The 10-57

Okay, guys… I need to share this in case this turns out to be my last post so you know what really happened to me. You might think I’ve gone nuts after reading this, but I swear that every word of this is true. What just happened a few minutes ago shook me to my core, but it actually began last month when I got a call about a missing kid. Let me tell you what happened then…

(The following took place about three weeks ago)
I got the call over the radio from Dispatch. “Unit 33, 10-57 at 1160 Maple Street.”

“Ten-four,” I replied. A 10-57 is a missing person and 10-4 is just how we acknowledge the calls we receive. Maple Street was just a few blocks over from where Rogers and I were patrolling. “Kid or alzheimer’s?” I asked him.

“Probably just a kid who’s playing Call of Duty at a friend’s house and didn’t tell his parents,” Rogers said. I nodded in agreement. A few minutes later, we pulled in front of the house and climbed out of the car.

As we shut the doors, we could hear a woman inside screaming, “WHERE DID HE GO?” I glanced at my watch: 11:43pm. We walked up to the house and knocked on the slightly ajar door. Scanning the exterior of the house, I noticed a security camera mounted on the front porch.

“Police! Is everything alright inside?” Rogers announced. A moment later, the door flew open and we stood face-to-face with the screaming mother. Her dark brown hair was frazzled as if she’d been pulling at it and her eyes were bloodshot, brimmed with tears.

“Ma’am? We got a call about a missing person, may we come in?” I gently asked. She swallowed and nodded before stepping to the side to let us in. A man sat staring at the home computer.

Rogers introduced us, “My name is Officer Rogers and this is Officer Hendrix. Can you tell us what’s going on?”

I could hear her fighting back tears as she said, “I’m Genie Walters and my husband is Justin.”

“What’s going on, ma’am?” I asked.

“Our son…” Genie’s face crumpled as she began sobbing. She sat on the sofa and covered her face with her hands, muffling her wails.

I turned toward Justin. “Sir?

His eyes brimmed with tears too, but he managed to maintain his composure. “It’s our son, Danny. He left the house while we were out and hasn’t come home.”

“How old is your son?” Rogers asked, pen in hand and ready to take notes.

“He’s thirteen. Eighth grade.”

“How long ago did he leave?”

“He left the house at 4:28 this afternoon,” Justin said.

I cocked an eyebrow and glanced at Rogers. “He left at exactly 4:28?” That was an oddly specific time.

An expression of sudden comprehension fell over Justin’s face. “Yes, we have a security system and that’s the time it recorded him leaving the house.” He gestured at the computer where a video was paused.

“May we see the footage?” I asked.

Justin swiveled in his office chair and restarted the video. Rogers and I stood behind Justin and watched the high-definition footage. “Does it have audio?”

“Yes, but there isn’t much.” He turned up the speaker volume and pressed play.

The video started with an interior view of the front door, and I glanced up at the wall and took note of the camera pointed at the door. Someone knocked on the door and a moment later a boy appeared in the frame.

“Is that Danny?” Rogers asked, writing down the boy’s description.

“Yes officer.”

Danny opened the door a crack and began speaking to someone on the other side, “Hi,” he said.

The person on the other side replied, “Hi, can we use your phone? We’re kind of lost and need to call our mom.”

“I don’t know, I’m not supposed to let anybody in.”

“It’ll be real quick. I promise.” It sounded like another boy about Danny’s age.

Rogers spoke up and asked, “Who’s he talking to?”

“Nobody. That’s the strange part,” Justin answered after pausing the video. I looked at him, befuddled.

“Can you unpause it?” I asked. He tapped the spacebar and the video started playing again.

“I don’t know,” Danny said hesitantly. I saw him peering through the open door, possibly to see if there was anyone else out there.

“Please? We really need to call her!” A second voice said loudly, more insistent than the first. That one sounded like a girl. Danny stuck his head through the doorway and it was obvious he was looking around. I don’t think he saw anything out of the ordinary because he then opened the door the rest of the way.

There were two kids on the front porch, both of them neatly dressed. One was a boy, about thirteen years old, and the other must have been his older sister. She looked about sixteen. Danny stepped to the side and said, “The phone is in the kitchen. Hurry up.”

The two kids entered the doorway but they stopped about three feet into the house and stood in front of Danny. The boy reached out with his arm and put his hand firmly on Danny’s shoulder. The camera didn’t have a clear view of Danny’s face, but from what I could see it looked like he was terrified of something and didn’t budge. He was clearly shaking though.

“Come,” the boy snarled. Danny violently shook his head.

The girl stepped closer to Danny and stared directly into his eyes. “COME! NOW!” She turned and left the house, followed by the boy. Once outside, they turned around and both gestured with their index fingers at Danny to come with them. He slowly began walking toward them, then stopped and stepped backwards further into the house. The boy glared at Danny and jabbed his finger toward his feet.

It was at this point I noticed his eyes. His eyes were black. Not just the iris, but his entire eyeball was a very deep pitch black, almost purple. I stared at them and felt a shiver of dread run down my back. He stamped his foot once, then Danny promptly walked out the door and left with them. They turned the corner and were out of the camera’s view.

“Do you have footage from the other camera outside?” I asked.

Justin clicked on an icon and another window opened. The three kids walked down the driveway and turned left at the sidewalk. The timestamp read 4:28pm.

“Do you know those kids?” I asked. Both my partner and Justin looked at me.

“What kids?” Rogers asked.

“That boy and girl he was talking to. He just left with them,” I pointed at the computer screen.

“Kids?” Justin had a clearly puzzled look on his face. He turned back to the computer, restarted his video feed, and leaned in closely as if he were trying to spot a detail he’d missed.

“Yes, those two right there!” I pointed at them when they appeared on the recording again. I jabbed my finger on the screen on each of them to emphasize where they were.

“Hendrix, there’s no one there,” Rogers said slowly. Now it was my turn to look at him quizzically.

“They’re RIGHT THERE!” Genie began sobbing loudly again as I raised my voice. I hadn’t even noticed that she’d stopped. “I’m sorry, ma’am! I didn’t mean to upset you further.”

By now, both Justin and Rogers clearly thought I’d lost my mind, so Rogers took over while I sat with Genie and tried to comfort her. He called Dispatch to report what we’d learned thus far and they sent another squad car to assist. In a missing persons case, time is of the essence and we didn’t want to waste any of it.

Not long after, the house was filled with officers and a pair of investigators took over from us. We gave them the information we had, minus the part about the two strange kids since I seemed to be the only one who saw them. Mind you, I wanted to tell them, but the withering look Rogers gave me shut me up real quick when I tried.

Before we left a few hours later, Genie whispered in my ear, “I saw them too! Please find my boy.”

That was then, and really is just the background so you understand what just happened a few minutes ago.

I was sitting on my couch in my boxers watching Gotham on Netflix when there was a knock at my apartment door. I got up and took a look through the peephole and nearly crapped myself. Standing outside my apartment, was none other than Danny Walters! I flung the door open and said in complete disbelief, “Danny? Danny Walters?”

Danny looked up at me innocently with his head tilted to the side and that’s when I felt the ice water running through my veins. His eyes were pitch black.

“Can I use your phone mister? I need to call my mom.”

I’ve never slammed a door shut faster in my life.

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