“What was that?”, Bill asked as he turned to look at the door to the basement. Janet looked at him and surprise and asked, “What sound?”. Bill walked towards the door and placed his head against it, and then there was a large thump that shook the door on its hinges. Bill jumped back and said, “Don’t tell me you didn’t hear that?”, Janet still had a confused look on her face. Bill felt frustrated and grabbed the torch next to the door, he was going to find out what was causing the noise even if Janet didn’t believe there was anything. He slowly opened the door, looked back at Janet and headed down the stairs. He stepped on the first step, and it creaked causing him to stop and hesitate as if he was going to sneak up on something. He shook his head and took another step and another creek. This is crazy, why am I so concerned by the sound coming from this women’s basement he thought to himself, and then he heard another noise come from the far corner, this put him on his guard. He wanted to make sure Janet was safe so he slowly stepped down the rest of the stairs, and putting the torch out as far out in front of him he could so he could see if anything was coming. Stepping down onto the floor from the last step he heard something in the corner and what sounded like something falling. Bill squinted hoping he got a better look and asked, “Is there someone there?”, but no one answered. He slowly walked towards the corner where he heard the noise when he saw what had caused the noise, it was a cat. He didn’t know that Janet had a cat and chuckled to himself as he turned towards the stairs. “Is everything alright down there?” Janet yelled down. Bill looked from the corner up towards the stairs and yelled back, “Yeah, everything is alright. It was just the cat.”. He heard what sounded like Janet laughing, he wondered what was so funny and then heard the door to the stairs slam shut. He ran up the stairs and found it locked. “Why did you lock the door. Let me out of here Janet.”. The next thing he heard was a cackle coming from the other side of the door. Janet’s voice seemed to have dropped at least one octave, but he knew it was her when she spoke to him. “I wasn’t talking to you dummy. I was talking to my cat.”. Bill thought this was crazy and banged on the door asking her to open up and let him out, but she wasn’t opening the door. Bill stood there for a second and decided he would head downstairs to see if there was another way out, and that is when he saw the cat again except it had morphed into a huge creature. It resembled a cat but had multiplied in size tenfold, its claws had grown out, and its teeth were now fangs. He turned but there was nowhere to go when it lunged up towards him. It tore him into pieces and the last thing he heard was Janet saying, “I hope that is enough, thanks Bill.”.
I’m feeling the pain flowing through my body and can feel my head start to pound. I look around the room and see the IV dripping into my arm. The beeps from the monitors are steady which is something new since I first arrived here. I know they told me there was a flat line initially when they first brought me in last night. I’m here only by the luck of the draw; my passenger wasn’t so lucky. The doctor looks me over and says, “Nice to see you back with us. You were out for a little bit.” I can barely hear the man speaking to the woman next to him, I don’t know who she is, but she seems concerned about me. She comes over and holds my hand and says, “Oh honey, I’m so glad you are alive.”. I stare at her for a second and finally ask, “Who are you?”, the look on her face tells me I should know her. She stands up and turns away and says something to the doctor, and then turns back to me and she says, “I’m your wife, Barbara. Don’t you remember me.”. I shake my head letting her know I don’t. She begins to sob and walks out of the room. The doctor approaches my bed and asks, “Do you know who you are?”. I must admit to him that I have no idea, but I know there was someone with me that died in what I can only assume was a car crash. The doctor seems upset and asks me if I know what happened. Then he begins to explain about the accident and that my friend Joey didn’t make it, and there was something else. He lifted the blanket, and I can see that my legs have been amputated, and I begin to sob. That’s when I see my next visitor in the corner. The figure appears to me with the black cloak and sickle. He points at me and mouths, “It’s your turn.”. I nod to him and a smile appears across my face. I’m happy when I suddenly hear the machine beside me flatline and he takes my hand. My legs are there, and it is time for me to leave. As I’m walking past the doctor and Barbara my wife and here the doctor say as he looks me directly in the eyes and says, “He will give you death, and you will love him for it.”, and he is right there is now peace in my heart as I make my way to the bright light.
