Competition Submissions

Lightning flashed through the sky. The town of Winter Springs. I heard many great stories about this small little town. I was also well aware of all the supernatural activity going on here. All the unexplainable incidents, all the weird disasters. Even as I approached the “Welcome to Winter Springs” town, there was an uneasy feeling deep in my stomach. I knew what I had to do, and I was going to stop at nothing to get what I wanted. I had done some research as well. You see, this town is not full of thieves, criminals, and murderers. No, there existed something far worse than all of those combined, and it was my responsibility as a man of God to make sure that I did what I needed to do to stop all the debauchery going on. And nobody would be a greater fit than myself. I knew that this town was where these freaks would congregate, and once I took care of one of them, the others would all swarm in like flies, and I would do my best to eliminate them all. Word on the street was that they were all in one place, which means that now was the perfect time to strike.

Who were these abominations?

Aurora lives in this town, where she attends the university, studying to be a physicist. Back when she was a high school freshmen, that’s when the accidents started happening. According to her gym coach, she was playing a game of dodgeball when the first reported incident occurred. The girls were split up between two teams and they were throwing the balls at one another. You know, nothing out of the ordinary. One of the girls apparently used to bully Aurora, according to the school teachers. She screamed at Aurora and told her that she was just a bug. She grabbed the ball and hurled it at her. But that’s when it got weird. Aurora shrieked at the top of her lungs and everyone in the gym, with the exception of Aurora, fell straight UP into the ceiling. Officials said that it was sudden and quick. And it wasn’t just people. The balls flew up into the air, mats flew up into the air, everything went up. Almost as if someone flipped the entire gymnasium upside down. And just as quickly as everyone flew up, Aurora stopped screaming and everyone came crashing back down. Many of the students sustained injuries, hurting their ankles, legs, or back. The alleged bully though? She wasn’t so lucky. She ended up falling face first into the basketball court, breaking all the bones in her face and leaving behind a bloody mess. Doctors were able to save her from imminent death, but the impact of the fall severely disfigured her face, leaving her scarred. Eventually she ended up taking her own life last year, and I put the blame solely on Aurora. Everyone claimed she was just a girl, and that this was a freak act of nature, but I knew what it really was. Aurora was a disgrace to humanity, and she needed to be eliminated so that this town can be one step closer to rehabilitation. Over time, these events would happen sporadically, each time being just as drastic as others. A lot of the townspeople looked the other way, as they claimed that the people being affected were would-be criminals breaking into stores. But that does not excuse such perverted behavior. Wrong was wrong no matter how you slice it, and these people failed to see that this would lead to Armageddon. It did seem as though she was able to control this curse though, as the more recent events have people suspended in air instead of losing complete control. Did that make her actions any less evil? No. Evil can try to do good, but it will never change. I’ve been following her for a while, and I knew what she’s capable of. I knew what her interests were. She studied physics by the time she got to university in order to let people know that she is harmless, but I knew deep down she just wanted to finesse her power. I was not going to enable such reckless behavior.

One of Aurora’s closest friends ended up being Constantine, some punk who never had many friends as a child. That is, until her junior year of high school. She had left the town for a trip to the mountains, but when she came back, she was a different woman. It seemed as though everything she said, people would blindly follow whatever it is she said. Some said that she had the gift of gab, but I knew what she really had. She was clearly manipulating people and tainting the natural order of things. She joined the debate team and won many competitions unanimously. Nobody ever questioned her, but I was not phased by her antics. There was something unsettling about her whenever she spoke to the audiences. She asked her parents if she could take driving lessons, they said yes without any hesitation, and then when she took the driver’s license test, she did it in two minutes. She then went to the dealership and got a free car. As far as I was concerned, she stole that vehicle and it only made sense for her to return what rightfully does not belong to her. The entire town adored her, and had since given her free reign to do whatever as she pleased. Everyone was weak. Nobody could tell her no. She used her curse capriciously, only going for selfish things. This “power” of persuasion was nothing more than a scam and it sickened me that someone could use it for their own enjoyment without any consideration of others. But alas, she was on my radar and nothing she did or said would convince me to keep her alive otherwise. You see, people will bend to the will of those with greater self control than them. Constantine might have a lot of self-control, especially since she had the boost in confidence with her newfound curse, but I was not someone that she could easily manipulate. You see, I believed I had the most self-control out of anyone in existence. And I wanted to test that theory. And when she sees that I cannot easily be controlled, she will regret ever boasting about her abilities any more.

