Why did it have to go like this? Why did it have to happen at all? Is what I think laying on the living room couch. Everything went wrong. Everything collapsed. I don’t know what to expect next, so here is my story of what happened to my life, from the beginning to the end.
Before I begin, I need to mention something that my best friend Alex had. Alex had a messed up problem, where he would cry blood instead of tears, and he could not regenerate blood when he lost it. I met him when I was six, and he stayed with me my whole life. That is, until I was 13. I saw him on the playground, sitting all alone on the swings. He was blonde, just like me. He was not short, but he was not very tall either. He was a bit skinny, and he had blue eyes, which matched mine. We almost looked like brothers. My parents always told me it was good to meet new people, so I decided to go to him. “Hi!” I said, in my annoying six year old voice. I was not expecting a response from him, but he looked up at me. “Hi,” he said back. “What’s your name?” I asked him. “Alex, what’s yours?” “Axel,” I said back.
At first I did not know what he had, he seemed like just a normal person to me, but I decided to keep talking to him. “Want to go play kickball with me?” “Okay” he said back in a shy voice. We both walked over to the concrete part of the playground, where lots of other kids were also playing kickball, and we both went into the line to kick the ball. “You go first!” I said to him, which he responded by saying “okay” and went up to kick the ball. The pitcher rolled the ball over and Alex kicked it far. He ran over to first base, and decided to go to second base, unaware that someone got the ball and threw it at him. The ball hit his back and he fell on the rocky hard concrete floor. “Ow!” he screamed, picking himself up and standing back up. “Sorry!” the person that threw the ball at him said. I ran over, making sure that he was okay. When I saw him though, there were bruises on his face, and a little bit of blood. I was just so confused though, because the blood didn’t seem to come from his cheeks, but it seemed to be in a small stream running next to his nose to his mouth, I didn’t get to see it for long, since he turned away though.
The bell rang and all of the children ran inside. “You okay?” I said to him, at this point, his face dried up and he looked almost back to normal. “Yeah, I just fell over and hit my face but I’m fine.” He said in a funny way. “At least you’re okay.” I said back.
Ever since that moment, we always talked and played. We even became neighbors, since his parents decided to move into a house from an apartment. He lived three houses next to me, and soon his parents met mine and they talked a lot. We moved on through first grade, being so young it’s so hard to remember everything, but I did remember not having any friends apart from Alex, and I do remember him not having any either. It didn’t matter though.
In 2nd grade, we decided to have a playdate together. I asked my mother if he could come over, and because I didn’t have anyone else, she agreed. He came to my door and I showed him around my house, and then my room. I loved many things when I was younger, and I would put so many posters and drawings on my wall. “You have a cool room.” He said. “Thanks,” I replied, “I am still working on a bunch more drawings in the future.” I still remember one day though, and that was one of the days I would remember the most. One day, we were hanging out at lunch, and this kid came up to us and said: “hey stupid fat kids!” and then he just stared at us, waiting for someone to say something. I don’t really know why he would call us that, we were very skinny, the exact opposite of what he said. I, of course, said nothing, and Alex didn’t either, but when I looked to my left, I saw a little tiny bloodstream, not any wider than a pencil, on his cheek. “Are you okay?!” I said to him, worried that he got physically hurt. He turned to me, then touched his face, feeling blood on his fingertips, then rushed out of the cafeteria, into the bathroom. Later that day, in class, I decided to walk over to him and make sure that he was okay. “Are you alright?” I said to him, “yes,” he replied, “just started bleeding all of the sudden, no big deal.
2nd grade whizzed past us, and sooner than later, we were already in 3rd grade. Just like last year, we were both in the same class, but we never talked much at all to anyone else, just us two. When those times came to an end, 4th grade came along, and we knew we had to toughen up, since there would be lots of big kids and we were scared of getting bullied. One of the most scary things I remember that grade was when we had a sleepover at my house. “Hello,” Alex said at the door. “Hi,” I said back. That night we spent playing video games in my room, eating lots of candy and junk food, and overall just having a blast. While we were enjoying ourselves, it was about 10:00, which was late for us in 4th grade. I thought it would be cool to go outside into the forest behind our house. We were stupid at the time, and didn’t care a single bit about our safety. “Let’s go into the woods.” I said. “I think it would be fun.” Alex didn’t really think much about it, but eventually gave in and agreed.
