Carol

Entry 1 – March 22nd, 1985
I’ve finally arrived at the small town where I’ll be conducting the case I was assigned to, and now that I’m done unpacking for the long stay I can finally study this assignment in more detail. A rather strange one, if you ask me.

Several children have gone missing in this area over the past twenty years, and there’s no evidence of what happened to them or where they go. It’s ‘as if they vanished into thin air’ as one local newspaper puts it. Regardless of all the previous failed investigations, even with one resulting in an agent retiring from his job for some undisclosed reason, the Bureau has named me one of their best agents and told me, “If anyone can solve this case, it’s you Fox!” However, what seems odd to me it that apparently no one outside of the Bureau has heard of this story, and that it is to stay that way for classified reasons. Weird, I thought, but it's a better job that taking in prank calls from immature kids. So I headed on over and arrived at this cosy little house where I’ll be staying. Full view of the town from the top of the hill where the house is situated, I’ll have the perfect overview of any suspicious activity that may occur.

Tomorrow I’ll begin my investigation into the case. After the long drive the only thing on my mind is food and a good old, well-deserved rest.

Entry 2 – March 23rd, 1985
Waking up this morning, I decided to begin with possibly the easiest task, interviewing friends and relatives of the missing children. Heading out to town, I arrived at the home of one family who had lost their eight-year old daughter Ruby five years ago. They were oblivious to how or why it had happened, although had their suspicions about a certain town member being responsible for not only their daughter's disappearance but all the others too.

Apparently, his name is Marcus Wren. Sixty-five years of age, he tends to hang around in the local park when the children are playing games with each other. Nothing suspicious has been found about him, even after the police obtained a warrant to search his house. He claims, “I’m just a lonely old man with nothing to look forward to but death.” With another lead in my collection, I thanked the family for their hospitality. Just as I was about to leave, the family’s other child, a twelve-year old boy called Brandon, came bursting through the door. He apologised profusely to me, and then proceeded to beg his mum if he could stay out for another hour. “I promise I’ll be ok. Besides, Carol is keeping an eye on us.” “Alrighty then,” sighed his mum, “but be back in time for dinner. Ok?” “Thanks a bunch mum!” he replied. Just as he was about to leave, I asked him if I could tag along. “Sure you can, mister. The more the merrier! I’ll just go tell Carol to expect another.” Before I even had a chance to ask who Carol was, he charged off in the direction of the park.

I eventually caught up to him in the park, and saw about four or five other children there with him. No adults in sight, only children. Confused, I asked where this Carol woman was. “She’s over there, silly.” One of the younger girls replied, pointing at a bench on the side of the park in which no one sat. Swiftly, one of the older girls whispered something in her. “Oh yeah, that’s right. You can’t see her.” At this point, I felt like the children were pulling my leg. A little joke on the new guy in town. Realising that the gag was up, I told them to be very proud that they’ve fooled someone of my standards. The children then proceeded to look confused.

“You think we’re joking, don’t you?” A boy asked.

“They never believe us. No one does. All think we’re just a group of jokers.” Brandon told the other children. He looked genuinely sad, as did a few of the other children. Eventually, one of the older girls decided to attempt to explain to me what they’re on about.

“You see, Carol is like the guardian angel of the children that live in this town. She always keeps an eye out for us when we decide to play, and makes sure we all get home safely. When Ruby, Tyrin and the others went missing, she searched the whole town for them with us. But we found nothing. Even Carol can’t save everyone, and she really gets depressed when a child goes missing. She told us that we’re the only things that keep her from leaving. ‘My darling pixies’ she calls us.” The girl then proceeded to look towards the bench and smile. ”The reason why you can’t see her is because grown-ups don’t need protecting like children, so they don’t need to see her. At least that’s what Carol told us.” I asked the girl if I could at least have an idea of what Carol looked like, although I had no idea why I would need to or want to, so she drew me a quick picture with my pencil on my notepad. Needless to say, I was a little shocked that this ‘thing’ was looking after children. If it even WAS really there. I decided to leave the kids to play by themselves with ‘Carol’ watching over them.

