Parasite

• Julian Summers, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2014

The following report will show my recollection of what has happened to two teenagers in one night. This is my version of all the evidence given from numerous people. What if you were a person who had an ability that no-one was willing to believe, nor be prepared to know about... something that could literally let a person ‘create ghosts’. This is Jake's case, and virtually no-one knew about his curse. Until now. This is Jake's story, and I can only pray that I can deliver it in less than four hundred words while being descriptive.
Here it is.

"Come on, Jake, you know that this will be exciting," Melissa said.
She had long brown hair, a small amount of freckles, slightly elfish ears, and all the perfect features. The wind was playing with her purple blouse, and her jeans were flaring out the bottom, as usual. All this fitted perfectly into Jake’s category of “Beautiful”. And Jake was hopelessly in love with her. As he strode along beside her, he heard them. Footsteps, along with the whispering. I see you, it said. Jake was furious. “Not now. Please not now”. Then it happened. Melissa turned to him suddenly, saying,
“Did you hear that?”

‘That’ was the whispering, and the footsteps, all slowly coming from Jake’s mind and into reality. I see you. I see you. It was getting louder, until it abruptly stopped. And then it happened. A figure started to slowly become visible, the figure of a tall man. He kept walking, until he was clearly visible. He wore a lowset hat, dipping just below his eyes, like the old fedora hats gangsters wore. His trench coat was flapping around him, his blue denim jeans tight around his legs. When he spoke, they noticed his mouth for the first time. It was a shredded mess, seeming to be made out of ribbons sewn together with a pencil. And when he did speak, he spoke with a sound that was not human, nor alien. It was the sound of pure fear.
“Run.”
They tried. But the thing that Jake had created out of pure thought was already upon them, laughing as he grabbed them, dragging them away as they screamed and struggled in his grip.

There was no description of Jake, and so he was never found after he disappeared into the bushes with Melissa that night. Countless search and rescue teams have tried venturing into the bushes to find him, but none of them came out alive. One body was found floating down a river late one afternoon by a local farmer, and a note was stuck into his chest, reading, “Leave me alone,” There were also sightings of a tall man reported in the area, holding a bright purple blouse in his hand, ripped and almost in pieces. The moment he was out of anyone’s field of view, his details were forgotten. The only memory people seem to have is his fedora hat and long trench coat.

The tall man, after the incidence, he has been seen in many countries around the world, all before and after someone disturbed or troubled has gone missing, or been found dead. I have a feeling that Jake did not intentionally create this ‘tall man’ but I believe that it created itself. The case of Jake and Melissa has not been solved, and I feel that it will not be for a long, long time.
I will wait for your reply for as long as it takes. It was a parasite.
Sincerely,
Julian Summers.
Chief Detective