I brought a small flashlight from my drawer, and we both stealthily snuck outside from the back door, tiptoeing so no one could hear us. When we got into the woods, we knew we were in the clear and didn’t have to worry about being quiet. We started horsing around a bit, throwing sticks and rocks at each other in a playful way. It was so quiet, we could hear everything so easily, there were no crickets chirping, no sounds at all. It was scary honestly. Aside from that, Alex and I were having fun, and suddenly, we heard a noise. It sounded like rustling in the bushes. We were nine, and we were scared to death about what it could be. “Hello?” I said out loud, waiting for someone to answer. We didn’t get an answer, yet, nothing happened at all. I shined my flashlight everywhere, trying to find something or someone. I flashed it on the ground, about five feet away from us, and saw a message on the dirt. All it said was “CRY” in full capitalization. I immediately got shivers and a huge chill through my body. “Let’s get out of here,” Alex said. “We probably should,” I said but then, I put my flashlight up and then, we saw a face in the woods. “AHH!” me and Alex both scream, scared to absolute death. We ran as fast as we could to my house, tripping and falling. We got to the front door and we both ran inside and shut the door as fast as possible, then ran to my bedroom. “Who was that?” I asked, panting for breath. “I have no idea” Alex replied, also breathing very hard. “We should go to bed,” I said. The following night, nothing else happened, and we got lots of rest.
4th grade came and went, and now Alex and I are in 5th grade. Just like the years before, we didn’t talk much, and surprisingly, we never had a fight in our whole life, normally friends fight every now and then, but me and Alex never fought at all. 5th grade was one of the scariest grades for me, I was skinny, and couldn’t protect myself very well from older and bigger kids. We would sometimes get tossed around by bullies, but it wasn’t too much. I barely can remember it, but once in the same grade, I got a letter in the mail. The letter was written for me, without a sender or return address, and it was not very long, but it did include the following words in all capitalization: “HI, I HOPE YOU ARE DOING OKAY. LOVE YOU, XOXO.” And at the very bottom it said “CRY.” I was going to throw the letter away, but then I realized that I felt something else in my hand. Something that felt like a liquid. It was blood, dripping down my hand onto the sidewalk. I didn’t know it at first, but in the letter, there was a huge mess of blood that dripped on me. “What the-” I said out loud, surprised and shocked that I saw this. I immediately went inside. I was going to put the card in the paper shredder, but then I remembered what else was in the card, and threw it in the trash can, hoping no one would see it.
The next day in class I went up to Alex and asked him if he sent me the card since I didn’t think anyone else would. I also told him how it looked and I also told him about the strange bloody mess in it. “I did not send you a card, but I also got a card too, and it was the exact same as the one you got.” He said to me, “hmm, that is really odd.” I said. “Yeah, who would want to do something like that?” “I have no idea.”
Back in my childhood, I had a dog. I named him Arrow, and my parents gave him to me ever since I was four years old. Me and him never played all too much now, but every time I picked up the leash to take him on a walk, he would immediately get up wherever he was, even if he was across the whole house, and he would run up to me, wanting a walk. I always took him on the same route, and that would be left of my house, around a roundabout in our neighborhood, and then back to my house, about a mile long. Arrow, even though he wasn’t always there, he always confronted me when I really needed him and I loved him. Me and Alex sometimes played with him too, since he was a friendly dog. One day, near the end of fifth grade, I took him on a walk. It was the normal route we’ve always taken, and things were going fine. It was pretty late, and it was getting dark outside. All of the sudden, we start hearing rustling in the bushes, and of course, Arrow starts getting riled up. “Bark bark bark!” Arrow yelped, trying to get loose from the leash. “Hey, stop it!” I said loudly. Arrow didn’t stop, and he kept yapping and yelping trying to run into the bushes. Eventually, it was too much for my little body to handle, and I accidentally let go. “Arrow, no!” I screamed as loud as I could. But it was too late. He was already gone. I couldn’t go and find him since it was so dark outside, and I felt that the rustling in the bushes was a person, so I decided not to go. I wish I was braver, but I was so defenseless. I don’t remember the moment much, but I still just remember how eerie it was. Everything about it, and it could have just been me imagining, but I feel like someone carved the word “CRY” on a tree trunk. Still though, not 100% sure.
