It's In A Name
It's In A Name
I remember that day very well. My cousins and I were together with our families for Thanksgiving. Just like any other young kids on Thanksgiving, we were bored. So, we decided to play hide and seek outside. My thirteen year old cousin, Conner, was the person who had to find us, us being my two twin cousins, Sarah and Justin, who were ten, my youngest cousin Spencer, who was seven, and me, Anna. I was only eight at the time so as you could imagine I was very in to the game. I ran through the grass on my grandma's lot stealthily. I avoided being seen by the others who were playing. I didn't want anyone to know where my hiding place was.
Little did I know, someone else was planning on this being their hiding place. This "place" was my grandma's old barn that was not in use anymore, just on the other side of a cluster of trees. I walked slowly towards the rusty barn. At the time I paid no attention to what was around me, I just focused on the barn, getting inside and sitting in the corner where no one would find me.
The barn was pretty big, and it had old creaky doors to match. The paint was fading and inside it reeked of animals. The roof was practically falling apart, which was good, because I could actually see once I was inside. Hay still remained on the ground, so it provided a comfy place to sit. I curled up in the corner that was in shade and that was closest to the door so that when Conner walked in he wouldn't see me.
I sat there for about ten minutes until I heard a rustling noise outside. I quieted my breathing, expecting Conner to come barging through the doors. Instead the rustling noise just got louder... and louder. Eventually the rustling turned into a faint voice. As the voice got louder it became more distinct. It was a man's voice, clearly talking to someone, except the answers were so faint I couldn't even hear them. He must've been on the phone. I didn't recognize him as one of the family members, though. The man stopped talking altogether and burst through the door so suddenly I jumped. Thanking God that he didn't here me, I watched as he walked in as if he owned the place. He was carrying something that looked like a leash. I stared at his face, studying his features.
He was tanned and had long shaggy chestnut hair and brown eyes to match. Much like mine, but my eyes were soft and innocent, and his cut through you like ice. My hair, unlike his, was clean and brushed to perfection. He wore a black sweatshirt that was two sizes too big, and jeans with holes in them. When he spoke, his eyebrows raised and his lips barely moved. He was young, probably around twenty, and he creeped me out.
"Come on, I don't have all day," he barked at the person. He walked in a bit more and I realized that the leash I thought he was carrying was actually a rope, and it was attached to a woman's neck. She walked in with her head hung low, but I could see the terrified look in her eyes.
"Shut the door!" He commanded at her. She turned around but he didn't give her any leeway on the rope, so she practically choked herself trying to follow his orders. "Hello!?" he shouted. I was tempted to answer, but I didn't know what he would do to me. Quite frankly, I didn't know what he was going to do to her, either.
The woman he dragged along was frail and I'm guessing she could easily be bruised. She had fair skin and long, light blonde hair, she looked about eighteen and had brown eyes. She was short and lean, but had some muscle on her, which I'm guessing was no match for his.
"What are you going to do to me?" I heard the faint whisper escape from her lips.
"Oh, Lindsey, why would you assume I'm going to do anything to you?" his sinister laugh followed and he instructed her to stand in front of him, she refused and he slapped her across the face. She walked cautiously in front of him, peering around to see what he was doing but each time he would just order her to turn around. I watched as he pulled out a knife and as she turned around, he thrusted it in her back. She keeled over in pain and I watched as she dropped to the ground. She screamed out in pain and I started to let out silent tears. Her blood dripped down her back, soaking her shirt and pants.
"Please! I don't want to die! Please! I'll do anything!" He didn't seem to care. He pulled out a gun and aimed it the back of her head. She started to pray to God. She had such a look of dread in her eyes that I thought that I could feel her pain. But my thoughts didn't even come close to the pain she was in. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what was going to happen next. There was a loud gunshot and then silence. I buried my face in my lap and I cried. Silently of course, I would not let my tears expose my hiding place.
He stood over her dead body and pulled out his cell phone.
"Tell the boss I've taken out number one," Number one? Does that mean he's going to kill others? It was so silent I could hear the other end of the conversation.
"Excellent. Leave her body there. Let the police find it. Leave the country; I'll contact you in a few years," With that he hung up and ran out of the barn.
I sat there in the dark for what I thought was twenty minutes until I thought he was far enough away. I sprinted out of the barn and ran to my grandma's house without taking one look at Lindsey's body. My mom saw the look on my face and was worried. I ran up the stairs until I reached my grandma's guest bedroom and my mom immediately followed me. I flopped onto the bed; sobbing and my mom kept asking me questions, but I was too choked up to answer her. I eventually fell asleep. I slept the whole night through, only waking up briefly to find out that I was in the car on the way home. Was it a dream? I mentally groaned to myself as I realized it wasn't.
Throughout the whole time I was sleeping, I had the same dream, and it wasn't so much as a dream... more of a message. In my dream I was standing in front of that barn for what felt like days with the same sentence repeating over and over in my head.
