from the ceiling and it smelled so bad well that was now and they are all bloody my parents are all bloody their chests are sliced open and they are all red oh no god I have to puke but I can’t bec because so anyway they are all torn up and I wa want to to lo look a away and um well then I shut my eyes buh buh becuh because so the monster is coming again and so I squeeze my eyes shut and oh god it’s so scary so then now I open I open my eye eye eyes and there is the monster face it is so disgusting it’s rotted and fleshy and white and carved into the flesh where the eyes should be is the number ten but it has no eyes just shallow ditches webbed over with white skin and grayish patches of skin are falling off it and it has a a a nose like a snake and and and it has no mouth either just a slit that is a smile cut into his skin he’s the reason the curfew is ten he he is the reason he is so scary oh god I’m so scared tears are dribbling down my face and it looks at me and smiles and it says you’ve been a good boy you followed curfew you are a good boy and then it looks at me so since you’re such a good boy you have to join us and then my eyes shut and I was asleep and when I woke everything was normal we are back at home me and my family and my dog and then I woke up today and looked into the mirror and my mouth is gone it’s just a slit and my skin is fleshy white and then as I watch the disease creeps up my face and my eyes go da dark bec because I I don’t ha have any eyes to see so that’s why I’m recording this on my ta tape and oh I hope someone finds this I am so alone and I’m back in the hotel and I can see but I can’t control it and the disease I kill people oh god they are everywhere there is so much blood and I thought that a thousand dollars was enough to keep them away and oh god I’m only eleven and why can’t they just listen to the people they need to be silent after ten it’s not hard oh god I should never have come to this hotel and they need to up the price maybe a million then maybe they’ll listen or maybe just I don’t know but oh god it’s almost ten again I have to go out and hunt again I can’t control my body anymore I can only do things when it is daytime and I have to hide out of sight out of the light the light burns but please someone come and put me out of my misery I am in Ohio at please come it’s nine fifty nine the address is....
*static*
*hears screaming in background*
*audio recording ends*
The Body Part 2
Melvin “Mev” Cross sank his head into the crook of his arms as Ingrid walked in. Ingrid was a great woman, very focused on the task force. All business. But Ingrid’s all-business attitude meant only one thing when she came strolling through Mev’s door: another victim.
“White female, blonde. Dressed in all black. No wounds.” Melvin sighed.
“Any evidence?”
“None. Autopsy just finished the report— nothing. She’s perfectly healthy, except she’s dead.”
“Damn,” Melvin says. Just once, he wished Ingrid would walk through that door and ask him out for coffee. Anything but another mystery murder. That’s what his team called them. “Mystery Murders.” They couldn’t even find the cause of death, much less the actual killer.
That would be the twenty first body this year.
The two years prior to this one had twenty five. Something told Mev that the killer, whoever he was, would not stop until four more were killed.
“Earth to Melvin,” says Ingrid. “Hello? Anyone home?”
“Just thinking,” he says. “They’ll probably be four more deaths. Last two years had twenty five. Unless we catch ’im, it won’t change.”
“I agree with you there, man. We gotta catch this bastard.”
“He can’t hide forever.”
****
“Hard day at work?” Sylvia greets Mev as he walks in the door.
“Another body was just discovered,” he says.
“Oh, no,” Sylvia says. “Do they know who?”
“Who it was? No. No one has come forward yet to claim her body. As for the killer? Also no. At this point, I don’t think we’ll ever catch him.”
“You will,” Sylvia says, walking behind him and massaging his shoulders.
“What did I do to deserve such a wonderful daughter?” Melvin says. Sylvia smirks.
“You’re a cop. You promote justice. God is rewarding you.” The words feel false and twisted in her mouth. Lies. All lies. Her whole existence— a lie. A lie her father could never know. Her father didn’t even know that she had legally changed her last name to Wineguard. She couldn’t have her father’s last name any longer. Cross was too... holy. She couldn’t stand the thought of being associated with a “God” who had abandoned them.
Satan hadn’t abandoned her. He’d saved her, when her father and his precious God wouldn’t.
Not couldn’t— she knew full and well that both of them could do whatever the hell the wanted. But wouldn’t. They wouldn’t save her.
No one would. Except Satan. And all he demanded was 25 bodies a month— a small price to pay for safety. Safety. The word barely had a meaning anymore. She was safe, from the cops, from that dick Jared, from everyone. As long as she killed.
And killing was easy, after the first time. The first time is always the worst. Sylvia vomited the first time.
But the second, she didn’t. The third, she smiled. By the end of that month she had to bite the corners of her mouth to keep from laughing.
Four more bodies... they could be anyone. Of course, Satan preferred teens, especially teen girls. Not for dirty reasons, merely because they were more... persuasive. Sylvia didn’t know what they were persuading, or who, or why, but it didn’t matter.
Safety. That’s all that matters.
That’s what she was thinking when she brought the heavy vase down on her father’s head. Safety. It’s all for safety.
He moaned. Sylvia paid no notice, only focused on her powers. Eventually he stopped groaning, stopped moving, and the wound on his head filled in.
His body appeared untouched. No human could see through the veil she had created. She pulled the same veil over herself, so she dragged her father’s body into the woods, unnoticed. Unseen. She left him in the same position as the girl.
Three more left. It seemed almost too simple.
But she had two weeks left in the month. She wouldn’t chance another murder.
No human could see through the veil. But she wasn’t taking any chances.
***
“Hey, Ingrid... we found something. Or rather, someone.”
“About the case?”
“You’re going to want to sit down.”
“What is it?”
“The wounds on the people, invisible, right?”
“Right...”
“You know me, I am an atheist through and through. I don’t believe that supernatural bullshit.”
“Keep talking.”
“We found a kid... he claims to know the killer. And he can see the wounds.”
“Keep talking.” Ingrid tried very hard to keep a straight face.
“Well, you know the autopsy reports were blank... but as soon as he pointed out the wounds, they showed up. It was like... magic.”
“What’s this kid’s story?” Ingrid let a trace of a smile dance across her face.
“Well, he says—” From behind the cop, Sylvia whacked his head. Ingrid sighed.
“You better figure out who this kid is. We can’t have them finding out about us.”
“Right.”
“He’s obviously in the League. I’ll use my... connections... to ask what the hell they’re doing. They shouldn’t be meddling.”
“Right.”
“Now, take him to the woods. Before his soul leaves.”
“Right.”
“How many is that?”
“Three more left. Then I’ve paid my debt.”
“Perfect. Now go.”
Sylvia dipped her head and fought her way out of the crowded room, towing Daniel Reyuld behind her.
As she walked away, Ingrid grinned.
Poor Sylvia. She didn’t realize that, with Lucifer, debts were never paid. They lasted forever.
Ah well. Let her find out the hard way.