Annie

The Gang wasn't the same anymore, the house on Tally Drive seemed to change them forever, or so Annie thought as she got up from her bed. 

She checked the clock, it was 12:00 p.m. Annie had been lying in her bed all day, she did that often. Her room was the safest place in the world, she could be whoever she wanted, she could read whatever she wanted, and she could watch whatever she wanted, as long as her parents didn't find out. But it didn't matter, they were too busy fighting and drinking, that was their way of escaping reality. But sometimes it felt like they could've done more, Annie would watch families on the T.V, the mothers would go mall shopping with their daughters, and the fathers would play ball with their sons, where was that in her parents? Annie didn't know, but she'd lived long enough to understand that was how they were, and how they would always be.

 Annie paced around her room, deciding if she should go downstairs or stay up in the comfort of her room. Annie opened her door, she knew it was risky, but she wanted to go outside and drive around the town in her parent's vehicle. So, she dashed downstairs, grabbed the keys off the table, pushed the front door open, and hopped in her mothers Honda Accord.

Driving around the small town of Windwell wasn't usually that exciting, but it offered a break from the yelling of parents. Old music was playing on the radio, why doesn't anything new ever play? Annie thought. She passed the Police Station, the same station that Jack and Tina biked to that dark night only two weeks ago.

Annie remembered feeling a sense of dread that night, she supposed everyone must have. That man's eyes were so strange, it was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. There was no way to get the image of the triangular fleshy eyes out of her mind. Jack had told everyone not to tell their parents, cause they'd think they were all loony, but it was hard to keep something that big a secret.

Annie made it up King's Way, she realized just then that it was like she was subconsciously choosing to drive up that way. She shook her head, not wanting to get superstitious about anything, she should've known better as the top student in science class that there was a logical explanation for everything. That created a new idea in her head, if there was a logical explanation for everything, how could she explain what happened to Allen Hall? That was something that didn't fit the standards of reality, it was more like something from a Stephen King novel.

Annie was already on King's Way, what harm could it do to search again? She decided to keep driving up King's Way and look around for anything that could explain what happened to Allen, it wasn't exactly the most complex plan, but she supposed that if she did find something, it could help the rest of The Gang find some relief in what happened, too. She looked around at the forest surrounding her vehicle, she passed many trees and bushes and even a deer family, but she couldn't see anything so far that helped with the case of Allen Hall.

Annie theorized in her head, was it a serial killer who did that to the poor man? Was it himself? Maybe he went crazy and carved his eyes, but that wouldn't explain the house that just disappeared. That was the big piece of the puzzle that was missing, how could a whole street just be gone within a night? That led to a darker thought, what if Windwell was cursed? The town had always had a dark aura around it, and Annie even remembered a story of a group of hikers going missing on the trails of Windwell sometime in the 60s. But that was the only big thing to happen in the small town until Allen Hall went missing as far as Annie knew.

A bag hit the windshield. The vehicle screeched as Annie pressed on the brake, she looked up at the windshield again and saw it was cracked. 

"Shit, shit, shit. Mom's gonna kill me." She said as she stepped out of the vehicle. She looked around until she spotted a grey-green backpack lying on the road, she walked over to it and picked it up. 

As she examined it, a voice called from the forest behind her: "Sorry about that!" A man yelled.

 Annie turned around and saw a middle aged man walk out from the forest, he glanced at her car before looking back at her. 

"I can pay for the windshield, I'm so sorry."  The man said as he walked closer to Annie, she noticed that sweat droplets were in his beard and eyebrows. 

"What are you doing all the way out here?" She asked, wanting to seem approachable, but something about this area made her feel uncomfortable. 

The man pointed to his backpack, "I was just, uh, hiking." he said.

 Annie raised her eyebrows. "Hiking all the way out here? Where's your car?" 

"It's not too far down the road," the man said in a casual tone.

 He coughed, closing his eyes and hacking into his right arm. When he opened his eyes, Annie quickly realized they had changed shape and color, they looked like her fathers eyes.  The eyes were the same eyes her father had the night he first hit her.

 Annie remembered her nine year old self , she thought it would be a fun idea to stay up late. She heard her parents being loud downstairs so she went to explore, and she discovered her father beating on her mother, she ran to stop the fighting, and her father looked at her with the same eyes she saw in the hiker now, and he slammed his hand across her face.

But how? How did this man have those same eyes? It had to have something to do with the Windwell curse, there was no other explanation. 

Annie took a step back, "wh-who are you?" she mumbled. 

The backpack she held started leaking blood, she quickly dropped it. But as the man tried to speak, his mouth made a cracking noise, his teeth were getting larger and larger. Annie dashed back to her mother's vehicle and quickly turned the key, the car started and the radio started playing an old song. Annie looked out the left window and saw the hiker's eyes were now red and the bottom eyelids were pulled down to give them a triangular shape, it was the same thing Annie remembered on Allen's body. She breathed quickly as she started driving away, and for a moment she thought she passed the hiker and would never have to think about him again, but that's when the car flipped.

When Annie opened her eyes, she was upside down, and the radio was still playing that old song. She quickly unbuckled and kicked the passenger door open, when she came out, she found she was near a river. She felt her forehead and her fingers came down with blood. "Fuck...." She whispered, still not fully processing what happened on the road.

Annie grabbed her keys and held them in a defensive position as she walked through the forest that went uphill to King's Way. She crouched and creeped quietly, she had to make sure the hiker wouldn't hear her if he was still around. She stumbled on something hard and looked at the ground, it was her camera, she could take a picture of the hiker for proof, something that would've been helpful two weeks ago at Tally Drive.

