8966

The muffled sounds of suburbia shadowed the growing terrors in his heart. Graham sat on his yellow armchair, in his colonial-style cottage, shaking as he held his coffee. His wife, Audrey, hummed an old tune in the kitchen while making his favorite stew. To anyone else, this was a state of sweet domestic bliss. However, Graham stared into the fire and dwelled on the thoughts of a tormenting entity. It was a dark figure with an innocence a person couldn’t describe. Graham’s mind revolved around the daunting eyes of a young figure. Something about him was so familiar that Graham’s brain couldn’t touch. He drank a sip of his coffee and coughed as he stared at an odd carving on his wrist. The numbers were etched into his wrist: 8966.

“You okay, Graham?” His wife asked him, peering out the small pass-through, with a warm smile on her face. “T-the boy.” He mumbled.

“What boy?” Audrey asked, with confusion in her voice.

“Never mind. Just work stuff.” He replied, while his wife nodded with a look of perplexity on her face. He knew Audrey didn’t buy the ‘work stuff’ excuse. She’s going to ask him at night, when he’s vulnerable. Audrey was dear to Graham, as he lost his parents and his brother. His brother's wife and son all died two years ago in a car accident. Considering this, Audrey was the only person left for Graham. Her comfort, sweet sorrow and presence relieved him.

However, she didn’t know about the shadow that was tormenting his life; questioning his sanity. The shadow, with a name of: 8966. Graham was unsure of how this boy came into his life, as his presence felt unreal. His appearance was slow but intriguing with menacing hints: scratches on car, broken windows, unlocked doors. A horror movie that left you in chills. The boy was there for only about a week, but to Graham, it felt like an eternity had passed. Audrey disrupted his thoughts, stating,

“Gram? I’m gonna go fetch some garlic powder from the store, okay? I’ll be back in a few min-”

“No!” Graham instantly hopped out of his armchair, watching his hands tremble, not feeling the hot tea spill on his pale, numb fingers. Audrey looked bewildered by the sudden reaction as she slowly put down the car keys on the table.

“Okay, how about you sit down?” She said slowly as she grabbed his hand and sat him down. She kneeled down beside him and stroked his hand with cold water. She then said, “What’s going on? You’re acting unusual and I’m worried.” Graham then glanced at the door, and there he was. A boy glaring at him. He was the same, light complexion, yet he looked gray with a haunting feature looming over him. Terrifying. Small. Silent. Graham flinched and rubbed his eyes. When he opened them, the boy was gone. Graham looked around everywhere, and so did Audrey. Graham forced a smile to his wife, “Nothing. My boss piles so much work that it’s hard to keep track of dates.” He said that too quickly. His body language and tone of voice didn’t satisfy Audrey, so she sighed, got up and replied,

“How about you go wash your face? It’ll help.” He nodded and slowly walked to the bathroom, feeling possessed by his subconscious. As he stood in front of the mirror, he bent down and washed his face with the cool water that glided across his dry face. As he looked up, the boy’s dim face was reflected. He jumped back, landing in the bathtub, trying to collect his arms and legs. Graham struggled to grab ahold of anything. He soaked his pants as he turned on the tub accidentally, when he reached up and got a razor.

The boy was on the sink counter, sitting with his hands resting in his lap. He had dirty blonde hair and a red shirt with the staggered numbers on it in white- 8966. His hazel eyes observed Graham and every inch of his movement as Graham pointed the razor at the boy like a knife. The boy smirked, then Graham shut his eyes. He breathed frantically, his heart racing against his chest, until he felt an eerie silence. Deafening. It was a silence that made the atmosphere dense, and he could almost hear the terror in his heart that raced through to get out. As he opened a wink, a terrible scream of the boy startled him. He jumps out, waves his hands like a punch and bolts out the bathroom door with his eyes shut. He blindly stumbled through the halls, holding his head as he leaned against the wall.

He breathed, taking deep breaths as he felt safe outside of the bathroom. Graham bolted to the kitchen and stared at his wife, relieved she was okay. She looked at him, eyebrows raised as she was setting dinner on the table. Her eyes darted to his soaking wet pants as they dripped on the carpet floor.

“You swam to the bathroom?” She asked him, jokingly. He shook his head and smiled lightly as he sat down at the table. All of a sudden, Audrey asked,

“Is this about that family?” Graham’s mind was driven by this unusual question.

“What family?” He asked in a deep voice, as he took a sip of the stew. It didn’t taste the same. The metallic taste of saliva and anxiety in his mouth destroyed the enjoyment of the stew.

“Oh, you know, just the usual cases. A woman dies here, a man dies there. This time, a whole family died.” Audrey said as she poured some stew into her bowl and shook her head. Graham’s mind was in a state of fog, and he took off his glasses to rub his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said, bewildering Audrey. She stopped the spoon that was about to go into her mouth and put it down.

