Update #2

Hey everyone!

You may have noticed that I've begun posting a new story instead of continuing The Pits. Don't worry, I'm still writing it. I decided it would be nice to have variety so you all can read different types of stories instead of waiting for me to finish one story before moving on to the next.

I will also be including shorter stories, for those of you who like to get to the point. The first one of those will be up this weekend.

Also, the next time I'm supposed to post the next part for The Pits, and/or, Shadow Figures, is on Christmas. Even though that day is Christmas, I'll still upload the next part the (at least) one of them, and I'll include a short creepy Christmas story.

Happy Holidays!

Shadow Man (part 1)

“All I remember is a flash of red, getting the wind knocked out of me, and not being able to get up…” Jesse mumbled as the doctor helped him sit up in his bed.

            “That’s completely normal,” the Dr. Ross said. “An accident like that often causes your brain to hit the inside of your skull, which results in loss of memory. In all honesty, I’m surprised you don’t have more injuries than just your broken arm.”

            “Yeah, I guess I got lucky,” said Jesse looking into his lap.

            “The man who hit you is in prison, at least for now. DUI, I think.”

            Jesse nodded his head, leaning his head back against the bed. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better, but I guess it should.”

            “Well, it’s not as good as preventing an accident, and he didn’t apologize…” said Dr. Ross as he walked to the other side of Jesse’s bed. “...but it’s something. And, in any case, you get to go home today!” Dr. Ross smiled.

            Jesse smiled and blushed a little still looking down. He appreciated Dr. Ross doing everything he could to make him feel better, but he couldn’t bring himself to look the man in the face. Jesse liked his doctor, but Dr. Ross also reminded him of his Uncle Julian. And that was something Jesse didn’t want to think about.

            “Alright,” Dr. Ross scribbled something on a paper on his clipboard. “Everything checks out, so I’ll finish the paperwork, and you can finally get out of here.” He flashed Jesse another one of his genuine smiles.

            Jesse blushed again, “Thanks.”

            “Don’t mention it. Now, I’m also going to prescribe some Percocet for any pain you might feel. Be sure to call if you still feel pain relating to your accident or if it gets worse. Like, if your back pain comes back; something like that.”

            “I will,” Jesse nodded. Not that he’d actually take it. He’d been on Percocet before and hated the withdrawal that came with it.

            “I’ll leave you to get dressed,” said Dr. Ross.

            “Okay. Thanks again.” For the first time since he’d gotten there, Jesse looked directly at Dr. Ross, and returned the smile he received from the doctor.

            “No problem,” Dr. Ross was pleasantly surprised. Until now, he’d thought Jesse was one of those teenagers going through a rebellious phase, and worried he’d have to deal with a kid with an attitude problem. Glad this wasn’t the case, Dr. Ross left the room, and closed the door.

            Jesse got out of bed, and took off the hospital gown. He hated the feel of the paper-plastic amalgamation that reminded Jesse of a grocery store’s checkout counter. But before he could but he could put on the clothes his parents brought for him, Jesse noticed something dashing across the room from the corner of his eye. He turned around, looking for thing that caused the dark grey shadow, but didn’t see anything that wasn’t already there. ‘Well shit,’ Jesse thought. ‘Maybe I’ve been stuck in this room too long.’

 Suddenly, the door to his room opened, and in came his mother and father, excitedly talking about finally bringing Jesse home after his week in the hospital.

“What are you doing just standing in the middle of the room in your underwear?” Jesse’s dad asked.

“I was getting dressed!” Jesse replied more than a little panicked.

“Well hurry up so we can go home!” Jesse’s mother “I told everybody you were getting out of the hospital today!”

“Who is everybody?” Jesse almost yelled. He wasn’t the type to be comfortable in big crowds, and the thought of suddenly being surrounded by people made his heart beat more rapidly than it did when his parents walked in on him mostly naked.

“Oh, just grandma and grandpa…” Jesse’s mom said.

Jesse relaxed a bit. “Oh…I guess that’s not bad.”

“And your Uncle Julian, Aunt Gloria, and your cousins…” Jesse’s dad added.

