A few years ago while I was still in school I had what I can only describe as, I don’t know a bad, or terrifying experience! Let me start at the beginning.
I lived in a pretty remote place in Wyoming, it was peaceful having a wide open space like that to live in. No loud obnoxious neighbors, actually almost no one at all!
Anyway one night I was watching the news when to my surprise the story took place close to a town familiar to me. I recognized instantly from the many trips to get groceries. My elation and exited feelings quickly died, leaving me gulping to try and exile the lump that had formed in my throat. On the TV was a police sketch of a man, his mouth twisted in a sick grain that was explained that was explained by the anchorwoman. Whenever he was spotted he always had the grin plastered on his already creepy face.
The explanation only enhanced the disturbing feeling inside of me. The story as far as a could remember was that he was a cereal killer that went around bashing people with a sledgehammer. I silently thanked God that they didn’t show a victim onscreen, as they sometimes did on that particular news channel. I was on edge, rattled, and so I shut the TV off the sound of my breathing filled the silence of my house. I tried to get to bed quickly, every creak of the house just reminded me of that sledgehammer killer. I didn’t usually get scared of that type of thing, but perhaps the proximity to me and the fact he was still out stalking victims.
The next morning I woke, groggy from the miniscule amount of sleep I had gotten. I barely had time to get on the bus, but maneged anyhow. Throughout the day I wasn’t focused on school, because my mind kept slipping back to “him.”
I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder and I nearly launched out of my seat. My heart was beating at a million miles an hour! My teacher glared at me and the disturbance I had caused. As soon as he went back to rattling useless mathematic equations, I wiped around to find my classmate Jaiden staring at me with wide eyes. She like me was one of the rejects of the school’s pyramid shaped society. Me constantly being bullied for being nerdy, and her for being ugly. She wasn’t technically ugly she was just skinny. Like in a clothes hanging off her body unhealthy looking kind of way. But not grotesque like how the bullies acted like she was.
She whispered in a quiet almost sweet voice for a pencil and an eraser. I was happy to oblige, not just to take my mind off of the killer, but because she had always been nice, to me at least. I drew a smiley face on the eraser and peeked back to see her reaction. Just then the bell rang and that was the end of the school day. Everyone funneled out except for a few students, Jaiden included. I flinched recognizing the bully trio once again starting up on poor Jaiden, I being a coward left her. I regret that choice to this very day because If I would’ve stayed things may have turned out differently.
Anyway I walked home as fast as possible eager to see my house, mom, dad, anything to signal safety before the sun slid down the horizon. I shivered, but my terror was mislead as I got back to my home. I again had a terror filled night jumping at the slightest sound.
The next day at school Jaiden wasn’t anywhere to be found. I wasn’t sure what to make of it until after class. The leader of the bully trio whispered in a laugh disguised as a whisper something about Jaiden getting murdered and that she got what she deserved because of how ugly she was. I resisted the urge to gouge her eyes out with my fingers, and instead walked home. I spent it trying to get the image of a bloody, crushed body belonging to Jaiden out of my head. My worst fears came to pass as her parents filed a missing persons report. The weeks went by finding no evidence or body!
I had told the police of what I had heard, but there was nothing. After five whole months both the sledgehammer killer and Jaiden’s cases went cold with no new leads. Not even the tiniest bit of DNA sample. It chilled me that eventually life went on save for a new grave marked with her name… Jaiden’s name. The name of a kind girl I once knew. That all changed the next morning. I remember it clearly I didn’t have school anymore. I had graduated, and on that Monday they had found a body.
She was left on the side of the road. Her lower jaw had been broken, I’m not talking about a fracture or even a bone sticking out. The girl who I had recognized instantly despite her entire jaw being snapped off, her face just gone. It had been smashed with a sledgehammer! They showed a very high quality photo and video as the girl was loaded onto a stretcher somehow still alive. I almost vomited at the sight of the bone of her top jaw visible strips of flesh threatened to fall into her throat which was now an open black hole in her neck. I switched off the TV. The girl was the leader of the bully trio
She was now mutilated and now a jawless girl. I shuddered at the thought the sledgehammer killer was surely back. I didn’t get any sleep. I just sat in the bathroom with the light on. The next night I did the same. I stayed awake, Until my body gave out from exhaustion and I collapsed every night for a week inside the bathroom. The other two recently graduated bullies were found together mutilated in a similar way. One of their bones were found, but was shattered and unusable in any type of surgery they might try to save all of the victims.
I finally slunk underneath my bed covers and stayed their until I stopped shaking. I would’ve been humiliated if any one saw me in any other circumstances. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was next. I finally started calming down my breath was evening out my heart beat slowed.
Then I heard it. Those heavy thuds against the door of my apartment! They were accompanied by a loud gurgle of a scream, not quite like screaming underwater, but close to gargling saltwater for a sore throat. The thuds we’re steady like a pulsating rhythm in every even beat. The wail was erratic, one moment screechy the next like it was begging to be let in, almost frustrated even.
Then All of a sudden it grew quiet except for the faint sound of breathing, then nothing. It lasted for what seemed like hours. I crept out of the blankets and was considering looking through the peephole, when something smashed through the middle of the door sending splinters of wood showering around me! I screamed and leapt back as a sledgehammer and a leg poked through.
I hit the wall behind me unable to go anywhere as the figure convulsed sporadically as it tried to force it’s way through. I couldn’t physically do anywhere frozen to the spot in fear. My spine was gripped by ice cold claws holding me still. I just started in horror as it emerged.
It’s skeletal fingers gripped the sledge in a way that suggested it was way too heavy for the creature. Her white clothes were dirty and hung off her far too slim spindly figure. Her hair hung down her neck almost to her shoulders. Her bangs covering all of her face save her eyes peering out at me from inky black sockets. And her face… Her bottom jaw was gone, no blood, no gore, just gone and supposedly healed. Her teeth shown brightly in the now blinding light. Her uvula and throat clearly visible.
I don’t know how, but I was able to recognize her through her smile. I said her name quietly barely a whisper “Jaiden?” She made a gurgling noise and began walking over to me dragging the sledgehammer along, scraping on the wood flooring. I crawled into a corner covering my head and most importantly my jaw! I stayed in that position for who knows how long. When I slowly peeked out she was gone.
Then I saw something on the floor next to me I reached for it and brought it closer. It was a dirty old eraser with a smile. The one I had drawn into it. It sent shivers down my spine. However on the other side was written two words. “Thank you” had been scrawled along with a picture, another smiley face.
After that night I never look at anyone, in hopes they don’t they don’t reveal their teeth in a smile to me. I don’t sleep well at night, thinking only of if she would return. The most important change to my life is what I’ve learned. I put this on here as a warning for everyone. If you happen to see a women to skinny for her clothes, a woman who doesn’t have a jaw. Don’t flinch, don’t stare don’t point, but most importantly do not call Jawless Jaiden ugly. You’ve been warned, and don’t forget for goodness sake, smile she likes that.