Chronicles of Madness by Justin Nichols (book series for 12 year olds .txt) 📕

Chronicle 2: The walk

My mother and fathers funeral was almost a year ago and still I can't believe of the things that had transpired that day. The dog, the nightmare, and my feelings toward Mae, it's almost impossible to keep up and understand what is happening to me. I started to live with Mae and her mom, I don’t know how well I could of put up with a orphanage, I'm anti-social to some degree I have been told. After the death of my family died down, Mae and I continued to go to school and live our lives as normally as we could. Of course we were made fun of in school for living together and not being related, but neither of us cared much.

After we had gotten home from school for the majorety of that school year and finished the homework that our school teachers had given us we always decided to watch some T.V. We clicked through the channels eventually stopping on Sponge-Bob Square-Pants, one of our favorite childhood shows.

Once we finished the show every night, it was around the time that we had went to go to bed.

"Goodnight Mae, sleep good." I had said as I went into the room I was staying in.

"You to John, goodnight, and its sleep well" she replied on the first night as she went into her room.

I had just laid down and quickly fell asleep. I had a different nightmare this time, one I hadn’t had yet. I was walking down a dark alley, and for some reason only seemed to be able to move forward, which was rather odd. Once I had reached the end of the tunnel, at least it seemed like a tunnel, all though I had no idea if it was or not. I had hit a well lit room and in the middle was a chair with blood stains all around it. It appeared to be nailed to the floor, although it could have been bolted down, again I don’t know. I walked over to the chair and looked down at the blood, it spelled out my name and a phrase that I was in a different language it said “JOHN DECKER ο ΣΩΤΉΡΑΣ ή ΜΆΣΤΙΓΑ"

I woke up with cold sweats, uncontrollable shaking, and a hunger that seemed as if I could not be sated with a thousand steaks. I needed to talk to someone, but everyone was asleep I decided to just go back to sleep and talk to Mae more in the morning, that is I lived that long.

Chronicle 3: The stranger

Life has been rough for me. My parents’ death, Mae unaware of my true feelings, and both of us still living together. I guess after our childhood of living together we just had to live together as adults. But she is completely unaware that I love her with all my heart. But my biggest fear is she will find out what I truly am the creature that I am. It all started right before my 20th birthday. As soon as the clock hit midnight I hit the floor. I woke up unable to move, much like my childhood nightmare. Except I was a chair, not a brick, and saw my mother die. I saw the thing that killed my mother and took my father from me. I woke up feeling like I could do anything at all, be anything, except hers of course. I know it's foolish for me to feel like this but it what happens when you are afraid, or in love, it’s one or the other.

I can change shape from one to another, much like my dreams, but no one knows my secret. Or that I have named this ability. I am a shifter, or at least that what I decided to call the ability. And if I can't tell Mae then how am I supposed to tell anyone else. I live in secret, in the shadows. It's a lonely life, mine is, but in order to protect the ones I care for I have to live like this. The movies don’t lie, if I told anyone the creature that killed my mom would kill the people I had told.

Shifting has it benefits though, I can be anyone or anything I want to be, and be any when or where I need to be. But it also has its downsides. Like the creature hunting you. No one know why but this thing hunts shifters and those like them(yes there are other abilities and names for these things) and no one seems to be able to tell what the creature looks like because whenever you see it, it eats/kills you. There really should be a guide for the abilities.

I've joined the police force in a small town in LA County and am a highly decorated officer for the county. With thirty busts under my belt, mostly because of my ability to shift, I'm also one of the most wanted police officers in the USA.

Mae is still going to medical school for her master's degree in medicine. If I even scrape my elbow she is on it trying to fix it. It's actually rather funny, watching her running around trying to fix every wound I get, don't know what I'd do without her. Then the strange man came to our door. She was away at school; I was leaving for work when he knocked on that door.

He had dark hair and looked like one of those old time mob hit men, the suit and all. Bout 5 foot 4 short round guy, had the face of a killer, but looked like he has never touched a gun in his life I thought there was about to be a shoot out right then and there, I almost felt bad for the poor bastard, because no one is or was a better shot than I am, except my father.

"Is Mae home" is all he asked.

