Brandon was 14 that year. A normal boy through and through, somewhat cheeky, yet very well mannered.
And of course, as a normal 14 year old, he had relatives. And any normal kid would have an old, ageing relative who was cold and creepy, and was one that any normal kid wouldn't dare to talk to.
Except, Brandon's relative was a bit unusual.
Granduncle Josh was never mean or cruel to him, and always greeted him and treated him like a young man, unlike his own parents. Uncle Josh never seemed to go out anywhere, and Brandon found something off with him. He was always polite, but Brandon feared him.
Which was why Brandon wasn't very happy when his parents had to leave him with his granduncle for the evening. He was the only one free at the time.
So there he sat, in front of Uncle Josh, eating some biscuits which were offered to him, downing them with a glass of water.
Uncle Josh sat in his chair, thinking to himself, while letting the boy bore to death. Brandon's eyes darted left to right.
Uncle Josh's house was filled with many, many unusual things. From a telescope, to an old, battered T-shirt hanging out of place, to a fancy, costume dress. Many, many things were all fitted onto the wall, into shelves, from coat hangars.
As a normal boy his age, Brandon was curious. Scared, but very, very curious.
"Why is there an old shirt on the wall?" Brandon found himself asking.
"Oh, that?" Uncle Josh said, walking towards it. "Yes, it is an old shirt, isn't it?"
"Is it a kind of memento, Uncle Josh?" asked Brandon, delighted that he finally had something to talk about.
"Yes... 'fact, there is a story behind it, yes indeed... Would you like to hear it?"
"Yes please," replied Brandon eagerly.
"However, it may chill you a bit..." Uncle Josh warned, a cheeky smile on his face.
"I'm not scared of scary stories," Brandon protested.
Uncle Josh chuckled. "Very well, then..."
There was a young man named Aaron. He lived in a quiet place. It was called Midnight Hollow, and there, the buildings were pretty far away from each other, there were many huge roads, and each house was by its own, the closest neighbours about half a kilometre away at least. It was a really relaxing countryside, there was just enough of everything. Aaron was happy living there.
Of course, if there was one thing he dreaded it was getting back from work. His work ended pretty late, and at night, the place was spooky and dark. It wasn't completely dark of course, there were street lamps. But the street lamps were pretty far apart, with 200 metre intervals. Aaron was creeped out by this, and he would always walk home as fast as he could, music playing in his earphones. He would always avoid the dark areas, and was always scared while walking home, but soon he grew used to it and the fact that there was nothing there. Still, as a safety precaution, he would always rush home as quickly as he could and have his earphones plugged in at all times.
After one fine day of work, he was walking home as normal, briskly, playing a random song, when he felt something drip onto his shoulder. It was dark, and he couldn't see very well what was on his shoulder, behind his shoulder to be exact. Slightly unnerved, he started walking back even faster.
He reached home safe and sound. After a hard day of work, Aaron would shower as always, so he did. Upon taking off his shirt, he realised there was a drop of blood on it! He was now a bit scared. Was it blood that had dropped onto him just now out there? He was too terrified to go back outside. After a while, he decided to forget it and continued what he was doing.
After an hour or 2, his doorbell rang. Aaron, feeling puzzled, went to the door and looked through the peephole. There was a man clad in a police uniform outside. Aaron opened the door.
"Hello!" greeted the officer with a smile, as he displayed his card. "May I know when you got home today?"
"I think 2 hours ago," replied Aaron.
"Okay. I will have to ask you some questions. Around 2 hours ago, there was a murder just on the road outside your house. While you went home, did you notice anything unusual? Like, people running, or a foreign object? Anything out of the ordinary?"
Aaron immediately thought about the blood dripped onto his shirt and started to feel uneasy. Maybe the blood belonged to the victim! His hands felt numb. But he was really tired now, and just wanted the officer to go away. What did someone else's murder got to do with him?
"Um, I don't think anything happened..." he replied. "I was walking home with the earphones plugged in, and you know, it's really dark outside. I couldn't see much."
Unconvinced, the police probed further. "Please, sir. We need every single bit of information we can get on the case. You can imagine how devastated the victim's family were. Surely they deserve a bit of justice?"
Aaron felt guilty. He couldn't just not do anything, he could have the one clue the police needed. He then told the police officer the truth.
"Thank you for your cooperation, sir," said the police officer. "We would also like to have the shirt for further investigation."
"Sure," said Aaron, turning around to get the shirt and he made a point to move out of the creepy place as fast as he could.
Days after, the news reported another murder, this time of a young man named Aaron. The news broadcast also asked the viewers to report the police on sight of the murderer, whose supposed face was shown on the screen.
It was the face of the policeman who had questioned Aaron the other day.
(A/N) My exams just ended, meaning I have all the time to write :) this is a little thing to help me get back to the swing of writing.
So yes, there are more chapters to this, and each chapter has a horror story, told by old man Josh B)
This is based on this book I read a while ago, forgot the name of the book though :( thanks for reading~