Beware of Those Who Would Do You Harm – Act 3

Officer Thomas Jane and his rookie partner, Rain Slenderman, walked lazily through the cornfields, occasionally flashing their flashlight at every sound they heard. Officer Jane hated nights like this, when teens prank called the station, yet he was still obligated to check it out. He knew he wouldn’t find anything, so he didn’t object when Officer Slenderman suggested they stop for coffee. Even so, according to the operator, the kid who called sounded really calm. An unnatural sort of calm, like the kind that comes before a storm. He knew the kid too, the one whose girlfriend went missing after her best friend disappeared not, long after her parents were murdered. It seemed like ever since that boy came to town, there was just one bad thing after another. But why would the killer stay here? It didn’t make any sense, the kid had to be mistaken.

As soon as they reached the house, Officer Jane felt like there was something wrong. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something jus didn’t feel right. He turned to his partner.
“Get your gun ready Slenderman, I have a bad feeling about this.” Officer Slenderman nodded solemnly and did as she was told.
As soon as they opened the door, a powerful odor hit them. Officer Slenderman wouldn’t know, but Officer Jane recognized that smell. It was the smell of death. Once again he turned to his fellow officer. “I think we’re going to need back-up.”

After calling for back up, the two officers cautiously entered the house. Not knowing whether or not the killer was still there, they decided to stick together at first. They searched all of the rooms on the first floor, eventually making their way to the living room. Officer Slenderman let out a shriek as she shined her flashlight over the couches. When Officer Jane shone his flashlight as well, all he could utter was “Mother of God…”
There were corpses everywhere, of men, women and children of all ages, and in various stages of decay. There must have been over a dozen of them. They were all posed in different positions, as if they were friends and families gathering together for afternoon tea. There were people slumped on the couch “reading a book”, or sitting in a chair with the newspaper. Some were even sitting on the floor, posed as if playing a board game. Their mouths were agape, and their eyes were rolled to the back of their heads. As the officers began to examine them, they recognized a few from the missing posters that had skyrocketed in recent months. Officer Slenderman had to leave the house to throw up outside. Officer Jane remained inside, wondering why there weren’t any flies surrounding the bodies.

As the officers made their way to the stairwell, they noticed the dried blood on the floor and the rail. They gave each other a wary look, and then continued on, guns at the ready. Once they reached the top floor, they split up and checked each room. They were all the same as the living room. More corpses, all posed in various positions, their mouths and eyes agape. They were all in different stages of decay, some fresher than Officer Jane would have liked. “Just what kind of sick fuck are we dealing with?” He murmured, to no one in particular.

“Jane!” Officer Slenderman called from another room. “I’ve got something over here.”
Officer Jane followed her voice to a middle closet. Officer Slenderman wore a grave expression on her face, but she nodded towards the open door. Officer Jane took a deep breath and aimed his flashlight into the closet. Inside were the bodies of two teenage girls. One was a lot more decayed than the other, but there was something strange about the way they were positioned. They were leaning against each other, the eyes and mouths closed in what could have been a peaceful slumber. They were holding each other’s hand, and wrapped around the two bodies was red string, tying them together.
A tap on his shoulder startled Officer Jane, but before he could say anything, Officer Slenderman pointed above the heads of the bodies. Following her finger, Officer Jane saw that written in blood were the words “Loved and Lost.” Officer Jane wondered what that meant, but he couldn’t dwell on it right now. There was still one more room that they needed to check, and hopefully the killer was still hiding there.

As they made their way to the end of the hall, they could hear sirens approaching. Their back up, finally. It would take them a while to make it through the cornfields. Officer Jane didn’t have time to go down and give them a briefing. He had to see what was in that last room. He looked at his partner, who looked back at him with a determined expression on her face. He knew she was afraid, but he also knew that she wanted to take this person down as much as he did. She would never forget this experience for the rest of her career; she could no longer be considered a rookie cop. Today, she had seen more than half the cops on the force. Things like this just didn’t happen in their peaceful town.

When they entered the last room, Officer Slenderman once again had to stop herself from throwing up. Lying on the bed was a young woman, her abdomen sliced open and her entrails falling out. She was a fresh corpse, Officer Jane realized as he examined her. She was pretty too, such a shame. They looked around for the killer, but they quickly realized he was long gone. There was a desk with a computer monitor on it, but the computer itself was gone.

“He must have found out we were coming.” Officer Slenderman sniffed.
“Yeah, while we were out there taking our time, he was escaping.”
“I wonder how he was able to use this computer.”
“What?” Officer Jane said, turning to her.
Officer Slenderman looked stunned. “The computer, how could he have used the internet when there’s no signal or any electricity out here?”
“How do we even know he used it?”
“Well why would he take it if he hadn’t been using it? A monitor with no computer, that doesn’t make sense.”
“Yeah…” Officer Jane didn’t have much time to think about it, as he could hear the other officers coming through the door and calling out to them.
“I guess I’ll go down and tell them the situation, seeing as how he’s not here anymore.”
“Alright, I’ll stay up here and look around some more.”

As Officer Jane headed to the stairway, he tried to collect his thoughts. He was ready for this nightmare to be over, but he knew it wouldn’t be for a long time. And what’s worse? The killer had escaped because they hadn’t taken the call seriously. Just as he reached the top of the stairs, he heard a shout coming from the room at the end of the hall.
Officer Jane, followed by the other officers that had come as back up, ran to the room with their guns ready. But when they reached the room, it was empty save for the young girl who was already dead.
“In here!” Came a muffled voice from a small doorway.

Officer Jane and the other officers slowly entered the room. A fresh metallic smell filled their noses upon entering. They all flashed their lights around the room. Lying on a bloody metal operating table was a teenage boy. His hands and feet were tied down, and his throat was slit. Officer Slenderman was leaning over him.

“He’s still warm.” She said, her voice quivering as she tried not to cry. “This must be the boy who called 911. We came too late.”
“And that’s not all.” Said an officer named Joe Rake, as Officer Jane comforted his partner. “It looks like we’ve got a confession.”
All of the officers simultaneously aimed their lights were Officer Rake was pointing his. On the wall above the boy’s body, written in fresh blood, was a message:

Jeff was here.