Ali Kat

1

The little girl wakes up with a jerk as she feels something slide under her shirt and begin to poke into her chest. Her eyes pop open in surprise and confusion, all she can see is darkness and she feels a hand or something pressing over her mouth. She tries to call out for her parents, but all she can manage is a muffled noise that no one could either hear or understand. As her eyes adjust to the darkness she notices a girl setting on the edge of the bed, she tries to swing at the girl covering her mouth before realizing that she can’t move, her arms and legs have been tied to the bed frame.

The girl began to struggle against what ever was holding her down, to no avail, she is secured good. The girl covering her mouth placed her lips close to her ear and whispered in a sing song tone, “You can struggle all you want, you can try to scream, but when I am done with you, you will no longer be mean.” Then the pressure she felt digging into her chest exploded into a shot of pain, fire works going off behind her clinched eye lids, another few seconds of pain and the girl lapsed back into unconsciousness, the world dissipated into peaceful darkness.

The other girl stood, disappointed that her bully passed out so fast, ‘It’s a shame, she can dish it out but can’t take it,’ she thought to herself. She heard a stirring from the hall and slid behind the door just as it cracked open. One of the girls parents had poked their head in to check on her it would seam. After a few seconds the door closed and she heard the footsteps head back down the hall and the gentle shutting of a door. She stands there in the dark, ice pick in her hand dripping blood onto the floor, wondering what to do. She decides to leave well enough alone. She had punctured the girls left lung, it would be interesting to see if she will still be alive the next day. With a wicked smile on her face she slips out the window she entered through, then made her way through the alley and headed home. Due to a new moon the only light was star light, this didn’t bother her one bit, she saw better and was more comfortable in the dark. She slowly made her way home where she laid awake in her bed, waiting for the following day. Laying there thinking of the day to come she drifts off to sleep, the wicked smile still on her face.

The sound of an ambulance shatters the early morning silence, waking up people for three blocks. This is an unusual sound for any time of the day in the small town of Eureka, Mass. With a population of less than 1000 people not much really happens in this sleepy little town. Ladies go to the windows as their husbands step outside to “get the paper” all just wondering what is going on this early in the morning. The ambulance pulls up to the Thomas house on Ambler rd, the paramedics jump out as the father runs out the door with his daughter held tight in his arms, ropes still hanging from her wrist and ankles. With a great deal of effort the paramedics get the young girl from him and place her on the stretcher where they raise her T shirt to examine the wound, which had been opened back up due to the rough handling of her father. After a few low fast words they set the girl down on the stretcher then put her into the ambulance, and tear off down the street, lights flashing and siren blaring. The father is still on his knees in the yard as the mother comes out throwing the keys at him and getting into the car, hollering at him to come on. He jumped to his feet, climbed into the car, and quickly caught up to the ambulance. Everyone watched as they diapered over the hill and the sound of the siren died away.

A slender figure was hid behind a tree in the yard, leaning there in the darkness of morning enjoying the slight drama that had just unfolded. This was his idea of fun and he had to discover who was behind the whole little show. He, or maybe she, could offer him a lot of entertainment. If this was their first attempt at such a scene they had real potential, it was a shame though because the little girl that was wounded was one of his favorite bullies, he was there just to follow her and edge her into picking on her classmates. He enjoyed the suffering of all people, but none more than the suffering of children.

As the sun began to come up, and the darkness began to dissipate, he slid out from behind the tree and started down the road, whistling as he walked and thought about the search to come. A few blocks down the street he stepped into a particularly dark shadow and was gone, though the whistling could still be heard. As the sun slowly rose to give birth to a new day the shadow dissipated and it would seam that the strange man had as well.

