Short Stories By Me

The Bat In The Alley

I did this one at the very end of 2017, on the 15th of September, so the quality of this one may not be the best in the world, but I did add stuff where I felt like it was too vague, in fact, I basically rewrote the entire story.

My teacher gave us a sentence and we had to continue from there.

Trigger warning for mention of death and description of weapon used.
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As Emily stooped to tie her laces, it finally dawned on her...

Emily snapped her head towards a large rubbish bin behind her; off to the side, she could have sworn she felt eyes on her. 'Well, that was... strange, to say the least.' Emily pondered as she cautiously turned her head back in front of her.

She continued walking through the fairly familiar alleyway. "Maybe I should've stuck to the long way, instead of taking a shortcut through a dark alley." She sarcastically mumbled to herself.

Emily felt unsafe. She'd only been through this alleyway once before.

A tickling, tingly sensation crawled up her back and onto her neck, ceasing itself at her hairline before shooting down her forearms and dispersing just before it reached her elbows. Her body hair stood on end as goosebumps thrived on her arms and legs. Her body knew something was wrong, but her mind couldn't quite comprehend it.

"Shit." Emily breathlessly muttered, "Where was the exit again?" she wondered aloud.

She glanced from side to side, torn between two possible paths, 'Left, or right... Left, or right... Right, or left?' Emily turned the thoughts around in her head, attempting to remember.

Emily began to get frustrated. It was on the tip of her tongue! Like trying to get your favourite cereal off of a shelf that's just about too tall for you, you're centimetres from touching it, but it's just out of reach!

Now severely annoyed, Emily attempted to calm herself, she took in a large lungful of air through her nose, when a putrid aroma spilled into her senses. "It smells like rotting rats" Emily over exaggeratedly announced before grunting soflty.

She stared into the direction the unwelcome scent originated from; the left. Emily then noticed a metal bat on the floor, glinting as a small beam of sunlight peered over the tall wall.

Emily's eyes travelled along the bat, from the handle, all the way along to the thicker, blunt tip of the bat. Emily continued to stare, a completely shell shocked expression resting upon her youthful complexion, slightly disorienting her features.

A thick crimson liquid coated the bat unevenly, splattering up along it, stopping a small ways away from the handle. Small, jagged chips of something, varying in sizes, but not getting much larger than the tip of her thumb, were seemingly sewn onto the bat, scattered along where the brownish, crumbling crimson rested, the chips were muddied with crimson, however, specks of ivory persistently peered through. A few small chunks of black matted hair stuck to the dried liquid.

A shrill shriek errupted from Emily's throat, the sound was unlike anything Emily had witnessed before, it resembled the scared screams of the people in horror movies, but this was far more real.

Emily turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, mere minutes later she emerged into a fairly busy street that she had, thankfully, recognised. She paused, panting breathlessly, recalculating her route home. After a minute, she took off running once more.

Emily's eyes began to gloss over as she blinked back the tears. 'Why did I have to see that? I'm only fourteen! That kind of thing is only supposed to happen in movies! Why did it have to be me who saw it?' Similar thoughts proceded to trickle through her mind before she reached her medium sized house.

Her hand plunged into her pocket as she retrieved her key, she frantically unlocked the door, went inside and locked it behind her. Emily flicked the light switch and walked over to the house phone, picking it up and dialling 999, before explaining what she found to the police, she told them the name of the street and the directions she took before finding the bat, they told her that they'd carry out an investigation and recommended her to attempt to get some rest.

Emily went to bed without dinner, her thoughts, along with the horrifyingly vivid imagery, plaguing both her mind and her appetite. Before finally managing to get some rest, one last question in her mind begged for an answer that she never wanted to hear.

'What would have happened if I never found that exit?'

Two days had passed before a uniformed police officer came knocking on the door, Emily's mum answered it and invited them to the living room, where Emily sat.

"Mrs Thomas, Emily Thomas." The officer addressed with a courteous nod.

"As you know, Emily found a bat covered in blood on her way home from school on Friday. We've carried out an investigation and have found the identity of the victim, along with his body hidden behind a rubbish bin nearby." The officer said, attempting to keep the details of the crime scene to a minimum.

Emily's stomach churned at the memory, 'The body could've been behind the bin that made me wary in the first place.' Emily realised, but didn't offer her input, as she wanted to supress the memory as much as possible.

The officer continued, "We, fortunately, also have a strong lead on who the murderer is. However, unfortunately, the reason I'm here is to tell you that-" They paused, obviously not exactly wanted to tell the poor mother-daughter duo the next few words that escaped their mouth.

"Luke Thomas was the victim of the murder."

Mrs Thomas' hand had clasped over her mouth as she gasped, tears began slowly forming in her eyes. "We thought he was on a business trip!" Mrs Thomas sobbed.

"D-dad... got-" Emily got cut off as a sob escaped her lips. "Mu-murdered?" she continued, crystalline tears endlessly cascading down her rosy cheeks.

As much as Emily may have wanted to suppress this god awful memory, she couldn't, it has haunted her for the entirety of the rest of her life.