He quickly got out of bed, got dressed, and crept out of his house, quietly, so he wouldn’t wake his neighbors. They were kindly giving him a place to stay, as he had nowhere to live.

    He got on his bike, and pedaled down the street, all the way down to the police station.

    It was 6:57 AM, so he waited till the doors opened at exactly seven, and walked in. “Need something?” Charlie turned to see a gruff police officer behind him, tapping his foot. “Yes sir. May I speak with somebody?” Charlie’s voice trembled. “Come on in.”

 

   The officer led him down a series of offices, and opened the door titled “Sheriff Jones”. Charlie walked in and sat down in front of the sheriff, and he heard the door close. “Sir, I am David Buckingham, the boy that was kidnapped 9 years ago. I go by the name Charlie, hoping to hide my past, but I am here to tell you what happened.” The officer stared at him in shock. He mustered up all the courage he had to say: “Explain.”

   The kidnapping of David Buckingham was almost a decade ago. Sheriffs, Detectives, Police officers, and FBI all searched for the missing boy for years, but never found him.

   “I was kidnapped by Gladys and Bernard Ernest. They lived in a farmhouse, right next to my father’s cottage. They also had a son, Henry, who assisted them in the kidnapping. The day was June 18, 1930, and my father was out looking for business. He was a photographer, and never got enough business, so he had begun to walk around, looking for customers. 

   One day, my father was out, and I tagged along, like always. We went down to the Ernest house. They were kind people, and my father, Lewis, knew they would support him. Just like we had assumed, they agreed to purchase a photo. While Gladys and Bernard were getting their photo taken, I went to play with their horses. Gladys eyed me the whole time while she was taking the photo, but I was only 8 years old, so I thought nothing of it. 

  I was petting the horses, when I felt a clammy hand over my mouth. I looked up, and saw Henry Ernest holding me. I wiggled and squirmed, but he held on tighter and muttered ‘Quiet! We’ve got to go.’ 

                                         The Neighbor 

There he was again, looking up at the sky, with a gold and black box with symbols on it. He stood there for a very long time. Hours, it seemed like. “why do you think he does that?” said Kayla. “it’s so weird.” “I say we should go ask him why he is always doing that.” said Jake. “NO. No way.” answered Kayla. “I think Jake is right.” said Michael. He was usually the quiet one. “Ok, fine. But we aren’t going to stay long.” said Kayla. “deal.” answered Jake. And with that they went downstairs, opened the front door, and started across the street. 

The old man’s name was Robert Ritco. His wife, Ramila, wasn’t in his house now, she told her husband she would be grocery shopping. The kids barely over heard that. “good thing she’s out of the way.” said Jake. They walked up to the man’s yard, and walked slowly over to him. He didn’t seem to notice. “Sir, we were just going to ask, why you stared up at the sky for such a long time every week.” said Jake. The man didn’t answer. He continued to look up at the sky, and didn’t take his eyes off it. His expression looked frightened. “Sir, are you all right?” said Kayla. Again, no reply. Suddenly, the man made a  horrified expression. The kids didn’t know why at first, but soon, the saw what it was that scared him. His skin, which was tan a moment before, was turning greener by the second. And his ears were getting smaller. He looked at the kids, and suddenly spoke. “You…..Must…Not…..Know.” the kids looked terrified at the old man. His ears completely went away and in their place came these sort of head flippers you may see on reptiles and amphibians. his eyes got bigger and red, and his hand got bigger and webbed. He now slowly got up, and the kids noticed he was much taller that a normal adult. about 7 feet tall. He towered over them

            Preston was just about to turn 21 years old. Preston knew he was going to be lonely on his birthday. He always kept to himself and never really had many friends. The next day, Preston went to a liquor store to buy some drinks to celebrate his birthday. The cashier looked at him oddly and said, “$35.20 is your total sir.” Preston grabbed the bottles and was on his way. That night, Preston was sitting on the ledge of a dock above Sparrow River and pondered about his life. He opened the bottle of vodka and started to drink with no hesitation. As he was getting into his thoughts about his life and how much he hates himself, he couldn’t stand it anymore and thought about doing something he thought about a lot. It finally got to his head and he took one step of the ledge of the dock. Preston was gone.

July 4^th, 2017 

            Jamie knew about the hauntings on Sparrow River, but she never believed them. It was Independence Day, Jamie and her friends, Bethany and Martin were hanging out by the river. “Let’s go look at the sunset!” Bethany exclaimed. “This sunset is so pretty, I’m going to take a picture.” Jamie states while she snapped a picture of the sunset. Jamie took a look at the picture closely and saw a weird figure standing in front of the camera. “G-Guys.” Jamie said trembling her words. Jamie’s friends run over to her quickly to see what was the matter. “Look closely at the picture I just took.” Martin looks at the picture closely and his jaw drops. There is what seems a human like figure with a melting face. What seems to be a ghost. 

When Jamie got home, she started to do some research about the hauntings on sparrow river. She read about a man who a long time ago jumped off the dock into the water and was never seen again. There had been many missing reports and sightings off the ghost of this man. She looks at some pictures other people have taken of this ghost and she is shocked to see that the picture looked the exact same to hers. She even read that some people had been possessed by this creature and had taken their own lives the same way he did. With the melting face and everything. Then, Jamie started to believe now. She believed the hauntings were real and people were missing because of this ghostly creature. The next day, she started experiencing paranormal activities in her house. There were random noises from weird places and things moving with no one touching them. She called her friend, Bethany asking if she was experiencing the same things. “No. do you think it is the ghost in the picture?” She asked. “Maybe.” Jamie said. Then, the phone disconnected.

August 16^th, 2017

It had been about a month and Jamie had almost forgot about what happened the night of July 4^th. Jamie and her brother, Jonathon were planning on going down to the river to swim a little bit. Jamie drove the river without a worry in the world. “C’mon Jamie!” Jonathon said running down to the river. “I’m coming!” Jamie said laughing and jogging with her little brother. “Here’s your goggles.” Jamie said handing big snorkeling goggles to Jonathon. Jamie watched as her little brother was looking for rocks under the water. “Try not to go to the deep end!” She yelled from the dock. “Okay!” Jonathon said his voice muffled by the water. A few moments later, Jonathon came up to Jamie, terrified he said “J-Jamie. C-Come look under the w-water.” Jamie agreed and walked out to the water. She put the goggles on that Jonathon had given her. She had expected there to be something that wasn’t a very big deal, but when she looked under, she saw what he saw. Deceasing bodies, drowned, Preston.