Written by Kakarot89
The night had settled in, a time when the normal activity of life ceases and the abnormal begins. The house of Alvin Fairchild was quiet, until a sudden THUD! shook Alvin Fairchild from his sleep. He looked around his room, trying to gather his senses, for the baseball bat. He recalled it had been in his closet. He leapt out of bed and dashed towards the closet. He felt around blindly for the string for the light, until he successfully found it. He pulled it and found a shoebox on the ground with several photos surrounding it.
He sighed as he lifted up the box and a broken baseball trophy lie underneath. He picked up the trophy and stroked it as a wave of nostalgia washed over him. He smiled lightly to himself before he shoved the broken piece of garbage back into the shoebox. He began gathering the photos and other miscellaneous crap he had kept, and putting that into the box as well. He continued this until he came across the journal he had kept during his four year stint. The journal meant something special to him, whether it be nostalgia or something more, he didn’t know.
The journal rested in his hands as he tenderly stroked it along the spine and cover, as one would stroke a lover. Like a lover, it opened itself up to him. The page it opened for him was about something he’d never forget.
July 28th
I did it! I’m no longer a virgin! Though, I have to admit…it wasn’t what I expected. The guys at school make it seem so awesome but it kinda sucks. Maybe they haven’t done it yet…but why do people make such a big deal out of it? Maybe I’m broken. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Maybe I really am gay. I would punch out my old man if he was right. Fucker.
Alvin smiled to himself as he read the passage from so long ago. It was funny the stupid things that his younger self worried about. He flipped a few more pages and began to read.
August 31st
I got in a fight today. A few of the guys in the locker room were going to shove a plunger up another kid’s ass. I didn’t win the fight but I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t shove the plunger up my ass. I was fortunate enough for the coach to walk in and see them kicking the shit out of me. Fuckin’ A I hate jocks.
This passage made him shake his head. He could still vividly remember that incident. He closed his eyes and deeply inhaled. His hand turned the pages as he slowly exhaled. This passage was very different.
September 15th
I was walking home today and I had this strange feeling that I was being followed. I walked backwards for one entire block to be sure but I couldn’t shake the feeling.
Alvin couldn’t remember this incident. It had been a long time ago now so maybe he had just forgotten it but for that to be the only thing written on the page seemed odd. He turned the page and saw a figure drawn across two pages in a red pen. Next to it in his own hand, The Man in Red, Must Escape the Man in Red. Not only the note but the picture of the figure terrified him. He threw the book across his closet and stared at it, his heart racing. The Man in Red was a figment of his imagination…wasn’t he?
Yes, those years he spent in the hospital convinced him of that. That still didn’t convince him that the Man in Red was just in his imagination. He rose up from the floor and left his room to get something to drink from the kitchen. He opened the door to his bedroom and stared at the long dark hallway. He chuckled to himself over his own stupidity and began to slowly walk towards the kitchen. It felt like an eternity to reach the kitchen, but he finally did. He grabbed a glass and filled it with water.
He eagerly gulped down the water and filled the glass again. It quenched his dry throat and he turned to go back to his room. But what were those two lights he had just seen? Those couldn’t possibly be real…could they? No, of course not. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shuffled back to the hallway.
