The Man Who Screamed (Part I)
My name is Arron,
I'm 12 years old and trying to figure out life at this point. We just moved to a small town in Wisconsin.
Our house is average but still in the upper middle class suburban area. I have a friend who is also my neighbor. His name is Jimmie Johnson-Smith. His Dad is in politics and his Mom works in the prison system helping the prisoners who were wrongfully convicted. Me and him are in the same class together and we walk to school and pretty much do everything together.
I guess I should tell you about my parents...
My Dad works in the Morgue so our basement is filled with his work stuff but the actual morgue is downtown so I never see the bodies here in our house. My Mom is a Doctor in Neurology. She studies the brain.
Creepy, right?
I like to stay out of the way from my parents' work because it freaks me out way too much. My Mom is trying to transition from Neuro research to becoming a Psychologist instead. She loves her job but she wants to do counseling for people who need it.
I love our new house. It's much bigger and nicer than the last ones we lived in. Yes, we do move a lot and I don't hav an answer for you as to why we do but we do. I'm just glad to have a great friend next door to us.
We have lived in Florida, New York, California, and now Wisconsin.
We move quite frequently. Remember, I'm only 12...
I've been wondering why we move a lot but I never question it but as I'm getting older... I'd like to know things a little better... I'd like to make friends and keep them. I feel like this place in Wisconsin will be different. We have lived here since May, pretty much all Summer by now. It's August now so school is starting next week and I can't wait to meet more people and make more friends with my new classmates. The day me and Jimmie got our class schedule we got excited seeing we have the same class together this year. Next semester, however, he has a different semester class but we have the same homeroom teacher all year so that's good! I'm shy so Jimmie will definitely be helping me meet new people and make more friends so I won't be alone next semester in the Spring.
School starts next week... I can't wait for the new adventure!
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[A Week Later: First Day Of School]
*Alarm Bell Ringing*
*Yawn*
Ok... Time to get up and get ready for the first day of school! I'm quite excited yet, terrified. At least we are settled into our new home... That was stressful enough!
I quickly got up and hopped into the shower. After the shower I quickly put on my deodorant, brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, gargled mouth wash, and then got dressed and grabbed my back pack and headed downstairs. Mom made breakfast so I grabbed it to go and she mad an extra breakfast box for Jimmie too. Our parents became really close friends. So, I grabbed our breakfast boxes and ran out the front door to meet Jimmie so we could walk to school. School wasn't that far from our neighborhood, it was only a mile away.
While we were on our way to school, we saw this old man walking into the woods... It was odd but we kept walking as we snacked on our breakfast and drank our juices. We finally got to school and sat down in our assigned seats. Luckily, our seats were side by side. I'm not sure how we got so lucky but we did and I am not complaining at all.
Today went by fast and I met some pretty awesome people who also live in my neighborhood. Jane, Genrich (we call him Rich), Lillian, and Max. We all walked back to our neighborhood (including Jimmie) and it was so hot. We were all sweating bullets while we walked home in the heat at 3:15 PM. As we were walking back, me and Jimmie mentioned an old man we saw this morning walking into the woods and how odd it was. The other kids mentioned they saw him also and explained they had never seen him before. The woods that he walked into was very near our neighborhood. Like, the woods are literally outside of our neighborhood. We were all curious at this point about the man in the woods so we all planned to go into the woods over the weekend.
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[Friday]
It was a pretty normal school week. As for outside of school, we all kept seeing the same old man walking into the woods as we were all walking to school in the mornings. We would all meet up from now on to walk to school. We never traveled alone so we could have a bigger group of people to feel safer and be safer. As we walked back home after school, we noticed it was finally cooling off in the afternoons after we all struggled during those hot blistering afternoons. We would all stare at the woods as we were entering our neighborhood. It was just beyond spooky, none of us could explain it. We all had a plan to go out tonight into the woods. We all split up and went into our homes and acted as if everything was normal. Our parents never suspected a thing. My parents and Jimmie's parents were going out to dinner and have adult time so we asked if our other neighboring friends could all stay at my house. They approved like normal and never suspected a thing.
[Friday, 05:00 PM]
"Honey! We are leaving!"- Mom
"Ok! Love you!"- Me
"Call us if you need us."- Mom
"I will!"- Me
*Mom kisses the top of Arron's head*
*Click click click*
*Front door opens and closes*
Finally! The parents are gone and we are all ready for it to get darker as the sun sets. We were all in my playroom talking out plans for later. We all got dressed into dark colored clothes and our black beanies to blend in the night.... in the woods.
Everyone is staying the night at my house tonight and we are having a "sleepover". At this point we all started to watch a movie, a scary movie, to get into the spooky mood. Bad idea but still fun. We were just waiting for 08:00 PM before we went out into the woods. After the movie, we started to research our area in the online archives. We couldn't find much about the area or the old man. It was strange but then again, he wasn't exactly dead but we wanted to see if he had been arrest or anything. We didn't know his name nor did we ever see his face.. We had not much to go on at this point... Unfortunately...
[Friday, 08:00 PM]
It's finally time to go out into the night forest behind our neighborhood. We all got to the front door and breathed hard. We opened the door and out we went into our nightly adventure of the old man in the woods...
We made it to the spot where we always see the old man in the mornings as we walk to school together... We were all shaking and nervous. We of course brought our trusty flashlights with us so we could see... We start entering into the woods and decided to turn off the flashlights for now so we can blend in and not be seen well.
The leaves were crackling and it was getting darker and colder... The wind was rustling the tree leaves and we all stayed huddled together as we slowly made our way into the woods. We finally made it to a resting spot and talked amongst ourselves thinking we should come back in the morning at the same time we see the old man instead. We decided to do just that since we didn't find or see anything happening. We all turned on our flashlights to head back to my house. We finally made it out of the woods and into my house and headed upstairs into my room. We were all disappointed we couldn't find anyone or anything at all in the woods. You would think nighttime would be the time right? We hadn't seen anything all Summer long but that might have been because everything happens in the morning..?
We all went to sleep as my parents finally made it home at midnight. We all slept in my little man cave my Mom made me. You can call it a playroom or a little man cave, it didn't matter to me. We all slept comfortably that night.
___________
[Saturday, 03:00 AM]
*tap tap tap*
*Arron waking up groggy*
*Arron rubs eyes as he peeks at the window in the room*
*tap tap tap*
*Arron stares at the window with his eyes wide open with fear*