As I was leaving, I had an urge to stare towards the bench that the so-called Carol was supposedly sitting on. As I did, I felt an immense pain in my head. I… I felt like something had looked into my soul and deemed me unworthy of its time. I felt drained, sore and hurt, and I rushed to my car as fast as my aching body would allow me and drove home. Upon arriving home, I made an account in my investigation report after taking some medicine to nullify the pain. As I came to writing the part about Carol, my hands stopped.

Would anyone really believe me, that the children believe that some entity is watching guard of them? I decided against writing anything about her, simply putting that the children knew nothing. It’s not like it would make a difference into the investigation anyway. I’m here on a missing-persons case, not a bloody X-File. I’m going to get some needed rest. Hopefully tomorrow will go better, without me having any paranormal encounters or the like.

Entry 3 – March 24th, 1985
I woke up today to the sound of police sirens outside my house and banging on my door. Dressing to answer the door, I opened it up to find the towns police Chief. “There’s been another missing-persons report, this one by the Bree family. Their 14-year old daughter Jessica never came home last night.”

I was absolutely gobsmacked. I had been in town for less than two days and already there’s another missing child. I asked to see a picture of the girl, and when I saw her I was even more shocked.

This Jessica was none other than the girl who explained Carol to me yesterday afternoon. After being shocked, I thanked the Chief and told him I’d ride into town later to question the family of Jessica. He then shocked me by telling me “They left early this morning. They couldn’t handle this place anymore. The only reason we know Jessica’s missing is because of a letter they sent us.” He then proceeded to hand me a letter. “See what you make of it, Agent.”

I thanked the Chief and went back inside. I felt confused, I felt shocked, but I mostly felt uneasy. Jessica had trusted this Carol, even going as far to get me to believe in her. Then she goes missing. If Carol does exist, then why doesn’t she at least attempt to save the kids? With questions that needed answering, I opened up the letter in hope of at least a few answer.

''Fuck this town. It’s brought us nothing but fear, and now loss. Not just to us, but to over twenty other families. No evidence, no abductor found, not even a fucking motive. We’re leaving. Have fun with your fucking investigation. Don’t contact us at all.''

''P.S. Carol, we know of you. We know you exist and we know you have something to do with this. If you ever come and attempt to talk to us, we’ll make you sorry. Sorry you ever had anything to do with our Jessie.''

The last part was possibly the creepiest. The Bree’s knew of Carol, and by the looks of it think she’s real. That must mean that the majority of adults here know of her. However, what scares me is that if Carol really does have something to do with it then no one and nothing can stop her. If she’s real, first of all. I eventually headed out to town, and along the way saw what appeared to be a derelict property.

The exterior of the house was rotting in places, with boarded up windows and graffiti all over it. The majority of the house was covered by the words ‘Give us our kids back, creep’ with the rest of it being nonsense. It didn’t take an agent to figure out that this was the house of Marcus Wren. As I headed through the open doorway, I saw the word ‘CAROL’ written in red across the rotting door several times. I continued inside.

Inside, it seemed as if someone was keeping this house in good condition. The walls were painted a baby blue, with the wooden flooring looking as if it had been recently restored. There was food in the cupboards, power running through the house. It all looked like a regular house. Then I headed upstairs.

An immediate stench hit me as I arrived on the last step. It was as if something had crawled up there and died several times over. It was up here that I noticed a change in the house. The walls weren’t painted, and rotted as bad as the outside. The flooring was dirty and mouldy, and the ceiling was partially missing in areas. All the rooms were just as bad as the hallway, except for the last one.

