The Misadventures of the Man Formerly Known as Victor Heart

Somewhere in the woods surrounding Sunset City a group of college students were sitting around the campfire telling stories. The group contained four sets of siblings with weird rhyming names: Brad, Chad, Mandy, Candy, Randy, Addison, Madison, Aiden, and Caden. It’s up to each person to decide which is weirder, so many twins being friends with each other or the names. Personally, I think it’s the latter. It was currently Chad’s turn, and he was telling a story that supposedly happened in the camp they were counseling at, Camp Vaguely Offensive Name.

“Ok so the story goes like this. Once upon a time there was this loser…”

He was promptly interrupted by his friend Randy, “Hey, lay off the fictitious kid.”

With an eyeroll Chad continued his story, “Back on topic, this poor sweet summer child was bullied by every other person at camp, even the paste eater. No one could ever tell why he was chosen, he was just chosen as the sacrifice, the scapegoat. The children showed just how cruel kids can be by inflicting every horror they could imagine on him. They would put random stuff they found in the woods into his food, sometimes making him sick and sometimes it just made the food taste bad. They would pants or wedgie him whenever they passed by and he was not paying attention. Then there was the psycho stuff: thumbtacks in his shoes, peeing all over his clothes, and creating a fake secret admirer that he was tricked into falling for only to be mocked by everyone. Honestly it was a lot of work for something so meaningless.”

“As with many things, the attacks escalated and with this Bobby became more and more resentful, but not at his peers. He somehow had the maturity to know that the other kids were not at fault, the fault lied with the counselors who did nothing when they witnessed the abuse. The abuses he suffered grew ever worse as his tormentors feared consequences less and less. This culminated in the worst night of his life, also his last. They woke Bobby up in the middle of the night by throwing a backpack over his head. When he struggled against his attackers, they proceeded to tighten their grip on his limbs and lay into his ribs with several punches. When they carried him into the woods, they passed a counselor. When the counselor asked what they were doing, the kids said horseplaying and Bobby begged for help. The counselor decided he did not really care and took the path that required less work, to take the kids words over Bobby’s. When the kids reached a clearing in the woods, they dropped Bobby on the ground. When they did, they realized he was no longer breathing. Hyperventilating and restricted airflow are an unfortunately fatal combination. Scared of the consequences, they ran back to their bunks and feigned sleep even though it never came to them, too tormented by the realization of what they did and had become.”

“The funny and tragic thing is that if they got him help, they could have prevented two tragedies. For you see Bobby was not dead just unconscious, but a night in a ditch without help remedied that. The first tragedy was that of a young boy’s tragic and premature death. The second was what came later. As the young boy’s corpse lay in that clearing his soul was trapped in his earthly vessel by his unjust death. That young boy was then twisted by his hate and resentment into an unholy creature. Bobby had become a twisted mockery of the human form: one arm gigantic, one skin and bones, one foot facing forward, the other backwards, skin a sickly gray, and a face that could be barely recognized as human let alone as Bobby’s. The abomination started making its way back to the cabins while picking up a pair of garden shears it encountered along the way. When the kids woke up the next day it was to all the counselors’ entrails spread across the camp. The monster was never seen again but is said to still wander these woods to this day.”

“Well on that note I gotta go empty my bladder on some tree. Here’s hoping that I don’t meet Bobby along the way.” Caden chuckled before walking into the woods.

Caden missed the shadow shambling in the background while relieving himself. One could hope that if he saw it what was to come could have potentially been avoided. Unfortunately, no one would ever know how that branch of this story could have gone. Instead, he went back to the campfire unaware of the uninvited guest.

“Ok Ok, it’s my turn.” Madison said while clapping excitedly.

“Once upon a time…” Madison started before being interrupted.

“That’s for fairy tales, not horror stories” Randy interjected.

“Randy, I swear to god if you interrupt someone again, you’re gonna see some stars.” Brad told the young man before glancing at his not-so-secret crush.

“okie dokie back to my story. Once upon a time…”

Randy suppressed his chuckle after seeing Brad’s glare.

“There existed a small family consisting of parents and their single child. This was not a normal happy little family due to the father having what was like totally a drinking problem. The drink unveiled what was hidden inside the man, a small ugly angry monster that took out his anger on those who used to care for him. One night something just set him off and he did not stop even after his wife was on the ground unconscious. His daughter ran to him and tried to beat him off or rescue her mother. She was subsequently thrown into a huge mirror that hung in their living room. The mirror shattered and left a bunch of shards in the young girl’s arms and back. She picked a large, pointed piece off the ground and put it into her father’s neck. She then collapsed due to her injuries. That night the girl died in a puddle of blood and mirrors and Bloody Mary was born in that same puddle. Ever since every time she sees something she does not like, she goes into a blinding rage that leaves everyone involved including the victims dead.” Madison concluding her story.

After another couple of hours of storytelling, the counselors split off and turned in for the night.

Brad with Mandy, Chad with Candy, Randy with Addison, and everyone else alone.

After several hours, the night was broken by a blood curdling scream. After being woken up all the counselors converged on Madison’s room where they believed the scream originated from.

They dreaded what they would find in there, especially her sister, but they had to find out.

Chad pushed open the door and the smell that emerged told the group exactly what happened.

When they entered, they all choked on the metallic scent in the air and were horrified by what they saw. It was a lesson of contrasts: a pale white corpse in a sea of crimson, a peaceful young woman surrounded by violence, beauty surrounded by ugliness.

They all stood there in awkward silence, not a single one of them knowing what to do. No one wanted to break the silence as the moment they did, it would lock this moment into reality and once it was, they would need to deal with it. However, reality is often heartless and to deal with it they must.

“MADISON!!!” Addison bellowed before dropping to her knees with her hands over her mouth covering her screams.

Randy rushed to his girlfriend’s side to comfort her.

The others just stood around not knowing what to do with the situations regarding either sister.

After several minutes, Addison’s face morphed into an angry grimace.

“I’m totally gonna find this B*****d and when I do, he will regret ever being born” Addison gritted through her teeth before storming off.

Randy was conflicted, on one hand was his girlfriend and the other was his sisters. Chad seeing him torn, decided to put aside their differences and help him out.

“Randy, you stay here with Aiden and Caden to protect the girls. While Brad and I will go with her.” Chad said before chasing after Addison with his brother.

“Hey, keep her safe.” Randy called out behind him thankfully.

“I will, never doubt that. You keep your sister safe for me” Chad called over his shoulder jogging to keep up with Addison.

Addison was already at the entrance of the forest by the time Brad and Chad reached her.

“Hey Addison, wait up for us.” Brad called out behind her. He then handed her one of the weapons he could find, a fire poker.

“Let’s split up to cover more ground.” Addison stated monotonously all business.

“Ok Daph, you go north. Me and Scoobs will go east and west respectively. Are you kidding me? Its Already bad enough we are trampling through the woods looking for a killer. Now you want to separate. What pray tell will a hundred twenty-pound white girl wearing short shorts and Ugg boots do to the guy that eviscerated that exact same girl earlier tonight?” Brad retorted.

“Finding the killer in these woods is a needle in a haystack. The only way we have a shot in hell to find him is to split up.” Addison implored not caring about reason or logic.

Brad, while thinking, ran his hand through his hair.

“Alright, fine. But only if we stay close to each other and call for help at even the slightest hint of trouble. Deal?” Brad offered.

“Deal.”

And off into the woods they go. Only one would return from this excursion.