The path to the horror nights

                                              PATH TO THE HORROR  NIGHTS



                                                          By - DIANA HENRY



INDEX     



Chapter 1 – The street murder       

Chapter 2 – Full of question               

Chapter 3 – The mystery man 

Chapter 4 -  Nikkei is missing





                                                                    PROLOGUE



I never had a thought about me these days. The only thing that ran in my head was “Fear” and only “Fear”. Lately, the only thing I’m afraid of is me and my dreams. If you ever wish to have your dreams come true then stop reading this. Because  you read further you might not dream again. When all the sweet dreams and the bad once that I call as “nightmares” come true, even before you realize, you might be in grave danger!!!





CHAPTER 1    THE STREET MURDER



It was so Dark I couldn’t see myself, not even the moon was up. I was the only one out there. I didn’t know why  I went to this lonely street at night.

And when i thought that i was alone, I saw a dark human figure walking down the street. Whoever it was had a hat on.

I realized that it was a man. I could now see him better. He was tall; he had a strong and handsome appearance.

“Hey you, wait up!” I shouted.

He didn’t react to me; instead he stopped and looked in some other direction.

Then I saw some one else  in the streets, it was a women she had a jacket on her, tough it wasn’t so cold.

The women came from the direction from where the man looked.

The women had something like a package in her hand.

She met the man; it was like they planned it that way.

The man and the women were talking something very serious.

I kept wondering want they were discussing.

She gave the package to the man. I saw the man taking something from his pocket; it looked a lot like a gun, he pointed it towards the women then the only thing I heard was a scream and a gun shot.

I froze still when I saw the women’s body on the ground with her eyes wide open and blood flowing out of her head.

He looked around

An electric current passed through my spinal cord when I realized now looking at me.

He pointed the gun towards me and tried to shoot. My heart was beating a thousand times faster at that moment. But something was wrong with the gun it didn’t work, he shot again, but it still didn’t work.

He threw the gun on the floor with anger and looked at me again.

He started walking towards me.

I didn’t know what to do, my hands turned cold and sweaty, my legs felt too heavy for me to lift. I started to run for my life though I felt too weak and tired to move.

I knew he was right behind me. I screamed for help. I couldn’t run any further; my legs were too tired and heavy. I stepped on a bottle can and tripped. I couldn’t get up, panting I looked at the man. He was almost close to me now. I didn’t have any courage to look at the horrifying man anymore. I closed my eyes tight.

“Wake up you jerk! Mom... he is still in bed.”Lesa shouted as she was shaking me.

I pushed lesa away with a scream thinking she was the man from my dream.

“Aahhh! You imp, I’ll show you who I really am” lesa yelled.

I opened my eyes, and realized that I had a nightmare. Everything about the street murder was a dream but my hands and legs were still cold and I was panting unusually. I woke up from the bed forcing myself.

I’m Jason drake and I’m sixteen years old. Lesa is my little sister; she’s three years younger than me and she can be really annoying sometimes. This was not the first time I’m having a bad night sleep.

I got up from my bed and started getting ready for school.



CHAPTER 2                FULL OF QUESTION



“You haven’t eaten anything sweetie!” mom yelled.

“No time mom. I’m already late for school.” I replied.

I ran out to the taxi cab and luckily, Mr. Weensy was still there, he gave me a ride to my school. He usually does when I get late. I go to Westfield high school, New Jersey.

The taxi stopped in front of the school gate. I waved at Mr. Weensy and rushed to my class. Mrs. Marie Hanson, my archaeological teacher, was already there.

Mrs. Hanson is a stern and stubborn lady. She might be aged between; forty to forty-five.

“Mrs. Hanson, May I come in?” I asked. 

“9.35 am. Mr. Drake, you’re half an hour late, as usual. Ok Let’s hear what excuse you have today.” She questioned in a stern voice.

“I, I woke up late this morning.” I nervously explained.

“And” she waited.

“It’s because I had a horrible nightmare” I completed.

“I’m sure that I was there in the nightmare, taking you to the principal’s office for coming late.” She scolded.

“Not exactly. It’s actually about a cold blooded street murderer.” I replied not knowing she was scolding me for giving a silly excuse.

The entire class started laughing and gossiping among themselves.