Jesse’s heart sunk upon hearing his Uncle was going to be at his house, and secretly hoped that he could just hide in his room.

“Please tell me that’s it…” Jesse groaned.

“Almost. We invited your friend Olivia to come, too.” Jesse’s father wiggled his eyebrows at his son.

“It’s not like that,” Jesse said quickly, picking up on his father’s obvious insinuation.

“Sure, it isn’t,” his dad winked.

“It’s not.”

“Hurry and get dressed!” Jesse’s mother said

Jesse did, ignoring his mother every time she asked if he needed help. Even with a broken arm he felt too grown up at fifteen to ask for his mom’s help getting dressed. As soon as Jesse was dressed, and the paperwork was completed a nurse brought him a wheelchair and wheeled him out to his dad's truck that was pulled up in front at the curb near the front doors. It embarrassed him at first, but he soon forgot about the awkwardness of the situation when he noticed another shadow in his peripheral vision. Jesse thought it was a cat, but wasn't sure. He didn't get a good look at it, nor did he think there would be a cat in a hospital. 

"Is something wrong?" the nurse asked Jesse when he turned in his chair.

"No, I just thought... It's nothing," he replied thinking he would sound crazy if he told her what he thought he saw. The last thing Jesse wanted was to be kept in the hospital for a longer period of time.

Jesse's dad helped him out of the chair and into the back seat of his truck, buckling him in as the buckle was on the side of his broken arm. He smiled to himself. 

"I haven't buckled you into your seat since you were six or seven." 

"You're loving this way too much," Jesse said rolling his eyes.

"And you're growing up too quickly."

Jesse looked his father in the face, noticing the wrinkles that weren't there before. 'You smile too much, old man. I love you, though.'

As the family drove away, Jesse's parents talked excitedly about everyone seeing their son now that he wasn't stuck in a hospital. He let them talk, while he watched the world pass by the window. Every now and again he'd see a dark grey blob out of the corner of his eye. He'd ignore it, mostly. Until he could swear he saw a shadow-like claw reach over and tap the window before disappearing. Jesse turned quickly to see what it was that he saw. 

"I'm definitely not taking those meds," he said. "I'm hallucinating enough as it is..."

"What did you say, mijo?" His mother looked slightly concerned. 

"Nothing. Just that we should visit the restaurant we passed someday."

"You'd almost think they were starving you in that hospital," she laughed.

The Pits (part 2)

The three turned to head back down the trails. They had made it to the park furthest from where they parked their car, and it would be a long walk back in the dark. The trails on which they were walking—and had walked several times before—connected three parks, and seemed more windy and complicated to navigate at night than they did during the day. Many parts of the trails went in circles, while the rest snaked their way through the dense forest, with only the main trail being paved.

            Max wasn’t very good with silence. It always made him feel awkward, but he didn’t have anything to say at the moment, and apparently neither did Gio or Simon. However, there were things that he wanted to say to both of his friends since they would be going off to start their lives in a few weeks. But Simon and Gio saw him as the strong one in the group. Maybe not physically, but emotionally and psychologically. And Max worried that they wouldn’t see him the same way if he mentioned how much they meant to him, and how much he’d miss them. Or in the very least, he didn’t want to make Simon cry.

            Lost in thought, he didn’t notice that Simon had stopped, and Max walked into Simon’s back.

            “What?” Max asked? “Why’d you stop walking?”

            “You guys are probably gonna hate me for pointing it out, but…” Simon pointed down the hill to a group of people standing in a circle, all an arm’s length apart, around a small fire. They were wearing all black: Hoodies, pants, gloves, boots, and some were even wearing ski masks. One of the people was walking clockwise around the circle of people pouring a small amount of liquid on their heads, but Simon couldn’t tell what it was as they were too far away. Another person, also clad all in black, was walking counterclockwise sprinkling everyone with what looked like salt where the other person was pouring the liquid.

            Gio looked at Max with a look of concern. And Gio’s never concerned. They weren’t sure what the should do, but Gio was the more street smart of the three. He put a finger up to his lips to signal that Max should stay quiet. Max nodded, and went to whisper in Simon’s hear not to make any noise. He looked into Max’s eye with even more fear than he’d shown when Gio was still beating him up. He looked like he was about to cry, and Max couldn’t help but feel bad for him.

