Chapter 8

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Mrs. Slain awakens in bed next to her husband, who was sound asleep. When she glances over on the nightstand and looks at the digital clock she sees that it's five minutes past four in the morning. Just ahead outside the bedroom she can see a little light shining on the floor in the darkness of the house. She gets out of bed and walks out of the room to see that the light is coming from upstairs. Evander left the hall light on. She shakes her head and goes upstairs to turn the light off. When she gets upstairs she sees that Evander's room light is also on. She goes into his room and finds him sleep in his gaming chair, with his PS3 controller lying in his lap. His head was slouched on his shoulder while his arms rested at his sides. He had on nothing but boxer drawers and socks. Mrs. Slain guessed that he planned on playing  just "a few more games" before bed but ended up falling asleep in the chair instead. The TV screen was darkened due to a long period of no activity from the player.

Mrs. Slain rolls her eyes and picks Evander up out of the chair. She carries him over to his bed and gently lays him down before covering him with the sheets.

"This boy," she whispers, kissing him on the temple before going to turn off the electronics he left on. She turned around and looked at him sleeping one more time before turning his bedroom light off.



Mrs. Slain had no idea where she was. In front of her looked like a dark brick wall with just a small amount of light shining on it. When she spun around she saw someone sitting in a chair under a dim light bulb hanging from the dark ceiling.  The rest of the room was almost pitch black. The person under the the light was wearing a black hoodie over their head. She couldn't see the face because the light was so dim and the rest of the room was too dark. But she did see two dog tags hanging around the figure's neck. When seeing this she realized who it could possibly have been, then she started to slowly creep towards the figure.

"Evan?" she said softly, "Evan!"

The figure doesn't look at her.

"Is that you?" she says, her voice becoming more high pitched.

Right then and there the figure removed the hood from over it's head. Then it jerked it's head towards Mrs. Slain and started staring at her. She gasped in disbelief when she was finally able to see the figure's face beneath the dim light.

There he was, staring back at his mother with that same emotionless expression she's been seeing on him for the past few days.

"Honey...what happened to you?" Mrs. Slain cries, pointing at his eyes.

She noticed that one of Evander's eyes was completely white. No iris or pupil. His other eye was normal. But it wasn't only that. His expression actually wasn't completely blank.  She saw some anger.

When she got closer she touched his shoulder to try and get a reaction out of him.

"Evan?" she says, now tapping him repeatedly.

A grin started to slowly stretch across Evander's face. Mrs. Slain started to tremble as she watched that sinister smile form. Evander stared into his mother's soul with that one empty eye, injecting her with more terror. Her heart rate began to rise, and her breathing became heavier. She saw that all of his top front teeth were completely silver, slightly sparkling in the dim light. That, along with Evander's demon smile almost caused her to yell. When he reached into his hoodie she took a few steps back, guessing he was about to draw a weapon. He did. The bowie knife from before. But he only laid it across his lap.

Mrs. Slain screamed uncontrollably when Evander reached into his hoodie again only to be holding a dismembered human hand dripping with blood when pulling his hand out again.  His smile seemed to get wider at the sight of seeing his mother scared.

She turned and tried to flee, but she bumped into someone else. When seeing who was in front of her she screamed again. The person she bumped into was unrecognizable. She couldn't even tell if was a male or female, because whoever it was they didn't have any skin. Someone or something had skinned them alive. The skinned person let out a long shriek, causing slight pain and ringing to Mrs. Slain's ears.  After hearing that she soon found out it was a female. The woman began to let out deep breaths as she wrapped her arms around Mrs. Slain while still screaming. Mrs. Slain struggled to break free as blood from the woman's exposed muscles and tissues soaked through her clothing. Mrs. Slain gagged in disgust.

"Heeelllppp!" the skinless woman shrieked.



Mrs. Slain awoke, breathing heavily and sweating. She glanced over at Mr. Slain lying next to her. He was still asleep, this time snoring. She put her hand on her chest and felt her heart racing. When she looked at the digital clock on the night stand she saw it was now six thirty in the morning. It wasn't as dark outside anymore. Evander would be getting up for school in the next hour and a half.

She got out of bed and went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet, resting her face into the palms of her hands afterwards.

This is the second time I've had a dream like that, she thought. I just don't understand. Why am I having these dreams out of the blue?  Am I just gettin' sick in the head? And why Evan?

That putrid image of the flayed woman returned. She felt a sickening pain in her stomach then groaned from the feeling.  She thought about telling Mr. Slain about the nightmares, but soon tossed that idea to the side. She decided she'll only mention it when or if she gets another nightmare.

But the fact alone that it was even happening still bothered her. Was she really sick in her mind? Or did she just subconsciously see Evander as some kind of monster? Maybe the incident with Betty has her worried that Evander is a potential juvenile delinquent. She's hoping that the incident will only be a one time thing. Since it was true that she was still worried about that, she tried her hardest to convince herself that, that was the explanation behind it all. Mrs. Slain was never religious or superstitious. She didn't believe in anything supernatural or magical. She didn't even believe in god. But at that moment she did get a funny idea in her head. She wondered if the dreams could be some kind of sign of something. Or perhaps - an omen.

Something on the bathroom wall catches her eye. A picture of Evander in the first grade. Him with his black and white striped sweater, and that heart-touching smile. The picture fell from the wall and hit the ground. When she went to pick it up, she saw that the frame cracked. The crack traveled across Evander's baby face in the picture.


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