The Phantom in Appleton

Known for their delicious, enriching, red apples and their cheerful, ample, air, Appleton, a small town in the middle of nowhere, not even found on a map, a hidden treasure. What a misfortune for the word to not know of this blissful and unimaginable place. Appleton looked like a small town you would see on the television. I just happened to stumble upon it on my trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was heading to a writers convention to hear my favorite writer speak, John R. Kraninski. I got on my train to Harrisburg and sat at an empty seat. I was reading a newspaper that was left on there. There was a storm brewing in the outskirts of Pennsylvania. I continued reading, that’s when, from the corner of my eye I saw an old man, barely showing skin, covered in hair from the top of his head to the bottom of his chin. He was wearing ragged clothes and a disconcerting stare. He looked straight at me. We made eye contact for three seconds. Then I quickly focused my attention out the window and looked at the peaks of the mountains. I slowly drifted into a deep sleep. 

The train made a sudden judder and I woke up immediately as if attacked and thrown off a cliff. I looked around and everyone was gone, except, the old man. He had also fallen asleep. I looked out the window and noticed there were no more mountains, I checked the time and two hours had passed by. Did I miss my stop? No they would’ve announced it. I looked to ask for help but there was no one around. I thought in silence for a minute when suddenly, Over the loudspeakers, “Attention all passengers, this will be our last stop due to an accident on the tracks. I repeat, this will be our last stop due to an accident on the tracks. Stopping at woldingham station. Welcome to Appleton, Pensylvannia.” I guess I have to stay the night at a motel. I got up to get my things from the top cabinet of the train, when I turned around, there he was, the old man, “Lovely weather we’re having,” said the old man. “I wouldn’t say that, it's raining cats and dogs.” I replied puzzled. “It’s only gonna get better.” After saying that the old man walked away and stood there trying to figure out the old man.

Once I got off the train I walked to the Train station’s Lobby to ask how long it would take for the tracks to be cleared. “ Sorry we don’t know for sure when they will be cleared. We do know it will take at least a week,” The nice lady said. “Do you know where I can find a place to stay like a hotel or a motel,” I questioned. “Well there is the Applebottom inn.”

“Thank you.”

I tried using GPS to see if I could walk to the inn, but it said it didn’t exist. At first I thought the lady gave me the wrong name, so I went back to ask her and she said that she wasn’t wrong. She called me a cab to get to the Applebottom inn. The driver dropped me off at a prepossessing place. I walked up the wooden, creaky steps and went in. The inside was horrendous. Looked like something out of a horror movie. The interior was stuffed with victorian antiques. The walls were painted an ominous mustard color trying to imitate the color of gold. I sauntered to the front desk. There was no one there. This town was like a ghost town. I haven’t seen a living soul outside of the cab, the lady at the train station, and the old man. I saw a rusty silver bell and tapped it three times. For a second, there was complete silence, until, behind the door at the back of the front desk there was clattering. As if pots had dropped onto the floor in the kitchen. A guy with crazy hair popped out of the closet door and graspily emphasized, “Welcome.”

“What can I get for you ma’am?” he tittered.

“I would li-like to get a room,” I replied hesitantly. 

“How long will you be staying in our great town of Appleton?”

“Just a week. The train is stuck here till they clear the tracks.”

“You should take advantage of what Appleton has to offer like our town square, our homemade food restaurants, and the apple orchards.”

“You guys sure love apples.” 

“Yessiree. That’s our blood and sweat them apples. It’s gettin’ late let me show you to your room.”

“Thank you.” As I followed the young man up the stairs I heard something weird coming from the top. It sounded like whispering. It was probably the wind. “Here you go ma’am room 420. Enjoy your stay.” He maintained. “Thank you. Good night.” I walked into my room and suddenly felt heavy. I was tired I could plop on the floor and sleep. I made my way to the bed and fell asleep, awaiting the day that came next. 

I woke up at 5:58 the next morning and you could hear noise from outside. There was yelling and there was chatting and laughing. Last night there was no noise, now there is loud noises everywhere. I walked down stairs to see what was going on but there was no one there, except the guy that checked me in. I went to the front desk to say good morning. “Good morning.” He said enthusiastically. 

“Do you know any good places to go?”

“We are called Appleton, maybe checkout our apple orchards.”

“Where can I find the orchard.”

“Just walk out and turn left, keep going till you see the trees.”

“I will.” As I walked out of the inn I saw no one. Not a soul. I followed the directions that were given to me by the guy at the front desk and finally found my way to Ferdinand’s Apples Orchard. When I got there, there was no one, not even Ferdinand. This town appeared to be a ghost town, It’s not even on a signal map. I didn’t get into the deep thought of this place being empty, I decided to walk through the orchard. 

