“So where did you say that you found this?” asked Officer O’Hare. “I found it in the kid’s room, right on his bed,” answered Officer Jones. They were both on the scene of the crime. It had been Officer Jones’ first investigation and he was inordinately aghast. “Listen son,” said Officer O’Hare. “I know going on a murder case for your first investigation isn’t the best thing but these kinds of things happen all the time and you have to get used to coming to these kinds of crime scenes.” “O.K.,” said Officer Jones. “But…where is that guy with the injury brief. I want to at least know what happened to the kid.” Officer O’Hare turned to him and said, “He’s not here yet, but why don’t we take a look at that journal and see what this kid wrote in it. I could give us some leads cause we got none.” Officer Jones opened the journal and exclaimed, “Why, it’s almost empty!!! There are only two or three pages filled out!” “Well, just read what is there.” Officer Jones read the first page aloud

April 24
Dear Journal,




I got this journal because I have been having some difficulty sorting things out in my head. My name is John. I live in a suburb right outside of Chicago with my parents and my dog. I normally have normal days with normal friends, like my best friend Tim, and well, basically a normal life. But something lately has got me thinking that my life might become more complicated and dangerous. A couple nights ago I heard a peculiar noise. Living right outside of Chicago and going into the city a lot I hear a lot of noises, no less a bizarre or peculiar noise. But this noise was different. It was more like a scratching chalkboard type of noise. And I am 100% absolutely certain there is no chalkboard in my house. Whatever (or whomever) made the noise definitely didn’t sound timid or shy. It sounded like an assertive noise. Normally I would just shake off the noise I heard and go back to bed. But a second after the noise I heard a screeching cry. I had heard it somewhere before, but I couldn’t remember where. The next day I woke and it came to me. It was the cry of a squirrel. I remembered because once I had been biking around my neighborhood and I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree. The noise it made when it hit the ground was so gruesome I always remembered it. At school I had pondered on to how it could be a squirrel. I asked Tim and he said there was a possibility a squirrel got into my house. He said that there are sometimes small holes on the outside of a house that a squirrel could get into. I told him to come over to my house tomorrow so that we could investigate. I hope that we can figure out what to do about this uncouth position I am in. But I have this odd feeling that this will turn out bad.





From,







John

Officer Jones paused for a second to see if Officer O’Hare wanted to say anything, but he did not so he kept reading on the next page.

April 25
Dear Journal,




It is morning and I couldn’t be more ecstatic because last night when Tim came we saw something supernatural. When Tim came over I said to him, “Thank god you’re here. I am scared as hell and I need someone to help me with this fiasco.” He smiled and said, “I’m glad to help. But can you tell me exactly what we’re dealing with here?” I brought him into my room and told him what had happened last night. “Well, why don’t you just tell your parents what happened and they can call the cops to tell them what happened.” I was somewhat angry at him for saying that because it meant that he wasn’t really paying attention to me. I don’t think he was taking me seriously. “No!” I cried. “I told you my parents are in Minneapolis visiting my grandparents and I had to stay behind because of a school project.” He leaned up from his sleeping bag and said, “Well, Mr. Conscientious, why don’t you show me some proof about this supposed ‘Monster-from-the-basement’?” I looked at him, steaming, and said, “O.K., I’ll show you!” I had him follow me down to the basement door and was about to open it when my common sense came into mind. “We should probably take a gun down there,” I said quietly to him hoping not to get and outrage for an answer. “WHAT!!!??? WHADDAYA YOU MEAN ‘A GUN’!!!???” He bellowed. I gave him a little time to let it soak in and calm down. Once calm, he said, “Why a gun?!?! Neither of us knows how to shoot one or where we could get one.” I replied to him, “There is a gun in my dad’s drawer upstairs and if there is something dangerous down there we need something to protect ourselves.” We walked up to my parent’s room and got my dad’s gun out of the desk drawer. When we got back to the door and were about to open it Tim said, “Maybe we should bring a flashlight too.” I knew then that he started to believe me about this thing. “We don’t need to, there is a light switch at the bottom of the stairs,” I said reassuring him. We opened the basement door and started to walk down the dark and clammy stairs. I reached the bottom of the stairs and groped for the light switch, but it was not there. Instead there was a gaping hole. I started to panic and Tim said, “What’s wrong? Turn on the switch!” “It’s not there!” I could tell that that distressed him too. We started back up the stairs when I heard the screech again. We both looked over and saw the most gargantuan and hair-raising thing. It was like something out of a horror movie. It had two long, red teeth and hair like a bear. In it’s right hand was a squirrel corpse and it was half eaten and chewed up. This thing had obviously been feeding on the squirrels coming into my house from a small hole. We both froze in our tracks and it probably would have eaten us if its chalkboard-scratching cry didn’t shatter the air like ice on a lake. We both sprinted as fast as we could back up the stairs. I locked the door when we were both up. “WE (pant) CAN NOT (pant, pant) GO BACK DOWN THERE!!!!!” said Tim. I realized that he was done with dealing with this. I mean, who wouldn’t after seeing something like that! Tim said that I was probably just messing with him and this was some big dumb joke. He also said he was going home and didn’t want to hear any more of my crap for the rest of the weekend. He sure was a big help. I’m going to have to figure out how to deal with this in the morning.