And oh boy was the stuff in here information to me. The room was completely dark, aside from a notice board on the far wall. As I got closer, I noticed that it was a map of the town, with other photos, drawings and notes all across it. The first thing that caught my eye was a red circle around the location of the park, with the note ‘Most commonly found here’ and a picture of the park underneath it. Next was the town high street, circled and with the words ‘Will avoid as often as possible’ written beside. The final thing that caught my eye was on the outskirts of the map. It was circled multiple times, with ‘NEST’ written in capitals alongside it. Underneath, there was a picture of a large cave opening in the mountains. I took a look at the picture, then put it in my pocket. I might need this, I thought. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Agent Fox.” A voice said behind me.

I spun around and pulled my concealed gun out of its holster, only to see an old man stood waiting. “Now now, no need for that. I simply wish to talk. I’m Marcus Wren, by the way. You’ve probably heard of me.” He sat down in one of the few chars in the room, and stared at the map for a while.

“It’s taken me at least ten years to figure all this out. No one believes me, especially the kids. They think she’s their guardian angel. And I know she hates me, probably as much as I hate her.” He looked at me, and saw the confusion in my eyes. “Ah yes, you have no fucking idea what I’m on about do you? Well, let me tell you.”

“This town has been around for about one hundred years, but she’s been here longer. How long? God only knows. And if God knows, he should also know what an abomination he’s created with her.”

“Carol first came into mention when the first few children that lived in this town asked the local doctor what she was. They described her to him, and even drew a picture. The doctor had absolutely no clue as to what this thing was, and asked if the kids could show him her. Of course, you can guess what happened. The doctor thought that the kids were joking, and told them that he had more important things to do than be fooled by some kids. It was after this that she approached them. Comforted the children whenever they needed it, played with them, protected them. If only the kids knew what her true motive was.”

Marcus leaned forward. “She craves the blood of children. Just as cigarettes are pleasure for smokers, blood of children is pleasure for her. Disgusting? Yes, but she finds it disgusting how we eat cows, pigs and sheep and yet care nothing for their well-being. But I digress; this abomination is REAL, Agent. She won’t stop until she’s dead, which may never happen. For all we know, she could outlive the human race itself. They only started to release the details about the missing kids within the past 20 years because of the conspiracies covering the disappearances. I doubt that any of the earlier cases will come to light.”

I didn’t know how to feel at that point. My brain simply refused to come up with any possible explanation for any of this. How could this be real? People would know if this thing existed, I was sure of it. I could only utter three words at that moment, “What the fuck…”

“I know how you feel Agent.” Marcus told me. “I felt the same way when my mother told me of this. She was among one of the first few kids to meet her, and one of the lucky ones that grew out of being eaten. The only thing I don’t know is how she learnt all of this, but I presume it’s mostly from talking to Carol. Now my mother is dead, and I’m the only person who truly understands her motive. But hopefully you do to, after all of that.”

I slowly nodded, not sure whether to believe him or immediately report Marcus to the police. I saw no reason for him to lie, and felt inclined to help him. “If you even need anything,” I told him “you know where to find me.” He nodded. “It feels good to know that someone else actually believes me, and doesn’t think I’m a bloody paedophile.” He got up, and went downstairs.I followed him, said goodbye, and took my leave.

“Watch out,” he called after me. “Carol may only like the blood of kids, but that won’t stop her killing adults.” That sent a shiver down my spine, and I drove away in my car.

I arrived in town, and interviewed a few of the kids about Jessica and her family. They seemed to be oblivious as to why they left, and wished they’d come back. “They were nice people.” Brandon told me. “Jessica was really cute too, and I… I love her too much for her to be gone.” With that, Brandon started crying. The others teared up, and asked me to stop the disappearances.

“Where’s Carol today?” I asked them. One of the girls pointed towards the bench again. I stood up straight, and looked directly at the bench. I felt like I was being looked at again, but this time I leered back at this invisible monster.

“It’s ok kids, I’ll stop these disappearances, once and for all.”

