Checkmate | Teen Ink

Checkmate

June 3, 2016
By reenaheights SILVER, Springville, Utah
More by this author
reenaheights SILVER, Springville, Utah
7 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"Some people dream of success. others wake up and work for it."


Author's note:

This piece was just something I did for fun in my free time. I'd had the idea for a while and I'm still working on expanding upon it, but so far this is what it looks like. 

December 1st, the morning of the attack

Dear Journal,

Today is another drab day, going to school. I hate having to wake up early to go and bore my mind away in mathematics and biology.

But there is one thing I’m looking forward to. Macy says she has something to tell us, my friends and I. She says her grandpa told her a story about a boy, an old baseball star at our school. Apparently he disappeared one night after his championship game and police found his body the next day, in a ditch. No one really knows what happened to him, but people say they saw him the next day at school, wandering the halls repeating, “Strike one, strike two, last chance.”

It sounds like a pretty good ghost story, and I can’t wait to hear the rest!! I’ll tell you all about it after school!

Love,

Rudi

You are here: Home / 2014 / October / 30 / Checkmate
Checkmate
Published by reenaheights13 on October 30, 2014 | Leave a response | Edit
Checkmate

December 1st, the morning of the attack

Dear Journal,

Today is another drab day, going to school. I hate having to wake up early to go and bore my mind away in mathematics and biology.

But there is one thing I’m looking forward to. Macy says she has something to tell us, my friends and I. She says her grandpa told her a story about a boy, an old baseball star at our school. Apparently he disappeared one night after his championship game and police found his body the next day, in a ditch. No one really knows what happened to him, but people say they saw him the next day at school, wandering the halls repeating, “Strike one, strike two, last chance.”

It sounds like a pretty good ghost story, and I can’t wait to hear the rest!! I’ll tell you all about it after school!

Love,

Rudi

………………………….

December 2nd, the day after the attack

Dear Journal,

I can’t tell anyone anything anymore. They all think I either made it up or I was “simply confused about what really happened”. They say she died from an unusual heart attack caused by a hereditary disease, a slight deformation that had caused her heart to malfunction and then all together stop beating.

Even my friends doubted me. They thought I was just seeing things because of what Macy told us, that because she told us the story about the boy, I came up with images based on my own fear. No matter how many times I tried to tell them that he was real and that he killed Macy, they just wouldn’t believe me.

When I insisted that we watch the playback of the cameras in that hallway because it would no doubt show that I wasn’t lying, they agreed. We watched every inch of that film, every detail and slight movement.

He wasn’t there.

All that the camera showed was me, standing ten lockers down from Macy, and Macy dropping suddenly to the floor. And I watched myself on tape, standing there staring at something that no one else seemed to see, something hovering over Macy.

I keep trying to bring back the memory of what he looked like, her killer, but I come up blank. I know that he was there because I saw what he did to her, but when I play the memory over again in my head, the moment when he turns becomes fuzzy. I can see the outline of a hideous, warped shadow, but that’s all. No face, no eyes, no mouth, no nose.

I remember his name, though. Checker Gray, the perfect name to provoke fear. The name I can write here and look back on and know who did it all. I remember how we whispered it quietly in the hallway, huddled together and joking about how it was all “just a ghost story”, this story about a boy who gives you two warnings before he comes for you.

That was the exact day that Checker proved us all wrong, by killing Macy, my best friend. We both heard the warnings, but she was the one that died.  And because I survived when he wanted me dead, I know he’ll come soon. I can wait, but I Know that it’s coming soon.

It wasn’t some freaking heart attack that killed Macy. It was him. And he’s coming for me.

Rudi

You are here: Home / 2014 / October / 30 / Checkmate
Checkmate
Published by reenaheights13 on October 30, 2014 | Leave a response | Edit
Checkmate

December 1st, the morning of the attack

Dear Journal,

Today is another drab day, going to school. I hate having to wake up early to go and bore my mind away in mathematics and biology.

But there is one thing I’m looking forward to. Macy says she has something to tell us, my friends and I. She says her grandpa told her a story about a boy, an old baseball star at our school. Apparently he disappeared one night after his championship game and police found his body the next day, in a ditch. No one really knows what happened to him, but people say they saw him the next day at school, wandering the halls repeating, “Strike one, strike two, last chance.”

It sounds like a pretty good ghost story, and I can’t wait to hear the rest!! I’ll tell you all about it after school!

Love,

Rudi

………………………….

December 2nd, the day after the attack

Dear Journal,

I can’t tell anyone anything anymore. They all think I either made it up or I was “simply confused about what really happened”. They say she died from an unusual heart attack caused by a hereditary disease, a slight deformation that had caused her heart to malfunction and then all together stop beating.

Even my friends doubted me. They thought I was just seeing things because of what Macy told us, that because she told us the story about the boy, I came up with images based on my own fear. No matter how many times I tried to tell them that he was real and that he killed Macy, they just wouldn’t believe me.

When I insisted that we watch the playback of the cameras in that hallway because it would no doubt show that I wasn’t lying, they agreed. We watched every inch of that film, every detail and slight movement.

He wasn’t there.

All that the camera showed was me, standing ten lockers down from Macy, and Macy dropping suddenly to the floor. And I watched myself on tape, standing there staring at something that no one else seemed to see, something hovering over Macy.

I keep trying to bring back the memory of what he looked like, her killer, but I come up blank. I know that he was there because I saw what he did to her, but when I play the memory over again in my head, the moment when he turns becomes fuzzy. I can see the outline of a hideous, warped shadow, but that’s all. No face, no eyes, no mouth, no nose.

I remember his name, though. Checker Gray, the perfect name to provoke fear. The name I can write here and look back on and know who did it all. I remember how we whispered it quietly in the hallway, huddled together and joking about how it was all “just a ghost story”, this story about a boy who gives you two warnings before he comes for you.

That was the exact day that Checker proved us all wrong, by killing Macy, my best friend. We both heard the warnings, but she was the one that died.  And because I survived when he wanted me dead, I know he’ll come soon. I can wait, but I Know that it’s coming soon.

It wasn’t some freaking heart attack that killed Macy. It was him. And he’s coming for me.

Rudi

………………………………….

Checker’s here. He’s in the house. I knew he would come, I just knew it! He won’t give me much time. I’ve already had my first warning.

He told me he killed Macy. Now I know for sure. I’m not making things up. I’m not seeing things that aren’t there. He’s real, oh my gosh, he’s real, he’s real!

Strike two.

I’ve had my second warning. I can hear him pounding up the stairs to my room. He’s laughing and banging on the walls. He’s everywhere, everywhere!

Oh my gosh, the door is opening! I can hear him breathing. He’s so close now. I can start to make out his shape.

He doesn’t have a head! Oh my gosh, he doesn’t have a head! Where is it? No head, no head, no head!

He’s reaching for me. Reaching inside me, with his talons. Talons! Talons!

My heart! He has my heart!

Burning, burning, BURNING!!!

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my

Last chance.



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