“Quite! Now get back to your seat and the next time I see you come late Mr. Drake, the place you will be sitting is in the principal’s office. Get it?” She angrily yelled.

“Yes, Mrs., Mrs. Hanson” I struggled to speak.

I quickly ran to my seat between Danny Yardley and Nikkei Paige. They are my best friends though it’s just been a month we’ve met.

Danny always calm me down when I become really annoyed. He had blond hair, peachiest white skin and his friendly smile.

Nikkei is different from other girls here. Honey colored curly hair, pale white, sweet and gentle behavior. Together she is cute, gorgeous and good. I always had a silent crush on her but; I don’t like her advising me. Usually we end up in a fight. 

“Nice entry! Jason, but next times please don’t disappoint us.” Danny suggested.

“Guys, I’m sorry, ok”

“From when?” Danny asked.

“Jason, you always say that word when you’re late. Next time, try something new” Nikkei advised.

“Nikkei, would you stop advising me? I have my own reasons.”

“Not the nightmares again Jason, that’s the lamest excuse you gave Mrs. Hanson.”

“But that’s the truth. Why don’t you trust me?”

“Why should I trust when I know you’re lying?”

“I’m not lying. I did see a nightmare. It was so real, I felt like I was in my nightmare; I can still see the dead women laying on the ground with her eyes wide open and blood flowing out of her.”

“So much for advising a jerk.”

“Yah, I except I’m a jerk and I’ll show what a jerk can do” I squished her arm in anger.

“Aww… Jason, you’re hurting my arm” she yelled.

“Now you guys are making a big issue! I already think you and Nikkei were dating, now I’m starting to think you both broke up or something.” Danny whispered.

My face turned warm and pink when Danny said that. I looked at Nikkei to see her expression. She noticed my look.

“Danny, I won’t be gentle to words like that. And I’m not dating anyone to break up with, and I hate Jason, he’s a jerk!”

As soon as she said that all my hopes dried up.

“There’s no chance I could be dating Jason! Not even in my dreams or it would be my nightmare” the class was so, quite at that moment, that everyone heard what Nikkei said.

They all started laughing and staring at me.

That’s when Mrs. Hanson caught us talking in her class. Well she was already mad at me and now I just made it even worst. My friends are in trouble because of me.

She took us to Mr. Bernard Hainault, our new principle. He was tall, handsome and too young to be a principle, he was only thirty four.

“What do we have here? Mr. Marie chanson, me alegré de verte” he greeted, getting up from the chair.

We giggled for two reasons first; he pronounced chanson instead of Hanson. Second, he greeted Mrs. Hanson in Spanish and his way of speaking English was like a Spanish man.



“¡gracias! And It’s Marie Hanson sir.” Mrs. Hanson said starring at us.

“Sorry, I’m not so good in pronouncing ‘h’” he apologized and paused. “Is there something I can do for you?” he asked politely.

“Mr. Hainault, these three kids have been disturbing my class constantly. Even after warning them”. She angrily complained.

He gave us a stern look and asked Mrs. Hanson to stay out for some time.

Mrs. Hanson left the room immediately without a question. Soon after she did, he walked towards us and gave me a sharp look.

“You must be…” he paused as telephone rang”

He picked up the phone and said “hola”, that’s the last this we heard him say. He spoke for ten minutes at least but, one thing that seemed strange to us was that Mr. Hainault didn’t speak a word in reply to the caller except for shaking his head in tension. We looked at each other in doubt. He kept the phone but was very upset with that last call. He read our face and said,

“I’ll deal with you three later, for now you’re on the safe side. You can leave now! But remember this conversation is not over”

We walked out of the room returned to the class room, there she was standing, Mrs. Hanson with a happy and satisfied face with a smile. We went back to our seats.

My mind was full of questions and was really in a need of a group conversation but, didn’t wanna make an issue again. After the class I waited for my friends.

I saw Nikkei and gave a sign that I wanted to talk to her. She noticed me, but when she saw mike looking at us she took a piece of paper from her note pad and scribbled something on it. She gave it to me and rushed out in a hurry.

Danny came from behind and snatched the paper from my hand and exclaimed, “Perhaps a love letter!!!” he then read the note in a very low voice only I could hear.

“I know what you guys have in mind, but this isn’t the right place to talk about it. We’ll meet up in our usual place this evening at 4.00, and don’t forget, this is important” he paused “I was thinking about the same thing man, something is really fishy about our new principal” he finally said.