Finally, we were in middle school. This was going to be for sure the scariest years, and in fact, it really was. We had to go to a whole new school, and lucky for me, Alex was going to the same school. Just like the previous years, we had to be prepared for bullies and big kids wanting to hurt or insult us. Middle school wasn’t just scary, as far as the kids. But that’s when Alex’s secret was shown to me, and that’s when the horror truly began. On the first day of school, we went to our classes. He was only in my first period, which was math, and my lunch. In math, we sat next to each other, and often talked about math and other middle school stuff. It was on the third day though, that things happened. I was first to get to the lunch period, and got my food and sat at our normal table. As I was waiting for him, I noticed it was taking him a bit longer than usual to arrive, and I started to worry a bit.
About five minutes later, I see him walk in… with a group of boys behind him. The boys started insulting him, saying “you’re so pale you look like a piano,” “you’re so pale that I accidentally mistaken you for a door frame,” and a bunch more mean insults. I was thinking about running over, and sticking up for him, when all the sudden, one of the boys shoved him on the ground, and Alex fell on his back. I then saw something that I will never forget. Blood started seeping from his eyes. The blood was in a small river, and it streamed all the way down to his shirt, where the cloth dried it up. The boys started backing away, fearing that they actually hurt him a lot more than they intended. Alex got up and immediately punched the guy in the face, causing them to leave and run away from the lunchroom. There was another problem though, and that was that everyone in lunch was staring at him. Everyone was staring at his bloody face. I could tell there was so much stress flowing through his body. Alex stood up, and stormed away from the lunchroom, into the bathroom. I also got up and ran into there too, wanting to make sure he was okay. He was in one of the stalls, perfectly silent. “Hello?” I said out loud. “Go away,” Alex replied. I decided it would be a good idea to listen, and I went out to my next class.
That night, I rode my bike over to his house. I knocked on the door and he answered, obviously looking a lot better. “Hey are you good?” I asked him. “Follow me to my room.” He said back, and started walking upstairs. I followed him, and he led me in and shut the door behind him. “Look, I need you to keep something a secret,” Alex told me. “I have a very bad problem with my body, and it makes me cry blood instead of normal tears.” He paused. “I know it might sound weird, and I can’t regenerate the blood either. It’s not curable, and if I cry too much, I lose all my blood and I die. I have already lost so much, since my family isn’t that wealthy, and living when I was younger was very difficult. I don’t even think I will be alive when I reach adulthood. I have already cried a lot, and every time I do, I lose that amount of blood. I know I could get a blood transfer, but we are not rich enough to do that. It really sucks, but there is nothing we can do about it. That is why yesterday was so stressful for me, and it was because I do not want people to know about my condition, and because I did not want to cry in the first place, but it was hard not to due to all the stress. I have always tried to hide it from everyone, but it gets very difficult, and I knew someday I would have to tell you since you are my only friend, but I did not want to yet, but I guess the time is now.” I did not really know what to say, I wanted to say something to make him feel better, but at the same time, I thought it was a little bit creepy. “I am really sorry to hear that, I had no idea.” “It’s okay, I am glad that I get to tell someone now.” And he smiled at me.
Tap tap tap, a sound started playing. “What was that?” Alex said. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. The sound was coming from the window. His window. Someone must be there, except, we could not see whoever it was. “Hello?” I asked, hoping someone would respond. Then, all of the sudden, BANG. The person on the window slammed his hand as hard as he could on the window. Me and Alex shook, we were scared from that. I looked at Alex’s face, and he was trembling, I could tell he was trying not to cry. Then, on the other side of the window, the person breathed on the window, forming a small bubble of condensation on it. In that small bubble, we could see the words “CRY” written on it. That was the turning point for us two, when we saw that, we screamed as loud as we could. In about a minute or two, Alex’s dad came rushing into the room. “What’s going on? Is everyone alright?” He said. We pointed to the window, but of course, the condensation was gone, and no one was there. “Someone was there,” Alex said. “But it looks like they are gone now.” “Okay,” his dad said. “Let me know if they come back.” After waiting in silence for about five minutes, I thought I should probably go home. “I should probably be getting home now.” I said. “Be careful.” Alex replied. “I will.” I said. “I will try.”
