Disturbed

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"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

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This is the third episode of the story of a very strange little boy. You see, this little boy has the very disturbing thought that he is being visited by a demon. An ugly old hag of a demon. Is that true? Could something like that really be true? How could anybody know that for certain, except for the boy? Maybe even he didn’t know. That wasn’t exactly the question that was on his mind at the moment though.

The real question he had been wondering was, “What do you have to do to get rid of an evil demon when nothing seems to work?” That’s what the boy was beginning to wonder. As the demonic hag had promised, she had come back to him time and time again over the next several years, and in his memory there was never a respite of more than a few days at a time from this psychological assault that made him too afraid to ever think of fighting back. The boy was growing older now. He was no baby anymore, but he could only take so much.

And it usually didn’t matter where or when she might appear. There seemed to be only one rule. It almost always began when he was mostly alone. But it didn’t necessarily end up that way. He could wander ten feet away from another person, and the witch would appear. And then it never mattered where he tried to run. A visit didn’t end until the witch chose to end it. And there was always her unasked question. She promised to end all of it for him if his answer would be yes.

Even when the demon witch didn’t appear to him, the boy thought he could sense something evil hovering near him, waiting to strike. He became nervous at all times, dreading what might happen next. His every thought was shadowed with fear and worry of the bad things the hag would tell him. He could never repeat those things. They were too scary to even think about. So now she didn’t even have to be there to hurt him. It seems his own thoughts were betraying him.

Another problem was that the boy had decided that he had to pretend everything was normal, to protect everyone else. He was sure his parents expected him to be normal even though they had never said it, so he had to pretend there was nothing wrong. He was sure this wasn’t their fault. How could they know? They could never see the hag. Nobody could… except the boy. And he knew by this time that no normal person could help him stop something that was as invisible as a ghost. They were all normal. But he wasn’t normal. The boy knew that. He wished somebody would tell him if they thought he wasn’t normal.

But what could he do? Nobody ever said anything. But after seeing some of the strange looks he had gotten for trying to tell this story to people, the boy decided that there was only one thing he could really do. He was going to have to trick them. Trick them all. Yes. That was it. That was the answer. He was fine. That’s what he would say. That’s what he would tell them. It would be easy. So easy. The hag had told him so many times now that they wouldn’t believe. Sometimes she had dared him to tell them, and other times she had warned him to be silent. He thought she was wrong that the others would never understand… until now.

The boy also decided that he didn’t want anyone else in the family to be as afraid as he was. He needed to protect them somehow. His parents. His two little brothers. His new baby sister. The hag had begun to make threats against them too now. She told the boy that she would hurt them if he didn’t do as she told him, if he didn’t listen to the things she said. How could he do that without agreeing to her unasked question that he somehow knew would be the very worst thing he could ever do. Ever. Agreeing to smaller things sometimes seemed to appease the evil creature enough though.

But the boy wondered what would really happen if he were to answer yes to the question? It had been made clear to him that he would learn the question only after he answered with a “Yes.” That always seemed so backwards to him, but he was afraid to ask why it had to be like that. The hag always told him that it would all be over if he were to answer yes, but how could he know for sure? He thought maybe she was trying to trick him. He didn’t think he had ever caught her in a lie though. He listened very closely for lies. Maybe she wasn’t lying about this either, but he still thought this was something very bad.

And there was still his family to think about. They already thought he was a bit strange. He could tell, every time he mentioned anything about the hag. What would they think if he seemed fine all of a sudden? Would they think he was crazy for being okay? He wasn’t crazy! The boy knew the things he had seen! He didn’t care what anyone else might think! But he wished they would tell him, because sometimes he felt like he was being tricked by their silence. He didn't like being tricked. So what if nobody else saw the hag but him. That didn’t make him crazy. He was sure it was all true! He… wasn’t… CRAZY!!! No no no… No!

<<< Episode 02

Episode List

Episode 04 >>>

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In The Mirror

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"When you smile, I don’t know what to do."

