- “I… it wasn’t me!” -Hans answered looking baffled and scared. – “It was the devil, the devil made me do it” -He proceeded.”
- “Now you listen here, and you listen well, we are gonna need you to put the gun on the floor, and then kick it back to us!” -The sheriff’s assistant commanded. But Hans simply raised his sweaty head, and gave them an awkward smirk, before lifting the shotgun, and wasting no time putting the barrel inside his mouth, and pulling the trigger, leaving a spurt of brains and blood on the wall behind. “No!” -Exclaimed the sheriff infuriated, as he rushed to aid the young murderer, but it was too late. The young man laid there, completely mangled by the blast, dead, but with an odd expression of relief on his lifeless eyes.
- “We’ve lost him.” -Lamented the sheriff among tears, before closing the corpses’ eyes for good.
Later that day at the police station, the sheriff sat outside on the stairs, in the cold of the endless polar night. Thinking, reflecting about what he had just seen. David came outside with a warm cup of coffee, and sat next to the remorseful old man. - “I knew Hans since he was a little boy, that man he murdered was his older brother. I knew that family since before I even became a cop.” -The sheriff said sorrowfully. - “I am very sorry.” - David said. Then the sheriff added: - “Every winter since I can remember, an unsuspecting elk or reindeer will fall on a frozen lake, it’s a very common thing around here. We have a group of volunteers in this town that help us with rescue missions, that help us get the animal out unharmed. And little Hans… oh boy little Hans, he was always the most eager, an animal lover that little boy. He hated hunting, fishing, anything that involved killing, he also hated guns. Whatever it’s going on in this town makes no sense. And who knows? Maybe Hans was right, maybe the devil is behind all of this.” -The sheriff said before standing up and saying good night to David.
- “Seriously, one room?!” - Britt protested as she entered the hotel room with David.
- “What? We’re on a budget here, besides this is the only hotel there is in this entire town, you should feel lucky we found somewhere to stay.” -David replied.
- “Come on David you didn’t even know Västkil existed until all of this, am sure that’s also the rest of the world. Highly doubt this whole hotel is booked.” -She said as she put her bag down on one of the beds.
- “Well at least we have to beds.” -David added.
- “Whatever I call dips on the restroom.” -Britt continued.
- “Sure, suit yourself.” -
Britt entered the bathroom as David continued to read the ghastly reports, and examine the gory forensic pictures. She needed some fresh water on her face, no matter how cold it was, after all it had been one of the most stressful days of her life. She poured some water on her hands, and then poured it on her face, immediately feeling the numbing effects of the freezing water. She then stood upright, to see herself in the mirror, only to see nothing but darkness, and in the darkness, a big, bright pair of yellow eyes staring back at her, and a deep hoarse voice coming out of the mirror that called out to her: “Hello Britt” then the eyes disappeared, and in their place, the vivid image of the murderer she had let scape all of those years ago, looking back at her through the mirror, smiling with an evil inhuman smile. She screamed, as loud as she could, from the top of her lugs. David rushed inside, only to find her on the ground crying hysterical.
- “It’s ok, it was just a short power outage.” -He reassured her.
- “I wanna get out of here David.” -She bemoaned as the tears rolled down her cheeks, as David kissed and caress the top of her head.
The next morning Britt was unusually reticent, completely taciturn. As she and David sat at a table in the seemingly only restaurant opened in the whole entire town. David attempted to unsuccessfully break the ice with cheap chat, but Britt remained aloof, looking out of the window with a downhearted expression on her face. She in fact looked destroyed, as if she hadn’t been able to sleep for a whole week. “Rough night?” David asked bravely, for which he was met with a cold and surly look, but no words, Britt simply went back to looking outside the window to the town almost entirely covered in snow.
- “Britt, what happened last night?” -David asked.
Then as Britt took a deep breath, ready to answer, the waitress showed up.
- “Are you guys ready to order?”-She asked in a friendly manner.
- “Just give us a second please” -David said, which apparently didn’t sit too well with the waitress for her ensuing facial expression as she walked away.
- “Is it the nightmares again? -” David asked.
- “It’s more than that…It’s… Guilt.”- She answered.
- “Guilt from what?” -He asked a little annoyed.
- “It’s not about the nightmares, that young man killed his own brother yesterday, and I again stood on the sidelines, powerless, not knowing what to do, not being able to help, just like last time. The visions last night, they were vivid like my nightmares always are, but this time, they felt as if I was there again. And I saw myself, again in that house, with that killer Christian Olsen. And I felt the same paralyzing fear, I pulled my gun out and then again did nothing, and let him escape, so he could go on to keep killing. But this time, he was not scared, he didn’t run for his life like when I caught him in real life. This time he stood there, laughing at me, staring at me with those hateful evil eyes, but this time they were different, his eyes were yellow, and they were just…different.” -
- “He’s messing with you kid.” -Exclaimed an old man who was the only other diner in the whole restaurant, he sat alone at the table next to theirs.