I told Alex goodbye, went into the garage where I put my bike, hopped on, and rode away. I was about halfway over to my house, when I heard a large rock being thrown, and it landed in front of my bike, as I was riding. It was dark, but there were streetlights that were illuminating the darkness, allowing me to see a small amount of light. It was too late to fully understand what was going on, but I noticed the rock being thrown at the last second, and my bike rode into it. I tripped and my bike fell to the left on the sidewalk. I fell with the bike and my knee hit the concrete, causing a scrape on my skin. I looked up, and in the darkness, I could see a man. Only visible by the streetlights, and he was hooded, I couldn’t see his face. I got scared and I instantly knew what was going to happen if I didn’t get out fast enough. I hopped on my bike and biked away as fast as I could. I looked behind myself and I saw the man running towards me. I biked even faster, my heart pounding in my chest. I felt like I could feel his breath on me. Eventually, I got to my driveway, and into my house, and the man disappeared from my sight. That night I ran into my room and immediately went to bed, wishing that was the last time we would see that weird man again.
Now that I knew Alex’s secret, I had to also keep it as well. Not that it was very difficult though, I didn’t have anyone else to tell it to. The next day, we saw each other at school. When I got to him, I told him about the incident last night, about how I almost could have died from that mysterious man. I told him about the crazy bike ride, and how fast he ran at me. I was actually very shocked when I got a reply from him saying “he came back and tapped on my window again. I got so scared that I hid under my bed and hoped that he would stop tapping. I heard some voices, it sounded like he was trying to tell me to come outside with him? But I do not know, it was scary. Probably 30 minutes later, I decided I was probably safe, and went back to bed.” “Oh my God,” I said, scared of what happened.
The rest of the day went pretty normal. The next day, we had to do a test in math class. I don’t remember the topic at all, but I do remember when Alex asked if he could go to the bathroom. The teacher agreed, and he walked out of the room. A minute later, I hear a scream. It was from the bathroom. It didn’t seem like anyone else could hear it though, which I thought was weird, it was like they ignored it. “May I go to the bathroom please?” I asked the teacher. “Someone is out, but sure.” She replied. I calmly closed the door, and rushed into the bathroom, where I saw Alex, petrified, looking at the mirror on top of the sink. On the mirror, wrote “CRY,” in blood. I stepped back, also scared of what I was seeing. Did anyone else see this? Was it just us? I looked to my right, seeing him shaking and trembling. I knew what was going to happen next, because of how scared he was. He started shedding a tear. A bloody tear. “It’s okay, it’s okay!” I said to him, trying to make him feel better. I got a paper towel, put it through the water, and cleaned the mess on the mirror, making sure no one could see it, if anyone could. The mess was wiped off, and the mirror was clean again. I looked back and Alex was much better, but I could still tell he was a bit perplexed about the whole situation. We went back to class, and everything was back to normal.
Over the years, I could tell that Alex was getting weaker and weaker, and losing more and more blood. I could tell that he was getting slower, and more tired all the time than he used to be. I would notice him sometimes not walking as fast, asking me to wait up, and overall just a lot more tired. Sixth grade was going by so slow, and we were already waiting for the summer when it was halfway over. Weekends were the best for us, because we got to hang out, and didn’t have to worry about much. One of those weekends though, made us watch our backs a little bit more. We were playing outside one time, it was at a playground near our house, inside of the roundabout that I used to take Arrow around. The roundabout is filled with tons of trees, and it is like a small forest there. In the middle, there was a small playground. It had two swings, a slide, monkey bars, and climbing equipment. If we were a couple years younger, it would have been paradise for us. But we were a bit more grown up, so it didn’t feel the same, but even still, it was still fun to play and talk.
It was evening, and the sun was going down. There was still a lot of light, but it was also very dark. We were swinging on the swings. One for each of us. I looked over at Alex. Becoming paler and paler almost every month. He was losing so much blood, and it was getting noticeable now. We were swinging up and down, and I looked over at the trees. I could see something. It was not a tree branch, or a log, but it looked like a person. I knew who it was in an instant. I knew who he was because of the hood he was wearing. I jumped off the swing, and stopped Alex’s swing. “We have to go,” I hurriedly told him. “Is something wrong?” He asked. I pointed over to where the stranger was. Where he was. He was gone. “Him, he-he-he’s back.” “We have to get out of he-.” Alex fell backwards on the ground. “Hey are you okay?” I asked him as I knelt down. A rock hit his eye. It was the same rock that tripped my bike. It was huge. I grabbed his arm, and put it behind my back. He was so weak, I could lift him up so easily. I looked at his face. The rock hit right at his eye, with a puddle of blood on the ground, and a huge blood pile surrounding his eye, as well as a bloodstream erupting from both eyes. I looked around at what could have caused this, and I saw, on the very playground 30 feet away from us, the hooded man. “CRY” He shrieked as loud as he could, then launched towards us.
