Mr smiles

THE BLOOD RED COAT

It was twilight on the twelfth night of December. Mother had called me inside for dinner as I looked over to the abandoned play area as the swings creaked with the ghosts of the children who had since gone to bed. I scanned the park as I watched the wind carry a dark blood red coat, it ran smoothly into and around the park before floating out again. The dark coat ran down the path away from my house.

I could now hear my mother screaming out that it is not safe outside at night and that I should come inside for dinner. I had decided though as I stepped my foot out further from the house. I wanted to watch where the coat would go. The snow crunched beneath my bare feet like a pile of old bones. I needed to get closer so I ran towards it. It mirrored my steps and started to move faster. I worked it out and stopped running. Instead I walked forward with a subtle wander. I turned my attention to the park. I drifted my fingers over the blue metal fencing around the play area feeling as the snow shocked my fingers the prickle of my senses sent a shiver down my spine as if someone was stroking my back. But I was still wondering how the wind could carry a coat. It gave the appearance of a tall well postured figure. How on Earth was this possible?

My mother was standing in the doorway by this point, "Leon Alfie Briarbatch, how dare you disobey your mother. Get here right now or else no dinner for a week!" She exclaimed in a loud whisper as to keep up her sharade of being this perfect kind loving woman. I didn't care. Funny, I had just realised it couldn't be the wind holding the coat up as it kept up a fixed shape there was something inside of it. Now I just had to get closer to see what was holding up the old torn coat. I was catching up by this point and it hadn't moved in a while. "That's strange" I thought to myself "there are no legs, how could it stand up without legs?" By this point I was in a hypnotic state moving closer to the being without wanting to, I tried to fight it but I couldn't. I was dragged closer towards this creature. This foul beast. This awful creature, it looked as if it had been taken from Tim Burton's worst nightmare.

It had been an eternity when my head filled with a thought. An awful, dreadful, nightmarish thought. Death. The fact that this eternal sleep no longer scared me. Thoughts that most certainly were not mine ran through my head. Death seemed like a unicorn compared to the dragon of a life I have now. The red coat seemed like a present. A relief. I now had full control of my limbs. I could run home and have to face my mother or I could follow the red coat that no longer looked blood red but more like a large field of Poppies in the spring. I followed the coat. I could hear nothing but the thoughts as I paced on. I noticed a large dark coloured rickety wooden house. It was either an impossible shade of black darker than the night, it was as if there was a gaping hole in the universe. It creaked in the late night breeze. I entered the building still following the dark blood red coat.

I stepped over the many different piles of clothes, or at least I tried, I accidentally stepped on one, it was cold and mushy, My naive brain stumbled for a conclusion 'maybe just the damp and the cold had made them this way'. The red coat drifted to a stop as I bought my hand up to the coat. I took it firmly in my hand, and I came to my scenes. What on Earth was I doing? I needed to get home. I needed to get to my mother. I needed to get to my nice warm bed. all of a sudden I felt the muscles in my upper arm contract as I pulled the red cloak off of the beast. In front of me stood a large dark figure. A grin drawn onto its face. A grin that went past its mouth. It looked like a knife had been taken to enhance the smile up past the cheeks towards the ears. It was fresh as the red blood dripped down from the cuts. The eye sockets where empty but the creature still managed to peer into my soul an ache filled me up it was torture I was in so much pain, a new kind of pain, it wasn't a sting put like a pushing a stretching something trying to get out. I tried to fight it until I couldn't take it anymore and collapsed onto the floor next to one of the clothing piles. lying down I could see that they weren't clothing piles. I then realised why my mother had said that it was not safe outside. she was trying to hush it up. But I knew due to the newspapers that littered the streets. The disappearances of most of the children in the village. I thought my friend hated me until it hit me. She was one of the children who had disappeared. I realised this as I peered into the rotting face of my best friend. They weren't clothing piles. They weren't clothing piles at all but they were all the children in the village as my eyes slowly closed into darkness and a large red smile cut onto my face. As I became another of the missing children.