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Crimson Rain

It's funny what people will do for money. They may open all the windows in their house on a hundred and three degree day just to save money on the electric bill. It doesn't matter how ridiculous it is to think that they'll actually going to stay cool that way. It's hot as hell out there, why would anyone ever think it'd be any different in their house just because they have the windows open? People do stupid things like that just to save a few bucks. Most people find themselves at one point or another making ludicrous decisions and assumptions for money. A lot of people even let their greed overcome obvious oddities. This story is about a man who did just that.

One late Friday night in September. A young man by the name of James Burgess had just locked up at work and was ready to settle in to a nice long four-day weekend. He had been working like a mule for weeks hoping to earn some extra money to pay the bills and to buy a game to he'd been wanting for ages. It had been a pretty shitty month; all his bills seemed to be piling on top of each other and the only way he was able to make ends meet was by working overtime every week for three weeks straight. It had been a nightmare of a crucible, but he had managed to get it done and he even had some money left over after his bills were paid, hence his impromptu four-day weekend.

It was about two in the morning but James didn't really feel tired, he'd gotten used to the rigorous routine by now and even considered the thought of continuing on with it. He couldn't argue that some extra money would be nice to have. He never went to college and didn't have a degree, so he was hardly flushed with cash. School and James had never gotten on well with each other. When he was a kid, James was known as his hometown's resident troublemaker. Being from a small backwoods town like Everett, Pennsylvania forced James to come up with new and inventive ways of entertaining himself. It had always been a surprise to him and everyone around him that he hadn't ended up in prison. God knows, he'd done more than enough things to warrant prison. Naturally, nothing ever made him feel like he was willing to waste thousands of dollars just to get a piece of paper. In fact he was perfectly content with his life at the moment, admittedly it was tough but he felt comfortable doing what he had always done.

Just because James never attended college didn't mean that he was uneducated. Quite the opposite, he was very smart and very well read. It's just that he felt the idea of college was something for people who wanted to keep living in a pretend world. He didn't want to spend all his time surrounded by stuck up people learning useless things while being sucked dry for every penny they don't have. He was content living his day-to-day life. When you grow up with your highest prospect being a hope of avoiding a life sentence, you start to look at things a little differently.

Considering that he wasn't tired and didn't have work for the next few days, James decided he would stop off at a local all night café and get himself a coffee. The place he usually went to was called Catherine's; it catered to the whole hipster crowd that was so popular with the college kids. If he was lucky he could go in, get his coffee, and leave without having to sit around and listen to some hipster bullshit. It was unbearable to be in there for longer than ten minutes. James was by no means an unsociable person; it's just that he tended to stick to himself when he was around the whole college scene. Though he would listen in on people, just to amuse himself. That's what at least made Catherine's a somewhat bearable place, it was full of people whining about how the world's so boring and everyone is too mainstream. He didn't buy that bullshit, especially coming from their type but it was still entertaining to listen to. It always seemed so stupid that the kids who are using their iPhones to take stupid fucking pictures of the shitty fucking chai latte were complaining about other people being too mainstream.

The only other reason he would ever go to Catherine's was because it was the only place outside of Waffle House that was open at two in the morning. Generally he had pretty low standards when it came to coffee but Waffle House was below even him. So he went inside and ordered his coffee and listened to the hipsters going on about how completely original they were. With his coffee in hand and his saturation point for bullshit exceeded, he left. As he was walking to his car he got this strange chill down his spine, just for a moment. A little flutter of fear welled up inside him as he got into his car. It's not as though he thought the devil was going to jump out from behind a tree or something, it's just that he gets unnerved very easily sometimes. Ever since he was little he would always get freaked out by little things, especially when he was alone at night. Sometimes all it took was strange sound to send him over the edge into a state of paranoia.

