The Splattered Rose

“I think you know why you are here, Chris,” one of the policemen said with a forceful but sympathetic tone. The room was blank. The only exciting thing about the room was the paint job; a dark shade of green. There were three police officers in the room. One was sitting across from me, and the other two were standing next to me on both sides. “You need to tell us what happened. You can trust us completely”.

I had been abducted about eight years ago then miraculously escaped, and the police have wanted to know what happened ever since. But I still can’t bring myself to tell the story. I was 13 then, and I know that I should be over it, but hey, if you witnessed what I witnessed, and went through what I went through, you’d be a scarred a whole lot too. This has been the fifth time this year the police have wanted to me to come down to the station and tell my story, and every time I’ve spilled nothing. But today I thought should be the day.

“Alright, officers,” I said reluctantly, “I’m ready”.

“You have the floor, sir”.

Saturday. My favorite day of the week. I don’t have worry about homework, just a whole lot of rest and relaxation. Halloween is only three days away, and I was really excited about that. I had already decided this would be my last Halloween going out, and I’m pretty determined to get the most candy I can. This year I’m planning to be a person with leprosy. I’ve been hyping my friends up about it all last week, and they’re pretty excited about it too. Today, my Dad and I were heading over to a craft store to get face paint for the costume. I had pretty much slept the whole day, so we headed out around five o’clock. Our house was virtually isolated from any sort of shopping center, and the secluded road to get to town was fairly long, and full of twists and turns. We were traveling down the long winding road and the sun was just beginning to set. Suddenly we saw a figure… we couldn’t make out who he was but he was definitely male. He held up the traditional hitchhiker sign.

“Should we stop?” my Dad said nervously.

“Uh…I don’t think we should”… I said, as my dad suddenly stomped on the brakes.

We stopped at the man and rolled down the window.

He was wearing a ripped black suit, accompanied by a white rose on the left part of the torso. He was carrying something that resembled a small lunch box with various stickers on it. His face was concealed by the shadows.

“Do you need anything?” my Dad said.

He nodded, and my Dad opened the side door, and the man stepped in. We closed the door and drove away. I desperately wanted to look back at his face, but I didn’t want to be rude. He managed to tell us that his name was Walker - a slightly peculiar name at that, but hey, it's a name. About 50 feet later, the man said “Okay” in a monotone.

My Dad opened the slide door and let the man out. He stood there, and my Dad closed the door. As we drove away, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the man waving at us.

“Well, that was kind of weird, huh?” my Dad said.

I nodded and tried to keep what just happened at the back of my mind.

It was around eight o’clock now, and my Dad and I were returning from the craft store. We picked out various paints and other accessories that we thought would fit my costume right. It was about a 45 minute drive from the craft store to my house. I was beginning to feel a bit drowsy, so I decided to take a nap.

When I woke up, we still weren’t home. We were driving down the long road. As we continued to drive, I looked out my window to see a mysterious figure coming up. As we got closer, I could see that he looked suspiciously similar to the man we had picked up earlier. He was in exactly the same position he was in earlier. I could see he had a hitchhiker sign up again. I alerted my Dad, and he looked at me tensely. He pulled over next to the man. My Dad rolled down the window

“Yes sir?” my Dad said hesitantly

He said nothing. He motioned his finger, beckoning my Dad. “Stay in the car,” my Dad said and he vanished into the shadows…and then there was a mist…and the rest is a blur.

“Whoa…” the policeman said stunned, then he paused.

“What about you being abducted?” the policeman to the right of me said.

“Let me finish” I said holding back tears.

I awoke stripped of my clothing. I gazed over to my right and almost threw-up: My Dad’s genitals had been torn off, his eyes and mouth were sown shut, and his limbs had been completely severed. The most horrifying truth was that he was still alive, barely and twitching. I looked at myself… I was covered in blood but not harmed. I looked up and saw what I thought to be a personification of a nightmare: he was bald with a black painted face accompanied with a red glasgow smile. His eyes were saturated with veins, and without pupils. The rest of his body was covered by a suit and black gloves. Then I looked at his rose; what was once pure white was now splattered with a muddy-brown red color. I felt him push me onto my stomach.

“I think you can figure out what came next,” I said hesitantly.

“You don’t have to explain,” the policeman in front of me said rather quickly. “Just get to the next part”

After that he was gone. He left me crying in a puddle of blood. Next to me my dad lay… I had to kill him to put him out of his misery. I hated myself … then I saw it: the lunch box. It was open and a bunch of black lit bulbs lay in it. I picked one up...then put it back in and took the lunchbox.

“You still have it?” the policeman said

“It’s right here… hehe,” I laughed and blinked a couple of times to show the truth. My eyes were roses; white with blood splatters. I smashed the light bulb to the tiled floor. The room filled with gas, a mixture perfected by me: pepper spray, mace bath salts, and teargas.

“Shit!” said a policeman as they opened fire on me. I immediately dropped to the floor on impact. Now on the floor, with what little strength I had left, I picked up and showed the policemen the inside of lunchbox… “Have fun with my friend! Love, Walker”