Hello
World.
Unfortunately
this part of what has happened recently isn’t so pleasant. First of all, the first four days of staying
at Tasha’s house was great. I was
actually taking a short break from my search for Riley and I was catching up
with an old friend and having a good time.
It was also really nice to have full meals for a change. Instead of junk food here and there and some
days all that would get me through a day was a cup of coffee and a crescent roll
or a strawberry tart from a Starbucks.
Justine was also very happy to be inside a warm household once again. However these glorious spoils were short
lived. I walked into the living room one
morning to find Tasha watching a news report about the man I had killed, his
body was still missing and now they were talking about her mother. The news reporters, always looking for a good
story, were going on about how these two cases of missing persons could possibly
be connected but it was too early to tell for sure. Tasha turned the T.V. to mute and turned
around with a pissed off look on her face.
I stared blankly at her hoping that she wasn’t about to ask me what I
knew she would end up asking anyway.
“Do you know anything about this?” She asked, trying to keep her voice as calm
as she could. I slowly shook my
head. She didn’t need to know about any
of that. So why would I tell her? She eyed me with the greatest look of suspicion
and turned back around to continue watching the news. I quickly walked out of the room, grabbed a
bagel from the kitchen and left the house to go for a walk. I made sure not to go down any busy streets
as I didn’t want anyone to recognize me.
I was keeping up with mine and Riley’s missing persons case and I wasn’t
about to make any stupid mistakes. Even
though Tasha’s neighborhood was a decent couple of miles away from where Riley
and I lived I still took precautions.
About thirty minutes into my walk however I started to feel a familiar itch. The haunting ringing echoed in my ears and I
shook my head to try and get rid of it.
Nothing helped and I turned around to search for what I knew would be
near. There he was…standing across the
street from me. I shook my head again
because the ringing kept growing louder.
I suddenly felt something warm trickle down to my lips and my face
curled in disgust when I ran my tongue across my lips. The nasty pang of my blood was all over my taste
buds and I brought my sleeve up to my face to wipe away my nose bleed.
“Hey, are you alright?”
I heard someone behind me. I turned
around to see a young man looking at me quite concerned. He had to have been in his teen years,
probably seventeen or eighteen. I looked
back across the street at the Tall Man who was still standing there. The boy followed my gaze and he turned almost
as pale as the Tall Man. He could see the
Man? Before I could even go over this
thought in my head I was leaping onto the boy grabbing at his neck to keep him
from screaming. I squeezed hard with one
hand and was able to grab my knife from my jacket pocket. His eyes widened and he managed to utter a
gurgled “SHIT!” as I brought the knife closer to his face. I stroked his cheek with the blade and then
quickly jabbed it into the bottom of his jaw closer to his throat. With a quick jerk up to his chin he was
suddenly lifeless and I jumped off of him taking a few hasty steps backwards as
the Tall Man appeared before us and just as quickly disappeared with the
body. I stood there for a few minutes
staring at the spot that the boy’s body once laid.
“What is going on?” I found myself asking out loud. I wasn’t scared. Hell if I was scared by what I was doing…I
know I should be…but I can’t feel it.
All I felt was confusion.
Something was going on that I wasn’t getting. Why do I keep killing people I don’t even
know? Excluding Tasha’s mother of course…but…then
I had a thought. The boy had seen the
Tall Man before I killed him. How could
he see him? No one else I ever knew could. I had too many thoughts racing through my
head to sort it all out there so I cleaned my blade with my sleeve and pocketed
it.
A few days passed and I had been out of the house for about an hour before I
returned. Upon entering through the
front door I heard the T.V. on in the family room. It was the news again and this time it was
focused on another missing person. The
news woman described a teenage boy with the description of the kid I had killed
the other day. Avoiding the entire
situation I tried to hurry upstairs before Tasha knew I was even home.
“WILLOW!!!” I heard her yell, and it was loud.
I couldn’t avoid this situation so I made my way down to the living room
where I found her standing in front of the television with her arms crossed and
a furious look on her face.
“I’m going to ask you a question and this time you are NOT going to lie to me.”
She said and I stood there frozen.
“I know you know something about these missing people, and it’s not just because
Riley is gone too. You have something to
do with this and I want to know what.”
I didn’t say anything. I stood there
staring at her trying to keep a calm, straight face, but she didn’t like that.
“WHERE IS MY MOM!?” She screamed at me.
I couldn’t deny her the truth any longer.
“She’s dead.” I said in the flattest tone I’ve ever used.
Tasha stared at me for a few seconds before tears began to stream down her
face.
“GET OUT! JUST GET OUT!!” She yelled and
took a few steps towards me. I knew she
wasn’t going to hurt me but I was afraid anyway that she would. I grabbed my bag and Justine from the kitchen
and rushed out the door into the street.
I ran. I didn’t stop until I was
at the elementary school a little ways further into the neighborhood. I sat down on one of the swings at the park
next to the school and just…cried. What
is wrong with me? Why was I hurting and
killing people without any feeling? Why
was I doing it at all? I know that the
Tall Man most likely has something to do with all of it I just can’t understand
any of it. Nothing makes sense. I’m turning into a monster and when I think
about it I haven’t made any real progress on finding Riley at all. I had a friend but I’ve ruined even
that. Am I cursed or something? I need answers…but I have no idea where to
get them.
I don’t
know what to do…
~Willow