Annie held the camera as she heard branches snapping from her left. She lifted the camera, aimed the lens in the direction of the sound, and SNAP! The noise was louder than she expected. She dashed and grabbed the picture as it came out of the slot, but it flew out of her hand as she collided with a tree. Her forehead bled and she turned around to find the hiker standing on bony legs that had barely any skin around them, his jaw was long, stretched forward, his teeth were bent and went up and down in an uneven way, his eyes were pushed in and they had a triangular shape to them and the bottom eyelids skin was pulled down to the teeth.

 Annie felt frozen, she couldn't run, she couldn't even fight back, the terror was too much, she felt tired and she knew this would be her last day as the hiker ripped her lower jaw off with one swipe of his long, bony hand.

That night of April 20th, 1979 at 11:45 P.M. in the forest where Annie Albridge died the last photo she ever took lay on the brown dirt that was much darker than it had been hours before. The bushes nearby rustled and a being came out of the bushes to retrieve the photo. But as the being reached its paper white hand to retrieve the photo a pale blue force pushed the being away, the being screeched with pain and all of its victims voices screeched along with it as its hand burnt. The being quickly dashed back into the forest, it knew that the photo was being protected by something far stronger than itself, but that fueled the beings passion to get stronger.

Shelley

Screeeeeeeeeech! Shelley jumped out of her bed and landed on the floor mat.

"Shit." She whispered, she didn't want to wake her brother. She looked around the dark room and saw the clock's bright red numbers. 

The clock said: 11:43 P.M.

"Ughhhh...fuck." Shelley groaned and rubbed her eyes. She turned to her brother, who was also awake.

"Did I wake you up?" Shelley asked as she sat on his bed. Alex sat up and shook his head.

"No, I heard a loud noise, it woke me up." He said with a yawn, "did you hear it too?"

Shelley nodded. "Yeah, it might've been a raccoon getting in the trash or something." 

She walked over to the window and peered out at the trashcans, they weren't moving, they just looked how they usually were. Alex came up from behind her and looked out the window as well, his head turned left and right. 

Shelley looked down at her younger brother, "well, I guess it wasn't a raccoon. Maybe dad was getting a drink?" She said in unsure tone. Alex shook his head. 

"no," he stated, "mom and dad are definitely asleep, they have to help out at the church in the morning and they never stay up past ten when there's something big." 

Shelley yawned and sighed, "oh, okay. Why do you know so much about their sleep schedule anyway? I don't even know that much." 

"Cause they always force me to go with them on Sundays, I'm not old enough to do my own thing yet." Alex said with an annoyed tone. Shelley didn't do much of what her parents wanted  anymore, especially not after the incident with the house on Tally Drive. Shelley told her parents about it and they didn't believe her, they called it an excuse for being out late. She rubbed her forehead when she was reminded of that whole mystery.

The clock said: 11:44 P.M.

Alex turned on his flashlight, slid the window open and leaned out of it. 

Shelley pulled him back, "what are you doing lame-o?" she asked.

 Alex pushed her away and aimed the flashlight around the front lawn. "I'm looking for a sign of one of those monsters." He explained. 

"What monsters?" Shelley asked, "monsters aren't real." 

"You should know of all people that monsters are real, you and the Gang always go looking for haunted places." Alex replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. 

"Ghosts are real, monsters aren't." Shelley said, "and we haven't been going to places after all that Tally Drive shit happened."

Alex yawned. "Well, you get my point-" 

The clock said: 11:45 P.M.

The world around Alex and Shelley shifted to a dark red color and it blurred like an out of focus camera. Both the children had a random shared intention to walk outside, so they did. They peacefully strode down the hall with expressionless faces. Shelley couldn't feel anything besides the need to go outside to the front lawn, Alex felt the same. A faint ringing noise could be heard, and at times it even sounded like someone was speaking from behind a wall as the two siblings ventured into the living room and out the front door. 

They walked barefoot down the stone steps laid upon the ground and onto the lawn, the sky was a dark red and it had the same blurry effect the rest of the world did. Alex and Shelley continued stepping forward until they reached the end of the front lawn. That was when they gained  control of their bodies and thoughts again. Shelley looked around at her hands, and then she looked at the forest that went across from their house, the forest had a little blue light going deeper and deeper into it until it disappeared. 

Alex pointed to the grass, "look." he whispered. 

Shelley looked down at the grass, lying there on the lawn was a photo with what seemed like man, his body seemed normal but his face was distorted, the man had a long jaw and his eyes were pushed in, the closest thing Shelley could say the man's face resembled was a dog's face with human skin and features stretched over it. 

She bent down and picked the photo up, it was freezing cold. She then felt something wet drop onto the back of her neck and she looked up. The sky was no longer a blurry painting of dark red, but a grey from clouds above, and rain was pouring. Alex and Shelley dashed back inside, Shelley made sure the photo wouldn't get wet by covering it with her arms and keeping it close to her chest. 

When Alex and Shelley made it inside, they both slammed the door shut and Shelley turned to look at Alex. 

"We can't tell mom or dad about any of this shit! Okay, Alex?" She asked with raised eyebrows. 

Alex took a moment before he responded, "yeah, yeah, okay..." 

"They won't believe us anyway." Shelley said quietly, she looked at the photo again. "Whatever this is, we have to show The Gang. They're the only ones that will believe us, I think..." 

After that, Alex and Shelley went back to their room quietly, Shelley hid the photo under her bed, and both of them went back to sleep. 

The clock still said: 11:45 P.M.