2

Christy’s mother beat on her bed room door and hollered for her to get her lazy butt out of bed and go to school. Christy opened her eyes and looked at the alarm clock, 5:30 am she read and was annoyed, school didn’t start until after 8 why in the world was her mom waking her up this early?. She rolled out of bed, knowing that her mom would be back in a few minutes with a bag of frozen marbles to pour into her bed if she was still asleep. She walked into her bath room to get cleaned up and brush her teeth, still annoyed about the early hour. When she has finished she walks into the kitchen, a little more alert after her hot shower, “What’s for breakfast, Mom,” she asked as she sat down at the table. Her mom looks at her, “Well we have bacon, eggs, toast, and O.J. What does this look like Denny’s? Have some coffee, you are 16 now.” Her mom glared at her for a few more minutes before turning back to the window. Christy sat there staring at her mother, “I’m only 13,” she mumbles under her breath as she gets up from the table and heads for the back door. Her mom spun around, “What did you say you little smart ass?” Christy didn’t bother replying as she opened the door and stepped out it, her belly growling in protest at not getting anything to eat.

On her way to school she went up the ally behind the bakery, after checking that no one was around she hopped into the bakery dumpster, she found a bag full of day old doughnuts, hopped back out, and headed to school munching on her breakfast. She arrived at school 2 hours early, thanks to her mom, so she went and sat on a bench under a light. She pulled out the book she had been reading and opened it to her marked spot. By the time school started she had finished her book and the doughnuts, she put her stuff into her bag and walked into the building, hearing but ignoring all the chatter going on around her,’Same old crap they chatter about every day,’ she thinks to herself as she walks up the hall and turns into the library. She walks to the desk and looks for Ms. Paddick, the librarian, Christy hears her as she walks through the door.

“Well, good morning, Christy,” she says with a little surprise in her voice at seeing the girl that early in the morning. “Have you finished that book already? You just checked it out two days a go.” Christy hands the book to her and nods, “I don’t have much of a life, Ms. Paddick,” she replies as she starts off down the isles to find another book. She stood there in front of the mystery books when Ms. Paddick called her back to the desk. She looked at the books for a few more seconds before headed to the desk. She stood there as Ms. Paddick assisted another kid, the kid, Bobby Jones, shot her the bird when the librarian twas distracted checking in the book he just handed in. Christy stood there and shot him an icy look before looking away. When Bobby had left the library Ms. Paddick turned to her with a smile on her face.

“Christy, I got something in the mail yesterday and thought that you may be interested in it,” she said as she retrieved a package from under the desk and handed it to Christy. The girl looked at it and asked what it was, “Open it and see.” Christy opened the package and saw that it was a tablet, she looked at Ms. Paddick questioningly. “ I received this as part of a promotion to try and entice children to read more,” she said as she looked around the empty room. “You are the only one that comes in here on a regular basis so it would sadly be a waist of time to hold a reading contest. “I decided that I wanted you to have it. You can down load books as well as write stories of your own if you want.” Christy stood there holding the tablet, her birthday was in a few days and this would probably be the only gift that she received, she walked around the desk, hugged Ms. Paddick, and thanked her with a single tear rolling down her cheek. Ms. Paddick showed her how to turn it on and how to log into the library's portal. “Now I want to still see you come in and check out a real book from time to time,” she said as Christy walked out the door, her gift held tight to her chest.

Bobby was standing by the English room talking to three or four other guys when he saw her coming down the hall, “Did y’all hear what happened to Sarah? Someone snuck into her room last night and tried to kill her.” One of the other boys chimed in, “Ya I heard that it was an old man and he tore all of her clothes off before cutting her throat.” Another of the boys laughed, “That would have killed her, dumb ass, he cut off one of her ears, put it in her mouth, then sewed it shut is what happened.” As Christy walked by the small group the boys actually ignored her. She continued down the hall to the Math room, all of the conversations were along the same lines and the reactions to her passing were the same. Everyone was more interested in Sara, it was one of the best school days of her life. A few days later everything went back to normal.

A few days later after gym class Christy was in the shower alone, the other girls having already finished. She stood there, the water flowing over her as she listened. The conversations had gone back to normal, all of the rumors being laid to rest at a school wide assembly that morning. Sarah was expected to be back to school in a few weeks and her lass mates were encouraged to go visit her and send her get well soon cards. Christy toweled off on her way to her locker and saw that the bullying was starting up again, someone had poured chocolate syrup in the top of her bag, soaking everything. Sadly she pulled the clothes on and left the school, going home to get cleaned up again and change her clothes, all the way wondering why no one liked her.

