Mike Randall
19th October 1990 – 31st October 2009
Beloved son and friend
When I was young, I would have never imagined I would ever be able to visit my own tomb. Nor would I have thought I would want to. Now, however, doing so is the only way to approach the life I once had. The people, the things I left behind. But I can only come at night, when no one can see me, or else I would have to kill even more people than I already do.
Nobody knows that my name was once Mike Randall, or that I used to have a family, go to school… But it was like that before. I was a normal student, not very hard-working but I always managed to get fairly good grades. I had a small group of friends with whom I spent all day. We were at school together, went to parties together, and challenged each other sometimes.
A challenge. That's what changed everything.
It was my birthday, and all my friends were home. We were all having a great time, talking and laughing. As my birthday is close to Halloween, the conversation soon spun around what we would do on the thirty-first.
"Let's go scare trick-or-treaters!" said Will, my best friend. He loved to frighten people, and Halloween was the best day of the year for him, even better than Christmas. "See how they run away, screaming."
"We did that last year", I reminded him. "Let's do something different."
"Hmmm… how about a dare?" Peter said. "One of us must do something scary, something that takes guts."
"Well, it's Mike's birthday, so he should be the one to do it" laughed Will.
"Try me", I challenged. "I'm not going to back off like a chicken, unlike others…"
"Hey!" protested Frank. "I told you I'm allergic to dust! I wasn't going to go down that basement and catch a-"
"Oh, cut the crap, Frankie. We all know the truth", Will teased.
"Anyway, I'll do anything, so go ahead and test me."
"Anything, hmm?" Will thought about it.
"What about the forest?" said Mark.
"What forest?" I asked.
"The one that's a couple of miles down the main road, passing the town… How about going there, on your own?"
"No problem. I can do it."
"All right" said Will, "but we'll take you so that we can see that you'll actually get into the forest."
"Please, I'm no coward. I won't run away. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? A branch falling on my head?"
"It's decided then" Frank said. "You'll go to the forest on Halloween night. Go in there, and bring us a branch from the trees that are in the heart of it, and you'll be a hero." We all laughed at that.
"It's a deal" I promised.
Without knowing it, I was sealing my fate.
That October 31st, I woke up and went to school as always, without thinking much about what I was going to do that evening. After all, what could go wrong? My friends would be there, in any case. When the night came, I picked up a torch, making sure it had full batteries (I didn't want to be in the middle of the dark) and waited for my friends to arrive.
"Nervous?" asked Will, while he drove us towards the forest. His tone was teasing.
"I'll wet my pants" I joked.
"Well, Frankie over here would surely do that. He'd hear a bird or something and just run away."
We all laughed, while Frank pretended to be offended at the comment.
"Seriously, be careful" Peter warned me in a serious tone. "We don't want you breaking your leg because you tripped over a root or something like that."
"Don't worry, I've brought a torch" I said, showing it to him. "I'm not that stupid."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that", Will teased, and I pretended to punch him.
"We know nothing will happen. Look, here we are" he said, pulling over. There was the forest. Trees and more trees were the only thing in view.
"Well, good luck mate" Mark said. "Don't take too long, or we'll have to go in and get you, and I'm sure Frank won't like that."
I smiled, turned the torch on and walked into the forest. It was just a place with innocent living beings, though the only ones I could see were the trees. As those became more numerous, it was harder to see before me. Maybe, if I had paid more attention, I would've noticed the sudden wind. Maybe I would've felt the slight rumbling of the trees. Perhaps I would've seen how the trees' branches angled menacingly towards me. Or the fact that no crickets could be heard. But I didn't.
Finally, I decided that I had gone far enough. I saw a branch from a tree that seemed to lean towards me. I grabbed it with a hand and pulled, but it was too strongly attached; I would need both hands. So I left the torch on the floor, put both hands around the branch and pulled again.
When the branch came loose, I fell backwards and tripped over the torch, which turned off. I tried to make it work, but to no avail. I was alone, in the dark.
And that's when it all started.