(This is an experimental लेख for something else, depending on if it gets the right attention. If आप like it, great, but do not expect much from it)

*McKenzie ran through the woods in a panic, shoving branches and leaves out of his way through the darkness, barely able to see through the light of the moon. His car was parked just outside of the town, same as it was for the past week he was here. All he could hear was the shouting of… something behind him, chasing him, getting closer and closer. Carrying the राइफल in his right hand, a राइफल with only one bullet in it. Whatever it was that it was coming, it was coming fast. McKenzie knew that it wouldn’t be enough to kill it, so he would have to slow it down at the least. Breathing heavily, sweat falling from his head, he did a quick turn, getting a brief glimpse of an eight foot tall silhouette chasing after him in a staggering run, McKenzie fired the rifle, the force almost knocking him back as the creature stumbled back, letting out an ungodly screech. No human could make that noise, या an animal. It was something inhuman entirely. But McKenzie wasted no time to watch. Dropping the राइफल in fear, he turned and ran out the way he came, barely making it to his rusted white car near an empty road. He fumbled with his keys as he ran, hoping they wouldn’t fall. He would’ve prayed, he wanted to pray to God, but after what he witnessed in this small town, after what he had seen… how could anyone believe in a god. Getting the right key, he didn’t bother to get around the car. He unlocked the door from the passenger side, and threw the door open, slamming it shut and locking it for good measure. He struggled to get to the driver’s seat, the screeching from the entity getting louder and louder. In his pace, and after a few missed shots, McKenzie managed to get the keys into the ignition, turning the engine to life with a turn. But at the turn, he could see the creature off to the side, if only dimly. It’s long head, the length of a baseball bat and as wide as one, it’s six eyes going down each side with no other features present. No nose, mouth, ear. Just pale blue flesh and black eyes. It’s elongated, thin body moving through the woods, almost blending in with the branches of the woods, moving in a twitching manner as it rushed toward the car. McKenzie didn’t waste another सेकंड staring at it. He slammed his foot onto the gas pedal and got the car moving down the road, the creature only finally stopping once the car moved faster than him. McKenzie knew that he couldn’t kill it, and the creature knew that McKenzie couldn’t kill it. All he could do was run from the village. Run from the situation that he saw here. He knew that the people of that village would come back for him one day. He knew that he could run forever, but they would always follow him. And that those creatures would be back. McKenzie, despite surviving, despite getting away, was left with immense dread, with immense fear. He had seen what the universe had to offer humanity. He had seen that there was truly no god to save them, no merciful father to watch over humanity. Not with something such as that guiding them. All McKenzie could do was be left to his own thoughts, his own dwindling sanity

Radiant Valley, Washington, 1999
Twenty-Four Years Later

Sitting at the local convenience store named Grab & Go, Rickie was sitting at the counter in sheer boredom, thinking about all the customers that had come in today. Customers like a large set woman asking for twelve ice cream bars, या an old guy who was spending all दिन पढ़ना the समाप्ति तारीख, दिनांक on दूध cartons, या an angry mother yelling at him for the store not supplying her प्रिय brand of coffee. Truly Rickie was as exhausted with his job as anyone would be. Added on to the fact that he would have to spend the rest of his evening babysitting his brother while his mom was out working overtime. Rickie, of course, was far from being excited. A 22 साल old, still having to babysit for free. It was all Rickie could think about. He just wanted to go to the video store, get a movie, go घर and enjoy his night. And knowing his brother, he’d want to watch something unbearable.