From this note and from what Danny said, I concluded that I was not the only one full of questions…   







CHAPTER 3        THE MYSTERY MAN



I thought about Mr. Bernard, why did he look so upset? He seemed perfectly fine before he received that strange call! And why did he look at me like that? He has never seen me before! Does he know my name? These were the questions that ran in my mind while I and Danny were walking our way back home.

I stay in Vineland; it’s a small city in New Jersey. It’s like three miles away from our school. That’s a lot to walk, but it’s always fun to walk with friends, talking all the way.



Danny was my neighbor, we walk to school together, except the days I had nightmares. Well, it’s not my fault that I get up late in those mornings.

Nikkei stays in the same street but, like five blocks away. Her brother, Sam picks her up in his car; he thinks it’s not safe to let her walk three miles in the streets with two guys. Hey! You can’t blame him either; it’s only a month we know each other.

“Who do think made that last call?” Danny asked me.

I was still thinking about my nightmare, I hardly heard what he asked. “Huhh?” I groaned.

“Hey!  Are you all right?” he asked me again.

“Yeah, I guess” I paused “I was still thinking about my nightmare. It seemed so real, like it really happened” I gasped.

“What was your nightmare about anyway?” he questioned.

I told him everything, even about the strange package. “Why would someone exchange a package in my dream? I know I sounded stupid but I really needed to know…”

“I don’t know! I never had such dreams; you’ve been getting nightmares for a long time! You should tell your mom” he advised

“No ways! And she’ll make it a big issue, she’ll call dad, and he’ll be here, with a doctor” I yelled “they just care too much, they don’t understand that I’m grownup”

Mr. Harrison drake, my dad, isn’t always here with us; he is a senior police patrol officer, so most of the times he’s out of country investigating murders. He comes home rarely like when if it’s really important, mom will call him or when he needs to work on an investigation in West field or around the town so…”



We covered two miles, that’s when I heard Danny yell.

“Hey, look over there!” he pointed out in a direction we were walking.

Few cops were standing there with each a wireless in the hand and few Police cruisers were parked in the street corner.

“What’s going on? What are those cops doing here” Danny innocently asked.

“Maybe some celebrity is coming through this way or probably an accident just took place” I told him showing no interest to the topic.

We reached the corner of the street; Vineland is a turn from there.

We wanted to reach home as fast as we could since we were starting to feel hungry and I could already hear my stomach starting to grumble.

So, we decided to take the shortcut through the pine woods. Though we knew the path was creepy with wild trees, insects and creatures that are yet to be discovered.

When we started to walk towards the pine woods, one of the cops noticed us. He came running and waving towards us, asking us to stop.

We stopped and stared at each other.

He had a tall and strong looking appearance.

“Hey Kids, you’re not supposed to go there, do you live around here?” the man asked while he was panting.

“We live in the same town sir, it’s nearby… and it’s called Vineland, if you ever heard of it, sir…” I answered him with respect.

“Yes indeed I have, but why are two going into the woods? You can’t roam around here like this. This place is under investigation”

“Sorry sir, but this pine woods have the easiest shortcuts to Vineland. These shortcuts would lead us home less than an hour”

“I can’t let you two go through these woods for now, like I said before, these woods and the surrounding areas are under our investigation and the team with the dogs will be here at any moment… sorry, but you will have to take the other routs”

I was losing my temper now, my respect for this man was starting to disappear, and was going to yell at him if Danny didn’t interfere between us.

“We clearly understand sir, we’ll take the road routs, come-on Jason we better hurry, we’re late already, and I don’t think we want to waste any more time!”

And all I knew after that was, we reached Vineland in an hour. We would have reached early if we took that shortcut, but that didn’t bother me now.

“Hey, we have to meet Nikkei in the park later this afternoon! Don’t forget!” I reminded Danny, though I knew I didn’t have to.

“Yeah, and I’ll meet you in your house”

We signed and left in different direction.

I saw a new car in front of my yard, and I knew very well who that car belonged to.

I flunked open the door and got inside, through my backpack on the dining table, and rushed towards my room.

My dad was sitting on the couch watching news. He watched me enter the hall, and glued his eyes again to the TV set; the news was about something important.

