(The following text is a confession written in longhand, found on the body of Brayden Tyler Wayne, age 30. Wayne was discovered dead on March 19th, 2023 in his motel room, of an apparent suicide. I could lose my job by leaking this, but I don’t care. It explains everything. About what happened to my friends, and about why the town where I grew up, Is a ghost town now. I knew it had something to do with Tyler, and this is the proof.)
Unless you can imagine what it was like for me; then you shouldn’t judge me for this. If I can just explain what it was like for me, that it wasn’t even my fault that it all happened; then maybe you’ll understand. I was just a kid.
That morning I glared across the table at her; right at her bright pink Hannah Montana shirt she wore all the time; the image of that teen idol’s plastic smile was burned into my brain.
“So is Taylor still messing with you?” I asked.
“No, not since you beat him up.”
“I wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t pissed him off. What did you do to him anyway.”
“Oh you’re gonna think I’m evil for this,” She smiled at me with that same shit eating grin she knew I hated.
I shook my head taking another bite of poptart.
“You are evil.”
“I kinda started a rumor that he had a crush on that guy Josh.”
“Why did you do that? Hell, I’d want to kick your little ass too!”
She laughed, not worried about waking Mom and Dad up; An earthquake wouldn’t wake them after date night.
“I didn’t mean for it to get around as fast as it did. Me and Katy were joking around, and I mentioned that I thought I saw Taylor trying to kiss Josh…that’s all!” She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket.
“Somebody must’ve overheard us talking, and then it started getting around. I swear it was just an accident!”
I heard the bus pulling up. I turned my glass up and enjoyed the cold milk falling down my dry throat. I threw my backpack over my shoulder and said to her,
“Angel, YOU ARE AN ACCIDENT. Let’s go.” and that turned her shit eating grin upside down.
We walked through the front yard toward the bus. I came to a halt and grabbed Angel to stop her.
“What?” she said.
“You see Taylor right there don’t you…”
I nodded at the middle window of the bus, and she saw the chubby pale freckled face of Taylor Barns.
“Yeah, so?”
“He’s not alone.”
Then she noticed the other two boys glaring at us.
“Crap, They’re gonna try to jump us!”
“We’re gonna walk to school. I don’t feel like dealing with them today.”
“We can’t, that’ll take forever.”
“I know a shortcut through the woods. We’ll get there before they will.”
“I’ve never been in the woods…what if we get lost?”
I grabbed her wrist and led her away from the bus as its doors closed. On our same block, stood the remains of a condemned house. I felt her gripping my hand like she was scared we were going inside for a moment. We cut around and behind the old house; where the trail was, through thick brush and tall trees with dead limbs hanging above. The trail stretched as far as we could see, with fallen leaves covering the ground every step of the way. Kids and even some homeless people used the trail a lot.I hadn’t walked it since I was Angel’s age. In fact, I could remember it would be late at night, and I’d look out my window and still see people going in from here, but not coming back. It’s not like we had a choice anyway.
“We can cut right through the woods and come up behind the school. It’s only about a 2 mile walk.”
*Crunch*
I went first and got several yards out, before I realized Angel wasn’t following me. I turned around and she was just standing there looking like She was nervous.
“Come on, we gotta hurry.” I yelled back at her.”
“I don’t want to…” her voice quivered.
“We don’t have a choice.”
“It’s scary in there…I can’t.”
“Don’t do this to me Angel, not now.” I groaned.
I was already so tired. See, I hadn’t been sleeping well; I kept waking up from those nightmares almost every night. Angel looked me right in the eyes folding her arms and said,
“I won’t, and You can’t make me!”
I all but leaped over to her and grabbed her by the scruff of her coat.
“You listen to me you little shi: because of you I’m gonna have to deal with those assholes; probably all year!” I growled through my teeth.
“I don’t want to walk through these woods either, and because of you I don’t have a choice.
Now follow me or I’ll leave you here.”
She started to well up with tears, but I didn’t buy it.
“You won’t leave me here…Mom and Dad will kill you!” She tried to call my bluff.