            “Crap…” Gio mumbled under his breath. And nearly a second later, a large branch from a tree behind them fell onto the trail making a louder noise than he would have liked. He, Simon, and Max turned to look at the fallen branch that startled them so much they instinctively crouched a bit. When they returned their attention to the people below them they were startled a bit more when they realized they were all looking up at them. They had all completely stopped moving; frozen like mannequins.

            Simon nearly screamed out loud. When he looked back at them, he realized that the people who weren’t wearing masks didn’t seem to have faces. Well, sort of. They had faces, but they were distorted; fuzzy and slightly warped. Looking at them caused a chill to go down his spine that continued through his arms and legs. While blinking the tears away, Simon noticed their faces had suddenly returned to normal, and entertained the idea that he was just so scared that he’d hallucinated.

            The stalemate was broken by one of the men in the circle who took off his ski mask. “You don’t have to be afraid of us,” he offered.

            “We’re not,” Gio said lowering his already deep voice. His face displayed a look of indifference, but the pounding in his chest threatened to destroy his “tough guy” façade.

            The man smiled and pointed to Simon, “He sure seems afraid to me.”

            Max nudged Simon, who blushed a deep red and thanked every god he could think of that they weren’t closer to the fire where they’d see the embarrassment on his face. But that same thought confused him.

            “How can you see us? It’s dark up here, and…the fire…your eyes…” Simon stammered.

            “We see everything, my child,” the man smiled again, and this time, so did the rest of his group.

            Max had had enough, “No one calls random people they’ve never met before ‘my child.’ Let’s go, guys.” That last part, he whispered to his friends. These people were the stuff of nightmares, and Max had enough of those already. More would just be overkill. 

Update #1

The first part of The Pits is up now, and I hope you all enjoy it! I've decided that I'm going to post each story in parts so that I have time to write more, and I won't fall behind.

I'm also planning on including pictures in this blog. Not exactly ones that pertain to what I write, but things that are just creepy in general. Because who doesn't like pictures?

Don't forget to comment. I'd love to hear from you!

I guess this is where I'd add my catch phrase, but I still haven't decided on one, yet. But I'll think of one soon!

The Pits (part 1)

“I’m just saying, going to college and getting a degree doesn’t mean you’ll be that much better off than someone else,” said Max stepping over a fallen tree branch.

He had been discussing the pros and cons with Simon the entire time they had been walking the trails in a place called “The Pits”, while Giovanni followed behind them, eyes glued to his phone.

“Well, yeah,” started Simon. “But it does mean that you’ll be more likely to get better jobs. And the more degrees you have, the more you get paid. Relative to other people with the same job, anyway.”

Max rolled his eyes. “More likely? That’s all?”

“Um, yes?” replied Simon.

“I don’t like putting work into something that might result in me not getting what I want,” said Max. “Besides, I don’t even know what I wanna do with my life.”

“You have, like, four years to figure that out, man,” said Giovanni finally participating in the conversation. “In the meantime, do either one of you guys wanna answer my question?”

Simon stopped walking and turned around to face Giovanni. “What question? Gio, you haven’t said anything since we picked you up!”

“You two seemed so busy freaking out about your futures that asking why they call this place the Pits seemed random.”

Max chuckled to himself, “When has being random ever bothered you? That’s pretty much your thing.”

“Questions usually require answers,” Gio said furrowing his brow. “For once, I couldn’t find the answer on Google, because apparently nobody cares about parks, and by extension the miles of trails in the woods behind them.”

“I’m guessing it has to do with all of the pits and the dried-up river bed that make walking out here dangerous if you’re not paying attention,” Simon said cynically. “Or maybe it’s because of the cave on the other side of the woods. There’s literally a bunch of pits near the entrance, so getting in is a bitch.”

Gio and Max stood staring shocked at their friend.

“What?” Simon asked. “What’re you looking at? Did I spill mustard on my shirt again?”

“First of all, learn to eat a hotdog,” Gio said.