I left the park and headed home, knowing that Carol now knows she has another threat to watch out for. I eventually arrived home, and decided again against putting anything to do with Carol into my investigation report. This was now a personal task, something that had to be done, for the future of this town.

Going to be locking my doors and windows tightly before eating tonight. God knows what Carol will do to me if she gets a hold of me. I’ll have to get a hold of her first.

Tonight I plan on staking out the so-called nest that she will hopefully return to later on tonight. If I don’t come back and you’re reading this, then get your ass out of this town.

Entry 4 – March 25th, 1985
I’m done. I’m completely done with this town. There’s too much shit going on here, and after last night… I’ll start from the beginning.

After my latest diary entry, I headed over to Marcus and asked if he could guide me to the cave in which Carol supposedly nests. “You’ll find nothing, son. Staked that place out about a thousand times, most I’ve seen was a lost deer wander out of that cave. Although I've never gone in there myself, 'cause I know if I do the chances of me wandering back out are pretty slim.” Regardless of his experience, I felt like I needed to stake it out tonight. It had to be tonight. He took me to the spot, which was about an hour’s hike from the town.

The area was densely packed with trees, trees that rose higher than the tallest steeple. After some time of wandering through trees, I saw the cave entrance.

Carol’s Nest.

“Well, have fun.” Marcus told me. “If you see anything, then you’re clearly hallucinating.” And with that, he left for his home.

I wish I had gone with him, gave up this silly idea.

After about a good two hours of nothing, I heard footsteps ahead of me. I looked through my binoculars, and almost cried out at what I saw.

Brandon was walking towards the cave, his hand gripped by some invisible entity. He didn’t seem to be struggling at all, and actually was smiling as he carelessly walked towards the entrance.

I couldn’t do anything to save him without risking my own life. As selfish as that seems, it would have been pointless to rush out and try to grab him. Carol knows this place better than anyone, and would have two people to toy with instead of one. As guilty as I felt, I had to leave Brandon to his demise.

I watched him enter the cave, and that was the last of any kind of activity that occurred that night. I waited another 2 hours before I headed over to the cave entrance. By this time, it was 2am in the morning and I was dead-tired. As I arrived at the opening, I got that feeling of something staring into my soul again. Except that this time I could feel the aggression and the anger radiating from these invisible eyes.

I stepped towards the cave.

An ear-splitting screech radiated from deep in the cave. There was so much pain and aggression in this cry that I immediately ran.

Away from the cave, away from Carol, away from the death.

Somehow, I found my way home. I got straight into bed, and sank into a haunted sleep. When I woke up the next day, I immediately made my way to Marcus’ home. When there, I explained what happened last night.

“Well, you lucky bastard. Catching her in the act, not even I’ve done that.” After we talked, we headed over to the cave. At first I was reluctant, but Marcus assured me that Carol will be gone. “She’s never home during the day, always keeping an eye on the kids. I doubt she thinks you’ll return.”

Again, I found myself outside of the mouth of her nest. Gathering up all my courage, we ventured in.

Towards the madness, the death.

Towards Hell itself.

The cave was a rather deep one, going on for a while. I almost gave up before I saw a light up ahead. Marcus and I headed towards it, but immediately recoiled at what we saw.

Bodies. Bodies everywhere.

There were skeletons, rotting corpses, piles of flesh, everything you could imagine from a horror film all in this one cave. Parts of the bodies looked like they had large bite marks in them; others were simply bloodless and devoid of all fluid. I was so disgusted, I threw up my breakfast on a pile of flesh.

“Heh, that’ll put Carol off her dinner tonight.” Marcus joked, somehow unfazed by the majority of this mess. He helped me through the corpses, but I stopped when I noticed two bodies in particular.

The bodies of Jessica and Brandon holding hands, completely drained of all fluids. They looked as if they were sleeping. A tear fell down my face. Carol had gone too far.

