The wind whistled and a small gust of air rushed through the crack in my window hitting my sweaty face. I woke up gasping for air. I had the nightmare again. I looked at my clock which read 3:00 A.M. It was the first day of school but every time I woke up like this I never could fall back asleep. I walked outside and got embraced by freezing air that sent chills all over my body. I glanced at the eerie moon light that lit up the night sky. The nightmares didn’t stop like I thought they would, they just kept coming back nonstop. I was starting my senior year in high-school and when 7:30 arrived I started walking to school in the clean pair of jeans and shirt my mom had prepared for me the night before. When I walked through the school gates I saw familiar faces and horrible memories flushed through my mind. I felt empty with no one to talk to and before I knew it the last bell had rung and I was walking home. I walked home as silent as I had walked to school.
I walked by Charlie’s house and Alex’s and remembered all the things we went through that summer. The thing that happened to us is unimaginable and living that nightmare every day is horrible. I walked up the ladder into the tree house we had built and sat on the splintering wood. I look up at the painting Lilly had made in the center of the curved roof, it was almost unrecognizable with all that black soot from the fire that had happened last year. Our gun was held by two rusty nails on our plain, wooded wall. When I opened the small dresser that was also attached to the wall inside, laid a booklet. The booklet wasn’t any booklet, it was a memory booklet full of funny pictures that Chris had put together with his film camera he had gotten from his mom on Christmas. I saw pictures of all my friends, Chris, Alex, Lilly, and Charlie. They are all gone now and I’m the only one left. It all started on the summer of 1980.
The Alarm sounded and I slowly raised my hand to hit the snooze but instead of hitting the cursed button, I hit Charlie right in the nose. He jumped up and wrestled me down from the bed and slapped me back. That usually happened since most days Charlie would come over. He would put his sleeping bag on the side of my bed where the alarm was and I would always “accidentally” hit him in the face. We both got ready for the camping trip we had decided to take with the rest of our friends and hopped into my Audi R8 to pick up the rest of our “gang”. Chris didn’t want to come since all he wanted to do was play his damn video games like he always did. Luckily, Lilly and Alex were up for it and after picking them up we headed up to the mountain area to find a good area to camp.
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After seeing a bear zone sign on the road Alex instantly regretted coming. Alex is kind of scared of everything including girls. When we approached the camp sight we saw one of the worst sights ever, a torn-up tent with blood stains was shown through crime scene tape that was around the whole area. When I pulled up to the officer who was supervising he told us “A family of four was found dead here this morning’, and by the looks of it they got killed by some kind of creature”. This stunned all of us, so we decided it was too risky and headed back home. When we got home I told my parents what had happened and sure enough it was on the news that night. I was still surprised because that had never happened before in our town. We live in a small town of about 3,000 and I know everyone pretty well. I have a favorite place to eat and the waiter had my meals memorized. That night I told Chris what we saw but he didn’t really care about it.
All of our parents had gone to a trip in Europe so we were pretty much alone. It didn’t scare us but our younger selves would have been way more scared to be home alone. We made it back to my house and we all decided to watch a movie. The movie was a scary one but it didn’t really affect us in any way except for when Lilly almost had a heart attack on a jump scare part. The movie finished and then we decided to play some board games. While we were playing the board games we heard a faint tapping on the window across the room. We figured it wasn’t really anything and let it slip. Chris really wanted pizza so we ended up buying 2 large chesses pizzas from Domino’s. While we waited for the pizza to arrive the strangest thing happened, the window latch opened by itself. That really pushed us all of our seats. We ran out of the room and slammed the door shut. In that moment we heard the door bell ringing.
