The Terrors
I was six when it happened. My name is Kevin J. Butch, I’ll tell the story of what happened.
In this room there were three very different people and five very dead people lying on the floor. The five people lying on the floor with no arms and legs were my family, I was the only survivor, my three brothers and parents sacrificed themselves to save me. My parents locked me inside the bedroom closet hoping I wouldn’t be able to see they’re broken lifeless bodies, but I could.
The three killers ran my brothers and sisters into the room where I was locked. I could see everything. When the killers came into our house they said nothing, did nothing they just, killed, it was horrible. There were two men and one woman, I don’t know why they came to kill my family, but they did and that’s that. I swore vengeance on these three people, I decided right then and there I would put these murderers who killed my family in jail for what they’ve done.
Twenty seven years later these three people have been plastered into my mind day and night. I became a private investigator to catch and send them to jail. None of the three have been caught in all these years but they’ve kept killing, They call themselves The Terrors.
On one very uneventful day where nothing was happening I woke up, got coffee with whipped cream at Tim Hortons, said hi to the lady who worked there, finished my coffee, went home and checked my emails. “Nothing again,” I said when no new cases popped up on the home screen of my email, “god why can’t I find an interesting case on murders.” I left the living room where my dog, Doug slept. I started to head over to the shower. Doug lifted up his head to see where I was going. He did the confused dog head tilt then went back to sleeping. After I took a shower I checked my email again and finally a new email popped up on the screen “THE TERRORS STRIKE AGAIN!”
“My goodness,” I said aloud. “This is amazing!” I got so hyped to investigate this murder that I started dancing with excitement, I need some excitement in my life and I’ve got a lead on The Terrors for the first time in twenty seven years! I listened to 80s disco music with Doug, I don’t know why but I did, I danced with Doug until I had to go to the crime scene.
Doug is my partner, we go everywhere together, if there is something that needs to be investigated Doug is there with me, even if there isn’t something that needs to be investigated say, for example if I just go on vacation Doug comes with me. If Doug can’t go I don’t go. I guess you could say “we ride together, we die together, my buddy Doug.” I got in the car with Doug and set out to the investigation site. The drive was slow. It was rush hour and too many dumb drivers were on the road. Doug and I got to the apartment in half an hour which should have taken fifteen minutes to get there. Doug and I sat in my Chrysler Crossfire car for a bit before finally entering the apartment. I grabbed Dougs leash and pulled him out of the car, We walked up to the apartment door on the third floor and I rang the doorbell “Private investigator Kevin J. Butch and his companion Doug here to help.”
After a couple moments of silence a woman finally opened the door to let Doug and I into her apartment, this lady took Doug and I to her sister’s room and showed us the murder scene where her sister lay dead on the floor covered in blood, so dismembered you could barely tell she was a female let alone a human. This woman had this symbol 忆 carved into her stomach, “So… how long has your sister been dead here?” I asked.
“About 3 days.”
“And she hasn’t started to stink?”
“Well, she has started to stink but I like the smell.”
“Oh, well, ok uh… does anyone else know about this?”
“Well the police came in and investigated, they asked if they could take the body but I refused because she’s my sister and I love her.”
“I think that’s kind of weird that you wanted to keep her body here but whatever floats your boat, I guess.”
I investigated further looking for clues, I knew this was The Terrors doing because of the symbol carved into her stomach. It was one of a kind, no other group of killers carved this into their victim. I let Doug roam around the house to see if he could find anything weird or out of place. Every once in awhile Doug would yip in excitement as he found a clue to the murder, “Nice job Doug my buddy, what’d you find this time?”
“Oh hey boss! I found the tracks of dirt the Terrors brought into the house and a trace of blood. It looks like this woman's sister put up a fight before being killed. Bloody good fight I think.”
“Wait what the hell! Who said that?” I exclaimed.
“I did,” Doug said in a proud manner. “It’s me Doug! your dog and buddy in crime.”
“I think I had too much to drink last night, and now I’m hallucinating that my dog can talk to me. Oh god,” I said wearily. Luckily I found all the clues I could before it was my time to leave. I drove home very confused as to what had happened, and every so often I would look over at Doug and I could hear him humming the tune “Another One Bites The Dust,” with a happy smile on his face, his tongue out, ears up, wagging his tail, and bobbing his head back and forth. I thought I was just humming the song in my head at first but then I decided to test the theory and started humming a different song and lo and behold, Doug was still singing Another One Bites The Dust.
“Hey Butch are you singing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It?” “I like that song too.” Doug said as he started humming the song with me.
“So you CAN talk!”
“Yeah of course I can talk, why wouldn’t I be able to talk, you just haven’t been able to hear until now you ingrate!”
“Oh yeah ok, that makes sense.”
“Good I’m glad you understand.” I went on singing Beat It for about a minute before realising that this really didn’t make any sense.
“AH! I’m so confused this doesn’t make any sense!!” I yelled as I drove off a hill and smashed into a sand dune, which luckily was pretty soft because it had just rained.