“FINE!”
I pushed her down on her butt and left her behind. I didn’t care anymore.
“Tyler, I’ll go wake Mom and Dad up right now, I swear!”
Her confidence faded when I didn’t look back or slow down. I just marched forward on the trail.
“Oh God…I don’t like this…AT LEAST LET ME CATCH UP!” I heard her whimper as she ran through the leaves.
I didn’t want to talk to her.
I didn’t want to look at her.
I tried to tune her out the whole way, but it didn’t work.
I stayed ahead, and kept track of her by listening to her bitch about the woods and about how mean I always was to her. And she dragged her feet through the dead leaves making them hiss and crunch every step of the way.
The sound wore on me.
*CRUNCH CRUNCH*
I was sick of her.
*CRUNCH CRUNCH*
I was sick of her getting everything that I wanted .
*CRUNCH CRUNCH*
I was sick of being her caretaker.
*CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH*
I was sick of Mom and Dad treating her like a princess, while I did all the work.
The injustice of it all was too much. I did most of the chores around the house, and always after a full day of school. And I wasn’t a slacker academically either: I Maintained a B average, and could even score an A in math when I felt like it. Sleep had become a problem then. I was having nightmares every night for weeks; usually waking up in cold sweats at three in the morning.
The path stretched on. Autumn had passed, and the woods were becoming colder and gray. Mom and Dad could’ve helped me with my Insomnia;
Maybe they could’ve taken some of that money they blew every weekend on weed and booze and gotten me some sleeping meds. I wanted to skip school, go home and lay back down in my bed. I didn’t care if I got yelled at. I didn’t care if I had another nightmare like the one from that morning; something about a hole in the ground, and a giant freakish hand reaching out to pull me down. Something like that before fading away like all dreams do.
Then I started to enjoy the walk: The cool weather was nice, and the woods were always beautiful to me this time of year. It was quiet and tranquil out there; a weird kind of quiet.
There were no birds or squirrels around, or any other signs of life.
No bugs or spider webs or anything that usually lived in these woods.
Save for the sound of leaves under my feet, it was totally calm out there.
Save for the sound of leaves…
*CRUNCH*
Then I realized something:
It made me sick. Dread and terror came crawling up inside my guts as It dawned on me that I hadn’t heard a second shuffle in the leaves this whole time.
I blocked it all out trying to escape this day. I turned around and saw Angel was nowhere in sight. For as far as I could see; She was gone.
I kicked up more dead leaves and dirt running back down the path. I reached the spot in the trail where I thought I last heard her.
I looked all around, but saw nothing.
Through all the dying nature, through all the tall trees now naked with little more than dead branches and uneaten walnut husks littered on the ground around their roots. I couldn’t find my own tracks, let alone hers in all the cold dried earth.
I did the only thing I could do: I took a deep breath and screamed,
“ANGEL I’M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS WHEN I FIND YOU!!!”
I screamed as loud as I could.
“THIS ISN’T FUNN, YOU’RE GONNA MAKE US LATE!!!”
Nothing but my voice echoed back.
I took another deep breath,
“FINE THEN, I’M GOING HOME AND WAKING MOM AND DAD UP, AND TELLING THEM EVERYTHING THAT YOU DID. LIKE HOW YOU GOT ME INTO FIGHTS, AND HOW YOU AIN’T LISTENING, AND HOW YOU WANDERED OFF AWAY FROM ME!!!” Still nothing.
I was so scared now, I took another deep breath to scream even louder; not realizing I was crying.
“GOD DAMN IT I HATE YOU, YOU LITTLE BITCH!!!!!”
It hurt my throat screaming so hard.
But I was scared to death: I lost my baby sister, and I knew I was going to get blamed for it.
I was starting to panic, until something occurred to me, and it made so much sense that I immediately started to calm down, and catch my breath:
That little shit must have turned around and went home!
I grabbed my chest, and felt my heart beating out of it.
“Thank God!” I said to no one.