Concrete Blonde

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What was that thing? The little boy spent his days trying to understand what the awful creature that had visited him really was. Was it a witch? Was it some kind of hag? Maybe it was a ghost of one of those things. The boy wasn’t old enough to really understand it much better than that. But what he did understand was that the thing was scarier than anything he had ever seen before.

He remembered trying to tell his mom and dad about the witch, but they both assumed that he had just had a bad dream or something. Bad dreams were something that he used to have plenty of. But those involved things like gorillas sneaking into his bedroom to scare him, and other such nonsense. Just dreams. And the dreams had slowed considerably once his tonsils had been taken out.

Well, after the strange story he had told them, the boy understood why the grownups didn’t believe him. He was no baby after all. He’d be old enough to go to school in a few years, so he was old enough to be able to take care of this problem with the mean old hag on his own. …But he wished he just wasn’t so scared.

And besides, that scary witch hag hadn’t come back in a few days. Maybe the grownups were right; maybe it was all just a dream. There weren’t really things like ghosts or monsters anyway. His mom said so! And his mom and dad knew everything. If there was really a bad thing, they would catch it and beat it up! The boy was feeling better already. Now it was time to go to the bathroom and get his drink of water.

After taking care of a little business, the boy turned to the sink and reached up to turn on the water. As he did, he noticed his reflection in the mirror above the sink. He liked the way everything in the mirror was the exact opposite of all the real things. It made it seem like a completely different place; a place that might be fun to explore. He wondered if his real face looked different to other people than this mirror image, because, after all, he was seeing it backwards. He smiled about that one.

But then something strange happened. The smile on his reflection began to widen, which didn’t match the expression that was now on his own face. At the same time, he heard something. It was the sound! That awful sound! That deep monotonous single tone that pervaded everything and went on and on. As the boy took an involuntary step backwards, the lights quickly dimmed, darkening the shadows on the face of his reflection in the mirror. The reflection hadn’t taken that same backward step.

The boy looked on in shock and terror as the widening smile on his mirror counterpart turned into an evil grin, showing an ugly, fanged row of teeth that were just a bit too big for the mouth. Lines began to form all over the face, and the area around the eyes became dark and sunken. The eyeballs, which now looked dark and cloudy except for a pinpoint of yellow light in the center, glared at the boy with a look of fanatical hatred.

The monstrous image in the mirror continued its horrifying metamorphosis, growing larger and changing even further. The ugly features became more pronounced as the figure grew. All resemblance to the little boy was long gone. What was now glaring back through the mirror at the cowering young boy was the hideous hag that the boy had hoped would never come back!

“I told you I’d be back,” she chuckled in a maliciously teasing voice. “This will never be over, and it’s only going to get worse. Telling the adults didn’t work, did it? They can never help you. No one can help you against me. And I’m going to make you wish you were dead.” The boy was now crouched against the opposite wall, trying to make himself as small as possible.

In a split second the hag’s tone of voice changed. She began to angrily scream at the little boy. “Do you think I ever really left! I’m always with you! I know everything you do! There is nothing that can protect you! You are my dog! I’ll never let you go, and there’s only one thing you can do to make this stop!”

With those last words, the mirror became cloudy and the image of the hag faded away. When the lights finally began to illuminate the room properly again, all that was left was the little boy sitting against the wall softly crying.

<<< Episode 01

Episode List

Episode 03 >>>

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The Demonic Hag

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"I’m the one who growls in your closet; I’m the one who lives under your bed."

Alice Cooper – Lullaby

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In the beginning...

The small boy was having fun playing in his grandparent’s kitchen. He always liked it here because there was such a big area to play with his toys. All the rooms in the house were big, but the kitchen was always nice and quiet for him to play by himself this time of night.

He could hear the comforting drone of the TV coming from the living room, where all of the grownups were watching something he really had no interest in. He was content to play out here by himself while the rest of the big family were only a room away.