Usually those moments of ominous fear only last for a little while but for whatever reason, this time it sort of stuck with him. As he was driving down the highway he couldn't help but over analyze everything, he started to point out things to himself that we're creepy. Like how there are never any other drivers on the highway at this time of night. Expectedly most people were probably asleep but still it seemed eerie to him. "You're being stupid jay, there's no one else here because it's two-thirty in the fucking morning". He turned on the radio, trying to take his mind off of the paranoid feeling he was having. The only thing that seemed appealing was NPR. Nothing was more relaxing than listening to NPR, the station where everyone whispers the news to you. This worked surprisingly well until he had to get off the highway and onto Campus Boulevard; this was not the place he wanted to be in his current state of mind.

For some unknown reason, even though the boulevard was relatively new, there weren't any street lamps lining the street. So at night it was completely dark. With his heart racing, he pushed the accelerator a little harder in hopes of making it through the dark and empty boulevard that much quicker. Another wave of fear swept through him and for a split second he looked out the window into the trees bordering both sides of the boulevard. Half of him was expecting to see a horror beyond this world and what he saw did in fact shock him. There was nothing there; and he knew now that he was being completely moronic. There was nothing to be scared of, he drove down this road every night and nothing ever happened to him. Still with that being said, a part of him really did wish he were still back at Catherine's with the hipster kids and their overpriced coffee rather than out here being scared shitless.

He was able to make it to his neighborhood without incident but as he was pulling into the driveway of his humble little one floor house something unusual greeted him. His neighbor's daughter Mary was sitting on her front porch cradling something very small in her hands. He tried his best to go unnoticed as he got out of his car and made his way to the front door. For a moment he thought he might actually make it but she looked up at him for a moment before lowering her head again. All of his instincts told him to go inside and leave her be, she had always been a little off and talking to her made him feel uncomfortable. It wouldn't have been much of a surprise to him if he found out that she was mentally challenged or something. He was going to go with his gut instinct but a small sniffle from Mary played on his heart strings enough to make him try to see if he could help. "Hey Mary, what are you doing out here so late?" he spoke awkwardly, avoiding looking her in the eyes. She never really talked much besides the occasional hello when he would come over to talk to her dad. With a pained expression she mumbled very quietly, "I-I just...cou-couldn't leave him out here a-all alone". Cradled in her hands was a small black bird, it was twitching rapidly every so often. "What happened to him?", his voice filled with repulsion, "Did he fall out of the tree"? She nodded meekly as tears streamed down her face.

James stood there and tried to think of something to say, his utter disgust with what was happening made it difficult for him to say anything at all. If he had opened his mouth he might have very likely thrown up. He wondered how she could stand to have a bloody dying bird in her hands. "uhhhh ummmm... well sometimes these things happen...he'll be in a better place soon". Fresh tears flowed heavily down he cheeks as she whimpered and sighed loudly. He really couldn't understand why she was so upset. For a moment James thought that things like this were the reason Mary never really had friends. All he could think about is how weird she was and how he was already regretting his decision to try to be polite. People always made fun of her because she had a terrible speech impediment, it made it hard for her to speak so she often avoided talking all together. Things like this made her love animals because animals never seemed to care that she took a while to say complete sentences or that she was little strange. All they seemed to care about was how she treated them. She had seen some of her animals die before but she still reacted the same way. It broke her heart to watch the only friends she really had die, even if she'd only met them a few minutes prior. Such was the case with this bird. When she was little she would pretend that they had gone off to make a family and live happily ever after. It didn't stop the pain, it just made it a little easier to deal with.

James turned to walk away; it was obvious to him that he was wasting his time trying to console her. "I...don't...want...him... to die". Standing there uncomfortably for a moment he turned to her and told her the only thing he really felt like saying,"it's just a part of nature, everything dies...you should go try to get some sleep, crying over it won't make it any better. goodnight Mary". He left her there sitting in her sadness, feeling worse than she had before he had spoken to her. In his mind there was nothing more he could do, bad things happen sometimes to people that don't deserve it.

