A Twisted Fairy Tale (part.2)

 

It was a violent combination of anger and confusion that battle within Aden’s mind as he drove back to his temporary home. Here he was driving along an unknown road within an unknown city and with nothing to show for it. Whoever had sent that letter to him was playing a tricky game and he had the intention of figuring out who. Yet the story that he had been given still seemed so real and formed with such passion and strangeness it could not have been some humorous whimsy birthed from some adolescents mind. But his energy was failing and so was his incentive. He parked the car outside the tiny house and walked through the door, he would have begun packing right then and there if it wasn’t for the odd piece of yellowed paper that Ellie was reading on the couch.

It was an old newspaper indeed, but its deterioration was not severe indicating it was only a few decades old from this careful deduction Aden missed the first crucial detail: the headline. It read something very fearsome.

Child’s Body Found in Gruesome State.

The newspaper was local, the ink was dry and weathered and it rested in the small hands of Ellie as her eyes wove throughout the letters as if searching desperately for the answer to a code between the sentences. Aden could not help but skim by a few words before enforcing authority upon his daughter. But something shocked him. The arrangement and particular types of words that registered in his mind filled him with fear. The words that he saw were “nailed, child, stomach, and limbs.” He tore the sheet of paper from his daughter’s hands and held it up he began in the middle of the paragraph and followed the story down.

…..the piece of thin wood and the skeletal remains of the child were all that were found near the lake. It seemed that the killer had nailed the child’s limbs to the piece of wood and tore upon his stomach. This is the first evidence found that is connected to the disappearances that the town has been experiencing…………

“Hey Dad! What are you doing?!” Ellie yelled.

“Where did you get this?” Aden asked in urgency.

“I found it in one of the old bedrooms I thought I could use some of the articles for history class.”

“You shouldn’t be reading things like this. Look, I…..I just need to hold onto this for a while is that okay?”

“Fine,” Ellie said, bouncing back down to the couch and rolling her eyes.

“Thank you.”

“Oh, Dad,” Ellie said calling after him “by the way the mailman came, he dropped off some sort of package. It’s in the kitchen.”

A package was not something that Aden had considered would have arrived while he was gone, much less arrive at all. He had not planned to direct his mail back to this house and he did not remember calling or arranging for something to happen like this. Perhaps the mail company had just known to switch homes perhaps it was part of stepping up their game to combat the unrelenting competition of digital shipping. But it was still odd and the moment that Aden laid eyes upon that medium sized cardboard box a stiff feeling of uneasiness consumed his body.

There it sat on a kitchen table unfamiliar to him, there was an address on the box that showed where it had been picked up from. Aden simply skimmed through the street and the set of random numbers that followed but then a certain set of numbers caught his eye. 2909. The mansion of Professor Johannes. This only furthered his suspicion of the package and his suspense could not be held back any longer he pulled out a small knife from a kitchen drawer and slid it between the flaps. There he cut along the board and opened up the first top lids. Inside was a simple device, a cassette tape player and inside the player was the small plastic rectangle that accompanied it.

He pulled the player out of the box, shifted it in his hands, and then laid it back down on the table. It was an old device an Aden could not think of any reason to deliver one to him, except to send a message. There was a red play button on the player and without hesitation he pushed it down and the recording began to play.

“What is the strength it would take?” The record began, the voice playing was soft, calm, and slightly distorted “What is the strength it would take to destroy something you loved? Does it make you wince? Does it make you shudder in fear?”

The words and sentences being spewed from the payer were strange to Aden and he had to sit down next to it to listen fully to every word.

“What courage would it take to kill? To kill your family? To kill what you loved? And in the end would you be free? Too bad. I already found the answers. Death is beautiful in its own way. People could argue with you but you always keep the truth within you. People are not brave enough to…to…let themselves go. Welcome Aden. Welcome to my game.”

