Heads…

Hello my name is Reijo Almila. I am a high schooler at Springfield High School. I am 16 years old. I am a freshmen. My favorite color is blue and sometimes green. I am 5’ 3” and 135.8 pounds. I am a brown haired, green eyed, and scrawny kid. I just moved to this school in Lucherberg, Germany, from Velkua, Finland.

To me, this school freaks me out. Everyone in this school is so weird. Today is my first day, and I am having the weirdest time. For lunch we were served green mashed potatoes with blue gravy and black tomatoes. EW! The teachers in this school are all strange. They don’t answer our questions when we ask them ; they don’t speak to us. I wonder if they ever talk or even breathe. Well, I am in fifth period right now and bored to death. The class is supposed to be English, but so far we have not even learned anything or done anything. We just spent our time staring at the walls.

At the end of the period, I had a headache because of how quiet it was in the room. I went to my locker so I could go get my Spanish book. I opened it and there was blood everywhere. On the top shelf in my locker there was a severed head just sitting there on top of my Spanish book. I had no idea what to do. Then I spotted a note on top of the head and it said, “YOU’RE NEXT!” I started to freak out, and I did not know who the head belonged to and who was doing this to people. There was something very wrong with this school and everyone in it. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed what was in my locker and, surprisingly, no one cared or even seemed to notice. I quickly closed my locker. I decided to take the rest of the school day off. I just had to get out of that place!

When I got home, I just knew that I could not tell my Mom until I had evidence that someone was trying to murder me. I went into my room and got my computer out and did some research. I found out that finding who was doing this was not going to be an easy job. After a long time of looking things up, I decided that I am just going to have to do this on my own with no help from anybody.

That night, when my Mom called me down for dinner (My Mom is a tall lean woman, green eyes and brown hair. I am basically a perfect copy of her, but male of course.), I went and sat at the table and tried to avoid bringing up the school day to her. We had pork chops with a fruit salad. That was much better tasting than the school lunch. After sitting in silence for a couple minutes, Mom brought up the one thing that I did not want to be brought up. I hesitated when I opened my mouth to say something, then finally said, “It was very interesting.”

“How was it interesting? Was it very different from your old school?” In my mind, I was trying to figure out a way to change the subject. I finally found one, “Mom were you able to go out and look for a job?” She did not answer the question either. We just sat in silence for the rest of our dinner.

After I was done, I cleaned off my dishes and placed them in the dishwasher. Then I hurried upstairs hoping to do some more research about the issue. The only thing that I found was that a boy about my age was released from prison two weeks ago in a town near my house. I looked up some articles on the boy and all of them said the same thing. His name is Jared Smith; he is 16 years old. He was sent to prison for twenty-four years for killing one hundred people. He ended up only having to serve four years ,because his lawyer got him out before his time was up due to good behavior. He killed the people by decapitating them and giving their head to his next victim warning them that they were next. I printed out all the articles I could find on him ,and put it in a folder so I could look at them later.

The next morning when I woke up I reached over to grab the folder with the articles.  I opened it and the articles were not there, only a sticky note saying, “You better watch your back, Reijo Almila. I will come for you.” I started to freak out about what I should do ,because I had to do something fast or I was going to be Jared’s next victim. I had to go to school that day and get the decapitated head out of my locker and find out who the head belonged to. When I got there the halls were empty, no one to be seen. (It reminded me of an old, abandoned school like the one you would go in on Halloween.) I ran to my locker and put the combo in and opened my locker. I was so glad I grabbed a bag before I left the house, because I was going to need it. I pulled the bag out of my backpack and hurried to put the head in the bag without being seen by anyone. I gently put it in my backpack and shut my locker. I ran through the front doors of the school and all the way home.

When I got to the front door of my house. I was hoping that Mom was out finding a job or just out of the house so I could sneak In without any problem. I opened the door and peaked my head in. I was wrong, Mom was in the kitchen making Gingersnap cookies. They smelt like heaven coming from the kitchen. I went back outside and shut the door carefully so Mom would not hear or suspect anything. I had to make up another plan of how to get in the house silently. My next thought was to climb up the tree that is right in front of my window to my room, and just pry the window open from the outside and sneak my way in that way. I went with that idea and started to climb the tree hoping the head will not fall out of my backpack in the process.    

I got inside my room, I set down the head slowly and went to get my computer off of my desk to do some more research about Jared. I found the same articles. I decided just to read them instead of printing them off ,and end up losing them.  I got a little more explanation on him, such as What he looked like, What his backstory was and What he does before he kills his victims. He looked like a 16-year-old boy that is a straight A+ student and has nothing to be worried about when it comes to college. His backstory was that when he was eleven years old, his mother killed herself. His dad never loved him after she died. All his dad did was beat him and get drunk to death. About two years later his dad ended up dying of a drug overdose. Ever since then Jared has been an orphan and no one wants to take him in because of his past. Instead of turning to grief, he turned to anger and murder. Jared always warns this victim by giving them clues and see if they can stop him before he can get his hands on them. He will simply strangle them and then cut off their head.

When I finished reading that I started to understand why he was doing this to people. I had a similiar problem when my father died four years ago from a drug overdose too, but my mother did not turn to drinking and beating me for his death. I actually think my mother is glad that he died because he was very aggressive with her and I.

I went to bed that night thinking of a way to stop Jared from doing this to any more people. I could not think of anything ,except one thing that I thought would probably not work. The idea was to find some kind of family who would take Jared into their home and would be Jared’s family away from home. That family could try to help him with the problems he is struggling to face by himself. When I get up I will stay home sick and put up a website for people to sign up to become Jared’s new family. Then when I get enough people signed up I will interview them to make sure they are a perfect fit for him.

