The Invisible Killer

July 4th, 1900

         Jacob Parker and his family were about to head over his aunt’s home for a 4th of July party. Jacob was 8 years old and living life to the fullest. All of his family members were healthy and everyone was in good spirits. They lived in a nice neighborhood which was small and quaint, but larger than most neighborhoods were at the time. Life couldn’t get better for the Parker family.

         And it didn’t.

         As they were about to leave to get into their horse and buggy, Jacob remembered he had forgotten his satchel in which he carried his school books, and in this case, his marbles, just in case his cousins would want to play a game or two. “Be right there, mother!” he called back as he raced back the dirt path to their one-floor home. He raced to his room to pick up his satchel. When he walked into his room, though, he felt a slight breeze waft into his room. This is odd, he thought, since there had been no wind outside. He looked out his room and noticed something strange: his satchel sitting just around the corner, barely sticking out. “What?” he wondered out loud. He thought he specifically remembered leaving it in his room from when he was packing his favorite marbles. He shrugged it off and walked towards his satchel.

         Deadly mistake.

         The Parker family (minus Jacob) was waiting outside in the horse and buggy for Jacob to come out of the house with his satchel so they could leave for the party. After 5 minutes passed, they started to worry. After 10 minutes, they knew something was wrong. “I’ll go check on him,” little Margaret said as she hopped out of the buggy.  She held the bottom of her dress in her hands as she ran back down the dirt path back to the house. When she got to the house, she let he dress down and walked in through the front. She headed straight for Jacob’s room, wondering if he had fallen asleep for some reason while looking for his satchel. No sign of him. “Jacob?” she asked aloud. Just then, a strange breeze came into the house. Margaret was older than Jacob at 10 years old, so she knew that when she felt the wind, something was wrong. She peeked her head out the door to Jacob’s room, looking for someone in the house. But instead she saw Jacob’s hand.

         Bloody and not moving.

         “Jacob!” she screamed. She ran to him, but stopped when she reached the corner. She passed out and fell into the table.

         Mr. and Mrs. Parker heard the loud commotion coming from the house. They hopped out of the buggy, both running towards the house, wandering what in the world was going on. They walked in the house, and to their horror, found both of their children lying side by side, both bloody and dead.  Mr. Parker ran to their aid while Mrs. Parker remained in the doorway, hands over her mouth, her eyes wide and staring in disbelief at her dead children.

         While examining his children, Mr. Parker felt a strange wind. He turned on his heels to find, to his horror, his wife not standing there. He ran to the doorway and looked around. And there she was sitting in the rocking chair.

         Bloody and dead.

         Mr. Parker couldn’t help but cry. He was knelt down, praying to God that this was all a dream and his family wasn’t really dead. He finally got the courage to stand and walk over to look at his dead wife face-to-face.

         Deadly mistake.

         He lifted her drooping head and stared straight into her pupil-less eyes. Her mouth was shaped in a circle. She blew a wind into his face, and Mr. Parker fell over dead.





July 4th, 1936



         Nathan Reynolds was eating dinner with his family before heading off to their local park to go see the 4th of July fireworks display. It was their family tradition to eat dinner, just the four of them, and then go to the park and watch the fireworks display. It was not a very big show since it was held by people in their small neighborhood, but they enjoyed the family time.

         Nathan was 11 years old and had been going to the show for the past 8 years; as far back as he could remember. He was always amazed at how they worked and the kinds of things they could do. He had another brother named Jonathan; he was 9 years old, and they hung out together all the time. Their parents gave them many privileges, letting them go wherever they wanted within reason. This sometimes got them into trouble.

         Especially today.

         They finished dinner, and while mama was cleaning the dishes, they all heard a firework go off. Mama thought this was strange since the show wasn’t supposed to start for another 25 minutes, so she sent Jonathan to go and see if it had started early.

         Jonathan ran out of the house and down to the park one block away. He stopped by a tree a rested against it. It was a silent night with absolutely no breeze, a perfect night for fireworks. There were no more fireworks going off anymore, and he figured that they were just practicing for the actual show. He was about to head back for the house when a breeze came. “Ahhhhhh,” Jonathan said, spreading his arms wide and embracing the breeze like it was his best friend. The breeze stopped and he put his arms down. He turned around, and five seconds later he was on the ground and not breathing.

         The fireworks show was going to start in 10 minutes, and Jonathan wasn’t back from checking if in fact it had accidentally started early. The Reynolds were worried. Mrs. Reynolds sent Nathan to go see where Jonathan had gone. So Nathan went.

