He Will Find You...

We live in a town of fear. Cut off from the rest of England. Nobody’s surprised why. One moment you could be sleeping soundly, the next, he’s upon you or you’re in his cabin. He took all six of my brothers, not to mention all six of my sisters. Only I remain. I am one of the seven remaining children of the town. The problem is that there are twenty-three households. None empty. Except one. In that house everyone was taken by him. Not a shock as that house was right beside his forest. The forest of terror .The forest that no-one dares to go. If you go in, you’re not coming back out. Ever. Some of the less intelligent children of the town dared each other to go into the forest for a laugh. I don’t expect them to be laughing now.

***

           Last night, another two children went missing. Five remain. I am still one. But yesterday was a night of a peculiar occurrence; the children’s parents were murdered, but not taken. Adults are usually never targeted. Unless they are trying to protect their children. The adults in the empty house tried (and failed) to protect their children. But nobody searched the house. Why would they? This sort of thing happens every day. My mother told me, “stay away from the forest and the empty house and that’s two ways to maintain safety.” I ignored her. I knew that he would take me anyway. Because in this town, no-one is safe. I won’t be surprised if he takes me today. Or tomorrow.

           The empty house -from what I’ve seen through the darkness (we never have any light – don’t ask me why) - is just a single tower, all on its own, just like the town, separated from the rest of the population. The windows are mostly broken, dark but with a reddish stain on one, I don’t want to know think of what it could be. It’s very difficult to see with all of the rain, mist, fog and lightening.

           I don’t want to go to sleep. I’m frightened, terrified, petrified of death, which he, undoubtedly, brings. I pray; pray that when, if, I wake up I’ll still be alive tomorrow. But I can only wait for the results to come in the next morning. If there is a next morning for me.

***

           I don’t believe it! After a night of fitful dreams – no, nightmares- about him, I woke up. Alive! But three others didn’t. Two remain. I (unbelievably) am still one. Why hasn’t he taken me? Am I, perhaps, a chosen one? No, that would be stupid. That nonsense only happens in fairy tales. But if only two children remain, then this is certainly my last day. I have to run. But where? I hardly know anyone in this town, let alone the rest of England. A crazy, maniacal thought enters my head: “Save the village before you die, investigate the empty house,” it says. I try to ignore it. I can’t! I start to walk out of my house and onto the street. I do not control my legs anymore, my legs control me! Resistance is futile. I am heading towards (and probably into) the empty house whether I like it or not.

           As I get nearer to the house, I see that it’s not a single tower, but five! Four connected by four walls, and one in the middle; a castle! And as I get even closer I see the sheer size of the castle. Colossal! Then I start to hear noises I don’t want to hear. Screaming! And a lot of it too. Like a were-wolf that’s turning. The temperature dropped suddenly. By a lot. I have read enough books to know that when there is a temperature drop like that, death is near.

