(18)-The House On Peacher's Street.
Tommy, Logan, Holly, Timmy and Will rode their bikes through the neighborhood with their pillow-sacks full of candy as night-time slowly began to approach the suburban community. They had stopped at several homes in the area and got tons of candy. In fact, they had gotten so much, their sacks were filled almost to the brim. It was impossible for them to carry any more. Had it been any normal Halloween, they would've been heading back home by now...but there was one more stop they had to make.
"Tommy, i'm sorry if i don't sound too concerned, but nightmares, footprints and a trap-door in your basement, and a white-masked dude following you around doesn't prove anything monster-related." Timmy said, as Tommy had been sharing with the group all of the weird events that had been occurring today, even though Logan and Holly knew most of it already. Everything from the white-masked man to the shoeprints and the trap-door found in the basement of his home.
"Well, i think you're wrong, Timmy. I think it does prove that the Boogyman is here in Haddonfield." Tommy said.
"It was a Halloween prank. People pull stuff like that all the time. Maybe it was your parents that did it. The footprints will be gone by tomorrow. And besides, the masked guy you saw sounds like he was weird and not of this world." Will said.
"That's my point exactly." Tommy said.
"So you're sayin' that the Boogyman-a creature that's been haunting you in your dreams since you were 4 years old-crossed over into the real world?" Timmy asked.
"That's one of my beliefs, yes." Tommy answered.
"Tommy, i may have been born, but i wasn't born yesterday." Timmy said.
"I'm sorry, Timmy, but please listen to me. This may be a matter of life and death." Tommy said.
"Alright, i'll tell you what we'll do. We'll all get together at my place tomorrow and-"
"Tomorrow is too late." Tommy said, cutting Will off. "The Boogyman is here. He's walking amongst us."
"Tommy, it sounds to me like you're talking about something from the paranormal world." Timmy said.
"Well, perhaps i am." Tommy said.
"Okay, you guys, we're here." Tommy said as he and the others were arriving at their final destination. The last house for the night. They rode their bikes onto the sidewalk and stopped at the Myers house.
"Tommy, what are we doing here?" Will asked.
"Holy cow." Timmy said as he and the other kids looked at the old abandoned spook-house.
Tommy hadn't told the gang that the last house they were stopping at would be the Myers house, as he knew they would decide against it and leave. Logan would've probably stayed, but the other members of the group would've went home.
"This is the spook-house." Will said.
"I thought nobody lived here." Holly said.
"Why hasn't anyone bought this place yet?" Will asked.
"It's haunted, dude." Logan said.
"Laurie said her Dad is gonna sale it to someone. She left a key under the mat this morning." Tommy said.
"Well, let's see if the ghosts have candy." Will said before getting off his bike and heading towards the old house, allowing his bike to fall to the ground.
"Will..." Tommy said before he and the others got off their bikes and followed after Will, allowing their bikes to fall to the ground as well. The five kids went up the steps, onto the porch, and stopped at the front door.
Will knocked on the door. "Come on, answer the door, you spooks."
But there was no response.
"Knock on the door again." Holly said.
Will knocked on the door a few more times. Again, nothing. "Ugh!"
"Come on, let's go." Timmy said.
"What a rip-off." Logan added as he, Holly, Timmy and Will turned and proceeded to leave.
He didn't know why he got the impression to do it, but Tommy grabbed the door-knob and turned it, surprisingly opening the door, as it was unlocked, much to his shock.
Logan and the others stopped in their tracks and turned to see that Tommy had opened the door.
"What in the world?" Logan said.
"Let's go." Tommy said.
"Are you crazy?" Timmy asked.
"Look, the door's open." Tommy said.
"And you don't think that's weird? This place has been locked up since the 60s." Timmy said.
"I'm sure there's a good explanation." Tommy said.
"Yeah. Maybe the new owner came by and had a look at the house." Holly said.
Wanting to see if Holly was right or not, Tommy pulled back the mat to see if the key Laurie had dropped off was gone. But it wasn't. For when he pulled back the mat, it revealed that the key was still there...right where Laurie had left it. Which meant the knew owner hadn't been by here today. "You guys...the key is still under the mat."
"So much for that theory." Holly said.
"I don't get it. If the key is still here under the mat, then why is the door unlocked?" Tommy asked.
"I think it's pretty cool." Logan said.
"You would." Tommy said.
"Guys, maybe it's being used as one of those haunted house places. They usually got a bus-load of candy in them." Will said.
"I'm in." Holly said.
"See, Tommy? Even the girl isn't scared." Logan said.
"I have a name, thank you." Holly said.
Tommy covered the key back up with the mat and he and the other four kids looked inside the house through the open door.
"Rock-paper-scissors to see who goes first." Timmy said.
"Oh, come on, you guys." Tommy said before he and the others entered inside the house, stepping into the foyer, followed by Timmy closing the door, as he didn't want to risk the possibility of someone seeing the door open and reporting a break-in to the cops at the spook-house. They then began looking around the home. They went into the living-room to investigate and Logan suddenly stopped, making the others stop too.