         When Nathan got to the park, he started looking frantically around to see where his brother had gone. He looked behind trees and bushes and even on the playground, wondering where in the world he could be. He rested against a tree, scared for his brother. A breeze blew, and Nathan closed his eyes and enjoyed it while it lasted, when it stopped he opened his eyes. He slowly fell to the ground. Dead.

         The show was to start in 5 minutes, and neither of their children had returned home. They decided to head to the park, hoping that they had found a spot and just stayed there to save it for their parents. When they reached the park, the show was about 2 minutes away from starting. They looked around for Jonathan and Nathan, but they were nowhere to be seen. Mr. Reynolds said, “Why don’t you just stay here, honey, and I will go look for them.” She agreed to stay while he looked for them.

         Mr. Reynolds looked everywhere, but he couldn’t find them. Just then, a breeze blew by him. He looked down and saw something strange.

         A small puddle of blood in the grass.

         He looked on the other side of the tree, and to his horror, found both of his children curled up in fetal positions, both bloody and dead.

         He stepped back in terror and immediately ran to get his wife to look. He reached where he had left his wife, and when he did, he found his wife lying face down, not breathing.

         He ran to her and lifted her head up to lead at her eye-to-eye. He stared into her pupil-less eyes, and he fell face-first on the blanket.





July 4th, 2012



         James Parker was a police investigator for the local police. He had tackled many tough cases in the past 20 years he had served. He was now 42 years old, and his toughest case was still yet to come across his desk.

         But the day it did, he was not prepared for what it was going to be.

         The case was about the mysterious deaths of four family members. The death case had not been handled properly before, and it had been left to dry for the past 76 years. Now it was being brought up, and there was one other case almost exactly like that. In 1900, four family members died mysteriously. And both occurred on the 4th of July. But the most mysterious thing of all was that James Parker had the same last name as the family that died in 1900.

         His dad had always talked to young James about his mom never got to meet her grandma. She died at a younger age, the cause of unknown. No one knew anything else about the case, since no one from the family survived. Now it was up to one of the Parker family’s distant relatives to solve their family death case.



•••



         Franklin Reynolds was what some people would call a “ghost hunter.” He dealt with people who complained about strange apparitions, sightings, and feelings that they claimed were because of the presence of a supernatural being, or a ghost. He had dealt with some pretty weird cases: one person had called in to complain about a ghost in his house. When he and his team got to the house, they found out that the “ghost” was actually the 85 year old man’s wife.

         But his next case was weirder.

         His secretary Elizabeth came into his office one day and said, “Sir, I have a problem here that you might want to look at.”

         She handed him the folder and left the room. He opened the folder to find something very strange. There was a piece of paper on top of the others in the folder that had an “Unsolved Case” watermark on it; the date was July 4th, 1936. This was the oldest case he had worked on.

         And it had to do with his family.

         His step-father had told him stories about how his step-brother had died mysteriously on the 4th of July. He would tell him stories about the funeral with no body, and how the rest of his family had died on the same day, and all reportedly the same way. He never fully believed the stories, but some part of him always wanted to say that it was. Over the years, he had grown to fully believe that they were not true.

         Now, he was feeling dumbfounded.

         



•••



Later, that same day…



         Oliver Wilson and his mom were driving home on the Fourth of July from a family friend’s house. Oliver was 7 years old and was a very curious child. He was sitting quietly, looking out the window when his mom’s phone rang. She picked it up and began talking and laughing every now and then. While she was talking, Oliver spotted a car driving past them on the highway. He stared at the driver, but that was the weirdest part.

         There was no driver.

         He looked away and yelled, “Mom, look!” She didn’t hear him, so he looked back at the car to see if he had imagined it. His eyes locked onto the other car, and he slumped down out of the seat, dead.

         Oliver’s mom heard a thunk in the back seat, so she covered the speaker on the phone, turned around and said, “Oliver, honey, can you-“

She gaped at the back seat and dropped her phone as she saw Oliver bleeding and dead on the floor of the car. She screamed and covered her mouth as she stared at him. About that time, the car rode over the median and into oncoming traffic, striking numerous cars, killing Oliver’s mom.



•••



Late that night, at the police station…



         James Parker was staring at his computer, his eyes drooping and his hands glued to his cheeks. He dozed off for a moment, only to be woken again by a pounding on his door. He straightened up and closed the lid on his computer as his secretary Janice walked in with a folder. “Have you heard about the accident, Mr. Parker? Very horrible. You need to look at this.”

         “Janice, you know that I need to go home. I am staying overtime as we speak. I can’t look at it,” he protested, standing up and gathering up his papers.

