The Monster in Council

It all began when I was sixteen, Katie was seventeen at the time. Even then we were good friends, before these...events would pull us together. It was Saturday, I was in my backyard reading a book that I had rented from the library the week before. The due date was coming up soon and I was cramming to finish it so I wouldn't have to renew it, because in Council, Idaho there's a limit for renews. Only six a month; and those precious six renews I wanted to save for the longer books that I had planned to read -- that summer there were a couple books I had on my 'To Read' list that were over one thousand pages long. Anyways, I was sitting there reading my book, when I heard a scream, filled with terror and horror, come from the other side of the street, coming from the Whitemore -- not their real name -- house, which was next door to Katie's home. Now you have to understand that in Council a scream like the one I had just heard only mean that something bad -- very bad -- had happened. Also the crime rate was, to be honest, rather nonexistent. There was no crime rate before that summer, but something was going to happen that would make the crime rate raise by more than five hundred percent.

Upon hearing the scream, I jumped to my feet, still holding my book open as I had when I was reading it. Another scream rang out, this one sounding worse than the first -- if that was possible. That second scream broke my somewhat paralysis; I dropped the book, and began running towards the scream. I hopped the fence that led to the street easily and ran across the street, which was the general area from which the scream came. A third scream sounded off and I readjusted my running to head directly towards it. It was indeed the Whitemore's house. I vaulted over their large privacy fence without struggle and ran down the side of the house and into the backyard where I was confronted with the ultimate horror.

The Whitemores were a younger family, the father, Terry, was in his late twenties, and the mother, Tabitha, was in her mid twenties. They had two children: Tommy, who was five years old, and Mary, who was four years old. What I saw in the Whitemore's backyard was a bloody mess -- literally. There was blood splattered across the back fence as if someone had exploded, and there was small clothes lying about five feet from the fence, some belonged to a boy and some belonged to a girl; they were both soaked through with blood. But there was no bodies; and when Mrs. Whitemore, Tabitha, suddenly ran from where she had screamed in frozen terror three times, I ran forward, trying to cut her off from their clothes, knowing that if there was anything left in them that it would not be something she would want to see, nor would it be something she should see. But she had a head start on me and was, somehow, faster than me at that moment. I was nearly five feet behind her when she reached the...remains -- if that's how I could properly describe it -- of her children. Terry wasn't at home, that I knew; he was down in Boise for a conference that day, I remembered my mother and Mrs. Whitemore talking about it the other day. Mrs. Whitemore held up the boy clothes that were soaked with blood, to the point that a steady stream dripped from the corners as she held them up, and as she did, a bloody pulp, which was all that was left of Tommy, save for his clothes, fell out of them and hit the grassy floor with a wet squishy sound. It splattered some blood that had swamped the back yard lawn on to her thighs and chest. Screaming and sobbing, she dropped the bloody clothes and took a step back. I avoided running into her easily, but she slipped on the swamped grass and fell down with a splash into the inch deep puddle of blood that covered the entire back lawn.

By that time other people had come and a few of the men helped me move her from the grass, since she had fainted or passed out. Either way, she wasn't conscious.

Within five minutes a few of the police officers arrived and within twenty, the back yard lawn was taped off as a crime scene and Mrs. Whitemore was admitted into the hospital, according to a paramedic, suffering from shock.

However, out of all the things that I noticed, I didn't notice Katie staring at the backyard with a look of pure horror on her face.

- Michael Hall