Update: I apologise for not posting on Saturday. I needed a break after posting everyday. So I tried to post a little bit with art I made recently. but in will still post stories and poems. Next time, I’ll inform when I need to take a break. Thank you for your time and thank you for reading my work.

Chapter 4

Victor left his new friends in the woods and headed  home on his bike. He couldn’t believe he made friends so quickly. Not only that, they liked him. But even though he was in high spirits, something was off-putting. Something didn’t feel right. He didn’t know if it was the night or the fact he was alone. Or the smell of death that seemed to follow him.

’Maybe, the urban legend was- no. Impossible.’ Victor thought. The thought of something following him was getting to his nerves. Did something really bad happen in his father’s childhood home? Not only that. Did his mother know? And was she holding information from him.

When Victor got home, the smell still followed him. And it grew stronger and stronger. His mother’s car wasn’t in the parking lot. He opened the front door and a gust of the smell hit him.

“Mom?” Victor’s voice shook. “Are you home?”

He looked around and found no sign of her. All he saw was a note next to an open box of pizza with a few slices missing.

The note said: “Dear, Victor. I’ll be out for a while. Here’s your favourite pizza, pineapple. Love, mom.”

Once Victor finished reading the note, he heard heavy footsteps from upstairs. In his fear, victor grabbed a knife and carefully not to make a sound upstairs.

“This is stupid.” Victor thought. “I should be calling for help.”

But being brave, he refused to be frightened out of his house. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was going to solve it.

When he got to the top of the stairs, all the doors were open. His mother’s dog was on her bed, not making a sound. Not only that, papers were flung all over the floor. Like the dog had got into one of the boxes and went on a paper ripping frenzy.

“oh, no. Poppy, what did you do?” Victor walked into the room to pick the dog(poppy) up, when he heard heavy breathing coming from his mother’s closet. He turned around and a black silhouette charged at him. Victor tried to stab whoever it was, but it grabbed hold of him and slammed him to a nearby wall.

I’m done for, Victor thought. Then he looked into the person’s eyes. It was his neighbour (Jessica) from across the street. She had a look in her eyes that was quite unsettling. Like looking into the eyes of a lunatic.

Victor tried to scream, but Jessica covered his mouth. She quietly told him to shush. Then she spoke.

“Listen carefully.” Jessica said urgently in a whisper, “You and your mom are in danger. You carry death’s heart. You need to follow me. Understand?” Victor nodded with sweat running down his face.

 “I’ll tell you more, but not here.” Jessica then looked at Poppy, “Death’s listening.” She said. Poppy then growled at her.

The front door was opened. It was Victor’s mother. Jessica was caught off guard. Victor kneed her and stabbed her on her back and ran downstairs. “Mom!” said Victor as he ran to her.

“What’s wrong, Victor?” asked Sarah.

“The girl from across the street is in my room. She’s covered in blood and-“

“Wait here.” Said Hobb as he pulled out his gun. When he was about to go upstairs, there was a loud crash like a piece of glass shattered and something heavy hit the floor. Hobb quickly ran upstairs. There was silence for a moment, then Hobb spoke. “This is officer Hobb, we need paramedics at-“ As Hobb continued to speak, Victor felt a cool breeze blow past him. Thirty minutes later, Jessica was pulled out of the home on a stretcher with her arms and legs tied around the handles. Hobb went across the street before Jessica was on the stretcher to her home. And when he came out, other officers went into Jessica’s home with body bags.

“What happened, Hobb.” Asked Sarah.

“Well, it seems the girl killed her parents then came across the street to kill you two.”

“Oh, god. We should’ve never came here.”

“Now, it’s ok.” Said Hobb. “I promise you I’ll keep the two of you safe ok?”

Victor heard what Hobb said. But something was off about him. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he was going to be wary about him.

The next day, which was Friday,  Victor and his mother was looking for clothes and supplies for school. He was completely bored. He was sitting on a bench with his back turned to a giant glass window. There was a tap on the window. Victor turned around to find his new friends, except Brandon, just walking by when they saw him. They then entered the store.

“Hey wassup, Victor?” asked Randy.

“Wassup guys. what are you up to?” asked Victor.

“Brandon wanted to show us something in the woods. What are you doing here?” asked Hayley.

“School shopping.” Victor’s mother walks up to them. “Hello.” Said Victors mother. “Victor, you’ve already made friends?”

“Yeah, met them yesterday at the park… Hey mom, can I go and hang out with them?”

“You mean, ditch me?” asked Sarah. “Ok, but you’re going to miss all the fun looking at rulers and pants.”

“I’ll manage.” Victor smiled as he walked away with his friends. Sarah was happy Victor finally had friends.

On the way to the woods, Victor filled in everyone on what happened on the night before. They were shocked by what they heard. “So that girl killed her parents?” asked Berta.

“Yeah, there were cops everywhere and everything.”

“Yeah, I know that girl. Her name is Jessica. I can’t believe there was a murder across the street.” Said Hayley.

“That’s insane- where’s Brandon? He told us to meet him here.” Said Randy.

There was a sound of a twig breaking to their left. It was Brandon. “Brandon what took you so-“

Brandon quickly shushed Randy and signalled them to follow him and keep quiet. When they were following Brandon, Hayley whispered, “Brandon. What’s going on?”

“I found some weird shit in the woods.” Brandon whispered.

When they got to a certain spot in the woods, there was blood, symbols and dead animal corpses nailed to the trees.

“What the hell is this?” asked Victor.

“Remember that urban legend we told you about?” said Brandon. “I think we stumbled into their secret hide out.”

“How did you find this?” asked Berta.

“I saw these guys pull up from a truck while I was far away. They were putting markings all over themselves then-“ before Brandon could finish, he heard a guy say ‘hey’. They look to find three men that discovered them. “Run!” Randy yelled. They all scattered in different directions and ran as fast as they could. Victor and Berta ran in the same direction while Randy and Brandon did the same. They found themselves around a river. They were tired and out of breath. “Is everybody ok?” asked Victor. They all looked at each other then realised Hayley was missing. They were still scared, but they decided to try and find her before those cult guys did.

Hayley found herself deep in the woods. She was lost and tired. She couched down holding her knees, trying to catch her breath. Then she heard a child’s giggle. “Guys, is that you?” She looked around and saw a blue fog. It surrounded her. And she started to cough because of the horrid smell of death. All the animals and everything went silent. It was a quiet that made you alert to every small sound. The laughing continued moments later. “Then all the children’s laughter spoke in unison. “I see you.” It said in a laughing, but angry tone. Without paying attention to what was in front of her she tried to run, only to bump into a standing dead corpse. And more than one hundred dead animals and people surrounded her. Their mouths were drooling blood and saliva. They were hungry. They all charged at her and the fog hid the horrible sight of them all eating her. Hayley was gone. Victor and the others searched and searched for her. Sadly they’ll never find her. For death had took his next victim.