         “Fine. Suit yourself,” Janice said. As she left his office, she grabbed the T.V. remote and turned it on. She left and closed the door to the look of disbelief on James Parker’s face. As he stared at the T.V. screen.





A few days later…



         James Parker walked into the conference room that day to find Mr. Craig Harrison, the head of one of the S.W.A.T. divisions. He stood to greet James as he entered the room.

         “Good morning, Mr. Parker. As you may or may not know, my name is Mr. Craig Harrison, the head of Field Operations here in New York for S.W.A.T. We have been informed that you have been working on several cases of mysterious deaths. Some have been saying that an “invisible killer” is the culprit. What do you believe?”

         “I have been on four cases, all of them the same. And the deaths are all alike.” As he said this, he brought out his computer and brought up pictures of the dead bodies side-by-side. “As you can see, the head area suffered an indentation and a gash, both of opposite sides of the head, right along the supraorbital ridge, which is the bony area above the eyebrows. Even in the car crash, the woman suffered only two injuries, the same as all the others. Strange happenings, indeed. What do you make of it, sir?”

         Mr. Harrison had been staring at the screen, trying to make sense of it all. Finally he spoke up, saying, “I have a man who could help with this. Let me call him here and then we can decide what to do.” He stood up and left the room, dialing a number on his phone. A few minutes passed, he Mr. Harrison returned to the room. “He shall be here in 20 minutes. Till then, let’s chat.”



20 minutes later…



         Franklin Reynolds had somehow got entangled in the four death/murder cases, and he had no idea what to make of them. They were so unnatural; he had never attempted to tackle such cases. But now he was stuck in this conference room with a police investigator and a S.W.A.T. division leader, wondering how to end this reign of mysterious terror.

         Mr. Harrison was the first to speak after Mr. Reynolds sat down. “So, Mr. Reynolds… what exactly do you do again?”

         “Well, I am a scientist that deals with people who see strange apparitions that they attribute to be ghosts. I have mostly worked on cases that involve older people who still live in homes. They are all usually false sightings; but this is much different. This one sounds like a real problem. So I’m here to help in any way possible.”

         Mr. Harrison said, “Good. First of all, we-“

         Janice burst into the room, out of breath, saying, “Mr. Parker. Turn on the T.V. Quick!”

         James got up immediately and turned it on. “Channel 6,” Janice said. He pressed the button, the station changed, and they watched the scream with open mouths.

         “We are here at JFK Airport, where we are receiving news that 15 minutes after a plane took off from here, the plane was apparently hijacked. No one has been able to gather a face in order to identify the hijacker. We will-” The reporter was interrupted by a voice in her earpiece. She paused for a moment before returning her gaze back to the camera. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now receiving reports that the pilot and co-pilot have been killed, apparently by the hijacker himself. They both suffered blows to head, and now the hijacker has control of the plane. We will stay here to bring you more live coverage in just a few minutes.”

         James flicked off the T.V. and turned around, only to find that Janice had left the room, Mr. Reynolds still had his gaze fixed on the T.V., and Mr. Harrison had left the room to make a phone call. James walked over to the place he was originally sitting and sat down, leaning back in his chair, dumbfounded about the story he just witnessed. No sooner had he sat down before Mr. Harrison sat across from him. “Come on, James. We’re going to the airport. My team will meet us there in 20. We also have to bring him,” he added, flicking his eyes toward the scientist. He was still in a trance. They got him out of his stupor and headed for the airport.



•••



         They arrived at the airport to the sight of dozens of police cars and a large black truck with S.W.A.T. painted on the back. They walked to the control tower where they met the person in charge. “Here. Put these on. See if you can talk some sense into this guy,” he said as he handed over the headset to Mr. Parker. “Sir, state your name please.”

         The voice on the other end was low and menacing. “The name’s not important. What is important is that you do nothing to stop me. If you try, every person on this plane will suffer.”

         Mr. Parker looked out of the tower, thinking of what to say. He came up with nothing. He set the headset down and walked outside.

         Mr. Harrison and Mr. Reynolds followed him outside. Mr. Harrison said, “Parker, what’s your plan?”

         Mr. Parker turned on his heels, looked at the sky, back down at Mr. Harrison, and said, “Where’s a helicopter?”





A few hours later, in a helicopter above New York…



         In the air, the airport tower was giving them the coordinates of the airplane. It kept moving away from them, faster and faster. But then, something strange happened.

         The plane changed direction, and headed towards them.