"What's wrong?" Tommy asked.
"You guys...look." Logan said.
Tommy and the others saw what Logan was staring at. There, on the floor, in front of them, was the mutilated remains of a dead black Labrador dog.
"It's a dog." Holly said.
"Or what's left of it." Timmy added.
"Looks like it's still warm. It must've just happened recently." Will said, referring to the dog's gruesome demise.
Tommy gazed at the mutilated dog. "He got hungry."
"He? You mean...come on, Tommy, it could've been a Racoon." Logan said.
"I doubt it." Tommy said.
"Oh, come on, Tommy, no human being could do this." Holly said.
"Exactly." Tommy said, still looking at the remains of the dog. Holly was right. No human being could do something like this...but a monster sure as ever could. The kind of monster that was not of this world.
"You still haven't answered my question, Tommy. Why are we here?" Will said.
"Because i need to find out once and for all if the Boogyman is real or not." Tommy said.
"The Boogyman? Is that why we're here? To prove the existence of some figment of your imagination?" Will asked.
"More like to prove the continuing existence of a serial killer." Tommy said.
"What?" Will asked.
"It's true. You see...to make a long story short...Holly believes the Boogyman was a man named Frank N. Stiner who lived here in the Myers house back in the 1940s, murdered five boys from 1940 to 1943, was arrested on Halloween night-1943, followed by being sentenced to life in prison in 1944, escaping prison on Halloween night-1948, disappearing without a trace, and he has never been found to this day." Tommy explained.
"Nice summery." Logan said.
"I'm confused. I thought the Myers family lived here." Will said.
"They did. After Stiner was arrested and sent off to prison." Holly said.
"And you think this Stiner dude is the Boogyman that's after Tommy? Please." Will said.
"Well, the cops never found him, and it's very likely he's been secretly living inside this house all these years. The dead dog only proves that." Tommy said.
"Tommy...i'm gonna have to level with you. I listened to you show and tell speech about the Boogyman the other day. I know exactly what you're doing, and frankly, i don't like it." Will said.
"What is it that you think i'm doing?" Tommy asked.
"Trying to scare us." Will said.
"What?" Tommy asked, confused.
"Admit it, Tommy. There is no Boogyman. You made the whole thing up just to scare the entire class, just like you're trying to scare us now. And i'll tell you something else. I think you have created quite the masterpiece of a fake-monster that kids have been afraid of for centuries, because monsters sell stories." Will said.
"Please. Just hear me out first." Tommy begged.
"Alright." Will said.
"I first met the Boogyman in one of my nightmares four years ago. He has no conscience, no reasoning, no sense of life or death, right or wrong. And now he's come here to Haddonfield." Tommy said.
"For what?" Will asked.
"He's come here for me. I know it in my bones, Will." Tommy said.
"To do what?" Will asked.
"I don't know, Will, but...it's not good." Tommy said.
"Okay, fine, i believe you. But if it turns out this whole Boogyman fiasco isn't real, then you must promise that you will apologize to us, 4th grader Timmy here, and the rest of the 3rd grade for scaring us the other day at show and tell." Will said.
"I promise." Tommy said.
"One more question. How could that Stiner guy have been secretly living here after he escaped prison? That makes no sense, because the Myers were living here during the 60s...'til they up and disappeared. So there's no way he could've been living here without them knowing about it." Will said.
"What if he lived in the house somewhere the family rarely went to?" Tommy asked.
"Like where?" Will asked.
"Shall we go down to the basement?" Tommy asked.
"Uh, of course. What tour of a haunted house would be complete without a look at the basement?" Will said.
"Follow me." Tommy said. He and the other left out of the living-room and went back into the foyer, then he led them down the foyer-hall and over to a door. He opened the door, revealing a flight of stairs that descended down into a dark room. Just like he thought it was the basement. The 8-year old got his flashlight out of the right pants pocket of his costume. "Come on." He said, briefly looking back at the others before they all descended down the stairs and into the dark basement.
Tommy and the gang began looking around in the basement for any signs of human life.
"What on Earth am i doing in this house?" Logan asked himself in disbelief.
"You think he...lived down here after his escape from prison or something?" Holly asked, referring to Frank N. Stiner.
Tommy soon stopped in his tracks when he shined his flashlight on something. "Hey, you guys...come look at this."
Logan, Holly, Timmy and Will went over to where Tommy was.
"What is it, Tommy?" Holly asked.
"Whoa." Logan said.
In front of the kids was a trail of shoe-prints that led away from somewhere. Dirty shoe-prints. And very familiar ones at that.
"Dude's, check it out. Foot-prints." Logan said.
"Yeah. And they look just like the ones we found in my basement." Tommy said.
"Because they are." Logan said.
"Holy Halloween candy. Has someone really been living down here all these years?" Will said.