Chris immediately thought it was the pizza guy and it was. We took the pizza, gave the man the cash, and closed the door. Right after closing the door and placing the fresh pizza on the table the pizza man came running back into the house. He was screaming and we saw a trail of blood following underneath his footsteps. He screamed “Close the door NOW!” I ran as fast as I could to close it but a dark figure with a hockey mask held his hand firmly on the door handle. I felt his strength, as I attempted to shut the door. I stopped for a second looking around me and thinking to myself, “Is this the man who killed that family we saw?” In an instant I let go of the door and screamed for everyone to get their asses into the basement. Now I know that plan was a bad one. We all scurried into the basement where we shut the door, put my mom’s broom and mop across the double door entrance and hid underneath an old table covered with cob webs. We heard his slow loud footsteps get closer and closer until they stopped. We could hear our hearts beating and out breath going out of control. Then we heard a loud bang and the broom and mop instantly cracked in to.
I had one last idea to get us out alive. I told everyone to break the windows leading to the cool dewed grass in my backyard. We broke the glass out and made sure no sharp ends were still there. Everyone got out through the narrow entrance but Chris (who was fat from years of video game playing and chip bags) couldn’t fit. We all tried of thinking of ways to get him out but he just couldn’t. We could hear the man breaking through the furniture we had put in front of the door and then we heard Chris scream. Then it was silent and I swear I heard the blood pouring out of Chris’s back. The man was just a mask in the dull moon light and he slowly told us “Your next”.
I looked at everyone else (the pizza man already gone only suffering two scraped knees from falling on the pavement). We all started running. We didn’t have phones so we could report anything to the police so we did the next best thing. Alex had learned how to jump start cars when he was younger and the first car we saw he started his work. As Alex was trying to find the write wires to connect, the man walked out of the shadows and I saw a gun in his hands. I screamed “WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” Alex finally got the car to start running but we heard a shot, it was lucky. Lilly was shot in the back; the gun man had hit her in the back. We all continued to pile into the car holding Lilly’s wound to stop the bleeding. The gun man took a couple more shots and hit out two of our tires. Alex hit the gas and even with only two wheels we managed to get away and to bring Lilly to the hospital.
When we arrived at the hospital, we rushed Lilly into the ER and we got our burden taken form us by the paramedics. We sat in the ER looking into the bright lights that never got turned off. I couldn’t hear anything, it was all a blur or slurs and mumbles. The only thing I heard was “Max, Alex, Charlie, please come in”. We all stood up and walked through the doors of the hospital. We looked at the nurse with stress and fear as she told us the horrible news. Lilly was dead, she had died from getting hit in the heart through her back. She bled out and there was nothing we could have done to save her. We looked stunned and I laughed, “There is no way she is dead. She can’t be dead”. I started crying and Alex and Charlie walked me out of the hospital and put me into the car. In the car we locked all the doors and listened to some music. Suddenly a news alert interrupts their music and an announcer says “Local teen is found dead in basement after alleged gun man stabs him 10 times.
Be on the lookout everyone until this man is contained the streets aren’t safe.” We all looked at each other and were silent. We drove to Alex’s and went inside closing and locking all the doors as we entered. We approached his room and opened the door. We locked his door and made our beds for the night. As we charged our cells and turned on the TV to watch the news, Alex brought up the idea of fighting back. “We should catch that son of a bitch guys and end him once and for all. He killed Lilly, and Chris. That shit doesn’t happen every-day and we don’t need this guy to kill more people. We have to avenge them, we have to kill him.” The next morning, we all woke up after 12 P.M because of how we didn’t go to sleep until 3 in the morning. We were all tired and I had cuts everywhere from the glass basement windows. We all took showers and put on some clean clothes. We were going to make some homemade weapons to find and kill the masked man.
We got into the car but realized that the tires were all fully out of air. We had no choice but to walk 4 miles through-out the neighborhood to the newest Hard Ware store. As we walked in the 80-degree weather I started breaking a sweat and the sweat started to burn my cuts and eyes. I stopped and wiped my face and when I looked up I saw the masked man staring right in front of me and I thought I felt his hot breath hitting me. As I screamed Alex and Charlie grabbed me and asked what was wrong. They sat me down on the pavement and I looked into the sky. I had hallucinated and this was just the beginning of my horrors coming to life.