I was so relieved, I started heading back down the trail, thinking I could still make it to class if I hurried. And I didn’t have to deal with Angel anymore. I could just walk wide circles around Taylor the whole day, and then I could go home. Maybe Mom and Dad would hear me out this time, and Angel would finally get scolded for once in her spoiled rotten little life, I thought. The best part of it all was that I could go back to bed and sleep; nightmares be damned. I was going to sleep and…
And…
Then…
Then I heard It.
Something, a whisper dancing through the silence of the woods.
“What is that?”
Faint, and far away, but I knew I heard it. It almost sounded like a voice, like someone was singing…just a little phantom note, dangling in the air like it was tied to a string. It resonated within me. I thought of a fishing lure in the water; the kind that flicker attractively for any big mouth bass that might bite at it. That memory came from the fishing trips dad took me on. Happiest times of my life. Why didn’t he take me fishing anymore? I thought.
I was a little fish swimming around in the bottom of the ocean. Lost in the pitch blackness of the deep. As black as space, minus the stars as not even the sun can be seen in the deepest waters. What would you do if you were down there alone, scared, and then suddenly you spotted a little bulb of light just floating there in the nothingness; Beautiful, warm and just for you…Would you have the sense to question it, or would you just chase it?
I chased it.
It sounded light, sweet and calming. My whole mind was soothed, but clouded.
I could almost figure out the direction, but it still felt like it was in the air dangling just above my head. The longer I listened, the more it sounded female, like a woman was singing.
No words, just harmony. For a moment, a small opening in the dark clouds allowed for pessimism to shine through.
This doesn’t make sense…I need to go home.
Then the voice began to fall, creeping down and leading off the trail and deeper into the woods.
The song was now all but a lustful taunt, beckoning me to give chase. And then it said,
COME FIND ME.
“Who’s that!”
I heard it! An alien voice in my head spoke so loud that I actually heard it more clearly than if it was spoken aloud. The opening in the dark clouds started closing and becoming darker like a storm with only glimmers of light showing through.
And It spoke again,
COME FIND ME, TYLER.
I obeyed.
*CRUNCH*
I pushed through the dying brush and bushes. A machete would’ve been handy, and I wouldn’t have gotten so cut up. Either way, I was hell bent on finding Her…
Or whatever It was calling me. I forgot about school, about Angel, about getting in trouble with Mom and Dad, and I forgot about Taylor’s fatass. I didn’t care about anything else except,
HURRY TYLER, COME FIND ME!
And there She was again. There was no mistaking it. It was the voice of a woman. I couldn’t help but imagine the features that went along with that sweet voice: Long dark flowing hair, a perfect glowing face with almond eyes and a bright smile, breasts, hips, and long legs.
Oh Yes. There was a woman in these woods. Maybe She needed my help.
I knew none of that made sense, but still, I had to find Her; I couldn’t ignore Her if I tried.
I reached a very dense brush pile, and there was no getting around it.
I pulled my hands into my jacket, got down and fought and crawled through whatever openings I could find through it.
And what if I did find some weird woman out here: what was going to happen? Unlikely that I was going to lose it to some siren all the way out there. I had made it at least a mile or two away from the trail, without once considering the trip back. The bush and brier patches were annoying. When I would get frustrated and ready to turn back, She just would repeat again:
HURRY! COME FIND ME, HURRY!)
I fantasized about it the whole way:
She’d be waiting for me on the other side. I’ll emerge all cut up and bleeding and see her standing there. Then she’ll turn and see me down on all fours. She’ll drop to her knees getting dirt on her white dress, I’ll look up at her and see a beautiful face, and She’ll smile and put her soft warm hands on mine. I’ll lay my head in her lap, and She’ll gently run her fingers through my hair, and then She’ll bend down to whisper something in my ear as her bosom squishes against the side of my head. Her lips move and I hear her say, *CRUNCH*
The ground I reached to grab wasn’t there. I fell and flipped forward rolling down the sudden drop into the ditch on the other side, landing flat on my face.
“That hurt…” I said to no one.
