Anon Y.

The cat sat there, licking it’s paw in the drenching rain. He finally looked up and saw a man running towards him in fear and looked over at a television that flashed on in the nearby store window.

    “The killer is still at large.” the reporter had said. 

“We still do not know who this unsub is or where he is. This Bloody Lover, as they have started to call him, drains the blood from his victims and seems to be somehow connected with the missing persons reports for all the children in the neighborhood. One child claims to have escaped the one who attempted abducting him but is blind, according to the doctors it is a psychiatric escape from the fear he experienced, he claims the man wore a long black suit like he was being fancy. He says the man was ‘Very tall and his face was missing’ in a direct quote.

“The police refuse to release anything on the information that has been found already.” he finishes and then the screen goes black and the man speeds past, he was running from something he wasn’t even sure of the identity of. He kept running and then he stopped and looked back. He was still following him. His knife was already set to puncture the man’s heart. He kept charging and then he tackled the man, laughing uncontrollably. 

    “La la la. La lala. La lala.” he murmurs. He then raises the knife. “Say hello.” he says still chuckling. He then stabs the man’s arm and slowly raises his mask, this mask wasn’t normal though, it had a smile and on the left it was entirely black, it had a white eye on the left and a black eye with an X through it on the right, both appearing to bleed. The smile was very, very creepy. It had fangs. He then stabbed the man’s arm as he covered his mouth, the man looked in fear at the murderer’s face, it was bleached white and leathery, he bit down on the spot he had just stabbed and started to suck, the man now aware what the man was planning to do and who he was.

_

Toby was looking out into the drenching rain from his window. He swore he had just heard a scream from the dark night but now he understood that it was probably just the rain he had heard. He walked to the chair and sat with his lamp on, he started to read his book then looked over and swore he saw the silhouette of someone out on the fire escape, but there was next to no way for anyone to get up there without a lot of parkour skills, which is leaping from small ledge to small ledge, rooftop to rooftop. He stared there and heard something tapping out the beat to 

‘Ring around the Roses” on the glass. He shivered and sat there thinking of his mother, who had died years before and the same day, immediately after coming out of the hospital, kids had been playing that game. He now called it “Ring of Death” and he knew something no one else did about that song, it was truly about the Bubonic Plague from long ago in Europe, it killed people and they would have roses placed around the casket (ring around the roses) and they would put posies in the dead people’s pockets (pocket full of posies) then they would burn them and all their items (ashes ashes) or else it would spread (we all fall down). He yawned and looked out at the window again and heard a soft click. He jumped back in fear and heard a scratching sound. He yelped and saw something move in the corner of his eye, it was pale white. He jumped and looked in that direction but it moved just out of sight then he felt something brush his leg and he screamed in fear then looked down at the creature brushing his leg.

    “Meeeow...” his cat Lightning says softly.

    “Lightning...” he murmurs then smiles. “You scared me.” he hears the tapping again and ignores it then goes to bed, swearing he heard a soft, gentle, loving lullaby. It went “La lala. La lala. La lala la la laaa.”

    “Just stop...” he murmurs.

_

He wakes up and sits up. He had had the worst nightmare he had ever heard. He had seen a strange face, it wasn’t a face though...more of a MASK...he realized it after a few minutes but it took that long. He stared into it and he was running from the man through the entire dream then at the end he was stabbed and drained of blood by the man, a cat had been nearby as well...he remembered dashing by it and it was raining the entire time, it was possible for this to be anything but he knew it was more than a dream...he felt it was more. He simply knew it. He kept remembering the dream and remembered at one point the thing stopped and looked at the sky...just after the rain started and just before Toby had started to run. This was what had happened he knew...it seemed...disturbed...and annoyed...by the water. He kept walking and saw a much darker thing in his peripheral vision, he turned and saw nothing then shrugged and walked away bored.

    “Just dreaming. Just my mind messing with me from the dream...” he murmurs.

He keeps walking until he gets to the kitchen and gets a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios®. He yawned and then he ate them and left, going to work. He was a Psychiatrist. He still hadn’t had a patient in days but now apparently the blind kid he saw on the news last night was his first patient in months. He listened to the child and by the end of the session he was near his breaking point. He new who this man was. He had been present in his mind since 2000 when he found pictures of the man online and checked into it further, even found a documentary. The boy wasn’t attacked by the Bloody Lover but by the Slender Man. He sighed when the child left and went outside, scratching his head. He suddenly blinked and saw a blur, out of nowhere there was a man on top of him wearing that mask from his dream, blood was dripping from the masks mouth, for there was a small hole for the wearer to breath. He grinned and ran the knife along the man’s throat.

