A Tale of M[]
A Tale Of M
The room was dark, cold, and filled with smoke, so much smoke that she had trouble breathing. She, of course, was Evelyn Matthews, nicknamed Ev by her friends. She was a girl of average height with hair reminiscent of the scene style and heavy black eyeliner that ran down her cheeks from her tears. It had only been days ago that Evelyn had been home with her mother. But now she sat there tied to a chair in the middle of that smoke-filled room with no clear sign of an exit. You might be wondering to yourself “how did this happen?” “Who took her?” let us tell you the tale of M, a foul thing that preys on the minds of young children only to lure them away into the night never to be seen again. A thing of evil..
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It was a rainy day when Evelyn Matthews awoke to her alarm. 8 o’clock like always. She was homeschooled but her mom like to keep her on a schedule, said it would help her get her work done better though she was pretty sure her mom just like to control things. Alas, Evelyn reluctantly got up out of bed and headed over to her closet to get changed, putting on her favorite, freshly clean outfit then a bunny hat to top it off. She loved her funny little bunny hat, made her feel happy and whole. It’s the little things, really.
“Evelynnnnn!” Came the sing-songy voice of her mother from down the hall, her footsteps only audible thanks to her flip-flops smacking against the ground as she walked, “I hope you’re up, dear,” she continued as she knocked on the door.
“I’m up! I’m up, just finishing getting dressed!” Evelyn called back, smiling a bit before shaking her head and reminding herself she wasn’t supposed to be happy. She was a teenager now, she needed to act it.So, she put on her grumpy face along with several beaded bracelets before heading out of her room and over to the kitchen where her mom had just returned to to finish making breakfast. “How did you sleep, dear?” Her mom, Rosemary, asked with that sweet smile of hers.
“Oh I slept alright I guess, could’ve been better,” Evelyn muttered, tracing the patterns on the table cloth as she sat there. “I’ll take it! Do you have any plans today?” Rosemary asked instead, casting a glance back at Evelyn and shaking her head a bit at her daughters angsty demeanor. She didn’t mind it, though, she just gave Evelyn the space she needed to grow into her own person in her own time.
“I’m 16 now mom, I don’t need you asking every little thing I do anymore, jeez,” Evelyn squinted over at Rosemary and crossed her arms instead, slouching back in the chair.
“Right, of course dear,” Rosemary replied with a soft chuckle, shaking her head as she looked back at the eggs she was just finishing up.
“Well, if you do decide to go out today just let me know first so I know where you’re at,”
“I will,”
Breakfast went by as it always did, mostly in silence with the occasional talk back and forth between Evelyn and her mom. After breakfast, though, her mom had to go to work, so Evelyn said her goodbyes before heading off to her room to work on schoolwork. It was boring, really, but her online teachers tracked what she did and told on her if she didn’t get her work done, so, alas, she needed to.
It took only a couple hours to get her schoolwork done and then it was off to the magical land of the internet where she could spend hours doom scrolling away, so that’s exactly what she started to do, that is, until she got a discord message that she had a message request. So, like anyone would, Evelyn opened up discord and looked over the message, her eyes flicking left and right as she read it;
M: Evelyn. You can call me M, I’m a friend and I wanted to reach out and ask you how you were doing.
Evelyn paused as she read this. She didn’t have any friends with ‘m’ names, did she? Besides, all of her friends were already added on discord, why would they be sending her such a random ominous message? Nevertheless, she accepted the message and replied;
CryingKitten87: I don’t know anyone named M
CryingKitten87: But whatever. I’m doing okay I guess, you?
M: I’m doing bad
CryingKitten87: Oh is something wrong?
M: Yeah, just trouble at home, I’m sure you know how it is.
CryingKitten87: Yeah I do, my mom is a total jerk
And so the conversation went on with Evelyn and M talking back and forth about their lives, M asking questions and Evelyn humoring them with answers. She liked having someone to talk to that she could relate to, it was nice.
Eventually, the time came that Evelyn’s mom came home and dinner was had, then Evelyn went right back off to her room to talk with M some more, a smile on her face.
M: So how old did you say you were? I’m 19
CryingKitten87: Whatttt I’m 19 to! >w<
She knew lying was bad but she didn’t want to scare her new friend away just because she was a little young. That couldn’t be too bad, right? Yeah, it couldn’t be too bad.
The conversation continued with more and more questions and casual conversation back and forth for hours that night. It went on like this for days with Evelyn chatting with M over discord, her barely doing anything else. Her actual friends rarely talked to her unless she talked first anyways so this must mean M was an actual good friend for once. The thought made her smile. She remained unsuspicious for a while until one question a few nights later..
M: So where do you live?