“Second,” started Max. “Aww! Our little Simon’s all grown up, now! Seriously, who knew there were any curse words in your vocabulary.”

Both Max and Giovanni couldn’t help but laugh at that. Simon had always been the good kid; always nice to everyone, and a perfect teacher’s pet. And Gio was the polar opposite. He met Simon in fifth grade, and decided he didn’t like Simon when the teacher began asking why Gio couldn’t act like Simon. One could say they had a love hate relationship. They hated each other, but Giovanni loved to torture Simon.

 Fortunately for Simon, the bullying came to an end two years later when they were forced to do a group project about dwarf planets in the solar system with Max, who had just moved to their school. Simon got his lowest grade ever, and eighty-nine, Gio got his highest grade ever, and Max found two new friends. Which was one more than he’d had at his last school, since most people didn’t like that most of his jokes were based on sarcasm at the expense of others.

            “Don’t patronize me…” Simon mumbled. “Just because you’ve never heard me say those kinds of things doesn’t mean I can’t.”

            “True, but…” Gio began to say, before trailing off. He was staring past Simon into the trees.

            Max couldn’t see what Gio was looking at. The sun was beginning to set, and with the thick canopy of trees covering the trail—and Max’s less than perfect vision—he couldn’t see much if it was too far away. “Gio, what are you staring at?”

            “Jeogi namja-nun namudul-ae il-eo seoseo…” Gio answered in Korean, as he did when he was confused, or angry.

            “What?” Max asked looking at his friend, feeling an unusual amount of concern. He had never heard Gio say something like that in the five years they had known each other.

            “He’s speaking Korean,” Simon told Max. “It’s his native language.”

            “Okay, but what—”

            “I don’t know. I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Simon turned his attention back to Gio, “Also, don’t call me when you’re drunk anymore. I felt bad that your dog pissed on your laptop, but I didn’t know what you wanted me to do about it, so I went back to sleep.”

            Max raised an eyebrow at Simon’s statement. “But he doesn’t have a dog.”

            “So, what? He just pissed on his own laptop?” Simon asked incredulously.

            He looked at Gio, then back to Max realizing that it was entirely possible as Gio was definitely wasted the night before. “Oh, my God, he pissed on his laptop. Exactly how drunk were you last night?!”

            “Very, but in my defense, the pain meds I found in my mom’s medicine cabinet probably didn’t help.” Gio looked away from the trees.

            “You need to go to rehab…” Max mumbled.

            “I was kidding! Chill out, bro. Hey, you guys ready to head back? It’s getting kinda dark out.”

            “Yeah, the last time I was here at night, I almost got attacked by deer. I don’t think I’m about that life.” Gio laughed at Max’s comment. The thought of him getting chased by a deer was funnier than it probably should’ve been. 

Firstly...

Hello, everyone! 

My name is Aaron.

It's nice to meet you. As far as you can can "meet" someone through a blog. I used to have a blog on this very site. Unfortunately, I had no real reason to be writing anything, so it eventually died. It probably didn't help that I was in middle school. Not sure what a middle school kid writes about, but I'm sure it wasn't good. 

However, now that it's years later and I've become a better writer--and also now that I have something to write about--I think I'll try again. 

I've always wanted to be a writer. There were a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head, but none of them were ever written down. Until now. Now that finals are (almost) over, and I'm going to have more time on my hands, I've decided that it would be a good idea to write the short stories and maybe a series or two in the form of a blog. If anything, I'll be able to get these ideas written down, and hopefully you will enjoy reading them.

For the most part I want this to be a place where I can write stories in my favorite genre: horror. If you're in to that, this is the place for you! If I write something in a different genre and post it, I'll let you know, and post it somewhere away from everything else so you don't have to read it if you don't want to. It's just nice to get things out of my mind. It allows more focus for other things.

For now, I think I will update every three days or so. That should be enough time for me to get things in order. What's a story if it doesn't make sense, right? I should have my first story up in the next couple of days. Please let me know if you enjoy it or not. And if you don't, it would be great if you could let me know what I could change to make these stories better. There's always room for improvement!

So, for now, good night, everybody! 

I should come up with a catchphrase. Yeah, that would be cool.