Alex couldn’t move. That meant I had to carry him to escape. He was getting closer, our bikes were on the ground, and it would take too long to use them, so I booked it, carrying him. I swear, I have never run that fast before. I zigzagged through all the trees, dodging every branch. To think I was 11 at the time, almost running as fast as a car. We got on the streets, the man still running behind us, getting closer every second. My heart pounded. Not just from the running, but from the stress, and from the panic that I would drop Alex. I ran home so fast, to my driveway, and then to my door. I opened the door and shut it as fast as I could.
I laid Alex on the couch. “Mom, Dad! Please help Alex here!” I screamed to the house. I heard them come downstairs, and they shrieked when they saw Alex. “What happened?” Mom said, worriedly. “We were playing in the park, and a man threw this rock at him.” I said. Alex for sure was not dead, he was breathing, but barely. Mom and Dad tried to think of something that could help, but nothing could cross their minds apart from taking him back home for his parents, and letting them figure it out. We all went into the car, carrying Alex with us, and putting him on the other seat. On the way there. I stared at the roundabout, and in the forest, I saw a human silhouette of the hooded man. I could barely see him, but I could see blood all over his hoodie, and to his left, was a tree trunk. And on that tree trunk, read “CRY.”
Alex got home safely, we told his parents what happened, and then we left to go back home. When we got home, I went straight to bed, and slept for the rest of the night. The next day in class, I did not see Alex. I knew that it was probably because of what happened last night, so I decided not to worry about it much. Things started to change though, when Alex didn’t show up for the rest of the week. I started to get worried, and I went over to his house sometime soon to check on him. I rang the doorbell, and he answered, looking weak as ever, “h-h-hello?” He said. “Hey.” I said back. “Are you doing well?” “F-f-follow me.” He said. I walked behind him, into his room. His room was so empty now. He had a couple drawings on his wall, just little works of art. But now it’s gone. There was nothing but blank walls, and darkness now. “I’m sorry that I-I-I-I haven’t been here.” He paused. “I’ve been getting r-r-really weak lately, and it has b-b-b-been hard for me to move and go places. I’m sorry that it h-h-had to go like this.” Alex was a mess. He was so skinny that I could almost see his bones, and he was getting really pale. “My mom also got c-c-cancer as well. My family is not going well at all, and my d-d-dad is constantly getting drunk and is barely helping me whatsoever. I’ll try and come back to s-s-school soon. I felt so bad for him. My own best friend. My only friend. I left that day, and I didn’t see the mysterious man on my way home.
The following week, and for the rest of the school year, Alex never showed up. I kept waiting. He never came back to school. My math teacher, and I’ll assume that all his other teachers, never really bothered his absence. They just marked him up as absent, and that’s really all. Eventually, they just stopped caring about him altogether, and no one else really noticed he was gone. I stopped talking to him for a bit, just to leave him alone for now, and maybe let him have some time to himself. School ended, and summer was here. We finally had a break, and it was well deserved after all the tests and exams I had to take. Around the middle of summer, I went over to his house to check on him. He answered, he actually looked the exact same as how he looked last time. “H-h-hello.” He said. “C-c-can I help you?” “Hey.” I said back. “How are you doing?” “I’m doing fine.” He responded back. “But I won’t be able to have as much fun as I used to, and I can’t go to school again.” I was honestly really sad hearing this, because he was my only friend, and I cared for him so much. “I’m so sorry that you have to go through this. I wish I could help more.” “It’s okay. You being my friend is all I need.”
The following week, I wanted to try my hardest, and see what I could do to make the most out of the rest of his life. I wanted to continue our friendship, and I wanted him to enjoy himself. I was turning 12, and so was he. Our birthday was on the same day. I thought of ideas that we could do to celebrate and I thought that my parents and I could buy a cake for us, sort of as a joint birthday. My parents would celebrate it with me, but his parents would probably forget about it. When the day came, I went to his house with the cake. It read “Happy Birthday Alex and Axel!” with some party balloons and fun decorations. It was an ice cream cake, and I put it in a cooler I brought with me. I knocked on his door. No answer. I then rang the doorbell. After what felt like a whole minute, Alex opened the door. “Happy Birthday!” I said to him happily. “Oh my God! Thank you so much!” Alex said, also happily.