I woke up the next morning to Mom whispering in my ear something that I did not understand. When she realized I was awake she instantly stopped and walked out of my room not saying anything else to me. I wanted to ask her what she was saying to me ,but I did not want to startle her. I got dressed and went down stairs to get some breakfast. I sat down when Mom said something to me that sounded kind of like gibberish. When she stopped I asked her what she said and she said it again and then she started to sound like she was going crazy. I ate the rest of my breakfast in silence trying to understand what was going on with Mom. I knew that if I told anyone they would think I was crazy so I didn’t.

I went to school and it happened that no one was there once again so I went back home and climbed through my bedroom once again. I was struggling to figure out what was happening to this place and everyone in it.

After a couple of hours of not being able to figure it out I gave up and went out to look for Jared Smith. The first place I thought of going to was the library to do some more research of where he lived and how I could find him. when that did not work I just went off the information I already knew about him like where his home town was. I started there I took the first bus to the town of Lamersdorf, Germany.

When I got to Lamersdorf I started to ask people around if they knew Jared and so far it seems like everyone knows everyone in that town. I found out where he lived from his friendly neighbor. I walked up to the house and then started to rethink what I was doing. The house was all ragged, worn down and looked like a dump. There was trash every where, newspapers on the ground by the mailbox just piling up. I slowly walked up to the door and rang the doorbell but nothing happened. A couple of minutes later I knocked on the door just to make sure that if anyone was home they would hear me. When finally someone came to the door it was Jared. When I actually saw his face I started to freak out a little bit because the first thing I noticed was that he had scars all over his face.  After a minute of staring at each other he asked “what do you want? If you are a news reporter I am not going to an answer your questions.” “I am not a news reporter I am Reijo Almila why do you want me dead so bad? And why have I been your victim right after you got out of jail?”

Then it happened he attacked me right in front of his house. He punched my in the stomach and I buckled over in pain. The next thing I knew I was in his basement in the corner handcuffed to a metal circle that was connected to the floor. Then all of a sudden I was in excruciating pain coming from my head and ribs. I started to cry knowing that I was not going to get out of this house alive. After three minutes of crying I suddenly realized that I was not alone. I asked in a cracking voice “Who’s … there?” A small little voice said back “Just me and you. We will never get out of this alive.” “What is your name?” When my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I saw that she was a little girl about ten years old and is very bruised. I am guessing it is from the abuse that Jared was giving her. The girl said her name was “Sara.” “That is a very pretty name my name is Rejio. How long have you been down here and being abused by Jared?” I asked. “I have been down here for maybe a year or maybe a couple of months. I have no clue. All I know is that I have been down here for quite a while,” she replied. “That is horrible. Do you remember the last day that you have seen the date?” “The last date I remember is 5-20-2010.” “Okay, well I am sorry ,but you have been down here for six years and twelve days. How old are you anyways?” I asked. “I do not know. All I remember is that my birthday is March 11, 2002.” “Well lets see, you would be three days and thirteen years old. You have been down here for Six years of your life.” “Jared has been abusing me for six years and I feel like it has been twelve years. He does some really mean stuff. He treats me like a punching bag when he gets angry,” she said. “I think maybe in a couple of days someone will find us and get us out of here,” I said. “I have lost all hope of getting any help coming.” “Someone will come I just know it.” “We better get some sleep so we can be ready if they ever come,” she told me. “OKay well good night.”

When I woke up I could not see anything in front of me and realized that there was a blindfold over my eyes. I tried to say something to Sara ,but I could not speak. I sat up and just sat there till something happened. I could hear voices in the distance but I could not understand what they were saying. When the voices stopped talking and it was silent I could hear footsteps coming towards me. once the person came to me and was standing right in front of I felt like screaming. The person unlocked the handcuffs and was dragging me somewhere. Once the person stopped, I got to my feet and just stood there wishing I could look around to see anything important or obvious to where I was. The person finally took off the blindfold after what felt like twenty minutes. I saw his face once again and fear struck me cold. I could not move for a couple of seconds ,because I was so scared. Once I could move I took what was in mouth out and asked “What did you do with Sara?” “She is in a good place now.” “Where is that exactly” I asked. “Where you will end up after I am done with you” “Please just let me go I didn’t do anything to you. Why are you doing this?” I demanded. “Because of what you are and who you are.” “What am I? … Who am I? … and … What did I do to you?” I asked. “YOu will just have to find out when I am done here.” He then punch me as hard as he could in the stomach and I fell to my knees. He walked out of the room only to come back with a whip and two more people. The two helpers came over to me and made me stand up. Then they slammed me into the wall. Then he started whipping me. The first time he did it he went across the neck that one was so painful that I coughed up blood that landed on the wall. The next one he did was across my ribs and I am pretty sure it broke a couple of them. After he did a couple more I fell to the ground struggling to take a breath. The two helpers just left with the whip in hand. Jared and I were the only ones in the room. Once I could get a good enough breath I screamed as loud as I could knowing that no one was going to hear me except Jared. After I screamed Jared walked forward so he was right at my side and then he kicked me right in the side as hard as he could. I started to cry having that feeling that I was going to die that I was going to be his next victims warning that they were next. Jared left the room to me curled up in a ball crying in pain. He came back six minutes later with a pocket knife in hand. He came up right to me and flipped me on my back and started at my neck.

AHHHHHH! I woke up in the middle of the night in my bed. I started to cry realizing that it was just a nightmare and that it was never real. To this day that nightmare is occurring in my sleep that one day I will became someone’s victim of abuse and never get out of it alive.

 

The End

 

-Natalie Christensen