- “Excuse me?” - Britt asked the old man.
- “It’s that demon thing that has been making everybody crazy up in this town, making them kill each other, it got in your head too.” -As the old man finished his sentence, the waitress had come back again.
- “David turned his head back at her and attempted to tell her to give him another minute, but this time he noticed something strange. The woman was trembling uncontrollably, she was sweating profusely, and wheezing like if she was sick. She also held a sharp knife in her hand, which she clumsily was trying to conceal.
- “Are you ok?” -David asked the waitress. Suddenly the waitress made a swift movement with her hand, and tried to slash David’s throat, but was unsuccessful at doing so, as David nimbly dodged her attack. The old man from the table across then, in an incredible show of courage and swiftness, stood up and punched the woman knocking her unconscious. Then both David and Britt drew their weapons and pointed them at the old man, who quickly put his hands up.
- “If you two wanna live, you best come with me, and you best do it fast.” -He said to both David and Britt.
- “Do you wanna explain to me just what the hell is going on here?!” - David asked impatiently as the three of them walked out of the restaurant. Suddenly and without much explanation, Britt collapsed to the ground unconscious, and David tried to catch her before her head hit the ground.
- “We need to hurry; we have to go! I’ll explain everything later.” -The old man commanded as he helped David pick up, and load Britt’s unconscious body into his truck.
As the old man drove through the snowy road, Britt’s condition worsened more and more. She was gasping for air, and began to roll her eyes upwards.
- “What is happening to her?” -David asked in distress, as he sat in the back with a contorting Britt.
- “Now now sir, she’s gonna be just dandy, you just keep an eye on her.” -The old man replied in a soothing tone of voice.
- “Where are we going?” -Asked David.
- “We gotta get her as far away from the sea as possible, the creature can only reach so far inland.” -He replied succinctly.
In the meantime, Britt was having a vision, she was under water, there was very little light, and the water looked of a beautiful green emerald tone. Suddenly from the dark depths below, a big pair of yellow eyes emerged. - “Hello Britt.” - Said the monster from below with the same hoarse demonic voice from the night before. Britt simply stayed there, floating, not being able to go up to the surface, as if pulled by a mysterious magnetism. - “You cannot stop me Britt, you have never stopped anybody, you are too scared, of everything, of everyone!” - The monster continued. - “Fear will paralyze you again, just like it always does, and in the end, you’ll just be full of regret, thinking why you could not simply be like the rest. But you and I both know the truth, you will never be normal, you will always be afraid.” - The monster concluded, as it swam back to its dark bottomless aquatic pit. Then suddenly Britt felt as if she had been pulled out of the water, and woke up again inside the old man’s truck, just to find a crying David, and some awful reckless driving. “Well, I guess that’s far enough now” -The old man concluded.
As David and Britt both on the old and peeled leather couch, the old man kept pacing back and forth. Almost seeking the right things to say, or better yet, the right way to say things. - “This is going to sound like a crazy story.” -The old man said. “I have seen plenty of crazy thus far.”-David added.
- “I guess you can say this is all my fault…Yeah I’ll gladly take the blame.” -The old man proceeded.
- “What are you talking about?” -Britt asked.
- “Well see… That thing out there, I was the one that pissed it off.” -Said the old man with regret in his voice.
- “You keep talking about a thing, a demon, a monster, what does any of that mean?” -David asked impatiently.
- “Please let him finish.” -Britt ordered David.
- “Well, I think I have it all figured out. How it works you know. This is a truly strange and scary world, and even though us humans have been living in it for millennia, we almost know nothing about it. For example, the ocean and all of its mysteries, and all of the monsters that lurk under the infinite depths of the sea, believe me detectives, you have no idea what you’re facing here.” –
- “And you do?” -David asked in challenging tone of voice.
- “I have a pretty good idea here yes.” –
- “Well tell us. What do you know? -Britt asked
- “It’s mind control, I don’t know how it does it, but that creature, has been controlling people’s minds, telling them to do all of these heinous things, making them kill for it. This creature came from the depths of the ocean, and now it dwells closer to the surface, getting into people’s brains, turning them into its puppets. But its influence, its power, can only reach so far inland. If you get out of its radius of influence, its mind control powers won’t affect you.” -The old man concluded.
- “I hope you realize how outlandish this all sounds.” -David added.
- “It’s true, I’ve seen it myself.” -Britt said in a scolding tone of voice.
- “Tell me, you said you caused all of this, can you explain that.” -Britt asked the old man.
- “Well, I suppose it’s best if I just show you.” -The old man said.
The old man walked Britt and David out of the house and into a small shed on his backyard.
- “Don’t try to rationalize what your about to see, simply accept it for what it is.” -The old man said before opening the door to the shed. Inside, a strong and fetid stench similar to a dead whale blew on their faces, making them cover their mouths right away. The old man then stepped into the shed, and brought out with him, the large skeleton of something that looked like a giant snake. It still had some decayed skin attached to it, but it was also falling out, leaving nothing more that bone.
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