We finally had made it to the main road and arrived to the store. We bought weapons, drills, and bullet proof glasses panels. We rented a pickup truck, loaded everything into it, and drove all the stuff down to Alex’s, and put everything into his room. We had made his cozy room into a war barracks, creating weapons and shields to fight off the man in the mask.
While all three of us were putting nails into bats and sharpening our pocket knives we heard a ring at the door. Alex didn’t want to take chances so he took his 9mm hand gun from under his mom’s bed and slowly walked towards the door. When he looked through the peep hole he was surprised to see a FedEx worker tapping his foot away impatiently. Alex opened the door and the man said, “This is for Alex Moore”. Alex took the package and the man quickly took off getting back to his car that was loaded with un-mailed packages. Alex bought the package into the house and all three of us huddled around it. Alex popped a nail off one of our weaponized bats and cut the tape off the edges. When we finally opened it, we saw its condense wrapped in plain brown paper. We pulled it out and a letter plopped out onto the carpet. Before reading it we all decided to see what it was so Alex unwrapped it. To our surprise, it was Chris’s hat. We all starred at each other with fear as we carefully read the letter that fell out. The letter read, “This hat is only a part of him, you will never get him back. The graves will be filled.”
Charlie jumped up and said we needed a plan on when and how we were going to strike. He said, “We are not waiting any longer. We are going to finish these weapons, barrack our car, barrack our house, and then if he tries to come for us we will be ready.” All of us got right to work. With such a small police force in our town this man couldn’t be stopped. People like us, had to help.
We covered the window with a layer of bullet proof glass and made sure it was very stable. We had made 3 bats that were covered in spikes and 2 hand guns with 5 bullets each. Alex had hot-wired another car and he boarded the windows with the same bullet proof glass as the house. By the time we were finished installing the security cameras it was 9 and pitch black. We all got back into the house where Charlie was making us coffee with extra shots of expresso so we could stay awake all night. As time went on, it was quite and finally after 6 hours we decided to call it a night. But not even an hour later a small beep woke me up. It was the security cameras alarm system when someone was in the walkway. I looked up not believing what I was seeing. I nudged Charlie but he kept sleeping.
That’s when I heard it, one of the floorboards in the hall way creaked. Then another and another until it stopped and I could hear the man’s breath seeping in through the small crack on the door. I slowly got up but when I opened the door and started firing my gun, there was no one there. Alex and Charlie both woke up startled and started screaming. All I could do was stand there in awe. After all of went to bed I had a dream that we all got shot and died. It was a nightmare of some sorts and when Alex woke me up it was 3 in the afternoon. Charlie wasn’t feeling well, he was puking and his lips were dark blue as if he was freezing. We decided to rent a movie so we left Charlie home alone.
When we came back it was quite and dark. All the lights in the room were off except the night light that was plugged into the wall. We entered the room where we were working on weapons and where Charlie was sleeping. We were relived for a second until we heard a creek downstairs. It was 12 midnight and instead of going downstairs to see who or what was there we just went into the room and locked the door. The next morning me and Alex both woke up to see Charlie still sleeping. I nudged him but he didn’t move. We both rolled him over and saw that he had stab marks all along his chest. We started to panic. All my adrenaline made it impossible to perform correct cpr. After almost an hour of trying to bring him back we decided it was too late.
Charlie had been murdered and there was nothing I could of done to prevent it. We rushed him to the hospital where they brought him into the morgue and told us that we should try contacting his parents. After calling a couple times his mom answered the phone She seemed like she was having the time of her life. Music was in the background and I heard a waterfall in the distance, in Europe it was morning not night. I told her the bad news and she questioned me as if I was telling her a joke. After telling it to her at least 5 times she started crying. I heard her call a man’s name and he got on the phone. It was Charlies dad. He started to panic and asked what had happened to Charlie. All I could do was tell him the truth.
