The Midnight Walker

The Midnight Walker

Annabelle was never one to believe in demons and ghosts, but it was hard to ignore that grinning face that stared at her from the foot of her bed every night. It never stayed for longer than a minute before slowly walking into a dark corner of her room, and disappearing. Annabelle quickly learned this to be the Midnight Man, and she stayed up late the next night to see how the strange monster appeared. However, the unnerving creature did not show. Annabelle was distraught and confused, but she did have school the next day, so she had to get to bed.

The next day, Annabelle walked to school like normal, and felt fine the entire day, but it wasn’t until lunch when she felt very peculiar.

“Annabelle? Are you alright?”Her best friend, Claire, asked.

“Yes, why do you ask? Oh, are you going to eat that?” She asked pointing to a Clementine positioned between them.

“Umm, mo, it’s just-“In an instant the Clementine had been snatched up and eaten by the hungry teenager. “You um, never usually finish your lunch, and today it looks like you haven’t eaten in three years.” Claire said truthfully.

“And the weird thing is I’m still hungry.” Annabelle said scratching underneath her chin.

“I’d go see the nurse if I were you. It could be something bad.” Claire said. Annabelle simply nodded and waked to the nurse’s office.

~*~

The nurse simply dismissed it as hunger pangs and sent the confused teenager on her way. Annabelle couldn’t help but feel it was something else. How could she be so sure? She had to do more research on this Midnight Man.

She grabbed a laptop and quickly searched up Midnight Man. The results were terrifying. They all had pictures of a small pudgy, smiling face staring at the camera at the foot of the bed. It looked to almost resemble a hyena’s smile. Most cases said there was a man that would stare at them from the foot of their bed and then disappear into a corner of the room no more or less than a minute late. Some people went to the police, but they could never help them. Some people even ended up in insane asylum’s because of how terrified they were, but there were no cases of people being extremely hungry after meeting the creature.

Upon further digging were more stories of depressed, insane, and crazed patients. Then Annabelle found something.

There was a story of a little girl, no more than 14 years old, who had had extreme hunger pangs and then died of anorexia. Her name was Annabelle Christa.

That’s Annabelle’s name.

How could she be in the papers when she was still here? Her mind raced with all possibilities. That was her name, age, and it even showed her correct birthday. Maybe it was just a coincidence? Maybe there was another girl named Annabelle Christa who had her exact condition, age, birthday, and name as she did.

Annabelle shut the laptop and breathed in and out. She could feel her lungs expanding and contracting wildly. Her heart felt ready to burst out of her chest. She exhaled and opened the laptop once more. What she saw made her heart stop completely.

On the screen was Annabelle on the ground, dead, laying in a pool of her own blood, and she was laying on the library floor. There was one sentence under the picture.

Are you ready Annabelle?

Annabelle was confused. She had trouble breathing, and then something hit her stomach. She looked down to see her stomach was stretching. Like someone was trying to get out from inside her stomach. She screamed and held her arms as she cowered on the ground. It hurt, and it was only getting worse.

She felt her skin ripping away from her body, and she felt blood pouring out all over the floor. She looked up to see something she never thought she would see. It was the man. The Midnight Man. He stood up and looked over at Annabelle’s mutilated form. “You were an excellent host, but I’m afraid I won’t need you anymore.” He said as he smiled a twisted grin.

“Why are you doing this? How are you doing this?” She managed to utter out.

“Oh, well in the few minutes you have left; I guess I’ll enlighten you on your situation. The real Annabelle Christa has been dead for 3 years. I simply stole her body and waited for the correct moment to make my glorious return. I needed someone, although, to play the voice acting to this little game. And who better than young Julia Torrez?” He said.

“That’s me?” Julia asked.

“Why yes it is. I needed to feed to make myself stronger. That explains the hunger pangs you had. Now I also needed an accomplice in all this. Claire, would you please enter?” The Midnight Man asked. Claire stepped through the doors and smiled at Julia’s broken form.

“Oh you poor thing. I hope you didn’t suffer too terribly. “Claire said as she let out a terrifying laugh. She grabbed the top of her head and began to shed it away. Leaving a body of pure muscle behind, but Claire was still alive. She grinned at Julia and spun around. “Do you like it? This is my true form.” Claire said. “Oh and writer, you can stop calling me Claire. My name’s Mimic.” Mimic replied.

“I hope you understand now what you’ve done unknowingly. You’ve unleashed hell onto yourself and the world. Goodbye sweet little… Julia.” The Midnight Man said as he walked hand in hand with Mimic. A single tear strolled down Julia’s cheek. Everything she knew and loved was a lie. How would her parents carry on without her? She just didn’t know. She closed her eyes and waited for the regret of a thousand years to fall on her small shoulders.