“Graham. We’ve been talking about this for months. You know? The unusual cases of people dying in car accidents. The one- your brother was involved in?” As she said that, Graham put a spoonful of the stew in his mouth, and he immediately spat it out. The metallic tang was not the stew. It was the taste of blood he ate. He looked at his bowl and saw it was full of bright red liquid. Audrey stood up, shaking as she came around to help her husband. He shook her off and rushed to his room. His temperature dropped and he felt he was being watched. He heard a whisper. Bennett. He looked around, and got up to close the blinds. When he returned, he saw the boy on his bed. Graham felt a lump in his throat. He felt nauseous. He choked. A crawling sensation in his throat. Graham coughed up a cockroach. He ran to the guest room and tried to shut his eyes, ignoring the ongoing whispers.

As Graham tried to drift off, his wife was in the dining area, frozen where she stood. She thought about the horrific cases that took place. And she craved to know more.

***

That night Graham didn’t sleep, and though Audrey insisted he stayed home today, he would rather lethargically go to work surrounded by people than home alone with a haunting, demonized child. As Graham took the bus to work, Audrey took the car to the local hospital. She attempted to rule out the reason for her husband’s behavior. As she stood behind the line of the front desk, she thought about the pictures she had seen on the news. A dead woman, a child holding a toy, or even a man hugging his family to protect them. These weren’t linked to her husband’s actions, but she had a gut feeling that they did. “Move it, lady.” A man behind her said, urging her to go forward. Audrey rushed to the front desk.

“Last name?” The woman said. “Sorry?” Audrey responded. The woman looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“You’re here to visit someone, right?”

“Erm- yes.”

“Okay. What’s their last name?”

“I-am not sure,” Audrey said, not exactly sure why she was here. The woman looked at her and glanced at the person behind her. “Okay, well, ma’am, while you figure that out, I’ll have you take a seat so I can assist the next person.” Before Audrey protested, the man behind her hurriedly bumped past her and started to talk with the woman. She sighed and waited, unsure. Until a man who was shivering stumbled into the entrance area. He rushed to the front desk and said,

“The last name is Bennett. First name Harper. I need to see my friend.”

“Okay, sir, hang on.” The woman typed on her keyboard and replied, “They are in room 2B, but they just went through a traumatic car accident, so you need to stay calm. I will have a nurse come to assist you in the room, so you can have a seat until then.” Car accident. An idea.

“No. No, please. I can’t wait any longer.”

“Oh my God. I just realized I needed to see Harper as well. And I am so glad I ran into you.” Audrey winked at the man, as he looked at her confusedly. She signaled to him with her eyebrows to go along with it, and he slowly nodded, saying,

“Yes. It’s-uh great to see you too.”

The woman was already busy with another person at the front desk, so Audrey rolled her eyes and slipped past, making her way into the hallways with this man. “Who are you, again?” The man asked her as they rushed towards the room. “Audrey. I wanted to figure out some things about the accidents. They are so weird.”

“I know. I work with the police department, and when the report came in with my best friend’s name on it, I came straight from the station.” The man stated, sparking an idea inside Audrey. “Hold on. You’re a police officer?” She asked him, stopping in the middle of the hall.

“Yes? Why?”

“You must know a lot about these cases then.” The man nodded at her response and replied,

“I do. But why do you care?” Audrey could tell the man didn’t trust her, and she couldn’t blame him. “My husband is going through a lot right now. He lost his brother to an accident a couple of years ago, and I don't know, but something is off with him lately.” The man nodded and gestured to her to continue walking towards the room. The bold white letters outside the room stated 2B, and they walked past the curtains inside. Audrey gasped and clutched her hand to her mouth, and the man sobbed next to the patient’s bed. She was wrapped in bandages so no one could make out her figure, but anyone could tell that she was disfigured brutally. She lightly opened her eyes, and her breathing was very shallow. The man tried making a small conversation with her, so Audrey stepped outside the curtains out of respect. She walked around the room and noticed the patient’s file next to the entrance door. She took it out, and her heart dropped when she saw this patient on the road, covered in blood. Beside her was a white truck with red stripes imprinted on it. As Audrey flipped through the images, she saw her blue car absolutely destroyed, and her family in the next few images, who were reported dead. Audrey wiped a tear off her soft face, and she threw the file over when she heard a piercing scream. She hurried inside the curtains and saw the woman struggling in the bed, ripping off her IVs and tubes, screaming with as much capacity as she had in her lungs. The man got up and looked horrified at her as the nurses came in frantically to try to assist her.