3

Sara quickly opens her eyes, thinking that she heard a noise in her hospital room, she pulls the covers up to her chin, breathing shallowly, and looks around the room. As her eyes pass over the clock she sees that it is 12:01 am. Not seeing anything she slowly lays back down, closes her eyes, and drifts back off into an uneasy sleep. A tall figure steps out of the shadows in the corner and stands there looking at her. ‘I have lost this one,’ the figure thinks to himself. He could sense the change in her, she would be pathetically timid from now on. ‘Who did this, I have to figure it out, I sense potential here, if I could just find him.’ the being was certain that it was a boy or a man who had done this. He sat on the edge of the bed starring at the now sleeping girl and became lost in thought as the hours ticked on.

Bobby finished his supper and had got the ok from his dad to go to the movies with his friends. He cut through the park as he usually does when he heard a whimpering coming from behind the big oak tree at the edge of the woods. He eased around it thinking it would be a dog or a puppy, but what he saw scared him for life.

The police arrived on scene an hour later. Bobby had been found sitting on the ground in a pool of his own urine, starring at the nightmare scene displayed on the tree. A boy was hanging there, nailed to the tree, belly sliced open, and his intestine strung out and staked to the ground. The boys face had been cut off and had yet to be found. Bobby was place on a stretcher and put into the ambulance just as his father arrived. Detective Green met with the man briefly, saying that he would be around to the hospital shortly to see if Bobby was able to talk. The man distractedly shook his head as he climbed in with his son, peppering the EMT with questions as the doors were shut. Det. Green turned away from the ambulance as it sped off and looked at the scene again, worried that they had a seriously twisted man living some where in his small quiet town.

They had just finished taking photos of the crime scene and began to take the poor boys body down when Green walked up to the coroner, “Well, Bill, got any ideas?” The coroner looked at him, “Ya I do, I think it would be a good time for me to finally take a vacation.” The men looked at each other before turning back to the grizzly scene, no more conversation between them as the coroner got to his unfortunate task. Green watched until the boy’s body was placed in the back of the coroner’s van then he followed it to the hospital.

“Detective Green,” he heard his name called as he entered the ER. He turned to look, it was the Chief, “Yes, Sir?’ The red faced man stormed up to him, “This case has just become your number one priority, I want the boy’s identity ASAP, do I make my self clear?” Green just nodded, he had already been on planning to ask the Chief for this. The Chief continued to rant for another twenty minutes until the Doctor interrupted. “Excuse me, gentleman, the boy has been sedated and will not be able to speak until tomorrow or maybe the day after. I am not sure what this kid saw, but I think it will take years of therapy to get him through it. “Dr. I need to speak to him as soon as I can,” Green said, “I need to...” The Dr. put his hand up to quiet the Detective. “I understand what you need and want, Detective, but I’m more concerned with the boy’s health and mental well being. I will call you as soon as I believe you can safely talk to him.” The men stood there looking at each other before shaking hands. The Chief turned to leave when Green said, “Chief., but the Chief just put up a hand as he walked toward the door, paused for a second, then left. Detective Green stood there alone, a thousand thoughts running through his mind.

In a shady corner of Bobby’s room a strange form appears and steps into the dim light of the room, looking from the door to the bed where the mumbling boy stares at the ceiling. The cloaked man stepped towards the side of the bed then gently laid a gloved hand on the boy’s leg, “What did you see, Bobby? I would be eternally grateful if you would share your memories with me.” The figure slides his hand up the boy’s side until he reaches his chest. He places his left hand on the top of Bobby’s head then places his ear close to Bobby’s mouth. As Bobby begins to whisper the figures eyes began to glow a soft pink. “Good boy,” he whispers as Bobby reveals the entire memory, passing into a peaceful sleep as soon as he stops whispering. ‘It is a pity that I had to remove that memory, but he will have more in the years to come,’ the figure thinks to himself as he fades back into the dark corner. ‘Many more to come.’

"This is just the begining," he whispers as he fades back into the shadows.