The next one in Aurora’s friend circle was Xiomara, one of the most peculiar individuals I had heard about. There were rumors that she was the physical embodiment of luck, both good and bad. She had won every raffle she ever participated in, she never lost anything, her exams were always perfectly completed, she had a perfect driving record with no accidents ever, yet it seemed as though people who challenged her were always suffering. One of the teachers that she had that she did not get along with ended up getting fired for backing up into the principal’s car, despite her not being in the vehicle at the time. When she tried to defend her story, the principal claimed that she had reeked of alcohol, despite her being allergic, according to her at least. While she was not as arrogant as Constantine, she still annoyed me because anyone who manipulates fate like that was tampering with what should not be tampered with. Her little parlor tricks might had worked with these feeble minded clowns, but there was no way that I would allow it to influence my decisions. She was in university now, studying mathematics and statistics, allegedly to find out more about probability. Nobody had any idea when this first started happening. I had been doing my research and it seemed like it came around just two years ago. Since then, the number of vehicular manslaughter had gone down drastically in this small community, and while that might seem well, it also increased the number of domestic abuse in the community. Many people have reported being saved from oncoming vehicles, particularly drunk drivers, but without natural order taking place, these drivers continued to drink more and more alcohol, no longer believing they were in any danger from car accidents. And with these drivers headed back to their homes, they lashed out on their partners and children as a result of their alcoholic outbursts. I blamed Xiomara for these disgusting results and until she assumes responsibility for all this, she will be someone that I wish to eliminate as soon as I can.

Quinn was one of the college students from the next town over, Autumn Valley, and she was another one of these freaks that I did not care for. She became notorious for being able to show up anywhere. She tended to get in trouble with the law, as she would show up in locked businesses to trespass and vandalize everything. Police officials claimed that she could pickpocket through any lock, but I did my research and I knew that every building she entered, the door remained locked in the morning so there was no way that could be the case. After reading up on some of the files, I eventually figured out what I was dealing with. I strongly believed that Quinn was able to phase through walls, doors, and any other solid materials. One of her classmates had recorded her sneaking into a building by walking through the wall and uploaded it onto the internet. You see, this kind of behavior should not be rewarded or applauded for, even if Quinn did not realize this video was being done. She encouraged people to think that trespassing is completely fine and that there were no punishments for anyone who chose to break this law. To me, I wanted nothing more than to catch her in the act and make sure that she pays for her little juvenile antics. Not much was known about this creature, as she was not a local, and despite being a student here in Winter Springs, she still kept a low profile, presumably to not draw any attention to her being a petty criminal. I do remember reading newspaper articles about here where people tried to defend her actions by saying she did not hurt anyone and always paid for the items after, but a criminal is a criminal. Allegedly she was trying to obtain specific items after all the stores had closed and wanted to just get in and out, but I knew she was up to no good. Why not just buy things in the middle of the day? She was not fooling me. She still did up vandalizing the businesses, so that did not justify that at all in my opinion. I also read articles where she claimed that she was also sneaking into abandoned buildings and closed business where people performed illegal liaisons and she claimed that she had been trying to put a stop to it. Do not meddle into other people’s affairs, Quinn. Especially since you were not a saint yourself.

All in all, I knew that these people had to be eliminated. Something did bug me about this town though. Why was it that all these people popped up here? The odds of all these freaks springing out of nowhere to be here made no sense. I knew that there was a legend that the older townsfolk passed down each generation, talking about how many centuries ago a witch had cursed the town after being burned at the stake, claiming that the longer people stay in this dreaded town, the more likely they develop mutations. Many people had brushed it off as mumbo jumbo, and now with these people showing up more often, people were starting to wonder if this was legitimate. But I knew that the Lord will not accept these abominations to humanity. If this really is the work of a witch, then it is my duty to the Lord to see to it that these people are eliminated, and that this town could be saved as well. I was going to start tonight with the first elimination. And who was the lucky person to kickstart this? Well, I was about to head over now while she is alone…

Rain continued to pour in the small town of Winter Springs. Thunder bellowed throughout the night sky. The wind blew through the trees, letting out a whistle that echoed throughout the neighborhood. At the corner of Elm and Greenshadow Blvd sat a two-story brown house. There was a young woman pacing back and forth on the phone, speaking with her friend. There was a music festival going on in Autumn Valley, but she was unable to go since she was not feeling too great. She was barely able to understand what her friends were saying, and the reception there had been horrible, as her friend’s voice kept distorting into an unrecognizable dialect. The two of them had been discussing how the rain was affecting the festival and how a lot of people were ducking for cover.