Hewy was already getting the फिल्में he and Cassie could watch for the night. His mom was against these kinds of movies, so he hid them away while she was home. But with her working overtime, Hewy had the chance to watch all the फिल्में he could. The Thing, The Shining, Silence of the Lambs. He thought that he’d check out Rosemary’s Baby, since that was a प्रिय of Cassie’s, but he really wanted to watch Evil Dead for the hundredth time. All this excited Hewy. With everyone at घर and school talking about stuff that he had no interest in, like staying सुरक्षित and watching “baby movies”, these things only made Hewy और excited. The thrill of watching something he wasn’t supposed to watch only excited him more. He was already going over the set of films in his little clubhouse, a small crumbling shack in the woods just outside of town, with a beat up shelf, a rotted bed, and three worn pillows to act as seats. As Hewy was looking through his collection, he could hear a noise coming from outside. Something scratching against the walls from outside, a hard groaning coming from outside. Hewy gave a roll of the eye and spoke up, “Cassie, cut it out”
Cassie stepped in, a little girl with her hair tied into pigtails with bangs hanging from the side, wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans as she responded “No fair! आप didn’t even try to act scared!”
Hewy pushed his glasses back up to his freckled face as he answered, “Please. Mr. Darby is scarier than आप when he stumbles in. Come on, I got some cool stuff we can check out”
Cassie gave a snicker as she reached into her bag, “Screw that stuff. Wait till आप see this” With a grin on her face, she tossed Hewy a copy of Blair Witch Project on VHS, Hewy staring at it with shock and awe. Hewy looked from Cassie to the movie several times before asking, “Is this the real deal?”
Cassie only nodded. Hewy pulled the tape from the sleeve, admiring it in surprise before he spoke, “I can’t believe आप got this before I did. I was hoping to rent this first”
“You snooze, आप lose” Cassie replied
“And speakin’ a snoozin’, I’m ‘bought ready to.”
The two kids turned to the door to see their friend, fellow club member and owner of the old shack, Mr. Darby, his medium length ragged hair being brushed from his face, his scraggly beard jutting out a bit too far. He wore a brown जैकेट with a hole in the left pocket, had a black कमीज, शर्ट on with some words on it, and torn blue jeans, and was wearing a shoe without the soles inside of them. Hewy looked up and nodded, “Hey, Mr. Darby. Didn’t think you’d be back so soon. How went the search?”
“A bust as usual” Darby कहा with a shrug as he fell onto his बिस्तर with a sigh, his arm over his head, “They don’t got room for an old timer like me. All the place are just hirin’ kids that hate their jobs.” He lifted his arm to look at Hewy and Cassie to add to his comment, “N-Not that आप kids are lazy या anything. I’m sure you’ll make fine, upstandin’ citizens”
“Capitalism is overrated. Burn down corporations, I say” Cassie added casually
“I agree on that one, Cass. Just don’t go sayin’ that in front of your parents” Darby कहा through a chuckle, before he looked over at the movie that Hewy was holding onto. A grimace appeared on his face before asking, “Hewy, आप know आप aren’t supposed to watch those फिल्में at your age?”
“I know” Hewy कहा casually
“Alright. As long as आप know. I trust that आप won’t go watchin’ an R rated movie, especially when I’m not around to stop you. I have full trust in you”. The grimace turned into a playful smirk before he gave a laugh and waved them off, “Now get on outta here. I’m tired and I may have had a little bit too much रस and need some sleep”
“You’re the worst club leader ever” Cassie replied through slightly puffed cheeks
“Maybe. But I’m the leader and what I say goes” Mr. Darby replied with a chuckle as he rolled to a comfortable position on his mattress to get some sleep. The two kids gathered their फिल्में and made their way out of the shack, closing the barely hanging-on door behind them and heading back to the neighborhood that they were living in

Rickie had finally finished another दिन of work, barely able to get through a dull conversation between a balding man and his annoyance with some of the magazine headlines. Rickie was already heading out the door to get to his scooter when he was stopped द्वारा someone. A cop, a lanky one with a moustache that had barely grown in and looked pathetic and short greasy brown hair combed to the side, hands in his pocket. The cop asked, “Hey, आप think आप can help me out for a second?”
“Sorry, खरीडिए just closed.” Rickie said, having recited this line to many seconds-late customers. The cop gave a sigh and spoke, “Come on, kid, I just need a pack of smokes. I’m busting my नितंब, गधा out here with this protecting and serving crap!”
“Again, shop’s closed for the day. If आप have a problem, feel free to clarify with the manager-”
Before Rickie had a chance to finish, the cop added onto it, “See, this is why kids like आप are a pain in the ass! If आप keep this kind of shit up, you’re gonna end up like that bum outside of town. If it were up to me, I’d haul his नितंब, गधा outta here! I don’t need to deal with this kind of shit! I’ll get smokes somewhere else”
Rickie didn’t even have a chance to respond या defend himself before the cop turned and went to his cruiser, cursing again as he slammed the car door shut and drove off, leaving Rickie stunned and very irritated. It was like something had ignited inside him, a rage filled आग ready to blow. A thought was already going through his mind. Hewy didn’t need anyone watching him. He watches dumb फिल्में with blood and guts and boobs all the time, Rickie thought. He’ll be fine on his own, watching a movie, eating leftover pizza, and mom wouldn’t be back until midnight. Plenty of time to get home, threaten to pound Hewy’s head in if he tattled and pretend nothing ever happened. Rickie went to his scooter parked to the side, put his हेलमेट on and drove to the outskirts of town to let off some steam.