Words were being constantly yelled by the patient. She rolled in her bed and kicked her legs, breaking one of the nurses’ jaws. Audrey rushed out of the room, urging the man to come out as well, but he shook his head and was in shock at the sight of his best friend. “GO AWAY.” The woman kept yelling and screaming. Until it just ended. The screams stopped. The kicking settled. And everyone’s breathing slowed down. All you could hear was the long beep coming from the monitor. The man broke down in tears, and the nurses assisted him outside, along with me. The man refused to go into a room; he just bolted out the entrance doors and sat on the bench outside. Audrey sat down beside him and said,

“Can I suggest something? Many people are going through the same thing. And I think there is some linkage between these cases. Even with my husband. Can you take me down to the station and show me some of these files- please?” The man shook his head at Audrey’s suggestion and replied,

“That information is confidential, and I could risk my job.”

“Okay, but if you don’t show me, you can also risk a life. I think that’s a bit more important here. I need to know. I think we could somehow connect it to what’s going on.” Audrey pleaded. For some reason, the face of that patient while she was screaming was familiar. It was the same look on her husband’s face when he thought he saw something. The man nodded, and they made their way to the station.

Graham’s day at work was even more traumatizing. Disappearing files, torn work, and his computer fried. He continued seeing the boy in his office, so he put his head down. He fell asleep and when he woke up he would find scratches on his hands. He looked up and jumped back. The boy was right next to him. Out of horror, he accidentally spilled boiling tea on himself and refused to eat anything after last night. He just hoped his wife was able to fix whatever was going on. And so, Audrey appeared at the station where the man presented her with the recent files discreetly.

“Name’s Alfred. These are the most recent looks. Unfortunately, every time we appear at the scene, the driver is never present. There isn’t anyone in there, and the truck just mysteriously vanishes later. Then it reappears, killing another family.” As Audrey skimmed through the horrid pictures, she noticed something odd. Every family member had at least one person whose last name was Bennett. That was the moment where Audrey’s heart stopped.

“Look at this. Bennett. Andrew Bennett. Martha Bennett. There are so many.”

“So the killer has something against the Bennetts?” Alfred asked, raising an eyebrow. She didn’t know. But what Audrey did know was that her husband’s name was Graham Bennett.

She rushed inside the car, thanked Alfred, and tried calling Graham. Call forwarded. She groaned and slowly drove, keeping an eye out for any trucks. She gracefully stopped her car outside the office and saw him stepping out, looking weary. “Audrey?” He asked, looking confused. “Get in the car,” Audrey yelled, unlocking the door. “What the hell is going on?” He asked her, as she frantically drove around town, to get home hurriedly. She pressed her foot, the engine roaring to life and the accelerator kissing the ground. The golden streetlights faded into a blur, and the wind tore through the windows, flipping our hair back. “I’ll explain later. All I know is that you are being haunted by something, and it’s killing all of your generations.” Graham looked at her, bewildered, and Audrey gulped, continuing, “We are going to go home, and we are never going to step foot in a car again.” Graham slowly replied,

“Audrey… we are already in one.”

“Shit,” Audrey replied. She then saw a white truck with red stripes parked in a dark lot. No driver. No light. Silence.

Graham then screamed when he saw the kid in the middle of the road. Audrey pressed the brakes, the tires fighting against the road, as the car jolted forward violently. “What?” Audrey asked, breathing heavily. Graham looked forward, his eyes bulging. The child, with the same numbers on his shirt labelled: 8966, was staring at him, piercing into his eyes. His heart felt uneasy, and his lips trembled as he pointed ahead of him. The boy stood. Grinning. Audrey couldn’t see anything, so she pressed the accelerator towards where Graham was pointing. “We need to get-”

The impact was sudden. It was violent. The car jolted sideways, and the once quiet road turned into harsh metal scratching against each other. The world spun, and Graham’s mind echoed. Graham’s face pressed against the window, breaking. The glass pierced his jaw, and Audrey’s screams were swallowed by the roar of the crash. He laid on the road, his hand slit by a deep cut. Blood ran out of him from his chest, feeling all life spill out. His eyes flickered open and he saw the boy. 8966. Graham spoke in a slow and weary voice, “please.” The boy smirked and said,

“In my accident, the driver was of yours. One hit. Two lives gone. I was six. This curse wasn’t meant for you, but for your name.”

“Please.” He pleaded, looking at the white truck with red stripes. Audrey begged from behind the truck, screaming Graham’s name. Sirens wailed and people yelled, chaos was embedded on the street, blurred by the sight of this boy. His blood drained. He begged the boy, “please. Save my wife.” He looked and just watched his body run out of life. Smiling. The boy stared at Graham as his body drained agonizingly, and in the last few seconds of his life; he saw the number on the boy’s shirt change from 8966 to a new number. 8967.