“Don’t you wish Xiomara was there with you?” she said, letting out a small chuckle. “You know if she was there none of you would have to worry about the rain. Knowing her she would just have the rainclouds hover over Stacy or something. It’s so petty but you know it’s true.” Her friend laughed on the other line. Xiomara would have been a logical choice to go with, but she had decided to spend time her with brother since he had passed his MCATs with a nearly perfect score. He was stressed out due to the amount of material, but Xiomara had assured him that he had nothing to worry about, and sure enough he ended up passing with flying colors. She continued “I wish it stopped raining though. It just doesn’t sit right with me that it’s such a nice night otherwise. Do you think it could be an omen?”

“I don’t think it is, to be honest”, her friend claimed, “but I get why you think it would be. I personally don’t believe in any of that superstition. The witch stuff, the weird stuff going on, so many people try to make it a mystical thing and honestly I think a lot of these things have a reasonable scientific explanation. You of all people should know that. I think people are going to get worked up about this though and always live in fear.” The girl started to sigh a bit, and then started wondering if maybe she had been approaching this the wrong way. It was possible that she was just being overly superstitious. The town was a strange one, but it seemed as though the only oddities only affected those that she knew. As far as she knew, she only knew three other people besides herself with these strange powers, and everyone had been civil with one another. She had not heard of anyone else being imbued with any kind of supernatural abilities, but there were so many questions that lingered in her mind. If the witch folk tale was a myth, then where did these powers come from and what did it mean? And why now? And why only them? Was there something that she was missing? She also considered herself to be a logical person, and she wanted to know more about the origin of these powers. But the town was a small one after all, and so not many scientists stayed in the area, as they all had left to the big cities in order to advance their career and further their research. She was a little worried about everything, but she always had a fear of the unknown.

And with that, there was a click in the phone and then silence. “Can you hear me?” she asked her friend. No response. That was weird. This was not a landline. This was a cell phone. So this should not be happening. She stared at her phone in curiosity, wondering what could have caused that. She ran to her laptop to see if she could check the internet to see what the problem could be, but her laptop would not turn on. “Does it have a dead battery?” she asked herself, starting to panic. She could have sworn that it was up and fully charged earlier, so for whatever reason it was no longer working. She looked at her phone again, hoping that maybe she can hear her friend now. Nothing.

THUD. She heard a stone hit the window. She slowly walked over to the window, sweat starting to drip from her head. She peeked out the window, not sure what to expect. And then she saw it. Two deep red circles facing her direction. Coming from the tree in the front yard. Someone, or something, was staring at her. She quickly backed up into the center of the room, pulling out her phone and frantically trying to press the buttons to call for help. Nothing. She tried to stand on her toes to see if she could get another glance outside without being near the window, but the red circles were gone. And with that she ran quickly downstairs to her front door to make sure it was locked. But it was too late. The door was left ajar and she heard the rain smack against the foyer floor.

“YOU BETTER STAY AWAY!!’ she cried out. ‘I’M NOT PLAYING!!!” And with that she heard a menacing growl above her. She looked up, but saw nothing. She started to retreat away from the door, still trembling as she took every step. She hit the staircase, startling herself. She then let out a gasp and then sighed when she realized that it was the stairs. Keeping her eyes on the door, she tried to reach for a bat that was hidden in the hallway closet, but instead she felt something hairy. She felt it move and then she turned around. In front of her was a hairy beast, its sharp teeth protruding out of its mouth. “NOOOO” she screamed, lifting her arms up. Everything in the hallway fell UP into the ceiling. Almost everything. The creature was not affected.

“THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!!” she shrieked. But it did not matter. The creature revealed its razor sharp claws from behind and swung at her. It sliced through her shirt. The girl tried to run out, but the creature jumped right in front of her from behind. It swung at her again, knocking her down. It lowered its head directly in front of her face, its slobber dripping down its face. Before she can let out another word, it quickly sunk its teeth into her cheeks, devouring the rest of her face.