He was lost in happy thoughts, pushing his toy car back and forth, when he began to hear something peculiar. Very soon, he realized it was a sound he had heard before. A low, ominous hum that continued on and on, unbroken in a continuous monotone. And he didn’t like it at all. It was a scary sound. The boy was sure it marked the arrival of something very bad.

Almost as if on cue, the light in the kitchen was gradually overwhelmed by a darkness that was most definitely emanating from the same place the awful sound was coming from, the door to the back porch. The only light now came from the living room, which all of a sudden seemed very far away to the little boy.

The boy called out in a trembling voice to the adults in the living room, but none of them answered. He was out here in this terrifying darkness, without the safety and protection of his family, who didn’t seem to know that he was in danger. It wasn’t so much the darkness that he was afraid of, or that he was alone. What really frightened him was that he didn’t think that he really was alone out here in this awful darkness.

As soon as the boy gained the fortitude to think of fleeing to the safety of the living room, he began to realize that he felt a pull from the direction of the back porch door, as if gravity itself had been skewed slightly in that direction. He knew if he tried to stand he would be pulled faster towards the back porch, so the boy stayed on his hands and knees, having to use all of his little might to crawl to the safety of the living room, one slow, agonizing bit at a time; his toy forgotten and left behind.

He still felt no safety as he finally made it to the door of the living room. The boy could sense a terrible presence in the kitchen behind him. And it was coming ever closer. He didn’t turn around to look for fear of what he might see there. He had to try to move faster so this unseen horror couldn’t catch him and drag him away, back into the darkness. If only he could make it to one of the adults…

But as the little boy looked at the faces of the grownups, he saw a distance in their eyes, and none of them seemed to be moving at all. They didn’t appear to even know he was there. There would be no safety, even here. And when he finally crawled all the way to the middle of the living room, the boy could sense the evil presence from the darkness standing right behind him, waiting.

After what seemed like an eternity, the little boy mustered up all the bravery he could, and turned to look at his stalker. What he saw was a mask of pure evil staring back at him. It resembled a very ugly old woman, at first, but this thing was obviously not quite human.

She was short compared to an adult, but much taller than the boy. Her clothing was a dreary brown and gray that looked like something that belonged on a peasant from hundreds of years ago. Her dull grayish skin didn’t appear so much wrinkled as it seemed as if it didn’t quite fit right.

The old hag’s teeth just didn’t look like they belonged to a human. They seemed way too sharp, and there seemed to be too many of them. She had what appeared to be fangs like those of a wolf. And the whole set of teeth looked just a little bit too big for her mouth, which was set in a cruel grin.

…And those terrible eyes! Those dark, hollow eyes seemed to bore right through the boy. Some people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If this evil creature had a soul, her eyes would scream that her soul was violently insane! It was those eyes that made the boy turn his face back to the floor in terror.

“That’s right! Down on all fours with your face to the ground,” the old hag screeched angrily. “Soon I will make you my dog,” she continued. In his little boy mind, the boy thought that last part was very strange. He knew from stories that witches turned people into frogs, not dogs. He wondered why she would say something like that, but he dared not speak up to correct her.

The hag spoke again, “You seem very compliant, so I will offer you a deal, dog. I have a question for you. All you have to do is answer yes to my question, and this will all be over for you forever. Otherwise I will keep coming back, and I won’t be so nice then. I can do very bad things to you.”

Even though he was just a few years old, and he was having trouble understanding most of what she meant, the boy somehow knew even before she asked it, that he should never say yes to the hag’s question. So even though the boy thought it might mean certain death, he looked up and simply said to the evil creature, “No!”

This infuriated the already seemingly angry witch! “You dare say no to me, you miserable dog! Do you think the horror I will inflict will be limited to only you! Your whole family will suffer right along with you, so don’t think they can ever help you against me,” she screamed at him.