I’m loving this new type of material to lay down on. It helps to keep me cool and is softer than any of the other ones I have experienced thus far. My family loves me as well they should I have been with them for generations. I remember the first generation I lived with, it was so many years ago. That first generation was living in the woods of 17th century Virginia, a colony of the new world. Life was rough and living on small mice all the time was hard. The family loved me, but they let me wander, which wasn’t me. I didn’t have a choice though because how else would I eat. I lived on birds, mice, and any other small critters I could find. It wasn’t pleasant. The following generation didn’t improve much but they did live in the city of Boston Massachusetts. The house was much cleaner, and the food was so much better. They would put cut-up liver into a bowl, yummy. During this period of my life, I never had to step out except to do my business. The world was good until the people in my house wanted to start a war with Britain, then life got rough and we lived outside the city for a while. The generations to come always improved, but I made sure the people knew I was an inside type of cat, and when they created cat litter there was no more outside for me. I was living the life of luxury with pillows of my own, sleeping in the window watching the world go by, and doing my business with indoor plumbing of my own. Life couldn’t be better or so I thought until I was handed down to my recent family. This is simply the best life right now. I have a self-cleaning bathroom. I have silk pillows on the bed and the old woman simply adores me and gives me snuggles every night. I eat the finest foods I have ever seen, but she is old, and her grand kids have asked what was going to happen after she dies. I know not a nice question, but I appreciate the thought of my well-being. I know now that I have been willed to the granddaughter. She has kids and they are the nicest children. They take care of me and pet me, they love to play, and I know that I will be happy. I have been in the Jackson family for over 400 hundred years, and this is the next stage of my life coming up. I hope the granddaughter’s children are nice as well because life has been good so far even with some of the rough years in the beginning. I know I’m the luckiest 405-year-old cat that has ever lived.
The water was smooth as glass when the boy walked out to the end of the dock. Staring down into the water he saw his reflection and started making funny faces, this was until the reflection stopped reflecting what he was doing. The reflections eyes lit, and sharp teeth were bared. The boy jumped back and went running back to the cabin where his family was staying yelling over and over, “Daddy, mommy.” The boy’s parents came running to him, his dad picked him and asked “Tommy, what is it?”. Tommy began explaining what he had seen in the water as tears began running down his cheeks. Tommy’s mom and dad looked at each other and explained that everything was ok and that he must have just seen the disruption in the water and that he should go wash up because supper was just about ready. The boy went into the cabin and did what he was told while the parents sat outside and looked at the dock. “You should go down there with him later and show him that he was just seeing things.” Tommy’s mom told his dad. John shook his head and said, “Debbie, he needs to stop watching those horror movies. His imagination is just running wild, but yes, I’ll take him down there after supper.” The family sat at the table and Tommy’s dad explained that they would go down after supper and take a look at what he saw. Tommy said he didn’t want to go down but if his dad went down and told him all was ok, he would believe him and try to forget what he saw. Tommy’s dad shook his hand and said they had a deal. John got up from the table after he had finished eating and told everyone he was heading down to the dock and walked out the door. As John walked down to the dock, he thought to himself that this was ridiculous. He decided he wouldn’t walk down but just fib a little and tell his son that he didn’t see anything, and this silly nonsense would be done. “Tommy, come here.”, John said after he was outside for a little bit, “Did you see anything Dad?”. John explained that he didn’t see anything, and this seemed to put Tommy at ease, and he headed off for bed. John felt comfortable with how things turned out and him and Debbie headed off to bed themselves. Tommy sat in his room for a little and kept thinking about what he had seen and decided he wanted to take one more look for himself. He quietly lifted his window and quietly made his way down to the dock. He began walking down the dock till he reached the end, closed his eyes and looked down. There was nothing but his reflection looking back at him. He took a sigh of relief and began to turn when something grabbed him from behind and pulled him into the water. He splashed fighting to keep his head above water. Something kept pulling at him and pulled him under several times until finally he broke free and pulled himself up onto the dock. He wanted to scream but he knew his parents would be mad at him for sneaking out, so he went back to his window crawled in, changed out of his wet clothes and crawled under the covers until he finally fell asleep. The next morning the family gathered around the table for breakfast. John looked at his sun and asked what he had planned for the day. Tommy looked at him and said, “I think I’ll be staying in the house today. I’m not feeling very good.”. His parents looked at each other and his mom asked if he felt ok. Tommy told him yes and went back to his room. John decided he might go down to the dock and do a little fishing, so he got his things together and made his way down to the end of the dock. As he began setting his things up, he looked out across the water and was trying to decide if it was a bobber or lure day and decided on a bobber and worm. Once he got his rig all set up, he sat on the edge of the dock and dropped the bobber down. He had just started to relax when he looked down by his feet in the water and saw something and shock came over his face. There in the water was the face of his son looking back at him and he was mouthing something, so he bent down to listen, and he heard the voice say “Danger Dad.” That’s when he heard Debbie scream. He jumped up and ran to the house and that is when he saw what looked like Tommy, but it wasn’t Tommy. What he saw was a wild-eyed boy with Tommy’s face standing over the body of Debbie charging towards him yelling, “I told you there was something in the lake.”
