The Butcher Box Set

by Sian B. Claven

  “Tatum? Tatum, are you okay?” It was Mr Wild. He knelt beside her. “What happened?”

  She looked at him and then at the door where Darren stood. She burst into tears, trying to speak through her sobs, but making no sense. She looked back at Darren watching her menacingly. In that moment she believed he was capable of killing. There was no life in his eyes.

  Scrambling to get up, she apologised profusely to her teacher. Forgetting why she had come back to class in the first place, she turned on her heel and sprinted down the hallway, wanting to put as much distance between her and Darren as she could.

  She couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder as she hurried home from school, frightened she would see Skeleton again, or worse, that Darren would be following. The look in his eyes had terrified her and her thoughts and imagination ran away with her.

  Roger, Darren’s best friend, was murdered. Jacqui, Darren’s girlfriend, was murdered. To her, in her uncontrolled state, it made sense that Darren could possibly be the reason that the two people in her life were dead, but why? Why would he kill his best friend?

  Maybe he had been jealous of Roger? Maybe Jacqui had finally had enough and decided to leave him? She just couldn’t figure out the why, but she knew Darren was somehow connected to everything.

  Once she reached her house she made sure all the doors were locked. Her sisters weren’t home today. As punishment for all her wild parties, Kalli had to meet their mother at work after school and stay there until she was brought home. Sylva had her Scout things today, so she wouldn’t be home before five. This left Tatum to pace up and down the hallway, trying to piece the little information she had together.

  Eventually, her legs got tired and she went to her bedroom. She collapsed at her table and rested her head against the cool top.

  She stared out her window at Mr Wild’s house, wondering who was living there now. The curtains were being opened every day so someone had to be there. She straightened and stared out the window through the open curtains. She scanned each window, terrified that she might see Skeleton.

  It hit her like a ton of bricks. She had seen Skeleton, that night when she saw someone in Mr Wild’s garden. She had been there and soon afterwards he had died. It seemed whenever she showed up, someone was going to die. Maybe she was some sort of omen or warning. Tatum didn’t know, but she needed to.

  She wasn’t sure if she should approach the police, or even if they would believe her. She didn’t know who to turn to. Her brain was functioning on limited energy. She would need to sleep if she was going to figure out what Skeleton had to do with all the deaths. For all she knew, there were other murders she didn’t know about. She would need to go to the police station to find out, if they would tell her.

  But first, she needed to sleep.

  She picked up her phone and dialled her mom’s work number.

  “Luell Mets speaking, how can I help you?”

  The sound of her mother’s voice had a calming effect on Tatum. “Hi, mom, just calling to let you know I am home and to ask if you could do me a favour, please?”

  “Hi, Tat, how was school?”

  She tried not to get irritated with her mother. “School was okay, thanks, though I couldn’t really concentrate in Geography because I kept dozing off.”

  “Maybe it’s because you don’t sleep, honey? I hear you toss and turn every night. Maybe we should get you something to help you rest?”

  “That’s exactly why I’m calling. Please, could you pick up something on your way home?”

  “Sure, sweetie. Was that all you needed?”

  Her mind instantly went back to how Darren had looked at her. “Yes, mom, that’s all. Love you.”

  “Love you too, honey.”

  Tatum sat at her computer in her room, pulling up her Internet browser and staring at the blinking cursor. She wasn’t sure what to type. She felt like typing in the words ‘help I’m being haunted’ but that would just confirm she had lost her mind. Still, other than hallucinating, haunted was the only thing that made sense.

  She took a deep breath and finally decided to phrase it as a question.

  How do I tell if I am being haunted?

  She hit the ENTER button a lot harder than she meant to. Sitting back to wait for the results to appear, she was shocked when they appeared faster than she anticipated and then was overwhelmed with just how many results there were. It seemed people had dedicated whole websites to the question.

  The first page had numerous personal sites on it, describing how people had been haunted, what they had seen, and what they thought had caused it. None of it was helpful. It seemed to be ‘out there’ websites, to make the owners feel validated that they had indeed experienced something supernatural.

  She clicked on the second page and scrolled through more websites; they all seemed to say the same thing.

  Hi. Welcome to my site. I was haunted by this on this day. Here are some blurry photos as proof. Ghosts are real.

  Not one site offered any shred of advice on how to tell if you were really being haunted, or who to contact if you had a problem or what you could do. Tatum seriously considered taking a walk to the local Catholic Church and asking a priest. She knew she wouldn’t though. She had already told enough people about Skeleton and didn’t want to be exorcised or something.

  She got to page five before she started to cry, feeling frustrated that there were no answers to explain what was happening to her. She didn’t want to concede and go to the therapist; she knew, in her heart, they would recommend medication and sending her to a clinic to get better. Only, in her mind she would stay there forever and would always see Skeleton.

  About to close her browser, her eyes caught the last website. She sighed and opened it, not hoping for much. She read through the website and for the first time in weeks felt a glimmer of hope. She rested her elbows on her table and her chin in her hands as she read.