         “Delta 2, we have an emergency. The plane has changed direction and is heading for you. We encourage you to do the same and-”

         Then there was static on the other end, and then there was silence. But the voice can back again. “Delta 2, we have bad news. We hacked into the hijacked plane’s speaker system. The pilot just announced to the passengers that they are headed for New York City, and that he is going to crash it. You have to stop it at all costs. Over.”

         They sped up until it was finally in sight. “We need to get on board,” Mr. Harrison said to his team. “We will fly over top of the plane and you will drop in through the roof exit. Get to the pilot’s cabin as fast as you can and take over the plane. Alright men, the task ahead is very dangerous. Get in and get the job done. Let’s do this. Pilot, full speed ahead to the plane. GO!” When he finished, the pilot sped the helicopter right at the plane. They reached a spot well ahead of the plane and the pilot turned the helicopter so it was facing in the direction of the plane. He waited until it got close enough and sped off, waiting for the plane to get underneath the helicopter. He kept speed with it, lowering it until it was close enough to drop a ladder down to the exit. “Alright men. This is it. Let’s move!” And with that, the S.W.A.T. team dropped down to the plane and out of sight.

         

•••



         On top of the plane, the S.W.A.T. team had trouble staying on the plane. They finally got the latch open, and they dropped in. Screams of terror arose from the passengers, but the S.W.A.T. team tried to quiet them down. That’s when the pilot’s cabin door opened. But no one came out. They carried their guns at the ready, heading for the cabin. They ran in and expected it to be empty. But there were two bodies in there. The pilot and the co-pilot. They were bleeding out the head and dead. They bent down to examine them, but right then, a scream came up from the passengers. They ran out to find that a man had been killed in first class, just the same way the pilot and co-pilot had. Another scream was heard, and they realized that someone was killing the passengers. “Where are you?” one team member yelled. There was silence for a moment, and then a cold breeze blew through the plane. The team members froze, unable to move. All of a sudden, they began dropping like flies. Screaming passengers was all that could be heard.

         

         Back on the helicopter, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Parker were communicating to the team via microphone. They told the team to quiet the passengers and find the hijacker. They kept silent as the team did what they were told. It was quiet for about 3 minutes, when they heard a voice from one of the team members. “Where are you?” he yelled. There was silence. Then the microphone went dead and static was all to be heard. “Michael?” Mr. Harrison said. “Ben? Ryan? Kyle? Anyone there?” He kept saying their names until he gave up. “I’m going down there,” he said, slamming the headset on the ground.

         “Then I’m going with you,” James Parker said.

         They both suited up quickly and went down the ladder. They slid through the hole and landed to the hush of passengers, huddled on the ground in front of their seats. They had their hands on their heads, looking like they were being held hostage. They went back through the plane to second class, where they found the four dead bodies of the S.W.A.T. team on the ground. “Where are you?” Mr. Harrison said. A cold breeze blew through the plane and he turned back toward the front where it had come from. He turned back, and then suddenly fell to the ground. Dead.



•••



         Mr. Parker had stayed where he landed. He waited for Mr. Harrison to return. But he never did. He walked toward the back of the plane, where Mr. Harrison had disappeared. He pulled back the curtain, only to find the four dead bodies of the S.W.A.T. team, plus one.

         Mr. Harrison.

         He turned around, gun at the ready. He walked back toward the curtain, where he saw a shadow. He walked up to it, the shadow still not moving. He pulled the curtain, only to find nothing. “Show yourself!” he yelled. He waited for something, but nothing happened. Just then, a cold wind blew. He knew what this meant. He knew the killer was around. He turned around for three seconds, and then he felt a cold breath on his neck. He wheeled and threw a punch at the air.

         Impact.

         A man about 6 feet tall appeared after a thud was heard. He was unconscious, and once his body appeared, everyone on the plane cheered. Just then, the plane shuddered. He looked out the window and noticed that the plane was going down.

         Very fast.

         He ran to the pilot’s cabin and took control of the plane. He piloted the plane toward the airport landing strip. He landed the plane and drove to the gate. He sat back in his chair, comforted by the fact that it was all over. The passengers all passed him, exiting the plane, nodding their heads and shaking his hand, thanking him for the safe return. When they all had exited the plane, he called the police to come and pick up the dead bodies (7 in total). They picked up the unconscious body of the man and carried him off to prison. Mr. Parker returned to his office, glad that the case was over. The case of the Invisible Killer had finally been solved…





Sometime in the year 2054…



          In the New York State Prison, prisoner number 7023 was sitting in solitary confinement. The guards came to check on him. “You doing OK?” they asked.

         “Yes,” he replied in a monotone voice.

         The guards moved on.

         Prisoner 7023 disappeared, and the prison sirens wailed…