Unknown Sender, With A Vengence

Day 1: I went down stairs to go get the mail, that’s when I had a feeling that my life would change forever. There was a strange envelope in the letterbox, it was deep purple, with silver writing on the top. I turned the envelope over and over again in my hands, no sign of the senders address. I slowly walked back up the stairs, through the door, down the hall, and gradually seated myself on the end of my bed. The date today, Friday the 13th, 2010. Who was this letter from? Why did they have to send it to me? I cautiously opened the envelope, and slid the baby blue piece of paper out of it. My hands started to shake as I read the bone chilling letter:

To My Lovely Tabitha Harrow,

You are the only person I could turn to, I need your help, and you need my help. Your life is in danger, read this carefully, I have been studying your family tree for two decades. I now know that the Harrow family and the Jones family have been feuding for over one hundred and fifty years. You need to reunite the family’s and restore order. I cannot tell you my name, I have to protect my own identity, for I am in danger as well. You must follow my instructions carefully, under the right side of you bed there is a gold box, there is a black lock, the key is under the left bedside table. Unlock the box, take the items out, and lay them on top of your bed, you will know what to do next.

Your Sincerely,

Unknown Sender

P.S. By the time you read this letter, I will be close to death. You must hurry and complete this task, the time is 4:30pm.

The letter stunned me. How did this unknown sender know about me? Was I being stalked? I glanced at the clock, 4:30pm. I knew that if I didn’t complete this task, someone could die and it would be my fault. With numb hands I reached under the right side of my bed, my hands felt the smooth surface of a big gold box. I pulled it out and carefully placed it on my bed. I walked around to the other side of my bed and lifted up the bedside table, sure enough, there was the little black key. I unlocked the gold box, pulled the items out one by one and carefully spread them out on my bed. There were a few interesting items that were in the box: a pistol which was loaded, five different books on demons and how to defeat them, thick blanket, dried foods, two bottles of water, a torch, two batteries, two light jackets, a Swiss army knife, and a very interesting looking map. I had no idea what I was supposed to do now, I grabbed my house keys and locked up. I had to clear my head, so I walked to the forest near my house. I roughly knew my way through the pine forest, so I started walking. As I walked, I felt the eerie darkness close in on me. I didn’t know where I was intending to go, so I kept on walking. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle, like I was being watched. I started taking difficult routes through the forest, walking right around huge boulders, instead of climbing them and sitting on top. Finally I gave up and when I came to the next huge boulder, I thought about turning around a running back home, ‘No, I can’t run, I have to face whatever is following me,’ My thoughts stayed on that same wave link. I started to climb the boulder, I made it up in record time because my adrenaline was pumping. I didn’t know if whoever was following me would give up or not. I just realized that I had subconsciously picked up the pistol before I had left, I also still had my house key in my hand. I quickly stuffed the house key into my pocket. Luckily I did then, because as I turned around, there was a man standing there. He was the first to speak, “Tabitha, what are you doing?” he rushed forward and grabbed the gun off me. “Who are you? Why did you follow me?” I went numb all over. “I’m Derrick, we’ve known each other since preschool. I followed because, I saw you had a gun and I thought you were going to the forest so no one would see you commit suicide. I knew you would out smart me, so I kept following until you gave up.” Derrick sounded scared. “Oh, I just momentarily forgot. I wasn’t going to commit suicide.” I now remembered him. “Then why do you have a gun?” His tone questioned my state of mental health. I explained everything, the letter, the unknown sender, the box, the key, the whole set up, the feud, and the gun. I think he understood most of what I explained well enough to understand where I was with this whole situation. “Who do you think is this, so-called Unknown Sender?” That was the only question Derrick had. “I don’t know who he is, but it sounds like he is in trouble.” I was getting worried, because the Unknown Sender said that he was close to death. After that Derrick escorted me home, just to make sure I wasn’t going to commit suicide. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach, so I quickly locked the door when Derrick left, had a boiling hot shower, and went to sleep in my not-so comfy bed. Tomorrow was going to be harder to get through. I realized that I was right, what was about to happen next would change my life forever.