The recording ended abruptly Aden was slightly frightful, not as much as the person on the other side might of intended but still frightful. The words being poured out were unsettling but Aden found no reason to pack up and scurry out of the house in a terror filled frenzy. He was now determined and the clues that had been brought before him, the newspaper, the mansion, they all pointed to one thing and they all were related to the fairy tale that he had looked over time and time again and he had a feeling that it had been written earlier than he had thought.

He had reviewed the paper several times that morning. There was only so much information he could gather from the piece of paper but the information he did get was useful. The newspaper told of a series of children’s disappearances between 1992 to 1993. Apparently the kidnappings were very sophisticated, fingerprints, signs of struggles, they had all been cleaned up and any evidence of the child was lost. The police had no clues or leads for several months until finally after pure luck they found a small wooden board discarded at the edge of the lake the child’s remains still nailed to the board and rotting away. The board had been tossed away quickly and the kidnapper probably had no other option but to leave in a panicked hurry. After this evidence was found the disappearances stopped and all mention of the kidnapping ceased.

But now, Aden felt as if the kidnapper was now directed at him and at his life, but for what reason? The fairy tale had obviously written as a legend to surround the events, but for what purpose and why was he the only one to see it? Someone was indeed playing a game with him, and perhaps the kidnapper had already died maybe this was another attempt to frighten a town.

Ellie was watching television in the other room and sitting quietly. It was already the afternoon and time had passed quickly. The subtle daylight shown through the windows and illuminated the kitchen, the cassette tape sitting silently next to him. He reached for the play button so he could hear the chilling voice once again. However, he was interrupted by the ring of his doorbell he scurried over to the door and looked through the window on the side. Outside was a typical mailman, blue shorts, glasses, he was a nerdy and thin man who was slipping the packages quickly into the slot in the door. After he did this he looked up waited around 30 seconds and began to walk away, Aden thought quickly and opened the door. The mailman was already half way down the lawn he called after him.

“Hey uh…sir!” Aden yelled “Can I ask you a few questions?”

“Uh…” the mailman called back “I have more packages to deliver I thought you…..”

“It’s just a few questions it won’t take a minute.”

The mailman stopped in his tracks and walked back to the doorstep.

“Uh…yes?”

“How did you know to switch the mail to this house?”

“S-switch?”

“This is just a temporary home I’m only going to be staying in this house for a week.”

“Sir, I just deliver the mail to the address, and the address tells me to deliver it to this house.”

Aden’s confidence suddenly dropped. How could he be so stupid? Here he thought there was some plot against him and the first questions he asks is why the mail is being delivered. His eye brows dropped and he began to feel hot. Embarrassment. But he would not hinder him. He straightened himself and continued talking.

“I’m sorry. I’m just wondering about the mansion you are getting this mail from. 2909. That place is supposed to be abandon why am I getting packages from there?”

“That is a little strange sir but I just pick up the things that they tell me to deliver. There are a few caretakers of that house. They aren’t full time owners but they like to keep it maintained and such because they think it’s of ‘historical value’ or something like that. Can I….can I leave now.”

“Ye…yeah sure… go ahead I was just wondering. Thank you.”

“You are welcome sir.”

With that the mailman straightened his hat and strolled over to his mail car and drove off, delivering to other homes.

Aden shifted through the mail that was delivered, there was another package from mansion. He had a few suspects now. The caretakers could be one but he could not figure out the incentive to give him such bizarre packages. Nevertheless he took the mail inside and examined each package carefully. The only true piece of mail was that of the mansion. The rest were advertisements and junk mail which he carelessly threw in the garbage. What was left was a small, average, envelope. He slid his finger through the top slot of the paper and tore open the sealant inside was another cassette tape. Just for him. He was hesitant on playing it but he knew that once he did he might be able to gather more information. The truth was he found no real threat against himself or his family. He doubted any power the person sending these messages could be and if things every turned threatening he could skip over to his home town.

He popped the cassette into the player once again and hit play.