9:00pm

The mercy of the demon I had seen consumed my waking thoughts. The unfamiliar police car I was driving glided on the road, the wheels spinning faster and faster on the wet pavement. I swerved onto a different street, my meat suit was released from the clutches of Staley Road, but my mind was not nearly as lucky. My arm released its grip from the wheel, pulling the silken cloth crest emblazoned with golden threads from my shivering teeth. It still smelled like her even after five years. I reached my hand down and flicked the small black lever. The red and blue lights that danced above me stopped their waltz. It wasn't long before the police would discover the scene, their missing gun, and their car. Yet I did not care, something far worse was after me. Like a game of hide and seek, and it was currently counting.

I tried to rid myself of the fog that was pooling in my mind, as rain slammed its fists upon the exterior of the car. I finally snapped my focus to the road when I could see I was approaching my destination. Charleston Falls Preserve. The sun was starting to shut its eyes, and with it, the park was closed. The parking lot was empty, and I pulled the car up to a gravel slot under the cover of trees. From here I couldn't even see the entrance to the park with the sheets of rain, so I decided to wait. I cracked the window so I could hear anything coming. The pattering outside began to pull the remaining energy from my body until I felt myself drift into sleep.

8:00pm, 1 hour earlier

My phone broke the silence as it announced my arrival at the location. Staley Mill, Staley Road. I pulled into the dirt driveway, back in this place for what I hoped was the last time. I was approaching an old black barn, pieces of wood bending this way and that. The large carcass looming wide and raising quite a distance among the trees. It sat near no noticeable building, a lonely giant amongst the woods. My small P.T. Cruiser struggled to make it up the hill. Its tires almost begging and pleading for me to not go closer to the old building. It crawled its way closer to the barn until it at last arrived on a flat enough surface. I opened the door to the car, and in just over a second felt my face slam into the mud as my shoes failed to gain traction on the wet ground. With the less than appetizing bath water of pigs now in my mouth, I stood up. My head being pricked with water looked from side to side before settling in front of me.

The massive black barn although broken and decrepit as it was, still held some semblance of life. A candle lantern hung by the door blazed as the wind tried again and again to pierce its walls. I approached the barn, the rain gathering strength with every step closer I took. I felt myself sliding into the unlocked door without thinking about it for even a second. My thoughts were silent as I was vexed by the strange beauty. For just a moment it looked exactly like it had when we were here. I was quickly slapped with reality when "The Hell Barn" was scrawled on the wall in front of me. That wasn’t there the last time. My eyes quickly tried to evade it but were met with message after message. "The Scarecrow of Bethel Township" combined with the creaking of the upper level, almost sent me sliding back through the entrance. "Alex Walsh + Kerry Glenn, Prom 2016" stabilized me with its familiarity and almost brought the corners of my lips up as if they were being pupated by a distant memory. When my eyes finally stopped hitting the sides of the room like a DVD display screen, they landed on what was branded on the floor.

"It Blinds, It Burns, It Yearns. The past will make the future suffer." The words slashed my eyes, injuring them to their core and sending tears down my face. In companion with the words was a pentagram, its sharp edges written in crimson. In the middle laid a small green cloth, A small golden elk sown onto it, and the name "House of Glenn" written above it.

2:00am, 4 hours later

Night had taken over when I stirred. I felt myself fall from the car as I opened the door. I needed air and the car was somehow filled with nothing but smoke. Yet the smoke followed me and wrapped itself around me. As the lens of my eyes finally sharpened, my hands pressed against the little rocks of gravel as they attempted to invade my fingers.  The smoke I had seen was fog, slithering through the cracked window and was filling up the police car. I slammed the door, which was covered in blood on the outside.

I looked up towards the now visible entrance of the park. My head start was quickly coming to an end as I could hear the sirens beginning to pierce the trees in the distance. I would have to make the ever-twilight forest my bed for the night.  I grabbed the gun, my phone, keys, wallet, and the crest I had gone through all this trouble to get. I began to step away from the car when I felt a wave of warmth rush over me, my eyes beginning to tear up, and my voice echoing out a stark “Shit”. What if it was coming? I had no plan. It would have to wait.

The sirens were about to be on my heels. I shoved the gun into my waistband as I sprinted under the entrance sign and began to run through the park. I trudged and ran through the woods, my shoes clomping as they filled with mud then squelched it out. I made it far enough to the point where I could no longer hear the sirens. I looked around me and saw I was standing on a rocky almost dried up waterfall with a drop the length of a school bus. "Holy Shit!" I screamed. My voice echoed far through the forest. That scream would be a path for anyone looking, right to where I was. I felt water trickle down my face and thought I was starting to cry, but it wasn’t tears. The rain was starting up again. Not wanting to fall victim to its watery blades or anything that could be chasing me I knew I needed to find shelter. I began to walk along the edge of the falls until I saw a path that seemed to lead down to a wooden platform and gravel path.

Following along the gravel path I began to hear the patter of scraping behind me, fearing it might be a bear I snapped around. Does Ohio have bears? It didn't ultimately matter, as what I saw had eyes of green, it was the demon. Luminescent eyes, and the stench of B.O. It was craning its head and standing at the base of the falls on a wooden viewing platform, which now stood barely visible through the large swath of trees. It was chasing me, and I still hadn't found a good hiding spot. I sprinted like a jaguar up the jagged path, a wall of rocks on one side and a forested valley on the other. I reached an imperfection within the face of the rock, a cave on its surface, small and the perfect size for a bear. Although weary of becoming the possible furry creature's roommate, I threw myself into the hole.

