A Horror Story by Michael DesJardins
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The boy had been found by a local fisherman on the river. The boy couldn’t tell the fisherman what had happened to him: why he was bloody and in shock. The fisherman brought him to the local police station where he managed to tell them that he was hiking with his friends and found a castle, and that something bad had happened. The boy had a knife belt and a journal with him. The Lt. ordered the Sgt. To search for the castle and take care of the boy, while he read the boy’s journal.
June 3
We all decided to go for a hiking trip. There are the 6 of us, and we decided to head up north through the forest. We’ve all heard about castles and ruins and exciting places deep in the woods, so we’ll see what there is to find. I will be writing in this journal for the trip, as my Mother got me this journal and said she would kill me if I didn’t write in it. She said it will help me remember as well as help my writing. My dad also gave me his old hunting knife. I was really proud of it, and wore it proudly. Victor gets to be the leader, because he’s already 16. We have all of our stuff ready. Since I’m the smallest I have to carry the sleeping bags and a tent since they are really light. Victor has to carry all of the food, and he’s been complaining about it all day. Mmm, that’s all I can think of right now.
June 4
We started out early in the morning hiking north and for the first 4 or 5 hours we just trudged through woods and more woods and more woods without anything at all exciting happening. Wait, no, we saw an Eagle swoop down and catch a rabbit in a meadow we passed. Other than that we didn’t find anything exciting. We set up camp at the end of the day and built a campfire and roasted some sausages. After dinner we all told ghost stories. Victor and the rest of them had fun scaring me. When one of the older ones told a really scary story, another one jumped out of the woods at me and I screamed. They all made fun of me for being scared, so I wandered out into the woods to calm down.
June 5
Today was as exciting as we could have hoped. After spending the morning hiking, we came across a path. It was a really old one, with cobblestones grown over by grasses and bushes so that we could barely see it. We excitedly followed it deeper into the woods. It took us about an hour, but we came around a bend and we saw an old, overgrown castle. We were really excited, with boys sprinting towards it to explore. I went into the keep to find the lord’s room. I found it and it was everything I had always wanted in a castle. It had a lit window looking down into the courtyard, from which I promptly pretended to shoot my friends running around down there with an imaginary bow and arrows. There was a huge fireplace near the bed, and a HUGE table. I explored a little bit more, and then went back down into the courtyard to meet everyone else when I heard Victor shouting for us. We built a campfire in the courtyard and made our dinner. Everyone was bubbling over with excitement. All of us but Victor wanted to sleep inside the castle, but he wasn’t going to let us. Then I told him about all of the fireplaces inside, and he finally said we could. We brought enough wood for a blazing fire all night and started it. It was a sight to remember, all of us sleeping in an abandoned castle next to a huge fire, just like the Lord of the castle used to.
June 6
I awoke tonight, and had the urge to explore and to write down everything I saw. The fire was still blazing, and I saw that only Victor was still there. The rest must have had the same urge I had to explore. I grabbed a torch and went up the stairs, but I heard a big creak, so I in fright ran back down the stairs and grabbed my belt knife. I feel safer with it, as it reminds me of my Father, who gave it to me. I again braved the stairs, and found myself wandering back to the Lord’s room. As I entered though, I found myself drawn to the chamber pot room. I slowly went inside, opening the door and finding myself back in my bathroom at home. I’m in my bathroom; I need to brush my teeth. But I looked up from brushing my teeth into the mirror and saw the shower curtain move. A thing leapt out at me and I just had time to grab my knife and slash at the monster. I killed it, slashed the werewolf down. I ran downstairs and saw another one with a torch a lunged and he struggled, but I ended up on top, my knife in his ribs. I saw 2 more as I ran screaming back to where we were sleeping. Each one I saw, I slashed at wildly, fighting to not be slain by them as I fear my friends had. I finally got back to the roaring fireplace, and saw a huge black shape standing where Victor had been sleeping. He must have eaten him! I attacked with all my might, but he struggled fiercer than any other had yet, and just as I thought the black form would choke out my life, he fell to the ground, taken down by my knife in his stomach. I screamed for my comrades, but I feared they had all been murdered.
I have been wandering through the woods for hours now. I am going home, but I don’t know where I am. I thought I saw a river before I stopped; I’m going to see where it goes.
“Lt. we found the castle the little boy was babbling about, it’s about 3 miles north of here. Did that book we found on the boy say anything?”
“Well, it’s a hiking journal that at the end tells about monsters attacking the boys, and this little boy fighting them off as he ran away. I’m worried about what happened in that castle. Has the boy regained any of his senses? He clearly has been traumatized by whatever he thought he saw kill his friends”
“No Sir, we’re bringing him back home to recover. Shall I show you to the castle?”
The police proceeded to the castle not knowing what to expect. When they got there they saw a sight that none of them will ever forget. There was blood everywhere, with little bodies strewn around. Some horrible monster had been at work here.
“Sgt. Look around here in the main room, you know what to do. I’m going to look around upstairs a bit, but be careful; we don’t know what killed these boys. That one laying next to the fireplace must be Victor. There’s no sign of the monster that killed him, the little boy must just have chased him away.”
The Lt. went up the staircase, and found more blood, more horror, and two more bodies. Still no sign of whoever or whatever killed them. The Lt. walked into the Lord’s room slowly, and saw the fireplace, the bed, the HUGE table, and the door to the chamber pot room. The Lt. slowly opened the door to find a truly horrible sight. A young boy had been stabbed, and sliced, and hacked at, with the whole room being covered in his blood. The Lt. started to get a cold feeling in his heart as a thought occurred to him. Just then the door started to creak open and the Lt. braced himself for whatever monster this castle might hold. Just as he was about to fight whatever it was he heard.
“Lt, are you in there? We found something you might want to hear about.”
With only a brief hesitation to bury the fear the Lt just felt, he replied
“Yes Sgt. You might not want to see what’s in here. What is it?”
“We found a fungus growing all around the walls and in the fireplaces. It’s a hallucinogen. That’s probably what made the boy see monsters, but we still don’t know who actually killed them.”
“Yes Sgt. We do.”
