Creepypasta

Scratching (~part 4)

Hai hai guys \(=•w•=) here's the 4th part sorry I posted this later on I really did intend to post all at the same time /.\ anyways enjoy!!

was the day of my 20th birthday and I was being forced into going for a meal with my family. I was never one for family events - being forced into spending time with relatives you barely know doesn't really feel like a present - but it made my mum happy so I agreed. This happened to be my worst birthday yet; I hadn't exactly been feeling great for the past year or so and neither had Alex. The experiences involving Solomon had become more frequent and were really starting to take their toll on all of us. Well, except for Paul, he seemed to be doing fine.
About half way through the meal, I excused myself from the table so I could go the the bathroom. I had just finished washing my hands when somebody approached me:
"You're Jack aren't you?" he said.
"Yeah I am. Do I know you?"
"I don't think so. I'm Michael, I live down the road from you."
"Oh yeah, another kid who stayed secretly hidden." I said snidely under my breath.
"Ha, I guess so. I actually used to see you playing out when I was younger. I was never allowed out, you know, because of him. You and your brother were pretty gutsy."
"Him? So you know too then. Same shit, different story."
"I know about it, so does my mum. We've never seen him but my dad has. Him and one of his friends were part of it all back in the late 70's. He gets to people you know, fucks them up - drives people crazy. That's what he did to my dad's friend. Either you or one of your little friends will be gone soon."
"Shut your damn mouth. We'll be fine. We have been for the past eight years and we will be when it's all over. We just have to ride it out."
"Sure you will. Make sure you keep in touch with them daily. Those most tortured usually suffer in silence."
For the next few days, I took the advice of Michael. I made sure to keep in contact with Tom while me and Alex looked out for each other. Tom seemed to be doing pretty well, considering he'd had it the worst out of the three of us; but Paul wasn't doing so well. He told me that something bad had happened and that things were worse than ever. Up until this point, Paul had never mentioned to me that he'd experienced anything out of the ordinary - I'd asked him once but he denied ever seeing anything. I guess he was suffering in silence...
Paul was looking worse than ever when he told me the story; very thin, pale and evidently tired. He told me that it was around 3am when he was woken up by a breeze coming in through the window - he expressed bewilderment at how the window had been opened because he keeps it locked at all times. He got out of bed, ran over to the window straight away and tried to lock it; but the latch was snapped. After closing it shut, he slowly walked back to his bed and sat down. That's when he appeared. Paul had seen him at his window before, but not like this. His face was not as distorted as usual; he could make out his black eyes and a look of sick happiness on his twisted face. The window slowly opened and Solomon's tall figure slowly began to jerk in through Paul's window. Crawling in and wheezing heavily, he kept his eyes locked on to Paul and he couldn't look away. Creeping over to where Paul was sat, he pointed his finger towards Paul's wrist and marked a cross into his skin using his fingernail. In doing so, he stared at Paul and smiled. After that, Paul told me that he passed out - the mixture of pain and fear had become too much for him - and woke up the next day with his window latch still broken. It wasn't a dream and he had the scar to prove it.
A few days had gone by and we were all terrified by Paul's story; we had no idea what to do. We couldn't hide, we couldn't tell anybody because they'd react the same way Tom's parents did and we definitely couldn't stop him ourselves. We were being tortured nightly by someone or something, and it was made that much worse by not knowing what we were dealing with. After a surprisingly good night's sleep, I awoke to a knock at the door - it was Michael.
After getting dressed, he lead me on to the brook along the back of my house:
"There's something you need to see. It's only about a mile away from here." he said nervously.
When we finally reached our destination, I was confronted by an old, abandoned house. I immediately knew where we were, but I didn't know why:
"Why did you bring me here?" I asked.
"I thought you should see it. I thought maybe you'd like to know that it's still here."
"Well I didn't know it was still here, that's for sure. I really don't want to be anywhere near this house."
"You need more answers and if there's even a slight possibility that you'll find some here, we should go inside."
I hated to admit it, but he was right. I had nothing. Some history on Solomon and the colour of his eyes wasn't going to get me anywhere. I had to go inside; for all of us.
"Okay. Fine. Let's go then." I said with an infinite sickness in my stomach.
Upon going inside, we could see that it was completely abandoned and destroyed. The stairs leading to the second floor had collapsed into a pile of wooden rubble, the living room and kitchen looked as if they had been lit alight and there was nothing left in the house that indicated that anyone had ever lived there. The only thing that looked to be in shape was the basement door. Michael was the first of us to grab the door handle. He anxiously turned the knob and began to walk down the rotting wooden steps. I nervously followed as the light from the living room slowly lessened, the further I stepped into the dark hollow.
As I turned the corner, I was greeted by an entire wall of photographs lit solely by a large candle on an old, wooden table. Hundreds upon hundreds of images scattered all over the place. Some looked as if they were from the 60's, some were from the 80's - then there were the more recent ones. After looking through them, we had found pictures of everyone we knew. There had been crosses drawn on random pictures, while other pictures were clear of such markings. Tom's photo had a cross on it, Alex's photo had a cross on it, Paul's boasted the scribble and so did mine - but Michael's was clear. There were even pictures of our parents from when they were teenagers. Tom and Paul's parents had been crossed out, as had Michael's Dad; but my parents and Michael's mum were clear. None of this made any sense. What did the crosses mean? It didn't mean death because all of our parents were still alive; so what did it mean? I was wracking my brains in confusion. That was until we heard the footsteps from upstairs.
We froze on the spot, too scared to move. The bangs were getting louder as they approached the basement door. That's when I realised that I'd left it open; it was obvious that someone was downstairs. The final bit of light hitting the basement turned to black and it was clear that there was somebody standing at the top of the stairs. Michael and I tip-toed and hid beneath the steps as Solomon began making his way down from above our heads. He gasped for air as he reached the bottom stair. His lanky frame hobbled over to the table and took a look around at the photographs. The fear I was feeling didn't scare me still; it compelled me to run. I nudged Michael and urged him to follow me. Right before we were about to run; Solomon turned around a let out an angry croak. We ran. We were running as fast as we could but he could somehow keep up. He was only a foot behind us when we reached the basement door. Michael slammed it shut behind him as we reached the living room and headed straight out of the front door.
We made our way back down the brook and towards our homes with even more questions and no answers. When I arrived at my front door, it was already open. I went inside the house and my mum, dad, Alex and Tom were sat in the living room. My mum and Tom had been crying; the air felt cold. Paul had been found dead in his room. He had slit his wrists during the night; the night I had been having a good night's sleep. It seems that Michael was right and now one of us was gone; I just didn't expect it to be Paul. He drives you insane and there's no escape when you suffer in silence. I'll never forgive myself for not giving Paul more of my time - I feel that maybe I could have saved him. I know one thing for sure; I lost a great friend that day and I'll never forget him.

~/.\ [credit to original author] hope u like this part guys :3 I will post the last one later on :D night night lovelies