From,











John

Officer Jones looked up again and Officer O’Hare said, “Keep reading we need as much evidence as we can get.” Officer Jones replied, “But, there are only a couple more sentences left.” “Keep reading we’re still waiting on that injury report,” said Officer O’Hare. Officer Jones put his nose back into the book and kept reading.

April 26
Dear Journal,




This may be the last time I ever write in you and I desperately hope not. I was looking through my parents stuff and I found a large rifle (my dad is a hunter). I am going to take it downstairs and confront this beast myself. If I don’t stop it, it could kill everybody. If I don’t come back, this journal will serve as a record of what had happened. Whoever might read this, go to my friend Tim and ask for information on what happened. May god be with me.








From,










John

Officer Jones looked up and saw the look of horror on Officer O’Hare’s face. Just as they were letting all that information soak in, Officer O’Hare shook his head and said, “This kid probably was high and died from a drug overdose. If he was taking drugs he could have become delusional. Once we get the injury report we can work from there.” Officer Jones nodded. But just at that moment a man with glasses a clipboard came and said, “Hi Officer Jones and O’Hare?” They both nodded. “Yes, I have the injury report here for you.” Officer O’Hare took the clipboard and looked at it. While he was looking the man with glasses said, “Apparently the subject died from scratch and puncture wounds, including one under the chin that made a hole that goes up through the top of the skull. It also appeared that parts of his arms and legs had been broken and chewed on.” Officer Jones looked from the man with glasses to Officer O’Hare. Then the Officers looked at each other and they both said, “We need the S.W.A.T. team in here right away.” The man with the glasses looked at them like they were crazy. “But… sirs I don’t think that will be necessary.” “GET THE S.W.A.T. TEAM IN HERE NOW!!!!!!!!” “Yes sirs!” said the man as he scuttled away. Officer Jones looked at Officer O’Hare and said, “What does this mean sir?” Officer O’Hare looked back and said, “I’m not one to believe supernatural things, but I think this means that we got a homicidal monster on our hands in the basement of that house right there!” He exclaimed pointing to the crime scene house. Right then the S.W.A.T. team arrived. The general walked up to the Officers and asked, “What do we have on our hands here sir?” “Apparently we have a… (Sigh)…supernatural monster in the basement of that house,” said Officer O’Hare, realizing how ridiculous it sounded as he said it. The general looked puzzled and said, “You call us all the way out here for some non-existent monster?” Officer O’Hare gave him the journal and the injury report. The general read them. At first he looked as if it was all a load of crap, but soon as he connected the victim to the journal and the injury report his eyes got wide. Astonished, he gave back the journal and the injury report. “Maybe this monster isn’t non-existent, but even if it does exist what do we do about it? We can’t just send men down into that basement it would be suicide!” exclaimed the general. Officer O’Hare was about to open his mouth to argue but Officer Jones cut him off saying, “Maybe it is suicide, but it’s worth saving all the other lives that might be lost if we did nothing about it. How many people live within a square mile radius of this place?” Office Jones asked the general. The general thought about it for a moment and said, “It’s a pretty densely populated suburb so probably about 100 people within a square mile radius.” “So imagine this: the families and friends of all those 100 people affected by the death of their relative or friend. That would probably affect at least 3,000 other people. Do you really want that?!?!?” Officer Jones said screaming at the general. Officer O’Hare could not believe what he was seeing. A young officer on his first case ordering around a S.W.A.T. general for the general safety of the people. Officer O’Hare was almost angry at his young trainee but he had to give Officer Jones the credit for being able to stand up to such a high official. “I guess you’re right. Men, I want a group of 10 S.W.A.T. team members going into that house to do a scouting search,” ordered the general. “Yes sir!” saluted the men. 10 of them slowly walked toward the door. “Stand back people!!!” yelled the leader of the squad. Immediately every person in the crowd of people stepped back. One man kicked down the door and they all ran in. After they were all in it was quiet for a moment. Then the general got a call in on his cell phone from the head of the squad group. “We’re in. No sign of anything upstairs or on the ground level floor. Permission to proceed to the basement?” The general paused for a moment to look at the Officers. They simultaneously nodded. Speaking into the cell phone the general said, “Permission granted. Proceed with caution.” The general hung up and it was quiet again. Tension had stricken the crowd and everyone was waiting for a call back from the squad leader. Suddenly, a few squad members ran out of the house screaming. Then out of nowhere, the roof of the house exploded. A giant monster with two teeth glistening red and fur like a bear was roaring and holding half of the corpse of one of the squad members. It had two huge horns that resembled a moose’s and had a dead fiery stare in its eyes that looked like it belonged to Satan himself. The S.W.A.T. members held their ground and the S.W.A.T. tanks began to aim as the crowd ran away screaming like frightened rabbits being chased by wolves. The Officers and the general all looked at each other and knew they were in trouble. But they were ready to fight. They all screamed, “CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” And all the squad members, tanks, the general, Officer Jones and Officer O’Hare charged and prepared for the fight of their lives