Day 2: I woke very slowly, wondering if yesterday had really happened. I realised that I have to save someone’s life because, I saw all of the items from the box scattered around my room. The phone started ringing, I rushed down stairs to pick it up. “Um… Hi, it’s Derrick here.” Yay, the one person I didn’t want to talk to right now. “Hello, Derrick. About yesterday I was wondering if you could come over here and help me figure out what the Unknown Sender wants me to do,” I didn’t really want to talk to him, let alone invite him over. But I needed someone to help me, I needed him. “Okay… I’ll be over there in about twenty minuits,” He sounded startled at me inviting him over. I suddenly felt extremely hungry, I guess I should eat. I thought about ordering pizza, but my hunger can wait. At that moment the doorbell rang, I wonder who that could be. I walked very slowly to the door and opened it. Derrick was standing there, on my doorstep. ”May I come in?” I know he was trying to charm me, it was working. “Um… Yeah, sure. Come in.” I sounded like a dork. I watched as he walked over to one of the dining chairs and sat down. “Are you going to show me this stuff or not?” I realised I was still standing at the doorway. I promptly shut the door and replied to the question, “Okay… I’ll just rush up stairs. Then…” Derrick reminded me of something, “You’re still in your pajamas, I’ll wait here while you go and get changed as well.” I quickly dashed upstairs and put on the first items of clothing I laid my hands on. It took me a moment to find all of the things that were in the gold box. After that, I ran back downstairs and dumped the box on the dining room table. “Wow…” Derrick sounded shocked. ”Maybe we should start studying the demon books first,” I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to do. We spent at least two whole hours studying the five books, trying to memorize as much as we could. Derrick was the first to break the silence, “Maybe we should go and investigate the forest, compare things.” I didn’t know what he meant, “You mean that you also felt that strange presence… I’m not going crazy, wow… okay… let’s go.” I grabbed my jacket and the house key. By the time I was finished locking up, Derrick was already standing outside on the footpath. We walked in silence to the same rock where we meet the day before. There was the same eerie silence that closed around us, maybe Derrick is right. We had been standing in silence for nearly an hour. Two figures stepped out from be hide the bushes on our right, both wearing dark skinny jeans, black hoodies, red converse shoes, and they were wearing a type of clan pendant around their necks. “Who are you?” I was glad Derrick was brave enough to speak first. I whispered, “I watched Twilight and the Cullen family had a clan crest.” I don’t think that helped at all, The figures started approaching us at an alarming rate. I looked at my watch, 4:30pm, again. I was aware that the figures had a metal baseball bat each, not good. Before we had time to explain, Derrick and I were both knocked out cold. Now is when the little voice in my head starts shouting at me, ‘Why didn’t you run? They were coming, why didn’t you dodge the bat? You are a stupid body to be stuck in! I hate you!’ I don’t know why the little voice hated me, it doesn’t really matter.

Day 3: As I slowly faded out of my unconscious state,  I felt water dribbling down my cheeks. I sat up abruptly, my head spun around in circles. I slowly lay back down again. I took this time to observe my surroundings, Derrick and I were in a concrete room, with a steel door on the west wall. I heard a loud grinding sound as the steel door was unlocked. A man with a long black cloak stepped into the room, followed by the two people who had knocked us out. “Derrick, I thought you would have learnt last time… Do not mess with me. For you know that I have many loyal servants.” The man was starting to creep me out, “I thought you would have brought her straight to me… No, we had to do this the hard way.” My head started spinning at the thought of Derrick working for this creep. “You didn’t know, that Derrick is working for me… You must feel horrible, knowing that you almost trusted Derrick and he does this to you!” He slowly walked towards us, holding out a little relic. “You can’t make me change, you creep! I would rather die than let Tabitha see what we all are,” Derrick sounded pretty steamed up. The creep pulled out a lighter, and lit the relic. The creep, Derrick, and the two other figures suddenly transformed into horrible looking beasts. They all looked like gargoyles, without the wings, they had toxic looking spikes on their backs, deep red liquid oozing out of  their mouths, and they looked plain evil. Luckily ten figures, like the ones from the day before, busted into the room and escorted they ugly creatures out of the room. “We didn’t intend for you to see them like that,” One of the people was speaking to me. “What’s going to happen to me now? Are you going to let me go?” I wanted to get out of there. “We can help you with a little problem of yours… That letter you received, yes we know about it… Do you want us to help you?” His tone was alluring. “Okay, yes please. Why are you trying to help me?” I sighed. “Do you know about the chain of murders, the ones they thought weren’t related,” I nodded, so he continued, “I’m Matt’s brother, Steven. Matt Jones disappeared about… three weeks ago. I’m the only one who can help you, can you trust me?” I was starting to freak out, “What’s the time?” He gave me an answer I didn’t want to hear, “Um… It’s 4:30 pm.” My reply, “For the last two days, at 4:30pm bad things have happened.” Just then I felt a sharp stab of pain, followed by a spasm of pain in my back. I collapsed on the floor, pain shooting through my spine. “Argh!” I felt pain all over. Then I went into a dangerously deep trance, I couldn’t move a muscle.

Day ?: I hadn’t even woken up properly when I suddenly started vomiting, I couldn’t breath properly because it was blocking up my throat and choking me. I tried to be as loud as I could so someone would hear me, when I was still half unconscious, luckily I heard the quick grinding of the door opening. Two of the people in black clothing ran into the room, holding a bucket of course. They sat me upright and started slapping me on the back, holding the bucket under my mouth. I was violently sick all over my sweatshirt, I couldn’t stop vomiting. Eventually they had cleared my throat and I had stopped vomiting, thankfully. “I told you we should have sat her upright before she woke up!” one of the people was shouting at the other. The person who was holding me upright suddenly let go of me and rushed out of the room. I fell backwards and hit my head on the cold stone. “You’ve been through alot, haven’t you?” said the guy who was still in the room as he lifted me back up so I was upright again. “Ouch,” was all I managed to say, my voice was croaky. The other person ran back into the room with a glass of water, he handed it to me. I very slowly raised the glass up to my mouth and poured water into my mouth, it tasted horrible, I swished the water-vomit mixture round in my mouth and spat it into the bucket sitting between my legs. The guy holding me up suddenly grabbed me under my arms and hoisted me up, the other guy grabbed my side. One guy on either side, they knocked on the door and someone opened it, they lead me out into a huge stone corridor. They had to almost carry me all the way down the corridor. There were lots of steel doors on either side of us, I wonder if they had more people trapped in them? We had finally reached the end of the very long corridor, another steel door, they knocked on it and someone opened it. Before us was a huge empty hall, with a throne at the far end. Then the two guys on either side of me let go and dropped me on the cold stone, I obviously had to try and stand up. I tried to stand up and eventually suceeded, I felt stronger than ever, even though I was vomiting twenty minutes ago.