Here in the forest

Dark and deep

I offer you

Eternal sleep

Jenny Cooper would find herself sat on the stairs that night, eavesdropping on the chief cop telling her parents of the found trainer that belonged to her younger brother, Conrad.

Her tears had long dried, but her cheeks still felt soaked in the liquidised terror, like tears of acid that had left her skin scarred and torn.

She had been there, on the field, with her younger brother, almost forced by her parents to take him out and play soccer. This would later cause the Cooper parents to blame themselves and Jenny to blame herself for not protecting him.

She was his sixteen year old big sister. And she failed to save him.

It was 2PM, that Saturday, on December 5th 1998. Despite the Winter's blunt bite, Conrad was the wildest kid Jenny knew. He needed exercise and constantly needed to release his energy - no matter how cold the season was.

Conrad was giving the ball the hardest kicks he could give, whilst Jenny sat on a fallen tree in the field, nose in a novel. The ball skimmed Jenny's arm, knocking the book to the ground and losing her page.

Jenny's eyes shot up to the seven-year-old accusingly. "You just lost my page. Are you kidding me, Conrad?"

Conrad shrugged and ran after the ball, catching up with it and giving it another energetic kick as Jenny picked up her book.

Eventually, she found her page and sank into the fiction once again. She didn't even notice that Conrad had accidentally kicked his ball straight into the woods.

By the time Jenny looked up from the page, after noticing the odd silence, Conrad was stepping into the trees.

"Conrad, get out of there!" Jenny yelled furiously.

But Conrad was still.

"Conrad! Please!"

And then she heard it. The low, wailing shriek, telling of suffering and dread, a reflection of what was to come. It pierced into Jenny, goosebumps swimming across her arms and neck and that's when she knew they were in the presence of something dark. Something evil.

The ball rolled past Conrad. But he hadn't moved.

Conrad wasn't in there alone.

Jenny Cooper was shaking now, her bones trembling as she just knew whatever was in the trees told a nightmare she would never wake up from. Her fingers tore into the pages in her book as set forward - then she froze.

Stepping through the branches, was a tall figure in a large raincoat and hood. He wore large hefty boots, which were dripping, as wet as the raincoat - despite the lack of rain. And then the hood dropped down, to reveal a bald head - Jenny wasn't sure if it was man or woman, but she knew it definitely wasn't human. All of a sudden, their bones were breaking, cracking and moving, splintering through the skin and morphing into a shape that of a tall skinny insect. Into the shape of an old, bald man, holding out his hand to Conrad.

Jenny Cooper couldn't speak. She couldn't move. All she could do was watch her little brother take the twig-like fingers and walk into the trees with the Thing.

After a good few minutes, Jenny turned on her heel and sprinted like she had never ran before.

Hours later, she sat on her couch, warm on the outside, but an ice age was freezing within her.

"Tell us that part again." Chief Rich Wheeler told the girl.

As if it was robotic, Jenny repeated herself. "The man, woman - the thing that took him - if it was even human at all - he had no solid presence. His face held a promise of death. He was bald and tall, so so tall but first he was wearing a raincoat and I - I watched my brother walk away with him - her. There was n-nothing I could do. It was as if the f-fear kept me there..." Jenny then looked Rich Wheeler in the eye. "He took my brother. I think it was a ghost. You're not looking for a man, Mr Wheeler... you're looking for a monster."

Rich Wheeler bit his lip and suppressed an eye roll. Who would condone this fantasy bullshit? And that's the reason he fucking hated teenagers. As fucking dramatic they ever have been.

Rich Wheeler gave the sixteen-year-old a nod and got to his feet. "Thanks, kiddo. Now you go upstairs, I need to speak to your parents."

Jenny Cooper left the room absently, in a zombie-like state which resembled her mother. Heath and Jackie Cooper replaced their daughter's seat on the couch, the mother mirrored a ghost and the father seemed to have aged twenty years since Rich had seen him by the gas station last week.

"I don't know what your daughter saw." Rich said simply. "But it sure as hell wasn't no ghost."

From the top of the stairs, Jenny listened in silence, her head pressing into the wooden bannister. She hadn't expected anyone to believe her, who would? She certainly wouldn't have.

"We did find his trainer near the edge of the woods. We've taken it in for evidence and we're gonna check over it. We will bring your child home alive, okay?"

"Thank you for your help, Rich." Heath Cooper said solemnly.

And Rich Wheeler would exit the house, leaving behind the promise of bringing young Conrad home safely.

Conrad Cooper was found dead three days later.

For Rich Wheeler, life was as shitty as it always had been, and now some fucking weirdo was killing kids as easy as he would watch a game of football on a Sunday afternoon. That's the last thing he needed.

It seemed like yesterday when he found the mutilated body of Violet Heckle, just as it was literally yesterday when he received the phone call about Conrad Cooper. His body was found on Firestone Park, his whole body had been skinned and lynched from the swings.

Marie Shane had found him, taking a stroll by the park on early Tuesday morning. She seemed ever so fake-horrified, though everyone knew how pleased she'd be that she had all the attention. Marie was a slut if you ever knew one. It seemed she had another baby on the way each time you saw her, different father and always eager to talk about her scandalous rendezvous. Six kids to her name, and Rich Wheeler wouldn't be surprised if one of them was his. A slut Marie Shane was, but a decent one to bed, as Rich and many of Sachem Bay's men knew very well.

"Oh it was so scary, Chief." Marie had said desperately during the interview. It seemed for Marie that a witness interview would need extra cleavage and make up, not that it wasn't something to look at. It sure was.

Concluding the interview, Marie would place a hand on Rich Wheeler's thigh and whisper in his ear. "What would I do without you, Chief?"

"I have no time for trash today. Get home to your kids." Rich muttered, pushing the blonde sweetheart away.

Marie looked taken aback. "They're with their Daddy if you must know!"

Rich scoffed. "Which one?"

Marie Shane glared at Rich for a few seconds and stormed out of the office, the phone ringing seconds later.

Rich could've ignored the call and maybe it could've been alright. Maybe it he hadn't of picked up he phone, he could've bathed in his blissful ignorance. But Rich surely picked up the phone at 9:03PM that night, and held it eagerly to his ear.

"Chief Rich Wheeler speaking."

The sound of static sparked through the phone, and the low sound of water dripping echoed in the background, as he tried to listen. The static grew louder and then in a sudden crack, the line became quiet. Rich would've thought the line was dead, until the voice came.

"Here in the forest, so dark and deep, I offer you, eternal sleep."

Rich shook his head and unplugged the line - he had enough of what was happening, he didn't need prank calls either.

"Violet dead, Conrad gone. I take another when they hear my song."

Rich Wheeler scrambled back out of his chair and landed straight on the floor. The phone remained unplugged and disconnected.

Trembling, Rich reached for the whiskey. He hadn't drunk in fifteen years. But what did he have to live for anyway?