45 मिनटों later, almost nine o’clock, and Rickie had spent at least ten of those मिनटों लेखन profanity on the दीवार with a can of spray paint he bought from the hardware store, which took another five minutes. He was lucky that the store was left to waste with the help of a Wal-Mart having been built in the town a few years ago, leaving the store in ruin and giving Rickie his own giant canvas to work on, creating all sorts of amatuer graffiti such as, “Smoking Ham” and “No T in Concern” and other stuff he thought was clever. It was just another frustrating दिन of Rickie, another reason to blow off steam on this store. But the police officer adding और onto it, this was different. This was something else entirely, and it drove him absolutely mental. He needed to do something more. Graffiti just wouldn’t cut it today. Looking around, he saw something to have some fun with. A large yellow slab of concrete, used for a wheel stop. Rickie grabbed it, grunting as he managed to barely lift it up in his hands, walking over to the glass door with a black trash bag taped over, blocking the view and chucking it as hard as he could. He just wanted to see how strong the glass was. He was not expecting to shatter the glass in the first go. That was far from the last thing he expected. Worst case scenario, he was expecting to smash the glass door and back a run back to his scooter and leave. What he wasn’t expecting was seeing something unusual. Unusual, of course, was the last word Rickie would describe for this. The shelves that seperated the aisles were gone, moved out of the way, shopping carts pushed to the side, and in the center of the store was a massive circle, a वृत्त as wide as a truck. The वृत्त was painted red, with a strange object in the center, an object that resembled a computer for some reason. The वृत्त had words written on the floor as well, या what resembled words. They looked और like बिना सोचे समझे symbols, words that were difficult to comprehend. Rickie looked around in disturbed confusion, unable to comprehend who set all this up and why. But his thoughts were stopped when he heard the noise of a door opening. From the door at the back of the store, a person in black robes walked out. The most noticeable thing was the person’s head. It was a bizarre mask that looked to be made from clay and paper mache. The headdress only gave the wearer the ability to look with one eye, covering the rest of their head with the mask. It was a large round head, with the paper that supported it having और of the strange symbols on it that were on the floor. The चोटी, शीर्ष of the head stretched upward like an antenna, giving it the appearance of a long drop of water. It looked uncomfortable and almost impossible to walk in, yet this person clearly stood perfectly fine with it on. This was enough to make Rickie jump in fear at the sight. But the last thing Rickie ever wanted to hear were the very words that came from the individual standing before him. In a barely audible muffled tone, the person spoke
“Rickie Wakowski?”
In that moment, there was no word spoken, no hesitation. Rickie turned immediately and ran to the door, hearing the person shout at him from behind, but Rickie couldn’t hear. He didn’t want to hear anymore from the person. He ran out the door, no care as he felt his arm get cut on the glass as he rushed to his scooter. He only slapped his हेलमेट barely on as he started it and drove down the road. His mood had shifted from anger to curiosity to fear in seconds. The sensation of all this hitting him, and the man calling out his name. He didn’t know what to make of it, that someone in town was doing something. Rickie had driven at least five मिनटों down the road, breathing heavily still, thoughts going through his mind, “M-Maybe it’s not so bad. Maybe I just stumbled onto some new weird fetish and he was embarrassed. B-But why was he in an abandoned store?”
Rickie was trying to justify what he had seen, and what it all meant. A crazy demon worshiper, perhaps. या was this a new club thing he was trying out. What was the computer and the big वृत्त for. But all Rickie could come back to was his name being called. Why did he know his name? The town was small, everyone knew everyone, so it wasn’t hard to believe, but the fact that someone in town, that Rickie must have known, was doing something that mysterious, it was unlikely that Rickie would be able to ignore this, and that it wouldn’t come back for him. He only had to hope that nothing और would come after that.

About twenty मिनटों later, when it was already 10:30 at night, Rickie had gotten off his scooter and quickly rushed inside, throwing the door open to see Hewy and Cassie sitting on the couch, watching another of their films. Hewy didn’t even take his eyes off the screen, but responded, “Rickie, you’re super late. If आप don’t want me to tell mom, आप better take me to the video store tomorrow”
“Yeah, sure, whatever” Rickie responded as he made his way upstairs, completely ignoring his original plan for the evening as he bursted into his room, closing the door behind him. He didn’t know what he was going to do. He paced back and forth, he rested his head on his desk, he looked out the window, but no plan came to mind, nothing did. Rickie didn’t know who that was, what they were doing, and what this all means. All Rickie knew was that it was someone in the town, someone who knows him. All Rickie could hope for was that this was just a बिना सोचे समझे thing he saw, and that the person he saw in that mall would forget about it, much like Ricke wanted to forget. And yet, despite that, the thought kept eating at him, telling him there was और to this than he wanted to believe. All Rickie could do was lie in his bed. He did not get much sleep that night. Hewy, however, slept like a baby after watching Blair Witch Project two times