I suddenly became filled with anger and regret. I could have saved Brandon, and maybe even Jessica if I had figured out this monster's motives earlier on. I banged my fists against the cave wall, needing something to take my anger out on. After Marcus calmed me down, I got up and we we headed again towards the light. When we arrived at it, we noticed it was a lantern placed on top of two pieces of paper. Picking up the lantern and placing it elsewhere, I looked at the paper.

They were photos of me and Marcus, with the words ‘KILL’ written on them in blood. I don't even want to know how Carol even got a picture of me, especially one of me in my home. If she knows where I live.... what's the point, she already knows. Anyways, Marcus and I were shocked at this, but what next happened was the worst moment of my life.

Suddenly, I heard a demonic laugh from behind us. Turning round and pulling my gun out, I came face to face with what I feared I would.

Carol, in her grotesque beauty, stood before me. Completely visible to my and Marcus' eyes. Her huge, rounded bulk of a head was in my direct line of sight, with those... horrible disc-like eyes resting on it. I could see pure evil in those cold, dead eyes of hers, and will never forget looking into them. Her body, larger than any bear I've ever seen. She was a demon, a real demon.

I couldn’t move, I couldn’t pull the trigger. Hell, I couldn’t even scream. We simply locked eyes for what felt like a millennia. She then proceeded to stare at Marcus for a while, before making a sort of whistling sound with her mouth.

Carol then lunged at Marcus, grabbing his neck with her talon-like claws.

“Run!” He cried out. “Get the fuck outta here!” Carol tightened her grip around his neck, and he started to choke. "RUN!" He screamed.

I’m not one to disobey orders.

I ran, through the bodies, through the darkness and into the light. Breathing heavily, I carried on running. I ran as far away as I could, before I had to stop for breath.

My mind was a mess of images that will haunt me to my grave, and of Marcus’ face. Marcus. He was the only friend I had around here, and now that bastard has taken his life.

Eventually, following the same path I took to get here, I arrived home. Not wasting a moment, I packed all my things and put them into my car. No way am I staying here.

Screw the case, my life is more important and I already know the culprit. I’m done with the Bureau. Bloody sending me on some fucking X-File, I’m done with them. I’m done with everything.

''Police Report: Victim, thirty-four-year old Alexander Fox, was found dead in his home on the 26th of March, 1985. He appears to have been decapitated, his ribcage opened up completely and his heart removed. Post Mortem revealed no fingerprints on the body, and a forensic investigation revealed nothing. Police are also looking for the missing 65-year old Marcus Wren, who disappeared at around the same time Alexander Fox was murdered. Many other town residents are beginning to move out, due to all the murder and disappearances occurring recently. No one knows the culprit, and it is doubtful that one will ever be found. Case unsolved, added into the casebook ‘The Town of Vanishing Children’.''

Epilogue
One week later...

After seeing most of the children off out of town, Carol was left with no one to supervise and only adults in town. Realising her work was done, she returned to her cave. After following the usual route she took through the trees, Carol eventually arrived outside her cave.

Stood there, waiting for her to return, was none other than Marcus. Carol revealed herself to him, but he didn't seem at all shocked to see her.

"So, are all the kids gone?" He asked her.

Carol nodded. Marcus started laughing.

"Well then, looks like our work here is done. What's this, the 4th town this century? Heh, good."

Marcus started walking down the pathway into the town center, and Carol silently followed him.

"Are you ready to move on to the next? We'll soon have this entire country full of ghost towns, then the puny humans will bother us no more! That pathetic investigator thought he really could stop us, but I bet he never would have expected to see this!"

Suddenly, Marcus started to change physically. His eyes became as dark as the night sky, his head swelled up immensely and his fingernails and teeth became as sharp as knives. He looked the spitting image of Carol, a male version of her grotesque figure.

The two creatures looked at each other, then they began to smile. And as fast as Carol could appear, they both disappeared, never to be seen again in this ghost town.