This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/GN0515_ on 2024-11-04 05:56:00+00:00.
He sat behind the long, heavy table, his small body almost swallowed by its size. His eyes were glassy, stained with tears that had fallen on his freckled face. I walked over and sat down, gazing at the dark-haired boy as his mother, with similar hair and features, held his small hand. "Derrick, can you tell me the last time you saw your friend Jimmy?" I inquired softly.
"I saw him at the edge of the woods," Derrick stuttered, his hands clenching his mother's tightly. "He was looking in there and said he heard something."
"Did you see anyone, like anybody strange?"
He shook his head. "I didn't see anyone, officer."
"What about before that?" I asked, my mind flashing through a slideshow of little Jimmy's body, found in a shallow creek bed, the side of his head stained with a mixture of dried mud and blood. Each image paused in my mind before the next one appeared.
“No, I didn’t see anything,” Derrick said softly. His mom looked at me with concern. No parent wants to see their child questioned, no matter how gently, by a detective in a police station.
“I promise, it won’t be much longer,” I said, trying to reassure her worried expression. I paused, carefully choosing my next question so as not to overwhelm the ten-year-old boy. “Did Derrick say anything before he went into the woods?”
“He said he heard a boy laughing in the woods,” Derrick sobbed, more tears welling up in his eyes. I handed him a tissue, and he wiped away the tears from his soft cheek. “He said it sounded like the boy was having lots of fun, and we tried to tell him not to go in there because we needed to go home.”
“Did he say he saw the boy?”
“No one ever sees it when Kyle laughs in the woods,” Derrick squeaked, his eyes wide with fear. “No one ever can ever see Kyle until it’s too late.”
“Alright, Derrick, go home. Just know that we’re on the case and we’ll find out who hurt your friend,” I replied, standing up and looking over at his mother, whom Derrick was now gripping tightly.
“Danny Patterson has put that scary story in his head,” the mother seethed. “He came up to us at the grocery store and kept saying how Kyle loves to laugh in the woods.”
“Danny Patterson, you say?” I inquired, my curiosity piqued.
“Yeah, he’s your friend. Tell him to leave us alone, Jake,” she said.
“Me and Danny Patterson haven’t really been close since junior high,” I remarked, slightly annoyed. Even to this day, in this small town, and as a police officer, I was still associated with Danny Patterson, a drunkard who I only ever interacted with in the drunk tank or on the street. “But I’ll talk to him.”
–
“They should really just put a fence up around that creek,” Sam said dismissively. If I hadn’t been in the car and listening over the speakers, I would have shot him an annoyed look. “It’s a steep fall, and all the rocks below it make it even more hazardous.”
“I’m just as aware of that as you are, Sam,” I huffed, passing the small gas station where we used to get soda and candy bars when we were wandering the small town looking for adventures. “This is the third time in ten years a body has been found in that creek.”
“Yeah, because kids fall in it, and the town should do something about it!”
“The kid said that his friend heard a boy laughing in the woods before he disappeared.”
“Oh God, not the ‘Kyle loves to laugh in the woods’ bullshit again,” Sam grumbled as I continued to drive past Dirkler Road’s Church of Christ. “They’ve been saying that since we were kids!”
“It started when we were kids, Sam.”
“Yeah, it did, but that doesn’t mean we have to obsess about a town’s legend,” Sam retorted. “Do you think some ghost kid bashed another kid’s head in?”
“Of course not, I want to know if someone else did!”
“Or if he fell into the creek bed like the others.”
As I was formulating a way to convey my annoyance, I saw something small, with dark hair, running across the road. My car was about to collide with it. I could see a boyish smile on the figure’s face.
“Shit!” I yelled, stomping on the brakes. The screech of rubber and pavement echoed through the car as I turned the wheel right. My car slid onto the shoulder and into the grass.
“Jake, are you there?” Sam shouted as my heart raced. I quickly put the car in park and looked around, but there was no sign of the little boy. “Jake, do I need to call the police?”
“I am the police, Sam.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I am. I almost hit a kid.”
“Where are you at?”
“I’m at the park close to the Dirkler Road Church.”
“Wait, you’re going to the crime scene?”