We went upstairs to his room. I took the cooler and put it in the corner. I asked him if he could grab a lighter and a knife, and he went downstairs and got those. I took the cake out of the cooler, and placed it down on the floor. There was a small plastic rectangular plate on the bottom, and I also brought some additional plastic plates as well. When Alex came back with the lighter and the knife, he sat down and lit the two candles on top. One was for me, one was for him. “Okay, in three, two, one…” We sang the Happy Birthday song together, and he blew his candle and I blew mine. He cut the cake into some pieces, and we both ate the cake. It was so delicious. And for what seemed like a long time, we talked to each other. We talked about video games, our grades, and we talked about music and music artists, we talked about fun games we used to play all the time, and we talked about our future. “I really want to be an artist when I grow up.” I said proudly. “I really want to be an engineer.” He said back. “I hope you are able to become one!” I said. “Thanks, I hope you are able to be an artist.” And then, he smiled back. I wish I got to see it more. But that was one of the last times I would ever see it. I put half of the rest of the cake in my cooler, and he put the rest of it in his refrigerator downstairs. I gave him my goodbyes, and I left, walking home. I didn’t see the hooded man try to scare us, which I appreciated. I still remember how beautiful it was outside. The sky was so pretty, not a cloud in sight, and the sun was shining. It was so amazing.
Me and Alex spent the rest of the summer playing video games in his room, playing hide and seek around his house, and talking. When summer was over, it was time for me to go back to school. Alex wouldn’t be able to, but that was fine. Seventh grade was far from being fun, in fact, it was really difficult in terms of grades and classes, but I still managed to get 90s and 100s. It was really lonely for me, and I didn’t want to get any new friends because I felt that it wouldn’t be the same without Alex. Every day when I got home, I would place my backpack and homework on my bed, and then I would go over to Alex’s house, where we would play and talk. It was going fine for about a couple months, when one day, I knocked on the door. No answer. I rang the doorbell and waited a whole two minutes. Then, Alex’s dad came to the door instead. “He’s upstairs.” He told me. “Okay, thank you.” I replied. I walked upstairs to Alex’s room. He was in there, laying on his bed. “H-h-hey.” He said, barely being able to talk from the looks of it. “I was wondering if you wanted to hang out and talk.” I said. He has been a mess for a long time, but he looked terrible now. As I grew, he shrunk. As I got bigger arms and legs, and got skinnier and skinnier. As I got tanner, he got paler. “I c-c-can talk, but barely, and that’s all I can really d-d-do at this point.” He said.
The rest of the year was the same routine. I would get home, put my stuff away, and go to his house. At his house, I would ring the doorbell, wait for his dad to open it, and I would go to his room, with the only light being from the blinds on the window, and we would just talk. He couldn’t talk that well, but he could, and that’s all that mattered. I came over so many times, that Alex’s dad told me that I can just come in whenever I wanted. After about an hour of just being with each other, I say goodbye and leave, and this process continued for months. He would not be in good condition at all, but he was still able to talk with me.
Seventh grade was really slow, but when it was finally over, I was relieved. I was scared of getting bullied, but I grew a lot, and I surprisingly didn’t get insulted much. A little bit, but that won’t go away. When summer for that grade came, I got ready for our next birthday, and we were turning 13. I asked my parents for a birthday cake that we could both celebrate together, and they both agreed to it. When our birthdays came, I was ready to eat cake with him again. I went into his house, with the same cooler. This time, I brought a lighter and a knife with me as well. I went upstairs and I went into his room. He was lying in bed, like normal. “Happy Birthday!” I said. “Happy Birthday!” He said back. I put the plastic plates on his bed, and put the cake on them. We sang the Happy Birthday song, and we cut the cake into some pieces, and we both happily ate the well deserved sweet. Just like before, I took half in the cooler, and I put the other half in his freezer, so he could eat it anytime he wanted to. I then left the house and walked back to mine.
This was when the true horror finally began. About a week after our birthdays, I went over to Alex’s house like normal. It was getting dark outside, but it was fine since I wouldn’t stay for long, I just wanted to go and check on him. The front door, though, was already open. “That’s weird…” I said out loud. But it didn’t matter, I bet his parents just forgot to close it. I walked to his room, like normal, and he was in bed, like normal. “Hey.” I said. “H-hey.” He said back. I sat on the chair that I always sat on when I was at his house, and said “how are you doing?” I knew I would not get the most positive answer, but I still thought it was worth asking. “I-I-I wish I was better, but I-I-I’m good.” I turned on the lamp on his nightstand since there was no sunlight. It was really quiet today, a lot quieter than normal. “Hey, I really wanted to address something to you.” Alex said to me. “Oh, what is that?” I asked back. “You see, last night-.”