<span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">            Some of the windows are broken with massive holes inside of them. Victim of him? I guess I’ll find out soon. Very soon. I arrive at a very large and intimidating door. If even the door looks intimidating, then that’s a bad sign. The door knocker was in the shape of a dragon’s head, finely crafted from bronze. The door lets off a squeal, as if in agony, as I open it. And as I enter this stone fortress of mass murder, the voice in my head says, ''“Welcome to hell child, welcome to hell.” ''And indeed, hell was what I was brought into. When I turn right, into the first tower, a hanging corpse, a trail of blood and a dim, dull depressing light bulb is my greeting into this stone cold castle. The door swings shut and the bronze dragon head seems to be manically, maliciously and murderously grinning at me, enjoying my despair. Death is certain. Escape is impossible.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">             As the corpse swings in the vicious wind, and the blood trail glistens from the light, I trudge onwards. Carefully avoiding the blood, I make my way up the stairs. The adrenaline is pumping through my veins almost excruciatingly by the time that I am at the top. Everything fades out for a millisecond as if I was about to faint, and here, at the top of the first tower, I see a burning, mutilated boy, obviously freshly mauled and set alight, as his skin is not ash and he is still muttering to himself. He appears to be asking, “Why? WHY?” He can’t see me, because his eyes are on the other side of the room and seemingly crushed. Then the flames envelop him and with one last scream, he was dead. Damn. Another one?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">             The fire remained, so at least I have a place to warm my hands, but that’s about it. I think that I’m starting to get hungry, but what can I eat? With no food inside this deathly fortress, and no way to get out, I’ll probably starve to death. Hmph. Well, time to proceed onwards.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">             I walk down the stairs and I start to get a headache. It feels as if I’m being stabbed through the head at an alarming pace. But clutching my head, I shuffle out of the first tower, carefully avoiding the corpse and the now dried blood, and straight forwards into the lower-left tower.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">Gah! I stagger but I get up as soon as the blackness clears. I almost fainted again! This time the floor is littered with corpses, all blue in the face, obviously just strangled. I notice that they’re all shackled to the round wall. What kind of sick abomination would do this kind of thing? And how did it do it so quickly? I shake my head and slowly trudge up the stairs. This time there is no blood to avoid, only the entrails hanging from the walls and ceiling. It’s horrible. However, it doesn’t affect my emotions one bit. Surely I should be disgusted. But nothing. No emotional changes whatsoever. Why? I think that it’s nothing to worry about. I’m under too much stress in order to think normally.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">I see another person, a girl this time. She is alive and begging for help so I start to run towards her when a shadow flickers past my eyes and I collapse backwards. I look up at the girl, only to find eight stab wounds in her body. This being is far too quick! He could kill me and I wouldn’t even know that it was him. I could be going up against death himself.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">I walk back down the stairs, again avoiding the entrails. This time, when I walk out of the lower-left tower, I head upwards into the upper-left tower. However, this time, when I open the door and I fade out, I am suddenly in the middle of the room. Of course, all of the eight people are already dead, a stab wound in each. I think that I’m starting to get a better picture of what this monster might look like. I think that it definitely has eight arms. How else could it stab eight people at once?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">I brace myself for what might be on the walls of the stairs, but there is nothing. I sigh with relief, but I know that at the top, something would await me. I near the top of the stairs and this time I do not fade out or stagger. All I see are a bunch of tools: knives, saws, spades, swords and hatchets. All of them are covered in blood and recently used. This is not a good sign.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">I walk back down the empty stairway and I wander towards the upper-right tower. In this part of death’s castle, I find the same things as in the previous tower so I decide to head into the belly of the beast, the middle tower.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">As I am walking through the door my mind flashes back...

<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; font-size: 20pt; mso-themecolor: background1;">***

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; mso-themecolor: background1;">I am walking towards the castle carrying something in my hands; it’s quite big. I can’t quite see what it is because I can’t look down. As I am walking between the trees in solitude, I look up to see a streak of lightning light up our town’s clock tower; it’s midnight! Nobody walks out of their house at night! This is a town rule enforced to prevent kidnappings by him. The only logical explanation that I can think of is that I am sleep-walking. I push open the huge, intimidating door of the castle, and then I’m brought back into reality.

<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; font-size: 20pt; mso-themecolor: background1;">***

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-themecolor: background1;">             Wow. That was a weird flashback. I’m sure that it can’t be real. Why would I be delivering something to this castle? Why would I even be heading towards this castle? I push all thoughts of the flashback aside, and I trudge up the stairs. This time, all over the walls there were... Mirrors? I don’t understand this as most of the items that he puts on the walls are meant to be scary. Anyway, I am reaching the top of the stairs and preparing for the final showdown. But here at the top of the middle tower is a boy, younger than me; he looks about ten years old (six years younger than me). He is not shackled or tied up to the wall but he is still pleading for mercy. I take a step towards him. He recoils. I don’t understand why he’s scared of me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-themecolor: background1;">             Suddenly, six shadowy tentacles burst out from my torso, all clutching knives. With my two real hands, I grab the knives hanging from each side of the room. Now holding eight knives, I plunge all of them into the child’s weak, defenceless body, killing him almost instantly.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-themecolor: background1;">             Realising what I’ve just done, all of my tentacles retract and I pull out two knives with my real hands. I drop these knives and realising what I am, I step backwards. Shaking, I reach down, blood on my hands, and pick up a knife. Deciding to put an end to this abomination, I raise the knife with both hands, mutter, “God, forgive me,” and plunge the knife deep into my heart.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro","serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-themecolor: background1;">             Feeling the blood trickle between my fingers, I feel the cold of death envelop me, and as I fall, onto my side, in this tower which no-one will ever find me, I with one last sigh, I let the darkness swallow me whole...