  Being haunted can seem like the most terrifying thing that can happen to a person. Often, ghosts are misunderstood and are simply trying to deliver a message to someone. Sometimes it can be someone they knew in their life or someone in their current home, or even in some cases it can be someone who is going to experience something similar to what they went through and they are trying to issue a warning.

  For most people, they can feel like they are losing their minds or they are too terrified to do anything other than seeking psychological help and medication. This is not always the answer, and the haunting can continue.

  Often the best way to approach a haunting is to face your fear of speaking to the apparition. They can sometimes look very intimidating, especially if this has been going on for some time, but by approaching them you give them the chance to deliver their message and move on. Giving the message is often the best way to settle the spirit and to stop the haunting.

  She looked at the menu options that followed.

  Haunted in my Home

  Haunted in my Place of Work

  Dreams of Hauntings

  She didn’t know what to pick first, so she went with the dreams because all she wanted in the world was to have one night of peaceful sleep. She scanned the article quickly.

  If you feel that something or someone is reaching out to you in a dream, it is possible that the entity is trying to reach out to you with a message. A dream is a safe space where they can do so without hurting you. Most people are scared to receive the message, spending many sleepless nights because they are too afraid to push past what they see and receive the message.

  If you feel that the entity haunting you is reaching to you in your dream, try to push past your fear in your subconscious and open yourself up to receive the message. This can be done in many ways, but the one that most commonly works is to attempt lucid dreaming.

  Lucid dreaming is the ability to take control of your dreams and manipulate the outcome. In the case of receiving a message, you want to manipulate your own feelings of horror / disgust / fear so that you ca
n remain in the dream state long enough to hear the message the entity has for you.

  There are many sites to assist you with the ‘hows’ to lucid dreaming, but I find the way that works best for me is to focus on a single point I do not normally see in the dream, and this gives me a form of control. I also remind myself that it is only a dream, it is my own mind, and I am therefore the boss.

  Tatum closed her computer and sat back. She considered the fact that Skeleton was just trying to give her a message and thus appeared to her regularly, but she didn’t know how much of it she believed. Maybe Skeleton knew who the murderer was. Swinging her chair from side to side, she considered her options. She could tell her mother that she thought it was time to see the therapist or she could try the lucid dreaming. Still feeling unsettled, she decided on both. If she couldn’t do the lucid dreaming thing, she would go see the school therapist tomorrow.

  She opened her laptop up again and started to research a bit more about lucid dreaming. She wanted to get this over and done with.

  Chapter Eight

  Tatum retrieved the medication to help her sleep from Luell when she came home before excusing herself, confirming she was going to have an early night. Luell didn’t even argue, knowing how exhausted her eldest daughter was. Tatum went to her room and did her usual nightly prep. She changed into her pyjamas, brushed her teeth and got into bed. She set the medication next to her bed and turned her lamp off, settling into the warm covers and closing her eyes. It wasn’t hard to fall asleep, she was exhausted; it was staying asleep she was trying to achieve.

  The nightmare had changed again. Instead of seeing Mr Wild climbing the stairs, it was a shadowy figure, but she didn’t care - whoever it was, was not important.

  She focused on the railing of the stairs with all her might, taking note of all the details in the wood, even as her subconscious tried to drag her attention to the top of the stairs. She heard the bodies falling, but she didn’t look, and knew she had a level of control. She couldn’t believe it was working.

  When the fourth body fell, she made herself look because she wasn’t expecting to hear the thud of a fourth. She could see Mr Wild Senior lying closer to her, and above him on the stairs was Roger and Jacqui, and her heart started to beat fast.

  She forced her eyes closed for a second to calm herself. When she opened them again, she saw a fourth body lying in the shadows at the top of the stairs with Skeleton standing above him.

  Tatum forced herself to climb the stairs and when she got to the top she found it was her Geography teacher, Mr Wild, his mouth open in a silent scream.

  She shivered slightly at the sight before looking up at Skeleton and asking, as calmly as she could, “What do you want to tell me?”

  They stood there, staring at each other in silence before she asked again, “I know you are trying to tell me something, so tell me what it is.”

  Skeleton stooped and with one hand she grasped Tatum’s teacher’s tongue and pulled it out as far as she could. She used her bloody knife to slice through the muscle before she stood up again. She opened her mouth and Tatum could see her tongue had been removed in the same fashion.

  The sight of Skeleton putting her teacher’s tongue in her mouth almost made Tatum lose control and hurl, and she felt the dream world shake a little. She stood tall though and waited, watching her as she worked the tongue around her mouth until she looked at Tatum, blood dripping from her lips.

  She said in a raspy voice, “He’s coming for you.”

  The dream faded to black, but for the first time in a long while she slept through the night. When she woke in the morning she felt well rested, although worried about the message she received.

  Tatum went down for breakfast to find her mom sitting at the table eating some toast.

  “Morning, mom,” she said, kissing her cheek before making herself some toast.

  “How did you sleep, sweetheart?”

  “Really well, thanks!” she said with a bright smile. “I actually slept for once and I feel much better.”