The dark clouds were gone. Whatever it was that led me out here, lost its grip. I didn’t hear Her anymore.
Face down in the dirt, I thought: what the hell am I doing? That there was no chance I’d make it to school now. The day started off bad enough, and now I was lost, and not sure how I was going to get back. I wasn’t sure how I even made it this far.
I turned my head and saw more woods, then turned the other way and saw the sun setting.
How long have I been out here for? I thought.
*Cccccrrraaaaaang*
I lurched up to a loud metallic shriek. I didn’t see anything but a hill in front of me. I almost missed it, but I had seen this place before in my nightmares. At a first glance, the hill was unremarkable. But I knew the secret. I pushed myself up off the ground, and I could barely make out the faint outline in the center of the hill. I felt around the edges of it until,
“There!”
I pulled with all my strength, then released the big rusty metal door as it fell open, unveiling metal stairs leading down into darkness.
I don’t know how to explain it, but I just knew that it was there.
It was an old cellar or a storm shelter, I thought.
I stepped inside and the lights flickered over the stairs, defeating the darkness that covered them, and revealing a metal door at the bottom. Then I realized that it was already dark outside as the sun finished setting. Now the woods felt more dangerous than this hole with all the lights reflecting off the steel walls. I carefully took a step down, ready to break and run back in case I jumped an animal or a homeless man living down here. The metal door at the bottom wasn’t closed all the way, as if someone had left it cracked. I pushed it, revealing a long hallway with more lights coming on. I went forward feeling a little less afraid, and just more curious.
Maybe it was some kind of abandoned bunker someone still paid the electric bill on.
The hallway made a sharp right turn, and then there was another metal door left open as well. The lights were already on inside. I peeked through the crack and saw a room filled with lab equipment. It was like some mad scientist’s hidden laboratory. How the hell could something like this be here? I thought.
None of the equipment was like anything I had ever seen before; even the tech in science fiction movies didn’t do this stuff justice. All of it was shiny and well kept.
Whatever science project someone was doing here was serious, and obviously secret.
Right on one of the desks, I passed a file that was laid open, and I couldn’t resist taking a look.
(The following information is from a file included with Waynes suicide note. Along with a transcript I have taken of a audio tape found with the file.
“1973 The M.A.W. Project. by Dr. Les.
Entry##113 submitted at 4:54 AM
‘On behalf of the staff at NEW CELL research LAB #13, we require further funding: This project must be finished. It is necessary to do this at the site of where this strand of the NEW CELL anomaly was located, and is where we need to conduct our work. We do not know how to make NEW CELL active on its own yet, but this environment seems to encourage a reaction. It takes the form of a gas, but reduced to a molecular level. Single it out, and that’s how NEW CELL’s R-strand was discovered. R-Strand infects organic tissue with a growth hormone with high mutative properties. R-strand has another amazing quality: psychokinetics are developing in the hosts. The R-strand will catapult Bio Engineering to places never thought possible. It is imperative that our research continue. The location isn’t ideal, but this is also the closest to civilian life that NEW CELL has been found to inhabit. It is costly, but necessary in order to collect such priceless data. You of course have seen the product of the remarkable capabilities of R-strand in the M.A.W. Project.
It’s still too soon to move on from this location. So much we still have to learn. This isn’t just about global interests or national security anymore: This could be the future of our species at stake.”
I flipped to the last pages in the file.
“Request to terminate the M.A.W. project: DENIED.”
“You have to understand, we have accomplished huge strides with R-strand. Now we can conclude that this location is not in fact the place of its origin. We can’t prove it yet, but we believe that the R-strand cannot be native to Earth. The location is consequential to the mutations, however. R-strand covers this area. It’s growing. We are close to making a significant breakthrough on R-strand, and likely a huge leap in the NEW CELL anomaly.
However, concerning The M.A.W. Project. Although she has proven R-strand’s remarkable capabilities, we still feel that the project has hit a dead end and is no longer a viable source for further study. With careful planning, further development of NEW CELL Projects can heed very viable results, and that means we shouldn’t shut the lab down just yet.
