The Laughing Stalkers

A police officer was on patrol late one night. It was dark and cold, and he was very tired. He drove around the small New Mexico town in his patrol car for hours, like he did every night. It was usually uneventful, seeing as the population of the town was only 667 people. On this night the officer took his break in the medium sized, almost pitch black parking lot of the town's only supermarket.

He sipped on his coffee as he checked through the police computer for anything worth looking at. Several minutes later, he was about to leave when suddenly, the mutilated corpse of some animal flew out of the darkness and landed on the windshield of the car. The officer jumped back in his seat, startled, when the blood from the animal splashed all over his windshield like a giant paintball exploding on the glass.

He got out of his car to try and find whoever threw the bloody mess. He shined his flashlight into the darkness, but the beam of light seemed like it just couldn't penetrate the blackness. He found nobody. He clicked on his radio to report the incident to the station, but when he waited for a response, all he received was static.

He got back in his car, feeling baffled by what had just happened. He sat back in the seat of the car and rubbed his eyes. Dumb kids, he thought to himself. Yet as soon as he thought that, he realized it was ridiculous that kids would toss a gory mess onto the windshield of a police car at 3:00 in the morning. He sat back and rubbed his eyes again, just as a loud, frantic thumping sound suddenly came from the back of the car. It sounded like somebody was standing at the back of the car and was slamming something as hard as they could against the trunk hatch.

The police man jumped up in his seat and quickly hopped out of the car, snapping on the flashlight and shining it towards the back of the car. What he saw made no sense. A tiny toddler sat with their back facing him at the back of the car. It made no sound. It didn't move a millimeter. The officer crept slowly to the tiny child. The beam of the flashlight shook in his hand. He kept moving slowly to the back of the car, frightened, despite the harmless young child sitting there. What could happen?

He finally made it to the toddler, and he wasn't sure how long it took him to move the ten feet to get there. He slowly reached down to the child, his hand shaking. He just barely touched the tiny kid's shoulder when it's head turned around with a lightning fast jerk. The tiny toddler's head had turned a full 180 degrees around, but the officer wasn't looking at that, he was looking at it's face. It was pure darkness, something unable for somebody to fully describe, let alone understand. Two red, shining lights were where the toddler's eyes should have been, but the rest of it's face was completely black.

The officer was trapped in complete and utter terror. His gaze was fixed on those malevolent, evil eyes. All he saw was the lights shining brighter, brighter, and brighter still, until he was completely blinded. In this moment his radio let out a sharp, high pitched, ear piercing sound. The officer fell to his knees, clutching at his throbbing ears. All he saw was deep, dark, red light. He fell to the ground, writhing on the floor from the pain surging through his skull.

Then he heard, through the radio on his shoulder, the terrifying sound of crazy laughter. The sound echoed through his head. The laughter beat at his heart. It penetrated every living cell of his body and would not stop. Finally, gathering what little strength he had, the officer stood up and ripped the radio off his shoulder. His sight began to return to him, but the laughter continued. He realized he now heard the laughter in his own mind, and he couldn't stop it. He ran back to his car and threw himself inside. He turned the key in the ignition but the car wouldn't start.

The man panicked. He reached for his radio to call for help, when he remembered he threw it away. He pounded on the car's horn as hard as he could, hoping he could draw the attention of someone, anyone that could help.

He pounded on the horn as loud as he could, and suddenly the headlights of the car came on. He saw through a spot not covered in dark red blood on the windshield, something horrifying. A tall, black, thin, humanoid figure stood in the lights. It had the same pitch black face as the toddler, and the same terrifying red eyes. The being stared at the officer, paralyzed by fear in his car by those red eyes. And it laughed. The man heard the laughter everywhere in his brain, and it was the most frightening, painful thing he ever experienced.

The officer finally broke the gaze, and with his shaking hands he made the last decision he would ever make. Though he wasn't looking at it, he could feel the dark presence of the creature getting closer to him. He felt the red eyes penetrating his consciousness, staring into his soul.

He reached down to his waist, pulled his gun out of his holster, put the barrel in his mouth, and pulled the trigger.

Hours later that morning, another police cruiser found the car in the parking lot that the cop had been in. The car was inspected, and inside there were no bloodstains or any trace of the policeman. A fully loaded police issue pistol was on the seat.

The missing officer was never found.

That day, the small New Mexico town's population went down to 666.