The key was placed into my hands, and I bowed before the king I recited the Key Bearers promise, “With this key I am able to access all and see all but will not take for I am the protector of all entrusted by the king.” “Rise Key Bearer.,” the King Paul said as he lightly touched my shoulder with his staff. I gave him a small smile and he smiled back. This was a great honor that had been bestowed upon me, and I do not take it lightly. The Key Bearer has the magical key to all the locks in the kingdom, including the ones in the castle. The king entrusted me with this responsibility when after I was able to open the locked door to his chambers and thwart a would be assassin. His highness knew he could trust me with his life and thus I was given the key to all of the subjects locks as well has own to be their protector. Now along with the locks to all the homes in the kingdom it also afforded me the ability to have free room and board, and since I was homeless before this was a great perk. The king even allowed me use of his cooks, and access to any foods I wanted. This truly was on of my lucky days. After the pomp and circumstance was over, I decided to take a walk through the bustling town below the castle. I was truly blessed today and wanted to talk to my great friend Richard. As I walked down the road past the stores and pubs, I saw him standing along side a horse stable drinking a pint of ale. “Hello, my friend.”, I said as I walked up to him. We shook hands and he smiled ever so devilishly and said, “So did you get it.”, “Indeed I did.”, and showed him the key. We both had a good chuckle over it and walked on down the street to grab some food because our bellies were grumbling. When we walked into the first pub the owner recognized who I was and brought over two pints and some bread, he even bowed while saying, “It is an honor to have you here Key Bearer.” Richard looked at me and said, “You are certainly lucky to have a friend like me a would-be assassin.” With that we both laughed and knew the town and all of its gold was ours for the taking, and who would suspect the King’s entrusted Key Bearer.
“I see a man. He is dressed in rags and coarse long beard. His hair is disheveled and appears to be pushing a grocery cart,” and with that Brian Middleton collapsed. Detective Jackie sat back in his chair and shook his head and said, “what the fuck is that supposed to mean. That describes about every homeless person in the city.” The chief stared at him and put his finger to his lips to let him know to be quiet. Billy continued with his description of where the body of Jonie Mitchell could be found. It was near a dumpster in an abandoned building in a small industrial area. The chief smiled and looked at Detective Jackie as if to say “Well, what are you waiting for?”. Mike jumped to his feet and went out of the interview room slamming the door. He knew he would regret that later. Mike walked up to his partner Jackie Bullton and said “Ok, the psychic says we need to go down to the small industrial site on the west side of town.” He made sure to use air quotes to put emphasis on psychic. Jackie smiled at him and said, “So the chief is buying this crap, huh?”. Mike shrugged and said, “I suppose so.” They grabbed their jackets and headed out. The industrial section of town was a disaster, and every building looked the same. “I wonder which abandoned building this supposed dumpster is supposed to have Jonie’s body in it?” Mike said as he kicked a rock. Jackie smiled at him and grabbed her cell phone to call and have some uniformed officers come down to help with the search. After six hours of searching one of the uniformed officers came running up to detective Bullton and said, “We’ve found her, or at least it’s a body.”. Jackie called Mike on her radio, and they went to where the officers and sure enough there she was. She had been beaten pretty severely around the head. Mike looked over at the CSI officer and said, “Go ahead and see what you can and let me know as soon as you have finished so I can take a look at what you got.”. Both detectives headed over to the police station and just sat down at their desks when the phone rang. Mike answered the phone and his jaw just about dropped to the floor and said, “Are you sure?”, and he kept saying it over and over before he finally hung up. He looked at Jackie and said, “They found Brian Middleton’s card on her body.”. Looking at each other they called down to the chief to ask if Middleton was still here and what was found on Jonie’s body. When they got to the chiefs' office they rushed in and told them what they found. The chief looked at them and said, “He left about four hours ago. He said he had to go overseas, he looked at his watch, and said, “His plane left about two hours ago.”. Mike was afraid to ask the next question, but he knew he head to, “Has he offered to help with other cases?”. The chief dropped his head and said, “Yeah, at least 20 other cases.”. They realized then they had probably just let a serial killer go and who knows where the hell he was now.
