"Halloween Killer King"

The floor was cold and I was without shoes, making it feel even colder. It was dark but I could make out the shapes and room almost perfectly. There was a mild breeze and a quiet voice whispering something on the other side of the door. I stand and begin to walk, wobbling a lot, it’s so cold, my feet ache and feel like they are going to buckle beneath due to the cold marble floor. I whimper slightly but continue moving, I thought I could see everything but then I trip and land in something wet. I lie confused and in pain, hitting my ice cold feet hurt almost as much as stepping on glass or slipping on melted ice. I cry out, confused and in pain. What was it that I tripped on? What kind of liquid was I in? Whatever the said liquid was, my tears were combining with it. 

I feel scared, I don’t know why but I’m scared. I don’t know where I am but I have my suspicions. I reach for a lamp I see next to me, trying to see what I tripped on. I twist the harsh nob on the lamp, my cold hands do not appreciate the even colder nob that is rough in consistency, leaving small indents on my fingers. I quickly close my eyes, flinching from the bright sudden light. I slowly adjust my eyes to the light and then look down at myself, I’m covered in a thick bright red liquid. 

Fear struck through me, I knew what it was. I slowly turned around, not wanting to believe it. But sure enough I turn and see my sister lying lifeless on the floor, puddles of her blood surrounding her. I want to scream but nothing comes out, I shake, scared and breathing heavily. I suddenly came to my senses. I rip off my blood splattered clothes and begin to call out, “H-H-Hannah! Hannah? Hannah? Hannah, please!” I run to her, hoping there will still be some life in her. But she’s gone, I cry out and then remember something and begin to do the math. 

 

Every nine years the monster appears

A killer of sorts, October we fear, October we clear

The town of Barie is where it comes, killing, feasting, and having it’s fun

Every time that it shows up, we all know there will be buckets of blood

No children leave, parents hide, for the killer targets a few families' lives.

 

We all knew the rhyme, in the town of Barie the killer comes and targets specific peoples families, killing them and torturing them. It always happened around Halloween, which is how he got his name “Halloween Killer King”. Every nine years, for the past sixty years or so, he comes out and kills again. Many assume it’s a family, generational thing, passing it down. I begin mumbling to myself, “2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…..” I stop. It’s 2014, which means, it’s been nine years since the last attack year. I would usually know because everybody was always talking about it, fearing it, but I had been in the hospital unconscious for the last two weeks due to an accident, I must have forgotten. No wonder I felt so weak, I hadn’t been awake in half a month or so. I had been alive for one more attack year, I was young, four or so, but I remember the fear. Many people dream of leaving but nobody ever does.

I feel idiotic and run to the door, expecting to see whoever was whispering earlier. Nobody is there, but the lamp switches off, all lights do, and it’s even darker here than it was in the last room. I begin to walk, wobbling slightly, weak, but then I begin to run. Then, I feel a sharp pain in my feet, yelling out in pain. It’s glass, I’m running on broken glass. I drop to my hands and knees but immediately regret it, I keep moving through the pain, my hands, feet, and knees bleeding. Eventually I make it out of the broken glass and back onto the cold floor, it hurts, but I have to keep moving. I ran to the next door, looking around, this room was empty with only broken glass on the ground. In the next room, it’s pitch black and I see nothing but I keep moving. I'm in excruciating pain but stopping is not an option if I want to live. I walk in the next room, small shards of glass in my feet push in deeper and I can feel myself walking in my own blood. Suddenly, a light appears, it’s bright. I allow my eyes to adjust but then I see what the Halloween Killer King clearly wanted me to see, my mom. She’s tied up and unconscious, I run to her in pain but not resting a second. She’s hung in the shape of Jesus on his cross. I ran to her, her head was bleeding. Then, a recording starts to play. 

“If you hear this, I’m impressed. You survived this long. You have seen your sister, walked through glass, and now gotten here, probably with some hope. But your mother is no longer alive, a single blow to the head would have been enough if it was strong enough but just to be sure, I shot her, she’s been dead for over a day now. If you continue to move on, you will continue to suffer from both physical and mental strain but for most, it would be too much. You will find a gun in your mother’s left sweater pocket, use it how you’d like, but be aware, if you make it far enough, you will learn my identity, and even at such a young age, it may be a big enough surprise to scare you to death.” It begins to laugh and then cuts off, the voice was clearly electronic, transitioned from some sort of voice changer to hide the identity. 