Don't say anything.
It just kept repeating over and over. As much as I wanted to wake up, I couldn't. I tried to run away from the barn, but my feet were planted into the ground. Every second that went by, the urge to scream got greater and greater.
Don't say anything...don't say anything...don't say anything...
Just before I woke up, two little words that made the greatest impact were added on:
Don't say anything...or else.
...
That was ten years ago and a lot has happened since then to make me go insane. First of all, I never had that dream again up until a year ago, but it affected me so much that I never told anyone. Although that dream wasn't consistent, I had constant dreams that were different, but that all ended up with me dying. And it terrified me.
Second of all, and though it pains me to say this, my mom has passed away. She was not violently murdered like what I had witnessed ten years ago, but she passed peacefully from her hospital bed six months after she was diagnosed with cancer two years ago.
Thirdly, I now am ignored by everyone at school except by my very loyal friend, Annelise, and although we almost have the same name, we're completely opposite. She's talkative and popular, I'm shy and I go unnoticed. She has long blonde hair and I have long brown hair. She has blue eyes and is tall, I have brown eyes and I'm short. She has been my friend since grade five and even though in high school she got wildly popular, she stayed my friend. You'd think that would make me popular, too, but no, it didn't.
And lastly, a year ago, I witnessed another brutal murder. This murder had incidents that involved the last one. The same man that murdered Lindsey, killed the woman. She was tall, dark skinned, black hair brown eyes and was about thirty-five years old. Her name was Louise and she was the sweetest person, I knew her from the grocery store where I worked. Her story was all over the news; she was allegedly stabbed in the back and then shot in the head. Just like Lindsey had been. Only this time, I wasn't watching from the corner of the barn, I was in the back of the grocery store getting some boxes to stock the shelves when I heard her whimpers of pain. I was in the very back and from the other side of the shelf, I watched unwillingly as he shot the woman with a silenced gun. I noticed the knife already in her back, with a trail of fresh blood spilling down her body. Her crimson blood also spilled over the floor, and I just remember wanting to throw up at the sight of all of that blood.
I dropped the boxes and rushed home quickly and in a panic. Don't ask me how I didn't come up on the security cameras, because that still bothers me to this day. That night, I dreaded falling asleep because I knew that the very same dream would come. And it did, and I did as I was told. I didn't tell anyone.
Many things trouble me these days. My thoughts provoke my sanity and it's because of my past, my dreams, my experiences with death, and even my life, yet I have not gone insane.
...
Two years have now passed. I still struggle with my sanity and I fear I might go insane if I have to live through another tragedy. I have been praying lately, trying to reconnect with God... hoping that he will save me... if that's possible.
I now know much more than I did two years ago. I know that the man is coming after me next. How? You ask, well, it's simple really. Last week, I watched Annelise get stabbed and then shot in the girls' bathroom. I peered over the bathroom stall door at the pool of blood that surrounded her dead body below me. I gagged and I felt the bile rise in my throat as I watched her eyes go blank and lifeless. Only this time, the murderer left a note for me to read. After he made his call, he dropped a small folded piece of paper and walked away. I was sobbing and I felt as if I was going to throw up again. I drove myself home, fighting back tears because if I couldn't see I might get into an accident. Once I got home, I tried to calm my shaking hands enough to open up the paper and read it. My tears stained the page and I tried to look at it through my blurry eyes, but it was too hard. I eventually I calmed down enough to read it. It read:
Lindsey Anne Dumont, Louise-anne Moore, Annelise Chiron, don't you get it Anna? You're next.
I think that's what finally pushed me over the edge. Tears filled my eyes again and I screamed. My dad had not returned home from work yet, so I was home alone. I ran upstairs to my bathroom and I didn't even make it to the toilet before I threw up again. I grabbed all the pills in my cupboard and a tall glass of water. I started swallowing each pill one by one, slowly becoming drowsy. I finally felt that I was about to collapse. I would never want to give that man the satisfaction of knowing he succeeded in killing me. I stared at myself in the mirror and I let out a sob as I thought 'why does he want to kill me?' I was about to go lie down in my bed when I heard a suspicious noise downstairs that startled me and I knew it wasn't my dad. I was suddenly a bit more alert. I slowly made my way downstairs only to find the man that killed those three women standing in my kitchen, with a sharp knife in his hand.
Slowly I started to feel the drugs taking their toll on me.
"No..." I slurred and plunged into the darkness and his sinister laugh echoed through my ears.
That night he stabbed and then shot me. Just before I died, I vowed that he would not live to kill another person.
_____________________________________________________
This Was For School So I Thought I'd Just Put It Up, See What You Think
Vote, Comment, Fan
Or Just Read It
It Will Make Me Extremely Happy!!
:D
-Jessica<3