Bogeyman

A crowd had formed in the middle of the road. Every house surrounding the area had been placed under a spell, all was quiet, save the whispers, gasps and accusations darting around those who had gathered to witness the latest death show. A protective circle was created around the victim, all eyes on him, watching and waiting for death to wrap it’s evil cloak around him and take him from them. Another one gone.

Ian lead the way, pushing through the crowd, ignoring the dirty looks he received and standing at the front of it all. Sean and Gustav hot on his heels. They stared wide eyed at the victim.

Aled Phillips was writhing around on the wet ground. His eyes bulged in his skull and his mouth opened and closed, no agonising screams emitted from it. For the first time in his entire life, Aled Phillips had been silenced.

“Is this them? Did he do this?” Ian hissed at Gustav, who was watching Aled with frightened curiosity.

“No. This is darker. I know you don’t know what Matt’s capable of, but this is above him, mate. This is pure evil.”

Sean swallowed hard and watched as John arrived, pushing his way to the front of the crowd. His face paled when he saw his favourite, his very own lost boy writhing around in a silenced agony. His hand flew up to his mouth as so to stop himself from throwing up from the very sight of it. Aled had begun to foam at the mouth, choking on the bubbles.

“Why aren’t you helping him?” A younger girl with black hair stepped forward from the crowd. Tears brimmed her brown eyes and she stared at John, her glare steely and scared. She flew towards Aled and turned his head to face her, trying to wipe the foam from his lips and clear his mouth.

“There’s no point trying to help him,” Gustav said, loudly. “He’s gone. Forget it.”

John stared at the stranger. His eyes narrowed and his hands clenched into fists, his knuckles whitening. “Who are you?”

“Gustav Wood. I take it you’re the leader of this fine pack.”

John nodded, his eyes still in snake like slits. He inhaled deeply, looking down at the hopeless case that was Aled Phillips. He shook his head. “How do you know? What do you know? Where did you come from, boy?”

“I read a lot about our history, our fucked up little world. Your boy looks like some sort of spell was cast upon him. It’s almost witchcraft. Only, it’s not as clever. It’s brutal, painful. I’m not sure what spell it could be or who could’ve cast it. Who knows it might even be some kind of sick possession. And I came from the same place as Watkins did.”

John shuddered. “Matt Davis-Kreye’s pack?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you run away from them? I figured all of that pack were sick bastards, freaks of nature,” Gavin spat.

Gustav shrugged carelessly. “What can I say? I like to drink blood.”

John’s attention was torn away from Gustav as Aled let out an ear piercing shriek and froze. His eyes were wide as he took his final breath, before becoming limp. Foam was still pouring from his mouth, soaking his chapped lips.

John’s eyes were wide. For a moment it looked like he was about to cry. “How many more? How many more will they take from me?!” He looked around at the remaining members of his warped little family. “Listen to me now, each and every one of you, I don’t want to see another body in the street, do I make myself clear? I want you all to keep your eyes open, if you see anything strange, inform me straight away. Do whatever you can, I mean it when I say I don’t want anymore blood spilled.” And with a flicker of his cloak, he had disappeared through the crowd, leaving his henchmen to sort out the mess.

“Well you got away with that very lightly, count yourself fucking lucky, Sean’s on death row for not being a sick blood sucker,” Ian spat at Gustav’s feet, before walking away, shoving his hands in his pockets as he did so.

“I’m just telling it how it is, Watkins. What did he want? Silence? For us all to pretend that bad things don’t happen and that no one is evil and everything’s just fine and fucking dandy for us?” Gustav asked.

Ian spun around and walked back over to Gustav, grabbing fistfuls of his leather jacket and shaking him. “You’re not part of this pack, so don’t pretend like you are.” Their faces were inches apart, eyes glaring, jaws clenched. Both were ready for a fight.

“Fucks sake! Stop acting like an old married couple. Things might run deep with you two, but get the fuck over it. We’ve got bigger things to deal with than your past,” Sean cut through the pair, pushing them apart.

Ian raised his eyebrows. “You’re right, mate. I’m sorry.”

“Well, what happens now then?” Gustav asked, looking around. The crowd had long dissolved, all heading off in small clusters in one direction or another.

Ian narrowed his eyes and nodded. “You up for a little trip back to the past?”

“Eh?”

“Let’s pay Matt a visit. You know, we could swing by their place, see Natalie, you could finally tell her everything you’ve always wanted to. Now you’re not part of that pack, you can say whatever you want to them, leaders or not.”

Sean shook his head. “Unbelievable. We’re all in the firing line and you want to go back to your old pack and have a few words with Matt and some girl who’s apparently a tease? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Ian smirked. “Not just that, mate. We’ll do some sniffing around. See what we can find, you know, books, spells and all that. By the looks of things, if they’re going to carry on picking us off it’s going to get a lot more violent.”

“Who do you mean ‘they’?”

Ian shrugged and began walking, leaving Sean and Gustav rooted to the spot.

“Are you idiots coming or are you too chicken to take on a couple of circus freaks?” Ian called over his shoulder, never once stopping.

Sean looked at Gustav and the pair broke into a run to catch up with Ian.

And so their personal mission began. But despite Ian’s cockiness returning, Sean couldn’t help but think about the past half an hour or so. Was Gustav telling the truth about him? Was he Matt’s favourite? Hiding something from the world? Or did he know more than he let on? Sean didn’t know. Only time would tell, but for now, he had to put all his trust in his only friend, because lets face it, he didn’t have anyone else.