James spent the next hour or so trying to watch some television and relax but he couldn't get his mind off of Mary and the dying bird. He did feel kinda bad for her,it just seemed stupid that she was so caught up on a bird that fell out of a tree, it wasn't like it was her pet or anything. It was just a random bird. The way he looked at it; bad things happen, there's nothing anyone can do about it so you shouldn't waste time feeling sorry that shit happens. Besides, he honestly doubted that she could understand really caring for an animal, she was probably just upset cause a cute little birdie died. Perhaps she was just over playing it for sympathy, it's not like it really mattered all that much. A wave of annoyance was starting to wash over him, he couldn't believe he was thinking so much into some retard and her retarded feelings. The way he saw it; he did his good deed for the day by trying to see what was wrong, that's all he needed to have done and all he should have done. He decided to go to bed seeing as he really wasn't enjoying flipping through channels all that much.

As James was sleeping, Mary slowly dug a small hole in the ground for the bird. Not long after James had left, the bird stopped twitching. It was so strange to her, she was heartbroken yet in a way she was kinda happy. Feelings like these were beyond description, she had them every so often when things like this happened. The only way she could explain it was that the bird may have died but at least it wasn't alone in it's final moments. Secretly she often thought about her own death and every so often even thought about killing herself. Whenever she thought about dying, she always hoped that she would have to die alone. Her whole life was spent being alone, she didn't want her death to be the same way. However when she thought about killing herself, she always knew she'd be alone when she did it. That way she wouldn't lose her nerve to do it. Her mind focused on the bird again, if she tried really hard she could pretend that the bird had gone to sleep and was just never going to wake up, it'd dream of pleasant things forevermore. Covering the bird in a bandana she always wore around her ankle, she placed it into the hole and started to bury it. As she replaced the dirt she sang to it very softly, " Hush little baby don't you cry...". She stopped singing abruptly and spoke mournfully to the bird, her lower lip trembling "Sleep dear one, it's time for you to sleep. Please leave this nightmare world behind and leave me too. I promise...I promise I'm not far behind". Tears streamed down her face again but only for a moment. A wave of amazement washed over her, for the first time in her life she had spoken without a single stammer. A watery smile crossed her face; she bent down thanked the bird for giving her that before standing up slowly and going inside.

It felt as though James had only been asleep for a few minutes when something against his arm woke him up. Jerking awake he looked to see what was touching him, it was only his phone vibrating. He could have sworn that he felt fingers touching up his arm but quickly came to the conclusion that he had just imagined it. The phone stopped vibrating for a few moments then began again, he looked to find that someone was calling him. The caller ID said it was Alyssa Malone. A mix of shock and confusion washed over him. Alyssa had been his girlfriend when he was living back in his Everette. They kept in touch mainly over emails and texts but they hadn't spoken on the phone since a little after they had broken up. Hesitating for a moment, he picked up the phone and shakily said hello. "J-james...thank god...I need to talk to you...do you still remember Rachael?". His blood ran cold; he couldn't begin to fathom why she would be asking about Rachael. They had made a sort of unspoken pact not to ever bring her up under any circumstances.

He and Alyssa stayed on the phone for a long while; sunlight started to seep through the curtains and onto his bed. Alyssa told him that Rachael had been found dead in her house, the cause of her death was unknown. Seeing as she was only twenty-six the possibilities as to why she died were somewhat limited but yet the coroner couldn't find a valid reason for her death. In the end, they chalked it up to severe depression. Over time she just lost the will to live. Alyssa told him that she got a call a few days back from Rachael's executor saying that she had been named a benefactor in Rachael's will. The executor had told her that since James left Everett when he graduated high school they had no way of contacting him. They were only able to contact Alyssa, who had stayed after graduation to look after her parents, and they told her to contact him and inform him that he was the only other benefactor in the will. For a moment he thought about how odd it was that they weren't able to contact him, he was sure they would have a way to track him but that was quickly overtaken by another thought. James didn't see why she would name him in her will; she hadn't spoken to either of them since they was sixteen. Alyssa seemed to share in his confusion; she told him that on the rare occasions that she would run into Rachael around town Rachael would do her best to ignore her existence. She told James that he would have to make it up to Everett to consult with the bank who was in charge of Rachael's estate. He didn't have to money to afford a flight up to Pennsylvania but he was determined to find a way to make it up there. Alyssa told him that in the weeks leading up to her death, Rachael had become a severe recluse; barely leaving her house and ignoring everyone's attempts to contact her, or at least that was what she had heard.