As I walked through the orchard, there was no one at all, Until I heard a noise coming from the back of an apple tree. I followed the noise but it led me to nothing. I heard another noise coming from behind me, once again I followed the noise, Out of nowhere the noise became louder and louder soon all I heard was the leaves of the trees brushing against the wind ferociously. You could hear someone running around, snapping twigs, and walking over fallen leaves wherever they went. My head started spinning and spinning. Everything was a blur. The only figure I could make out was a silhouette of a man toppling over me. Suddenly, I stopped. I had fainted. I had fainted and the last thing I saw was a shady figure standing over me.

“Hey. Are you ok?” I frightfully scooted away from the unknown man calling out to me. But it was just an ordinary man. “Yeah, I think I fainted.”

“Would you like me to take you to get some help”

“No, but thank you for the assistance. Could you just tell me the time.”

“It’s half past six.”

“Thank you.” Though I didn’t show it, I was surprised that I was only out for a few minutes. It felt like days had past. I swiftly got up and walked out of the orchard. 

When I walked out of the orchard there was tons of people, like a normal town, the only thing was that they were all pale. I walked around the town square to see what there was to eat, I was hungry and I skipped breakfast. I walked up to a nice, little cafe called CeCe’s. I went inside, it was the same as the people out in the streets everyone was pale, except for the cafe manager standing at the bar. 

“Can I get a Latte.” I ordered. 

“Yeah, coming right up.” She said so enthusiastically.

“So, Cece. It is Cece right.” She nodded her head gushly. “How come everyone in this town is so lifeless?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can’t you see how pale people are? It’s abnormal.”

“Maybe, It’s because they’re scared.”

“Scared?”

“Yeah. Haven’t you heard about the Phantom?”

“What phantom?”

“The phantom that murders everyone.” She said too cheerfully. As she walked away I pondered on the thought of a real murderer in this small town. After I had my latte I hurried back to the inn and went into my room after I asked the guy at the front desk about the town records. I started to investigate. Coincidentally there was town records in all the guest rooms in the inn. There had been at least 10 murders in Appleton, they all happened at the orchard. Was the tall shady guy toppling over me the murderer. I had to know, my dumbass went to the orchard to see if I could find any proof of the shadowy figure. 

I got to the orchard. Everything looked completely different. All the trees were dead. The last time I came, the trees were colorful. What had happened? 

I asked around and there was multiple orchards in the town, the murders happened in every single one of them. I read the information of the murders and found out where each and everyone of them happened they all happened in different orchards, there was never more than one murder per orchard. There was a murder in Bob’s orchard, Winston’s, Abigail’s, Johnaton’s, Willow’s, Chris’s, Rachel’s, Jim’s, Anthony’s, and Chad’s. The only orchard that didn’t have a murder was Karen’s Honey Comb Apple’s. I found that Karen’s was suspicious and went to check it out.

On my way there I heard someone following me whenever I stopped there was no footsteps but when I continued walking there was extra footsteps. I turned around many times but there was no one there. I started to run and the footsteps followed. I made it to Karen’s, but I tripped and fell over a rock and hit my head against a tree. As my eyes started to close I saw the shadowy figure again, but clearer, it was the old man. I fainted once again.

When I woke up I was in a dark place I couldn’t even see my own hands. I was laying on the ground with a twisted ankle. I couldn’t get up. On my other leg I was chained to something. Where was I? “You awake missy?” said a raspy voice. I recognized the voice. It was the old man. I tried to scooch away but I couldn’t move, my whole body ached from top to bottom. The old man walked over and pushed me against the wall. Suddenly the lights turned on. What I saw didn’t surprise me at all. It was the lady from the train station, the cab driver, the front desk guy, and Cece from the cafe. They were working on the murder together. “Why am I here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We have to kill you.” Cece replied tittered. “You were being real nosy. You’re just an outsider and you know to much. You might ruin our operation.”

“What operation?! All you do is kill people!” I yelled.

“Now listen here. We don’t just kill yer people for a big hoot. Those people needed to die for the sake of our well being.” chuckled the old man.

“What well being?”

“God needs sacrifices to work his magic on us.” giggled the man from the front desk.

“Your all crazy!”

“Are we the crazies or all of the people in the world crazy and we are all sane. You didn’t think about that.” exhausted the driver.

“You guys are most definitely crazy.” They stared at me for a while and then they started closing in on me. One by one, step by step, they got closer and closer. The lady from the train station grabbed a nice red apple and shoved it down my throat. I couldn’t breath, I took a bite and she stepped away. They all cackled and backed away. My eyes started to roll and I was having a seizure. I was dead.

“Here on Channel 8 news we have another one of the phantom’s victims. She was found like the rest of them, with an apple in her mouth and she was tied like a pig. Who is this murder and will he ever stop? What are the police doing about the situation? Find out after this commercial break.”