After the 1-hour phone call with Charlie’s parents, both me and Alex were emotional but at the same time filled with anger or what they call in science potential energy. All I needed to be set off was another news story about another person that had been murdered. The kill count for the man who had ruined our lives was up to 6. The family of 3 and our 3 friends. I always ask myself why the man went after us, what had we done so bad? We started to drive back home and as we were driving I swear I saw the man standing in the middle of the road staring at me, but then we just ran right through him like he was a cloud of mist. We finally arrived at home and Alex opened the door. Everything was normal so we decided to make something to eat. Alex made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, one of his specials.
We decided to call our parents and tell them what had happened. After talking to them for 3 hours and having to listen to them saying “stay inside, lock the doors, keep a gun on you” we called it a night. It was 3 in the morning and I thought I would never get sleep this summer. The next morning, we woke up and got into the car. We drove to our tree house we had built in middle school with the help of Lilly’s dad. The tree house was technically Lilly’s and the huge painting she had made in the center of the roof proved it. Even though it was hers we all called it our hangout spot. We would always spend our days after school huddled together talking about who we had a crush on. The place really brought back some of the best memories I had in life. All those memories were priceless just like the people I shared them with.
When we entered the tree house I saw our gun on the nails I had hammered into the wall. I took it off and checked to see if any ammo was in it. Sure enough, it had 3 shells inside it. I told Alex that it would be a great weapon to use against the man so we put it into our bag with the rest of books that Lilly drew in. We descended from the tree house and we got an amber alert on our phone. It said “White Honda Acord stolen with child in the back seat”. We looked at the street and saw the same exact car, the man driving it had a mask. I yelled “we have a chance lets go get him!” We both ran to our car and Alex started the engine, he hit the gas and we started on our car chase.
It was about 20 minutes into the car chase when I decided I was going to shoot out the back tires of the man’s car. I couldn’t miss my shots since we had a limited supply of ammo. I took one shot but it missed flinging the bullet into a road sign. Luckily my second shot hit his right tire. We were driving on a freeway at 70 mph. The shot was enough and the man lost control of his car. The car went side to side until it tipped over doing several rolls until it finally hit a tree by the wooded freeway. Alex hit the brakes and we stopped right in front of the smoky wreck. The engine was still going as if someone was still pressing the gas but the sides of the car were dented and the left side was pushed in from hitting the tree. Then it hit me. We were casing this car because of the kid inside the car.
Regrets ran through my head and I started to realize I could have killed the kid when I shot out the tires and made the car wreck. I checked the back of the car and surprisingly there wasn’t any kid. I looked in the front seat and I saw a person wearing a full-face mask. There were blood stains on the front glass and he was unconscious. I called the cops and they arrived shortly. They cuffed the man in the mask and took his face mask off. It was a slightly bearded man with dark rings around his eyes. The officers put him in the back of their patrol car and gave us some thanks for catching him. Later that night we received an anonymous call and we answered, it was that same chilling voice we had heard in the basement at Lilly’s house. The place Chris died. He said, “I guess you have been fooled”.
We were shocked. The man had just been arrested. Or had he? We turned the tv on and the broadcast was talking about none other than the man we had caught. The news reporter was saying that the man was clueless about what was happening around him. He said the last thing he remembered was crashing his car into a tree. Then I realized that he was getting set up. I told Alex, “dude the real masked man set this guy up so we could run all around town while he could be doing god knows what to other people.” Alex said, “well what could of he done”? I started to think and something came up to me. I said, “remember that letter he gave us? He said that it was only a memory. Maybe he is going to take away those memories we had shared and wipe them out of our lives!” We both looked at each other and said “the tree house!” We both ran into our car and started driving to Lilly house were the tree house was. No one was home because her parents had also gone with the rest of our parents to Europe for a month. We silently closed our car doors and I pulled the shot gun from the back seat just to be safe. Alex got the hand gun with 3 bullets still left inside. We broke the side gate with a kick and entered into the backyard.
