Thornton

Before the story begins, I would want to say a few things. I am not going to beg you to believe this. I want to state a few facts. My name is Josh Rorick. The city in which this story happens is Thornton, Colorado, and the surrounding area.

I stopped attending school and live within my house in my own little world, and I'm currently taking online classes. The only face to face contact I keep on a regular basis is with my parents, and my cousin, Tyler. My cousin tends to stay at my house for a few days at a time, as he lives in Federal Heights, which is a few miles away. He doesn't own a car, and his girlfriend lives near me, so my house was a natural option. We have always gotten along, and share many similarities except for our appearances. One of these similarites being, we both are night owls. I happen to live in town homes, which are located next to a shopping center which contains a 24 hour grocery store.

The night had started off very normally. Around ten at night, Tyler had knocked on my back porch glass sliding door. I let him in, and for two hours we had played video games. We decided we would sneak out as we often did, and go to the grocery store. It was a chilly Saturday night as we stepped out of my house, hopped over my fence, and proceeded to the store. We bought two Monsters and a bag of chips. We sat at the empty employee smoker table outside. In the middle of talking, an unfamilliar teenager walked towards us. He asked my cousin for a cigarette. He sat with us and began a conversation; we immediately hit it off as friends.

Justin was his name. Tyler, and I would meet up with him every night around the same time. He was an interesting guy. He was homeless, but he was always happy. We had snuck him into my house a few times where he slept in my basement in the month we knew him. I met with Justin, and treated him to some doughnuts. I wasn't able to sneak him into my house this night, as my parents were starting to get suspicious. I felt bad for him, taking into consideration that it was pretty cold, so I told him I would stay out with him for longer than usual. We had found an area to block us from the wind. He had been smoking, and we were both thirsty, so I offered to go get sodas. I told him it was okay if he just wanted to wait there. I left to the store and got him an orange soda while I got a grape soda.

I've always been a prankster, so I crept up to the corner of the wall to peek around the corner. I was going to pop out to scare him, but when I peeked around the corner I saw something horrifying. Justin was laying on the ground with his neck slashed, and a man clad in black with a black balaclava covering his face. He had plunged a big silver blade in Justin's chest. After a few seconds which felt like being in the dentist office waiting room, I dropped one of the sodas. My body stiffened, and all of the hair on my body stood as I listened to see if the murderer would stand. I broke out of my stupor dropping the other soda, and ran to the back of the store, quickly climbing onto the roof of the shopping center. Never had I thought those summer days with Tyler where we had become so bored we began to climb anything would actually come in handy. The murderer walked around the corner, and I carefully looked from my perch. The murderer walked so casually now, silently checking nearby hiding places; all the while, Justin's now drying blood coated the bright silver blade gripped in that monster's right hand. I waited in that spot for hours, too scared that the killer would be hiding just from my view, waiting to see me leave my hiding spot.

Eventually, even fear and the cold was beaten by my lack of sleep. I awoke around 1 in the afternoon to the hot sun beating upon my body on the roof. I soon remembered the events of the past night, and fear overcame me again. I slowly climbed down the side of the building assuring myself the killer was long gone by this time. Walking around the side of the building, I expected to see yellow tape, and cop cars lining the site of Justin's murder. I was surprised to see nothing of the sort. I walked over to the corner, and peeked around it. Justin's body was gone. I slowly approached the spot where his body should be laying right now, rotting. Not even a stain of blood was on the ground. I walked home, puzzled as to how a body could just disappear. By the time I returned home I thought of a good explanation as to what happened. I must have had my leg pulled by Tyler and Justin. I entered into my house, and used the house phone. I only recently received a cell phone. Tyler answered his phone in a tired voice. I could tell he just had woken up.

“What?” he asked. I then accused him of pulling a joke on me with Justin.

Tyler replied with, “What are you talking about?” I soon recalled the events of the night. It took Tyler a few seconds to reply after I finished.

“Josh? Are you joking? I was at my house all night with Danielle,” I could hear his girlfriend in the background. I just hung up the phone.

My mind now sprung open with more questions than I could process. Was Justin really dead? Who was the killer? Would the killer come after me? Did he watch me return home? Should I call the police? Would they even believe me? I slowed my mind down, made a bowl of cereal, and began to answer these questions while eating. I had definitely witnessed a murder. I had no idea who the killer was. The killer might not have seen me as I ran, and there is a good chance that he won't look for me. I was sure no one saw me return to my house. There would be no use calling the police. There is no body, blood, or proof, and they will probably hush my story away at the mention that he is homeless, saying he probably left town. Hell, I didn't even know Justin's last name. I thought it best to just return to normal life, but I was sure I would not be out during the night.

Balaclava

My life was fine for a couple months until I walked by a local store. I paused in fear when I saw what I thought for sure was the killer on the roof of the store. The only problem was, there was no way onto that store. My cousin and I had tried to find a way onto that store, but it was 3 stories high with no way up. I ran until I was sure he could not see me, and I proceeded home where I didn't leave for a few days. The day I left, I was on my way to Tyler's house. It was on the way when a man covered in black with a black balaclava passed me. I was sure it was the killer taunting me.

He walked 20 feet in front of me for a few blocks before walking down a different street than my path to my cousin's house. I decided it was best to take a long nauseatingly zig-zag path to my house. I have not left my house since. I peek from my downstairs window sometimes in the night almost expecting the killer whom I have dubbed as The Stalker to be waiting for me outside my house. I often have nightmares of him slowly getting closer to my house with each dream. I just heard a tapping at the porch glass sliding door. It must be Tyler. At least I hope it is. The only problem is, in my last nightmare The Stalker was only feet away from my house.