Rachael's family, whom Alyssa had remained fairly close to, was sure that Rachael's isolationist behavior was because she had fallen into a deep depression after her divorce. She had been married for a little under a year but for reasons her family were never told, Rachael's husband filed for a divorce and left her. They had seemed like a perfect couple, he was a well-respected member of his church and she seemed perfectly content with him. It just seemed like overnight they went from a loving couple to a separated one. She died alone in the house they had bought together. Her husband had taken a job as an insurance agent in New York and wanted nothing to do with her after he filed for the divorce. He moved in with a new girlfriend, stopped paying the bills for Rachael, and even refused to come to her funeral. Despite all of this, Rachael had been, according to her parents, surprisingly wealthy. Most likely her ex-husband had not signed a prenuptial agreement and seeing as he was a very wealthy man, she was able to a lions share of his wealth. Rachael's account had been paying for her little sister's college tuition and expenses and this was the reason that James made up his mind to go to Everett; if he and Alyssa were the only ones in Rachael's will then they were to inherit her money. Still it was a gamble, she may have just left them some letters or something out of spite. So he decided against being wasteful with his money just in case it turned out to be a bust.

In the end, James decided he was going to drive to Everett. He figured by all his calculations it would cost him about two hundred dollars if he drove there, Alyssa had offered to play host for him so he only had his food and gas to worry about. The idea seemed like a good one, he would drive there and if he were lucky he'd come home with quite a bit wealthier. In the back of his mind he couldn't shake this uneasy feeling like he shouldn't be going. She shouldn't have left him and Alyssa anything, especially since she had a little sister and family who could use the money. As far as James was concerned, she hated them and she had a good reason to. The only way it seemed to make sense was that she had become very religious and maybe she was trying to give them a second chance and show them forgiveness.

After he got off the phone with Alyssa, he slept for a few hours, then got up and packed his duffle bag with some clothes and deodorant before he went to hit the road. As he was getting into his car, Mary came out to walk her dog, She looked over to him and then looked away. He would have loved to not be bothered by her but then he thought about something he forgot about because of situation at hand. He was expecting a package from his parents, he'd left it in their attic and needed it back. So he had them ship it to him, it was funny, the timing was eerily perfect. It was imperative that no one but him got the contents of this package. Rolling down the window, he called over to her. She walked over to his car warily and he asked her to watch for the package and once it got there, she was take it and keep it safe for him. He placed heavy emphasis on not letting anyone else know about it. She seemed a little apprehensive about it, even though most everyone may have thought that she was stupid, she was actually quite keen on knowing when things didn't seem right. Everything from drugs to sex toys crossed her mind as she thought about what might be in this package that he didn't want anyone to see. Seeing the reserved look on her face, he promised to reward her if she did this for him. Against her better judgment she agreed to do this for him.

The drive to Pennsylvania looked like it was going to be a nightmare, it was an eleven-hour drive and considering that James had left at around four in the afternoon, it was really going to take the piss out of him. With the hope of a reward he gone on the highway and started his journey. He'd been driving for eight hours by the time he got into Pennsylvania; he figured it was good time to think about getting something to eat. Snacking every now and then did a little to keep his hunger at bay but it was getting late and if he didn't get some food soon, nowhere would be open. Also he was starting to get tired and he still had three hours left to before he made it to Everette, so stopping to take break seemed like the right thing to do. One of the worst problems with Pennsylvania is the fact that the whole state was pretty much a rural wasteland. So when it came to finding places to eat there was little more than a McDonalds at some truck stop, James may have been on a tight budget but he wasn't broke enough to do that to himself. He decided that he'd drive until he found a place with something a little less depressing than fast food and truck stop hookers.

