My generation made some attempts to take the story back as adults. Bring more sympathy to it, give Jim more humanity, and maybe a happy ending. Sadly, it didn't catch on like these internet stories have. For example, I wrote a collection of short stories about Jim. The publishers told me that the subject matter was too disturbing to be children's literature and not scary enough to be a horror story for adults. The grim and dire always hits harder than the inspirational, and my peers and I barely made a dent in the old childhood tales we helped spin. Though, with time, Jim had begun to fade into memory. New ghosts and monsters captivated children and the sightings became fewer and less interesting. That is until the tale was adapted and published in the Birch Island Observer.

When they published their story, simply titled 'The Boneless', I knew it had something to do with Jim. The Observer office is in Elizabeth's Haven, so, of course, they would leave themselves out of the story. The Boneless was a homegrown monster. Something which was created and fed on the town of Fort Champlain. And it did it with a spiteful malice none of Boneless Jim's stories had. The Boneless hates us. It doesn't want to steal toys or candy. It wants victims. It was now a supernatural stalker, sowing fear in its victims and gnawing at their psyche. This became a more and more pervasive trend as the story grew online and was adapted and elaborated on by dozens of online authors.

Gnawing is an apt description. That is one thing that stood out to me in the stories online. The Boneless has teeth. I think this feature grew from the online community specifically, as the Observer's story never mentioned teeth. I can't understand why it would have either. Wouldn't his disease mean his teeth wouldn't form? Regardless, he sure does like to use them. He seems to be a biter now.

Boneless Jim became simply "the Boneless". His tragic backstory was excised, and his habits became malicious. He soon began stealing dogs from dog houses, and children from their open windows. But, more than anything, the Boneless wanted to possess what he lacked. If the victim was lucky, they would simply have their toes bitten off in the shower after the Boneless wound itself up the drain. Others would be found in the sewer with all their bones removed. It was as if it was keeping them as trophies.

It makes me sad reading these stories. Boneless Jim was a character that, in some way, I identify with. I was unpopular, I had a difficult relationship with my parents, and I often wanted to just hide away from the world. I want a happy ending for this character. The Boneless shouldn't be his legacy.

This leads to my reason for emailing the Observer and contacting members of the forum. The story had changed, and it had a direct impact on the sightings. Someone, surely a member of some forum, began harassing locals in my town. As I mentioned, sightings of Jim were declining rapidly and then shortly after the first stories went up, so did the number of reported sightings. Moreover, these new encounters were threatening, and verged on stalking behaviour. It soon became obvious that these were not made up stories. Someone was out there terrorising the people of my town. There were reports of children being chased through the woods. On multiple occasions, the assailant had waited in the dark and jumped out at unsuspecting people wearing a grotesque rubber suit. We hear howls at night and our dogs are agitated, as if someone is creeping around private property in the dark.

The police haven't found any leads yet, but, as a local historian, I took interest and made the connection between the dates and the online stories. Either someone on one of the creepypasta sites is the culprit or the stories posted online have inspired this psycho to terrorize our town. I tried to get the editors and writers to understand the gravity of the issue. This creep in costume was going to traumatise some poor kid. But I found out the hard way that online communities don't appreciate the criticism of an outsider.