    “Toby...I heard you had a session with a young child. You didn’t hurt him did you?”

    “D-Do I know you?!” he asks worried.

    “Did you or didn’t you hurt him?!” he asks getting angry.

    “No I didn’t! He’s fine!”

    “Good...” the man says then laughs insanely. “Well don’t associate him with me than...I’ll see you soon.” he says then throws the knife and it hits Toby in the heart knocking him down.

_

Toby awakens in a hospital and looks around, his friend Steven was sitting by him.

    “Hey man, you okay? You passed out in your apartment before work...doctor says you got a HUGE conk on your head!”

    “Hm? But...I went to work, that blind child was my patient.”

    “No...that blind child was SUPPOSED TO BE but you never got to work...I found you when I got there so we could carpool...you had a huge bump on your scalp and there was a broken baseball bat by you...police say no signs of forced entry and nothing was stolen.”

    “Uh...okay...” he says still confused and sat up, stretching wide. “Than who replaced me?”

    “Your Sec.” he says calmly.

    “Okay...good...” he says still worried. He stands and goes into a bathroom, pulling on his clothes and leather jacket then walked on, out and into Steven’s car, then Steven took him home and stayed in the house with him.

_

    He felt amazing. The Laugher was finally happy, he hadn’t felt this happy since he drained the blood of that soulless man who tortured his children two nights ago. That man knew he shouldn’t mess with kids, yet he tortured his own. He now knew otherwise. The Laugher was ready though, Toby would now regret that he ever lived. He had no reason for hurting Toby, he just knew the man would have delicious blood to feed on.

_

    Toby awoke the next day and stretched out. He had had the same nightmare again, the man in the mask, killing him and drinking his blood. He suddenly felt this was not a safe place to be, but he had nowhere else to go. This was his one and only home since his mother had died. He walked into the kitchen, getting another bowl of cereal and this time carpooling with Steven to work and he had his session with the little blind boy, apparently his vision was now returning, but only slowly. He smiled and throughout the session knew he had heard soft chuckles from the back corner. He kept glancing that way to see nothing though. A feeling of impending doom was creeping over him but he ignored it and kept searching instead for a way to help the young man, after an hour of consoling him he  left with the boy and then heard more laughter, only now it seemed uncontrollable. This would be the end of him, he was sure. He’d go insane and kill himself if it didn’t stop. He screamed in agony as suddenly a sharp pain stabbed through his mind, he hit the ground on his knees, holding his head as the pain spread throughout his entire body. He screamed even louder, static starting to bombard the young man’s mind and he looks up to see the gruesome mask again.

    “Hello.” says the voice ominously. “You just met the Laugher little Toby.” he says with a grin then he stabs Toby in the stomach, making him cough up blood and wheeze as he hits the ground, suddenly he heard his friend Steven walk in and he opened his eyes to see the man gone, but in his place was a notecard on Toby’s chest, he picked it up and read it despite the pain and fear coursing through his veins at the moment.

    “HAVE A NICE DAY TOBY. I’LL BE SEEING YOU TONIGHT-

                -THE LAUGHER-

 

 

 

    Toby took in a breath of air and looked at Steven almost longingly.

    “Get this knife outta me?” he asks poking it slightly, just now realizing Steven had been frozen in shock seeing the knife in his best friends stomach. He nodded and quickly puled it out, Toby gasping in pain suddenly, then he stands and holds the wound.

    “Hospital...now.” he says almost imploringly.

_

He awoke in the hospital for the second time that week. His eyes were misted because of the large amount of anesthetic he was given for the now stitched wound. He yawned and stood up then his eye twitched slightly. He heard it again, this was too much now. Yet again he heard the “La lala. La lala.” song again. He couldn’t take it anymore, he got up and stormed out.

    “I’ll kill hi-” he starts but gets tackled down, that mask dripping blood onto him again.

    “Kill who might I ask?” the demonic voice asks.

    No. No not yet...this can’t be the end. Toby thought. This can’t be where I finish...I can’t stop now! his mind insists, but then the man pulls out his knife and says “Sleep tight. Don’t let The Laugher bite.” then slit the Toby’s throat. Toby sat there staring, on the verge of life and death as the man slit his arm next and started to drink the blood, then he pulled away and lifted Toby over his shoulder.

    “Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.” he says. “I’ll make you better. I’ll show you true fear.” Toby gasped then he finally passed out again as The Laugher carried him off to wherever the psycho stayed day in and day out when he wasn’t killing people.