Another hour and a half passed before James really started to feel desperate. He was hungry and tired, restlessness was killing him and he was wishing he didn't have to make this god forsaken drive. The problem now was that He'd driven out into the sticks so far that not even a McDonald's could be found; looking on his GPS it said he was in a town called Caulfield. It was a stupid name for a town but considering the level of civility he felt the whole state had, it wasn't all too surprising a town would be named something that idiotic. He decided to drive around the town for a bit and see if there was anywhere that he could get something to eat. A realization had started to bother though him as he was driving around. The whole town seemed to have an air of unease surrounding it. It shouldn't have seemed that strange considering it was one-thirty in the morning but for a town, even a rural one, the place was eerily dark. What seemed even stranger to him was that it was so dark even though there were about as many street lamps as you would expect. It was just that the orange light they gave off seemed to only illuminate a fraction of what they were should have. It was as though the dark had it's own weight that was suffocating all of the light. Even the headlights of his car barely illuminated anything that was in front of him, he wasn't sure but they looked as though they were dimmed.

The same sense of looming terror that he'd gotten while he was driving home from work the night before worked it's way up his spine. He kept expecting Satan or something to just appear in his rearview mirror, though fortunately nothing did. He pushed his car a little faster, just as he did the night before, and decided that his hunger was less of an issue than the fear he was feeling. So he decided to get back on the highway and finish the drive. Though a fairly common problem with driving around in the dark through an unknown rural town is that often times people get lost. He had his GPS but for some reason it didn't even know where the hell he was. The screen just showed his car in the middle of nothing. Rain started to drizzle down against the windshield causing him to panic, he was worried he'd never find his way back in the rain without a GPS. As well malfunctioning electronics do very little to relax someone in James's predicament. Thoroughly terrified at this point, the possibility that he may not be able to find his way back at all was steadily increasing; he started trying to retrace the roads he'd taken but that whole being in an unnaturally dark town while it was raining wasn't helping his cause very much.

James was on the verge of a serious mental break down when all the sudden, across a field from the road he was on, he saw the lights of a diner. It wouldn't have been a surprise if he had broken down in tears and thanked the gods for leading him to somewhere that was actually open. Driving as fast as he could, he made his way down the road and to the diner. The place looked as though it were something out of a nineteen fifties drive in theater movie. The outside was decorated in fading crimson and chrome, the sign looked as though it couldn't be a day under sixty. This capsule out of time was called Aunt Sally's twenty- four/seven diner. With the speed and modesty of a starved dog, James ran inside and basked in the light of his salvation. He didn't care if he got anything to eat, all he needed was to see another person and find out how the hell to get out of this lightless shit hole.

The inside of the diner wasn't what he may have called "inviting". The place felt dirty and smelled sickly of a cheap lemon scented floor cleaner. That being said, James couldn't care less at the moment; as long as there was someone else there he was more than happy. Leaning at the counter was a girl in her early twenties with messy oak colored hair and a crimson vest that said "Aunt Sally's" on the upper right pocket. She was reading a book and only after James breathed a sigh of relief did she look up. "I'm sorry honey, I didn't hear you come in. I don't usually get customers this late in the night so please pardon my bad manners" she spoke with a warm and pleasant tone. With a smile James walked over to the counter and sat down on a stool. "It's fine, I'm just glad I found this place, I've been driving around out there, lost and trying to find anywhere that was open". She made a cute pouty face and said, "I'm sorry to hear that, it's understandable though. People get lost out there all the time during the day. God only knows how easy it is to get lost at night. Is there anything I can do to help"? For a moment James thought about making a move on her. She was attractive and all but in the end he decided against it, the lingering sense of fear was bothering him and he'd like to be out of this place as soon as possible. "I was wondering if I could get something to eat and could you maybe give me some directions back to the highway, I really would like to get this trip with" he chuckled a little and smiled at her. She gave him a look over and stood there thinking for a moment before saying "Sure thing honey, let me make you up something and then we'll talk about getting you back to the highway".