When we entered the backyard, it was dark and we couldn’t hear anything. We approached the tree house and as we were climbing we heard a spark. The top of our tree house was engulfed in flames. I ran down the ladder and grabbed the hose turning it full blast. I started spraying the top of the tree house with water and after 3 attempts that took 7 minutes the fire was finally out. We looked around us and the sky had turned black again after the fire was out. I took a small lighter and flickered it on. We walked around the tree house and decided the masked man was not here anymore. I pulled out my flashlight and turned it on dim. We walked up the tree house and I pointed the light at the drawing Lilly had made. It took her 2 full school years to finish and those 2 years were gone. The whole painting was covered in black soot. I tried rubbing some away but it was gone the painting she had made was gone… forever.
We sat up there for an hour or two thinking about all that was happening. We couldn’t wrap our heads around the things that happened this summer. We can still die; the man is still out there. After we talked about everything Alex decided it was time to leave and we would come back in the morning when it was sunny. We both hoped down from the tree house and went home. As we entered it was normal as usual. We went to our room and locked the door and went to sleep. The next morning, I was sore. It was from holding the seat belt for 20 minutes while hanging out the window trying to shoot the tires out. My right arm was sore and my hand was cut. I rolled over to see Alex already awake and sitting in the rocking chair thinking. I got up and took a shower and brushed my teeth. As I was brushing in the mirror I saw a dark figure walking close to me with a knife. I screamed with my mouth full of tooth paste. Alex came running in but he saw nothing.
He grabbed my shoulders and said I was hallucinating again. He sat me down on the edge of the couch and calmed me down. I relaxed and laid down thinking about all of this. I decided it was a good time to go back to the tree house. We both got into the car and made our way back to Lilly’s house. We entered the back yard and saw the destruction in full light. It was sad. The tree house was ruined. We decided to rebuild it so we went to a local hard ware store buying new wood and paint. It took most of the day but after we were finished the tree house didn’t look like it was in a wild fire. We only left the center where Lilly’s picture was alone. It was the inside of the dome roof so it was not noticeable until you actually went inside. After a while we just sat there tired from all the nights of sleep we had lost. I started dozing off when a gun went off. It wasn’t Alex it was the masked man.
We ran into the near woods after jumping the backyards 10-foot fence. The man closed on our tail. We rushed through all the unrooted trees and spikey bushes to small opening. I climbed up a tree and Alex did as well. We waited and soon enough the man came running by with a gun in his hand. He didn’t even see us. I still had an idea. All our guns were in the back trunk of Alex’s car and if we could get to them I would not even hesitate killing the masked man. We waited for about an hour and then decided it was time to strike. We hoped off the 7-foot tree limbs and started running full force to our car. As we were running we heard someone behind us screaming “come back!” We continued to run and finally made it back to our car. Alex didn’t must of lost his keys and we had no choice but to break the windows. I got my shotgun and he got the pistol. We hid behind the car and waited. The gun man starting firing at us with a semi auto gun.
Bullets were spraying everywhere and we had no choice but to run. As we were running a bullet hit me in my thigh. I started to limp but got behind the cement wall that encased the neighborhood hood houses. We couldn’t stay here for long and we ran across the street safely. We were in the open so we jolted into the woods. About 10 seconds into the wood run I heard a huge metal trap slam. Alex looking up at me terrified. His leg had gotten caught in a bear trap. I didn’t know what to do so I had no choice but to protect Alex while he tried to break out of the bone crushing pain. I waited and waited and then the dark figure appeared he was holding a gun and I didn’t take any chances. I shot him. I shot him in the chest and he stumbled. He shot 5 shots all of them missing me. I had hit him right in the heart, and he was bleeding out. He stopped moving but then got onto his knees. He had his gun in his hand and I wasn’t ready. He took a shot before falling onto the ground dead. The shot had hit Alex in the throat hitting his main artery. He was bleeding out and I could not stop it.
I had called the police and they questioned me for about an hour. It was the next day I found out Alex had died. I sat in the police station heart broken. I had no one left all of my friends were dead and I was all by myself. I waited and waited until I was released free. I got into my car I had left there about a week ago and drove to my house. It was quiet and dark but I didn’t really mind it. I didn’t brush my teeth or take a shower. I only thought about the past I had with them and the future I would never get to make.
