Villains ➵ bill skarsgård a.u.

thirty seven

Another thing common in Hillside was suicide. Not even just inside the hospital or any of the haunted sites, but everywhere. More common than the murder reports were distressed phone calls to the hospitals in the middle of the night telling about people of all ages found dead in their rooms with bottles of sleeping pills and or knives. This day alone we've had two cases. A teenager from townsquare drowned herself in her bathtub, and a middle aged man who took alkaline solutions to kill himself. I don't even need to explain why. I've been living in this town my entire life, just enough for me to know that along with the cursed land dwelled toxic communities. The options were; deal with it using drugs, or don't deal with it at all. Escape. Death was better than living in hell for the rest of your life. I used to question what compelled them to do such a thing, but not anymore.

It took me a minute to realize I've just been staring up at it the whole time, creeps crawling down my back the longer I did. I took a deep breath, vacillating between climbing the chair and cutting him loose myself or driving back to the station. It wasn't like I could just leave him there, but even if I didn't. What then? Was I just going to put a fucking dead body in my backseat for the sake of my conscience? I didn't know why he killed himself and I wasn't about to investigate right there and then, but based on where and how, it seemed like he wanted to be found. There wasn't anything stopping him from doing it in the middle of the woods where maggots can easily consume him without any problems and make it beyond difficult for anyone to discover him, however instead he did it here, inside the only building Hillside owed it's fame from.

Gathering what was left of courage in my stomach, I stood on the chair, my heart falling out of my chest as its feet wobbled against the unstable floor. I balanced myself on top, listening to the foundation underneath creaking from my weight. Once it stopped making sounds, I ignored the chills shooting down my spine from my proximity to the body, whipping out my knife and grabbing into the rope. I slice the thick noose, the chair wobbled on each movement I made, my shoes scraping against the edges for the sake of maintaining my balance. I didn't know how it happened, but all I could remember was a fiery hot breath on my neck, and my head snapping towards behind me in reflex, the same old darkness greeting my pupils. I didn't know how else the situation could get even more disturbing; a three day old dead body hanging right in front of me inside the most haunted place in hillside and no one outside knows what I've discovered. It was an intimidating thought, not to mention, I felt so small inside the hospital. It could eat me alive anytime it wanted.

I get back to what I was doing, tucking the flashlight in the crook of my neck as I cut the noose, my arm swelling. The rope was thick and old, coated with some kind of grey matter breaking off from my blade. Cement, like it has been soaked in concrete first before it was used. Death by hanging wasn't new to me, I couldn't count how many times I've stood in front of a body like this, everyone taking pictures of the crimescene while. It wasn't too long before burning pained through my elbow and I was only half way there. The body budged along each gesture, its icy cold hand brushing against my stomach. Another creak from the floorboards caught my balance off guard, one of the feet burying a hole into the wood, my eyes widening in horror as the chair trembled from my weight. I hold onto the rope for dear life, uncertain whether to jump off or keep going.

My heart jumped out of my ribcage, the flashlight tucked in my neck falling off before I could catch it. My surroundings dip back into utter darkness, a thud echoing throughout the entirety of the room. A wheeze ripped out of my mouth, air constricting in my lungs as my throat tightened from a grasp. The blackness wasn't even enough to conceal the pair of paper white arms reaching out to me and wrapping its icy cold fingers around my neck. The light spun across the floors before stopping, shining over the body. A scream wasn't even enough to emphasize the shaking of my limbs and the sickening squelch inside my stomach. It was alive; it's previous white eyes replaced by dilated pupils staring right at me, maggots crawling out of the hole on the side of its cheek. I held onto its arms, prying them off of me to no avail, its grip firm and deliberate.