The relaxing sound of the waves crashing along beach created a sense of peace inside of me. I had always enjoyed that sound even if I didn’t like the smell of the ocean, but the sound and view couldn’t be beat. I looked down the shore and saw a pier stretching out into the water. There were people standing and fishing. I could the silhouettes of the people against the sunset, it was simply amazing. As I continued down the shore, I started to think about all the people that had walked these shores along the ocean in Florida. All the people that had enjoyed the same views as me. Then I came up one what looked like footsteps leading into the ocean. I was surprised how they would have surprised they had to have been there since I hadn’t seen anyone recently. As I got closer it appeared as though the footprints were starting to fade, and then as quickly as they had faded, they reappeared. This seemed to happen over and over as if someone was walking into the water and then the footprints were washing away. It became mesmerizing and I couldn’t look away, and then when that wasn’t amazing enough something else happened that I have no way of explaining. It must have been the 5th or 6th time when I looked out into the water and there she was. She had to be the most beautiful woman I had ever seen and couldn’t have been more than 20 yards or so out from the shore. Her eyes appeared to be a dark brown and she had long brown hair. She was dressed in what appeared clothing from the early 19th century. I stared at her intently as if she was standing on the surface of the water. I stood and watched her for about two or three minutes when she smiled at me, waved and disappeared. I looked down at the footprints and saw them once appear and disappear, but they didn’t reappear again. This is the first time that I’ve mentioned this to anyone and I’m sure you won’t believe what I said, but I know what I saw and won’t ever forget that day.
Jim stared at the words on the screen and sat back in his leather back chair. He reached forward and grabbed his tumbler of imported scotch and took a sip. The taste of the liquor on his lips felt refreshing and the sensation it gave him was the sensation of ease. He set down the glass on the desk folded his hands across his chest and sighed. He was stuck and needed some inspiration for his horror novel. Standing up from the desk he flipped off the light and headed downstairs to make himself a sandwich. Standing at the counter he pulled some sandwich meat out of the fridge along with a tomato, lettuce, mayo, and cheese. He began to assemble his sandwich, and his mouth began to water. He loved his nighttime snacks before bed and helped him sleep. He poured himself a glass of water and sat down at the chair at the counter to eat before bed. He was about to take a bite when he heard a light tap on the front door. _Who could possibly be here at this time of night _he thought to himself. He hadn’t told anyone he was here. Not that he had a lot of friends, he was reclusive and didn’t like people around especially when he was writing. He turned back to his sandwich when there was another rap on the door, only this time it was louder. He set the sandwich down and turned towards the door and now the knocking became a banging. He went to the drawer near the sink and pulled out a small meat hammer and went to the door. Standing at the door he raised the hammer and yelled “Who’s there.”, there was no answer, so he asked again, still no answer. He stood there for a second and then he heard what sounded like a voice, but it was so soft he couldn’t understand what the person was saying. He put his ear closer to the door and heard the voice whisper louder “You know who I am.”. Jim stepped back with a look that showed shock and fear. He recognized that voice, but it wasn’t possible and then he heard it again, “You know who I am.”. This time he was sure he recognized it; it was his brother, but he passed away in a car accident five years ago. “John is that you?”, he asked, “Yes, it should have been you.”. Jim stood back and the thoughts came back to him, but his brother would never say anything like that. It was five years ago, and he had been working on his first novel. His mother had called and asked him to pick her up from the store, but he was busy and told his brother he needed to go. On the way to the store a drunk driver had swerved into his lane and his brother had swerved to miss him but lost control and hit the center barrier, he was killed on impact. Jim began to sob and said “I’m sorry bro. I know I should have been the one to get mom, but I was too absorbed in my writing. It became so important to me.”. There was silence after he said that and then the voice spoke again and said, “Thank you, but that’s not it.”. Jim thought for a second and said, “Then what could it be?”. You let me marry that crazy woman and she drove me crazy up until the day I died, and I’ll never forgive you. I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your life because of that asshole.”. Jim laughed and opened the door, but there was no one there. Even in death his brother had a sense of humor.