The demonic hag, still facing the boy, abruptly began to float backwards towards the back of the house from where she came, as if in a movie being played in reverse. Before the hideous old crone disappeared back into the darkness, she said one last thing, “This is over for now, but I’ll be back! I will never let you go! The rest of your life will be nothing but hell!”

The little boy didn’t care right then if she would be back or not. All he cared about was that she was gone for now. Everything was okay, for now.

Episode List

Episode 02 >>>

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A Nightmare In The Forest

There is something unusual that I had never done before... until last night. I've been on many hiking adventures in the forest, and at most times of the day. But I had never attempted to go hiking in the forest in the middle of the night. It was last night that I decided to change that. I thought it would be a thrilling experience, but it turned out to be a decision that I will now regret forever.

When I set out I took all of my usual stuff, and I included a flashlight. I figured I'd only use it if I needed it though, because while you could see better with it on, you couldn't get the full experience of night hiking. Plus you could also get caught easier when you weren't supposed to be there. These places I go are only open during the day. I didn't want to get into trouble, but my curiosity got the best of me, so off I went.

As I got there I realized that I wouldn't have to use the flashlight for awhile because it was a clear night and the moon was shining enough for me to see just fine in the dark for now. I tried to take a few pictures but quickly realized that the camera wasn't going to pick up anything at all. It was a shame I wasn't going to be able to share this, but at least I would have the memories.

After walking for awhile, and as I got deep into the forest, it became hard enough to see that I decided to finally take out my flashlight. Besides, I didn't think anyone would see it while I was this deep in the wilderness. What kind of idiot would come out here to catch me? I was extremely proud of my own intelligence at that point though.

Just as I was about to turn on the flashlight, I heard something very strange coming from up ahead of me, and it sounded like a low moaning. What could it be all the way out here? I decided I had to investigate this strange sound. Who wouldn't want to find out this mystery? As I got closer, it became clear that the moaning sound was human, and it was at least a dozen voices.

By this time I was becoming more than a little concerned. The moaning had become a steady chanting sound, and I didn't like it one bit. I had been sure I would be all alone when I came out here, and now I was greeted with this deep scary chorus of voices. For some odd reason I never thought of turning around and leaving. I decided to find out what was happening.

I was now glad I never turned on the flashlight. I slowly crept forward towards the sounds of the chanting, which seemed to be coming from a place where I knew there was a large clearing in the forest. That was a good thing because it was so dark now that I could barely see my own hand in front of my face. A little farther on I began to see a light. It was coming from the clearing, and as I guessed, so were the chanting voices.

I moved to just outside the edge of the clearing and peeked through the branches of the bushes in front of me. What I saw was too strange for my own eyes to believe! The voices were coming from twelve black robed human shapes. They were each holding hands with the two next to them to form a complete circle. As they moved from side to side, they were all looking to the center of the circle where the light was coming from.

The chanting began to grow louder, but I couldn't tell if they were actually saying any kind of language. It was just then that I noticed another robed figure! This one was standing in the very center of the circle, illuminated by that strange light. I figured I could see that figure because it was a little taller than the others. I watched as that one just stood there in one spot. It seemed to be just looking at all of the others.

After a few seconds I got another shock. The middle figure seemed to grow even taller than it was before. I began thinking that there was no way this tall thing could be human! It must have grown almost twice as tall as any of the others! I was now so scared I couldn't move! Still, I knew I also felt compelled to keep watching to find out what they were up to.

Then all of a sudden, as quick as a flash the tall figure whipped its head around to my direction! I knew that it was looking right at me. It was the eyes! The eyes glowed a horrible blood red! Those eyes seemed to be able to see right into my soul! I thought I was going to die right there! How could I not drop dead from fright? "Noooo!!!"

It was instinct that now drove me! Without any human thought left in my head, I jumped up from my formerly hidden position and turned and ran as fast as I could through the forest towards the front of the park! I had to get out of there! I couldn't see anything in front of me, and I quickly ran right into a tree! Bam!