I find the gun and walk away. I walk into the next room, which is dark again, it hurts and I’m crying. I’m tired, in pain, dizzy, and knowing that both my sister and mother are dead hurts more than everything else. Did they suffer? No, I can’t think like that, I won’t get anywhere thinking like that. I keep running, not even stopping, I just run quicker and quicker, not looking, the doors are opening easily without trouble and there is nothing in the rooms, I know it’s too good to be true, something is going to happen, but it doesn’t matter, keep running. Go! 

I think to myself, but maybe nothing will happen. Maybe he expected me to do something to myself or stay and didn’t set anything else up. I almost get hopeful when I get shut down, I’m running so quickly, pushing the doors open, that I don’t see the large nail in the next door knob. It stabs through my hand as easily as cutting through kinetic sand. I scream in pain, pulling my hands out and then slowly opening the door. I walk into the next room and slowly walk but then hear something, I keep walking but a rope trips me, then I fall, just barely missing the knives on the floor that I only caught a glimpse of before I fell. But then I remember I heard something, what was it? It sounded like a cage or something but I couldn’t be sure. I walk into the next room but then I hear something, it was a cage, more like a crate. Two, maybe three large bull dogs were released. I figured they must have been trained to attack and were probably hungry because they chased me, biting my legs, hard. Ripping small pieces of skin off and eating it, I ran, more like limped, to the next door and quickly closed it, not stopping because I assumed they would quickly make it through from the sounds of it. On the other side of that door, there was nothing, however, on the other, there was another recording.

“Still alive? Impressive. Did you meet my pets? They haven’t eaten in a long while and putting them in the dog ring helped. Not too much farther, if you can make it. Oh, and, uh, happy Halloween.” 

I cried out a swear, angry, and began to keep walking, but it hurt more than I knew existed. I walk faster, but then I start falling, I fall into a ditch and land on my arm, hearing it break and seeing part of the bone poke out of my skin. I yell, scream, cry. I pull myself out of the ditch using one arm and two bloody feet. I have to be careful because the walls of the ditch had small needles poking out. When I do finally escape, after falling several times, I call out, yelling with every step. I continue walking and on the other side of the next door I see stupid Halloween decorations, in the next, another recording, the next, was so hot, close to a sauna room, in the next, there was a pool, I fell in and was forced to swim with my injuries and the chlorine burned. I felt dizzy, most likely due to the blood loss. There were times that I was tempted to use the gun on myself, and another where I realized I could have used it on the dogs, although that would have taken time, and what if it was a test and there were no bullets in it, maybe to see if my spirit would break or could be broken. I’m cold, only in an under shirt and my underwear because I removed the rest of my clothes because they were blood splattered in Hannah’s blood. 

I almost give up but then, in the next door, there is a glass screen, the door closes, the lights shoot on, and I look. There is somebody on the other end of the glass screen. Before I can make out who it is, it speaks. “Hello, Max, it’s me, the reason all of this happened, the killer. You wanted to know who I was but first, a test. I must say I’m impressed, but before I fully show myself, I have a question. Here I have your best friend, Jamie, and your father. One of them has to die, but you get to decide who dies, who will it be?”

“Why are you doing this!?” I yell in a crying, breaking voice. 

“Answer. The. Question. Five. Four.”

“Stop!”

“Three. Two.”
“I-my-f-b-”

“One.”

“My best friend! Jamie, I’m so, so sorry!”

I see her to the side, hear a gunshot go off, and then watch her fall. I fell to my knees crying, “You got what you wanted, who are you? Where is my dad? You’re despicable!” I call out as loud as I can.

“I can answer both questions quickly. As for who I am, I am-” He walks into the light.

 

It’s….. MY DAD!?

 

 

To Be Continued…….

mjadefoster

VT

13 years old