"No, she isn’t, who are you if you may ask"

"None of your business I must have the wrong the house, she said she wasn’t married."

"No Mae lives here; I'm here roommate slash closest friend. Now who are you?"

"What if I don’t tell you, will you call the cops?"

"No I'll bring you in myself. I'm John Decker, LA County Deputy Sheriff. I'll ask once more who you are" I said reaching for my gun in its holster.

"I'm Blake, her online dating match." I knew he was lying to me, but not why. If Mae had an online dating profile, she would have told me, or I would have found out. I didn’t care how I learned it but if I did I would have acted differently, but I deiced to play along. For the sake of the game as I always say.

"Online dating huh. I'll tell her you stopped by once she gets back. Bye."

"Bye" he said as he stormed off. I must have really ticked him off. Good, he seemed like a jerk anyways, Mae deserves better than that, or me. Oh well it was off to work with me I had a lot of cases to anyways.

The station was a typical one. Cells in the back, the sheriff's office in the front, and the phones on his desk. Nothing fancy, except for the medals and plaques I've won throughout my career, pictures of the criminals I have put behind bars, and the gold plated 45 caliber magnum. That gun was my lucky charm, and I only brought it for big criminals, drug lords, sociopaths, and serial killers. Never wasted one of its bullets on a small time thief or want to be gangster. Out of all the bullets I've fired, I have only shot the gun ten times, never once missed with it either.

My deputy was already there, as he usually was there before me.

I had asked when I had walked into the main office, "Hey Bill, any calls for me today?" Bill was about three years older than me, taller, but had the maturity of a fifteen year old boy.

"No boss, not today." He replied

"Good tell me if there are any."

"Will do boss."

"You can call me John."

"I like calling you boss. Alright boss?"

"Alright" I said as I went into my office to look over some old case files. Then my cell phone rang, it was Mae.

"Hello Mae" I said as I answered the phone

"Hey John. You got a minute?" She asked

"Of course what's up?"

"Some guy just came by my school asking for you. Said he was a detective from out of state. Are you still at home, because I pointed him in that direction. His name was Blake I think”

"No, but some guy named Blake came by the house and asked if you where home. He said he was your online dating profile match."

"I don’t have an online dating profile"

"I'll find this guy and bring him in. Don’t worry he won't touch you."

"I'm scared John. Can you come pick me up after school?"

"No problem Mae. I'll see you soon, bye"

"Thank you, bye" she said nervously as she hung up the phone.

I had stood up and began to walk out of my office once I realized I knew that guy. I put him behind bars four years ago, he was meant to stay there for thirty years, with no chance of getting out early.

"Bill" I yelled.

"Yes boss." He had shouted in response.

"Bring me the Rico case files"

"Alright, but didn’t you close that case four years back"

"Yeah, but I think there is a copy cat killer."

"You mean someone else stalking and killing poor nurses and doctors"

"Yeah some other doctor murderer"

"Here it is. Anything else that I can do you for boss?"he asked as he handed me the file I had asked for.

"No Bill that'll be all. Thanks"

"No prob boss"

I closed my door and began skimming through the file, looking for his picture. Once I found it I copied it and took it with me to go pick up Mae."I'm heading out Bill. I don’t know if I'll be back today. If I'm not just hold down the fort."

"Sure thing boss, but where you going in such a hurry."

"To pick up Mae."

"Alright boss. I'll see you later" he had yelled out to me as I was walking away. Once I reached my old police cruiser I unlocked the door and stepped inside. As I began to drive I couldn’t help but think how the bastard got out of that jail. He went somewhere were only people who deserved the death penalty went, but seeing how the law prevented that, we just locked em up and forgot about em. People are more secure in their homes knowing that these people were somewhere where they can't get to them. How you break out of a triple maximum prison is a mystery to me.

Once I reached the school Mae was going to, she had gotten in, she was waiting for me.

"Hey Mae"

"Hey John. Thanks for coming to get me, I know you are busy at work and all, but I feel safer with you."

"No problem Mae, and is this the guy that came here asking for me" I said as I showed her the picture.

"Yeah that’s him. Why do you have a picture of him?"

"He was one of my first cases as a junior detective."

"You mean he broke out of prison?"

"That's