As she was cooking in the kitchen, she hummed a little song to herself. It used to be on the radio all the timer; it wasn't anything too fantastic but it was kind of catchy. In the dining room James could hear her humming away as she cooked and despite his happiness at being around her, he couldn't help but still feel a bit uneasy. He couldn't quite place his finger on it; there was just something in the air he just didn't like. A few minutes passed as he thought over what was putting him off, and then it hit him. It was the song she was humming, it was creeping him out. He knew the song like the back of his hand. It used to be on the radio all the time when he was sixteen; they even played it at his senior prom but that's not why he knew it so well. It was soft and sweet song yet in his current situation it was making him very upset. The irony of the situation was what made it bother him, he'd heard the song plenty of times over the years but never once did it bother him like it was now because he wasn't specifically doing something that pertained to Rachael when he would hear it. When the girl returned, she brought him a plate of eggs and ham with some bread, James thought for moment, he couldn't remember actually ordering anything. Pushing it to the back of his mind he decided to ask her about the song she was humming. "Oh that... It's just a dumb song that used to be on the radio, I just like the melody". As he was eating he decided to bring up the subject of getting directions to the highway. For a moment she fidgeted but then she spoke slowly with some obvious intimidation, " I was hoping you'd be more agreeable after you were fed. you can't make it back to the highway before morning". James sat there and stared in disbelief for a moment before asking her to clarify what she meant. "We'll you see you'd never be able to find your way back there at night and it's raining I can't send you out there, if something bad were to happen, I'd just feel awful" she avoided his eyes as she spoke to him. "I don't think you really noticed as you were driving but the road's surrounded by trees on both sides, the signs for whatever reason are on some of the trees, you'd never be able to see them. I'm sorry, I didn't want to tell you right off the bat and make you more miserable than you already were when you came in".

A good deal of time passed before either of them spoke again. James just sat there and played with his food for a while. Finally he felt like saying something, "What am I going to do, just wait around here until morning. I'm exhausted, I just want to get to Everett and be done with this whole trip". The girl sat there for a moment and looked around, her face screwed up in thought, then she apparently had made up her mind. "Why don't you go take a little nap in one of the booths, Everett is only about an hour out from here. I know a way that doesn't require going back to the highway so you'll be able avoid any morning traffic and you'll be able make it there sooner than you would had you taken the highway. Hell, I'll let you follow me there when my shift is over. I've been meaning to make it up that way for a while, deal?". It would have been very easy to just yell at her and force her to tell him how to get back to the highway but that would mean having to go back out into the dark and the thought of doing that was less than tempting. Plus he really was exhausted so he decided he should take her up on the offer. What was the worst that could happen? As he was getting up a thought crossed his mind, "I never got to ask you, what's your name?" She smiled at him widely and said: "My name's Lucile but you can call me Lucy if you'd like". He shook her hand and smiled back at her, something about her smile seemed a bit malevolent just for a moment. As he went to lie down in the booth he tried to put the feeling out of his mind. It should have taken him longer but he fell asleep almost instantly.

James slept about as soundly as anyone could when they're sleeping in a tiny uncomfortable booth. The whole diner was as silent as the grave; the air itself was still and unnatural. The only sound that could be heard was the rain pouring down against the roof of the diner. James tried to roll over in his sleep but he banged his knee on the table in front of him. Gasping and holding his knee, he woke up swearing quietly to himself. It took a moment to fully wake up and look around. The diner was dark now, the lights had been shut off, the only light was coming from two clocks that were adorned with a red neon ring around them and the exit sign. He didn't quite fancy this change in lighting considering it was still dark outside but soon that thought flew to the back of his mind. It felt like he'd been sleeping for at least four or five hours but it was still dark outside. He pulled out his phone from his pocket to check the time but it was glitching out on him. The whole screen was just a mess of red pixels, though the clock on the wall said it was a little past three o'clock. Waves of unease washed over him as he stood up. It couldn't help but feel that it wasn't a coincidence that his GPS and his phone were on the fritz. He had never had any trouble with them before, especially his phone, it never did anything like this before. None of his phones ever had. To make matters worse Lucy was nowhere to be found. Trying his best to hold in the panic he was feeling he kept telling himself that she was probably in the kitchen cleaning up or something. Most likely she just turned off the lights to give him some peace. Just then he heard her; she was humming in the bathroom and again she was humming that same song, which did nothing to relax him. Quite frankly her humming was bothering him more than anything right now, it seemed to delve deep inside of him, reverberating off of his insides.