Evelyn paused at the question, staring at it and recalling the lessons she’d gotten on internet safety. Never hand out your address.. But M was a friend, she trusted him, so..
CryingKitten87: 298 Mulberry Ln, in Florida. Yours?
M: Oh my god I live near there! :D
M: Wanna meet up??
CryingKitten87: Uhhhhh
CryingKitten87: I don’t see why not, okay! OwO
And at that, the two got to planning, settling on meeting up the following night at the park. Evelyn had questioned why it had to be at night and M explained that his parents were very strict and he’d have to sneak out, which made sense to her. So, she agreed, and that was that.
The next day went by painfully slow, Evelyn messaging M every now and then as she went about her day, doing schoolwork, chores, all the things she usually did, then finally, as the sun set and dinner was finished, she ran up to her room to get ready, putting on some of her favorite clothes and doing her makeup to try and look older to match what she’d said about being 19. It took her longer than she would’ve liked to achieve the look she wanted, but she got it eventually and soon enough snuck her way downstairs, passing the doorway to the kitchen where her mom was doing the dishes, going through the living room and past her sleeping, elderly dog, then out the front door, letting it close softly behind her as she went.
It wasn’t too long of a walk to get to the park, but she got there soon enough and took a seat on the swings, looking up at the cloudy sky, then over at the woods that were placed beside the park. It was quiet out tonight, chilly, eary.. It made her nervous, but she stood strong, determined to meet her new best friend in person. When an hour passed by and still no sign of M, she took out her phone and sent a message,
CryingKitten87: Hey where are you at??
No reply.
CryingKitten87: It’s getting kind of spooky out here, are you almost here?
Still no reply, at least, not through her phone. From the woods behind her she could hear a voice call out,
“I’m here!” it sounded young, younger than her, even, “I’m sorry I’m late, my parents gave me a hard time,” the voice added, so Evelyn turned around to look back at the forest where the voice had come from, not seeing anyone there.
“That’s alright, just.. Where are you at?” She asked, standing up from the swing and slowly making her way over.
“I’m in here, come on, I found someplace cool you’ll really like it!”
Evelyn was hesitant, but after a moment of debating with herself she finally decided to go over, stepping over the falling fence and entering the woods. She heard M’s laughter from ahead and jolted, quickly running in that direction.
“Come on Ev!” M exclaimed as he lead her through the woods. She still couldn’t see him no matter how much she looked. It made her uneasy.. But still, she followed, and she kept following until she reached a building, an old house with the door open just enough to see how pitch black it was inside. It was getting colder, fog started to settle in in the trees around her and she started to find herself getting scared.
“Hey M I don’t like this!” She called out, frowning,
“Do you not want to play with me?” Came M’s voice from behind her and she quickly spun around to face him, her hat falling off into the dirt at her feet. Her face paled as she finally saw her friend standing before her. He was tall, much too tall, and his face.. His face looked like it was melting, his eyes bulging from their sockets and flesh bled down into his clothing. He had not two but four arms, all four of which were clasped neatly behind his back.
“Hello Ev,” he greeted with a grin, towering over her and a bit of that melted flesh dripped down from his face and it landed directly on her cheek, burning her skin. That was when she screamed, birds flying from the trees in reaction to the startling noise, but M wasn’t startled. No, he started laughing. Then, he reached out with one of those impossibly long arms that was no longer hidden behind his back and he grabbed hold of her face, digging his fingers harshly into her skin as he listened to her screams. He lifted another arm and grabbed the other side of her face, then her screaming stopped as she fell limp, having passed out from pain and fear.
An unknown amount of time Evelyn awoke, slowly opening her eyes and wincing at the horrible pain all over her face. She struggled to remember what had happened, but when it finally clicked she jerked her head up to look around, trying to move but failing as she found herself tied to a chair in the middle of that building she’d seen before. In front of her stood M, sat down on his own seat with all four of his hands folded neatly on his lap. Flames licked at his feet from the building, the smoke was thick. Evelyn could barely breathe, quickly looking around and screaming for help. But there was nobody who could hear her, nobody but M. The flames grew bigger, starting to creep up Evelyn’s legs and she screamed, screamed as loud as her poor smoke-filled lungs would let her, and to that M began to laugh; a horrible sound that echoed off the burning walls around the two before disappearing into the flames. He laughed until there was nothing left of Evelyn but her poor, naive soul damned eternally to his domain.
M stood and walked through the dying flames out of the building and paused, turning his head to looked at Evelyn’s hat that still laid there on the ground. He smiled, crouching down and picking up the hat in those long, melting fingers, before he stood back up straight and walked into the darkness of the woods, but not before saying;
“Goodbye dear sweet Ev, I’ll see you soon..”
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