It’s possible that Her higher brain functions mimic that of the human host used, and this could be what is making her feral. However, I don’t believe that to be the case. There’s something else I’ve been looking into: It is possible that R-strand itself is where this intelligent/malevolent behavior is coming from. AT one point, we had no choice but to remove some of Her brain tissue and three of her limbs for our own protection. Yet these problems still persist.
If my theory is true, then that means that the NEW CELL anomaly is the most intelligent viral life form ever exhibited in human history. Beyond that even.
Concerning M.A.W. it is understood that the resources expended on her were substantial, but we’ve got all the data that we need, and then some from the project. That is why immediate termination of M.A.W. is requested.
Let me also clarify the problems arising for the lab by keeping her contained here: we believe she’s been telepathically commuting with sentient life outside of the perimeter. First we noticed an excess of animals wandering closer to the lab, then our security was finding civilian life wandering closer, and never able to remember how they got here. Buddy, our custodian, actually made it inside M.A.W.’s containment. What we found wasn’t a pretty sight. She has a taste now. We have other issues with M.A.W. affecting personnel. Mostly complaints of strange dreams and emotional problems. All who are working within the range of M.A.W. are subjected to such high stress, that the project isn’t recommended to personnel with pre existing mental conditions. I myself haven’t been able to sleep well in months.
I and my staff humbly request that a N.C.H. team is sent to sterilize this area, and to terminate the M.A.W. Project as soon as possible. This is getting dangerous.”
(Transcription of the audio tape:
“Those bastards…They actually went ahead and did it! The data we collected over the course of L thirteen’s establishment was more than viable enough and worth saving.. but no, those bastards never cared! They really went ahead and did it! They’re gonna leave us and L thirteen to rot! We got them everything they wanted from the NEW CELL anomaly in this area and then they cut their losses and abandoned us!
The R-strand is growing! It’s infecting this whole area! We were here to research it, but also to contain it!
All civilian life in that town will be totally lost…and what happens then…
They sealed us in here…
The team we requested to clean up…haha oh they cleaned up alright. They sealed us down here to die But hell, I Wonder how far they’ll get before they too are…speak of the devil. The door is unsealed. Not very far at all huh boys?
It’s MAW again…I can hear her now…She’s tempting me. I’m out of time….”
(The rest of the tape was nearly silent save for steps on the tile floor, echoing as they got further away, until they couldn’t be heard, and then silenced altogether. There was nothing now but the light hiss of the tape spinning, and there would be nothing else on the rest of the tape until Waynes could be heard screaming.)
*thunk*
I heard something and turned just to see another door. I carefully pushed it open, and there were more stairs, but no lights flickered on this time. It was cold, rusted, lifeless, and smelled like a freezer that stored raw meat. There was no way I was going down there; My skin was crawling and my nerves were shot. I had to get out of there. Something was down there, and I knew I wasn’t safe here anymore. And then, everything struck me all at once: Something was very wrong, about all of this: The woods, Angel, the voice, this place, the tape…
None of it was right. And in that moment, I could finally think clearly again. I had to go home. I started turning around. Then, I heard her voice; not the woman’s, not the sirens song I heard all afternoon, but my little sister’s.
“Tyler…”
It wasn’t in my head.
“Hello?” I replied.
“Tyler…”
“Angel? Where are you? How did you get down here?”
It was coming from the very bottom. I didn’t want to, but I took a deep breath and stepped down on the first step. Then another, then another… Then I heard Angel’s blood curdling scream.
“Angel, Hold on!”
I yelled for her, rushing down the steps as fast as I could, nearly slipping on what I thought were rags or towels. I followed Angel’s scream all the way down to the precipice. No matter how much I hated her, she was still my sister. Her scream suddenly stopped just as I came to a big metal door hanging off bent hinges: It was decimated, ripped through like tissue paper. My gut told me to turn and leave now, but then something caught my eye: Something familiar was hanging on one of the sharp pieces of the metal door. I grabbed it, and on the front was the torn ribbons of a shirt; Hannah Montana’s face still smiling that plastic smile.
