When Roger woke up, he saw a bloody knife in his hand and his brother's lifeless body sitting in his office chair.

When Roger woke up again, he was standing in a hole six feet deep with his brother's body.

When Roger woke up again, he remembered nothing.

…………………………………………………….

Roger woke up with a major headache.

“Fuck.” He thought.

He went into the kitchen to start the coffee pot. His brother should be up soon too, and he would want coffee too. He was currently living on his brother's (James) couch after he was fired from his job. Renford was at his side seeking pets. That was strange. He always sleeps with his dad and the door is usually shut and locked. He has never seen inside his bedroom for as long as he has been couch surfing here.

“James!?”

No answer. Sleeping away the day. He has been putting in a lot of hours at work, and Sundays are his only day off. But something was off. The stairs crept as he strode up them. He looked to his left and saw the door wide open. Roger saw nothing out of the normal in the bedroom. He wasn’t sure why his brother was so secretive about it. Renford stood by his side whining.

“What’s wrong, boy?”

He barked and ran back down the stairs. Roger continued into the bedroom. A swimsuit edition of sports illustrated poster hung on the wall. He looked out the window which faced the backside of the house. His red work truck stayed parked in its spot. Where did he go?

A black notebook stuck out to him. He flipped to the first page:

I haven’t caught the monster that haunts this ground. My cat was its first prey. The monster teases me. It knows it can kill me at any time.

May 1, 2023

A camper went missing yesterday. Her body was found strung up on a tree. Her eyes were missing and so was her left arm. Most of the campers left after, and I wanted to as well, but i live here now.

May 22, 2023

I found a jar with two eyeballs and a bag with an arm in my basement. I don’t want to think about what this means.

June 18th, 2023

Another camper went missing. His leg was found on the roof of the camp office. The rest of his body was not found. I didn’t venture down into my basement.

July 4th, 2024

A young boy was found half-eaten on the creek trail. The camp closed down for the season after that. They are keeping me out here for general maintenance. I threw up nonstop that night.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

That was the last passage in the notebook.

James had never told me about these murders.

…..………………………………………………….

The basement door was locked, and the key was nowhere to be found. I ventured outside to the flurry depths of the snow. The trees rocked back and forth, and the wind was pulling me back. I kept trucking forward. I eventually arrived to James’s red work truck. The door was unlocked, but it was stuck from the cold. I pulled as hard as I could, and the door bulged open.

“Help me.” a whispered voice sang as if they were apart of the wind.

Nobody was around.

“Help me.” The voice grew louder.

Still, nobody around. I found a key ring in the center console of the truck. I shut the door and walked back to the house. As I reached the front steps I heard a loud screech.

“HELP ME!”

The sound echoed through the air. I traversed the snowy terrain to where the voice came from. I stumbled and fell face first into the snow and ice. I had tripped over a wood post. A knife died red was struck in the ground. There was a note stapled on the post written in black permanent marker.

Here lies James White killed by his brother in cold blood.

A cracked laughter filled the air as if it was the wind itself. I ran like hell back to the house. My lungs burned like I drank a gallon of piping hot coffee. I stumbled up the stairs and threw the door open and slammed it shut. I locked and deadbolted the door. I stumbled into the kitchen, opened a drawer, and grabbed a kitchen knife. I sat down against the fridge and tried to gather my thoughts.

………………………………………………………

A rhythmic knocking started at the door. I immediately walked to the basement door, and fumbled through the keys. The knocking was getting louder. I was finally able to open the door. At the same time the window on the front door broke, and I tripped down the stairs. I landed on the bottom of the steps on the cold hard cement of the basement. My head was bleeding, and my nostrils filled with the smell of decaying flesh. I could hear steps upstairs. I was able to get up and stumbled over to worktable. That’s when the smell really got to me. there was half a body sitting on top of the table. I stumbled back from the table. I sat down in utter terror. I heard a large thump. A severed head laid next to me. James. My head was pounding, and I passed out.

I was on death’s door as I laid bleeding out of my head. The only thing that showed in the dark and decaying flesh of a basement was red eyes that stared into my soul. The thing stood over me, but I couldn’t see its body, only the eyes. The kitchen knife was suddenly in my chest. My breathing was erratic. And my vision was slowly going out. The thing in front of me was no longer just a pair of devil eyes. It slowly changed into a young woman with a rope tied around its neck with no eyes and only one arm. And then a man with a leg missing. And then finally a child with half a body holding my brother’s long lost cat.

“Welcome to our life, Roger.”

The boys head slowly transformed into James. He broke open the gas pipe that feeds into the water heater. He stuck a match into a gas can and disappeared.

Roger’s dead body burned as the house burned. The fire stopped as soon as the house was completely ashes. The forest surrounding the camp was untouched, and Renford was unharmed and found himself outside.

…………………………………………………………

The thing moved on, Renford followed. The red work truck stayed parked in its spot. The camp had a new caretaker, and the house was rebuilt. Everything was balanced. Clocks still clicked and the sun still rose in the morning. Everyone summed it up as bad luck, and the murders and the fire were shortly forgotten about. Even by the parents and significant others. The world has short term memory loss, and that is how the thing lives on in eternity.