In an attempt to try to take his mind off of how creeped out he was, he tried to look at some of the paintings on the wall, there was just enough light to make them out if he got close up to them, he would've tried to turn on the lights but he had no idea where the switch was. The arrangement of the paintings was very strange, they weren't grouped in a cluster, there was just a line of paintings along the wall. The first one was really pleasant; it was a bright picture of a mother holding a newborn baby in her arms as her husband was kissing the top her head. James walked down the line, the next was of a little girl playing in a field of wheat with her mother, her father was smiling in the background. The painter seemed to use the perfect color for everything, it was rich and inviting, it actually did relax him a little. After that was one of a little girl in a classroom crying as other kids her age that were laughing at her. The little relaxation James started to feel began to fade a bit. The painting looked like it was done by the same artist who had done the other ones and each of the girls in the paintings looked very similar. The next painting showed again a similar looking girl lying curled up in a ball crying on her bed. The girl kind of looked like Rachael when she was a teenager and it was weirding him out. He was about to go and try to find something else to occupy his mind when surge of terror rushed through him, transfixing him on the next painting. It was of a boy and a girl talking to the girl from the painting before. What bothered him was that they looked like him, Alyssa, and Rachael from when they were in high school. Even the clothes they wore matched the ones they used to wear, in fact he had the same t-shirt the boy was wearing in his duffle bag. It couldn't have been them though, he tried to reason with himself, he didn't know how the artist could have matched up the kids in the painting with him and Alyssa and Rachael but it must have been a coincidence. Still he had to keep looking at the other paintings, he was just compelled to. The next painting was of the same girl, wearing the same outfit as she was leaving a dirty old barn. She had a glassy stare and the way she was painted looked as though she was off balance. The front of her jeans had blood dripping down the middle and her thighs. James started to hyperventilate; he couldn't believe what he was looking at, no one could have known about that day. It was like something out of a nightmare. Somewhere outside there was a squishing of mud but he was too preoccupied to care. He had to know there were only three more paintings now. The next painting depicted the girl, she had sickly skin and was sitting alone against a wall in a messy bedroom, writing in a notebook. After that was a painting of that same room, the woman was asleep in her bed but on the wall, written in read was "Someone's still here with me".

There was only one painting left now, he trembled as he shuffled over to it; the girl was standing in the field from the second painting, yet in this painting the sky was dark and cloudy. She was standing there letting the breeze blow through her dirty dress. This painting was painted darkly; there was a house in black behind her and everything about this painting sent chills down his spine. And this painting was the only one that had anything under it. It was a mounted brass plate that read:

" I'm not alone anymore, I never really was alone since that day. Harry may have left but he came to me, he was beautiful. He was so much more beautiful than anyone I'd ever seen before. He was shy at first, I heard him though. He'd be lean over me as I slept, I'd see him out of the corner of my eye. Sometimes I'd hear him in the dark. Once I asked him to show himself, he did. I was scared at first but he promised not to hurt me. We talked for a long time then I finally told him about the day I lost everything. I thought he'd leave but he told me that he was an angel once to but his wings were taken from him. I told him Harry left me because I wouldn't let him touch me where they had. Harry left me when I told him why I couldn't let him consummate our marriage. He told that he didn't want a whore and a lesbian. I didn't want them to do it, I thought they wanted to be my friends. Harry said I would go to hell, premarital sex and being a lesbian are against god's rules. I didn't want to talk about it ever again but he took my hand and told me things I'd always read but never heard. He told me that it wasn't my fault and that he knew god, they were once good friends but he too had a bad day and was thrown away. I was happy, finally someone understood me and what I felt. I asked him if he had come to take me away, I thought I had died in my sleep and this was the after life. He told me that if I wanted him to he would would make right what was wrong. All I needed to was trust him and give myself to him, I did. I wasn't afraid of him, I let him take me as his own. I will submit to him in Hell but it was worth it, the real monsters would soon pay "

-Rachael's Diary, Last Entry.

