| abstract
| - I live in rural Massachusetts. I had a nice home. Small, but me, my mother and father, and my little sister fit comfortably in it. We had a good life, until it all changed. It all started on that one, cool morning in the middle of fall. I was sitting at our old wooden table, pouring some Frosted Flakes into a bowl. My sister, who was nine, was sitting across from me, doing the same. We were getting ready to go to school. I was going to the high school, and my sister was going to elementary school. I finished my breakfast quickly; I was pretty hungry. It was about 15 minutes before the bus would arrive, so I decided that I would watch some T.V. I sat down on the brown couch heavily due to the fact that my backpack was weighing me down. I grabbed the remote and clicked the red power button. The T.V. turned on with a bright flash. The news was on. A woman with a black microphone in hand was reporting just outside of the woods that surrounds most of our small town. On the bottom of the screen, the blue letters read "Serial Killer Still at Large." Serial killer? I thought. How could a series of murders be going on in our town and I haven't heard about it? I continued to think. Considering our town was small and news like this gets around the whole town within hours, I thought it was strange, but shrugged it off. Besides, I wasn't one to watch the news anyway. My thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling of an engine. The bus was here. I ran for the door, saying "Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad." in the process. I ran out the door and got on the bus just in time. On the bus, most of the chatter was about the recent murder. Based off bits and pieces of conversations, no one knew more than I did, so I decided not to mention it. We were near the school and stopped at a red light. I saw red and blue lights. It was the crime scene. I pressed my head against the seat in front of me to get the best possible view of the scene. To my horror, I saw the victim, or what remained of him. There was blood everywhere, staining the grass. The person's arms and legs were missing. However, the bones of the limbs were lying next to the victim with many cracks in them. The head was missing also, and a large gash in the chest revealed the vital organs, which almost caused me to hurl up my Frosted Flakes. The scene eventually disappeared from sight as the light turned green and the bus continued towards the school. It was a normal day, and no one talked about the murder. It was almost as if it never even happened. Well, that was until the lunch period. Everyone was talking about it. I sat down with my lunch next to my friend, Jack. I take a bite of my turkey sandwich and looked up at Jack. "Hey Jack, you hear about that murder? Pretty scary shit if you ask me." Jack looked up at me, clearly excited. "Actually, I've noticed a pattern in the murders. All of them take place in or outside of the woods. The victims have been murdered in very similar ways according to the news." I lean forward and reply, "Yeah, they did say it was a serial murder, smart one." Jack put his hand up and said "No no no, there is more to it than that. I've been researching the history of this area, and it turns out that these murders happen every 50 years. There is something going on here." That statement sent Jack and I into thought, and we were silent the rest of the lunch. As the bus rolled away from my stop, I walked into my house with Jack. My parents weren't home, and my sister was still in school. After a bit of talking and devising, we decided to go check out the area around the crime scene. We walked out of our back door, towards the woods. I was a bit nervous. Jack, on the other hand, was smiling and excited with pen and notepad in hand. When we reached the crime scene, nothing was there but some blood on the ground. The police had obviously cleaned the mess up, but they didn't do a very good job. With that, we walked into the woods behind the crime scene. Immediately, we found a set of deep footprints set far apart from each other, indicating the victim was running from someone or something. Jack whipped out his pen and paper and jotted down some notes as we proceeded though the woods. Jack seemed concerned about something. I turned to him and ask, "What's wrong?" He didn't even respond or even look at me. He just pointed up. I looked up and noticed that a clear path in the thick branches had been cleared above us, but it was ten feet from the ground. It looked as if something huge had been chasing the victim. Jack finally spoke, "Strange, huh? Not only that, but do you see any other footprints behind the victim's footprints? The apparent cause of death was by decapitation. This doesn't add up." After Jack said that, I was even more nervous. We looked up and saw the pink and purple sky and realized it was getting dark. We decided to head back. When I got home I found a note. Great, I thought. I'm gonna be sleeping alone. It's not that I thought I was going to get murdered or anything, but it was kind of unnerving knowing a murder is on the loose. I turned the T.V. on, hoping to take my mind off it. When I turned it on, a man with large cuts all over his body and a missing arm was being shown on the T.V. The headline was "Survivor of Attack Describes Killer." Then a paragraph appeared on the screen which read: "He, he was tall, about 9 feet or so. His eyes, they were all black, sunken in too. His mouth was full of jagged teeth, covered in blood. He was skinny, so skinny. I could see his elbow bones and ribs." The screen turned to the news reporter saying that he would be transported to a mental hospital the next day. On that note, I was just so scared I went to bed. I woke up the next morning. It was Saturday. No nightmares, thank God. It was 10:30 and I remembered the man and how he was getting transported to the closest mental hospital. My parents and my sister were asleep, so I snuck out the back door and got in my dad's car. I drove to the mental hospital. When I arrived, I asked to see the most recent person admitted there. The women at the desk looked up and said "Oh, you mean the attack victim? Um, he committed suicide last night. He was screaming something about how the Nightman is gonna get him or something. I'm sorry." That chilled me to the bone. I got into the car and drove home. When I finally got home, I noticed there was a massive hole in the front of the house. I got out of the car, scared and confused. I looked down the hole and saw it went through the back, towards the woods. Oh no, I thought. I ran to the stairs, ready to run up them to see if my family was OK. I was stopped dead in my tracks. Coming down the stairs was a large trail of blood that looked like it had come from a dead body being dragged. I followed the trail which led to the woods, then stopped right near the edge. I looked up and saw my my parents' and sister's heads nailed through the forehead onto a tree. I choked back vomit and broke down on the spot. I cried, and cried and cried until it was dark. Then I came to my senses. I was full of rage. I walked to the closet, grabbed my dad's shotgun, and was ready to face this "Nightman" and shoot his fucking head off. That was a mistake. I loaded the gun and turned around, ready to face him. He wasn't in the woods. He was standing right in front of me. I was paralyzed with fear. He was tall, so skinny. Only someone terminally ill could be that skinny. His eyes were sunken in and pure black. His skin was leathery and grey. He opened his mouth, revealing razor sharp teeth, and spoke in a demonic, deep-toned voice. "You and your friend were fools. You think you will uncover the truth, but the murders are never looked at as supernatural, which in this case they are. I have deposed of your friend and your family, and you are the only one remaining. As a final word, it has been me all along. That worried feeling you get, that sensation of being touched, those things you see in the corner of your eye, it has been me. It will always, be me, the Nightman."
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