“Holy crap! I drove off the hill into a sand dune because of you Doug!”
“What the hell are you talking about! You didn’t drive off the hill because of me, you drove off the hill and into a sand dune because of you!! It’s your own fault!”
“It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is as long as we’re both fine and the fall only caused minimal damage to the car,” it’ll be fine I thought. Doug and I called the tow truck to come pick us up and drive us into town. Soon after we called to tow truck we saw a tow truck come by and thought it was for us, but it wasn’t until an hour and a half of waiting passed by before our tow truck finally came. I checked my watch, it was about 10:30 pm.
“Sorry for the wait guys I was at a Matty B. Raps concert with my son, phew that kid is a rap genius.”
“Yeah, I don’t care what so ever, can you please drive us to town now?”
“Sure thing pal, That your dog?”
“Yes it’s my dog, his name is Doug.”
“Come on in! Oh by the way have I told you about Matty B. Raps?”
“Yes you ha-”
“Well he’s a rap genius! I say he’s better than Eminem. Especially because this kid is so young!”
“Get driving old man! I don’t care about how good at rapping Matty B. Raps is.”
“Fine,” the tow truck driver said sadly. Half an hour later we got to my wife Kelly’s house because I didn’t have a lot of cash on me. Doug and I took one step through her front door and said “Hey babe, It’s me Butch and Doug.”
“Oh,” she said glumly “It’s you two.”
“Yeah! It’s us!” I said with a smile creeping onto the corner of my lips. “Doug and I need to stay here for a couple of weeks until my car gets fixed.”
“Why the hell does your car need to be fixed?!”
“Uh… I drove it off a hill because Doug distracted me”
“DOUG DISTRACTED YOU!! HOW CAN A DOG DISTRACT YOU WHILE YOU WERE DRIVING?!”
“HE WAS ARGUING WITH ME!”
“WHAT? YOU WERE ARGUING WITH A DAMN DOG!?” she sounded infuriated, then calmly she said “Honey… I think there is something wrong with you mentally. So as your unhappily married wife with your well being as one of my best interests, I’m going to take you to a mental hospital until you get better ok?”
“Kelly I don’t need to go to a ment-”
“Yes you do honey believe me you really do need to go to a mental hospital, and no arguing with me. That’s the end of our conversation. Go get some rest, wake up bright and early, eat some healthy breakfast then I’m going to take you to the mental hospital.”
I think that Kelly didn’t want to have to deal with me anymore so she sent me away. After that day Kelly sent me to a mental hospital with Doug, every couple of days Doug would say something to rile me up and make me argue with him and keep me in the hospital because they always thought I was crazy maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t, I don’t really know myself. I was kept inside this hospital, this god forsaken hospital for the rest of my agonizing life.
My life inside this hospital consists of a twelve foot by fourteen foot room with a bunk bed for me and my roommate Randy. Randy was put into this hospital for being obsessed. All Randy would say was “four, eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty three, and forty two.” The only other thing besides from two drawers and a bookshelf was Doug's doggie bed. I told the doctors that I wouldn’t be able to stand being here without Doug so they let him live here with me and Randy. The food is exceptionally good for a mental hospital. I have many friends to eat with and at lunch and I eat with Randy, Doug, Miranda, Cosmo, and Geoff. They’re all nice people that I fit in with.
I’ve been in this hospital for a year or so, and I’ve been around Randy for so long that I started to contract his obsession with these numbers, he would constantly be mumbling, he wouldn’t stop mumbling. Every night when I sleep I would visit this island. It's an island like no other I’ve seen, it also feels different, it feels better, I feel free, like I can do whatever my heart desires. One night this island changed, it was terrible. Everything became corrupt, the trees became effigies of limbs, heads, and even animal parts. The ground was covered in blood, so much blood that I could barely keep my footing while these monsters made from some kind of smoke and other people's faces chased me, some faces I’ve never seen before, others from terrible memories earlier in life. The couple of faces that popped up the most were clowns that horrified me as a kid, and dentists, I hated the dentist, I hated how they looked, how they smelled, I hated everything about them, and here they are haunting me in my worst nightmare once again.
I always knew when I would wake up from this mysterious dream island that went from beautiful and happy to horrifying and evil in a matter of days. Right before I would wake up I would see a blinding light coming from the ocean, and I would hear the opera music that the doctors would play to wake us all up in the morning and end my nightmare, but one night that didn’t happen. I was stuck on the island fending for my own until one fateful day, I had found a shrine somewhere on the island and being the curious little bugger I was, I explored the shrine until I came across three faces that were all too familiar to me, they asked what I was doing here and asked if I wanted to see something special. I tried to speak in protest and throw my fists at them but I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t do anything but follow along with what they wanted to show me.
That night, I had seen myself die in an electric chair for something I did while In my sleep. I had strangled half of the patients in the hospital and couldn’t do anything to stop it. It all felt so real. The last thing those three faces said to me was “remember our name, it is us who bring fear into the faces of others it is us, The Terrors.”