James's mouth was wide with horror, he had to be dreaming, this couldn't be happening. When he looked back at the painting it was as though she was smiling at him. Her face was one of utter relief, as though bounds that had held her down for a lifetime had finally been released. A weird sound, lower than a whisper was coming from behind him, he just barely heard it. Spinning around on the spot he greeted with a sight he couldn't explain. Every inch of his body sank into a cold numbness. On the other side of the glass window were what looked like dozens of shadowy figures in the shape of people, each one was adorned with a pair of faintly transparent crimson eyes. He closed his eyes for a second, hoping that when he opened them nothing would be there. Maybe he was imagining seeing the figures; he could only barely make them out. When he opened his eyes again there were more of them and now they had wide transparent crimson grins. He couldn't scream out, fear had taken his voice. He ran in terror towards the bathroom, finding his voice he screamed for Lucy. She was still humming from behind the door as he was banging frantically. She didn't stop her humming, despite his screams of distress. It was like she couldn't hear him. He went for the handle which, to his surprise, was unlocked and he pushed the door open. His screaming became blood-curdling as he faced with what was on the other side.

The door he opened didn't open up to a bathroom. On the other side of the door was the room from the painting. The walls were tall and dull brown, it was like he'd walk right in to the painting but he barely noticed the room. What stood in the middle of the room was holding his attention, he even forgot about the shadow people. Still humming the song from early was an unnaturally tall and skinny creature ,it's appearance forever burned itself into his brain. It's arms reached to it's knees and it had large bony hands with long pale fingers . The creature's head was bowed so that it could fit under the ceiling. It had cold bloodshot grey eyes and the only other feature on its face was a mouth. It didn't look much like a mouth, more like shreds of flesh. It was wearing Lucy's vest, James could only stare at it petrified in fear. It reached out towards him and he screamed louder than before but couldn't move, he was rooted to the spot. The creature moved unnaturally, it was as though it was a weightless body underwater. Its movements were slow yet disgustingly fluid. It was still humming as it reached out to him. Closer and closer it got until it could almost touch him. Finally he was able to pull himself from the spot, turning he ran towards the exit door. He almost made it but on accident looked out the window and saw the shadows again. They're almost non-existent faces watched him hungrily. He could just tell that they were waiting for him to leave, they wanted him to, he could tell they wanted nothing more than for him to run out to them. He was trapped, outside the diner were the shadow people but inside was the creature. He stopped for a split second, panicking, trying to think what to do. The feeling of cold unnatural fingers touching along his neck made him run faster than he ever had before in his life. With his back pressed against the door he looked at the spot he had just run from. The only source of real light in the whole place was coming from the door from where he had run from. The creature moved slowly as it sank it's body low and pushed through the door with it's unnatural grace. "Hush little baby don't say a word, momma's gonna buy you a mocking bird" it was singing in Lucy's voice, it's head rocking slowly from side to side. He couldn't stay inside and let it do whatever it wanted to do to him. He pushed the back door open and ran out into the darkness.

Monday came with a horrible rainstorm; according to the weather channel it would be raining for the next week or so. Rain didn't bother Mary too much; in fact she kind of liked the rain, sure it made her bus smell musty and gross but somehow it always made her happy. Plus it served as a perfect excuse for her to stay in her room and watch cartoons all afternoon. She was always kind of caught in a catch twenty-two. On the one hand her parents wanted her to be outside playing with the other kids in their neighborhood. They had been all American kids growing up so they felt it wasn't natural for a kid to stay inside their room all the time. Also her parents were very popular in the community, to them it looked bad on them that they had a daughter who stayed shut away all the time. On the other hand though, her speech impediment was another source of embarrassment for them. Most of the other parents thought she was mentally challenged or something, which looked bad on them in their eyes. So at least the rain gave them an excuse and made her feel a little bit better about the whole situation.

The day started out with a uncommon event, Mary had been woken up by a text, while texts may be normal for most people Mary didn't usually get them. Every now and then one of her friends from the Internet would text her but that was about it. This text came from a blocked number, all it said was:

" You've got a package arriving today, don't wanna miss that. You should wear your boots today...don't want you to slip and get hurt ;]

-Lucy"