The ugliest feeling of horror, twisted my mind into a near catatonic state.
Suddenly, the lights came on above, and I saw that the floor was covered in discarded clothing. Mostly adults. White lab coats, leather shoes, male and female underwear, socks, watches, cellphones, pens, wigs, jewelry, etc.
I looked up the stairs, and saw even more litter all the way up to the top.
Nothing can get close to this place without coming under the influence of…Maw.
So how many people wandered down here just like me and Angel?
I stepped on something sizable. I looked down, and it was a backpack; Hannah Montana’s face plastered all over it.
I went down to my hands and knees and grabbed a handful from a small pile of clothes: jeans, pink socks, a bright pink jacket, and panties. I had washed her clothes so many times for her. My stomach turned.
I understood now that along with all these other people, Angel had been,
*CRUNCH CRUNCH*
I heard it chewing. And then it spoke in a female voice again. But now, She was right behind me.
“Tyler, You found me.”
The little fish that swims in the darkness will see the dangling light and approach it. Then it is gobbled up; the last thing it ever sees is the jagged teeth from the mouth of the angler fish just beyond the light.
A moist and warm breath crawled up my back. I was still on all fours as I turned my head around to see, and what I saw was a giant gaping mouth, filled with large jagged teeth, and wide enough to bite me in half.
For a moment, I didn’t want to run away.
For a moment, the mouth didn’t seem so bad.
For a moment, I was almost at peace with the idea of being devoured.
Then that turned into a euphoria; Something rapturous, pleasurable even.
The dark clouds were thundering back inside my head, blocking out all light.
I was okay with this. I even wanted it…for a moment.
The mouth began closing down around me, I saw something hanging from one of It’s long yellow stained teeth: something little, long and black like a worm. No…It wasn’t a worm.
Then I realized, as all the clouds blew away with the sheer horror that swept through like a 200 mph wind: It was in fact a lock of hair from Angel’s head stuck in its teeth.
The mouth spoke once more as the fresh odor of blood and guts seeped from the dripping mouth:
“You found me.”
I screamed louder than I ever had in my life. I was prone, almost in a runner’s stance when I lunged up the metal staircase and heard the thing’s jaws snap shut behind me. The piles of clothes, phones and jewelry impeded me every step of the way. I felt It’s sick hot breath on my neck, rushing up my shirt. I made it halfway up the stairs before looking back. When I did, somehow an even louder scream erupted from me with tears and mucus pouring from my face. That same massive hand from my nightmares, reached up for me, big enough to grab around my waist and crush me into pulp before pulling me back down to be eaten alive, like Angel.
I was able to catch a good look at the thing: It was a huge humanoid creature that looked like it would have been a giant, but with nothing below its torso. The hand swiped, just barely missing me. I didn’t react. I was despondent trying to wrap my young mind around it: It’s large nails making deep scratches on the metal, sending an ear splitting shriek through the air. I cuffed my ears in pain, watching it try to orient itself to take another swipe. It looked up at me and let out one pissed up guttural roar; spitting saliva and little tiny pieces of Angel. Then I saw that the thing was missing its eyes: above the mouth, there was no nose, eyeholes, or a cranium. It was all gone. Atop of the mouth was just the healed over stump from where those things used to be.
That huge monstrous hand was connected to a long muscular arm; the only limb it seemed to have left. Then all at once, I understood it: This is Maw.
It can’t do much else but eat, so it got good at luring its meals down to it, like one of those parasites that wiggle into the head of a grasshopper, and make it commit suicide.
That’s how parasites survived, and that’s how Maw did too.
I felt like I could hear Her…I could feel Her…Just like the others, and just like Angel: Her sweet voice lured me all the way from home. I feel Her trying to wiggle back inside my head now as I write this. She keeps saying,
Everything is alright.
Come back down.
Take your clothes off, and anything else She you know I don’t like to chew on,
and everything will be alright. Just come down.