“I am,” I replied, as I saw the ghosts of my childhood past: the sway of swings in the fall wind, the crack of branches scraping against each other in the canopy of the woods, and the sight of playground equipment. The once-red slide was almost white from being sun-bleached over the last twenty years. The monkey bars were rickety and dangerous; hardly anyone ever came to this playground. “I’ll call you back. I’m going to check on the kid.”
“Alright, call me back when you wrap up.”
“Sure,” I said, hanging up the phone and opening the car door. The wind roared briefly as I looked around, trying to find the kid, but there was no sign of him. I began walking towards the playground, where I could see the treeline that led to the woods where Jimmy had gone before disappearing and later being found dead in the creek bed.
“Hey anyone out there?” I yelled out. “I just want to make sure you are okay?”
I heard the snap of a few sticks, as if someone was running through the woods. I picked up the pace, awaiting a reply, but none came. When I said, "I'm with the police," the sound of small footsteps running continued from the woods.
I stopped at the edge of the woods. More ghosts of the past came to mind, another slideshow playing in my head: Sam, Danny, and I running around these woods, on a sugar high from candy bars and soda.
"Kid, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you're alright," I said, taking a deep breath before stepping into the woods. Another footstep crunched through the leaves, coming from what sounded like the left. I turned to see what looked like small fingers curled around a tree, as if someone was hiding.
"Come on out now," I shouted, walking towards the tree. I slowed down as I observed the fingers. They were discolored, almost a rotten green, and looked far too wrinkled to belong to a child.
"Hey, I need you to come out from there," I said, feeling uneasy. I unclipped my holster and placed my hand on my gun, but something stopped me. The sound of laughter, like a child trying to imitate a demonic cackle, filled the air.
"Come out now!" I shouted.
My command was greeted by more chortling and giggling.
"Just because you're a kid doesn't mean I can't detain you, you know?" I insisted, standing about ten feet away from the tree. The fingers curled further, almost as if trying to dig into the trunk. The sound of heavier footsteps rustling through the leaves came from behind me. I pulled out my gun, gripping it tightly with both hands, and whipped around.
A haggard man, with a beer belly protruding from his deep red flannel shirt, his jeans stained with dirt and dead leaves. His dark beard and hair showed signs of aging, streaked with gray, and his heavy-lidded eyes met mine with surprise.
"Jake, what are you doing here?"
"No, the question is what are you doing here, Danny?" I huffed angrily. "You know a crime happened here, right?"
"Yeah, I know that. I'm here to get answers."
"And how the hell are you going to do that?" I asked, turning toward the tree. The fingers were gone, replaced only by silence. No more laughter. "I'm handling the case."
"Just because you're a cop now doesn't make you superior or a better person," Danny mocked as I walked to the tree and peered behind it. Nothing remained, not even an imprint in the soil or the dead leaves on the ground.
"No, but it makes me wonder what you're doing here."
"I told you what I'm doing here."
"Walking around the park after harassing a little boy who just lost his friend."
"I didn't harass anyone, Jake," Danny grumbled as he approached, and I holstered my gun. "He knows what happened to him."
"And what is that, Danny?"
"You know Kyle loves to laugh in the woods."
"I'm done here," I snapped, scanning the ground for footprints. Danny shuffled quickly behind me. "You know someone could think you're the suspect, walking around here."
"Are you going to arrest me, Jake?"
“For interfering in a police investigation.”
"Come on, you and I both know that it's very real," Danny insisted, trying to keep up the pace. "You can pretend all you want, but you know, I know, and Sam, wherever he is, knows."
"No, only you think an angry boy ghost is killing kids!" I shouted, turning to face Danny. His breath and clothing reeked of cheap whiskey and cigarettes. "Sam thinks it's ridiculous too!"
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I want to know what happened to that poor fucking boy!"
The sound of laughter echoed through the woods as I paused, trying to pinpoint its source. I looked at Danny, who seemed frozen, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. "You can't tell me you aren't hearing it," Danny prodded.
"Yeah, I saw a kid run across the street as I was driving here."
"It was him, Jake."
"No, it was some kid with black hair! He was very real."
The laughter grew louder as I glanced past Danny's shoulder to see a small figure standing about fifteen feet behind hi...
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