8:10pm, 6 hours earlier

Something was coming. I could hear the ‘Craaahee’ of the car as its tires approached the barn. It was coming from the same direction I had, so it would certainly see my car. The blue and red began to blaze through the cracks of the barn. I sprinted for the Crest before ducking down and trying to shrink into myself. The siren wasn’t on but the message was clear. They knew I was here and didn't want me to be. I saw a shadow emerge in the rain; its hands stretched out clasping a gun. Its form glided towards the barn. I couldn’t let them catch me, I needed to get home. This Crest needed to be on her coffin. Fear rose in me when I saw the officer’s shadowy form disappear between barn panels. I waited for him to emerge, but he didn’t, not fully at least.

The wet crunch sounded in my ears like the roar of a passing train. The slump sound that followed it was somehow worse. The gooey remains I could see sent me into a state of paralysis, my head fogging up as it had when I was in the car. The smell of iron began to waft its way into the barn. The sight of crimson blood mixing with chicken noodle soup pooling out of still full trousers and part of a buttoned police officer shirt made me vomit and gasp. It just sat lying there. What could do that to a person in a matter of seconds? A sharp crashing of glass broke me from my paralysis, and the dying whirr of my car’s horn as it attempted to cry out made me fall to my knees as the fear took any strength I could muster.

I was screwed, the ceiling of this hell barn draped over me, and the gateway, through which I had once walked and this beast lay on the other side was ready to be opened. And so it did. The door slowly creaked and cranked itself open. Was this The Scarecrow of Bethel Township? The rain fell heavily on the draped driveway encased with trees, the dead officer and my collapsed car now in full view. The creature, encased in the shadow of the approaching night began to drag itself into the barn, the only visible part of itself being its eyes glowing and emitting coned beams like flashlights. Its form sounding like a thick rug being dragged across cement as it slowly lurched its way into the room. The few hay bales that were acting as my source of protection were but a child’s gate for it.

"Alex," it said, its voice filling the barn as if the walls themselves were speakers.

"Please," I whispered.

"Welcome back," its voice mocked me as it spoke those foul words.

“Who are you?” I said my voice cracking. “Did you place these markings? I just want the Crest, I left it here after a dance," my words spewed from my mouth as I tried not to cry. Why did I insist on borrowing it for my suit’s handkerchief?

“No, I did not place them.” Its voice was deeper and slower than the first time. The sound it emitted was like a warped radio broadcast. “You will not be placing that Crest on the Casket.”

"Why not?" I said, the tears beginning to flow down my cheeks. The dark creature, this demon, didn’t respond; it was going to kill me next.

I sprinted over the bales and ducked past it, looking back for only a second as I ran out into the rain. It didn't follow me though. I stopped and looked at its looming form, the way it hunched yet stood at no less than nine feet tall. The way it occupied the space of a person yet was no more than a shadow. I looked down seeing a gun clutched in armless hands. As I vomited into the pile of blood, I tried to pick it up, but it wouldn’t budge. Stashing the cloth in my mouth I used both of my hands to remove the warm hands from their intertwined position within the trigger. Once it was mine I sprinted towards the open police car and jumped in. Hearing what sounded like a question over the radio I turned it off. Then I swerved out of the driveway as it stood there staring at me with its green glowing eyes.

3:00am, 6 ½ hours later

The cave was cold as I sat inside it; rain poured outside. I crawled back as far as I could and tried to sit like a sloth. The darkness outside passed slowly. I could scarcely tell what time it was and dared not to take my phone out. Instead, I let my thoughts occupy me. Why did it kill the officer and not me? Who made the markings? Why did it know Kerry? Perhaps it just wanted me to suffer m- Gunshots rang outside. I quickly crawled towards the exit and peered out. Nothing.

I climbed out of the cave as the gunshots grew louder and louder. What was happening? Could the police be fighting the demon? Perhaps I could position myself as the victim of it that I was and come out of this situation well. I sprinted down towards the viewing platform of the waterfall where I had seen it last. The waterfall was now rushing like a stampede. There stood five officers around it, all firing their guns directly into the creature of god's nightmares as it let out a warped deep laugh.

Five men stood firing. It lifted the first digging its claws into his scalp and pulling back, turning the man into nothing but a chopped onion as slammed him through the wooded platform into the water below. Four men stood firing. It slammed the second one so hard in the chest that it caved in as it hurled the poor man into the air. His head thwacked the side of the waterfall as before he then splashed into the water below. Three men stood firing. I did nothing to help as the third had his legs stepped on by the demon. Two men stood firing, and one lay screaming.

It stared into the fourth man’s eyes. The officer slowly turned his gun onto himself and fired, first hitting his legs, then his chest, and finally his head. It had forced him to feel pain. No men stood firing, as the last man standing attempted to run. He made it three steps up the falls towards me before the creature caught up to him, taking its hand as it slammed it down the man's throat, suffocating him to death. As it choked him, its green eyes looked around and latched onto me. Yet when it was done it turned from me and walked back down. One witness remained.

One man lay crying. He begged and pleaded, but the demon simply stepped on his throat. It then panned its head towards me. I pulled the gun from my waistband and aimed at it, I didn't think it would do anything but I had nothing else. It simply approached me, slinking through the shadows of the night. I dared not to fire a shot, and soon it loomed over me like a tree. I dropped the gun, dug into my pocket and offered the crest, allowing it to be soaked with rain.

It reached out and lowered my hand. "Your fate has been established already," it whispered.

"What?" I responded.

"No one will believe you. You will not be placing that Crest on the Casket.”

Those words stuck to me like blood. I dropped to my knees as it walked away, disappearing into the shadow of night. It left me alone, surrounded by dead officers, the stolen police car still in the parking lot, an officer's gun at my feet, and the night's memories stamped across my face and soul.