As soon as I entered my room, I closed the door and let myself fall on the bed.

“Why is dad here?” I wondered in the silent room.

And bang, the door slung open. Lesa jumped on my bed with a plate of creamed cupcakes, dropping half of them on my bed.

“Lesa, look what you’ve done, what are you doing in my room? Get out of here now!” annoyingly, I yelled at her.

“So, you don’t want the cupcakes? They’re creamy!”

I picked one cake and took a bite. “Lesa, I was wondering…” I paused “why dad was here?” I completed.

“You didn’t hear about the murder last night?”

“What murder?”

“A women was shot last night, they found her body in the street this morning… the newspapers and TV’s had her picture didn’t you see it? Guess not!”





“So, all that was real?” I questioned myself.

“All what?” she asked.

Ignoring her I got out of my bed and rushed to the hall hoping to find the newspapers that contained the women’s pictures.

I noticed a bunch of papers on the couch. I picked a few sheets from the top and went through them as I sat on the couch. It didn’t say anything about the murder.

“Jason, how’s your academics going on?” my dad asked me with a smile.

“Good… its prefect” I know he won’t be happy if I tell him about what happened this morning.

He turned the channel to world news time. And soon I saw a reporter standing next to a police cruiser in a very familiar place.

The reporter just said “A women was shot dead this morning, her frozen body was found on one of the lonely streets of Vineland, cops are still trying to  find some clue that can lead to the truth, who is behind this murder? The mystery killer stays hidden”

I wanted to burst out telling everyone what I saw in my dreams this morning but who would believe me? They would just think I’m mad.

Soon after, I heard someone at the door. I knew it was Danny. I taught, Good timing, I was waiting to tell him everything. Well I already told him half of it, he might believe me now. I grabbed my backpack and hurried to unlock the door before my mom does, or she would ask him to join the lunch. I have no time for a lunch. Especially not right now.

“No, you are not going anywhere before lunch mister” my mom caught me sneak out.

“Mom, we’ll eat from the restaurant on our way, we promised Nikkei for a group studies and Danny is probably outside, waiting for me” I said while stuffing a few cookies in my mouth.





                          CHAPTER 4

                      NIKKEI IS MISSING!!



I joined Danny at the door. “What are thinking? I’ve been waiting outside for less than fifteen minutes! Can’t you ever come early? At least once?” he scolded”Nikkei must be waiting for us!” he finished.

“I know I’m late, but have a good reason. I’ll tell you on our way. Right now, I think we should take a taxi or else we won’t make it!” I answered while rushing towards the taxi stand.

Luckily a taxi that passed us stopped, the blond driver opened the door for us as he enquired”any help? Get in!”

We rushed in quickly.

“Thanks for stopping by sir, would you drop us in the city outskirt?” Danny requested.

“City outskirt aye? No problem! As long as you kids pay me” he gave me an evil smile that showed off his ugly blackened teeth. Not to mention, the man almost scared me out of my skin. You must have known me well, by now! I get scared for silly things but that doesn’t mean I’m a coward!

Waiting for the city outskirt we sat in the back seat viewing the outside. That’s when Danny shook me. “Do you think we lost our rout? I’ve never seen all these building on the way out of the city” he asked me.

Somehow I felt the same too. “The driver might have messed up the routs” I thought

“Sir, are you on the right way? Did you hear us? We said we wanna go to the outskirt of this city not some darn place you wish” I yelled.

“Oh, don’t you kids make noise in my car! Wanta see that girl huh! Well, you will see her soon! I’m taking you to the right person alright! To the right place!!” he yelled back at us, and laughed. One of those evil laughs which that keep’s echoing in the ears.

“How did he know about Nikkei? Something is not right! What has he done to her? Is she ok?” I worried in my thoughts. I wanted to kill that guy and jump out of here but The doors won’t open  I tried my best to break it open but I felt numb that I couldn’t move even a bit. I kept worrying about Nikkei. Nothing else I could do!

Danny noticed me, he wanted to help me, but instead he went for the muscle trial against the driver. “Where are you taking us? What have you done to Nikkei?” Danny was almost going to knock that guy, the taxi jerked out of control at once.

“Don’t you hurt me? If you dare, go ahead! I don’t care; you'll only lose your friend. Remember, we have the girl!!!” he angrily roared at Danny.





                      to be continued....