"That doesn't make any sense. I mean, the Myers family was living here back in the 60s." Holly said.
"Man, this house is so messed up." Timmy said.
"Tommy, you said you thought a serial killer had been secretly living in this house all these years. Where is the proof?" Will said.
"What do you call the foot-prints in front of us?" Tommy asked.
The kids were then startled by the sound of something coming from inside the basement closet, which was where the shoe-prints led away from.
"What was that?" Timmy asked.
Tommy then started heading towards the closet-door.
"No. No, no, no." Logan said.
"Tommy, don't open it." Holly begged.
Not listening to his friends, Tommy walked over to the closet-door and placed his right hand on the knock. "Just make sure you're ready to run."
"No, Tommy. Wait." Holly said.
Tommy turned the knob and slowly opened the basement closet-door, revealing it to be a walk-in closet, just like his back home in his basement. The shoe-prints led out of the basement and Tommy followed the trail inside the closet, with the others following him from behind. They soon stopped in their tracks when they reached the end of the closet. There, they saw non-other than an open trap-door in the floor.
Holly, Logan, Timmy and Will were stunned as they stared at the open trap-door with Tommy.
"Is this enough proof for you?" Tommy asked.
"You guys, we need to go...now. Come on." Holly said.
"Hey, what's that?" Will asked, pointing at something in the corner.
"What's what?" Tommy asked before he shined his flashlight on the mysterious thing in the corner...revealing it to be a human blood-stained-clothed skeleton with white messy wild hair and an ax in it's chest, as well as several narrow holes on it's shirt. Ax-narrow holes, to be exact.
"AAAAAHHH!" Tommy and the other kids screamed in horror as they looked at the human skeletal remains.
"WHAT IS THAT?!" Logan screamed, referring to the skeleton.
"Some kind of Halloween-prop?" Timmy guessed.
"WITH AN AX IN IT'S CHEST?!" Will screamed.
The kids then heard the sound of creaking footsteps coming from upstairs in the foyer.
"What was that?" Will asked.
"The Boogyman." Tommy said, focused on the skeleton.
"The Boogyman?" Will asked fearfully.
"We have to go." Tommy said.
"I'm fine with that." Logan said.
"Me too." Holly added.
They then heard the footsteps again, but without the creaking sound this time.
"Do you guys here that?" Timmy asked.
"He's coming." Tommy said.
"Come on, Tommy." Will said before he and the other three kids rushed to the door.
However, Tommy was too busy staring at the human skeleton remains in the corner, making the other four kids stop in their tracks at the door and turn to face him.
"Tommy, let's go!" Logan said.
"Tommy, come on, we gotta get out of here!" Holly added.
"Tommy, come on!" Timmy said.
Tommy continued to stare at the skeleton.
"Dude...what are you looking at?" Will asked.
"Holy smokes." Tommy said.
"Tommy! Tommy...what is it?" Logan said.
"Guys, the skeleton in this corner isn't fake...it's real." Tommy said.
"What?" Holly asked in disbelief.
"It's Frank N. Stiner." Tommy said, not taking his eyes off the human skeleton. There was no doubt in his mind that these remains were real, as the bones were brown. It they were fake, the bones would be white. The had to be the remains of Frank N. Stiner. What other explanation could there have been? The Myers couple had just up and disappeared after their 6-year old son killed their 17-year old daughter, so this couldn't have been either one of them. What happened to them after the tragedy? No one really knows. But one thing was for sure though: Timmy's theory had been right. Frank N. Stiner had been secretly living in this house with the Myers family without them knowing it after he escaped from prison. Down here in the basement in wherever this trap-door led, no doubt. No wonder the Myers never learned of his presence. Or had they? Judging by the ax in his chest, as well as the ax-narrow holes in his blood-stained shirt, it was easy to see that someone had killed him. But who?
"Oh, my golly." Timmy said.
"Tommy, come on!" Will said.
Tommy and the gang rushed out of the closet, with Tommy closing the door, and they rushed up some steps to tin cellar double-door and Tommy pushed them open and they ran out into the backyard of the house and made their way around to the front yard to their bikes where they stopped to catch their breaths. The clouds were now getting darker as night-time continued to set in. It was nearly time for the street-lights to come on, which meant that Tommy had to get back home to be babysat by Laurie.
While panting and catching his breath, Tommy looked back at the Myers house, thinking about the Boogyman. For the last few hours, he had hoped against hope that the monster he had seen at school, on his way home, and on his front lawn was a human being. A thing of flesh and blood like himself. Though deep in his heart, he had known it would be proven otherwise. The evidence of the skeletal human remains he and his friends had found in the basement-closet of the spook-house had ruled out the 1940s serial killer as the prime suspect, since those were his remains. He was dead. Frank N. Stiner was dead. Murdered. By who? Tommy didn't know. All he knew what that the white-masked figure he had seen not once, not twice, but three times was not merely that of a costumed person that belonged to this world...but to another dimension.
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