Mary watched as Jason; her brother pulled up to the house. There was a girl in his car with him, its Ann from school. She couldn’t believe her eyes, she knew Ann and her reputation, this couldn’t be good. She walked down the steps of the house when they pulled up to the house. Ann sat in the car as Jason got out and ran to her side to open the door. As he opened the door he bowed as if she was the queen or something. Mary saw the smile appear across Anne’s face as she looked up at her, Mary sighed and ran down to the car. “Hey Jason, can I talk to you?” Mary asked, “Sure sis, what’s it?”, “I need to talk to you in private.”. Jason looked at her suspiciously and told Ann he would be right back, and him and Mary walked into the house. “What are you doing with her?”, Mary asked. “What do you mean, what am I doing with her…we just started going out and going to a movie.”. Mary shook her head and sighed, “You can’t go without with her. She has a terrible reputation of treating her boyfriends terrible.”. Jason stared at her in disbelief and said with disgust, “You never like any girls I go out with. You are just like mom was.”. Mary looked at him with shock, “How could you say that. Mom loved you and just cared about you.”. Jason stood there for what seemed like eternity and started to walk away, Mary grabbed his arm. She looked at him with what was a sense of fear, “You can’t go. I beg you to not do this, it isn’t going to end well for you.”, but Jason just pulled his arm away and walked out to the car and told Ann to get in they were leaving. As Jason was starting to back up, he looked back at his sister and she yelled, “Why are you going with her?”. Jason of course didn’t hear her and hauled ass down the road away from the house. Mary walked back into the house worried her brother was going to have his heart broken by this girl who had cheated on every boyfriend she had. The next day when Mary got up, she started making breakfast before school and went in to wake up her brother for school, she yelled “Mark gets up, its almost time for the bus to get here.”, she flipped open his door and saw he wasn’t in his room. She ran out of his room and checked the rest of the house, but he was no where to be found, and then her phone buzzed with a message. Jason: Hey sis I’m leaving and heading out. I need to find my own way and Ann is the one that can help with that. Thank you for everything sis. Mary simply couldn’t believe it, and that was the last she heard of Mark until a year later when his body was found in a ditch two counties over found by a hunter, but Ann was never seen again. Mary could only say to anyone who asked “Why did he go with her?”.
Billy’s mom walked into his room and saw all his toy’s laying around. “You know you are going to have to start picking out which ones you want to keep before we move don’t you?”. Billy nodded and began picking up toys to give away to needed kids in the neighborhood. His mom smiled at him and walked out of his room.
Billy hated his mom for making him get rid of any of his toys. He hated his mother period, but he didn’t know why. He continued putting his toys in the box when he got to his G.I. Joe doll. I can’t get rid of Joe, he thought to himself, packed him away in his footlocker, and set him off to the side, he was ready to move now.
Bill sat looking at the footlocker in his closet thinking about that day he had to get rid of his other toys. I can’t believe I still have my G.I. Joe he thought to himself and opened the lid.
“Hey buddy, how’s it hanging?”, Bill’s went as wide a saucer and he closed the lid to the footlocker. “What the hell was that? he said out loud. Then he heard muffled voices in the box. He decided to open it up again and when he did, he heard the same thing only this time an arm reached up and stopped him from closing the lid and out jumped Joe.
“It has been too long in the box Billy I need some air.”, the toy said to him. Bill was shocked at what he was seeing and dropped the box to the floor. The G.I. Joe jumped out of the box and stretched his body and looked up at him and said, “Aren’t you going to say hi to your old buddy?”. Bill looked down at the toy and mumbled “Hi buddy.”
Over the next few minutes, the toy told him about being in the box and how he missed playing with him and finally said, “Boy you have certainly grown. I bet you don’t remember that day you closed me in the box, do you?”, Billy shook his head and began to think back. I remember my mom telling me to pack things up and then….” Oh yeah, you told me to unpack you first when we got to the new base.”.
Then he thought about it some more and remembered what had happened. When they got to the new house his mom had surprised him with a new bike. The bike he had been asking for all summer because he had helped so much during the move. He forgot all about his other toys and that is when it was shoved in the back of the closet.
He smiled down at Joe and said, “I’m sorry buddy. I wanted to keep you so bad to play with, but with everything going on I forgot. I just saw the footlocker this morning when we were going through stuff since my mom died.”. Joe smiled and said, “That’s alright, do you want to play?”.
Bill explained no but his son would love to, and he knew Joe would like it as well. He ran to his son’s room to show him his new toy. Joe had a new boy to play with and Bill knew they would be the best of friends like they had been when he was his son’s age.
