Gone Fishing

Gone Fishing is a scary story about two boys who encounter a strange man down by the river in their small town.

This morning, bright and early, my friend Oleg and I decided to go fishing. We live in a very small town and there is never much to do. We were dying of boredom.

However, this morning, it was even more quiet than usual. The streets were empty and there was nobody around. The town was eerily quiet.

We went down an overgrown path that led to the river. When we got there, we saw a strange figure in a dark green hood crouching on the river bank. He was holding a fishing rod in his hand.

“Good morning!” I called out. “Are the fish biting today?”

The man didn’t answer. He just gave a hoarse laugh and started to sway slightly from side to side.

I went closer and asked again, “Are the fish biting?”

I took two more steps and then stopped in my tracks. The man began to sway faster and faster. I couldn’t see his face because it was obscured by the hood.

Just then, I saw something that horrified me. At his feet, there was a human hand, severed at the wrist.

I felt a chill run down my spine and I started to back away. The man slowly turned his head to face me. I saw a pair of piercing red eyes and sharp dark yellow teeth. Instead of a nose, he just had two triangular holes. He stared directly at me and opened his mouth in a bloody grin.

I turned and ran back to Oleg. Not knowing what I had seen, he looked at me in bewilderment. I glanced behind me. The man in the hood was standing up and coming towards us. Without waiting to see what would happen next, I grabbed Oleg by the hand and dragged him with me, shouting, “Run!”.

We rushed into the trees, looking back over our shoulders every five seconds to make sure the man wasn’t following us. We sprinted through the undergrowth and made our way to the police station. On the way, I told Oleg in a trembling voice about the severed hand and the man’s terrifying face. He was scared too.

When we reached the police station, I pulled on the door handle, but it was locked. We both pounded on the glass, but there was no answer.

“Listen, I’m going to see if I can get inside,” I said. “You stay here and keep watch in case that crazy guy comes.”

Oleg was shaking and said, “But I’m scared. What am I going to do if he…”

I didn’t let him finish. I ran around the corner and found an open window at the back of the building. I climbed up through it and found myself in the bathroom of the police station. When I opened the door, I peered out and saw a dark corridor. The light was flickering ominously.

Summoning all my courage, I walked down the hallway and came to an office. The room was empty and there were papers and furniture strewn across the floor. The phone was broken into pieces and the desk had been overturned.

Just then, I heard someone shouting. It was coming from the street and it sounded like Oleg. I was about to rush to the front door and let him in when I heard a rustling sound. Suddenly another door in the corridor opened and I saw a figure lurking in the darkness.

“Who’s there?” I demanded.

There was no response, but I saw two familiar red eyes peering at me from the darkness. I froze horror. For a moment, I was so petrified that I could not move.

The figure emerged from the darkness and stepped into the dim, flickering light. It was the same face I had seen at the river, but he was wearing different clothes. It was a policeman’s uniform.

Suddenly, the man came towards me at lightning speed. He covered a distance of 3 meters in less than a second and grabbed me by the throat with his strong, bony hands.

The man stuck out his black tongue, licking his lips and gnashing his crooked teeth. As I watched in horror, his face started shifting and changing right before my eyes.

Without thinking, I reached out and grabbed the first thing I could find. It was a pen. I raised it above my head and with all my might, I drove it into the man’s neck. Bright red blood gushed from the wound and the man let out a high-pitched screech. His grip loosened on my neck and I managed to break free.

I rushed down the hallway and yanked open the first door I saw. Inside, there was a pile of human flesh and gnawed bones. The sight made my stomach turn and a wave of nausea overcame me. I fell to my knees and threw up on the ground.

I was shaking with fear. I realized that this was the remains of the other policemen.

Just then, I remembered Oleg. He was waiting for me outside. I ran to the front door and opened it. When I saw the familiar face of Oleg on the other side, I wanted to cry.

“Is everything OK?” I asked. “I heard you shouting.”

Oleg nodded. “Everything is fine,” he said. “I thought I saw someone moving around inside. Let’s go home before that crazy guy comes back.”

We ran all the way home and when we reached Oleg’s house, we found that his parents were not there. On the table, there was a note: “Gone to visit your grandmother. Will be back late tonight.”

We went around the empty house, securing all the windows and locking all the doors. We were barricading ourselves inside. Oleg was surprisingly calm. My hands were shaking so much, I could barely hold anything.

After we finished securing the house, I picked up the phone to try and get help, but there was no dial tone. We were cut off from the rest of the world.

We sat down in the living room and turned on the TV. There was nothing on the news. Everything was going on as usual. Whatever was happening, it seemed to be just confined to our little town.

I took out a pen and a sheet of paper and tried to write down exactly what happened to us. I don’t know why, but somehow it made me feel better. If we don’t make it through this, then at least someone will find this piece of paper and know what happened to us.

Oleg is sitting beside me right now, but he is strangely pale. I asked him if he is OK, but he just shrugged his shoulders. Something is wrong.

He got up and went to the toilet. He’s in there now. All of a sudden, a wild fear seized me. Maybe it’s just my paranoia going out of control. from head to toe looked at the pen in his hands. “Can not be” flashed through my head.

Trying to speak very loudly but calmly, I asked Oleg, “By the way, where is your sister? Did she go with your parents?”

I heard his voice from the bathroom saying, “Probably.”

As the realization slowly sunk in, a cold wave of horror washed over me and I put my head in my hands. I wanted to cry.

Oleg doesn’t have a sister.

In the uneasy silence, I can hear the bathroom door opening with an ominous creak…