  “That’s good. Tatum, school is cancelled today. There’s been another murder.” Her mother watched her.

  She felt her breath catch in her chest. “What? Who?”

  “It was Mr Wild, baby, your teacher.”

  Tatum stared at the red lines in the toaster, thinking back to the fourth body in her dream.

  “The police were here earlier, but I didn’t want to wake you. They want you to go to the station today to answer some questions about Darren.”

  “Darren? As in Jacqui’s Darren? Why do they want me to answer questions about him?”

  “Because they suspect he is behind the murders. He and Mr Wild apparently had an altercation yesterday. Your teacher reported it to the headmaster, and then Mr Wild was found murdered. Also, he’s the only other person who has had contact with Jacqui and Roger.”

  Tatum turned to look at her mom who was watching her nervously. “And?”

  “And I’m worried that they don’t know where he is and he might hurt you, so I don’t want you leaving the house today, okay?”

  She thought back to Skeleton’s words; she had referred to someone coming for her, a ‘he’ that was coming for her. Maybe she meant Darren. He had been aggressive with her at the graveyard and at school. She remembered what the old ladies had said at Arabelle’s house, about him being the killer, and she shivered.

  “We’ll go down to the station after breakfast,” Luell said and Tatum nodded.

  “Okay, mom.” She put her toast on a plate, bringing it to the table to butter and eat it.

  “And you witnessed the altercation between Mr Blackwood and Mr Wild?” Officer Smith asked as Tatum hugged herself, shivering as she thought about her poor teacher.

  “Yes, I did.” Her voice was quiet and he had to strain to hear it over the noise of his busy office.

  “And you confirm that Mr Blackwood was increasingly aggressive towards Mr Wild?”

  “Yes, he was screaming at him.”

  “Do you know why he was upset?” Smith asked.

  “He was screaming that he had also lost people. That he had lost his best friend and his girlfriend. He’s been mad at me since her funeral.”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  She shivered again. “I think he blamed me.” She paused, trying to remember that day clearly. “He was mad at me because I had been at the house the day Jacqui was murdered. That I had claimed to see something and that she was still killed.”

  “Did he threaten you?”Chadsworth asked, sitting opposite them at his table.

  “I felt threatened, though he didn’t actually speak a threat … does that make sense?”

  The officers nodded.

  “How well do you know Mr Blackwood?”

  Tatum gave a small shrug. “I met him the night Roger was murdered,” she said, feeling a pain in her chest. “He had asked Jacqui out. They went steady after that, and dated up until the day she was killed.” There was a pause and she asked, “How were they killed?”

  It had always bothered her. She wanted to know the truth, not just the rumours she had heard flying around.

  “You don’t want to know,” Smith said.

  “Then I wouldn’t have asked you.”

  “Excuse me?”

  She was angry. “I have been through hell this last year, okay, and all I want to know is how my friends and my teacher died. Is it the same way? Is it a serial killer? Is Darren a serial killer?” She was becoming hysterical. “Is he coming for me next?”

  Chadsworth stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. “Do you want me to get your mom?”

  She shrugged his hand off and raised her voice. “I want to know the answers to my questions!”

  Smith stood up. “Calm down, Miss Metz. Let me get your mom and we can see what information we can and cannot give to you.” He moved towards the double doors open at the end of the room.

  Chadsworth knelt beside her. “Can I get you something?
Maybe a drink?”

  She looked at him. “I just want my answers, but a coffee would also be great.” She had an idea, and now she wanted more than ever to get rid of him.

  He gave her a gentle smile and stood up, walking the opposite way of his partner. She had to move quickly. She glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to her and leaned over Smith’s desk, the one she was sitting to the side of, and rummaged through the files on top of it. She finally found one called ‘The Butcher’ and opened it to peek inside. She had found what she was looking for.

  At the top of the first page was Roger’s name.

  She pulled the file onto her lap, glancing around inconspicuously again, and then started to read it. Her blood ran cold, and goosebumps erupted on her body, as she looked at the photos of her crush, her best friend and her teacher all without their heads. Each of them had been strung up with handcuffs, hanging from something. For Roger it was a tree; for Jacqui the pole in her closet, and Mr Wild, he had been killed in what looked like his father’s house, hanging from the staircase. Each of their bodies decapitated with their heads resting neatly at their feet.

  There were other photos as well, of other victims. The photos looked older, as though they were taken at another time. Tatum froze as she picked up one and stared into the decapitated face of Skeleton. She flipped the photos back to Roger’s one.

  Bile rose in her throat as she stared at Roger’s face, his mouth open in a silent screen. She quickly looked at the notes made next to the pictures and her eyes widened with fear. All three heads were missing their tongues.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Chadsworth had come back and was staring angrily at her. “That’s confidential information in that file.”

  She tossed it back onto the desk quickly and stood up. “I’m sorry,” she felt close to tears, “I just … I needed to know.”

  “Tatum?”

  She turned and ran to her mother, hugging her and bursting into tears.