Follow the Leader

There once was a boy named Chris who loved to meet new kids and play games but on September 16, 1988 he got more than he could have ever imagined.

It was a normal day and Chris was sitting on the front steps of his porch. He had seen a little boy and two little girls walk by, so Chris asked them if they wanted to play, and their reaction was naturally yes. Ricky, the other boy, said that they should play follow the leader. Luckily, this was Chris's favorite game. He stepped off his porch and followed the boy, doing several things to mimic his moves, but after a while of playing Chris noticed that Ricky was taking him and the girls into a forest. Chris got worried and asked the girls where they were going, they just responded "Follow the leader." After a couple of minutes in the forest Chris seemed to notice something moving, like the branches on the trees, yet he just ignored it and kept playing.

About ten minutes later Chris saw the same weird branch movement on several different trees and he was really getting worried. He decided to ask Ricky where they were going and he just said "Follow the leader." What does that mean? He assumed Ricky was the leader, but who was really doing the leading? About five minutes later Chris saw the branches again but this time they looked almost like...a man. A man wearing a suit. He had weird tangled arms and was super tall. Chris was frightened by this thought, but he assumed it was just his imagination. They finally made it out of the woods and into a playground that was inhabited by other children. Chris was relieved and ran over to the slide, he noticed that the other children were walking over to one big oak tree and sitting under it. Chris didn't mind this at all, he continued to play.

After ten minutes of playing he saw the kids still sitting there, but Chris had noticed a bare tree seemed to appear in the shadow of the massive oak. Chris played for another couple of minutes and he saw the tree move towards the kids, he just thought the heat was getting to him. A park employee with a Polaroid camera told Chris to smile when he was at the top of the slide and as he did the employee snapped the picture and waited for the Polaroid to develop. The employee stamped it with the city's seal and gave it to the boy. Chris looked at the picture and chills rushed through his whole body.

He saw the kids sitting next to the tree and the same man standing in front of them as he seen in the woods. Chris turned around to see the kids and the smaller tree missing. He backed up, tripping over a fallen branch. He remembered that there was no tree by the slide. Chris looked up to see a blank face staring back down at him. He went to scream but nothing came out. He tried to run but the man's branch-like hand was grasping his foot. There was no escaping...

Afterwards his mother came to the park to find her son completely missing, in his place was this photograph.