There was a huge BANG downstairs. At that moment, I got so scared. I didn’t know what to do, but at the same time, I didn’t even know what was happening. And then, I heard footsteps coming up the staircase.
“Oh please, please, please.” Alex said. The footsteps stopped and I looked into the hallway. There, I saw the hooded man. Except this time, he wasn’t hooded. I could see his face. He stood there, for about a whole minute, and I got to see his face. He had pretty tan skin, he also had dark, black hair. He was pretty tall, but the thing that scared me the most was his smile. It was a smile that looked hideous. It looked as if someone stitched needles through it, and his teeth were rotten. They were every shade of yellow and black, and were scary to look at. But the thing that was the scariest, was the knife that he was holding. It was a large kitchen knife, it looked as if it were just sharpened. I backed away. I didn’t know what to do. I got so scared. I looked over at Alex. He looked the same as I did. Scared as ever and unprepared for what could happen. The man took a couple of steps forward. “All my life,” he sounded so raspy and deformed. “I’ve been waiting for this moment. I wanted to see you cry, I wanted to see you die. And it looks like I finally get to achieve what I have been waiting for, for so long.” Then, the man twirled the knife with his fingers, and threw it at me.
Alex jumped and the knife hit his neck.
“Alex, NOOO!” I screamed.
I looked up.
I looked at the man that haunted and tortured my whole life.
This person, no, this monster ruined everything for me.
This, being, it stalked us.
It watched us.
This thing, it killed my dog.
This menace, it made Alex bleed.
This monster, it killed my best friend.
I felt something in my heart. It was rage. I felt so much anger and emotion, that I felt I could destroy anything. I felt so much rage in my heart.
I grabbed the bloody knife from my friend’s neck, staggering as I walked forward. I then, filled with determination and every bit of courage that I had left, jumped at him and stabbed him in the chest. He sprayed blood out of his mouth, and cackled horrifyingly. “Dammit.” He said, blood flowing from his body onto the floor and onto me. “It didn’t have to go like this.” I said back. “At least I got my job done.” Then, he put his head down, and died.
“Axel”
It was Alex’s voice.
I dropped the body and rushed back to his room, seeing him laying on the floor. I knelt down, and held him with my arms. He smiled.
“Thanks for all you’ve done.”
Then, he dropped his last teardrop on my hand, and died.
I blacked out, only being able to see him one last time.
I woke up in my bed. It was dark in my room, but it was pretty light outside. It was 10AM, and it looked as if I woke up on the day after Alex’s death. I got up, and walked out of my room. I went into the kitchen, and saw both of my parents in there. When I saw them, they hugged me, and told me that they thought it was odd that I was at his house for so long without telling them, and when they went over, they saw Alex and a random man dead, and me, blacked out on top of him. They told me how much they were worried, and they told me they took me to the hospital, as well as Alex. They told me that the people working there said that he died, and that I was alive. They then took him home, letting his parents do the rest, and took me home.
I walked back to my room and laid in bed. I started thinking of all the fun memories we had together. We celebrated birthdays, we helped each other, we were there for each other. We were friends. I decided to go outside one more time. I checked the mail, just to do something, anything at this point. I looked inside, and there was a letter. It was for me. There was no return address, and it didn’t say who it was by. I took it, and brought it with me back to my room.
I sat on my bed, and opened the letter.
Dear Axel,
Hi, it’s me, Alex, I just wanted to tell you that last night. I saw that hooded man at my window, and it really looked like he wanted to hurt me. I used all my strength I could, to hide myself under the bed, and it seemed to work, he went away. I got back in bed, and fell asleep. I wanted to tell you this because I feel like he’s really wanting to kill me. I feel like he’s trying to make me cry as much as possible, so I die. I don’t know what to do, and I’m telling you this since I don’t know who else to, but in case he gets me, I just want to say this. I am so grateful that you got to be my friend, and I’m so happy we got to have a peaceful friendship with each other. I didn’t think I would get any friends, but I did, and I can’t tell you how much I want to thank you.
Thanks for everything.
-Alex
I put the letter down, then cried.