(Note that the bold text was the words found this exact number times written on the wall of the motel; Waynes had written it in his own blood.)
come down…Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down come down come down come down Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down come down come down come down Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down come down come down come down Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down come down come down come down
Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down come down come down come down Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down. Come down come down come down come down Come down. Come down. Come down.
COME BACK DOWN TO ME NOW
I snapped out of it as She lurched forward, mouth open wide. I turned and crawled up the rest of the metal stairs, and finally reached the door. I bolted through the lab hearing Her voice beckon me to come back down, while the monster below was bellowing.
I grabbed the same file and audio tape, thinking I’ll need them later. I ran down that long hallway as the loud echoing of my feet coming down on the metal engulfed everything, even Her voice.
I leaped out of the big metal door, got on the other side of it and pushed with all my strength until it slammed back shut. I didn’t stop there. I ran into the dark woods, which now felt like the safest place, climbed back up the hill, back up the path I made through the brush, scurrying through it like a rat until I found the trail again. The running wasn’t over until I saw my parents again.
Mom and Dad were sitting on the front porch along with some police officers. It looked like they were gathering up for a search party. Mom had her face in her hands, and Dad was speaking to an officer. The red and blue lights of the police cars lit the whole street up, and that’s how I found my way back out of the dark woods. Before I came out, I dug that file out from under my jacket. I was glad that I had it; It would prove that everything I saw was real. I finally took a moment to catch my breath…Then, She spoke to me again. And I listened…And I listened.
My Mom looked up with tears in her eyes and saw it was me standing there covered in dirt, grime, and little bleeding cuts; I was empty handed. She ran to me and hugged me; She hugged me so tight I could feel the fear in her. She loved me, and I felt it. Then Dad kneeled down by her with tears in his eyes, checking me for wounds.
And She was right…
They asked me,
“Tyler, what happened?”
“Tyler, are you okay?”
“Tyler, talk to me baby!”
“Tyler…where’s Angel?”
It was breathtaking. I looked up to the night sky without saying anything: The stars were out. They really cared now. I was the center of their world. And I felt better. I felt good.
And She was right…
That felt like a thousand years ago. Eventually, I would do just what I was told. And I felt good doing it. One by one. I didn’t start feeling bad again, until they were all gone. This was just our first time. The second time however, was Only a month later.
I woke up one morning, stretched and pulled myself out of bed after a good night’s sleep. I’d look out my window and see the sun creeping up over the woods behind that same old house. I’d leave my room, pass the hallway bathroom, and then go into Angel’s old room, which was a mess after the police searched through it.
I enjoyed using Angel’s old shower. She just had to have it all to herself; now she didn’t need it anymore. In the kitchen I ate uncooked pop tarts with milk, and felt great and
well rested. I thought about trying out for basketball or even football. On the bus I sat in the middle, right next to a girl I had never talked to before, and we really hit it off and agreed to get lunch later. I ended up trying out for football and fell in love with the sport that day. I liked our coach, and made friends with almost all the guys on the team; Everyone except for one big freckled face Taylor Barns. I caught up with Taylor after school, and he didn’t know what to say to me after everything; the fight, my sister, and the fact that she was finally pronounced dead just a few weeks ago. He told me that he thought my family had moved away by now, that when the bus passed my house, it looked like a ghost house, and now here I was trying to make friends. I figured he was just trying to be nice; Felt like he owed me that much. But the truth was, he didn’t have much of a choice. No choice really. None of them did. I sure didn’t.
See, Taylor had recently been experiencing some sleep deprivation; recurring nightmares within the last week or so, brought on by some remorse or underserved guilt over the disappearance of my kid sister. He didn’t know why it was happening. He definitely didn’t know that I knew about his little late night terrors. I told him not to worry about it. I told him to come hang out with me after practice, that we could walk back to my house, maybe play a video game and talk about football. I told him that I knew a little shortcut through the woods.
And then, Taylor Barns cracked a generous smile at me, and I smiled right back,
And so did She.
*CRUNCH*