I hit so hard that I bounced off the tree and fell onto my back. But I was so driven by fear and adrenaline that I jumped right back to my feet, completely disregarding the thought of injury. I renewed my flight to safety out of the forest. I had a few more similar incidents as I stumbled my way out of the forest and to my awaiting truck. I quickly jumped in and sped towards the safety of home!

I began typing all of this almost right after I got in the door of my house, so excuse any mistakes or typos. I'm now looking at what I have written, wondering what is going to happen next. That horrible creature saw me, I just know it!

Oh God, what am I going to do!!!

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Rat Tails Homemade Spaghetti Recipe

I have a wonderful recipe for homemade spaghetti that has been handed down from generation to generation. This recipe takes quite a bit of work, but it is well worth it if you really want it to come out just right. I have never had anything else quite like it, and after you taste it you will agree! Now I’m going to bring this never before shared recipe to you. It’s such… a wonderful… thing.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 10 live rats
• 26 additional rat tails
• 1/4 cup fresh maggots
• 4 cups unflushed toilet water
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped

Directions:

1. Firmly holding each live rat over a saucepan, slit that little buggers throat. And now, this is important, squeeze thoroughly until every ounce of blood drains out into the saucepan.
2. Remove the tails from each rat, and place into separate pile. You should have 36 tails altogether.
3. Using a meat cleaver, chop off the heads and the limbs from each rat. Chop! Put them aside to be used later.
4. To debone the rat, using a skinning knife, and cut away the tissue from around the back end, near what’s left of the tailbone, enough to grip it with a few fingers.
5. Now place the rat on it’s side, and grip the tailbone with your fingers. Position the knife just in front of your hand in the place on the rat where you cut away the tissue, holding it still and very firmly. Pull the rat towards you with your hand as hard and steady as you can. This will cut through the ribs, but also slice the backbone from the rest of the rat. Do this for both sides.
6. Use a similar technique for the rest of the bones. You can figure it out. If you cut yourself, don’t worry, it will just help add a little extra spice to the meal.
7. Back to the rat heads. Using a teaspoon, scoop out the brains through the hole in the throat. Set the brains aside for now.
8. Put the rat heads in a strong burlap sack, and place the other bones on the floor. Now, this is important, use that sack of heads to smash those other bones good! Smash ‘em! Smash ‘em real good! Keep swinging that sack until you only have little bits left, even in that bag! Sweep up the remains and put them in a pile.
9. Put the now boneless rat remains, including the skin and fur(they’re the tastiest parts), in a good food processor. Make sure you have a good one. Never skimp on price when it comes to chopping your food. Use the right setting to get a finely ground consistency.
10. Preheat a large cooking pot to 350 degrees, and place your ground rat into it along with you chopped garlic. Do not use a skillet! Do you understand me! You better not use a skillet if you know what’s good for you! Cook your rat meat only long enough for the outside to slightly brown, stirring as you go. We want the inside to remain a healthy red.
11. Pour the blood you saved over the rat meat, and mix it all together. Let it all sit and gather in the flavors.
12. Scoop the contents into a large bowl so we can reuse the dirty pot for the rat brains. Brown the rat brains the same way we did the other meat, in the juices that are left over in the pot. These are the meatballs! Yummy! When they are done,let them sit in the cooling pot.
13. We won’t be using the bones again. I just wanted to smash them. Smash! Smash smash smash! Smash ‘em good! D’you hear!
14. Now pour your toilet water into another large cooking pot. Bring it to a boil and chuck the rat tails in. Let them boil until they develop a translucent sheen.
15. When they look finished, pour them out into the sink. Pick up the rat tails with a pair of tongs so you don’t burn yourself. Place an equal amount on each plate.
16. Now spoon out an equal amount of the rat meat on each plate of rat tails.
17. Put 4 rat brains on each plate. That leaves 2 for you to taste now. Goody, goody!
18. Garnish each meal with a liberal amount of fresh maggots. Your spaghetti is now ready to eat!

Molto delizioso!

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